The restoration of God's pattern of creation as seen in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 takes place in stages - in particular the Old Testament, the New Testament, the time of Jesus, the time of the apostles and the New Creation. This message deals with the Old Testament.
The Old Testament's attitude toward women and their role and relationship with men was a gigantic leap forward from that of the ancient world of Egypt, Babylon and Assyria. But it did not get back to God's creation order. For example, polygamy was accepted by God in the Old Testament. Abraham was a polygamist, so was king David and king Solomon. God's original pattern was monogamy which means being married to one wife. God never intended that a man has more than one wife. So the Old Testament was less than God's best because it fell short of God's original order.
Paradox of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2
The same paradox or ambiguity between Gen. 1 and Gen. 2 carried all the way through the Old Testament. On the one hand the responsibility of leadership was given to the men. But on the other hand the women were treated better in Israel than in the other nations of the ancient world.
The maleness of the Patriarchal Society
Throughout the Old Testament we have what we called the Patriarchal society, one which the male took responsibility and in which therefore inheritance was passed down through the male. So both the responsibility and the privilege were given to the men.
Right from the beginning God said, "(I Am) the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ...." (Exodus 3:15). He did not call Himself the God of Sarah, God of Rebekah, God of Rachel. God had tied Himself to the names of those three men. We called them the patriachs - because those three men began the people of God. And it was a male-led people of God. God is the God of the men. The 12 tribes of Israel were named after Jacob's 12 sons. There was not a single tribe named after Jacob's daughter. The whole maleness of the Old Testament society is very obvious.
Deborah, a prophetess and a Judge
There is a very interesting story in the Book of Judges (Judges 4). All the seven Judges raised up by God except Deborah were men. Not only Deborah was a woman; she was a prophetess as well. In fact from the beginning of the Old Testament to the New Testament the prophetic ministry was opened to woman. God often used women to speak to His people, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Examples are, Miriam, Moses' sister (Ex. 15:20), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14) and the four daughters of Philip (Acts 21:8, 9).
In the case of Deborah, she brought the Words of the Lord that danger was threatening the people of God. She called for a man named Barak to deploy troops for battle. But Barak refused to be a man and he replied Deborah, "If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go" (Judges 4:8, NKJV). He was abdicating his responsibility as a man to protect Deborah. God was so angry with Barak that He gave Deborah another prophecy (Verse 9) indicating that a woman would defeat God's enemy and the name of Barak would go down in history in disgrace!
Eldership in the Old Testament
Eldership in the Old Testament was the male responsibility for the people of God.
When Moses needed help to carry responsibilty for the 3 million people he brought out of Egypt he heeded his father-in-law's advice and selected "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness" (Ex. 18:21, 22) and apointed them as elders.
Many nations of the ancient world had queens - queen of Sheba for example (1 Kings 10). But Israel was never to have a queen because the king was to represent the divine side of the divine-human relationship (please read my previous messages). The king was the representative of God and so Israel could only have kings. The wives of the kings of Israel were never called queens.
God's special concern for widows and orphans
God has a special concern for widows and the fatherless and apparently He has no concern for widowers. He shows not just a concern for the bereaved but also a concern for those whose bereavement has robed them of a man. It is for those who do not have a man to provide for them and to protect them that God has a special concern. This includes the single ladies as well as the fatherless.
God seems to say to those He shows concern, "I make a promise - the the widows I will be a husband and to the fatherless child I will be a father". But He never says to the widower that He will be his wife.
A good example is the raising of a widow's son:
"And when He (Jesus) came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow" (Luke 7:12).
The widow was losing her only son and Jesus had compassion on her for the reason that that she was losing her man.
Similarly, Lazarus, whose sisters were Mary and Martha, was dead (John 11) and Jesus come to raise him up because these women were losing their man.
So Jesus was not haphazard in raising the dead. He was providing a man for those who are losing their man. It was all because of the Jewish background of Jesus and He understood what the Old Testament taught about the responsibility of men.
Women's place of honor and respect
There are a lot of Old Testament Scriptures about the patriarchs' wives. The three of them, Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel were so attractive to look at that when they went with their husbands to a foreign country, the husbands, in order to protect themselves, had to say the wives were their sisters. Abraham told a half lie to Abimelech that Sarah was his sister. He said this so as to save his own life (Gen. 20). What Abraham said however also a half truth because Sarah was his half-sister. Isaac did exactly the same with his wife Rebekah (Gen. 26:7).
The Scripture says that the patriarchs' wives were attractive to look at and attractive to live with. In fact these two qualities are picked up at the New Testament as models for Christian wives.
Solomon and his women
I thought solomon was the wisest man in the Old Testament but I do not believe it now. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines and most of them were foreign women who turned his heart to follow other gods (1 Kings 11:1 - 4). For this reason I will not say Solomon was wise. He broke God's Law and married outside the people of God. This Law is also repeated in the New Testament. If you are a Christian you cannot marry someone who is not a Christian.
Solomon had wisdom for everybody except for himself. He learned wisdom in a hard way - through all his women. You can read about his wisdom in the three books he wrote - Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. Someone said solomon actually wrote 3000 proverbs but we have only a sample of which in the Book of Proverbs. He wrote 1005 songs but we have only one of his songs. I believe he wrote a song for every one of his women. The Song of Solomon was the only one published because it was about the woman that God chose for him!
You can almost guess Solomon's age by reading the books he wrote. He was an old man when he wrote Ecclesiastes.
Chapter 12, the last Chapter says, "Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it" (Eccl. 12:6, 7, NKJV).
The Song of Solomon is a young man's poetry. Solomon wrote this when he was a young man deeply in love with a young girl. But allegorically, this book pictures God' betrothed wife as depicted by Hosea (Hos. 2:19, 20). It also pictures the Bride of Christ. As human life finds its hightest fulfillment in the love of man and woman so spiritual life finds its highest fulfillment in the love of God for his people and Christ for His Church.
When you read Proverbs you will read about Solomon's experience with all the women in his life, both good and bad. All the first Chapters are all about the bad women he got mixed up with. But he finished up with a beautiful Chapter concerning an ideal wife.
The virtuous wife
"Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain" (Proverbs 31:10, 11, NKJV, emphasis added).
The word "virtuous" comes from the Hebrew word "chayil" which means resourceful, able, worthy, ideal and fine. Literally the question asked is "Who can find a fine wife?"
As you read Proverbs 31 notice that the ideal wife puts her home and family first (Verse 15). But she is not limited to do only housework. She goes out to work, she trades and she does business and makes a profit. She actually manufacturing things and sells them. And then as if that does not fill her time she goes out to the poor and the needy (Verse 20). She does the work of mercy all over the place. Surely this a marvelous description of a very full and busy life for a wife.
But when you read it again you will find something missing in her daily life. She does not attend any women's fellowship meeting; she does not attend any prayer meeting or Bible study group or open her house for home-cell group. She is much too busy in three more importnat areas - her home and family, her business and work outside, and her care for the poor and needy. Furthermore, "her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land" (Verse 23). In other words, her husband holds an honored position among the elders. The virtuous wife knows that it is the responsibility of her husband to teach her the Scripture and any spiritual things at home if she wants to learn.
The trouble of the married Christian woman going to endless Church meetings is that she got so far ahead of her husband that both her husband and she are no longer traveling together as one flesh in the spiritual way.
General Comments
The Old Testament was still not God's pattern of role and relationship between the male and the female - there was still plenty of unbalance. For example in the Old Testament a man could divorce his wife but the wife could not divorce her husband (Deut. 24:1 - 4). This unequal justice would be put right in the New Testament.
There were other inequalities in the Old Testament. Sometimes the wives were listed together with the men's property:
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shell not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's" (Ex. 20:17, NKJV, emphasis added).
That is the kind of language you will not find in the New Testament. Even though under Moses' Law there were unequal justice, but it was a gigantic leap ahead of the contemporary attitude toward women. One reason is that Christians are not under the Law of Moses. We have the highter Law of Christ which takes us right back to God's original pattern. This we shall see in my next message.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The Fall of Man
In my last two messages we have seen that Genesis 1 and 2 describe God's original plan of creation. Now let us consider what happened when sin came in. Genesis 3 describes the temptation and the fall of man.
What happened in Genesis 3 is the beginning of the alienation between the male and female. All competition between the sexes is due to what happened in Genesis 3. Instead of just to give direction the man began to give domination and became a dictator. In any home where the man is treating his wife as a slave, in that home sin is ripe. Sin actually pushed the man too far toward being a little god in his home. The result is, the woman instead of deferring to him, becomes defiant and competitive and fights him. We are now living in a world where there is an intense competition between the male and the female; in where women are saying, anything that men can do they can do as well and even better. The high rate of divorce is primarily due to competition between male and female; between two wills striving for mastery - the man wants to dominate and the woman wants to defiant.
How sin came in - according to Genesis 3
Satan got hold of the wife without the husband, and he did it quite deliberately because that is his evangelistic method - he gets her away from the man. Satan was deliberately ignoring God's pattern of the man taking responsibility. She was unprotected, she was vulnerable and she was deceived. Satan seduced her mind.
Someone said it is quite impossible to convert a Jewish wife without her husband. You can do it with the Gentiles but you cannot do it with the Jews because the Jewish wife knows the Old Testament and she knows what happened to Eve when Satan got her away from her husband.
Satan twisted the woman's thinking. She quoted the Word of God at him, but he also quoted the Word of God at her with a little twist. Satan's deceptive quotation of the Bible is always the same. Here are his 3 favorite tricks:
1. He takes a little away from the Word of God.
2. He adds a little bit to it.
3. He then changes it around.
Satan used the same tricks on Jesus Himself (Matthew 4:1 - 110). Beware of satanic Bible teachers - and most of them are women Pastors and women Bible teachers.
The Tempter and Adam
The two main activities with which Satan directs his power against us are temptation and accusation.
Notice that before the Fall, Adam's helpmeet (given by God) was named by Adam himself as "woman" (wife-man or female-man) (Gen. 2:23). But after the Fall, Adam's wife was called "Eve" - mother of every living person (Gen. 3:20). For the sake of clarity we shall refer her name as Eve even before the Fall.
In the Garden of Eden, the serpent approached Eve with an innocuous-sounding question: "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree in the garden'?" (Gen. 3:1, NKJV).
On the surface the question sounded silly, but it actually involved an obvious distortion. God had given Adam and Eve free use of the garden - with one exception. One tree was placed off limits. The rest were fully available. Here we see the subtlety of the serpent. His thinly veiled suggestion is that if God places one limit on human freedom, He has taken freedom altogether. The serpent's question was more than a question. It was an accusation against the fairness and kindness of God.
Eve was quick to set the Devil straight: "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die'" (Gen. 3:2, 3).
Satan's question was an indirect assault on the integrity of God. Satan then moved quickly from an indirect attack to frontal assault. After Eve set the record straight Satan boldly declared: "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:4, 5).
Here the temptation is wrapped in a bold-faced lie: "You will not die." Not only did Satan accuse God of lying, but he also provided Eve with a reason for God's lie. He charged God with a kind of divine jealously. God did not want Adam and Eve's eyes to be opened. He wanted to keep His level of knowledge to Himself. He did not want to share His deity. He was afraid that the fruit of the tree would make Adam and Eve divine. His prohibition was both unfair and selfish.
The whole strategy of Satan is very clear - First, he made sure Adam was not around. Then he got Eve confused in her thinking until she could not actually remember what God actually said to her.
Notice that not only Adam did not repent of falling into sin with Eve, but he also accused both Eve and God Himself: "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate" (Gen. 3:12).
Lessons we should learn but failed to learn them
God's punishment for Adam ought to have warned us clearly that a man should not heed the voice of a woman without confirmation from God (Gen. 3:17).
A woman needs a man to protect her thinking and reasoning. That is one of the reasons why in the New Testament Paul said: "Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church" (1 Cor. 14:34, 35, NKJV).
In my opinion, the above is a practical outworking of Genesis 3. Satan loves to get hold of a woman alone. He twists her thinking and gets hold of a woman's desire to compete with men. That is why so many "Christian" cults and false religious sects have been started by women's teaching. The whole New Age movement began with women, without mentioning Christian Science. You will find in almost every case, these women are either not married, separated from their husbands or have stronger personality than their husbands.
There is evidence in Church history where a denomination makes a lot of women into Pastors and Bible teachers and sooner or later doctrine slips. The majority Pastors and Bible teachers and home-cell leaders of the Churches in China, Hong Kong and South Korea are women.
There are two areas in which men must carry full responsibility in the Local Church. One is in the area of doctrine and the other is in the area of discipline. And if men do not carry those two responsibilities both will slip, because both are not natural for women to exercise. All through the New Testament (especially in Paul's and Peter's epistles) testified this fact. Women taking leadership in any congregation is foreign to the teaching of the Bible. Any Local Church that does not recognize this fact is the evidence of the outworking of the unredeemed Adamic race.
Adam brought sin and death to the human race
Paul said, "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression" (1 Tim 2:14, NKJV).
The fact that Eve was fooled by Satan but Adam was not, and yet he still took it when Eve gave him the fruit, he had denied his God-given responsibility to watch over Eve and the responsibility to protect her. That is why Adam brought sin and death to the human race. What Adam should have done was to question Satan and argued it through to see if it was the right thing to do. Because of what he failed to do he carried all the resposibility for what happened.
The Punishment
1. Punishment for Adam
The Lord said to Adam, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife ....." Gen. 3:17).
The primary reason why Adam (and all male after him) was punished was because he heeded the voice of Eve. The result of which Adam saw work as a drudgery (Verses 17 - 19).
The nature of Adam's punishment is very interesting. Because of the Fall many people failed to realize that their daily work is their prime vocation for God. Whether your calling is a plumber or a preacher both callings are equally holy and sacred to the Lord. You do not need to enter fulltime ministry to please God - unless of course you are called by God to enter fulltime ministry.
Paul said, "Who (God) has saved us and called us with a holy calling ..." (2 Tim. 1:9).
In other words, every calling that a Christian received from the Lord is holy to the Lord. Only when you are into sin you see your calling as a plumber a secular employment. In God's eyes there is no such thing as secular calling except sin! Everything else, including your employment as a plumber, is sacred and holy to God. Your prime calling is to do your daily work as to the Lord and not to your boss. Your daily work is God's sacred calling for you.
2. Punishment for Eve
The Lord said to Eve, ".... in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you" (Gen. 3:16, emphasis added).
The nature of Eve's punishment consists of two parts - as a mother and as a wife. As a mother sorrow would be multiplied in her pregnancy and in the bearing and bringing up of children. As a wife "her desire shall be for her husband".
The phrase, "Your desire shall be for your husband" is very interesting. Many people think that women will be so desired of sex that they have to have a man. Recently I discovered what it really means. The key to understanding is found in Genesis 4.
In Genesis 4 after Cain's offering was rejected, God said to him:
"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it" (Gen 4:7, NKJV, emphasis added).
The use of the word "desire" above is the same as that used in Genesis 3:16. In other words, sin's desire is to take control over Cain and he should overcome it.
In the case of Eve and in all cases of women born after her, they have the desire to control and manipulate their husbands - unless the husbands are capable of overcoming this problem.
The problem of control and manipulation
As discussed above, one of the results of the Fall is that women have the natural desire to control and manipulate men. Instead of looking to a man for a lead there is a desire in fallen female nature to have a man so that she can control and manipulate him. But since she is a weaker partner the man will be able to rule her just as she will want to rule him. That is the direct result of sin - competition and clash between two opposite personalities in the home. The wife wants to change the husband but he has the power not to change. This is the scenario with all the seeds for divorce - not a part of redemption.
There are cases of Christian women asking for prayer for their husbands to be converted. Some Christian women are praying for their husbands to change to the men they want them to be. The use of prayer to change someone you want him to be is a subtle form of control and manipulation.
Peter said, "Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives" (1 Peter 3:1, NKJV).
In other words, in order to win over the unbelieving husband, the wife needs to change herself first - from a manipulating person to a submissive person with holy conduct.
The main result of the Fall is clear. In any marriage if the wife is dominating the husband and running his life and taking his place as a spiritual leader at home, it is contrary to God's original creation order and pattern.
