Flip Flop

I’ve been writing a lot about faithfulness and how the disciples didn’t display it when trying to exorcise a demon, or Jesus asking if he would find faith on the earth when he returned. Then I mentioned James saying Elijah had a nature like ours, and today I went and looked at him again.  

God tells him to do a comparison between him and Baal.  God brings fire and Elijah has 450 prophets of Baal slaughtered.  Then he freaks out about a threat made on his life after all those false prophets were murdered.  Why?  Then God tells Elijah to go to a mountain, and this is where many people talk about God’s voice being still and quiet, but just forget about all of that.  Ok there’s fire and earthquake and all hell breaks loose, and in every one of those instances the Bible states God was not “in” them.  What does that mean?  I would think if you aren’t “in” something, that means you had no part in it, so if it isn’t God it must be the “prince of the power of the air” (the devil).  So Elijah pours out his complaint, God says step over here.  Shows that the devil is on a short leash and can’t touch this prophet, then asks Elijah again, “What’s your problem?”  and amazingly Elijah says again, “I’m as good as dead, I’m the last prophet and everyone wants to kill me.” (1 Kings 19)

I look at that and wonder “Has ALL of Israel been like that?”  Gideon had to fleece God 3x’s.  It’s like whenever God calls us to something we say “huh?”

On one hand I’m feeling pretty good about myself seeing that I compare really well with everyone else, but then again I want to expect something more.  “God can I be the one faithful person on the earth?  I really don’t want to flipflop.  I’m frustrated with myself.”

I write a book on rest, can’t seem to absorb that info to save my life.  Putting these things into practice is dang near impossible.  Why?  Because even when you know the truth your emotions get in the way.  Watch a scary movie and try to go to bed afterwards.  “I know the likelihood of an alien trying abduct me is slim to none, but I’m leaving the lights on anyway.”  

I think we are just trained that everything has to work a certain way.  God doesn’t heal, he uses doctors, God won’t miraculously fix your car, but your insurance come through, something gets broken, God won’t fix it but he will give you money to cover it.  Or something to that effect.  But look at Elisha.  An axhead falls in some water, he takes a stick throws it in the water and makes the thing float. (2 Kings 6)  That’s odd.  So, if my toddler spills blue goop on the carpet I should be able to believe God can get the stuff out.  OK so I’m rambling, but I’m trying to convince myself as well as whoever is reading, that things can just work if we believe.

What’s encouraging is even if we don’t get it for a while, God still remains faithful even when we are unfaithful.  If we just give him a moment there’s hope.  

Why?

You can’t know why in order to manipulate circumstances.  Not with God.   You need to know one thing: How to yield.  Otherwise it’s like trying to fight God or questioning his will.  Ultimately, his will is for you to know his love. That knowledge will get you healing, provision, and everything you need for “good works” in love.

2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

I continually struggle with this.  I know God loves me, but then I wonder what all is he capable of doing.  Can he change hearts?  What am I missing?  I need to stop focusing on others.  The first commandment is to love God, the SECOND is to love others.  When you focus on God and make sure your relationship is right with him, the others follow suit. Remember in Proverbs 25:21,22 Solomon said be kind to your enemy it will be like dumping hot coals upon his head.  That’s an odd way of saying you’ll melt his heart.  Jesus says it another way.  “No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a bowl, instead he puts it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:15-16)  God can use you to change those around you, but you first need to put away the fear and doubt. God made a spectacle out of Israel when he parted the sea.  When Moses allowed God to use him he sparked awe in surrounding nations.

Don’t ask why. Not because it’s wrong to question God.  It’s not wrong, but you don’t need to focus on what caused the problem.  That’s not the answer you’re looking for  You need to focus on what fixes the problem.  The answer is always God’s love.

Ephesians 3:14 NIV

For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with powerthrough his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

God’s Will in prayer

I talked about this earlier, but not sure if people caught the drift, because it didn’t sound too preachy.

In order to pray God’s will you NEED TO KNOW what God’s will is.  if you don’t you’re just a shallow yes-man.  It means we don’t even wait to hear God on a matter, don’t take the time to seek him, just say “if it be your will, do this.”  Or heck, skip the “if it be”, “God your will be done”.  If it were that simple, you wouldn’t need a prayer life and everyone would get saved and life would be perfect.  No. God says for us to seek after him, come after him.  He says listen to his voice.  He wants to use us.

