Rest

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rest-af2Samuel 7:11:  And even from the time that I commanded judges to be over My people of Israel, so will I cause you to rest from all your enemies. Also Jehovah tells you that He will make you a house.

Rest is not only the will of God for you, you also have the mandate of getting others to experience rest, to show them the way to it. After you have come to Christ as the source of your rest; and someone prays: teach me your ways oh Lord and I will walk in your truth (Psalm 25:4, 86:11); you may be the answer, the appointed teacher, God’s answer to them.

Have you experienced liberation it may be in preparation for the manifestation of God through you in liberation for others? You have it, so that you can give it. The presence of God in your life is for you to be a channel for people to experience Him.

Paul had a revelation in the book of acts that a man from Macedonia said come and help us (Acts 16:9-10). He became the answer to their need. You are being packaged as a help to a generation. When you touch a life you touch a generation. Your seemingly innocuous life-impacting action reverberates for eternity.

You need to have a better valuation of yourself. Jesus told his fear-laden disciples that they will be his witnesses to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8), after only three and a half years of training.

Jesus asked the disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest. This is on the heels of his ministering to a woman at a well, leading to ministering to a whole town. The response was phenomenal to his ministry. He observed that the opportunities were there to impact lives but God needs to send labourers into his harvest. The labourers are those who have received the truth and are therefore able to give the same to others, according to their capacity.

You are in the house of God, and are meant to bring other in, point others to the door (John 10:7, 9), Jesus. Whatever God has placed in you, it is also for the benefit of others. You are a point man to reaching others just as Abraham was. The covenant of God with him captures his generations. His obedience to God has a timeless effect, just as yours will too.

The Holy Spirit that the apostles received was to make them witnesses (Acts 1:8), it wasn’t just for them to fulfill a religious obligation, it was to equip then with divine vision as they embark on changing the world, it was to aid then with divine tools of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, to establish the superiority of Christ where ever they go.

Unlimited grace is available for those who will push the envelope, move away from their comfort zones, to establish the kingdom wherever they are. What we need is a vision beyond ourselves, making the glory of God on our lives to affect people everywhere, so as to save some.

When the children of Israel were to conquer Canaan, certain tribes had been given inheritance, on the other side of Jordan, but the men of those tribes, who can go to war, were under strict instruction to not settle down in their inheritance until they have helped others to enter into there’s (Number 32:20-32).

It is your call also to help others come into their own rest, as you have come into yours.  It is time to look away from your own needs and focus on meeting the needs of others. Paul said concerning some people that they care only for themselves and not for the things of the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:19-21).

He added in another place: let no man look only to his own things but also to the things of others, citing Jesus as our example (Philippians 2:4). Jesus’ life was sown entirely for the purpose of producing new life in us, helping us in our relationship with God.

His manifestation is to destroy the works of the devil in our lives (1John 3:8); He is all about helping us. He saw the crowd as sheep without shepherd and he had compassion on them (Mark 6:34).

Eventually he said: come unto me all you that labour and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30).  But after you have come unto him and experienced rest, you should call others into rest in him also. After Philip met Jesus, he called Nathaniel to come and experience the same thing (John 1:45-51).  The bible says: come taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).

The whole of the bible is one big invitation to experience God.

David said that his destiny is to proclaim the name of the lord and declare his faithfulness (Psalm 71:11-24, 40:10, 89:1), to invite people to share in his experience of God.

Jesus met a Samaritan woman at the well. After she had an encounter of a lifetime with him, she went into the city and invited others to come and meet the One, the Christ (John 4:1-43).

Peter, when he was healing the lame-from-birth man at the beautiful gate of the temple, he said what I have, I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk (Act 3).

He helped him experience rest in Jesus in the area of his body. After the miracle of healing, the man was leaping and shouting because he could not contain his joy; he cannot believe what he was seeing about himself.

He didn’t wake up that morning thinking that he was going to walk today.  He wasn’t expecting that kind of change. He had probably mapped out a life for himself that includes being a perpetual beggar because of his disability. There was no end in sight for a normal life, like most people have; he had resigned to his fate, and has probably embraced his limitation. But he was shown that in Christ, no case is closed, no issue is untouchable, no disaster irreversible, nothing is impossible.