What happened in Genesis 3 is the beginning of the alienation between the male and female. All competition between the sexes is due to what happened in Genesis 3. Instead of just to give direction the man began to give domination and became a dictator. In any home where the man is treating his wife as a slave, in that home sin is ripe. Sin actually pushed the man too far toward being a little god in his home. The result is, the woman instead of deferring to him, becomes defiant and competitive and fights him. We are now living in a world where there is an intense competition between the male and the female; in where women are saying, anything that men can do they can do as well and even better. The high rate of divorce is primarily due to competition between male and female; between two wills striving for mastery - the man wants to dominate and the woman wants to defiant.
How sin came in - according to Genesis 3
Satan got hold of the wife without the husband, and he did it quite deliberately because that is his evangelistic method - he gets her away from the man. Satan was deliberately ignoring God's pattern of the man taking responsibility. She was unprotected, she was vulnerable and she was deceived. Satan seduced her mind.
Someone said it is quite impossible to convert a Jewish wife without her husband. You can do it with the Gentiles but you cannot do it with the Jews because the Jewish wife knows the Old Testament and she knows what happened to Eve when Satan got her away from her husband.
Satan twisted the woman's thinking. She quoted the Word of God at him, but he also quoted the Word of God at her with a little twist. Satan's deceptive quotation of the Bible is always the same. Here are his 3 favorite tricks:
1. He takes a little away from the Word of God.
2. He adds a little bit to it.
3. He then changes it around.
Satan used the same tricks on Jesus Himself (Matthew 4:1 - 110). Beware of satanic Bible teachers - and most of them are women Pastors and women Bible teachers.
The Tempter and Adam
The two main activities with which Satan directs his power against us are temptation and accusation.
Notice that before the Fall, Adam's helpmeet (given by God) was named by Adam himself as "woman" (wife-man or female-man) (Gen. 2:23). But after the Fall, Adam's wife was called "Eve" - mother of every living person (Gen. 3:20). For the sake of clarity we shall refer her name as Eve even before the Fall.
In the Garden of Eden, the serpent approached Eve with an innocuous-sounding question: "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree in the garden'?" (Gen. 3:1, NKJV).
On the surface the question sounded silly, but it actually involved an obvious distortion. God had given Adam and Eve free use of the garden - with one exception. One tree was placed off limits. The rest were fully available. Here we see the subtlety of the serpent. His thinly veiled suggestion is that if God places one limit on human freedom, He has taken freedom altogether. The serpent's question was more than a question. It was an accusation against the fairness and kindness of God.
Eve was quick to set the Devil straight: "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die'" (Gen. 3:2, 3).
Satan's question was an indirect assault on the integrity of God. Satan then moved quickly from an indirect attack to frontal assault. After Eve set the record straight Satan boldly declared: "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:4, 5).
Here the temptation is wrapped in a bold-faced lie: "You will not die." Not only did Satan accuse God of lying, but he also provided Eve with a reason for God's lie. He charged God with a kind of divine jealously. God did not want Adam and Eve's eyes to be opened. He wanted to keep His level of knowledge to Himself. He did not want to share His deity. He was afraid that the fruit of the tree would make Adam and Eve divine. His prohibition was both unfair and selfish.
The whole strategy of Satan is very clear - First, he made sure Adam was not around. Then he got Eve confused in her thinking until she could not actually remember what God actually said to her.
Notice that not only Adam did not repent of falling into sin with Eve, but he also accused both Eve and God Himself: "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate" (Gen. 3:12).
Lessons we should learn but failed to learn them
God's punishment for Adam ought to have warned us clearly that a man should not heed the voice of a woman without confirmation from God (Gen. 3:17).
A woman needs a man to protect her thinking and reasoning. That is one of the reasons why in the New Testament Paul said: "Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church" (1 Cor. 14:34, 35, NKJV).
In my opinion, the above is a practical outworking of Genesis 3. Satan loves to get hold of a woman alone. He twists her thinking and gets hold of a woman's desire to compete with men. That is why so many "Christian" cults and false religious sects have been started by women's teaching. The whole New Age movement began with women, without mentioning Christian Science. You will find in almost every case, these women are either not married, separated from their husbands or have stronger personality than their husbands.
There is evidence in Church history where a denomination makes a lot of women into Pastors and Bible teachers and sooner or later doctrine slips. The majority Pastors and Bible teachers and home-cell leaders of the Churches in China, Hong Kong and South Korea are women.
There are two areas in which men must carry full responsibility in the Local Church. One is in the area of doctrine and the other is in the area of discipline. And if men do not carry those two responsibilities both will slip, because both are not natural for women to exercise. All through the New Testament (especially in Paul's and Peter's epistles) testified this fact. Women taking leadership in any congregation is foreign to the teaching of the Bible. Any Local Church that does not recognize this fact is the evidence of the outworking of the unredeemed Adamic race.
Adam brought sin and death to the human race
Paul said, "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression" (1 Tim 2:14, NKJV).
The fact that Eve was fooled by Satan but Adam was not, and yet he still took it when Eve gave him the fruit, he had denied his God-given responsibility to watch over Eve and the responsibility to protect her. That is why Adam brought sin and death to the human race. What Adam should have done was to question Satan and argued it through to see if it was the right thing to do. Because of what he failed to do he carried all the resposibility for what happened.
The Punishment
1. Punishment for Adam
The Lord said to Adam, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife ....." Gen. 3:17).
The primary reason why Adam (and all male after him) was punished was because he heeded the voice of Eve. The result of which Adam saw work as a drudgery (Verses 17 - 19).
The nature of Adam's punishment is very interesting. Because of the Fall many people failed to realize that their daily work is their prime vocation for God. Whether your calling is a plumber or a preacher both callings are equally holy and sacred to the Lord. You do not need to enter fulltime ministry to please God - unless of course you are called by God to enter fulltime ministry.
Paul said, "Who (God) has saved us and called us with a holy calling ..." (2 Tim. 1:9).
In other words, every calling that a Christian received from the Lord is holy to the Lord. Only when you are into sin you see your calling as a plumber a secular employment. In God's eyes there is no such thing as secular calling except sin! Everything else, including your employment as a plumber, is sacred and holy to God. Your prime calling is to do your daily work as to the Lord and not to your boss. Your daily work is God's sacred calling for you.
2. Punishment for Eve
The Lord said to Eve, ".... in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you" (Gen. 3:16, emphasis added).
The nature of Eve's punishment consists of two parts - as a mother and as a wife. As a mother sorrow would be multiplied in her pregnancy and in the bearing and bringing up of children. As a wife "her desire shall be for her husband".
The phrase, "Your desire shall be for your husband" is very interesting. Many people think that women will be so desired of sex that they have to have a man. Recently I discovered what it really means. The key to understanding is found in Genesis 4.
In Genesis 4 after Cain's offering was rejected, God said to him:
"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it" (Gen 4:7, NKJV, emphasis added).
The use of the word "desire" above is the same as that used in Genesis 3:16. In other words, sin's desire is to take control over Cain and he should overcome it.
In the case of Eve and in all cases of women born after her, they have the desire to control and manipulate their husbands - unless the husbands are capable of overcoming this problem.
The problem of control and manipulation
As discussed above, one of the results of the Fall is that women have the natural desire to control and manipulate men. Instead of looking to a man for a lead there is a desire in fallen female nature to have a man so that she can control and manipulate him. But since she is a weaker partner the man will be able to rule her just as she will want to rule him. That is the direct result of sin - competition and clash between two opposite personalities in the home. The wife wants to change the husband but he has the power not to change. This is the scenario with all the seeds for divorce - not a part of redemption.
There are cases of Christian women asking for prayer for their husbands to be converted. Some Christian women are praying for their husbands to change to the men they want them to be. The use of prayer to change someone you want him to be is a subtle form of control and manipulation.
Peter said, "Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives" (1 Peter 3:1, NKJV).
In other words, in order to win over the unbelieving husband, the wife needs to change herself first - from a manipulating person to a submissive person with holy conduct.
The main result of the Fall is clear. In any marriage if the wife is dominating the husband and running his life and taking his place as a spiritual leader at home, it is contrary to God's original creation order and pattern.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Divine-Human Love Relationship
Continuing the theme of God's pattern of role and relationship between male and female it follows naturally that it is God's desire that the love of a man for his wife follows the same pattern of God's love for His people. This is true all through the Bible. In fact the Bible is a divine love letter for all of us.
Relationship between the vertical and horizontal relationships
The vertical relationship represents divine-man relationship and the horizontal relationship represents male-female relationship. There is a direct anology or likeness between the divine-human relationship and the male-female relationship. If you understand one you will understand the other. If you understand how God and man relate you will understand how male and female relate. In the male-female relationship, the man is called to model the divine side of the divine-human life, but the woman is called to model the human side of the divine-human life. For example in a marriage the husband must model the divine side and the wife should model the human side.
How does a man love his wife? He should love his wife as Christ loves the Church.
Paul said, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Ephesians 5:25, NKJV).
In other words, the man is to model God and the woman is to model man in the divine-human relationship, so that from the understanding of the human relationship we can understand what is like to relate to God. That is the reason why the love song - "Song of Solomon" is placed right in the middle of your Bible. In this, Solomon depicted the love between a man and a woman as the love between God and men (Israel). If you understand the love between man and women you are well on your way to understand the love between God and men. That is why right through the Bible the relationship between God and men is presented in sexual terms in which God is always called He in the entire Bible and that is why Israel and the Church always called she.
The he-she relationship is the same in many regards - in the relationship between God and man and the relationship between man and woman. The woman is to trust and depend on her man. The man is to protect and provide for the woman. In this the man is modeling God protecting and providing for us.
Pictures of God's love for Israel and Christ's love for His Bride
There are amazing messages depicting God's love for His people right through the Bible. Let us deal with three examples:
1. Hosea
Let me not only paraphrase Hosea 1:2 - 11 but also to dramatize it to show how much God loves Israel despite her unfaithfulness toward Him:
Once there was a preacher called Hosea and he said, "God is there anything you want me to do?"
God said, "Yes, Hosea I want you to go out and find a prostitude."
"But God, I'm a preacher."
"Yes I know but I want you to find her."
"What do You want me to do with her?"
"I want you to marry her."
"Me, marry a prostitute?"
"Yes, that's what I said."
"Alright Lord, but what you want me to do then?"
"I want you to start a family with her. Hosea, you'll have 3 children. The first she will love and so you'll call it 'love'; the second she'll not want and so you'll call it 'not love'. And the third child will not even be yours for another man will be the father. So you'll call it 'not mine'."
"And then what Lord?"
"She'll go back on the streets as a prostitute again and you'll lose her."
"Lord, what do I do with the three children?"
"You go and look for her and when you find her on the streets you'll buy her back with money from the pimp who is running her. And then you'll start all over again and love her again and you'll rebuild the family."
"And then what Lord?"
"Then Hosea, you must go and tell Israel that is exactly how I feel about them. They have gone after other gods and producing children who are not mine. That is how I feel but I just can't give her up and I'm going to love her back again."
What a touching message!
2. Ezekiel
Ezekiel 16:1 - 22 is also another message depicting God's love for Israel.
Israel was seen like a child born in a polluted land, abandoned from its birth, left by its parents to the chance regard of any passer-by. On such a child the Lord looked with compassion, tended and adopted it. Under the Lord's tender loving care the child grew up to be comely and beautiful and later the Lord joined her in marriage union.
The Lord said, "And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' Yes, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful .... When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, ..." (Ezekiel 16:6 - 8).
That is how God feels about Israel and that is why Israel is a chosen wife of God.
3. Christ's love for His Bride
The whole appeal of the Bible is on the basis of a covenant which is of a Marriage between God and His people - the people are the wife and God is the Husband. The same is true in the New Testament - Jesus is the Bridegroom and we are the bride.
Paul wrote to the believers in the Church in Ephesus concerning the preparation of the Bride:
"Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:25, 26, NKJV, emphasis added).
The love of Christ toward the Church models the love of a husband toward his bride. The love of God toward Israel, as depicted by Hosea and Ezekiel above also models the love of a man toward his wife.
God Himself found and prepared His own betrothed wife, Israel. Later He sent His Word (Jesus) to prepare, sanctify and cleanse the Church to make her fit to be His Bride.
What beautiful and perfect analogies!
Practical Applications
I wonder if you have noticed that it is far easier to lead a woman to Christ than to lead a man.
If you read my previous message again you will realize that according to Genesis 2, woman was made for man, from man and after man. Because of this fact it is always easier to get a wife to trust Christ, the same way she trusts her husband. In other words, a wife, by nature, is fitted to take the human side of the divine-human relationship. By nature she is submissive and dependent. Therefore she does not have to change her nature to accept Christ. The same attitude she has toward her husband she can now transfer to Christ.
Whereas the man has to make a huge adjustment because he is by nature aggressive, independent so that he can fight for the woman he loves and at the same time to protect her and to provide for her. It is the man's nature not to depend on someone else but to have other depend on him. Therefore for a man to receive Christ and become a Christian he has to change from being musculine to become feminine - change from an aggressive independent person to a submissive, dependent, obedient and trusting person. This is certainly a huge adjustment for the man to make. It takes the grace of God to do it. He will suffer ridicule, persecution; sometimes his business will be affected, he may go bankrupt and his marriage may even be in danger of breaking up. In the midst of disasters, only the grace of God is able to tell him he is not self-sufficient and he needs help.
The problem
Because of the fact that it is easier to lead a woman to Christ than to lead a man, in the average Local Church there ar usually more women that men. This problem arises because we have our priority wrong; we have evangelized wives apart from their husbands. The is the root problem that is creating so many Christian women without Christian husbands.
In my opinion it is wrong to evangelize the wife away from her husband. When the wife becomes a Christian and goes to Church you are beginning to break up that marriage.
Paul said, "And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him" (1 Cor. 7:13).
In other words, if you make the wife a believer and the husband does not like it he can leave!
I believe the easiest to convert are the children, and then women and the hardest are men. Therefore go for the hardest, men. When you get the men converted their whole households will be converted.
Paul and Silas were imprisoned at Philippi. At midnight they were praying and singing. Suddenly the whole place was shaken and all the doors were opened by an angel. The keeper of the prison (the jailer) was in fear and wanted to commit suicide. Paul and Silas ensured him they would not escape and put the jailer in danger of being executed. Later the jailer said to them, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved" (Acts 16:30)?
"So they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household'" (Acts 16:31, emphasis added).
We need to have men's evangelistic meetings in all of our Local Churches. When you go for the men you will get the whole family saved. If you really believe man and woman are one flesh you cannot evangelize them separately. Furthermore it is such a joy to see a husband ahead of his wife spiritually so that she can look to him and trust him, look after him and respect him.
This is the outworking of God's pattern of Divine-human love relationship. This is also the outworking of Genesis 2.
Relationship between the vertical and horizontal relationships
The vertical relationship represents divine-man relationship and the horizontal relationship represents male-female relationship. There is a direct anology or likeness between the divine-human relationship and the male-female relationship. If you understand one you will understand the other. If you understand how God and man relate you will understand how male and female relate. In the male-female relationship, the man is called to model the divine side of the divine-human life, but the woman is called to model the human side of the divine-human life. For example in a marriage the husband must model the divine side and the wife should model the human side.
How does a man love his wife? He should love his wife as Christ loves the Church.
Paul said, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Ephesians 5:25, NKJV).
In other words, the man is to model God and the woman is to model man in the divine-human relationship, so that from the understanding of the human relationship we can understand what is like to relate to God. That is the reason why the love song - "Song of Solomon" is placed right in the middle of your Bible. In this, Solomon depicted the love between a man and a woman as the love between God and men (Israel). If you understand the love between man and women you are well on your way to understand the love between God and men. That is why right through the Bible the relationship between God and men is presented in sexual terms in which God is always called He in the entire Bible and that is why Israel and the Church always called she.
The he-she relationship is the same in many regards - in the relationship between God and man and the relationship between man and woman. The woman is to trust and depend on her man. The man is to protect and provide for the woman. In this the man is modeling God protecting and providing for us.
Pictures of God's love for Israel and Christ's love for His Bride
There are amazing messages depicting God's love for His people right through the Bible. Let us deal with three examples:
1. Hosea
Let me not only paraphrase Hosea 1:2 - 11 but also to dramatize it to show how much God loves Israel despite her unfaithfulness toward Him:
Once there was a preacher called Hosea and he said, "God is there anything you want me to do?"
God said, "Yes, Hosea I want you to go out and find a prostitude."
"But God, I'm a preacher."
"Yes I know but I want you to find her."
"What do You want me to do with her?"
"I want you to marry her."
"Me, marry a prostitute?"
"Yes, that's what I said."
"Alright Lord, but what you want me to do then?"
