God's Sovereignty During Our "Time-outs"

 The Holy One calls to me this morning after a long dark "Night of the Soul":  A season when we do not understand what Adonai is doing in our lives and knowing we cannot fix it ourselves. I confess that waiting upon the Lord is not easy for my incessant "need-to-know" mind.  I have received many Divine downloads that help me to understand more of His great Sovereignty in what I perceive as disasters during a personal time-out but finding out how it all connects is not easy.

Meditating on His word and trying to glean application truly is like a cow chewing on her cud. Tiny pieces begin to fall into place and a visual starts to take shape for my spirit eye to apprehend. 

The times we are in can be quite confusing and very distressing when all our familiar comfort zones are under attack and we wonder, "God where are You?"

BUT none-the-less...we believe and trust that God is still Sovereign.

Yesterday a study of I Samuel 5-7 brought out a Biblical principal of God's Sovereignty even if His people are out of order.  While it is the way of Adonai to co-labor with us, there are times when He seems to work alone, especially when we, His people, are on a disciplinary time-out.

When the prophet Samuel first came on the scene, the children of Israel, were under the authority of a corrupt priesthood and Yahweh had given Samuel the message that He was going to end the lives of Eli and his two rebellious sons, Hofni and Pinchas at some point in time. Samuel had received the word and warning concerning the priests when he was just a boy serving Eli in the Temple, but time had passed, and the priestly corruption continued and in fact had gotten worse.  

It came to pass that the Children of Israel went out to fight their enemy the Philistines.  The battle was fierce, and Israel was delivered a defeat losing about 4000 men on the battlefield. The leaders asked why Adonai had defeated them when they had prevailed in battles in the past. 

Without a Godly leader like Joshua to seek the Lord for His guidance, the lesser leaders reasoned that it was the absence of the Ark of the Covenant on the battlefield, rather than their disregard for God's Holiness that resulted in their defeat.  Right away they sent for the Priests to bring the Ark of the Covenant into their camp but still did not inquire of the Lord.  Past experience should have told them, sin in the camp would ultimately cause Adonai to withdraw from His people, and that the Presence of the Ark did not guarantee the Presence of God in their war.  

Once again Israel went out to fight the Philistines and once again, they were defeated but this time their losses amounted to a slaughter where 30,000-foot soldiers fell and the 2 priests, Hofni and Pinchas were among the casualties in fulfillment of Samuel's Divine prophecy.  In addition to that devastating defeat, the Ark of the Covenant and symbol of Yahweh's Presence was captured and taken to the temple of the Philistine's god, Dagon.  As a spoil of war and tribute to their god for the victory over the Israelites, The Ark of the Covenant was placed before the statue of Dagon, but the next morning, the statue was found face down before the Ark of the Covenant.  They set the idol image upright but the next day, they found their idol again face down before Adonai's Ark, but with both arms and its head severed. 

They connected the dots realizing it was more than a natural occurrence and remove the Ark from the temple sending it to another place in the city to avoid the humiliation of needing to return it to the Israelites.  There the people were struck with tumors and a plague of rats infested their land.  The Ark of the Covenant had become like a "trojan horse" in the land of the Philistines bringing the revelation of Yahweh's power and disaster directedly to the enemy of His people.

Wherever they moved the Ark, the Philistine people suffered.  It was decided to return the Ark of the Covenant back to the Israelites, in an effort to stop the plagues. While they had defeated Israel's army, they could not defeat their God.  A great reverence for Yahweh came over the Philistines and the Ark of the Covenant was returned with gold gifts as a guilt offering to Israel's God. 

The point of this lesson for me, and application to our life and times is a reminder that even if we, God's people, are in need of discipline and correction, Adonai's power over His/our enemies is not diminished.  His will and plan to deal with His/our enemies will continue with or without us, beyond what we may see during the moments of our chastisements.

When we face a defeat let's not assume God is angry or absent or inactive in our circumstances rather that He will bring victory over His/our enemies His way.  We should seek His face to understand the reason behind any defeat we experience, and the cause for the discipline by Adonai that the defeat might signal.  Repentance restores the broken relationship and enables us to co-labor in Godly victory again. 

Taking proper action after the return of the Ark of the Covenant, Samuel offered up the guilt offering as commanded in the Torah.  God then gave Israel a stellar victory over the Philistines, who provoked a war not realizing Yahweh was once again with His people.  I see many situations in our church and nation where this principal can be applied.  We, like Israel, have in many ways dishonored Adonai's Holiness, and are suffering a time-out defeat. Taking corrective action can place us back in the place of victory if we will but repent.  