God does not panic because he knows the end from the beginning. Once we know that, it is our responsibility to bring others to the same realisation, that God have everything in his control, that all things work together for good to them that love God  and are the called this purpose (Romans 8:28).  We can rest on that.

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What has God said to you?

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Talking with God2Samuel 5:2: Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.

In the focus verse, the people of Israel came to David affirming that it was time for him to step into what God has told him earlier.

It is interesting that the God said those words to David (1Samuel 16:1-12), long before his trouble with Saul started, definitely when Samuel came to his father’s house to anoint him. When that trouble started, he spent years as a fugitive from his native land of Israel. Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord came to pass in his life (Proverbs 9:21, Isaiah 14:24, 26-27, 46:10 ).

At a time it didn’t look like it, so much so that David once made a difficult decision of going to the land of the Philistine, expressing loyalty to a foreign king (1Samuel 27:1-7). He became committed to a king away from the throne he had been promised. But eventually the word of God was fulfilled. Hear what that has to do with you: no matter what, what God has said to you will be fulfilled.

God told Abraham that he was going to have a child through Sarah his aged wife (Hebrews 11:8-12, Romans 4:16-22). But that was impossible from the standpoint of mere mortals. But the word of God broke the barrier of age, and created the reality that word testifies to. The word of God has the capacity to create the corresponding reality in our life. God said that the word which has proceeded out of his mouth will not return to him void, but it will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.

God said to Noah that he will no longer destroy the world with water and that word has stood for the last millennia (Genesis 9:8-17).  The word of God through Isaiah was that a virgin will become pregnant (Isaiah 7:14), against the law of nature, and that happened hundreds of years after in the virgin birth of Jesus; that was God invading the earth with himself, causing his presence to be felt to the ends of the earth.

God said that he will give the children of Israel the land of Canaan, though the people who received the original promise all died in the wilderness, the word of the Lord eventually come to pass. God once asked a rhetorical question: is there anything too hard for me (Jeremiah 32:27)?

Again after years in the Promised Land, due to the sin of the people, God promised to cause them to go into captivity, to take them from that land for seventy years. That was exactly what happened.

In Samaria, a severe famine ate up the land (2Kings 6:24-7:20); a woman actually ate up her child. It was that bad. But the word of God from Elisha said that within twenty four hours, things will change, the land will come into sudden plenty. Someone who suggested that maybe, God doesn’t know what he was saying, became doomed to die that day and did not partake of the plenty.

“How” was not important. That He said it means it is as good as done.

I am sure that many times David might have asked himself how the promise of God will come to pass. (Mary asked the same question, when she was confronted with the proposition of a lifetime, that she, as a virgin, will become pregnant [Luke 1:34-38])

How will the promise that he would rule Israel come to pass when he was being chased around in the wilderness? And he refused to help the process when he had opportunity to kill Saul the King. It was as if he was resigned to his fate. But the reality was that he was resigned into the hand of God, refusing to help himself to the “cookie”, before his time. He said to God, “my times are in your hand (Psalm 31).”

What the economy is saying may seem contrary to what God is saying, but no matter how long or the strength of the opposition, the power of God always backs his word. Whatever he said is as good as delivered.

God’s word to Gideon was that he is a mighty man of valour (Judges 6-7), but that contrasted with the way he saw himself, and his situation. He was hiding from the enemy, wondering where the mighty God that their fathers spoke about was in light of the evil that has come upon them. He was however God’s appointed to be a deliverer for Israel; he didn’t even see himself like that. It took a walk with God to get him to see himself as God does.

God called him mighty man of valour, and by the end of his life that was what he was, with a lot of encouragement from God along the way. God will do everything to get you there, as long as you cooperate with Him.

Gideon was destined to rescue Israel. The angel of God told him to go in his might and rescue Israel from their enemies. Before that he was focused on his inabilities and how the nations around are oppressing his nation. But he was called to do something about it, contrary to his native ability but acting on the word of God, he got extraordinary results.

He had divine mission to accomplish, but first he had to deal with the demon in his own father’s house, he had to win over the forces of darkness, represented by the arrangement for Baal worship, in his own house. He had to confront Baal, at the command of God. That immediately drew attention to him and what he stands for, which was devotion to no other God but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He needed to establish that identity before going forward to conquer. He needed to set himself apart for God’s use, set himself apart from the corrupt worship lifestyle of that generation.