"I want you to start a family with her. Hosea, you'll have 3 children. The first she will love and so you'll call it 'love'; the second she'll not want and so you'll call it 'not love'. And the third child will not even be yours for another man will be the father. So you'll call it 'not mine'."
"And then what Lord?"
"She'll go back on the streets as a prostitute again and you'll lose her."
"Lord, what do I do with the three children?"
"You go and look for her and when you find her on the streets you'll buy her back with money from the pimp who is running her. And then you'll start all over again and love her again and you'll rebuild the family."
"And then what Lord?"
"Then Hosea, you must go and tell Israel that is exactly how I feel about them. They have gone after other gods and producing children who are not mine. That is how I feel but I just can't give her up and I'm going to love her back again."
What a touching message!
2. Ezekiel
Ezekiel 16:1 - 22 is also another message depicting God's love for Israel.
Israel was seen like a child born in a polluted land, abandoned from its birth, left by its parents to the chance regard of any passer-by. On such a child the Lord looked with compassion, tended and adopted it. Under the Lord's tender loving care the child grew up to be comely and beautiful and later the Lord joined her in marriage union.
The Lord said, "And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' Yes, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful .... When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, ..." (Ezekiel 16:6 - 8).
That is how God feels about Israel and that is why Israel is a chosen wife of God.
3. Christ's love for His Bride
The whole appeal of the Bible is on the basis of a covenant which is of a Marriage between God and His people - the people are the wife and God is the Husband. The same is true in the New Testament - Jesus is the Bridegroom and we are the bride.
Paul wrote to the believers in the Church in Ephesus concerning the preparation of the Bride:
"Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:25, 26, NKJV, emphasis added).
The love of Christ toward the Church models the love of a husband toward his bride. The love of God toward Israel, as depicted by Hosea and Ezekiel above also models the love of a man toward his wife.
God Himself found and prepared His own betrothed wife, Israel. Later He sent His Word (Jesus) to prepare, sanctify and cleanse the Church to make her fit to be His Bride.
What beautiful and perfect analogies!
Practical Applications
I wonder if you have noticed that it is far easier to lead a woman to Christ than to lead a man.
If you read my previous message again you will realize that according to Genesis 2, woman was made for man, from man and after man. Because of this fact it is always easier to get a wife to trust Christ, the same way she trusts her husband. In other words, a wife, by nature, is fitted to take the human side of the divine-human relationship. By nature she is submissive and dependent. Therefore she does not have to change her nature to accept Christ. The same attitude she has toward her husband she can now transfer to Christ.
Whereas the man has to make a huge adjustment because he is by nature aggressive, independent so that he can fight for the woman he loves and at the same time to protect her and to provide for her. It is the man's nature not to depend on someone else but to have other depend on him. Therefore for a man to receive Christ and become a Christian he has to change from being musculine to become feminine - change from an aggressive independent person to a submissive, dependent, obedient and trusting person. This is certainly a huge adjustment for the man to make. It takes the grace of God to do it. He will suffer ridicule, persecution; sometimes his business will be affected, he may go bankrupt and his marriage may even be in danger of breaking up. In the midst of disasters, only the grace of God is able to tell him he is not self-sufficient and he needs help.
The problem
Because of the fact that it is easier to lead a woman to Christ than to lead a man, in the average Local Church there ar usually more women that men. This problem arises because we have our priority wrong; we have evangelized wives apart from their husbands. The is the root problem that is creating so many Christian women without Christian husbands.
In my opinion it is wrong to evangelize the wife away from her husband. When the wife becomes a Christian and goes to Church you are beginning to break up that marriage.
Paul said, "And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him" (1 Cor. 7:13).
In other words, if you make the wife a believer and the husband does not like it he can leave!
I believe the easiest to convert are the children, and then women and the hardest are men. Therefore go for the hardest, men. When you get the men converted their whole households will be converted.
Paul and Silas were imprisoned at Philippi. At midnight they were praying and singing. Suddenly the whole place was shaken and all the doors were opened by an angel. The keeper of the prison (the jailer) was in fear and wanted to commit suicide. Paul and Silas ensured him they would not escape and put the jailer in danger of being executed. Later the jailer said to them, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved" (Acts 16:30)?
"So they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household'" (Acts 16:31, emphasis added).
We need to have men's evangelistic meetings in all of our Local Churches. When you go for the men you will get the whole family saved. If you really believe man and woman are one flesh you cannot evangelize them separately. Furthermore it is such a joy to see a husband ahead of his wife spiritually so that she can look to him and trust him, look after him and respect him.
This is the outworking of God's pattern of Divine-human love relationship. This is also the outworking of Genesis 2.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
God's Pattern of Male-Female Role and Relationship
Whenever Jesus or any of the apostles was asked about the question of the male-female role and relationship they always went back to Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 to find the answer. When Jesus was asked about divorce where did he go for the answer? He went back to Genesis 2. When Paul was asked about male-female role relationship in the Church he also went back to Genesis 2 (Please read my earlier message - Male-Female Role Relationships in the Church).
The fisrt two Chapters of the Old Testament hold the key to understanding God's original plan and pattern of creation. This is because redemption is the restoration of creation. God only redeems you so that He may put back to what you were originally meant to be. And He is going to put the whole heaven and earth back to its original plan. God's desire is you and I and the whole human race follow His pattern of male-female role and relationship in the world, in the family and in the Church. It is from those two chapters we have the total answer to the whole question of what is the relationship between male and female and what are their different roles in the world, in the home and in the Church. The fallen Adamic race, including you and me, is not considered fully redeemed until we are fully restored to what God began in Genesis 1 and 2. It is very unfortunate that the majority denominations and Churches failed to understand this and followed the way of the world. It is truly shameful that the Body of Christ failed to grasp this basic truth. In my opinion if you do not know Genesis 1 and 2 you will get very confused about men and women today. That is the reason why I am spending so much time to do some research work on this theme alone.
Basic Timeline of God's Creation
God spent six days creating the world and everything He wanted in it. On the seventh day He did not do a single thing. In fact He rested, not in a 24-hour day, but all through the Old Testament. He did not create anything new in the Old Testament. That was why Solomon said in Ecclesiates, "That which has been is what will be, that which is done, and there is nothing new under the sun" (Eccl. 1:9, NKJV).
But now God has gone back to work and He is back in the business of creation. He started His eight day of reation on the first Easter Sunday, when He raised Jesus from the dead. God's creation work of the old finished with a Sabbath rest. That is why it is proper for Christians to worship on Sundays and not on Saturdays. We do not celebrate God's rest but celebrate when He has gone back to work, when He created all things new. It was on a Sunday that God poured out His Spirit (Day of Pentecost) and we are His new creation when we are in Christ and "old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).
The two accounts of the Creation of man
Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are in fact two accounts of the same event - the creation of man. The first account begins at Gen. 1:26 - 31 on the sixth day of creation, "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; ..." (Gen. 1:26). The second account is in Gen. 2:15 - 24 ending with, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24).
By giving these two accounts God wants us to look at His creation of man from two different points of view - almost from opposite view points of the same event. If you read Genesis 1 and shut your eyes you will feel yourself way up in heaven looking down and see what is happening down on the earth. In fact Genesis 1 was written from God's angle - from the divine or heavenly viewpoint. But when you turn to Genesis 2 you will have a completely different viewpoint; you are standing on the earth and looking around in the Garden of Eden. In other words, one is a vertical viewpoint looking down from heaven to earth from God's point of view. But the second account is a horizontal veiw and you are looking around at the relationship between the different parts of creation - between man and the birds, man and the beast and man and woman. These two dimensions help us to get a full picture of the role and relationship of male and female.
God's way of helping us to understand Bible truth
One of the vital characteristics of the Bible is that when God wants to give us the whole truth He sometimes has to give us the truth from different angles just like the prison authority takes photographs of criminals from different angles of their face.
Not only God gave us two accounts of creation, but He gave us two accounts of other things as well. To help us to understand the history of Israel during the rules of kings He gave us two accounts in the two Books of Kings and the two Books of Chronicles. When He wanted to us to have the full picture of Jesus Christ He had to give us four pictures in four Books - One from Matthew to see Jesus as the King of the Jews, one from Mark to see Jesus as the Son of Man, one from Luke to see Jesus as the Savior of the World, and one from John to see Jesus as the Son of God.
Prominence of sex and sexuality
It is interesting to realize that in both accounts of creation sex is prominent. In other words, sex is as important from the Divine point of view as from the human point of view. Unfortunately many Christians have never seen this truth. Indeed in many denominations and Churches sex is a taboo subject. But God gets great pleasure out of sex and our sexuality.
Prose and Poetry
We need to understand the difference between prose and poetry when we see it in the Bible. Basically prose is ordinally written language used to impart information, mush like the Newsprint. But poetry refers to poem, often written in short lines which usually rhyme. Prose is the language of the mind but poetry is the language of the heart. Whenever you see prose, it is a message from God's mind to your mind so that your thoughts may be His thoughts and His thoughts your thoughts. But when He speaks in poetry, the message is from His Heart to your heart so that you may feel His feelings. Prose is to change people's thinking but poetry is to change people's feelings.
In both Genesis 1 and 2 there is only a little phrase within a verse that is written in poetry form. In both cases the poem is about sex. To me this is truly amazing. When Adam first saw Eve he said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; ..." (Gen. 2:23). Because this is the language of the heart, God wants you to know how He feels about the woman He created. At the same time God wants you to know how Adam feels about his helpmeet.
Let us take a closer look at the following passages of Scripture:
"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; ... (V. 27) So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. (V. 28) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ..." (Gen. 1:26, 27, 28, emphasis added).
Notice the emphasized phrase is in poetry form and the next verse the poetry disappeared. In other words, the male and femaile belongs to the previous verse - it belongs to the image of God.
Great significance of the first verse of the Bible
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1, emphasis added).
It is interesting to realize that the Hebrew word for "God" is "Eloheem" or Elohim" which is a plural word for three. Therefore right at the beginning God is three Persons in One. Unfortunately the Jews missed it and the consequence is that they can never say that God is love. The fact is that if God was only one you can never give Him the Name of Love. One person cannot express love by himself. We have the full revelation in the New Testament that God is the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and therefore we can say God is Love. Notice that there is no other religion in the world can say their god is love! Only Christians believe that God is love and because of this, those who believe in God love God and love one another.
Let us follow some logical conclusive steps. If God is love and is 3-in-1 and He wanted to make us in His image He would have to make us capable of loving and we are incomplete without someone else to love. And so He made us 2-in-1 not quite as great as He. So He made us male and female capable of experiencing something of what it is to love someone else and be one with Him. What a beautiful idea!
Male and female are both created in the Image of God
It is extremely important to acknowledge that both man and woman equally carried the Image of God (Gen. 1:27). Therefore the whole relationship toward each other must be based on the clear understanding that in God's sight man and woman are of equal value, equal status and of equal worth. Therefore salvation is equal in Christ for all of us. This is the fundamental truth to the entire Bible.
Paul said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galations 3:28, emphasis added).
Peter said, "Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered" (1 Peter 3:7, emphasis added).
However there are differences between the male and the female. We have different functions in the world, in the home and in the Church with different ministries. When we turn to Genesis 2 we will certainly realize that there is a contrast and there is inequality. The fact is, in the vertical dimension of God creating us, we are equal. But in the horizontal dimension in our relationship with each other, we are not equal.
Male and female are created differently
The three things said in Genensis 2 about our relationships which are picked up in the New Testament are:
1. Woman was made from man.
2. Woman was made for man.
3. Woman was made after man.
Each of these little words (from, for, after) is picked up in the New Testament to teach us how we are to behave (in role relationships) in the family and in the Church as men and women. Unfortunately many denominations and Churches missed it altogether!
1. Woman was made from man (Gen 2:21, 22)
Genesis 2:21 says that woman was made from a "rib" taken out of Adam's side. In Hebrew the word "rib" means a small part. Adam, in recognizing the fact that the woman was made from him, he was given the authority to name her, and he named her Eve. That is why in mariage nowadays the wife takes the name of the husband and not the other way round. Furthermore since a woman was taken from a part of man and not made like man from the dust, she is not independent from man. Paul, in 1 Cor. 11:11 testified this fact. Therefore a man who lives to himself and has no relationship with the opposite sex is not a full man. Similarly a woman who lives to herself and has no relationship with a husband is not a full woman.
2. Woman was made for man (1 Cor. 11:9)
This is same as saying the primary purpose of a woman is to be found in man. She is created to be his helpmeet. Being a helpmeet, or being the partner in ministry (in the Christian/Church context) she must not compete with her husband. When her husband is out ministering the wife being the helpmeet should be praying for him. Recently I heard someone said, a certain woman is the Senior Pastor in a Church, but her husband is one of the associated Pastors in the same Church! These "christians" must have thought man was made for woman! This is totally contrary to God' original creation pattern.
There is a teaching right around the world, in the feminist movement (Christian or non-Christian), teaches that a woman must find her fulfillment within herself, she must find her own gift, her own career and she must find herself by herself. This is also totally contrary to God's original creation pattern.
3. Woman was made after man
The significance is that everywhere in the Bible people follow one another. The first to appear carries the responsibilities for the next. This is the doctrine of the first born son in the entire teaching of the Bible. The first born son had extra responsibility for all the other sons. In Scripture when a father died and left his estate to his family he left an equal portion to each of his sons. But he left a double portion to the first born. Adam was the first born and therefore he carried responsibility for Eve.
Though Eve was the first to sin and the first to take the forbidden fruit the New Testament never blames her for introducing sin and death. Who does the New Testament blame? Adam, because he was responsible for her.
God expects the family life and Church life in the New Testament follow the same pattern of Genesis 2 that men carry the responsibilities for women. This is the reason why leadership in the Church is the responsibility of the men and never women.
How many Local Churches do you know are truly following God's original pattern of Creation clearly laid out in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2?
The fisrt two Chapters of the Old Testament hold the key to understanding God's original plan and pattern of creation. This is because redemption is the restoration of creation. God only redeems you so that He may put back to what you were originally meant to be. And He is going to put the whole heaven and earth back to its original plan. God's desire is you and I and the whole human race follow His pattern of male-female role and relationship in the world, in the family and in the Church. It is from those two chapters we have the total answer to the whole question of what is the relationship between male and female and what are their different roles in the world, in the home and in the Church. The fallen Adamic race, including you and me, is not considered fully redeemed until we are fully restored to what God began in Genesis 1 and 2. It is very unfortunate that the majority denominations and Churches failed to understand this and followed the way of the world. It is truly shameful that the Body of Christ failed to grasp this basic truth. In my opinion if you do not know Genesis 1 and 2 you will get very confused about men and women today. That is the reason why I am spending so much time to do some research work on this theme alone.
Basic Timeline of God's Creation
God spent six days creating the world and everything He wanted in it. On the seventh day He did not do a single thing. In fact He rested, not in a 24-hour day, but all through the Old Testament. He did not create anything new in the Old Testament. That was why Solomon said in Ecclesiates, "That which has been is what will be, that which is done, and there is nothing new under the sun" (Eccl. 1:9, NKJV).
But now God has gone back to work and He is back in the business of creation. He started His eight day of reation on the first Easter Sunday, when He raised Jesus from the dead. God's creation work of the old finished with a Sabbath rest. That is why it is proper for Christians to worship on Sundays and not on Saturdays. We do not celebrate God's rest but celebrate when He has gone back to work, when He created all things new. It was on a Sunday that God poured out His Spirit (Day of Pentecost) and we are His new creation when we are in Christ and "old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).
The two accounts of the Creation of man
Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are in fact two accounts of the same event - the creation of man. The first account begins at Gen. 1:26 - 31 on the sixth day of creation, "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; ..." (Gen. 1:26). The second account is in Gen. 2:15 - 24 ending with, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24).
By giving these two accounts God wants us to look at His creation of man from two different points of view - almost from opposite view points of the same event. If you read Genesis 1 and shut your eyes you will feel yourself way up in heaven looking down and see what is happening down on the earth. In fact Genesis 1 was written from God's angle - from the divine or heavenly viewpoint. But when you turn to Genesis 2 you will have a completely different viewpoint; you are standing on the earth and looking around in the Garden of Eden. In other words, one is a vertical viewpoint looking down from heaven to earth from God's point of view. But the second account is a horizontal veiw and you are looking around at the relationship between the different parts of creation - between man and the birds, man and the beast and man and woman. These two dimensions help us to get a full picture of the role and relationship of male and female.