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?  

Prayer: A Divine Invitation

 The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Jewish and Christian history is the progressive revelation of our mysterious and Sovereign Creator God.  As long as we live, we will never reach the point of knowing all there is to know about our Creator.  His thoughts and ways are so much higher than we can ever imagine.  

Yahweh's grace for humanity in light of the fall is beyond our comprehension. My heart hears His voice in the early morning hour:

"My grace is a deep well.  I encourage you to search the depths of it in your prayers for the world that touches your life."

Prayer is such a priceless blessing when we can grasp that prayer is actually Adonai's invitation to come into His Counsel room and co-labor with Him in the government of our world, His world and the people who occupy it. 

Prayer is not storming Heaven's gates hurling our wants and needs to get things from a stingy controller.  Prayer is a Divine invitation to join in the process of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven and God's good will to bear on the people and events that make up our personal world.

The original co-mission was for Adam and Eve to go forth and multiply and exercise their delegated dominion over God's created earth.  They were to extend the beauty and order of the Garden of Eden over the whole earth, which at the time was undeveloped.  They were to establish and operate in and under Adonai's ruling authority as His representatives to all who would come after and teach them the truth about the Creator. 

Rebellion replaced loyalty and the fall from God's grace took place. 

Humanity wanted independence and independence they got.  Evil took claim to the turf given humanity to care for, and the long process of restoration to our rightful identity as immortal image bearers of our Creator and co-laborers with Him in His ruling authority began to take root in the heart of a remnant.

Throughout history, we can see the evidence of God's grace (His unmerited favor).  If not for His grace, humanity would not have survived. 

Today the Holy One takes me back to two of those who in the historic record answered Yahweh's invitation to come into His Counsel room and make intercession for humanity. 

In Genesis 18, Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah and in Exodus 32, Moses interceded for the Children of Israel.  Both of these historic figures teach us much about intimacy with God and the wide scope of His grace. 

Abraham pleaded that if the presence of righteous people amid the wicked could be found, might that stop the hand of God's divine judgement against the wicked in the city?

In this account, Abraham was a student learning about Adonai's amazing grace in his petition that if a certain number of righteous people living in the city might stave off the judgement Holiness was about to execute.  The amazing thing is that Adonai agreed to spare the city if 50, then 45, then 40, then 30 then 20 then if even 10 righteous people could be found, He would spare the rest. 

Sadly, Abraham felt that he had reached the farthest limit of God's grace and stopped with 10 rather than pressing even further for if just one righteous person could be found, the wicked humanity would be saved.  

That lesson in the wide scope of divine grace would be taught much later in the historic revelation when Yeshua, the one righteous person to ever live, was sent to save all the unrighteous humanity ever born since the fall.

Moses, when Yahweh was going to annihilate the Children of Israel for the wickedness of their idolatry, pleaded for them to be spared, and God's grace agreed to His petition. 

With these two examples brought to mind, and as I take up and accept Adonai's invitation to make my petitions known, I am overwhelmed by the thought of the extent of His grace and His willingness to extend it over the situations and people I bring before His Throne and into His Counsel room. 

His grace truly is amazing, and I am encouraged knowing I have been invited to participate through prayer to find the depths of His grace in the co- governing of my world.  With the Lord so willing, how can we not ask for the much, much more of His saving grace?

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

        

Death Where Is Your Sting?

 I Corinthians 15:55

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The 3rd anniversary of the sudden death of one of my Beloved sons has arrived. 

Since his departure from my sight, I have suffered in the agony of separation anxiety.  The loss of a child is the deepest grief that a parent can experience.  I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death with father, mother, brother, husband and child and losing one that I loved from the moment of conception until he drew his last breath here on earth is like no other loss.

My Lord speaks truth to my wounded heart.  "I know your pain and I have planned for your comfort".

What can comfort the grief of such a loss?  And how can you know my pain?  Questions flood my mind with the honesty I have with my Lord.  But then He reminds me of the cross. 

It's on the cross where Jesus and the Father endured the greatest pain of separation in their eternal relationship.  I cannot imagine the grief of our Heavenly Father to look upon the brokenness of His magnificent creation heaped upon His only Son.  To see the brutality of humanity's heart of hatred vented on Yeshua's body when He was sent to show us the Love of God toward men.

To hear the ancient words of King David flow from the dying Son's lips, "My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?"  And to observe the fullness of the law and penalty for sin vented on the sinless Son is something I truly cannot fathom.