What about you? Maybe God is waiting for you to establish an identity of standing for God, before you can push forward to advance in the purpose He has for you. You need to have your root go down before you bear fruits upwards (Isaiah 37:31).

God can tell you about where you should go. In Acts 13, the Holy Spirit told a group of prophets and teachers to set apart Paul and Barnabas for the work they are to do, which involves moving out of their present geographical territory and invading the world around with the gospel (Acts 13:1-6). It involved extensive travelling. Jesus Christ had the commission to only go to the towns and cities of Israel; that was his instruction from God (Matthew 15:24, Matthew 10:6).

An angel told Philip amidst the mighty revival that was taking place in Samaria to go to a place where he would meet an Ethiopian eunuch, who he preached to, baptised in water and became a disciple of Jesus, bringing the light of God to Africa (Acts 8:26-40). God told Abraham to go to the land of Canaan, to separate himself from his father’s house, and live in loneliness (Genesis 12:1-2). He obeyed God.

David after the death of Saul asked God where he should go (2Samuel 2:1). God told him to go to Hebron. There Judah came to anoint him as King.

What has God said to you? Believe, obey, and walk in it.

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The destiny of Jesus

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rain-widescreen-wallpaper-12Samuel 3:18: Now then do it: for the LORD hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.

Though Jesus was not mentioned in the above verse, the very thing that David was meant to do in the natural sense for the children of Israel are the things that Jesus should do for believers in a grander scale that encompasses the spiritual.

The bible says that for this purpose the son of man was manifested to destroy the works of the devil (1John 3:8). Jesus said that the devil came to steal, kill and destroy but he has come so that we may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). He counters the spirit of death with his Spirit of life (Romans 8:1-2).

As a type of Jesus, Moses was used by God to free Israel from bondage in Egypt. Are you bound to any bad habit; it is the destiny of Jesus to make that history in your life, to make you free from untoward habit; he stands for freedom. His destiny is to make us free from whatever the devil wants to put on us.

Jesus had the assignment of dealing with death, heart turmoil and sickness. Death was a function of our spirit (we were spiritually dead [Ephesians 2:1]); sin, our soul; while sickness is about our body. The cross represents the culmination of the work of Jesus on these three fronts.

As the prince of peace (Isaiah 9:1-2), he brings peace to us in our relationship with God (Romans 5:1), peace is our experience in our soul (John 14:27), and peace is the area of health in our body, because sickness is the body in turmoil.

The work of Jesus can also be captured in one word: restoration. This is to remake us and our experiences, in a way that it is not different from how it was originally. To restore painting, you need to have an accurate understanding or how it was. And who has a more accurate picture of how we were if not our creator?  Jesus is the creator (John 1:1-5) and he has the blueprint of how we should look like.

He became who we should be, walking on the earth for thirty something years. Dying at that age shows that ageing was not part of the plan of God for humanity. That reflects the truth that it was in the plan of God for us that we should be everlasting beings.

How?

If death was not part of the original arrangement, then we were supposed to have the no sign of ageing on us (I am speaking of a world were Adam did not fall). It is my thinking that definitely there was no sign of aging on Jesus at the time he hung on the cross.

Now Jesus is eternally aged thirty three, in his looks, in his everlasting human form. One can also project that when one dies, all signs of sickness, death and aging would disappear from the body in the after world, at least if you go to be with the Lord as a Christian. John wrote that we don’t know how we would be, but we know we will be like him (1John 3:1-3). For starters, he looks like a thirty-three year old.

However there is another thought: since God is defined as being the ancient of days with the hair on his head like pure wool (Daniel 7:9), maybe the plan was that age was meant to only show in the whitening of the hair?

Jesus said that after resurrection we shall be like the angels in heaven, angels don’t age (Matthew 22:30), they are not subject to earthly decay which is the direct result of the punishment of man; that dust he is and would return (Genesis 3:19). The process of “returning” is the ageing process.

It is the destiny of Jesus to make ageing history in the new world to come. He removed the limitation of death from man. Death is our enemy (1Corinthians 15:25-26), it limits and Jesus has come to remove the limits from us.

