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Archive for April 2012

Apr/12

30

The Promises of God Pt 4

Jer 6:30

Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them. (KJV)

We are continuing to look at areas of false belief about God that prevent us from fully trusting Him. False belief No 1 was anger. Let’s continue today with:

False Belief No 2Rejection

Under the O.C. if God’s people rebelled, sinned or made mistakes, there would come a point where God would reject His people, refuse to answer their prayers (go silent) or withdraw His presence from them. Ex: King Saul . On numerous occasions he failed to obey God’s directives. There came a point where God told him He would lift his anointing for Kingship off him and put it upon someone who would obey him, namely David (1 Sam 16:13,14).

Unfortunately many teachers and preachers still apply this O.C. principle to the Gospel of the N.C. They teach that there are times God will withdraw from us to teach us a lesson, that if we have unconfessed sin He won’t listen to our prayers, that we must sometimes go through a wilderness experience of dryness to make us call out to God until He restores the sense of His presence to our lives because it develops our intimacy with Him.

Question: In all honesty, does that sound like the Gospel of good news.

I would say it’s the Gospel of bad news. It’s the Gospel of law, not the Gospel of grace! This Gospel of law, destroys people’s lives. It burdens them down with judgement, condemnation and guilt. They feel rejected by God, kept at arms length and given the silent treatment.

This kind of behaviour is the way a dysfunctional Father would treat His children, and most of us have had a dose of such mistreatment!

NO – The Gospel of grace teaches the total, and I mean, total acceptance of God, irrespective of our behaviour. The Gospel of grace isn’t what we have to do for God, it’s what God has done for us.

Let’s look at some verses that teach this:

Heb 13:5 For He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]  AMP


John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever —  AMP

Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.  NKJV

Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)

I implore you to meditate on the above Scriptures. Soak yourself in them and ask God to give you a revelation of His total acceptance.

When we came to Christ, God made us righteous (2 Cor 5:21) He forgave all our sin, past, present and future (1 Jn 2:2). It’s like standing beneath a fountain of His blood which is forever flowing. Whenever we sin, immediately, the blood cleanses, (not covers) cleanses it away, leaving us righteous, perfect and acceptable in His sight.

This is the Gospel of grace that sets us free. To listen to some people, we must be a good boy or girl and completely obedient to God’s Word in order to qualify for His grace.

No, a thousand times NO. God gives His grace to naughty boys and girls, He gives it to those who have sinned, failed and fallen short. That’s why God says to us in Heb 4:16 Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].  (AMP)

When we fail, we must run to God, not run away from God. This is the beauty and profundity (great depth) of God’s grace. This is what sets us free and keeps us free, that we may enjoy a life of righteousness, peace and joy.

Meditation Point: Lord Jesus – open the eyes of my spirit to see the truth of your word. That grace meets every need of man, covers all unforeseen failures and makes us forever acceptable before the Father. Oh! what a wonderful Saviour you are!

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Apr/12

23

The Promises of God Pt 3

Learning Trust

Prov 3:5 Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.  (AMP)

In my last Blog I said we would be looking at how to live out the promises of God. As I’ve thought about it, I realised that we must first be absolutely sure that we can trust Him. We must remove as many obstacles as possible that stand in the way of this trust. Therefore I want to look at trust from the angle of God being our Father, and we, His sons.

Many of us struggle to trust God because our earthly fathers were less than perfect in  their love and training us in the right ways. We must not condemn or judge them for this. They acted out of the light they had received from their fathers. We are now ‘new creations’ (2 Cor 5:17) and  have broken the sinful generational line and started a new one. Our fathers may have failed us, but now we are in Christ we can make the necessary changes for ourselves, and our children.

When we became ‘born again’ we took the idenikit picture we had of our earthly father and superimposed it onto our heavenly Father. Subsequently, we relate to our heavenly Father in the same way we relate to our earthly father. Therefore, if our earthly father rejected us when we did wrong or made a mistake, we expect our heavenly Father to reject us and thus break the tie of trust.

Our heavenly Father is a ‘perfect’ father, so let’s stand back and compare him with our earthly father:

1) ANGER – If our father disciplined us out of anger and said or did wrong things, it will leave a wound that needs healing. Prov 22:8
tells us that, ‘the rod of his anger will fail.’  (NKJV). Hence, his dysfunctional anger came to nothing and left a broken trust.

Under the O.C. (Old Covenant) God as Father was ‘slow to anger’ when Israel failed or disobeyed Him. But if they persistently broke His laws, His anger would break out in great wrath and the death of many of His people would follow, or, He would eject them from the land to serve as slaves to a foreign nation (Num 14:36,37.  Jer 25:11)

But under the N.C. (New Covenant) we find a reversal of God’s behaviour. On the cross Jesus exhausted all of God’s anger and wrath against the sin of the whole world, past, present and future. Praise the Lord! No matter our weaknesses, sins or failures, God is no longer angry with us. In fact, He promised that under the N.C. of grace, He would no longer remember our sins (Heb 8:12) The word ‘no’ in the Greek is a double negative strengthening the declaration.