When you say “Your will be done” it requires no faith.  Faith tells you “Come out on the water”, “March around the city” “Do something!” (James 2:17).  If you really had your heart in that prayer you would act accordingly, because it’s his will for you to be holy, but you sin daily.  That’s called lipservice, that’s why Jesus condemned the Pharisees.   “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”.  Instead, you can go out with your head held high and say “I know my prayer worked and you can’t prove me wrong because I don’t even know what I prayed.”  And I don’t have to know what I prayed, because that’s what tongues is….right?  WRONG!!!!  Tongues was always meant to be interpreted.  The first time it was used it was understood by the passerbys because they spoke those languages.  The ones that didn’t know mocked it, but it wasn’t for those people.  Read 1 Corinthians 14, it goes on and on about how words NEED meaning.  It’s not gibberish.

So it is with prayer, you must know what you are praying to pray God’s will. We don’t because we don’t hear, and we don’t hear because we don’t take the time to listen, and we don’t take time to listen because honestly we are more concerned with our will than his.

1 Corinthians said Prophesy is one of the greatest gifts because it tells us what God’s will is and what we are supposed to do.  That’s what we need in the church.  Direction.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.  And Faith is what makes prayers effective.  You must pray in faith.  So when someone asks you to pray, don’t skip straight to the “whatever is God’s will”, say “Sure I care enough about you and God said he wouldn’t do anything without first revealing to his prophets (Amos 3:7) and said that in the latter days we would all prophesy because that is the sign of a believer (Acts 2:17).  I will seek out God’s will and direction for your life and let you know and we can come into unity and believe unwaveringly for your request.”  THAT’S how we are supposed to pray.  With love and caring and sincerity of heart. THAT’S the prayer God is looking for.

(Yes I did get a little carried away using those 2 scriptures in quotes, but honestly if we’ve been given access to God’s throne and can hear his voice, I’d hope to God we could know his will.  I’ve referenced it before and I’ll do it again.  1 Corinthians 2 pretty much says in context we can know God’s will and even his mind)

Blind Faith

I wrote a while back about God testing Abraham for his sake.  With the Bible showing on History channel, and me reading an atheist’s blog post about blind faith, I thought I might shed a little light on the subject.

Most adaptations of the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac make it seem like God could possibly go back on his promise, and Abraham had to believe that God was still good even if he did (Hebrews 6:13).  And reading Job, that’s what he thought as well.  “Who can bring an accusation against God?  He does as he pleases.”(Job 23:13) But Hebrews tells us what was going through Abraham’s mind (Hebrews 11:19).  He knew that Isaac was the son of promise, and so he figured God would bring him back from the dead. So the test of faith was not that God was still good even if unfaithful, the test was, can God do something even more impossible than allow a man to have a son at the age of 100?

God never breaks his promises, he is always faithful for he cannot deny himself.  (2 Timothy 2:13)

So… the blog I read said that God seemed rather odd to make us with a mind that can reason and then say “Don’t use that reason”.  But it’s not that God does not want us to think, he does, but the focus is more subjective than objective.  Meaning, God wants us to have character more than knowledge.  When he says something that goes beyond our reasoning, he is asking us to listen and trust.  Rule number one is that God controls everything, we think we know how things work and want to do something without his wisdom.  Walk around a city rather than storming it.  Why?  So you remember who it is that gave you the victory.  Sort of like a “wax on, wax off” lesson.  There’s a method to the madness.  Fathers know more than their children.  As I said earlier this week, the parables and all the physical earthly things point to spiritual truths.  The physical things are not there for the sake of being there, everything goes back to our relationship with him.  The atheists don’t understand the purpose.

 

Test of Faith

Many times we are afraid to ask for something big from God, but can somehow believe for a small thing. The awesome thing is, is that when God gives you a formula to reveal hearts he says, “If you are faithful with little things, you will be faithful in great things.” Luke 16:10
This applies to Him as well, and he says just the smallest amount of faith will do it. A mustard seed, the smallest of garden seeds, is enough to move a mountain and do the impossible.