He was made poor so that we can become rich (2Corinthians 8:9). That is part of the limit-removing destiny of Jesus. Lack of money can be limiting. The bible says that a poor wise man is forgotten, the spread of his fame is limited (Ecclesiastes 9:14-15). Also we read that money answers all things (Ecclesiastes 10:19). Apart from being sustained with food and raiment, we are meant to extend our hands to the needy in physical terms.

The bible says that God is able to make all grace abound towards us, so that having all sufficiency in all things we may abound unto every good work (2Corinthians 9:8). And it is the grace of the Lord Jesus that is being referred to; that limit breaking grace.

Jesus wants to break the limit in our soul, in our mind. Paul said that, those who are spiritual have the mind of Christ (1Corinthians 2:9-16). He also wrote that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of sound mind (1Timothy 1:6-8). For those in him, Jesus Christ represents for us wisdom (1Corinthians 1:30) and the breaking of our limits of the knowledge of God. He came to break the limit of what is possible with God.

Also there is the limit of our body, in sicknesses and diseases and Christ set out by bearing stripes on his back, to free us from them (1Peter 2:24). That is part of the mission of Christ, it should be proclaimed as such. Jesus said that in his name we would lay hands on the sick and they will recover (Mark 16:15-18).

It is his destiny, to not only help us deal with satanic agenda in our lives by to equip us to help others also. He told the disciples that he has given them the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions (Luke 10:19), representing the powers of the enemy; and to trample them underfoot. We are a major force of Christ on the earth; we are spiritual wrestlers against satanic forces; we are soldiers in the army of Jesus (2Timothy 2:1-4) fighting with truth, love and power.

Of the destiny of Jesus, Zacharias the father of John the Baptist said of Jesus that he will deliver us from our enemies that we may serve God without fear (Luke 1:67-79). The writer of Hebrews said that Jesus was manifested to deliver us who all our lives were subject to bondage to the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-18).

By defeating death Jesus stands as the source of freedom, unending freedom. We were told that with one sacrifice he has saved forever those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14).

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Being of understanding heart

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rocky_mountain_toursObadiah 1:7: All the men of your covenant have dismissed you to the border; the men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and have overcome you. They are setting your bread as a snare under you; there is no understanding in them.

If there is anything we should seek to have, it is an understanding heart. And a basic feature of an understanding heart is that it seeks knowledge. One thing the foolish lacks is an understanding heart (Proverbs 18:2). He keeps hitting his foot on a same stone. Solomon wrote that the labour of fools wearies them because they lack know-how, and couldn’t care less (Ecclesiastes 10:15). There lack of know-how makes them foolish. But Jesus was marked with the spirit of understanding (Isaiah 11:1-3). The bible says that he shall be of quick understanding in the knowledge of the Lord.

His depth of spiritual understanding was shown when he had to answer many questions that were meant to floor him; he answered the tricky questions to the amazement of all (Mark 12:12-34). By the Spirit, the disciples of Jesus expressed amazing wisdom. Jesus told them that when they face persecution and they are to face a panel, they should not worry about what to say because the Holy Spirit will teach them in that hour what they should say (Luke 12:11-12).

Of Stephen, the first martyr recorded in the bible, it was written that the people could not withstand the wisdom of his word. He displayed amazing understanding of the dealings of God with the nation of Israel (Acts 7). There was such Spirit of wisdom in him.

As mentioned earlier, those who understand are perpetually seeking to know more. There is a hunger for knowledge in them.

Moses had an understanding heart. He asked that God will show him his ways (Exodus 33:13). A psalmist said that God should teach him his ways, so that he can walk in God’s truth (Psalm 86:11). God gave Solomon an understanding heart; with that he had an insatiable hunger for knowledge, so much that he concluded that in the reading of books there is no end (1Kings 3:9, 12, 4:29). All of these people expressed a heart of understanding, seeking for knowledge.

The bible says that it is a glory of God to conceal a matter; it is the honour of kings to search it out (Proverbs 25:2). Paul had a hunger to know Christ saying that I may know him and the power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:7-14).

