Moving From Bondage (Slaves) to Freedom (Sons) – Part 3 – Forcing Faith to Grow!

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Yesterday we started talking about the reasons God calls us to the desert.  The tests come in the desert because God wants to bring about change.  He wants us to know what is on our heart.  Another reason God tests our faith is because He knows the best way to cause faith to grow is to put it under pressure.

Evidently, God sees the quality of faith as being more important than the quantity of blessings in our lives. God loves to bless us, but he values faith more than fortune.

 

  • How could faith grow if we never had to wait on God?  
  • How would we ever learn to trust him if he met our needs before we realized that we had a need?

 

I love reading about the “faith exploits” of great men and men who walked with God.  It excites and motivates me.  The truth is though, we only learn about real faith when we have to exercise it. We would never learn how to trust God if every prayer was answered immediately and in obvious ways. This is not exercising faith muscles.

If we never tasted failure and only had successes, how would we learn and grow?

 

 Fred Astaire was one of the greatest entertainers of all time. He could sing, dance and act like no one else. In his famous movies like Top Hat and Swinging Time, he danced and crooned his way into people’s hearts all over the world.

But when Astaire was just starting out in 1932, a Hollywood talent judge wrote on his screen test: “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Can dance a little.”  But that review did not defeat him. It was a test of his determination.

 

We have all heard stories like this…people who persevered beyond all hope.

You will face many times in your life when others tell you what you can’t do. They will say that it can’t be done, even with God in the picture. They will discourage you and tell you that you are dreaming to wait on God and trust him. They will make you think that you can’t live by faith.

But it is only a test to see if you will be defeated or determined — whether you will have fear or faith. This is the real test that causes faith to grow.

 

 

God knows best!  He is not trying to hurt you.  God loves you and seeks to promote growth and maturity in your life.  He has your best interest at heart.  His timing is always best, even though when the tests come, we believe it is absolutely the worst time ever.

 

Last week bad storms were rolling through our area.  The truth is I really don’t like experiencing tornadoes in January.  Anyway, these were happening at night.  Around midnight we were under a tornado warning.  At midnight the Emergency Broadcast System thought it was a good time to issue a “test” of the Emergency Broadcast System.  Wow!  It couldn’t have been a worse time for a test of the EMS.  Hopefully the system was working correctly!  The time for testing needed to be complete. 

 

Listen, real storms eventually hit us all.  God knows the day will come when you will need real faith for real problems.  He prepares us early and often to be able to handle all scenarios.  Let Him have his way today, while it is still today.  He loves you and is seeking to bring growth.  The only question is will you participate fully in His process.

 

Blessings,

Pastor  

Moving From Bondage (Slaves) to Freedom (Sons) – Part 2 – What’s Inside Matters Most

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

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When God moves us from bondage to freedom, He leads us to the desert.  He gives us words and promises to hold on to while He works out all the details for our freedom.  We view these times as tests.  But a test is never just a test.  God doesn’t like tests anymore than we do.  It is about change.  God wants to move us from slaves to sons and daughters.  Lets look at the purpose of these desert testings.

 

 

 

Tests of Faith: Reveal What Is Inside Us.

 

The Testing of Our Faith Brings Out the Best or the Worst in Us — Sometimes Both.

 

The Hebrew children failed their test time after time. They grumbled, whined, and complained. They accused God of wrongdoing. They failed to follow God and love Him.

More than once they rebelled against the leadership of Moses and were ready to kill him and choose another leader. While Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments the congregation was worshiping the gods of Egypt and casting off every moral restraint.

When it came time to enter the land of promise, they refused to go because it appeared too difficult and dangerous.   Once again they forgot the presence, provision, and power of God. It didn’t matter that He had proved Himself over and over.

But these SAME tests brought out the best in men like Joshua and Caleb.  They had gone to spy out the same land the Lord had promised.  They personally saw the same dangers and said, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us” (Numbers 14:7-8).

It brought out the best and the worst in Moses. He kept loving God and loving the people in spite of the hard times. At one point, when God was about to destroy the people because of their rebellion, Moses said to the Lord, “But now, please forgive their sin — but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written” (Exodus 32:32).