Matthew 13:31, 32 NIV
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”

Matthew 17:20 NIV
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. ”

We were created in God’s image and as he tells us about ourselves, we also learn more about him.

Peace

I remember hearing religious leaders say that they are not held captive by their emotions, that they chose not to be angry or fearful.  I guess you can possibly just take control of something and use Jesus name as a magic word, but I don’t like it.  To me it seems like I’m just acting, or suppressing and emotion rather than actually getting rid of it.

I believe that Jesus name is not a magic word, and the reason I don’t think it works is because of the seven sons of Sceva mentioned in Acts.  The demon said “Paul I know, and Jesus I know, but who are you?”(Acts 19:13-16)  It’s because Paul knew Jesus that he could use his name.  It’s not name dropping.  We aren’t very familiar with using a person’s name.  It’s like when you have a little brother and say to him, “Dad says you need to go clean your room.”  You aren’t posing as dad, you are saying what he said, passing the message along.  So instead of thinking “Abra-ca-Jesus be healed”, think of it “Jesus’ spirit lives in me and he told me to tell you get up and walk.”  We are not doing anything except passing along the message. Jesus said he just said what the Father told him to say and we should walk in his footsteps (John 5:19, 14:10).  Exactly!  Peter said “you are the Son of the living God”(Matthew 16:16), Jesus passed the message, you are to pass the message.

Anyway!  Getting on to my original topic… If someone fears or stresses it is because they are uncertain.  Well in order to eliminate the fear you look at what the Bible says. All of God’s promises are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20).  He’s certain, so I can be certain (Hebrews 13:8).  If you are angry with someone, Jesus tells a story of how to get rid of that anger/grudge (Matthew 18:21-25).  We offended God more than that person offended us and yet he still loves us, and in order to be in him we must let go of that anger.  We love because God first loved us and gave us a pattern to follow (1 John 4:19,20).  When you understand that God is your life and holding on to anger separates you from him, it’s as simple a thing to do as unkinking the tube to your oxygen tank. It’s like, “I could feel a whole lot better if I allowed myself to breathe rather than cutting off my oxygen supply.”

The way to find peace and love is to gain understanding.  Proverbs 9:10 says “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One results in understanding.”  You understand God’s power and his character, and then you can live without fear and bitterness.

I felt this was necessary because many worry about having guns and defending themselves in case of martial law and all this craziness, and then neglect the stories we heard in Sunday school about Daniel being saved from the lion’s den, or three men being saved from the fiery furnace, or David and Goliath, or Samson, or even the New Testament stories about Peter being set free from prison, Paul being bitten by a snake, and those that died martyrs deaths were completely willing.  Peter wanted to die for Christ (Matthew 26:35), Paul wanted to be shackled and killed for Christ even when God warned him about going (Acts 21:13).  People think that they can’t trust God to do the supernatural, but the reason is they do not know him.  Just like the Seven Sons of Sceva, many pastors have tried to come up with a formula to get God to work on their schedule in their way, and when it doesn’t work consistently it confuses the congregation and they lose their trust in God.  It’s not a formula it’s not a magic word, it’s knowledge of the Holy One.   There’s no shortcut to getting to him, it takes heart, all of your heart.  “You will find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

Faithfulness

Why do we not believe God’s character?  Because nature does not reflect him.  We see destruction, death, decay, defects, and the like.  What we see is inconsistent, but God is faithful.  Faith can only come by hearing the word and taking it to heart, it doesn’t come by sight.  The works of God are null to the carnal mind, because it is already programmed to have uncertainty.(1 Corinthians 2:14, Romans 8:7)  It can only come by the Spirit.

The Bible says the righteous live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4), and from my previous study when someone did something in faith it was by submitting to the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 11).  Adam stifled that Spirit and killed it.  He died spiritually when he sinned, and as soon as he did fear and doubt crept in.  He hid from God.  God and all of creation was always faithful and consistent, but now he couldn’t see it.  All of creation fell with him.

The reason we wonder if God will work consistently, is because of our sin.  When we sin, we separate and stifle his spirit again and again building that doubt in us.  It’s not that we don’t deserve him, he has already made us righteous by his son.  It’s a gift.  But we instill that uncertainty in ourselves when we submit to our carnal nature.