His hunger for knowledge lasted till the later end of his life when he asked that Timothy bring him “the” parchment when coming to see him (2Timothy 4:13). He needed to be mentally engaged in the acquisition of knowledge, no matter the age. He could engage with the intellectual of Athens, even quoting their literature to them (Acts 17:15-34). The depth of the knowledge of Paul as displayed to kings, one of whom said to him that much learning has made him mad (Acts 26).

There are many things jostling for our attention but the man of understanding will engage himself with knowledge that will enhance his life, especially the spiritual life. He sees spiritual knowledge as his path for change.

Jesus told certain people that they if they continue in his word, it will lead them truth (John 8:31-32), which will in turn make them free indeed. The knowledge of the God’s truth can free us from sinful lifestyle. But the fool will run away from the truth that can set them free.

You can pray for understanding. James wrote that if anyone one lacks wisdom (and understanding leads to wisdom) he should ask God who gives generously (James 1:5). Solomon asked God for an understanding heart.

In Christ we can have access to a good understanding of God. Writing to the Corinthian church, Paul said that the things of the spirit are spiritual discerned and are foolishness to the carnally minded (1Corinthians 2:14-16). Therefore Paul prayed for the Ephesians that the eyes of their understanding be enlightened (Ephesians 1:15-18). You can also pray the same prayer for yourself, that the eyes of your heart be flooded with light.

Paul described the people who have not come to Christ as having their understanding darkened (Ephesians 4:17-18), therefore they do abominable things.  Paul said that we should be men in understanding (1Corinthians 14:20), we should be of very sound in understanding of the will, word and ways of God.

He said that we should not be fools but understand what the will of God is; not just know the will of God, but have full understanding of it. A psalmist asked that God will give him understanding according to his word (Psalm 119:34, 73, 125, 144, 169); he also prayed: open my eyes to behold wondrous things out of your law (Psalm 119:18).

To understand the word, we should be humble enough to ask the Lord for understanding. Jesus Christ rejoiced that certain knowledge were hidden from the wise but revealed to babes (Luke 10:21). Babes are not self-opinionated; they are teachable, impressionable. That is what God wants to do- impress his knowledge, understanding and wisdom, on us. We are called to grow in knowledge (2Peter 3:18), to be matured in understanding, but still maintain in the teachability of a child.

Real understanding comes from God. Paul wrote that we should not allow anyone to hoodwink us by their worldly wisdom, since Jesus is his wisdom and power of God (1Corinthians 1:24), adding that we should see ourselves as being complete in the one who is the head of all principalities and powers (Colossians 2:6-17).

Of spiritual understanding, Paul said that God has shined the light of the understanding of Christ in our hearts (2Corinthians 4:6). The bottom line is that there is no true knowledge apart from Christ. He called himself the way the truth and the life, he is the light. He is the source of the true knowledge of God, all the words of the Old Testament are focused on him, revealing him, pointing to him, presenting to us the fact that we should focus on him for true knowledge.

After his resurrection and the disciples were doubting if truly his has risen, two of them were travelling to Emmaus, and disguised he explained to them from the pages of the scriptures things concerning himself, taking them through the pages of the old testament. If you don’t have the understanding of Christ, you have no understanding at all. He told the Pharisees that the scriptures testify of him (Luke 24:12-53).

The basis of true understanding is to consider that God was manifested in the flesh in Christ, and experienced indescribable pain to free us from damnation. The heart of understanding starts with understanding and taking the steps salvation, owning up to the foolishness of your ways, apart from God, the true source of true wisdom.

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A famine of God’s word

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DWP_DroughtAmos 8:11: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

This actually happened in the time of Eli (1Samuel 2:12-3:1). Before the emergence of Samuel as a prophet, a seer, it was recorded that the word of God was scarce and there was no open vision. The supernatural communication between heaven and earth was reduced. That was something unusual. It isn’t God’s default mode to not freely communicate with his people. This was likely because of the sinfulness that permeated the temple at that time, with the corruption, greed and fornication being carried out by the two sons of Eli.

At that time there was a famine of the word of God. From the focus verse we have the idea that the word of God is a source of satisfaction, like water and food. Peter said that Jesus has the words of eternal life (John 6:63). God once accused Israel that they have forsaken him the fountain of living waters, and got for themselves means of getting water that doesn’t actually give any lasting satisfaction.

