Staffs, Bushes and Rainbows

“Gideon replied, ‘…give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.’  And the LORD said, ‘I will wait…’  With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and unleavened bread…When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, ‘Ah, Sovereign LORD!  I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!’” Judges 6:17-22.

As a mother, I have developed an individual relationship with each of my children, unique to them.  Through intimate encounters with each of them, I better understand how to relate when helping them through tough times.  My communication with one of them looks different from my communication with the other.  I wouldn’t go to my son to relay an important message for one of my daughters.  We have each built unique and intimate relationships through previous encounters.  If Caroline was confused about something I said, she would come to me for clarification.

Gideon wanted to make sure that he was not stepping out of the will of God.  God was calling him to an assignment, but Gideon wanted to be confident that it was indeed God who was speaking.  We can all relate to this passage when searching for the will of God for our lives.  The most important element of hearing God is the intimate relationship leading up to our encounter.  The more we know God through fellowship the more clearly we will recognize His word for our lives.  God used the tip of the staff igniting the offering to confirm the message He had already given him.  He used what was unique to Gideon – the offering he was preparing– to speak to him.  God used a burning-bush to speak to Moses.  God used a rainbow to speak to Noah about a future promise.

Our Father knows exactly how to speak to us in unique and personal ways.  We will recognize our encounters with God the more we seek Him.  The Holy Spirit affords us the privilege to experience God one on one, as our spirit connects with His spirit.  We can know when God is speaking, and understand the personal message He has for us.  We have a Father who seeks intimate encounters with His individual children, but we must do our part in the relationship.

‘He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him’ John 14:21.

So It Will Be

“The LORD Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.’  For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” Isa. 14:24, 27.

In the past, I have looked for ways to serve God much to my own dismay as I experienced burnout.  I would have my calendar so full of service items that many days were met with dread simply out of exhaustion.  The older I get, the greater understanding I have that I am not the one to initiate service to God.  God has constantly been at work since the beginning of time.  He has the complete creation picture and has the wisdom, the power and the perfect timing for ‘everything under the sun.’  Eccl 3:1. 

God has an overall purpose for the world based on His love for us, and His desire to invite everyone into a loving relationship with Him.  He sets His purposes and plans in action, and then initiates and invites those of His choosing to help accomplish His goals.  His purposes will not change but whom He invites may be altered based on their response.  For example, a friend of mine was approached to serve in our church’s ministry for those 55 years and older…that was God’s initiation for my friend.  Whether she accepted or not would not have thwarted the plan for God to grow that ministry.  Her acceptance certainly blessed her and the members in that group, but God was going to do great things with that ministry regardless.  My friend’s desire to develop a more intimate relationship with God was the key to being invited into God’s work.  She pursued a deeper relationship with God, and through their love relationship He stretched out His hand inviting her to join Him in this ministry. 

According to Henry Blackaby, co-author of Experiencing God we are to pray for God to show us where He is already at work and then watch for His revelation.  Whatever God reveals to us is an invitation to join Him.  Once we have been invited to join God, we must make adjustments in our life to respond to that calling.  God will do amazing things that man cannot alter with those who love Him and respond to Him.

Searching for the Lamb

“...but where is the lamb?”  Gen. 22:7

These five haunting words were spoken from the mouth of young Isaac as he and his dad prepared the altar for sacrifice.  He couldn’t have known what his father was doing, but was following Abraham’s lead.  He trusted Abraham and completely believed in his father’s love for him.  But what about those silent moments as his father placed him upon the altar, bound him and the reality was revealed?  ‘He bound his son Isaac…’  What on earth could this young boy have been thinking as he watched the one he trusted most do something contradictory to love?

When my sister Beth lay dying with cancer, I cannot tell you how many times I looked to God and asked, ‘…but where is the lamb?’  When my father-in-law was in his final stage of Alzheimer’s living with us, I constantly cried out to my Father in heaven, ‘…but where is the lamb?’  Yesterday while on the phone with my dear friend whose husband is battling brain cancer, I listened through tears at the circumstances.  As I punched the end button on the phone, I sat down on the steps and cried asking God, ‘…but where is the lamb?’    Where is the deliverance from this season?

Although we completely trust God there are those silent moments when we do not understand what He is doing in our lives…why suffering is happening…why the lamb isn’t showing up.  Just as Isaac didn’t struggle or run away, we must crawl up on God’s will and surrender to His knowledge and His ways.  We may have seasons of silence feeling bound to a situation that we cannot understand and feels contradictory to love, but God will provide.  God will deliver us from the situation and will be on the other side to restore, heal and rebuild. 

Through our confusion in sorrowful circumstances, we can go to our Father with questions such as Isaac.  God will not waver from His will but He will never remove His loving and faithful hands from His children.  We will never be left alone in our circumstances and will eventually understand that Love never departed. 

“…and there in a thicket he saw a ram…And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided’” Gen 22:13-14.

Talking Banners

“Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner. He said, ‘For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD.’” Exodus 17:15.

Whenever the Olympics are scheduled to begin, the image of the opening ceremonies always comes to my mind. There is something special about watching these talented athletes walking confidently behind their own country’s flag or banner. The banner goes before them and marks the group of people to whom they belong.

Moses also walked in complete confidence behind his banner, the Lord. God brought victory in the battle against the Amalekites as long as Moses held up his arms in prayer (Ex. 17:8-15). When Moses became weary, Joshua and Aaron sat him on a stone and held up his arms until the battle was over. Moses knew to whom he belonged and accredited the victory – Jehovah Nissi (the LORD is my Banner).