On another occasion when the people complained about being thirsty Moses prayed that the Lord would give them water. But when they kept on complaining, Moses became so angry that he pounded on the rock with his staff in frustration, losing his temper…instead of speaking to the rock in obedience.

This act of rage kept him from entering the land of promise.  God was teaching Moses lessons of faith and obedience which were more important than entering the promised land.

So the question should be asked of us personally, “Have we passed the test and do we know the true condition of our heart?”  Passing the test is one issue.  Having the Lord cut away all the fleshly desires from our heart is another.  The quicker we allow the Lord to do His work in us, the quicker we can move along to entering into His rest!

 

 

For Some People these Tests Seem More Like Teasing than Testing.

 

This is especially true in our culture.  We want all the blessings of God and we want them now. We are truly a culture of short-cuts and convenience. Perseverance is not our forte.

But God is not playing or teasing.  We have to learn that life is more than receiving blessings — even if they are blessings God has promised to us. Learning to trust God is more important than any gift He could ever give us.

 

Someone has said, “Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward.”

 

The question always remains – will our testings, trials, and circumstances bring out the best or the worst in us?

 A tall young Army officer watched the clock nervously. In just a few minutes he would see the woman who had gotten his name and written to him for the past year and a half — although they had never met. Lt. Blandford had confessed to her in one of his letters that often he felt fear. Only a few days before his next battle, he had received a letter from her which said: “Of course you fear… all brave men do. Next time you doubt yourself, I want you to hear my voice reciting to you: ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me.’”

Those words strengthened him for his next battle, and now he was actually going to hear the voice of the woman who had written those words. At four minutes to six a girl passed close to him, and Lt. Blandford’s heart jumped. She was wearing a flower, but it was not the little red rose they had agreed upon. She had refused his request to send him her photograph. She wrote: “If your feelings for me were real, what I look like won’t matter.”

It was one minute to six and once more his heart gave him a start. A young woman was coming toward him. Her figure was long and slim; her blond hair lay back in curls from delicate ears. Her eyes were blue as flowers, her lips and chin had a gentle firmness. In her pale-green suit, she was like springtime come alive. He started toward her, not noticing that she was not wearing a rose. As she moved past, she gave a small provocative smile. “Going my way, soldier?” she murmured.

Then he saw another woman — one wearing a red rose. She was walking directly behind the girl in the green suit, a woman well past 40. Her graying hair was tucked under a worn hat. She was plump, and her red rose was pinned to a rumpled coat. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. Blandford felt exceedingly drawn to the smiling girl, but he had a great longing for the woman whose spirit had touched him so deeply. She was now standing before him, and he could see that though her face was plain and pale, it was gentle and sensible. Her gray eyes exuded warmth. Lt. Blandford greeted her warmly.

He said to himself that this may not be the love of his life, but it would be a very special friendship. “I’m Lt. Blandford,” he said. “And you’re Miss Maynell. I’m so glad you could meet me. May I take you to dinner?” The woman looked at him with a questioning smile and said, “I don’t know what this is all about, son, but that young lady in the green suit, begged me to wear this rose on my coat. She told me that if you asked me to go out with you, I should tell you she’s waiting for you in that restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test.”

 

God is testing the quality of our love and devotion. He wants to see what is inside — whether we are real or false. Whatever is inside will come out in the test. It will bring out the best in us or the worst in us, and what comes out will determine whether or not we pass the test.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

Moving From Bondage (Slaves) to Freedom (Sons) – Part 1

30 Monday Jan 2012

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Our journey into the Promised Land continues with a discussion today regarding the dilemma most people find themselves in when they choose freedom over bondage.