God's way of helping us to understand Bible truth
One of the vital characteristics of the Bible is that when God wants to give us the whole truth He sometimes has to give us the truth from different angles just like the prison authority takes photographs of criminals from different angles of their face.
Not only God gave us two accounts of creation, but He gave us two accounts of other things as well. To help us to understand the history of Israel during the rules of kings He gave us two accounts in the two Books of Kings and the two Books of Chronicles. When He wanted to us to have the full picture of Jesus Christ He had to give us four pictures in four Books - One from Matthew to see Jesus as the King of the Jews, one from Mark to see Jesus as the Son of Man, one from Luke to see Jesus as the Savior of the World, and one from John to see Jesus as the Son of God.
Prominence of sex and sexuality
It is interesting to realize that in both accounts of creation sex is prominent. In other words, sex is as important from the Divine point of view as from the human point of view. Unfortunately many Christians have never seen this truth. Indeed in many denominations and Churches sex is a taboo subject. But God gets great pleasure out of sex and our sexuality.
Prose and Poetry
We need to understand the difference between prose and poetry when we see it in the Bible. Basically prose is ordinally written language used to impart information, mush like the Newsprint. But poetry refers to poem, often written in short lines which usually rhyme. Prose is the language of the mind but poetry is the language of the heart. Whenever you see prose, it is a message from God's mind to your mind so that your thoughts may be His thoughts and His thoughts your thoughts. But when He speaks in poetry, the message is from His Heart to your heart so that you may feel His feelings. Prose is to change people's thinking but poetry is to change people's feelings.
In both Genesis 1 and 2 there is only a little phrase within a verse that is written in poetry form. In both cases the poem is about sex. To me this is truly amazing. When Adam first saw Eve he said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; ..." (Gen. 2:23). Because this is the language of the heart, God wants you to know how He feels about the woman He created. At the same time God wants you to know how Adam feels about his helpmeet.
Let us take a closer look at the following passages of Scripture:
"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; ... (V. 27) So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. (V. 28) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ..." (Gen. 1:26, 27, 28, emphasis added).
Notice the emphasized phrase is in poetry form and the next verse the poetry disappeared. In other words, the male and femaile belongs to the previous verse - it belongs to the image of God.
Great significance of the first verse of the Bible
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1, emphasis added).
It is interesting to realize that the Hebrew word for "God" is "Eloheem" or Elohim" which is a plural word for three. Therefore right at the beginning God is three Persons in One. Unfortunately the Jews missed it and the consequence is that they can never say that God is love. The fact is that if God was only one you can never give Him the Name of Love. One person cannot express love by himself. We have the full revelation in the New Testament that God is the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and therefore we can say God is Love. Notice that there is no other religion in the world can say their god is love! Only Christians believe that God is love and because of this, those who believe in God love God and love one another.
Let us follow some logical conclusive steps. If God is love and is 3-in-1 and He wanted to make us in His image He would have to make us capable of loving and we are incomplete without someone else to love. And so He made us 2-in-1 not quite as great as He. So He made us male and female capable of experiencing something of what it is to love someone else and be one with Him. What a beautiful idea!
Male and female are both created in the Image of God
It is extremely important to acknowledge that both man and woman equally carried the Image of God (Gen. 1:27). Therefore the whole relationship toward each other must be based on the clear understanding that in God's sight man and woman are of equal value, equal status and of equal worth. Therefore salvation is equal in Christ for all of us. This is the fundamental truth to the entire Bible.
Paul said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galations 3:28, emphasis added).
Peter said, "Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered" (1 Peter 3:7, emphasis added).
However there are differences between the male and the female. We have different functions in the world, in the home and in the Church with different ministries. When we turn to Genesis 2 we will certainly realize that there is a contrast and there is inequality. The fact is, in the vertical dimension of God creating us, we are equal. But in the horizontal dimension in our relationship with each other, we are not equal.
Male and female are created differently
The three things said in Genensis 2 about our relationships which are picked up in the New Testament are:
1. Woman was made from man.
2. Woman was made for man.
3. Woman was made after man.
Each of these little words (from, for, after) is picked up in the New Testament to teach us how we are to behave (in role relationships) in the family and in the Church as men and women. Unfortunately many denominations and Churches missed it altogether!
1. Woman was made from man (Gen 2:21, 22)
Genesis 2:21 says that woman was made from a "rib" taken out of Adam's side. In Hebrew the word "rib" means a small part. Adam, in recognizing the fact that the woman was made from him, he was given the authority to name her, and he named her Eve. That is why in mariage nowadays the wife takes the name of the husband and not the other way round. Furthermore since a woman was taken from a part of man and not made like man from the dust, she is not independent from man. Paul, in 1 Cor. 11:11 testified this fact. Therefore a man who lives to himself and has no relationship with the opposite sex is not a full man. Similarly a woman who lives to herself and has no relationship with a husband is not a full woman.
2. Woman was made for man (1 Cor. 11:9)
This is same as saying the primary purpose of a woman is to be found in man. She is created to be his helpmeet. Being a helpmeet, or being the partner in ministry (in the Christian/Church context) she must not compete with her husband. When her husband is out ministering the wife being the helpmeet should be praying for him. Recently I heard someone said, a certain woman is the Senior Pastor in a Church, but her husband is one of the associated Pastors in the same Church! These "christians" must have thought man was made for woman! This is totally contrary to God' original creation pattern.
There is a teaching right around the world, in the feminist movement (Christian or non-Christian), teaches that a woman must find her fulfillment within herself, she must find her own gift, her own career and she must find herself by herself. This is also totally contrary to God's original creation pattern.
3. Woman was made after man
The significance is that everywhere in the Bible people follow one another. The first to appear carries the responsibilities for the next. This is the doctrine of the first born son in the entire teaching of the Bible. The first born son had extra responsibility for all the other sons. In Scripture when a father died and left his estate to his family he left an equal portion to each of his sons. But he left a double portion to the first born. Adam was the first born and therefore he carried responsibility for Eve.
Though Eve was the first to sin and the first to take the forbidden fruit the New Testament never blames her for introducing sin and death. Who does the New Testament blame? Adam, because he was responsible for her.
God expects the family life and Church life in the New Testament follow the same pattern of Genesis 2 that men carry the responsibilities for women. This is the reason why leadership in the Church is the responsibility of the men and never women.
How many Local Churches do you know are truly following God's original pattern of Creation clearly laid out in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2?
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
God's Choice and Man's Choice
Any Christian believer who thinks his salvation solely depends on exercising his free will and making the right choice to response to the Gospel message knows very little about the God of the Bible. He also knows very little about the sovereignty of God and the fallen nature of the unsaved person. It is very unfortunate whenever you raise the question of predestination and free will Christians would ask whether you are a Calvinist or an Armenian, or whether you hold the "reformed" view or the "non-reformed" view. My question is - why should Christians be divided because of different man's views?
The only reliable source of truth comes from God alone and never from man, even from the most Godly and most well-informed man. But this does not mean that we should give up discussing things that are known to be controversial altogether. With the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God we have sufficient revelation knowledge and understanding regarding God's Choice and man's choice and other related topics.
Things I don't know and things I do know
By way of introduction here are some statements concerning some of the things that I don't know and some of the things that I do know:
1. We all belong to the Adamic race and the entire Adamic race were born with a sin nature. We are fallen creatures. But Adam and Eve were not created fallen. They were created perfect with a perfect ability to exercise free will and to choose what was good. Yet they chose to sin. I don't know why they chose to sin and I have not found anyone yet who does know why.
2. I know God is sovereign. The Nelson's Bible Dictionary defines the sovereignty of God as - A theological term which refers to the unlimited power of God, who had sovereign control over the affairs and history of the world. Allow me to put it in simple layman term because I hate theological definitions, and I never understand them. What I understand is, God can do all things and will do what He likes, when He likes without having to explain to anyone and without having to ask anyone's permission.
3. I know God is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last (Rev. 22:13). Therefore God being God everything begins and ends with God's, including His Choice. God's Choice is primary and man's choice secondary. Anyone who thinks his choice overrules God's Choice is a very proud person. He thinks he is above God.
4. I know God's plan for salvation is complete and is meant for everyone (John 3:16). But I have no idea why God saves some but not all. I don't doubt for a moment that God has the power to save all, but I know that He does not choose to save all. One thing I do know; if it pleases God to save some and not all, there is nothing wrong with that. God is not under obligation to save anybody. If He chooses to save some that is no way obligates Him to save the rest.
The Choice of the Natural Man
One thing the natural man (unconverted man) cannot choose and will not choose is Christ. In fact he is not capable of choosing Christ by himself. The natural inclination of the natural man is to keep on running away from Christ. After the Fall, Adam and Eve and all sinners after them became fugitive and turn their backs on God. Don't believe anyone who tells you, "So and so is not a Christian, but he is searching". An unbeliever never seeks after God. It is the job of Christians to help unbelievers to seek God.
What do the natural man seeks after? They are seeking happiness, peace of mind, relief from guilt, a meaningful life, and a host of other things that we know only God can give them. In other words, they are seeking the benefits of God. The natural man's sin is precisely this - He wants the benefits of God without God Himself!
Let us consider two important statements made by Jesus Himself:
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44, NKJV, emphasis added).
"Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father" (John 6:65, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. In the context the word "can" comes from the Greek word "dunamai" which means "having the ability", "possible" or "having the power". It does not mean "permission".
2. The word "draws" comes from the Greek word "helkuo" which means "to drag".
3. The natural man cannot choose to come to Jesus on his own steam without some kind of help from God. The Helper is the Holy Spirit (John 16:8, 9).
4. The word "granted" implies that God must choose him first and then drags him to Jesus.
A Major problem of the fallen man
It is important to realize that the fallen man is flesh (carnal) because of spiritual death - his spirit is dead and needs to be quicken by the Holy Spirit. And his dead spirit is unable to control his fleshly mind.
Paul said, "The fleshly mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you" (Romans 8:7 - 9, emphasis added).
The crucial word here is "if". What distinguishes those who are in the flesh from those who are not is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Only those who are born again have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which enables him to please God by choosing Christ. As long as he remains in the flesh, unregenerated, he will never choose Christ.
The Principle of Divine Election
The Scripture reveals that the Church as well as individual Christian believer, just like Israel, is the products of "divine election" which simply means "God's choice". The principle of divine election says Israel is not Israel because the Jews chose God but because God chose them. Similarly we are Christians not because we chose God but because God chose us. Salvation depends on the decision God has already made. Any decision we make is merely a response to the decision which God has already made. Furthermore, He made that decision before He created the world. In other words, our will to choose Christ is merely a response to God's choice for us.
God's principle of divine election is revealed by the following passages of Scripture:
1. Paul said, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He Justified, these He also glorified" (Romans 8:29, 30, NKJV, emphasis added).
Someone called this the "Golden Chain of Salvation".
2. Paul said, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:3 - 5, emphasis added).
3. Peter's greeting to the Jewish believers (the elect) in the midst of persecution.
".... to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; ..." (1 Peter 1:1, 2, NKJV, emphasis added).
A Major problem of predestination
It is one thing to contemplate God's gracious plan of salvation for the elect. But what about those who are not elect? Are they also predestined? Does God destine some unfortunate people to hell?
I believe totally in the doctrine of predestination because the Scripture says so. But I do not believe God is so unjust in such a way as to predestine anyone to hell. To understand this we have to look at God's sovereignty from a different perspective.
We have seen that all natural (unregenerated) men are guilty of sin in the sight of God. But God sovereignly decides to give mercy to some of them and give justice to the rest. In other words, the saved get mercy and the unsaved get justice. Nobody gets injustice. We must understand that all fallen or natural men do not deserve mercy but deserve justice. God is nover obligated to be merciful to sinners but by God's grace some sinners (the elect) get mercy. But the non-elect get justice.
For example God gave mercy to Jacob in a way He did not give it to Esau. He gave it to Peter in a way He did not give it to Judas. We must learn to praise God both in His mercy and in His justice. When He executes His Justice He is doing nothing wrong. He is executing His justice according to His righteousness.
God, in His mercy, intervenes in the lives of the elect to insure their salvation. The rest of mankind God leaves to themselves. He does not create unbelief in their hearts. The unbelief is already there. He does not have to cause them to sin. They sin by their own choices! They have evil inclination in their hearts. But by His common grace God restarins evil in the world. He restrains evil in individual fallen men in order to restrain evil in the world. He even restrains the appearance of the Anti-Christ until the fullness of time (2 Thess. 2:6, 7).
Judas was a fallen man with evil inclination in his heart. He was not a poor innocent victim of divine manipulation. He was not a righteous man whom God forced to betray Christ and then punished for the betrayal. Judas betrayed Christ because Judas wanted thirty pieces of silver.
It is true that God uses the evil inclination and evil intention of fallen men to bring about His own redemptive purposes. Without Judas there is no Cross for Jesus. Without the Cross there is no redemption. It clearly shows God's redemptive triumph over evil. Other similar examples are Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, both fallen men with evil intention. God did not blemish His own righteousness by creating fresh evil in their hearts. He established His own righteousness by punishing the evil that was already there in them.
Another problem concerning predestination
Peter said, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV, emphasis added).
At first glance, a question comes to mind quite naturally - "If it is not the will of God to elect everyone unto salvation, how can the Bible then say that God is not willing that any should perish?"
The answer is that the above passage of Scripute does not say anything about the sovereign Will of God. In its context, the word "willing" in Greek is "boulomai" which means "be disposed" or "intend". Therefore the phrase "not willing that any should perish" should read, "(God) does not desire or wish or intend that any should perish". In other words, God does not take delight in the death of the unrepentant sinner. His desire is that all should come to Christ.
Conclusion
Let us echo what the apostle Paul said:
"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unseachable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33, 36, NKJV).
The only reliable source of truth comes from God alone and never from man, even from the most Godly and most well-informed man. But this does not mean that we should give up discussing things that are known to be controversial altogether. With the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God we have sufficient revelation knowledge and understanding regarding God's Choice and man's choice and other related topics.
Things I don't know and things I do know
By way of introduction here are some statements concerning some of the things that I don't know and some of the things that I do know:
1. We all belong to the Adamic race and the entire Adamic race were born with a sin nature. We are fallen creatures. But Adam and Eve were not created fallen. They were created perfect with a perfect ability to exercise free will and to choose what was good. Yet they chose to sin. I don't know why they chose to sin and I have not found anyone yet who does know why.
2. I know God is sovereign. The Nelson's Bible Dictionary defines the sovereignty of God as - A theological term which refers to the unlimited power of God, who had sovereign control over the affairs and history of the world. Allow me to put it in simple layman term because I hate theological definitions, and I never understand them. What I understand is, God can do all things and will do what He likes, when He likes without having to explain to anyone and without having to ask anyone's permission.
3. I know God is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last (Rev. 22:13). Therefore God being God everything begins and ends with God's, including His Choice. God's Choice is primary and man's choice secondary. Anyone who thinks his choice overrules God's Choice is a very proud person. He thinks he is above God.
4. I know God's plan for salvation is complete and is meant for everyone (John 3:16). But I have no idea why God saves some but not all. I don't doubt for a moment that God has the power to save all, but I know that He does not choose to save all. One thing I do know; if it pleases God to save some and not all, there is nothing wrong with that. God is not under obligation to save anybody. If He chooses to save some that is no way obligates Him to save the rest.
The Choice of the Natural Man
One thing the natural man (unconverted man) cannot choose and will not choose is Christ. In fact he is not capable of choosing Christ by himself. The natural inclination of the natural man is to keep on running away from Christ. After the Fall, Adam and Eve and all sinners after them became fugitive and turn their backs on God. Don't believe anyone who tells you, "So and so is not a Christian, but he is searching". An unbeliever never seeks after God. It is the job of Christians to help unbelievers to seek God.
What do the natural man seeks after? They are seeking happiness, peace of mind, relief from guilt, a meaningful life, and a host of other things that we know only God can give them. In other words, they are seeking the benefits of God. The natural man's sin is precisely this - He wants the benefits of God without God Himself!
Let us consider two important statements made by Jesus Himself:
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44, NKJV, emphasis added).
"Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father" (John 6:65, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. In the context the word "can" comes from the Greek word "dunamai" which means "having the ability", "possible" or "having the power". It does not mean "permission".
2. The word "draws" comes from the Greek word "helkuo" which means "to drag".
3. The natural man cannot choose to come to Jesus on his own steam without some kind of help from God. The Helper is the Holy Spirit (John 16:8, 9).