At a time Jesus lifted up his voice and said that if anyone thirsts, he should come to him and that the water he will give will become in him rivers of living waters. To the Samaritan woman, Jesus said that the water he would give her would be in her a well of water, springing up into eternal life.

After Jesus multiplied bread to feed thousands (John 6:1-66), the people did not want him to feel so cool. They said that their fathers were also fed with bread from heaven by Moses. Jesus had to correct them that it was not Moses who fed their fathers with bread, but the heavenly father. He doesn’t want them to look back at the past event; he wants them to begin to see him as the true bread of God, that if they don’t eat him they won’t have life in themselves, they will remain spiritually dead. He is the ultimate satisfaction.

The foregoing shows that Jesus wants the people to come to him for spiritual bread and water, he wants to impress it on them the importance/imperative of seeing him as their source. He is not only light breaking us away from darkness (John 1:1-5), he is not only the ladder that leads us to heaven (John 1:50-51), he is the bread of God, and also he has spiritual water to give us.

With him there can be no famine of the word of God because he us the word of God. In the times of old, the prophets were the means of getting a word from God, but now we have the person of Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-3). Prophets die but he lives forever. To get the prophets of old, you have to go to them, whereas, Jesus lives in us.

Famine in a natural sense can result from laziness which prevents us from sowing seeds, or as a result of severe weather conditions which does not allow any seed sown to even grow.

In the bible, a famous famine took place was in the land of Egypt (Genesis 41). God had showed it in a dream to Pharaoh, that there would first be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine that would make nonsense of the seven years of plenty.

Joseph, Jacob’s son, who interpreted the dream for pharaoh was saddled with making arrangement for mitigating the effects of the coming famine.

Famine is bound to happen when people are distracted from laying emphasis on putting the word of God inside of them. Without sowing, there cannot be harvest and without harvest, there is famine. If we are not actively sowing the word of God in our hearts, we should be ready to experience famine sooner or later. When we shy away from the hard-work of sowing the word in our own hearts (Proverbs 21:25) and in the hearts of the people who listen to us (2Timothy 4:1-5), everyone gets primed for a season of famine. When as a spiritual leader you busy sowing philosophy, and not the word of God, you are sowing the wind, you will reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7).

In the case of a famine, caused by adverse environmental condition like the one that happened in Egypt, it is all about making use of every opportunity prior to that. Don’t waste the opportunity that being unemployed afford you to have extra-time in the word. Solomon advised in the book of Ecclesiastes that when we are young, we should prioritise the things of the Lord, get excited by it (Ecclesiastes 12:1), invest yourself and your time in it.

There is no time like the time of youth to prime yourself in the ways of God. As far as Paul was concerned, the fact that Timothy knew the Holy Scriptures from a very young age puts him at an advantage (2Timothy 3:15).

You cannot afford to waste time, when it comes to putting the word in your heart. David prayed: let the word of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you oh Lord (Psalm 19:14); but another person said to God: your words have I put in my heart that I may not sin against you (Psalm 119:11). Putting the two together means that the words sown in the heart will prevent the famine of a disobedient life; David wanted both his thoughts and words to be in alignment with God’s. And we know that would remain at the level of wishful thinking if the word of God is not being actively sown in us.

That the word is a seed means that it will take some times before we see the result, the fruits, but see it we must. There are possibilities locked up in the word. It is meant to create a new reality of mind for us individually and collectively.

But, when there is no hunger and thirst for the word, then we have a problem. We are setting ourselves up for a famine of the word.

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The arrogance of man

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300px-Cloughmore_StoneAmos 6:8:  The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts has declared: “I loathe the arrogance of Jacob, And detest his citadels; Therefore I will deliver up the city and all it contains.”

The arrogance of man not only makes him hideous to God but also insensitive. Arrogance is that sense of self-sufficiency that from the focus verse we learn makes God angry and attracts his judgment.

Jesus was told about how Pilate mixed the blood of some with their sacrifice; (Luke 13:1-5). Rather than allow the “news reporters” to continue their finger-pointing that maybe such were more sinful than them, Jesus said to them: except you also repent you will likewise perish. He doesn’t want them to become arrogant in their empty self-righteousness, but called them to repentance. Repentance is an expression of humility which is the opposite of arrogance. It is to recognise that you were wrong.