         Back in 1997, USA Today reported that the Department of Transportation set aside $200 million for research and testing of an Automated Highway System. The idea was that engineers could relieve traffic congestion with a new “super cruise control” built into our highways.  In cities facing heavy traffic congestion special magnets would be embedded in the road every four feet which would transfer signals between the cars and the D.O.T.’s computer system. Everything from steering, acceleration, and braking would be controlled by sensors, computer navigation systems, and cameras along the side of the road. Control would be returned to drivers as they left at specified exits.  Researchers and government officials claimed they had the capability to address any potential technological problem. But there was one problem they could not overcome.  Mike Doble, Buick technology manager says, “The only thing we can’t do yet is get people to comfortably trust the system. It’s not a technology issue.  People feel out of control while driving closely spaced, at high speeds, through major cities. The problem is not technology, the problem is trust — very few people would be willing to give up that kind of control.”

 

The Human Dilemma –

This is the human dilemma, is it not? Giving up control. Trusting something that you are not in control of, even if that something is better at control than you are.

This was the situation the people of Israel faced. God asked them to give Him control and they weren’t sure they wanted to.

Think about what had happened to them in less than six months. One day they were slaves in Egypt. They were beaten regularly and worked unmercifully from sunup to sunset. The Egyptians were killing every male child that was born.  The Hebrews were huddled in their miserable little squalor huts.

Suddenly a man named Moses appeared and said that God was going to deliver them.  The Bible records “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them” (Exodus 2:24-25).

Now, almost on a daily basis, they began to see the miraculous power of God working for their deliverance. He fought for them and delivered them. The plagues which were devastating the Egyptians didn’t affect them at all.

Finally, the Lord led them to the Red Sea. But as they looked at the watery barrier before them they turned to see the Egyptian army in pursuit. They were filled with fear and began to cry out to God. Just then, then waters miraculously parted and they were again on their journey toward the promised land, while Pharaoh’s threatening army was destroyed in the retreating waters.  When they arrived on the other side, God miraculously provided them with bread and meat, as well as all their other needs.

 

What Should Have Been Enough Wasn’t Enough –

It should have been enough to convince anyone that God was with them and was able to provide. After all, his presence was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.  But they were only a few miles out of Egypt before they started complaining. They grumbled to Moses, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” (Exodus 17:3).  It was as though they had forgotten all that God had done for them and the amazing power he had displayed on their behalf. Moses cried out to God saying, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me” (Exodus 17:4).

 

Believe It Or Not, The Miraculous Doesn’t Improve Faith –

The Lord answered Moses saying, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will come out of it for the people to drink.”  Then the Bible says, “So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’” (Exodus 17:5-7).

What an incredible accusation! How much evidence did they need to realize the Lord was with them?

So the next time someone says to you, “If there really is a God, why doesn’t He show himself? If He exists, why doesn’t he do some miracle so that everyone will see it and have to believe in him?”

You could tell them that He has already done this and it didn’t work. He demonstrated His love and showed them His mighty power. He was visibly present with them and spoke to them out of heaven, and it didn’t matter.  They still did not believe and their hearts were still full of rebellion. By the way, the same thing was true in the New Testament. God came in visible form in the person of Jesus. He told them He loved them and demonstrated that love with blessings and miracles.  He also powerfully provided food and healings.  Not only did they not believe in him, they killed him.

There is a way to increase your level of faith and learn to trust the Lord more deeply.  But it is not found in seeing more evidence of God’s movements with your eyes.

 Faith increases as we purposefully enter into the desert with the Lord and learn to trust Him.  What was true for the Hebrews is true for all of us today.

God works in a predictable pattern:

  • First, He makes a promise to us.
  • Second, He tests our faith — our ability to believe the promise.
  • Third, He watches for our obedience — our ability to walk in the light of that promise. Fourth, He grants His blessing — the fulfillment of the promise.

As we walk through this process over and over, our faith grows towards the Lord and we become more and more like Him.

This is what the Lord did with Noah. He made a promise. He tested Noah to see if he would believe what He told him, even though the flood did not come for many years. Then He watched for Noah’s obedience, and when He saw Noah’s obedience He gave him the blessing of a brand new world.

God did the same with Abraham. The promise of a son was given. Then the Lord waited to see if Abraham would believe the promise in spite of a long delay. He watched for Abraham’s obedience and finally rewarded him with the son of promise.