4. The word "granted" implies that God must choose him first and then drags him to Jesus.
A Major problem of the fallen man
It is important to realize that the fallen man is flesh (carnal) because of spiritual death - his spirit is dead and needs to be quicken by the Holy Spirit. And his dead spirit is unable to control his fleshly mind.
Paul said, "The fleshly mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you" (Romans 8:7 - 9, emphasis added).
The crucial word here is "if". What distinguishes those who are in the flesh from those who are not is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Only those who are born again have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which enables him to please God by choosing Christ. As long as he remains in the flesh, unregenerated, he will never choose Christ.
The Principle of Divine Election
The Scripture reveals that the Church as well as individual Christian believer, just like Israel, is the products of "divine election" which simply means "God's choice". The principle of divine election says Israel is not Israel because the Jews chose God but because God chose them. Similarly we are Christians not because we chose God but because God chose us. Salvation depends on the decision God has already made. Any decision we make is merely a response to the decision which God has already made. Furthermore, He made that decision before He created the world. In other words, our will to choose Christ is merely a response to God's choice for us.
God's principle of divine election is revealed by the following passages of Scripture:
1. Paul said, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He Justified, these He also glorified" (Romans 8:29, 30, NKJV, emphasis added).
Someone called this the "Golden Chain of Salvation".
2. Paul said, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:3 - 5, emphasis added).
3. Peter's greeting to the Jewish believers (the elect) in the midst of persecution.
".... to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; ..." (1 Peter 1:1, 2, NKJV, emphasis added).
A Major problem of predestination
It is one thing to contemplate God's gracious plan of salvation for the elect. But what about those who are not elect? Are they also predestined? Does God destine some unfortunate people to hell?
I believe totally in the doctrine of predestination because the Scripture says so. But I do not believe God is so unjust in such a way as to predestine anyone to hell. To understand this we have to look at God's sovereignty from a different perspective.
We have seen that all natural (unregenerated) men are guilty of sin in the sight of God. But God sovereignly decides to give mercy to some of them and give justice to the rest. In other words, the saved get mercy and the unsaved get justice. Nobody gets injustice. We must understand that all fallen or natural men do not deserve mercy but deserve justice. God is nover obligated to be merciful to sinners but by God's grace some sinners (the elect) get mercy. But the non-elect get justice.
For example God gave mercy to Jacob in a way He did not give it to Esau. He gave it to Peter in a way He did not give it to Judas. We must learn to praise God both in His mercy and in His justice. When He executes His Justice He is doing nothing wrong. He is executing His justice according to His righteousness.
God, in His mercy, intervenes in the lives of the elect to insure their salvation. The rest of mankind God leaves to themselves. He does not create unbelief in their hearts. The unbelief is already there. He does not have to cause them to sin. They sin by their own choices! They have evil inclination in their hearts. But by His common grace God restarins evil in the world. He restrains evil in individual fallen men in order to restrain evil in the world. He even restrains the appearance of the Anti-Christ until the fullness of time (2 Thess. 2:6, 7).
Judas was a fallen man with evil inclination in his heart. He was not a poor innocent victim of divine manipulation. He was not a righteous man whom God forced to betray Christ and then punished for the betrayal. Judas betrayed Christ because Judas wanted thirty pieces of silver.
It is true that God uses the evil inclination and evil intention of fallen men to bring about His own redemptive purposes. Without Judas there is no Cross for Jesus. Without the Cross there is no redemption. It clearly shows God's redemptive triumph over evil. Other similar examples are Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, both fallen men with evil intention. God did not blemish His own righteousness by creating fresh evil in their hearts. He established His own righteousness by punishing the evil that was already there in them.
Another problem concerning predestination
Peter said, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV, emphasis added).
At first glance, a question comes to mind quite naturally - "If it is not the will of God to elect everyone unto salvation, how can the Bible then say that God is not willing that any should perish?"
The answer is that the above passage of Scripute does not say anything about the sovereign Will of God. In its context, the word "willing" in Greek is "boulomai" which means "be disposed" or "intend". Therefore the phrase "not willing that any should perish" should read, "(God) does not desire or wish or intend that any should perish". In other words, God does not take delight in the death of the unrepentant sinner. His desire is that all should come to Christ.
Conclusion
Let us echo what the apostle Paul said:
"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unseachable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33, 36, NKJV).
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The Strongmen
Before we pray for deliverance with the intention of casting out demons from a person it is important to identify the strongman and other demons of lower authority in that person. This calls for the gift of discerment of the spirits.
What is a strongman? Jesus described it perfectly in Matthew 12. The Pharisees were accusing Jesus for casting out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.
Jesus said, "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? ... But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house" (Matt. 12:26, 28, 29, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. The reign of Satan over people and the reign of God are in opposition. If God expels Satan from his dominion over people then His reign has come. So when we are casting out demons the Kingdom of God is upon us. We are then battling in that Kingdom and under the power of God's Kingdom against Satan's kingdom.
2. Satan would often put a strongman in a person to control that person. He is the chief demon and under him there are other demons with descending order of authority. When you begin to pray for people you will find demons will come out, but the strongman might be hiding at the bottom of the heap. He will push out other demons one or many at a time instead of coming out himself. Therefore until you get to the strongman the person is not delivered.
Prominent Strongmen over cities and Churches
It is beyond the scope of this message to deal with all known strongmen in the Bible. There are three prominent Strongmen that can be easily identified - these are Jezebel, anti-Christ and Death and Hade (come in a pair).
1. Jezebel
Jezebel is the name of two women in the Bible. One is the wife of Ahab, king of Israel (1 Kings 16:31) and the other is a self-claimed prophetess of Thyatira (Rev. 2:20). The description of both of these women, which is quite similar, gives us a picture of the Strongman Jezebel. She represents idolatry and withchcraft. The pagan world referred her as the queen of heaven and they worshipped her since time immemorial.
Jezebel, the Strongman over a city
Jezebel was the Strongman over Babylon. She was the evil power behind Babylon. God's people were put captive in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11) under the hands of Jezebel because of their disobedience.
Isaiah spoke to her, "Therefor hear this now, you who are given to pleasure, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children'; but these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitide of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments" (Isaiah 47:8, 9, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Jezebel was proud and arrogant. She said, "I am, and there is no one else besides me" and therefore claimed herself to be God.
2. Jezebel was the queen behind all sorceries, witchcraft, domination, idolatry, adultery, fornication, astrology, fortune telling, soothe-saying and stargazing and the like.
3. Jezebel's days were numbered and she would receive judgment from God.
Jezebel, the Strongman over the Church
Jesus commanded an angel to write to the Church in Thyatira:
"Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and heart. and I will give to each one of you according to your works" (Rev. 20 - 23, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Jezebel will dwell in the Church if we allow her.
2. Jezebel is a false prophetess and she will seduce Church leaders and causes them to commit sexual immorality (both physical and spiritual). And God hates all forms of sexual immorality.
3. Believers who commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols are children of Jezebel.
4. God gives time for Jezebel and her children to repent.
5. God searches the minds and hearts of Churchgoers and if they are children of Jezebel with the spirit of Jezebel He will pronounce judgment on them. They will be judged together with the Strongman Jezebel unless they repent.
Jezebel, the mother of harlot and abomination
Many Bible teachers, the moment they read about the harlot spirit of Babylon as described in Rev. 17, they will tell you that is the spirit in the Catholic Church. In my opinion it refers to any Church that opens its door to the Jezebel spirit similar to the Church in Thyatira.
Revelation 18 describes the judgment of Jezebel and God's people are urged to come out of her:
"Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities" (Rev. 18:4, 5).
2. The Anti-Christ
The term "Anti-Christ" in Scripture does not mean someone who is against Christ but means someone who takes the place of Christ. He is a false Christ.
Paul said, "Let no one deceive you by any means; for the Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God. ... And now you know what is restraining, that he may revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. ..." (2 Thess. 2:3 - 7, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. The anti-Christ is the man of sin or the son of perdition.
2. The anti-Christ opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God.
3. The Holy Spirit is restraining the anti-Christ and his appearance. He will only be revealed after the true Church, together with the Holy Spirit, is taken away by God.
4. But the spirit of the anti-Christ, which is the spirit of lawlessness, is already at work in the world as well as in some Churches. When you see any form of lawlessness anywhere, you can be sure that anti-Christ, the Strongman, is at work.
The spirit of Lawlessness
You cand find the Strongman (evil spirit) of lawlessness and his children of lawlessness almost everywhere. The Strongman is at work in political scenes, in terrorism, in suicide bombing, in senseless killing, in gang rape, in mass murder, in break-in of properties, in rock concert and you name it. Children of lawlessness are at work in any form of blasphemy, in suicide, in corrupt communication, in outburst of wrath, in curses, all forms of rebellion, in wickedness, in rejection, in selfish ambition, in corruptive practices, in strive, and the list goes on.
An example of spirit of lawlessness at work in the Church is when you see a Pastor committing suicide. In my opinion committing suicide, which is same as the killing of self, is the most serious sin. Repentance is not available for the person who commits suicide simply because a dead person cannot repent!
3. Death and Hades
The common way is to look at death as a state or condition. It is the cessation of life, the experience which results in the separation of the spirit from the body. Since the Fall everyone experiences spiritual death as well as physical death.
The New Testament Scripture reveals that Death and Hades are actually persons:
John saw a vision of the forth horseman, "And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him" (Rev. 6:8).
It is obvious from this account that both Death and Hades are persons. Only a person could sit on a horse, and only another person could follow along with the first one.
I believe both Death and Hades are Strongmen or dark angels, but they have different "ministries". Death claims the spirit of every unrighteous person that is separated from his body when he dies. Hades receives him from Death and conduct him to the realm of the departed spirit from which he receives his name - that is Hades.
Just like the other two strongmen, Death and Hades also have children of lower ranks. Among the children of Death and Hades that cause harm to Christians and non-Christians are seen in curses, frequent accidents, succession of deaths in the family, a tendency to miscarry or related female problems, incurable diseases like AIDS and certain types of cancer, repeated or chronic sicknesses, drug addiction, plaques and the list goes on.
The destiny of Death and Hades is depicted by John as he gave us a picture of the final resurrection of the dead:
"The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each on according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:13, 14).
It is interseting to realize that Jesus Himself says we can avoid seeing Death:
"Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death" (John 8:51, JKJV, emphasis added).
In other words, the condition for not seeing death is to obey and be doer of His Word and to follow all the commands in the Bible. In my opinion anyone who compromises the truth of God's Word in order to please men is excluded.
Notice that Jesus does not say here that the believer will not experience physical death. He says that the believer will not "see death" - "death" as a Strongman.
Jesus maens that the spirit of the true believer (who keeps His Word), on departing from the body, will never come under the dominion of these two Strongmen, Death and Hades. Rather, like Lazarus the beggar (Luke 16:19 - 31) whose departed spirit was met by God's angels and by them escorted to Paradise. In fact, the destiny of the spirit of the true born again believer is into the presence of Jesus and God immidiately in his physical death.
What is a strongman? Jesus described it perfectly in Matthew 12. The Pharisees were accusing Jesus for casting out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.
Jesus said, "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? ... But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house" (Matt. 12:26, 28, 29, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. The reign of Satan over people and the reign of God are in opposition. If God expels Satan from his dominion over people then His reign has come. So when we are casting out demons the Kingdom of God is upon us. We are then battling in that Kingdom and under the power of God's Kingdom against Satan's kingdom.
2. Satan would often put a strongman in a person to control that person. He is the chief demon and under him there are other demons with descending order of authority. When you begin to pray for people you will find demons will come out, but the strongman might be hiding at the bottom of the heap. He will push out other demons one or many at a time instead of coming out himself. Therefore until you get to the strongman the person is not delivered.
Prominent Strongmen over cities and Churches
It is beyond the scope of this message to deal with all known strongmen in the Bible. There are three prominent Strongmen that can be easily identified - these are Jezebel, anti-Christ and Death and Hade (come in a pair).
1. Jezebel
Jezebel is the name of two women in the Bible. One is the wife of Ahab, king of Israel (1 Kings 16:31) and the other is a self-claimed prophetess of Thyatira (Rev. 2:20). The description of both of these women, which is quite similar, gives us a picture of the Strongman Jezebel. She represents idolatry and withchcraft. The pagan world referred her as the queen of heaven and they worshipped her since time immemorial.
Jezebel, the Strongman over a city
Jezebel was the Strongman over Babylon. She was the evil power behind Babylon. God's people were put captive in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11) under the hands of Jezebel because of their disobedience.
Isaiah spoke to her, "Therefor hear this now, you who are given to pleasure, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children'; but these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitide of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments" (Isaiah 47:8, 9, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Jezebel was proud and arrogant. She said, "I am, and there is no one else besides me" and therefore claimed herself to be God.
2. Jezebel was the queen behind all sorceries, witchcraft, domination, idolatry, adultery, fornication, astrology, fortune telling, soothe-saying and stargazing and the like.
3. Jezebel's days were numbered and she would receive judgment from God.
Jezebel, the Strongman over the Church
Jesus commanded an angel to write to the Church in Thyatira:
"Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and heart. and I will give to each one of you according to your works" (Rev. 20 - 23, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Jezebel will dwell in the Church if we allow her.
2. Jezebel is a false prophetess and she will seduce Church leaders and causes them to commit sexual immorality (both physical and spiritual). And God hates all forms of sexual immorality.
3. Believers who commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols are children of Jezebel.
4. God gives time for Jezebel and her children to repent.
5. God searches the minds and hearts of Churchgoers and if they are children of Jezebel with the spirit of Jezebel He will pronounce judgment on them. They will be judged together with the Strongman Jezebel unless they repent.
Jezebel, the mother of harlot and abomination
Many Bible teachers, the moment they read about the harlot spirit of Babylon as described in Rev. 17, they will tell you that is the spirit in the Catholic Church. In my opinion it refers to any Church that opens its door to the Jezebel spirit similar to the Church in Thyatira.
Revelation 18 describes the judgment of Jezebel and God's people are urged to come out of her:
"Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities" (Rev. 18:4, 5).
2. The Anti-Christ
The term "Anti-Christ" in Scripture does not mean someone who is against Christ but means someone who takes the place of Christ. He is a false Christ.
Paul said, "Let no one deceive you by any means; for the Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God. ... And now you know what is restraining, that he may revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. ..." (2 Thess. 2:3 - 7, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. The anti-Christ is the man of sin or the son of perdition.
2. The anti-Christ opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God.
3. The Holy Spirit is restraining the anti-Christ and his appearance. He will only be revealed after the true Church, together with the Holy Spirit, is taken away by God.
4. But the spirit of the anti-Christ, which is the spirit of lawlessness, is already at work in the world as well as in some Churches. When you see any form of lawlessness anywhere, you can be sure that anti-Christ, the Strongman, is at work.
The spirit of Lawlessness
You cand find the Strongman (evil spirit) of lawlessness and his children of lawlessness almost everywhere. The Strongman is at work in political scenes, in terrorism, in suicide bombing, in senseless killing, in gang rape, in mass murder, in break-in of properties, in rock concert and you name it. Children of lawlessness are at work in any form of blasphemy, in suicide, in corrupt communication, in outburst of wrath, in curses, all forms of rebellion, in wickedness, in rejection, in selfish ambition, in corruptive practices, in strive, and the list goes on.
An example of spirit of lawlessness at work in the Church is when you see a Pastor committing suicide. In my opinion committing suicide, which is same as the killing of self, is the most serious sin. Repentance is not available for the person who commits suicide simply because a dead person cannot repent!
3. Death and Hades
The common way is to look at death as a state or condition. It is the cessation of life, the experience which results in the separation of the spirit from the body. Since the Fall everyone experiences spiritual death as well as physical death.
The New Testament Scripture reveals that Death and Hades are actually persons:
John saw a vision of the forth horseman, "And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him" (Rev. 6:8).
It is obvious from this account that both Death and Hades are persons. Only a person could sit on a horse, and only another person could follow along with the first one.
I believe both Death and Hades are Strongmen or dark angels, but they have different "ministries". Death claims the spirit of every unrighteous person that is separated from his body when he dies. Hades receives him from Death and conduct him to the realm of the departed spirit from which he receives his name - that is Hades.
Just like the other two strongmen, Death and Hades also have children of lower ranks. Among the children of Death and Hades that cause harm to Christians and non-Christians are seen in curses, frequent accidents, succession of deaths in the family, a tendency to miscarry or related female problems, incurable diseases like AIDS and certain types of cancer, repeated or chronic sicknesses, drug addiction, plaques and the list goes on.