To think that all His suffering came about by mistake or strictly by the hands of evil men or demons, is to discredit our Creator and His complete Sovereignty in and over all things.

What then is the "comfort" for the separation anxiety we feel at the death of our Beloveds here on earth?

Understanding that both Jesus and our Heavenly Father know and have felt that horrific pain of separation, to an even greater degree, because it was perhaps the first time in eternity that their unity was broken, helps me to cope with the pain of mine. 

Why did Jesus choose suffer the emotional separation and physical death especially since He is God and could have avoided that pain?  The answer is His LOVE! His love for you and me bound Him to the Holy and irrevocable penalty for sin: both relational death and separation from our Heavenly Father and physical death of our carnal body that houses our immortal soul. 

His love sacrificed so much, so that we can be together for all eternity. Simply put, in love, He didn't want eternity to continue on without us. Jesus was not content that any should perish but rather that we might all be with Him forever where He is. Through His death and resurrection, we have the incredible blessed goodness and hope of eternal life.  And just like He said, He has planned for our comfort even before we felt our pain.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?  

 

  

     

Faith Like Elijah

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  His call starts with a challenge: 

"You need faith like Elijah".

Sickness has lingered in our household and with the winter freeze outside and siege of winter colds within, I guess I didn't realize that it might be a faith issue at base. 

As I ponder the testimony of Elijah's faith, I'm met with a visual of Elijah after bringing down fire from Heaven on Mt Carmel and slaying the priests of Baal who had led Israel astray to follow other gods.

Elijah's life story was filled with faith acts from beginning to end.  Elijah was a Prophet called by Adonai to turn the hearts of God's chosen people back to Him, and away from idolatry in the worship of other gods like the "Baals". 

Back in the history of the Children of Israel, God warned that if/when they turned after other gods, they would be subject to curses and the land would languish under drought.  (Deuteronomy 28:21).  Elijah, under Divine directive from Adonai, called for a 3-year drought to punish the sin of idolatry.  At the end of the 3 years of drought, Adonai again called Elijah to present himself to the king and the people whereby He, Adonai, would end the drought.

The hearts of the people had to be tested and a choice given them as condition of a lifting of the curse on the land.  Elijah called for a great contest between the God of Israel and the Baals.  In the great contest of Adonai's power over that of the false gods, Elijah called for the prophets and priests of Baal to set up an altar, out in the open, place a sacrifice upon it and call out for their god to ignite the altar with fire. Elijah would do the same.

After hours of calling out to Baal and ceremonial blood-letting nothing happened.  Elijah took center stage, rebuilt the broken-down Altar to Adonai, placed the sacrificial bull on it, and made petition to the One true God of Israel.  Additionally, Elijah had the altar and sacrifice flooded with water to make the altar impossible to ignite.  As He prayed for Adonai to let it be known that He, Adonai alone, is God of Israel and Elijah is His servant, fire fell from Heaven and it consumed everything: the sacrifice, the water even the stones of the altar. You can read all about it in I Kings 18

The people fell on their faces and cried out "Adonai is God, Adonai is God" as their hearts were turned back to the One True God. The priests and prophets of Baal were killed for having turned the hearts of the people away from Adonai, but the story does not end there.  The much-needed rain had to come to end the drought, but the sky was cloudless.

Elijah had faith that Adonai would fulfill His word; first in the drought, then in the supernatural event as manifestation of His power and authority by sending fire from Heaven.  But it's the following act of faith and trust that spoke to me today. While there are many instances that I might focus on when I consider this man of great faith and obedience, the one I find today is the hope and trust Elijah demonstrated for the ending of the drought and the coming of rain when looking into a cloudless sky.

When trials drag on like a 3-year drought, discouragement can run high.  God's promises of healing and restoration of health can seem very far off, kind of like looking into a cloudless sky.  Elijah knew that he knew that Adonai would send rain.  God's word was clear and there was no doubt in Elijah's mind:  Rain would come.

Elijah sent his servant to go and look out toward the sea. The servant came back and said, "there's nothing there".  Seven times Elijah sent his servant to look for rain and 6 times he returned with the same report "There's nothing there."  But on the seventh time, the servant said, "There's a cloud coming out of the sea no bigger than a man's fist."  Elijah went to the king with the good news of the coming rain just as promised. 

The point to me is this:  When Adonai has given a promise of rain (favor), we must keep looking for the manifestation until we see it in our sights.  A cloudless sky is never the last word. Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?