Instead, when we fall short, God’s new declaration to us, is, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:15,16. NKJV)

First, God’s mercy has forgiven our sin, and secondly, His grace gives us the help we need at such times. Boldness is the opposite of fear. We no longer need to fear an outbreak of God’s anger and can come boldly and confidently to Him for help.

This one fact alone will strengthen our trust in our heavenly Father.

Meditation Point: Thank you Father that you no longer become angry with me when I fall short. I love to come boldly to You at such times, knowing You will give me the help I need.

Ps 107:8 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!  (NKJV)





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Apr/12

16

The Promises of God Pt 2

Molten Metal

Ps 12:6  The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.  (NKJV)

The Scripture above says that God’s words have been tested like silver in a furnace of fire, 7 times. When a metal-smith was melting silver, the pressure produced by the fire would force the impurities to the surface, where they would be skimmed off. The No7 symbolises perfection. He would keep exposing the silver to the fire as many times as needed until all the impurities were skimmed off and it was perfectly pure.The metal-smith would know when it was pure when he could see the reflection of his face in the surface of the silver. Then and only then would he turn off the heat.

He now had pure silver. God’s word like silver, is pure through and through.

When we look at the words of people, we see they have elements in them of impurity:  lies, anger, control, duplicity, resentment, betrayal, judgement, condemnation, accusation, manipulation etc. These kind of words always break down under scrutiny.

On the contrary, God’s words,  have elements in them of purity:  truth, affirmation, redemption, hope,strength,  light, encouragement. These words always stand the test of scrutiny.

Conclusion: Man’s word cannot be fully trusted – God’s word can be fully trusted.

Scripture also shows us that silver was used as currency in the Hebrew culture, and that silver is symbolic of redemption or the price of a person. Joseph was sold into slavery for 20 pieces of silver (Gen 37:28) Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Mt 26:15).

The word’redeem’ (ransom) was a sum of money paid to release a prisoner from captivity. Jesus redeemed us from the slave-market of sin by His precious blood.

1 Peter 1:18-19 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish. (NIV)

God’s word is not only pure, it is redemptive. Therefore, God’s promises are pure, they can always be trusted and are always redemptive in our lives.

In my next Blog we will look at how to employ the promsies of God in our lives.

Meditation Point: God’s words are pure words and can be completely trusted.


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Apr/12

2

The Promises of God Pt 1

CAN (pun) I TRUST?

Ps 12:6

God’s words are pure words, Pure silver words refined seven times In the fires of his word-kiln, Pure on earth as well as in heaven.  (THE MESSAGE)
Before we get into the subject of God’s promises. We must look at society. When we do, we find that most Christians have been raised in a culture of broken trust.

Politics, business, Media, Family and Church life have been permeated with broken trust. Let’s take Politics as an example: When George Bush Sr was running for the Presidency of America in 1988, he promised the American people, he would ‘not raise taxes.’ 3 times in his speech to the Republican National Convention, He said, “The congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say NO.” This became a famous phrase, and most people believe it helped him win the Presidency.

However, when he came to power, he was forced to raise taxes. Bush’s broken promise added greatly to the prevailing view among common people: ‘Politicians cannot be trusted. The say one thing and do another.’

This atmosphere of broken promises has also infiltrated the Church to an alarming degree. Believers say one thing and do another. This is because we’ve allowed ourselves to become affected by the spirit of the world.

Rom 12:2 Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within. (J.B. Phillips N.T.)

When parents make promises to each other and subsequently break them, their children will mimic and copy their parents behaviour. They too will grow up with a broken promise mindset. Not only that, they will think it is normal behaviour because their parents did the same thing. It then becomes a generational issue.

Families are not only the building block of society, they are the building block of the Church. Therefore, it is the role of Church leaders to model trust. This trust will influence the parents, who in turn will influence their children.

The anointing is poured upon the head first, then flows down to the body.

Ps 133:1-2 Look! How good and how pleasant it is when brothers live together!  It is like fine oil poured on the head which flows down the beard – Aaron’s beard, and then flows down his garments. (NET)

Here we have divine order: Church leaders, Parent leaders, children. When it is pointed out that the key change agent in Church are the leaders themselves, many will scoff and say it involves more than leaders changing. So let’s look at some Scripture:

Eph 4:15-16 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (NIV)

Col 2:18-19 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. (NIV)

Many leaders grumble that their congregations are not growing numerically or spiritually. The above Scriptures hold the key – it is they who have to change first, not their congregants!

In my next Blog we will see why we can trust God 100%.

Meditation Point: Jesus, I ask you to change me from the inside out and teach me how to trust in and stand upon your promises.



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