This is how God will work with you. He reassures you with a promise of hope for the future. But the promise is sometimes delayed and it may look like it will never happen. God is testing your faith. He watches for obedience, and when you have learned to trust him, He grants the promised blessing.

We will talk more about the testing process tomorrow.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

 

George Meuller Quotes on Faith

27 Friday Jan 2012

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“The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.”   – George Meuller

 

 

“Our walk counts far more than our talk, always!”  – George Meuller

 

 

“If the Lord fails me at this time, it will be the first time.”  – George Meuller

 

 

“To learn strong faith is to endure great trials. I have learned my faith by standing firm amid severe testings.”  – George Meuller

 

 

“If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried, and therefore, through trial, be strengthened.”  – George Meuller

 

 

 

 

 

“Be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him, and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.”  – George Meuller

 

 

“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.”  – George Meuller

 

“Faith has nothing to do with feelings or with impressions, with improbabilities or with outward experiences. If we desire to couple such things with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God, because faith needs nothing of the kind. Faith rests on the naked Word of God. When we take Him at His Word, the heart is at peace.”  – George Meuller

 

 

“God delights to increase the faith of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hands as a means. Trials, obstacles, difficulties and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith.”  – George Meuller

 

 

“I have joyfully dedicated my whole life to the object of exemplifying how much may be accomplished by prayer and faith.”  – George Meuller

 

 

“The province of faith begins where probabilities cease and sight and sense fail.”  – George Meuller

 

 

 

“Ponder these words of the Lord Jesus, “”Only believe.””  – George Meuller

 

 

 

Blessings,

 

Pastor

 

 

 

The Sounds of Silence!

26 Thursday Jan 2012

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What is the final test of greatness as judged by the world? 

  •  It is not how we lived in ease or comfort.
  • It is what is done in the hour of adversity, in the hour of suffering, in the moment of persecution, in the instance of difficulty.

 

Someone once said, “Common circumstances create common men. Extraordinary circumstances create men who have iron in their soul.”

 

Little souls are dismayed by difficulties, great souls are awakened by them. Difficulties awaken their courage, stimulate their activities, and marshal their faculties for battle.

God’s greatest men did not just happen. It came in the long, tearful nights, it came beneath the weight of some burden, and it came at the height of the great resistance to their soul. Character was forged in the heat of the furnace.

 

Application For Our Own Journey into the Promised Land

 

I think that sometime or another we all get in a hurry to reach the Promised Land, because we become greatly excited about the prospect of being in God’s perfect will and inheriting the Lord’s blessings.

The real problem for most is we usually don’t arrive at the place of our vision or dream immediately. We have to (endure) wait on God’s timing.

In these times of relative calm, God  is sometimes quiet.  It is not because he has abandoned us, but because He is in the process of preparing us and preparing our pathway for what lies ahead.

 

When Moses was on the mountain it was because God was providing his people with the law, and the law was given in order that the people could prosper.  In Deuteronomy 30:16 God tells us,

“I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgements, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.”

 

HERE IS THE POINT:

The thing is, we usually don’t realize that those times of silence are the times when God is either preparing us or opening some doors for us.  We tend to get frustrated because we are not hearing from God.

When we don’t hear from the Lord, what do we usually wind up doing? We start taking matters into our own hands.  When we take our eyes off of God, we then begin to devote our attention and our effort to something else – something which we have created – and that is considered to be idolatry.

Even if it is something that is done in the name of the Lord, if God has not sanctioned it, then it can become an idol.

 

 One of the greatest errors that we make is to allow the dream to become bigger than the Dream Giver (the title of Bruce Wilkinson’s book). When God says, “Wait,” we tend to say, “Let’s go!”

 

And when our dream becomes our idol we attempt to open doors that God has sealed shut, and it will be like we are beating our head against a wall.

One of the greatest tests of our faith, in which God will test us to see if we fully trust him is during those times of silence.  We know that God uses silence in order to test us, for in reference to King Hezekiah, we read in 2 Chronicles 32:31,

 

“God withdrew from him in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.”