We all march behind our own banner which represents our level of faith. Through one battle, our banner displays fears and unbelief in God’s deliverance. In another season, our banner may mark joy and peace. The banners we march behind through life will display where our confidence and attitudes lie. Does our banner mark a bitter person or a person who holds grudges? Are we cowering behind a banner of fear? Does our banner proclaim confidence in God’s complete victory in our lives despite the circumstances?

Satan will take every opportunity to lure us behind his banner which is marked with threats of failure, planting fear in the minds of God’s children. What fear is holding you captive behind Satan’s banner? God did not give us fear but gave us everything we need to be successful in all circumstances. 'For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline’ (2 Timothy 1:7). Like Moses we must seat ourselves upon the Stone and keep ourselves in a posture of prayer. 'As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood' (1 Peter 2:4).

We can march through life behind Satan’s banner of ‘WHAT IF?’ or march behind Jehovah Nissi who goes before us and fights our battles.

Our 'Moreover'

“‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’  The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.  So God said to him, Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked…Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for…” 1 Kings 3:10-13.

God came to Solomon in a dream and gave him the ultimate opportunity – to grant him his deepest desire.  He could have requested anything, but his desires were anchored in a shared purpose with God relating to His people.  His desires came from a selfless heart instead of focusing on his own needs and goals.  He had been chosen as king in the new temple, so popularity and power among the kingdom would have been a valid request.  But Solomon saw things from God’s standpoint instead of from the standpoint of his flesh.  His focus was aligned with God’s focus.

God will come to us with blessings when our hearts are aligned with His purposes, His ways and His plans.  When our hearts are filled with our own desires God knows that our service to Him will be centered around our own selfishness.  God will lavish His blessings upon our lives when our hearts are bent towards His people and our focus is centered on His work.  We should all take note that God’s excessive blessings came as a result of Solomon’s focus on people other than himself. 

If God came to you tonight offering the same opportunity, what would your request be?  What unfulfilled dream consumes you and does it benefit the people of God?  Would your request be as unselfish as Solomon’s request?  Paul described in the New Testament what God demonstrated to Solomon in the Old Testament.  ‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’ Ephesians 3:20-21.

When our desires are aligned with God’s, we are met with a power that brings glory to both God and the church.  Our spiritual focus on earth will bless the people of God and will create significance in the eternal.  God will give us our ‘moreover’ when we are looking towards the benefit of others.

Going Well With You

“‘While you were doing all these things,’ declares the LORD, ‘I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer…Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward’… ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction.’”Jeremiah 7:13, 23-28.

Those last few words of our passage this morning leave a haunting echo in my heart. God’s patience and mercy is certainly long-running and enduring while dealing with the sins of His children. From the time of Adam and Eve, God has commanded and man has rejected…God has provided but man desired more. The cycle of sin-correction-sin-correction was put into motion in the garden. Over the centuries, God must have thought ‘Will man ever learn? Will there ever be a people who will not be led by the inclinations of their own desires?’

That question still lingers in the air like stale smoke as we look around at the focus of our lives. Every one of us has a war waging in our hearts – the flesh vs. the spirit…the things of this world vs. the things of God. We proclaim that we belong to God but we worship false beliefs and selfish attitudes. We talk about moving forward in faith but in the dark halls of our own hearts we are moving backwards living in fear and selfishness. God sees the heart of man and knows who is walking in His ways. God is speaking daily to each of us, but are we listening? Are we like the people in Jeremiah’s time who have turned a deft ear to the Lord? Have we gotten so accustomed to our own rights of entitlement we are not even aware when we rebel? We talk about her...we judge him...we refuse forgiveness...we fail to give mercy. All these things are the things that God will eventually correct in your life. We all know what we need to do in these matters, but do we do them?

When the flesh is speaking louder than God we will be unable to hear the whispers of our Father who loves us. God will eventually give us over to ourselves and the cycle continues. The only way to respond to the correcting and loving hand of God is to be aware of His commands, and obedient in living by them. Every desire we have must be measured against the will of God. Before we act on anything, we must be prayerful and attuned to God’s response. He will lead us through our decisions and reveal the path of our journey, and then our lives will pattern the life that God intended.

…and may it go well with you…

Up Ahead

“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13-14).

Paul was very aware that the things of his past no longer were beneficial in helping him attain His goal for the future, which was now aligned with Christ’s goal.  Paul had every reason to be confident in his past…a Hebrew of Hebrews…a Pharisee…one of the God’s chosen in Israel…faultless in the law.  But as he walked the road to Damascus, Christ reached down and took hold of Paul.  He was struck down, temporarily blinded and his life was turned upside down.  For Paul to get his bearings he knew he could only do one thing…take hold of Christ.  It was that day that Christ Jesus revealed that everything in his past was null and void.  It was that experience that showed the truth of Paul’s life and how he would be transformed.

For the majority of my adult life there were attitudes and beliefs that I thought were moving me along in a positive way.  It wasn’t until God pursued a loving and intimate relationship in 2006 that awakened me from my ineffective and misguided behavior.  My insecurities had me press into the acceptance of others and the importance of their approval.  My fear of being rejected was always at the base of my heart and directed my decisions.  Once Christ took hold of my heart, these things in my past no longer worked.   It seemed that many of my former decisions were centered around what I needed, instead of what God desired.  Most days now I try to look ahead with the plans and purposes of God instead of my own.  Some days it is a strain to see how all of this will play out in the end as I look towards the future.  But as my confidence in Christ increases the confidence in my own abilities seem to decrease.  I know that as long as I reach out to Christ, I will be led and transformed as I move closer to the day when He takes me home. 

We all have things in our past that won’t work once we press into our relationship with God.  Whatever attitudes we must leave behind will be replaced with the renewal of our minds and the transformation of our hearts.  As long as we are on this earth, let us keep moving forward towards the purposes of God and away from the emptiness of the flesh.