The destiny of Death and Hades is depicted by John as he gave us a picture of the final resurrection of the dead:
"The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each on according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:13, 14).
It is interseting to realize that Jesus Himself says we can avoid seeing Death:
"Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death" (John 8:51, JKJV, emphasis added).
In other words, the condition for not seeing death is to obey and be doer of His Word and to follow all the commands in the Bible. In my opinion anyone who compromises the truth of God's Word in order to please men is excluded.
Notice that Jesus does not say here that the believer will not experience physical death. He says that the believer will not "see death" - "death" as a Strongman.
Jesus maens that the spirit of the true believer (who keeps His Word), on departing from the body, will never come under the dominion of these two Strongmen, Death and Hades. Rather, like Lazarus the beggar (Luke 16:19 - 31) whose departed spirit was met by God's angels and by them escorted to Paradise. In fact, the destiny of the spirit of the true born again believer is into the presence of Jesus and God immidiately in his physical death.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Deliverance from Demons
In my opinion the so-called "deliverance ministry" that is commonly referred to by many Christians is not scriptural. It is solely based on human experience and not firmly grounded in the Word of God. The word "ministry" suggests a person is gifted by God to serve in a particular area of need in the Church.
Having said that, however, "deliverance" among Christians and in the Christian Church is scriptural except that you cannot call it as a ministry gift. If you are a Christian, healing and deliverance belong to you. But you need to realize that the word "deliverance" does not just mean deliverance from demons. It means set free from anything that would try to bind you as a Christian believer. It is our redemptive right to be set free from Satan's dominion. Jesus Christ bought and paid for your redemption on the Cross of Calvary and that redemption includes deliverance from any satanic bondage in the whole person - spirit, soul and body. Healing and deliverance from demons are part of our covenant rights when we accept Jesus as our Savior (Matt. 8:17; Luke 10:19; 1 Peter 2:24).
Jesus and His disciples
It is interesting to realize that Jesus never once sent His disciples out to preach the gospel without also telling them to cast our demons.
Jesus said to the twelve when He sent them out to preach:
".... and as you go, preach, saying, 'the Kingdom of heaven is at hand'. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:7, 8, NKJV).
It is true that the above refers to Jesus sending out the 12 disciples only. But Luke recorded Jesus also sent out seventy others (Luke 10:1).
"Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the demons are subject ot us in Your name'. And He said to them, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven'" (Luke 10:17, 18, emphasis added).
Notice that it is the Name of Jesus that demons are subject to. Demons are cast out because there is authority in the name of Jesus.
If you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ then you are expected to cast out demons as you go out to preach the gospel to fulfill the Great Commission.
Jesus said to His disciples, "And these signs will follow those who believe. In My name they will cast out demons; ..." (Mark 16:17).
The implication is that if you do not cast out demons in His name then you are either not a true disciple or you are an unbelieving believer! We must understand that casting out of demons is part of your Christian walk.
Christians and demons
An important fact is, Christians can and do have demons! A demon is a spirit being without a body and he is looking for a body in live in. The body he is looking for can be a Christian or a non-Christian body. What we are talking about is a person having a demon and not possessed by a demonic spirit. There is a big difference here. Confusion arises because in the King James Version of the Bible the word "possess" and the phrase "possessed by" are being usesd in the area of demon activities. Possession means ownership. A Christian cannot be owned by the Holy Spirit and the demonic spirit at the same time. The correct translation is "a man is having a demon".
Why do Christians have demons?
The likelihood of Christians having demons depends on how much they have surrendered their life to Jesus. If there has been absolute repentance at the time of salvation, and Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, occupied every recess in the inner depths of their heart, together with an absolute renunciation of all sin, then there is little or no demon activity.
Solomon said, "The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart" (Proverbs 20:27).
The Lord is searching the inner depths of our heart or belly. But many of us still have little secret areas within our heart that is not released to Him. This gives Satan the legal right to sit in there. The fact is, if we are not wholly unto God we are partly unto Satan.
I believe the greatest entry point for demon power is sexual immorality.
Paul said, ".... he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For 'the two,' He says, 'shall become one flesh'. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Cor. 6:16, 17).
When people have sex outside of marriage spirits pass between their bodies. It is therefore conceivable that they will have the spirit of fornication or adultery still in them even though they have given their life to the Lord. Sometimes these unclean spirits follow Christians who have been in past sexual immorality and they usually become oppressed unless they are fully delivered and set free with the spirits cast out.
Our Battle and our real enemies
Paul said, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12, NKJV).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Our real enemies or opponents are not physical but spiritual opponents.
2. These spiritual opponents have descending order of authority - Principalities (despotisms), evil powers, master spirits at this present age of darkness and spirit forces of wickedness.
3. Our battle ground is at the heavenly or supernatural realm or sphere.
Dealing with spirit forces of wickedness
The Lord willing, I plan to deal with Spiritual battle in greater details in other future messages. In the meantime let us consider our spiritual opponent of the lowest order of authority - spirit forces of wickedness. Take as an example, a situaltion when people (believers or non-believers) are unkind toward us and saying things against us.
Our natural inclination is to use our mind to deal with their mind whereas in fact it is the evil spirit forces in them that is attacking us. These spirit forces might have affected their mind and give them unkind words to say to us. We must not respond to their mind when in fact we are dealing with the spirit forces within them. That is why we need the gift of discernment of the spirits (1 Cor. 12:10) in the Church.
When somebody hates you and speaks spitefully against you, your first reaction is to defend yourself, Jesus did not do that but instead He said:
".... bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ..." (Matt. 5:44).
In other words, your are to use God's love to deal with that person. The demon power in that person cannot handle God's love. So when you are praying for someone who has hurt you, you are actually using the weapon of God's love to fight against the spirit in that person. The result is, the evil spirit is thrown into confusion and you will begin to win the battle. But if you begin to react because that person is speaking against you, you are doing exactly what the demons want you to do. The more you fight in the natural the less chance you have in victory in the spiritual. When the spiritual is won the natural will be won also! The fact is that Satan's kingdom is controlled by fear but God has a parallel kingdom controlled by love.
John said, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18).
So do not fear the person who hates you and says unkind things to you. Instead fear God and use God's love to deal with that person.
Demons over Christian Churches
Satan loves religion, including religious ritual and religious forms of worship. The greatest way in which Satan operates over the Christian Churches is through the spirit of sectarianism. For a long time the Catholic Churches claimed they are the right ones and then the Protestant Churches claimed likewise. Then there is the problem of denomination barrier. Then there is the division between the Calvinists and the Armenians - division between those who believe in predistination and those who believe in freewill. If we dwell on these differences we become tools for Satan and his evil spirits.
The fact is that there is not a single Local Church that has no carnality in it, criticism in it, fighting in it, argument in it, split in it and problem in it. The only way to resolve these problems and divisions is through God's love.
In the beginning of the Charismatic movement there was a great division between Spirit-filled Christians and non-spirit filled Christians. In the beginning of our Spiritual life Satan will show us we are better that the people around us; that we have more knowledge and more wisdom; that we speak in tongues and cast out demons. The greatest problem in the Charismatic renewal has been the lack of God's love shown by those who became born-again and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Bible Colleges and Seminaries and their deceptive teaching
A renowned Bible teacher, who is with the Lord now, once said, "Many Bible Seminaries are breeding grounds of unbelief and strongholds of Satan. Many students enter the Seminaries with a measure of Biblical faith but have their faith totally shipwrecked after graduation"?
The Devil did a marvelous work in these seminaries. Some theologians who teach in these seminaries are proclaimed atheists who studied the Bible using their intellect, and form their own theology using their own wisdom. Students of these seminaries are told, among other ungodly things, that demons do not exist; you do not cast out demons or heal the sick and divine healing is not for today - all ceased to exist and died with the 12 apostles! They totally ignored Mark 16 and failed to understand the power of the early Church. They even failed to understand that casting out of demons and healing the sick is part and parcel of our Christian walk. No wonder our Churches lack power.
Conclusion
Many contemporary Churches are busy implementing Church-growth, Church development and revival programs. My question is, why do we need Church growth program? What we need is the Holy Ghost program. All we need is to emulate the early Church - lay hands on the sick, cast out demons and set captives free. When such power is seen and manifested in your Church, people will come and very soon you will need a much bigger Church building. When some smart experts on Church-growth come to offer their services to your Church, ask them do they cast out demons, do they heal the sick. Also ask them how many miracles do they see every week in their own Church. If they cannot give you a satisfactory answer they are wasting your time!
Having said that, however, "deliverance" among Christians and in the Christian Church is scriptural except that you cannot call it as a ministry gift. If you are a Christian, healing and deliverance belong to you. But you need to realize that the word "deliverance" does not just mean deliverance from demons. It means set free from anything that would try to bind you as a Christian believer. It is our redemptive right to be set free from Satan's dominion. Jesus Christ bought and paid for your redemption on the Cross of Calvary and that redemption includes deliverance from any satanic bondage in the whole person - spirit, soul and body. Healing and deliverance from demons are part of our covenant rights when we accept Jesus as our Savior (Matt. 8:17; Luke 10:19; 1 Peter 2:24).
Jesus and His disciples
It is interesting to realize that Jesus never once sent His disciples out to preach the gospel without also telling them to cast our demons.
Jesus said to the twelve when He sent them out to preach:
".... and as you go, preach, saying, 'the Kingdom of heaven is at hand'. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:7, 8, NKJV).
It is true that the above refers to Jesus sending out the 12 disciples only. But Luke recorded Jesus also sent out seventy others (Luke 10:1).
"Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the demons are subject ot us in Your name'. And He said to them, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven'" (Luke 10:17, 18, emphasis added).
Notice that it is the Name of Jesus that demons are subject to. Demons are cast out because there is authority in the name of Jesus.
If you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ then you are expected to cast out demons as you go out to preach the gospel to fulfill the Great Commission.
Jesus said to His disciples, "And these signs will follow those who believe. In My name they will cast out demons; ..." (Mark 16:17).
The implication is that if you do not cast out demons in His name then you are either not a true disciple or you are an unbelieving believer! We must understand that casting out of demons is part of your Christian walk.
Christians and demons
An important fact is, Christians can and do have demons! A demon is a spirit being without a body and he is looking for a body in live in. The body he is looking for can be a Christian or a non-Christian body. What we are talking about is a person having a demon and not possessed by a demonic spirit. There is a big difference here. Confusion arises because in the King James Version of the Bible the word "possess" and the phrase "possessed by" are being usesd in the area of demon activities. Possession means ownership. A Christian cannot be owned by the Holy Spirit and the demonic spirit at the same time. The correct translation is "a man is having a demon".
Why do Christians have demons?
The likelihood of Christians having demons depends on how much they have surrendered their life to Jesus. If there has been absolute repentance at the time of salvation, and Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, occupied every recess in the inner depths of their heart, together with an absolute renunciation of all sin, then there is little or no demon activity.
Solomon said, "The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart" (Proverbs 20:27).
The Lord is searching the inner depths of our heart or belly. But many of us still have little secret areas within our heart that is not released to Him. This gives Satan the legal right to sit in there. The fact is, if we are not wholly unto God we are partly unto Satan.
I believe the greatest entry point for demon power is sexual immorality.
Paul said, ".... he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For 'the two,' He says, 'shall become one flesh'. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Cor. 6:16, 17).
When people have sex outside of marriage spirits pass between their bodies. It is therefore conceivable that they will have the spirit of fornication or adultery still in them even though they have given their life to the Lord. Sometimes these unclean spirits follow Christians who have been in past sexual immorality and they usually become oppressed unless they are fully delivered and set free with the spirits cast out.
Our Battle and our real enemies
Paul said, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12, NKJV).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Our real enemies or opponents are not physical but spiritual opponents.
2. These spiritual opponents have descending order of authority - Principalities (despotisms), evil powers, master spirits at this present age of darkness and spirit forces of wickedness.
3. Our battle ground is at the heavenly or supernatural realm or sphere.
Dealing with spirit forces of wickedness
The Lord willing, I plan to deal with Spiritual battle in greater details in other future messages. In the meantime let us consider our spiritual opponent of the lowest order of authority - spirit forces of wickedness. Take as an example, a situaltion when people (believers or non-believers) are unkind toward us and saying things against us.
Our natural inclination is to use our mind to deal with their mind whereas in fact it is the evil spirit forces in them that is attacking us. These spirit forces might have affected their mind and give them unkind words to say to us. We must not respond to their mind when in fact we are dealing with the spirit forces within them. That is why we need the gift of discernment of the spirits (1 Cor. 12:10) in the Church.
When somebody hates you and speaks spitefully against you, your first reaction is to defend yourself, Jesus did not do that but instead He said:
".... bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ..." (Matt. 5:44).
In other words, your are to use God's love to deal with that person. The demon power in that person cannot handle God's love. So when you are praying for someone who has hurt you, you are actually using the weapon of God's love to fight against the spirit in that person. The result is, the evil spirit is thrown into confusion and you will begin to win the battle. But if you begin to react because that person is speaking against you, you are doing exactly what the demons want you to do. The more you fight in the natural the less chance you have in victory in the spiritual. When the spiritual is won the natural will be won also! The fact is that Satan's kingdom is controlled by fear but God has a parallel kingdom controlled by love.
John said, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18).
So do not fear the person who hates you and says unkind things to you. Instead fear God and use God's love to deal with that person.
Demons over Christian Churches
Satan loves religion, including religious ritual and religious forms of worship. The greatest way in which Satan operates over the Christian Churches is through the spirit of sectarianism. For a long time the Catholic Churches claimed they are the right ones and then the Protestant Churches claimed likewise. Then there is the problem of denomination barrier. Then there is the division between the Calvinists and the Armenians - division between those who believe in predistination and those who believe in freewill. If we dwell on these differences we become tools for Satan and his evil spirits.
The fact is that there is not a single Local Church that has no carnality in it, criticism in it, fighting in it, argument in it, split in it and problem in it. The only way to resolve these problems and divisions is through God's love.
In the beginning of the Charismatic movement there was a great division between Spirit-filled Christians and non-spirit filled Christians. In the beginning of our Spiritual life Satan will show us we are better that the people around us; that we have more knowledge and more wisdom; that we speak in tongues and cast out demons. The greatest problem in the Charismatic renewal has been the lack of God's love shown by those who became born-again and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Bible Colleges and Seminaries and their deceptive teaching
A renowned Bible teacher, who is with the Lord now, once said, "Many Bible Seminaries are breeding grounds of unbelief and strongholds of Satan. Many students enter the Seminaries with a measure of Biblical faith but have their faith totally shipwrecked after graduation"?
The Devil did a marvelous work in these seminaries. Some theologians who teach in these seminaries are proclaimed atheists who studied the Bible using their intellect, and form their own theology using their own wisdom. Students of these seminaries are told, among other ungodly things, that demons do not exist; you do not cast out demons or heal the sick and divine healing is not for today - all ceased to exist and died with the 12 apostles! They totally ignored Mark 16 and failed to understand the power of the early Church. They even failed to understand that casting out of demons and healing the sick is part and parcel of our Christian walk. No wonder our Churches lack power.
Conclusion
Many contemporary Churches are busy implementing Church-growth, Church development and revival programs. My question is, why do we need Church growth program? What we need is the Holy Ghost program. All we need is to emulate the early Church - lay hands on the sick, cast out demons and set captives free. When such power is seen and manifested in your Church, people will come and very soon you will need a much bigger Church building. When some smart experts on Church-growth come to offer their services to your Church, ask them do they cast out demons, do they heal the sick. Also ask them how many miracles do they see every week in their own Church. If they cannot give you a satisfactory answer they are wasting your time!
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Possessing Our Inheritance
As mentioned in my message last week the people of God, both the children of Israel and Christian believers, went through three transit points on their pilgrimage journeys to possess their inheritance in Christ. The purpose of the transit points is to mature us so that we are ready to fight battles and possess our God given inheritance. God is not impressed with our inheritance but He is impressed with our possession. The fact is what we have in possession right now is only a small portion of what God expected us to inherit.
God said to His Son Jesus Christ through the psalmist:
"Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession" (Ps. 2:8, NKJV).
Our full possession in Christ is the "ends of the earth" - until what Paul said is fulfilled:
"At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10, 11).
Until that day you and I dare not rest!