 

In Jeremiah 17:10 we read this:

“I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”

 

Those times of silence very well might be the time that God is using to prepare the way for us, but they can also be tests of our faithfulness to worship God alone, and for us to prove that God is the only thing of which we have need.

 

When God is silent we might feel that He is trying to take away our dream, but as George Mueller said,

“Our heavenly Father never takes anything from his children unless he means to give them something better.”

If, when we do not hear from the Lord, we focus only on God and refuse to strive after the dream, then the Lord will bring our big dream to pass.

 

IRONIC –

At that moment, the very Godhead was focused on Israel’s present needs and their future blessings. Yet, while the Lord was arranging everything for their benefit and inheritance, the people were crying,

“Where is God? Where is His direction? We see no evidence of His faithfulness. There is only silence. What kind of God would leave us alone and afraid, without a word? Enough of this waiting — enough of silence and delays. Let’s take action. Let’s do something!“

 

So Israel deliberately put out of their minds all the miraculous things God had done for them. They forgot the supernatural plagues He had sent on Egypt. They forgot the Red Sea miracle. They forgot the sweetened waters of Marah and the angel’s food He had given them each morning. Not even the thundering voice at Sinai mattered to them anymore. All that mattered was they were in need and heard only silence.

 

 

They were under the spell of unbelief! Nothing could shake these people from their conviction that God was no longer with them. The only thing they cared about was satisfying their inner craving for action!

 

The Bible says these people literally ripped off their earrings, so Aaron could begin shaping the idol:

“And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron” (Exodus 32:2).

 

I can almost hear their excited cry as the calf took shape: “Now we’re getting someplace!”

 “And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)…” (Exodus 32:25).

 

The Hebrew word used here for naked is “para,” meaning, “to loosen up, expose, dismiss all restraint.” It also infers “a new beginning.” The Israelites were saying,

“Things are not happening as they should. We’re tired of this battle, tired of waiting on God. And now we’re going to enjoy ourselves. Out with the old! We want new freedom, a new start – and we want it now!”

 

Nakedness in the Bible also has to do with not having one’s shield. Every man who didn’t have his shield was considered naked. These Israelites were literally naked — stripped down and dancing before the golden calf.  They also had layed down their armor.

 

Can you imagine their enemies, the Amalekites, looking down on this wild scene from the surrounding mountains? These Amalekites once trembled at the very sight of Israel. God had put a dread in their hearts toward His people, so that they could never let down their guard.

But now they saw Israel taking off their armor and stripping off their garments. And the Amalekites were mocking and laughing at them!

“Look at them — they’re just like us! Their God has no power. They don’t trust Him. See? They’re throwing off all their strict ways! They want to lust and party and play just like the rest of us. Some holiness! What hypocrisy!”

 

In that one act of nakedness, Israel belittled their God in the eyes of the ungodly! They made the Lord seem heartless, cruel, uncaring, helpless. They besmirched His honor, His majesty, His omnipotence. They were no longer an example to the world.

 

 

And that is exactly what we do when we strip off our robes of faith and let go of our confidence in God!  Without childlike trust in God, a Christian stands naked before the world — exposed to all doubts, fears, and unbelief!

God Has a Special Plan for You, and He Is Working Out Every Detail — But You Can Jeopardize it!  People do determine greatness by noting what we do in distressing circumstances.  They also note how great our God is by how we respond to difficult times.

How are you responding to life’s circumstances?

 

Blessings,

Pastor

 

 

Lessons From The Golden Calf

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

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After Aaron bowed to peer pressure, he called for all the gold within the camp. The blessing of gold God gave the Israelites as they left Egypt had now become a curse.  A raging fire was built and Aaron began to craft the gold to form a calf. He shaped it quickly without much difficulty.

There are many lessons that we can learn from the making of this golden calf.  I just want to mention two.

 

 

 

– The Easiness of Sin –

 

The material was poured into a mold and shaped without any trouble. It required no originality or effort of thought.   All that was needed was a faded memory of how the calf looked in Egypt. It came so natural, so easy.