The first verse of Amos Chapter 6, states that woe betides those who are at ease in Zion that are secured in the mountains of Samaria.

Zion is a place with history; it is the city of David. To be secured in it means you reject a personal connection to God in the here and now while leaning on a legacy, the personal relation of another person with God, the special revelation of someone else.

Being secured in Samaria, surrounded by a mountain, is about trusting in your circumstances, e.g. your job, or human promises or the welfare policy of whatever government of the country you are in.

It is arrogance to depend on anything apart from God. You are telling him that you have a better idea. A psalmist said: some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of our God (Psalm 20:7).  We need to break from self-trust; our trust should be in God. We are told to trust in the Lord with all our heart (Proverbs 3:5-6); and that woe is the one who goes down to “Egypt” for security (Isaiah 31:1), who trust in horses, whose hearts depart from the Lord (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

Let our security be in the Lord. It was arrogance for Eve to trust in her our own effort to get wisdom (Genesis 3). And that strain of arrogance in man continues till today. Paul says in the bible that the problem with Israel is that they go about establishing their own righteousness while not submitting to the righteousness of God (Romans 10:3).

The arrogance of man can be seen in Saul. When he was confronted with the fact of his sin, he instinctively assumed an excuse mode, he didn’t quickly take the repentance door (1Samuel 15). But when David was so confronted, he wrote a psalm of penitence (Psalm 51). I am not saying that you should be a cry baby to show that you are humble. You can be the weepiest and be the most arrogant at the same time. It’s not about externals; the bible says God looks at the heart (1Samuel 16:7).

James warned against arrogance when he said that we should not say tomorrow I will make such a journey to such a place, he said we should add: if God permits (James 4:13-17). It is arrogance to think you have everything under your control.

God wants us to move away from self dependence to God –dependence. Self-focus leads to arrogance. Paul said that those who compare themselves with themselves are not wise; this will only fan the embers of arrogance (2Corinthians 10:12). He said knowledge puffs up (1Corinthians 8:1); i.e. if it is aimed at making comparison.

There can be no arrogance when we focus on the Lord. In comparison to him, he is always higher. That is for the one who is thinking sanely, but the devil in his arrogance actually thought that he can lift his throne above that of God (Isaiah 14:12-15).

For the fool to say in his heart that there is no God (Psalm 14) is merely an attempt to lift his throne above God’s. That is the arrogance of man. It is also reflected when you have an approach that says: I don’t need God’s help.

The approach recommended by scripture is for us to trust in the lord with all our hearts and not to lean not on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6), to differ to God on all points.  David never got to a point when he stopped leaning on God as his source of success in his battles. We should acknowledge God as the reason for the very breath that we breathe; the reason for our living, and our source of everlasting life.

David said that the Lord is his shepherd (Psalm 23).  As far as he was concerned, he is as ignorant as a sheep, when the Lord, though he is mighty man among mighty men, and king. With that there can be no arrogance. And Paul said that in him we live, we move, and have our being (Acts 17:28); he made us.

It was the arrogance in man that God opposed, and multiplied the language of man when they were going to build a tower that gets to heaven (Genesis 11:1-9). God resisted them, because one thing that God requires of us is for us to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). The attitude of disobedience is an attitude of arrogance.  That demonically-inspired strain of attitude sown in Adam and Eve, when the devil said that by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we shall be like God, therefore we won’t need God, and don’t need to depend on him.

Look at your life, any area in which you are not depending on God is the area where you are expressing your own arrogance.

Even for righteousness. It was arrogance when there is the offer of free (though not cheap) righteousness in Christ; but we go about trying to be accepted by God based on our own achievements of certain righteous demands. Meeting the legitimate righteous demands of God for holiness is an outflow of the very life of God in us, out of his working in us. We don’t “score” any point with it and so we cannot be arrogant because of it.

We don’t compare ourselves with others, leading to more arrogance because we realise that there is nothing we have that is not as a result of the generousity of God to us. It is the grace of God.  Paul said that by grace we are saved and not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Everything we have or we are is the gift of God, and whatever we will have and become will also be because of God.

