Judges 7:2
"And the Lord said unto Gideon 'The people that are with thee are TOO MANY for Me to give the Midianites into their hands..."
What a predicament...to have too much for God to work! Most would blame not having enough for their not working; but God here blames having TOO MUCH for His not working! And that is exactly where Gideon found himself. From living in a cave to leading as a captain, Gideon had done everything right in preparation for this national deliverance God was about to work through him.
1) He had become officially right with God - 6:17-23
2) He had, in his new rightstanding, brought down his family's idol - 6:25-32
3) He had received and responded to the Holy Ghost (in an Old testament way) - 6:34
4) He had affirmed through two divine signs that this calling was truly of God - 6:36-40
But there was another event that took place between #3 and #4 that was not of Gideon's doing: people from all over Israel began to rally to his side. As Gideon had responded to the Holy Ghost by blowing a trumpet, the people responded to the trumpet and began to naturally amass an army. Now what could be wrong with that? Not a thing...except that what began by the Spirit was now being finished in the flesh!
In our zeal for the Lord, our imagination (of course under the more spiritually sounding tag of an "open vision" or the "discerning of spirits") often takes over from the Holy Ghost that which He has started; and we usually end up adding way more to the "mix" than God originally intended. We mean well! We really only wanted to help! Like Namaan, we just thought it ought to happen this way or that (II Kings 5:11).
Nevertheless, God said to Gideon "You've got too much for Me to work"!
I wonder if He might be saying that to the American Church?! I wonder if through the years of abundant "revelation", proseprity and freedom, we believers in this country have accumulated way too many "accessories" for the worship and work of the Lord?!
If we have, then before the "revival" move, we can like Gideon expect a "downsizing" move, where God whittles away at the excess add-ons of our ministries and lives until we are left with only that which He originally called us and graced us to walk with and in!
Let this word from the life of Gideon be like a spotlight on our multiple "irons in the fire" for God; and let it be a great release from the stress of trying to maintain more than we were meant to carry out! And let it finally be a great big "governor" on our zealous engines; so that we never again outrun and overshoot God in His working out of His will in our lives and thus have to carry the burden of "TOO MUCH" in our own strength.
II Kings 10:16
"And he (Jehu) said 'Come with me, and see MY zeal for the Lord..."
Our zeal usually embellishes (sprucing up the truth with extras that are "not so true") God's instructions and words. Yet, only HIS zeal (Isaiah 9:7) can perform His own will!
He started this thing - let Him finish it!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
WALK WORTHY
Ephesians 4:1 - "...walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called"
Colossians 1:10 - "...walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing"
I Thessalonians 2:12 - "...walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory"
In all of the above passages of Scripture, we are told to WALK WORTHY...of our calling, of our Lord and of our God...that is a pretty tall order! Jesus Himself set "being worthy" as a priority of following Him: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me...he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:37,38).
To begin with, to be worthy actually means to be weighty, to have substance...the more one has, the more one is worth. Therefore, to walk worthy of something or someone that has worth means to live in accordance with their worth, in agreement with and reflective of their worth.
So what is Jesus worth? If we put Jesus Christ in an old fashioned balancing scale, what would we have to put on the other side to bring up the scales to a balanced position? Walking worthy of the Lord means we are to bring up our side of the scales in accordance with His worth. What is He worth?
Obviously, to those of us who have been saved by Him, no list could be long enough to include everything which makes Him worthy; but we can begin with possibly the greatest ingredient of His worth. At least, it is this feature of Him that moves the saints in heaven to throw down their crowns and prostrate themselves before Him, singing "Worthy, worthy, worthy..." (Revelation 5:9).
In Revelation 5, we are allowed to go up with the Apostle John into heaven, where we find him weeping over a book of truth, full of the mind of God; and yet no one can be found who is worthy to break the seven seals that keep this "fountain" of the will of God closed. But he was soon comforted by one of the elders there, who told him that One had finally come forward who was worthy to open the book.
I find it interesting how things work in heaven. Everything is done with purpose and meaning, nothing done "just for the heck of it". And whoever does something in heaven must be worthy to do it because everything in heaven is worth something and thus requires corresponding worth. Even to the opening of this book, not just anyone could loose those seals and reveal its contents...only One worthy!