The Battle of Jericho and the Battle of Ai
The children of Israel had enough time spent on transit and God wanted them to move on to do battles in order to possess their inheritance. We, as children of God must also move on and come into our inheritance in Christ. But before that there are a few lessens to be learned from the Battle of Jericho and the Battle of Ai. In these two battles the Lord did wonders amount the children of Israel and at the same time the Lord demanded total obedience from them before victory could be realized.
The Battle of Jericho
Before the children of Israel crossed over the Jordan to do battle against Jericho Joshua said to them, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you" (Joshua 3:5).
God is saying the same thing to us before we get involve in spiritual warfare. In our particular context, and in the particular period of time "sanctification" means we need to develop Christ-like character only the Fruit of the Holy Spirit can bring. We have been talking so much of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit which speak about God's power. Now it is time for us to ask God to begin to stamp the character of His Son in each one of us.
Until today the Battle of Jericho continues to be a source of pride to the Jews. And we today in the Christian Church are still talking about it and identify spiritual warfare as "bringing down the walls of Jericho". We must learn how to make intercession effectively in spiritual battle. Just mouth-prayer, asking God to bless this and that will not do. We need to change our "shopping lists" prayer in our Church prayer meetings to more aggreesive intercessary prayer. The Devil is laughing at our "pea-shooter" prayer.
God gave clear specific instruction on how to deal with Jericho. In fact God had already given Jericho to the children of Israel (Joshua 6:2). All they needed to do was to obey Him in marching around Jericho (Joshua 6:2 - 16). When God said move they moved and when He said shout they shouted. God Himself did it all and there were no human casualty - amazing!
God also gave specific instruction to the children of Israel not to take of the devoted or accursed things (Joshua 6:18). We were not told what those accursed things were. It could be little idols or amulets made out of metal or precious stones.
The Battle of Ai
After the Battle of Jericho the children of Israel were overconfident. Instead of seeking God first they became presumptuous and made their own decision. They said, "Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thounsand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few" (Joshua 7:3).
Tragically and painfully 36 men were killed in the battle (Joshua 7:5) and God declared "Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them" (Joshua 7:11).
The problem was Achan from the tribe of Judah was identified as someone taken some accursed things from Jericho, and he was brought to the valley of Achor where he was stoned. In those days God dealt with His people severely. No one can come against the enemies with sin in the camp (Joshua 7:13).
We have sin in our camp (the Church) too and let us pray that God will not deal with us in this particular way. But He certainly dealt severely with Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1 - 11). We can't play around with sin! That is why we need to sanctify ourselves. That is why we need to emphasize the Fruit of the Spirit, holiness and Christ-like character. But if we do fall we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1, 2).
God is saying to us today, a single defeat does not mean it is finished. We must move on and keep moving on because God is on our side. But we must remember to do things His way and never be presumptuous.
Paul said, "If anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules" (2 Tim. 2:5, NKJV).
After the children of Israel had purified themselves and got rid of the accursed things God gave them victory over Ai and they were permitted to take some of the spoil (Joshua 8:2).
Then every where the children of Israel went there were victories. "So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war" (Joshua 11:23).
Inheritance and Possession
God promised the children of Israel the land of Canaan as their inheritance. But their inheritance at the time of Joshua was not matched by possession and Joshua was getting old.
God said to Joshua, "You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed" (Joshua 13:1).
But the children of Israel had grown fat and became complacent and got tired of fighting even though God had already promised them victory. They were quiet happy with the land they had possessed so far.
Are our Churches also getting fat? Hope all the man-made charismatic food will not store up fat. We need spiritual muscles to go out and fight battles! We have forgotten to sanctify ourselves and we allow the world to come in the Church. Christians are beginning to love worldly values and worldly methods. The qualification for elders and pastors is no more a spiritual one. Therefore very few elders and pastors are true spiritual leaders.
Three things began to erode into the spiritual life of the people of God:
1. In alliance with heathens. "You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them" (Deut. 7:2).
2. Unequally yoked to marriages. "Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son" (Deut. 7:3).
3. Involvement in idolatry. "You shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire" (Deut. 7:5).
Recipients of God's Special Blessings
In every move of God's Spirit there are those who received special blessings from God. The reason was not because God has favorites but because He was (and still is) the rewarder of those who diligently seek to please Him (Heb. 11:6).
I found one person and three tribes among the children of Israel in Joshua's time who were recipients of God's special blessings.
1. A man called Caleb (Joshua 14)
Caleb received special blessings because he wholly followed the Lord (Joshua 14:9). He believed the Lord is greater than any giants. He had a different spirit, not an independent spirit, but the Spirit of the Living God. He looked after God's interest and God looked after his and rewarded him with strength and long life (Joshua 14:11, 12).
"With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation" (Ps. 91:16).
"My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you" (Pro. 3:1, 2).
Caleb was 85 years old when he received his inheritance. But he was as strong as the day that Moses sent him out to be one of the 12 spies (Joshua 14:11).
In my opinion if you want similar special inheritance of Caleb you need to do two things - You must follow the God fully and make sure you have a different spirit from the world which brings fear.
2. The tribes of Simeon and Judah (Joshua 19)
The tribes of Simeon and Judah were the recipients of special blessings:
"The inheritance of the children of Simeon was included in the share of the children of Judah, for the share of the children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of that people" (Joshua 19:9).
It was without doubt the tribe of Judah was the tribe that received special blessings. It was the tribe of Judah from which our Lord Jesus Christ came and from which king David came (according to the genealogy of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke). Jesus was referred to as the Son of David.
Jesus is the Keeper of the people of God and He is never idle:
"He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps. 121:3, 4).
Jesus is the Great High Priest who "always lives to make intercession for" you and I (Heb. 7:25).
The tribe of Simeon inherited special blessings because they received the same special blessings as the tribe of Judah.
3. The tribe of Levi
The tribe of Levi, from which the priesthood came, received the most special blessing. They received no inheritance like other tribes but the Lord Himself was their inheritance.
"The priests, the Levites - all the tribe of Levi - shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them" (Deut. 18:1, 2, emphasis added).
The Bible tells us that you and I are priests (Rev. 1:6; Rev. 5:10) and we are together in the Body of Christ, a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:50) and a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). But we do not belong to the tribe of Levi. We are of a vey special tribe if Jesus is truly our Lord and we live in Him.
According to the writer of Hebrews the Levitical priesthood was never perfect because it was a priesthood under the Law (heb. 7:11). Jesus, the great High Priest, on the other hand is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek and His Priesthood is unchangeable (Heb. 7:20 - 24).
Because we live in Jesus we are kings and priests of the same order as Him in the Kingdom of God. At the moment we are His representatives on earth!
The priests from the tribe of Levi were the custodians of the sacred flame (the Shekinah Glory) of God. In the Tabernacle of Moses only Aaron (the high priest) and priests were allowed to minister in the altar of incense. The fire at the brazen altar was divinely let by the Glory of God on the day of dedication. Coals were taken from the brazen altar by Aaron to light the golden altar of incense. In the holy of holies, where only the high priest could enter once a year, was lighted by the very Glory of God. The brightness was called the Shekinah.
God lighted the fire in the Church on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4). You and I are now custadians of this sacred flame which is burning in each one of us in the Person of the eternal Holy Spirit of God! The Spirit of Christ in us brings regeneration and transformation in the inner man and stamps upon each one of us the character and marks of Jesus Christ. When we go out and bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world we are spreading God's life and God's light to the unbelieving world.
"... that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, ..." (Eph. 1:18).
Our calling as the Body of Christ is to receive His full inheritance!
God said to His Son Jesus Christ through the psalmist:
"Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession" (Ps. 2:8, NKJV).
Our full possession in Christ is the "ends of the earth" - until what Paul said is fulfilled:
"At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10, 11).
Until that day you and I dare not rest!
The Battle of Jericho and the Battle of Ai
The children of Israel had enough time spent on transit and God wanted them to move on to do battles in order to possess their inheritance. We, as children of God must also move on and come into our inheritance in Christ. But before that there are a few lessens to be learned from the Battle of Jericho and the Battle of Ai. In these two battles the Lord did wonders amount the children of Israel and at the same time the Lord demanded total obedience from them before victory could be realized.
The Battle of Jericho
Before the children of Israel crossed over the Jordan to do battle against Jericho Joshua said to them, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you" (Joshua 3:5).
God is saying the same thing to us before we get involve in spiritual warfare. In our particular context, and in the particular period of time "sanctification" means we need to develop Christ-like character only the Fruit of the Holy Spirit can bring. We have been talking so much of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit which speak about God's power. Now it is time for us to ask God to begin to stamp the character of His Son in each one of us.
Until today the Battle of Jericho continues to be a source of pride to the Jews. And we today in the Christian Church are still talking about it and identify spiritual warfare as "bringing down the walls of Jericho". We must learn how to make intercession effectively in spiritual battle. Just mouth-prayer, asking God to bless this and that will not do. We need to change our "shopping lists" prayer in our Church prayer meetings to more aggreesive intercessary prayer. The Devil is laughing at our "pea-shooter" prayer.
God gave clear specific instruction on how to deal with Jericho. In fact God had already given Jericho to the children of Israel (Joshua 6:2). All they needed to do was to obey Him in marching around Jericho (Joshua 6:2 - 16). When God said move they moved and when He said shout they shouted. God Himself did it all and there were no human casualty - amazing!
God also gave specific instruction to the children of Israel not to take of the devoted or accursed things (Joshua 6:18). We were not told what those accursed things were. It could be little idols or amulets made out of metal or precious stones.
The Battle of Ai
After the Battle of Jericho the children of Israel were overconfident. Instead of seeking God first they became presumptuous and made their own decision. They said, "Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thounsand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few" (Joshua 7:3).
Tragically and painfully 36 men were killed in the battle (Joshua 7:5) and God declared "Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them" (Joshua 7:11).
The problem was Achan from the tribe of Judah was identified as someone taken some accursed things from Jericho, and he was brought to the valley of Achor where he was stoned. In those days God dealt with His people severely. No one can come against the enemies with sin in the camp (Joshua 7:13).
We have sin in our camp (the Church) too and let us pray that God will not deal with us in this particular way. But He certainly dealt severely with Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1 - 11). We can't play around with sin! That is why we need to sanctify ourselves. That is why we need to emphasize the Fruit of the Spirit, holiness and Christ-like character. But if we do fall we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1, 2).
God is saying to us today, a single defeat does not mean it is finished. We must move on and keep moving on because God is on our side. But we must remember to do things His way and never be presumptuous.
Paul said, "If anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules" (2 Tim. 2:5, NKJV).
After the children of Israel had purified themselves and got rid of the accursed things God gave them victory over Ai and they were permitted to take some of the spoil (Joshua 8:2).
Then every where the children of Israel went there were victories. "So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war" (Joshua 11:23).
Inheritance and Possession
God promised the children of Israel the land of Canaan as their inheritance. But their inheritance at the time of Joshua was not matched by possession and Joshua was getting old.
God said to Joshua, "You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed" (Joshua 13:1).
But the children of Israel had grown fat and became complacent and got tired of fighting even though God had already promised them victory. They were quiet happy with the land they had possessed so far.
Are our Churches also getting fat? Hope all the man-made charismatic food will not store up fat. We need spiritual muscles to go out and fight battles! We have forgotten to sanctify ourselves and we allow the world to come in the Church. Christians are beginning to love worldly values and worldly methods. The qualification for elders and pastors is no more a spiritual one. Therefore very few elders and pastors are true spiritual leaders.
Three things began to erode into the spiritual life of the people of God:
1. In alliance with heathens. "You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them" (Deut. 7:2).
2. Unequally yoked to marriages. "Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son" (Deut. 7:3).
3. Involvement in idolatry. "You shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire" (Deut. 7:5).
Recipients of God's Special Blessings
In every move of God's Spirit there are those who received special blessings from God. The reason was not because God has favorites but because He was (and still is) the rewarder of those who diligently seek to please Him (Heb. 11:6).
I found one person and three tribes among the children of Israel in Joshua's time who were recipients of God's special blessings.
1. A man called Caleb (Joshua 14)
Caleb received special blessings because he wholly followed the Lord (Joshua 14:9). He believed the Lord is greater than any giants. He had a different spirit, not an independent spirit, but the Spirit of the Living God. He looked after God's interest and God looked after his and rewarded him with strength and long life (Joshua 14:11, 12).
"With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation" (Ps. 91:16).
"My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you" (Pro. 3:1, 2).
Caleb was 85 years old when he received his inheritance. But he was as strong as the day that Moses sent him out to be one of the 12 spies (Joshua 14:11).
In my opinion if you want similar special inheritance of Caleb you need to do two things - You must follow the God fully and make sure you have a different spirit from the world which brings fear.
2. The tribes of Simeon and Judah (Joshua 19)
The tribes of Simeon and Judah were the recipients of special blessings:
"The inheritance of the children of Simeon was included in the share of the children of Judah, for the share of the children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of that people" (Joshua 19:9).
It was without doubt the tribe of Judah was the tribe that received special blessings. It was the tribe of Judah from which our Lord Jesus Christ came and from which king David came (according to the genealogy of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke). Jesus was referred to as the Son of David.
Jesus is the Keeper of the people of God and He is never idle:
"He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps. 121:3, 4).
Jesus is the Great High Priest who "always lives to make intercession for" you and I (Heb. 7:25).
The tribe of Simeon inherited special blessings because they received the same special blessings as the tribe of Judah.
3. The tribe of Levi
The tribe of Levi, from which the priesthood came, received the most special blessing. They received no inheritance like other tribes but the Lord Himself was their inheritance.
"The priests, the Levites - all the tribe of Levi - shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them" (Deut. 18:1, 2, emphasis added).
The Bible tells us that you and I are priests (Rev. 1:6; Rev. 5:10) and we are together in the Body of Christ, a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:50) and a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). But we do not belong to the tribe of Levi. We are of a vey special tribe if Jesus is truly our Lord and we live in Him.
According to the writer of Hebrews the Levitical priesthood was never perfect because it was a priesthood under the Law (heb. 7:11). Jesus, the great High Priest, on the other hand is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek and His Priesthood is unchangeable (Heb. 7:20 - 24).
Because we live in Jesus we are kings and priests of the same order as Him in the Kingdom of God. At the moment we are His representatives on earth!
The priests from the tribe of Levi were the custodians of the sacred flame (the Shekinah Glory) of God. In the Tabernacle of Moses only Aaron (the high priest) and priests were allowed to minister in the altar of incense. The fire at the brazen altar was divinely let by the Glory of God on the day of dedication. Coals were taken from the brazen altar by Aaron to light the golden altar of incense. In the holy of holies, where only the high priest could enter once a year, was lighted by the very Glory of God. The brightness was called the Shekinah.
God lighted the fire in the Church on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4). You and I are now custadians of this sacred flame which is burning in each one of us in the Person of the eternal Holy Spirit of God! The Spirit of Christ in us brings regeneration and transformation in the inner man and stamps upon each one of us the character and marks of Jesus Christ. When we go out and bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world we are spreading God's life and God's light to the unbelieving world.
"... that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, ..." (Eph. 1:18).
Our calling as the Body of Christ is to receive His full inheritance!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The People of God in Transit
In the previous two messages we dealt with God's End-time People and God's End-time Church endued with Power from on High. When Joel's prophecy (Joel 2:23) is fulfilled God's people will receive both the Former Rain and the Latter Rain. But before this comes to pass and before God allows His people to possess His full inheritance He has to bring His people through many transit points in their pilgrimage journey in order to mature them.
There is a parallel truth concerning the pilgrimage journey of the children of Israel delivered from the bondage of Egypt and the pilgrimage journey of Christian believers delivered from the bondage of sins and the bondage of the spirit of the world. The children of Israel in their wandering in the wilderness came to 3 transit points. At each of the transit points significant things happened to them. Very ofter as a result of what they did and did not do in God's dealing with them the consequences of it could be quite predictable. There are certain principles we can develop which will help us to learn with regards to what happen to the Church and individual believers in transit.
Prophetically, the Church is in transit. The lessen learned can also be applied to ourselves personally in our own personal pilgrimage. We call it pilgrimage because whether we like it or not, God only allocated to each one of us threescore years and ten (Ps. 90:10). If you live to the age of 80 there is nothing for you to boast about because God has granted you 10 years grace period.
Picture of the children of Israel in Egypt
"Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them" (Exodus 2:23 - 25, NKJV, emphasis added).
"So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians ..." (Ex. 3:8, emphasis added).