This is the way sin operates in the lives of men. It’s modus operandi is so subtle in its approach and how it just fits men’s appetites.

 

 Do you remember Samson?  He was a he-man with a she-problem.  Samson convinced himself that it was not really a sin to go down and date the Philistines girls. You know how attractive the girls can be across the border.  Maybe he thought he could do some “missionary dating.”   Because he failed to deal with his sin issues, it eventually cost him his ministry to his own people.  Sin easily led him to Delilah.  She led him to confessing his secrets.  Once his secrets were known, he lost his sight and was imprisoned in a heathen temple.

 

Samson didn’t wake up one day thinking, “I want to be a bald, blind slave serving the Philistine gods.”  No, it took some time.  Eventually sin caused Samson to conform as it does everyone who fails to go to battle against it.  This is why Romans 12:2 reminds us:

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

 

Sin is easy.  You don’t even have to work at becoming a better sinner.  All of us are on course for sin to run rampant in our lives unless we make other plans.

No one has ever been to a seminar on:

  • How to Be a Better Liar
  • How to Cheat Your Boss or Customers
  • How to Hold a Grudge
  • How to Destroy Things with Anger
  • How to Sin More Effectively
  • The Benefits of Corruption
  • The Essence of Immorality

 

Without attending any of these seminars, most of us know something about how they work.  Why?  Sin is easy and unless we allow the Lord to conform us into something different, we will be molded into the world’s sinful form.

 

 

– Idols Require Little Imagination –

 

The idol maker infuses as little of himself as possible into the making of the idol. He is not an artist.  He is just a mechanic or tool.  The goal is to creat something divine, something beyond ourselves.  Somewhere the idol maker believes a god is just waiting to be born.

 

 

 Hideyoshi, a Japanese warlord who ruled over Japan in the late 1500’s, commissioned a colossal statue of Buddha for a shrine in Kyoto. It took 50,000 men five years to build, but the work had scarcely been completed when the earthquake of 1596 brought the roof of the shrine crashing down and wrecked the statue. In a fit of rage Hideyoshi shot an arrow at the fallen statue, and then he shouted, “I put you here at great expense, and you can’t even look after your own temple.”

The idol in our story was made in a day.  It required little thought or imagination.  The gold was mixed with other alloys, put in a mold and cast.  Shazzam!  The refugees from Egypt had a new god to serve…one they could now see, believe, approach, and worship.

Their idol became everything they thought God wasn’t.  Wow!  Most of our idols work this way.  Sin causes us to create idols after our own fleshly desires.

Hey, have you failed to place your sin and idols upon the altar of the Lord?  Have your unbridled sins become an idol of your own desires?  It is time we become honest with ourselves and allow the Lord to identify and cleanse every area of our lives.  Are you ready?

 

Blessings,

Pastor

 

Give Us God… Now!

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

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Part of our spiritual process requires we maintain our spiritual composure in the transitional times of our walk with the Lord.  These moments usually occur after significant spiritual battles.  It is then that the Lord pulls us aside for rest and refocusing.  The Children of Israel had seen God in action via the Ten Plagues and at the Red Sea.  Who really could ask for more of God’s activity?

 

 It is here at Mt. Sinai that God calls Moses to the mountain top for a transitional meeting on how He wants Israel to follow Him. (Exodus 19-31)

There will always be “transitioning times” in our lives where God speaks and God’s will becomes more clear.  We can call them Mountain Top Experiences.  We walk into the meeting believing God one way and exit believing God on a new level.  It is God’s revelation of Himself that changes what we believe.

 

Moses Goes to the Mountain – Exodus 19

 

From Exodus 19 we find that Moses goes up into the mountain for a meeting with God. Thunder and lightning, thick clouds, and a voice that was as loud as a great trumpet.  The ground trembled and shook. It was at this time God gave Moses the intricate details of the Law.

 

 

But Moses Doesn’t Come Down

 

   “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount,… we don’t know what is become of him.” (Exodus 32:1)

 

 

Idolatry is not spiritual ignorance but a willful turning away from spiritual knowledge and worship of God. The people began to question all sorts of things about Moses, their spiritual leader.