So John is told that the Lion of Judah, the Root of David "hath prevailed to open the book" (verse 5). Notice that someone had to "prevail" to gain the worth necessary for this task - someone had to succeed or win or prove themselves superior in some other deed in order to be worthy for this deed. And it was the Lion of Judah that prevailed!
Well, John was comforted that the book would be opened...that there would not be some part of God's will that would remain hidden. So he lifted his eyes to see the Lion that was worthy to open the book; but to his surprise, he saw, not a lion, but a Lamb! The elder said that the Lion had prevailed - but John's eyes saw a Lamb...and a most unusual Lamb!
This Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which we are told are the seven Spirits of God. Now obviously, we know that John is seeing Jesus Christ in symbolic picture-form, a common pracitce of God when desiring to reveal deep facets of His Son. John is seeing Jesus Christ, full of the Holy Ghost (seven meaning "fulness"). The eyes, in Biblical symbolism, refer to wisdom, discernment or spiritual perception; while the horns point to power, outright force and ability. Jesus had the fulness of the Holy Ghost in infinite wisdom and infinite power!
But He had that full capacity as the Lamb...and more especially as the Lamb that had been slain. What a paradox - what a seemingly contradictory situation - all that power in a meek and gentle Lamb...that was slain! And the scene of Him as a Lamb, taking the book, compelled all watching to fall down and sing "Thou art worthy" (verse 9)! And they even declare in the song why they ascribe worthiness to Him - because HE HAD BEEN SLAIN, which in turn redeemed all of those singing. That was the previous deed that he had prevailed in which qualified Him for this present deed of opening up the will of God in the book to be loosed in the world!
What is that then which makes up the worth of Jesus Christ? It is the weight of the grace and truth that he was full of (John 1:14), which was His by the fulness of the Holy Ghost, which He had because He loved not His own life...even unto death and to the fulfilling of the love of God. How shall we walk worthy of that?
John 14:17 - "Even the Spirit of truth...ye know Him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."
Acts 1:8 - "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses (martyrs = one who testifies with his or her life what he or she believes) unto me..."
Hebrews 9:14 - "...who through the etrnal Spirit offered himself..."
The worth of our walk is based on the Spirit and His grace that we have received and the yieldedness we give to that Spirit. And the primary work of that Spirit is to "offer" us, similar to the "offering" of the Lord that Spirit brought Him to. That is real wisdom...that is real power!
I Corinthians 1:23,24 - "But we preach Christ crucified...the power of God and the wisdom of God."
LIVE CRUCIFIED and WALK WORTHY!
Colossians 1:10 - "...walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing"
I Thessalonians 2:12 - "...walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory"
In all of the above passages of Scripture, we are told to WALK WORTHY...of our calling, of our Lord and of our God...that is a pretty tall order! Jesus Himself set "being worthy" as a priority of following Him: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me...he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:37,38).
To begin with, to be worthy actually means to be weighty, to have substance...the more one has, the more one is worth. Therefore, to walk worthy of something or someone that has worth means to live in accordance with their worth, in agreement with and reflective of their worth.
So what is Jesus worth? If we put Jesus Christ in an old fashioned balancing scale, what would we have to put on the other side to bring up the scales to a balanced position? Walking worthy of the Lord means we are to bring up our side of the scales in accordance with His worth. What is He worth?
Obviously, to those of us who have been saved by Him, no list could be long enough to include everything which makes Him worthy; but we can begin with possibly the greatest ingredient of His worth. At least, it is this feature of Him that moves the saints in heaven to throw down their crowns and prostrate themselves before Him, singing "Worthy, worthy, worthy..." (Revelation 5:9).
In Revelation 5, we are allowed to go up with the Apostle John into heaven, where we find him weeping over a book of truth, full of the mind of God; and yet no one can be found who is worthy to break the seven seals that keep this "fountain" of the will of God closed. But he was soon comforted by one of the elders there, who told him that One had finally come forward who was worthy to open the book.
I find it interesting how things work in heaven. Everything is done with purpose and meaning, nothing done "just for the heck of it". And whoever does something in heaven must be worthy to do it because everything in heaven is worth something and thus requires corresponding worth. Even to the opening of this book, not just anyone could loose those seals and reveal its contents...only One worthy!