This is why holiness is so important.  So God can be seen again on earth.  Jesus taught who God is, faithful and loving; his loving-kiness enduring forever.  Then people saw miracles because they could see God.  They believed in Jesus words.

Confidence

God is Holy and Faithful.  Same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8)  His words never pass away (Matthew 24:35).  So it should be easy to put our hope in him.  But we don’t.  We think of God as mysterious, when he’s as solid as a rock.  For some odd reason we think he’ll heal this person, but not this one, or this ailment, but not this one.  God is no respecter of persons.  It’s all the same.  We forget we are his work of art.  If you sneak into the museum and put a mustache on the Mona Lisa and a wart on her cheek, someone is going to get ticked.  They are going to want to restore the integrity of that painting by getting rid of both, not just whatever is the larger or smaller mark.  God is the same way.  Doesn’t matter if it’s something small or large, he wants it perfect.

Also, when it comes to hearing God many get confused.  The try to hear a voice in their head, wonder who’s voice is who’s, and then chance it and say “Thus saith the Lord”.  Like “God told me to marry this person” and within two years their divorced and say “Oops, guess I heard wrong”.  That’s not how it works.  If God is our Father, and an all-powerful one at that, he’ll make sure you hear his voice.  But it’s different.  God wants to be known.  Like between you and a best friend, you have inside jokes, you have gestures, and looks that only the two of you can interpret while everyone else is scratching their head.  God does the same.  You share the same heart and he speaks to it.  You know with confidence it’s him.  No guesswork, no whispering voices, you just know.

And this is the confidence we have, if we ask anything according to God’s will, he hears us.  And if he hears us, we receive whatever we ask for in prayer. – 1 John 5:14-15

1 John 3:19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 

Today

The Bible says today pretty often.  Like “Today if you will hear his voice and do not harden your hearts” or “Encourage one another as long as it is called today.”  It helps us keep focus as finite beings.

I said before that Jesus criticized his disciples for having little faith, but that it wasn’t their amount of faith, but their faithfulness.  Meaning they believed, but they weren’t consistent and that is reiterated through the gospels.  For instance when Jesus said “be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees” and the disciples start worrying about having no bread right after Jesus multiplied supper twice for crowds in the thousands.  Their hearts were hard and they couldn’t keep the faith.

So, when we talk about “arriving” we think we’ll never “arrive” because it means we will never make another mistake and we’ll be perfect forever.  Stop focusing on forever and just think about the here and now.  Make the right choice this time, believe just this once, sort of a Vegas mentality.  This time it’s gonna work.  Not focusing on the past loses, but maintaining hope. People use this for carnal goals all the time.  Quit smoking by taking it a day at a time.  If you’re on a diet and you eat something bad, forget about the one instance and focus on sticking with the goal.  Say, “Yesterday’s sins are in the past, I am forgiven, and I’m starting afresh confident that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning.”

Paul says to pray without ceasing, which I think he says that so we won’t become lax in our relationship with God.  Keep on it, don’t procrastinate, remember God in all of your decisions for all your actions.   God wants us to keep this thing simple but consistent.  It keeps our guard up, keeps us humble, keeps us focused, keeps us hopeful.

When you arrive, you are humble enough to know you could fall tomorrow, but are focused on pleasing God today.

Complete Trust

Quick note:

I’ve said it before that you can’t really build trust, at least not with God.  If we committed our lives to him, fully immersed baptism, saying “be Lord of my life”, you can’t just give part.  There’s a problem with that, and it’s not about you holding up your end of the bargain, it’s God not being able to work because he doesn’t have all of you.

If you trust him with one thing, when you receive that one thing, there will be a consequence of it and we are often afraid of “ok, well can I trust God after that?”  For instance, “God I trust you with my life… but wait if I die what about my kids?”  Or other times we may be tempted to make a deal with God.  “If you get me out of this jam I’ll do something.”  Like we have to pay for his grace.  If you have to earn it or pay for it, it’s not grace.  So if we ask for something, we fear “at what cost”?  or “What’s the catch?”

God tries to relieve our worries with Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you, plans for good, not for destruction, to give you a future and a hope.”  He is altruistic.  He even tells us “It is for freedom you’ve been set free” Galatians 5:1  So trust him with everything.