  • Moses is dead.
  • Moses has left us all alone out here.  
  • Moses has conspired with the Egyptians.
  • Moses has left us here to die. 
  • Moses’ God has left us and is not speaking!

 

These types of questions led to the people clamoring and that clamoring led to active idolatry.  Men are often so impatient with the movement or lack of movement of God in their lives.  This cry quickly rose to Aaron’s ears.  The people demanded…Give us a god, now!

 

 

Aaron, that fearless man, who had…

  • walked in the courts of Pharaoh;
  • warned Pharaoh of the plagues to come;
  • had been the voice for Moses;
  • been called a saint of God; and 
  • once obeyed the will of God without argument, now listened to the people.

The troubling issue here was that he led them in the way of destruction.  Aaron could not stand up to this type of peer pressure and began to buckle under the demands of the people.

 

None of us can be just half-way committed to our purpose. We must be wholly committed to God. When we step out of our boundaries and ask our spiritual leaders to step out of their boundaries, we create nothing but golden calves. The golden calves produced will not only damage our generation but the subsequent one as well. 

 

 

“A speedboat driver recently survived a racing accident. According to the driver, he had been at near top speeds when his boat veered slightly and hit a wave at a dangerous angle. The combined force of his speed and the size and angle of the wave sent the boat spinning rapidly into the air.  

He was thrown from his seat and propelled deeply into the water—so deep, he had no idea which direction led to the surface.  In order to survive he had to remain calm and wait for his life vest to begin pulling him up. Once he discovered which way was up, he could swim for the surface.”

 

Sometimes we find ourselves not knowing “which way is up.” When this happens, we are to remain calm, wait for God’s gentle tug to pull us in the proper direction.

Unfortunately, when the Israelites became confused about Moses they took actions into their own hands. They were unwilling to wait and allow God to gently nudge them in the right direction.

Yes, God was quiet longer than usual because He was giving Moses a big WORD.  The word took over 12-13 chapters in the Bible.  WOW!  Waiting over 40 days is actually a short time.

 

Instead of turning to God for a life vest, they turned to Aaron, Moses’ brother and said, “Look, make us some gods who can lead us. This man Moses, who brought us here from Egypt, has disappeared. We don’t know what has happened to him” (Exodus 32:1b – New Living Translation).

 

  • How do you respond in a crisis? 
  • Do you demand for God to show Himself immediately? 
  • Remember this crisis was self-created.  No enemy was threatening the people. 
  • What happens in your life when God delays?
  • Have you learned to wait for God’s gentle tug to reveal to you which direction to swim? 

If you have a tendency to fall apart when God delays…. You are going to be spiritually falling apart on most occasions.  There may be known occasions when God seemingly delays and there may be unknown reasons for God’s absence.  The point is many times God is quiet.  He still is Lord!

Someone once said, “It is better to die believing God than to go on living in unbelief!”  When we fall apart at the silence of God, it reveals our unbelief or lack of faith and belief in His plans.  Our reactions always reveal our real beliefs about the Lord!

 

Blessings,

 

Pastor

The Wilderness Experience (Part 4) – Habitating With God

23 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Our Journey Into The Promised Land

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I blogged last Friday the Wilderness Experience is about preparing us to walk in maturity.  In order to facilitate real growth in our life, the Lord also focuses upon improving our environment.

 

 

– The Wilderness Is About Habitation –

 

If you have ever looked through a college brochure you know that most colleges offer a long list of possible majors.   God’s Wilderness University offers them as well.  They are not very popular.  In fact, most try to avoid these majors altogether. But, if you really want to grow and are submitted to God’s process, then you will sign-up and be in attendance.

Moses is our example in this area because he had to major in the following four. If we follow in his footsteps, we will be required to do the same.

 

-Obscurity –

 

“When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.”  (Acts 7:21-22)

 

Moses was adopted and wouldn’t be raised in anonymity.   Pharaoh’s palace became his playground and the best educational system was at his disposal. He was trained in all the wisdom of Egypt, the greatest nation of the day.