So John is told that the Lion of Judah, the Root of David "hath prevailed to open the book" (verse 5). Notice that someone had to "prevail" to gain the worth necessary for this task - someone had to succeed or win or prove themselves superior in some other deed in order to be worthy for this deed. And it was the Lion of Judah that prevailed!
Well, John was comforted that the book would be opened...that there would not be some part of God's will that would remain hidden. So he lifted his eyes to see the Lion that was worthy to open the book; but to his surprise, he saw, not a lion, but a Lamb! The elder said that the Lion had prevailed - but John's eyes saw a Lamb...and a most unusual Lamb!
This Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which we are told are the seven Spirits of God. Now obviously, we know that John is seeing Jesus Christ in symbolic picture-form, a common pracitce of God when desiring to reveal deep facets of His Son. John is seeing Jesus Christ, full of the Holy Ghost (seven meaning "fulness"). The eyes, in Biblical symbolism, refer to wisdom, discernment or spiritual perception; while the horns point to power, outright force and ability. Jesus had the fulness of the Holy Ghost in infinite wisdom and infinite power!
But He had that full capacity as the Lamb...and more especially as the Lamb that had been slain. What a paradox - what a seemingly contradictory situation - all that power in a meek and gentle Lamb...that was slain! And the scene of Him as a Lamb, taking the book, compelled all watching to fall down and sing "Thou art worthy" (verse 9)! And they even declare in the song why they ascribe worthiness to Him - because HE HAD BEEN SLAIN, which in turn redeemed all of those singing. That was the previous deed that he had prevailed in which qualified Him for this present deed of opening up the will of God in the book to be loosed in the world!
What is that then which makes up the worth of Jesus Christ? It is the weight of the grace and truth that he was full of (John 1:14), which was His by the fulness of the Holy Ghost, which He had because He loved not His own life...even unto death and to the fulfilling of the love of God. How shall we walk worthy of that?
John 14:17 - "Even the Spirit of truth...ye know Him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."
Acts 1:8 - "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses (martyrs = one who testifies with his or her life what he or she believes) unto me..."
Hebrews 9:14 - "...who through the etrnal Spirit offered himself..."
The worth of our walk is based on the Spirit and His grace that we have received and the yieldedness we give to that Spirit. And the primary work of that Spirit is to "offer" us, similar to the "offering" of the Lord that Spirit brought Him to. That is real wisdom...that is real power!
I Corinthians 1:23,24 - "But we preach Christ crucified...the power of God and the wisdom of God."
LIVE CRUCIFIED and WALK WORTHY!
Monday, April 5, 2010
LOOK!
Matthew 14:14 - "Jesus...saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick"
Luke 7:13,14 - "And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her...and he said...'Arise'"
John 4:35 - "Look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest."
If I have heard it once, I have heard it a thousand times - "Where's the power of God today". Believers all over the country are flocking to seminars and conferences on how to retrieve the old-time power back in our churches and ministries. Dozens of formulas have been presented that explain the loss of power as a lack of faith, a lack of prayer or maybe a lack of praise and worship. Then, upon getting these areas back on track, healing and delivering power are guaranteed to come back into your hands when you touch the sick.
However, according to the above Scriptures, the reason for the absence of power is not just a lack of faith or a lack of prayer but a LACK OF CARE! It was compassion that proceeded the above mentioned miracles - enough compassion, in fact, to MOVE the Lord! THE POWER IN HIS HANDS STARTED WITH THE BREAKING OF HIS HEART! I'm not so sure if many would come to a seminar for power today if they knew that they would have to "hurt" before they could "help"!
Sometimes, we have to use several extension cords to connect a power source to a power need. In these two accounts in Matthew and Luke, there were TWO cords from the One who had the power to the one who had the need...and this second cord of heart-moving compassion for many today in our fast-paced culture has come unplugged! We don't really mind praying for the sick - we just don't want to get so involved!
And the first cord before compassion is simply "LOOK"! I think that cord has not only been unplugged but wrapped up and hidden somewhere! Oh how quickly we change the TV channel when the hungry-children commercials come on! We dare not tarry and LOOK at someone troubled in a hospital waiting room, lest we become moved and get involved! But Jesus LOOKED! He opened His eyes and His heart to the full intensity of the need in front of Him.