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The cause and the effect of the prophetic word

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wind-blowingAmos 3:7-8: Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

In the above verse Amos sought to express the dynamics of the prophetic word. He starts with an affirmation, and then follows it with two rhetorical questions.

As far as he was concerned, whatever God will do, he will first reveal the same to his prophets; Enoch who is the first known prophet in the bible (James: 14-16). He spoke of things that will happen thousands of years later. Then we have Noah, to whom God disclosed his intention to destroy the world with a flood.

God revealed to Daniel the time of the end; with specific time references. One reason God needs a prophet is because he wants a witness on the earth. Whatever God is going to do on the earth, he has designed it to be in partnership with the prophetic people.

So when he needs the ultimate job of salvation done on the earth he had to become man, Jesus. He can’t just save man by fiat. God himself has said that the word that has gone out of his mouth will not return to him void, until it accomplishes the purpose for which he sent it (Isaiah 55:11).

At first, the order that God set was that man should have dominion on the earth. God devolved his rights on the earth to man. Even the devil could not have unfettered access to the earth except by deceiving the rights bearers Adam and Eve. The relationship of God with man was intimate from the onset, but no thanks to sin which spoiled things.

When the words are declared by God’s prophet and they come to pass, it makes an impression on man and brings glory to God.

It is God’s intention to impress man with his greatness, which is one of the aims of the prophetic word. Daniel prophesied that at the time of the end, knowledge will increase (Daniel 12:4). The increase in the realm in knowledge has been simply phenomenal in the last decades. He also said that people will go to and fro. It literally means the world will be merely a village. It is becoming so, even with the invention of and the use of the internet. You can go from one website to another and reach people from one end of the earth to the other, in split seconds.

There are two causes of the prophetic there is the heavenly (from God to man) and there is the earthly (from man to man). The effect is that we see the acts of God on the earth. From the focus verse, it is as if God has conditioned himself not to do anything unless he has a witness on the earth to that effect in the shape of the prophet, being his communication channel.

Preceding verses to the focus verse have to do with incidences of cause and effect.

Amos said can two walk together except they be agreed (Amos 3:3-8)? This is a description of the prophetic ministry, which is the alignment of heaven with earth, alignment of God with the prophet. The prophetic people should seek to be in alignment with God all the time. How can the prophet reveal the will of God when he does not possess a relationship with Him?

Also on alignment, the purpose of the prophetic ministry is to cause the people to be aligned with the will of God. God does not want to just leave us as humanity to our devices; he interjects his thoughts into our affairs at intervals; to move us back to him, to cause man to be in proper alignment with him. He wants us to be in agreement with him concerning his purpose for us, so he shares his thoughts with us.

Through Isaiah God said that his thoughts are far from our thoughts and our ways far from his (Isaiah 55:5-12). But it was not always like that and would not always remain so. Therefore part of the effects of the prophetic ministry is to ensure that we get closer and closer to the will of God, to his ways, to his thoughts.

As the prophet needs to be in alignment with heaven to receive the divine message, the audience needs to be in divine alignment with the prophet to receive the word coming from her/him.

Remember that in describing the expression of the prophetic in the Old Testament, one phrase that was used is: the word of the Lord came unto me saying (in Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah)….  That is the prophet, syncing with heaven.

Another phrase that Amos used to describe the cause and effect of the prophetic is the springing of a trap, saying, a trap does not spring if it has not caught a prey. The idea of sensitivity is being communicated here. A trap needs to be sensitive to any movement on it. So also the prophet needs to be sensitive, to catch the movement of the Spirit, to get the point the Holy Spirit is making.

Amos also wrote that the lord has spoken, who cannot but prophecy? After being in divine alignment, then there was a roar from heaven, and because of his sensitivity, he caught a word from God; there is nothing to do except prophecy.

It is dangerous to presume to be a prophet without being in alignment. It is dangerous to try to roar yourself, rather, wait for the prompting (roaring) of Holy Spirit within you, independent of you. It is dangerous to not understand the role of sensitivity, which may lead to declaring half truth. Apart from being sensitive to God we need to be sensitive to the audience.

Since the prophetic word is the roaring of God, it communicated divine vibes to cause things to happen, either in judgment, or in elevation, or confirmation.

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