According to the above passages of Scripture four things happened when the children of Israel cried out to God:
1. God heard their groaning.
2. God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. His covenant was He would multiply their descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore (Gen. 22:17).
3. God saw their conditions.
4. God came down.
The manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit that you are seeing in many Asian countries today is due to the fact that many years ago, the people of God, though small in number, began to cry out to God for revival. Missionaries were sent and many leaders of Evangelical Churches taught us how to pray - to cry out to God. I believe just as God heard the children of Israel, God hears His people now. Just as God came down and delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, God has come down, by His Spirit, and will continue to come down in revival power upon our land. God will continue to deliver us from the spirit of the world.
Learning to live by faith
God performed two miraculous acts of deliverance for the children of Israel. First, the sending of the 10 plagues and then, the crossing of the Red Sea. From Egypt they moved on to the wilderness where they learned to live by faith - by trusting God in two ways.
1. Trusting God in their daily provision of food and water. When they got tired of the manna God sent them quail.
2. Trusting God in His unfailing guidance.
Believers are to trust God in their daily needs (Matt. 6:33) and trust God's daily guidance by His Spirit. We must learn to live by faith and learn to hear God's voice.
However the constant temptation of the Jews was to go back to Egypt where the provision of food was predictable. It was difficult for them to live by faith with the constant fear that the manna might not come daily. But the Bible says, "He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps. 121:4).
If you want to be free in Jesus you have got to live by faith. But we want things to be predictable. Those of us with a degree in theology, or any other degree from Bible College, find it extremely difficult to accept the manifestation of tongues - it bypasses the mind. A meeting that is led by the Holy Spirit will never be acceptable because they fear anything can happen. But if everything is predictable people will feel comfortable and most will buy it. At such and such a time we sing hymn No. 1; then comes the opening prayer and every one stands up; then another hymn and followed by Scripture reading; then comes the sermon and completes with another hymn and then the Holy Communion followed by the collection and so on! The meeting ends after the closing hymn and the doxology - everything is predictable every Sunday. You don't need the Holy Spirit in a meeting like this.
But if you have to move in the realm of Spirit, some people, especially the highly educated ones don't like it and you are likely to hear comments like:
"I have a PHD you know, and my qualification don't go very far with the Holy Spirit! I am not a fanatic like some of them".
Having said that, I am not suggesting we throw out the mind like a fanatic. What the Church needs are sane Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians. Praise God, the main purpose of the transit points initiated by Him is to make us sane Christians! He wants His people to have charisma with character!
God's transit points for His people
God allowed His people to go through three transit points after they were delivered miraculoulsy from the bondage and slavery of Egypt.
1. Kadesh Barnea
The first transit place was called Kadesh Barnea which was 11-day journey from Horeb (Mt. Sinai) where Moses received the Law (the Ten Commandments) from God on two tablets of stone (Num. 10:11, 12).
Moses sent out 12 spies into the land of Canaan to scout out the land. Those (10 of them) who brought evil report (Num. 13:33) and brought fear into the hearts of the people of God died by a plague. Only Joshua and Caleb survived (Num. 14:37, 38). The reason why they survived was because they had a different Spirit - the Spirit of God and not the spirit of the world which brings fear and insecurity.
The Church of Jesus Christ is facing the same problem today. It depends on who you are going to listen to. Are you going to listen to the spies who created fear among God's people or are you going to listen to the living God - with the Spirit of Joshua and Caleb? Even if there are "giants" facing the Church our God is a much bigger Giant.
The Jews were not prepared to move in faith into the Promised Land (Deut. 9:23) and so God exiled them and forced them to wander in the wilderness of Paran for 40 years - until the first generation of Jews who came out of Egypt perished except Joshua and Caleb!
The first act of deliverance performed by God was to deliver His people out of Egypt. His second act was to deliver Egypt out of them! For 40 years God was rooting Egypt out of them one by one - the smell of onions and garlic still fresh in their nostrils. And they still remembered their fleshly and worldly way of life.
Is the Church going into exile in the wilderness because we failed to move on in faith with God? Does God need to deliver "Egypt" out of us?
Paul said, "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh" (Gal. 3:3, NKJV)?
The truth is we will not make anything perfect by the flesh. We will not succeed if we keep on following "big ministries" and worldly methods in winning souls. And God will not give us more power because the power He has given us we have already abused. The work of the cross is vital in our lives in order that we might produce the Fruit of the Spirit. God is maturing His end-time Church by bringing in Christ-like character in every one of us. How long we remain in transit in the wilderness depend on how much we are willing to obey and let the cross to deal with our fleshly or carnal desires - so that Christ is formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
2. Shittim
Shittim was the second transit point but it was still in the wilderness. But to move on the Promised Land the children of Israel had to cross the second stretch of water. The first stretch was the Red Sea and the second was the Jordan (Joshua 3:1). They came to the Jordan and lodged there and they used Shittim as their second transit point. The River Jordan was the gateway to the Promised Land.
The Jordan speaks of water baptism which signifies death, burial and resurrection. My opinion is that the contemporary Church needs to go through another "baptism" in the Jordan River. Certain things, like methodology and worldly methods that we used to practice in the past do not work any more and need to die and be buried - before we begin to see the resurrection of Spiritual power in a fresh way. God causes certain things to die in our lives so that we are forced to spend time with Him in prayer and intercession.
In Shittim four things happened:
I. A period of waiting (Joshua 3:2). At the end of 3 days the children of Israel set out to follow the priests who carried the Ark. You and I need to go through a period of waiting and learn to hear God's voice.
II. A period of cleansing. Joshua said, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you" (Joshua 3:5). The old leaven in us needs to be purged out. Leaven in the New Testament Scripture signifies putrefaction, decay and corruption. The carnal desires in us need to be purged out.
III. A return to the Scripture. Joshua said, "Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God" (Joshua 3:9). The contemporary Church needs the correct expositon of the Word. Nowadays you seldom hear an anointed message from God in the Church. Instead you hear a lot of sermons prepared by preachers using references from the books they read or from the internet Christian websites. The trouble is the accuracy of such preaching depends solely on the Biblical understanding of the book writer! If the book writer gave incorrect exposition of the Word then the preacher who uses the book as reference, his preaching will be incorrect! A true Bible teacher must be ready to give a message from God (without preparation) "in season or out of season" (2 Tim. 4:2). A timely message from God is always refreshing.
IV. A reminder of God's promises (Joshua 3:10). We are reminded that you and I have entered a new covenant, not a covenant carved out of two tablets of stone, but a covenant in the Holy Spirit. We are no longer guided by the Law but at all times moved by the Spirit of God.
3. Gilgal
Finally the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River and encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho (Joshua 4:19). God reminded His people to erect 12 stones which they took out of the Jordan (Verse 20). The purpose was to remind their future generations that He did it all to deliver them from the bondage and slavery of Egypt and without Him they could do nothing and all glory should go to Him alone!
Notice that Kadesh Barnea and Shittim were on the wilderness side. But Gilgal was on the side of the Promised Land in the land of Canaan. At Gilgal the childred of Israel were reminded that their promised inheritance was yet to come. Gilgal also became a sanctuary for the children of Israel when they prepared for battle in the Promised Land. God promised them that they would win battles if they would do it God's way.
We are reminded that right from the beginning, right now and right to the end God will be with us and will go before us. All we need to do is to cooperate with Him and do things His way. God is saying to us that we may still be in transit, we may still have to fight battles but His promise is that victory is sure - in His time and by His way.
Paul said, "... what He had promised He was also able to perform" (Romans 4:21).
Unfortunately many Christians are tempted to remain in their transit points because they are enjoying it.
The Lord said to Joshua in Gilgal, "This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you" (Joshua 5:9).
God has got to roll away the reproach of "Egypt" from each one of us for otherwise we are not ready to do any battles. We must be totally set free from the demands of the world and move on!
There is a parallel truth concerning the pilgrimage journey of the children of Israel delivered from the bondage of Egypt and the pilgrimage journey of Christian believers delivered from the bondage of sins and the bondage of the spirit of the world. The children of Israel in their wandering in the wilderness came to 3 transit points. At each of the transit points significant things happened to them. Very ofter as a result of what they did and did not do in God's dealing with them the consequences of it could be quite predictable. There are certain principles we can develop which will help us to learn with regards to what happen to the Church and individual believers in transit.
Prophetically, the Church is in transit. The lessen learned can also be applied to ourselves personally in our own personal pilgrimage. We call it pilgrimage because whether we like it or not, God only allocated to each one of us threescore years and ten (Ps. 90:10). If you live to the age of 80 there is nothing for you to boast about because God has granted you 10 years grace period.
Picture of the children of Israel in Egypt
"Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them" (Exodus 2:23 - 25, NKJV, emphasis added).
"So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians ..." (Ex. 3:8, emphasis added).
According to the above passages of Scripture four things happened when the children of Israel cried out to God:
1. God heard their groaning.
2. God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. His covenant was He would multiply their descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore (Gen. 22:17).
3. God saw their conditions.
4. God came down.
The manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit that you are seeing in many Asian countries today is due to the fact that many years ago, the people of God, though small in number, began to cry out to God for revival. Missionaries were sent and many leaders of Evangelical Churches taught us how to pray - to cry out to God. I believe just as God heard the children of Israel, God hears His people now. Just as God came down and delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, God has come down, by His Spirit, and will continue to come down in revival power upon our land. God will continue to deliver us from the spirit of the world.
Learning to live by faith
God performed two miraculous acts of deliverance for the children of Israel. First, the sending of the 10 plagues and then, the crossing of the Red Sea. From Egypt they moved on to the wilderness where they learned to live by faith - by trusting God in two ways.
1. Trusting God in their daily provision of food and water. When they got tired of the manna God sent them quail.
2. Trusting God in His unfailing guidance.
Believers are to trust God in their daily needs (Matt. 6:33) and trust God's daily guidance by His Spirit. We must learn to live by faith and learn to hear God's voice.
However the constant temptation of the Jews was to go back to Egypt where the provision of food was predictable. It was difficult for them to live by faith with the constant fear that the manna might not come daily. But the Bible says, "He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps. 121:4).
If you want to be free in Jesus you have got to live by faith. But we want things to be predictable. Those of us with a degree in theology, or any other degree from Bible College, find it extremely difficult to accept the manifestation of tongues - it bypasses the mind. A meeting that is led by the Holy Spirit will never be acceptable because they fear anything can happen. But if everything is predictable people will feel comfortable and most will buy it. At such and such a time we sing hymn No. 1; then comes the opening prayer and every one stands up; then another hymn and followed by Scripture reading; then comes the sermon and completes with another hymn and then the Holy Communion followed by the collection and so on! The meeting ends after the closing hymn and the doxology - everything is predictable every Sunday. You don't need the Holy Spirit in a meeting like this.
But if you have to move in the realm of Spirit, some people, especially the highly educated ones don't like it and you are likely to hear comments like:
"I have a PHD you know, and my qualification don't go very far with the Holy Spirit! I am not a fanatic like some of them".
Having said that, I am not suggesting we throw out the mind like a fanatic. What the Church needs are sane Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians. Praise God, the main purpose of the transit points initiated by Him is to make us sane Christians! He wants His people to have charisma with character!
God's transit points for His people
God allowed His people to go through three transit points after they were delivered miraculoulsy from the bondage and slavery of Egypt.
1. Kadesh Barnea
The first transit place was called Kadesh Barnea which was 11-day journey from Horeb (Mt. Sinai) where Moses received the Law (the Ten Commandments) from God on two tablets of stone (Num. 10:11, 12).
Moses sent out 12 spies into the land of Canaan to scout out the land. Those (10 of them) who brought evil report (Num. 13:33) and brought fear into the hearts of the people of God died by a plague. Only Joshua and Caleb survived (Num. 14:37, 38). The reason why they survived was because they had a different Spirit - the Spirit of God and not the spirit of the world which brings fear and insecurity.
The Church of Jesus Christ is facing the same problem today. It depends on who you are going to listen to. Are you going to listen to the spies who created fear among God's people or are you going to listen to the living God - with the Spirit of Joshua and Caleb? Even if there are "giants" facing the Church our God is a much bigger Giant.
The Jews were not prepared to move in faith into the Promised Land (Deut. 9:23) and so God exiled them and forced them to wander in the wilderness of Paran for 40 years - until the first generation of Jews who came out of Egypt perished except Joshua and Caleb!
The first act of deliverance performed by God was to deliver His people out of Egypt. His second act was to deliver Egypt out of them! For 40 years God was rooting Egypt out of them one by one - the smell of onions and garlic still fresh in their nostrils. And they still remembered their fleshly and worldly way of life.
Is the Church going into exile in the wilderness because we failed to move on in faith with God? Does God need to deliver "Egypt" out of us?
Paul said, "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh" (Gal. 3:3, NKJV)?
The truth is we will not make anything perfect by the flesh. We will not succeed if we keep on following "big ministries" and worldly methods in winning souls. And God will not give us more power because the power He has given us we have already abused. The work of the cross is vital in our lives in order that we might produce the Fruit of the Spirit. God is maturing His end-time Church by bringing in Christ-like character in every one of us. How long we remain in transit in the wilderness depend on how much we are willing to obey and let the cross to deal with our fleshly or carnal desires - so that Christ is formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
2. Shittim
Shittim was the second transit point but it was still in the wilderness. But to move on the Promised Land the children of Israel had to cross the second stretch of water. The first stretch was the Red Sea and the second was the Jordan (Joshua 3:1). They came to the Jordan and lodged there and they used Shittim as their second transit point. The River Jordan was the gateway to the Promised Land.
The Jordan speaks of water baptism which signifies death, burial and resurrection. My opinion is that the contemporary Church needs to go through another "baptism" in the Jordan River. Certain things, like methodology and worldly methods that we used to practice in the past do not work any more and need to die and be buried - before we begin to see the resurrection of Spiritual power in a fresh way. God causes certain things to die in our lives so that we are forced to spend time with Him in prayer and intercession.
In Shittim four things happened:
I. A period of waiting (Joshua 3:2). At the end of 3 days the children of Israel set out to follow the priests who carried the Ark. You and I need to go through a period of waiting and learn to hear God's voice.
II. A period of cleansing. Joshua said, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you" (Joshua 3:5). The old leaven in us needs to be purged out. Leaven in the New Testament Scripture signifies putrefaction, decay and corruption. The carnal desires in us need to be purged out.
III. A return to the Scripture. Joshua said, "Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God" (Joshua 3:9). The contemporary Church needs the correct expositon of the Word. Nowadays you seldom hear an anointed message from God in the Church. Instead you hear a lot of sermons prepared by preachers using references from the books they read or from the internet Christian websites. The trouble is the accuracy of such preaching depends solely on the Biblical understanding of the book writer! If the book writer gave incorrect exposition of the Word then the preacher who uses the book as reference, his preaching will be incorrect! A true Bible teacher must be ready to give a message from God (without preparation) "in season or out of season" (2 Tim. 4:2). A timely message from God is always refreshing.
IV. A reminder of God's promises (Joshua 3:10). We are reminded that you and I have entered a new covenant, not a covenant carved out of two tablets of stone, but a covenant in the Holy Spirit. We are no longer guided by the Law but at all times moved by the Spirit of God.
3. Gilgal
Finally the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River and encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho (Joshua 4:19). God reminded His people to erect 12 stones which they took out of the Jordan (Verse 20). The purpose was to remind their future generations that He did it all to deliver them from the bondage and slavery of Egypt and without Him they could do nothing and all glory should go to Him alone!
Notice that Kadesh Barnea and Shittim were on the wilderness side. But Gilgal was on the side of the Promised Land in the land of Canaan. At Gilgal the childred of Israel were reminded that their promised inheritance was yet to come. Gilgal also became a sanctuary for the children of Israel when they prepared for battle in the Promised Land. God promised them that they would win battles if they would do it God's way.
We are reminded that right from the beginning, right now and right to the end God will be with us and will go before us. All we need to do is to cooperate with Him and do things His way. God is saying to us that we may still be in transit, we may still have to fight battles but His promise is that victory is sure - in His time and by His way.
Paul said, "... what He had promised He was also able to perform" (Romans 4:21).
Unfortunately many Christians are tempted to remain in their transit points because they are enjoying it.
The Lord said to Joshua in Gilgal, "This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you" (Joshua 5:9).
God has got to roll away the reproach of "Egypt" from each one of us for otherwise we are not ready to do any battles. We must be totally set free from the demands of the world and move on!
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