In John's Gospel, Jesus tells us to look at something else...the harvest. He was actually talking about the Samaritan woman and her neighbors that were about to experience salvation (in an Old Covenant way), and He was calling them a "harvest". He looked beyond their ethnicity and viewed them spiritually, as God sees them - the harvest! We are to stop overlooking people (ignoring them as though we didn't know they were there) and we are certainly to stop "underlooking" people or looking at them as something less than they are.
Exodus 2:11 - "And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and LOOKED on their burdens..."
Yes, Moses was willing to look and willing to get involved...but only with his own view and his own feelings. His well-intentioned efforts ended up in murder and him running for his life. God then had to hide him away for 40 years in order to show him the bigger picture - how GOD saw things, how GOD felt about them and what GOD intended to do. God saw more than just one Hebrew being abused. He saw a nation that needed to answer their calling, as well as other nations (Egypt and the nations of Canaan) that needed to answer for their idolatry. Moses' passion was not deep enough or wide enough to cover these other parts of the whole. With God, it is always bigger than just the immediate need in the particular individual in front of us! As Moses took on God's will in his fresh "look" at the situation (Exodus 3), then and only then was Moses ready to have divine power!
So where's the power? Its all in the look!
Luke 7:13,14 - "And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her...and he said...'Arise'"
John 4:35 - "Look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest."
If I have heard it once, I have heard it a thousand times - "Where's the power of God today". Believers all over the country are flocking to seminars and conferences on how to retrieve the old-time power back in our churches and ministries. Dozens of formulas have been presented that explain the loss of power as a lack of faith, a lack of prayer or maybe a lack of praise and worship. Then, upon getting these areas back on track, healing and delivering power are guaranteed to come back into your hands when you touch the sick.
However, according to the above Scriptures, the reason for the absence of power is not just a lack of faith or a lack of prayer but a LACK OF CARE! It was compassion that proceeded the above mentioned miracles - enough compassion, in fact, to MOVE the Lord! THE POWER IN HIS HANDS STARTED WITH THE BREAKING OF HIS HEART! I'm not so sure if many would come to a seminar for power today if they knew that they would have to "hurt" before they could "help"!
Sometimes, we have to use several extension cords to connect a power source to a power need. In these two accounts in Matthew and Luke, there were TWO cords from the One who had the power to the one who had the need...and this second cord of heart-moving compassion for many today in our fast-paced culture has come unplugged! We don't really mind praying for the sick - we just don't want to get so involved!
And the first cord before compassion is simply "LOOK"! I think that cord has not only been unplugged but wrapped up and hidden somewhere! Oh how quickly we change the TV channel when the hungry-children commercials come on! We dare not tarry and LOOK at someone troubled in a hospital waiting room, lest we become moved and get involved! But Jesus LOOKED! He opened His eyes and His heart to the full intensity of the need in front of Him.
In John's Gospel, Jesus tells us to look at something else...the harvest. He was actually talking about the Samaritan woman and her neighbors that were about to experience salvation (in an Old Covenant way), and He was calling them a "harvest". He looked beyond their ethnicity and viewed them spiritually, as God sees them - the harvest! We are to stop overlooking people (ignoring them as though we didn't know they were there) and we are certainly to stop "underlooking" people or looking at them as something less than they are.
Exodus 2:11 - "And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and LOOKED on their burdens..."
Yes, Moses was willing to look and willing to get involved...but only with his own view and his own feelings. His well-intentioned efforts ended up in murder and him running for his life. God then had to hide him away for 40 years in order to show him the bigger picture - how GOD saw things, how GOD felt about them and what GOD intended to do. God saw more than just one Hebrew being abused. He saw a nation that needed to answer their calling, as well as other nations (Egypt and the nations of Canaan) that needed to answer for their idolatry. Moses' passion was not deep enough or wide enough to cover these other parts of the whole. With God, it is always bigger than just the immediate need in the particular individual in front of us! As Moses took on God's will in his fresh "look" at the situation (Exodus 3), then and only then was Moses ready to have divine power!
So where's the power? Its all in the look!
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