Yet, through the providence of God, he spends forty of the best years of his life living in relative obscurity.  In obscurity the Lord “uncorked” what Moses had learned and he began to learn of the ways of the Lord.

Here is a man who by all rights should be leading the nation of Egypt.   Yet God couldn’t use Moses when he first came out of Egypt.  God could only use Moses after he spent years on the backside of the desert.  “Moses didn’t live at the end of the world but you could see it from there.”

 

    •  Have you ever felt like you were living in obscurity? 
    • Have you ever felt that no one would ever know about your talents or abilities? 
    • Moses’ talents and abilities were known and then promptly disposed. 

 

The truth is God can’t use anything we bring into His educational process.  He tells us time and time again to repent and rid our hearts and minds of the things of the world.  What we will not do by our own hand, the Lord can do through leading us to live in obscurity.

 

– Time –

 

Maybe a better word for this major is patience. God uses the element of time to speak to the issues of patience in our lives.

Moses spent forty years in the wilderness before he was even approached by God to be used. The bell never rang to end this class.  The Bible records that Moses was the “meekest” man on the planet.

I have never attended a “patience class” I thought was too short!  I have never begged for a little more.  I have screamed, “Lord, will this ever end?”

As you know, we live in a microwave society. We are used to getting what we want right away. There is very little in our world that trains us to wait and be patient. This is especially true when it comes to helping and serving others.

We both know that God’s lesson plans do not include one-hour cram sessions.  There are no “Klep” classes or short cuts.

A young man once approached Socrates to ask if the philosopher would teach him the gift of oratory. His request was then followed by an incessant stream of words until finally, Socrates placed his hand over the inquirer’s mouth and said, “Young man, I will have to charge you a double fee.”

 When the fellow asked why, Socrates replied, “I will have to teach you two sciences. First, how to hold your tongue, and then, how to use it.”  You cannot speak and learn at the same time.

 

 

  -Solitude –

 

Moses learned the importance of solitude during those forty years in the desert.  This is a major many others could use as well.

 

Many believers are actually afraid of being alone with God.  This type of solitude will induce God’s voice to come alive in our hearts.  Like the story above, solitude teaches us first to be quiet.   As someone once said, “Solitude is the beginning of all freedom.”

 

I have had many people speak to me about hearing too many voices.  This is an ever-increasing problem.  No one ever said to me “My mind is just too peaceful and quiet.”  The competing voices will only increase as time moves forward.  The desert quiet calls us to settle the competing voices and focus totally on the One voice.  Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they know Me.”  ( John 10:27)

 

 

– Discomfort –

 

Here is a major you will certainly not find in any college catalog. Can you imagine a major in discomfort? I wonder what the classes would be like if you had to enroll in discomfort. Maybe there would be activities like sleeping on the floor for a semester or being yelled at by your boss or professor.  How about living with no heat/air, water, or living with rodents.

I think Moses experienced most of these on a regular basis.  What could have been more uncomfortable than spending forty nomadic years in the desert without running water, air conditioning, or permanent shelter?

The fact is God has to often make us uncomfortable where we are so that we will move on to where He wants us to be.

 

During Superbowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway. In the movie Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years.  Looking like the haggard Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand.

When the lady comes to the door he explains that he survived 5 years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her. She gives a simple, “Thank you.”

But he is curious about what is in the package because he has been protecting it for years. He says, “If I may ask, what was in that package after all?”  She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, “Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds.”

The point is… God doesn’t want us to feel like a “castaway or cast off.”  God didn’t bring us to and through The Wilderness Experience to crush us into oblivion.  The time, obscurity, solitude, and discomfort are merely means by which God uses to mature us.

 

God is seeking to make us into Gold and Diamonds.  More specifically, The Father is conforming us to the image of His Son.  The heart of God wants us all to quickly graduate with HONORS. Like Jesus, God wants us to exit the Wilderness Experience having defeated Satan and full of the Holy Spirit! 

Blessings,

Pastor