Did God Just Say That? pt 3

A few weeks ago I shared the story of how God talked to me and gave me a parking spot in the front row of the grocery store.  I took a lot of grief sharing that tale.   Some people don’t think God talks to people.  Others think God would not be so trivial.  Still others questioned why me and why not some elderly person.  I could not answer those questions, nor did I even try.  God does what God does for reasons only He knows.  It is not for us to wonder why, it is for us to obey and live.

There was one person who gave an interesting perspective.  They brought up Matthew 25:21 His lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.  They were thinking that God used something insignificant to see if I was listening and faithful and that down the road there would be something bigger.  They were right.

A little over a week ago, I found a receipt for a certified letter in my mailbox.  It said that I needed to go down to the post office to sign for it and pick it up.  Now, normally I don’t do certified letters.  They almost always mean bad news.  Suddenly I had that familiar thought in my brain.  It was the same way as the parking event.  “Go and pick it up.  It will be ok”.  

 
I gave pause, just like I did before.  Did I just hear that?  Did God just speak to me again, or am I just wishful thinking.  I went back and forth in my head as I drove down to the post office.  Was it me?  Was it God?  But I did know from the parking incident that following through brought a blessing.  Perhaps this too would end up being a blessing?  There was only one way to find out; be obedient and go get the certified mail.

I wish I could say that things went as smoothly and quickly as getting a parking spot and whizzing through a checkout line.  It has not.  What was uncovered with that certified letter was years of underhanded sneakiness and deceit that has been going on behind my back.  It exposed some dark dealings meant to rob me of what was rightfully mine.   Those who have been exposed are not just going to step aside either and are digging in to fight tooth and nail. 

Normally, what has been uncovered and the subsequent fallout would be very stressful.  It would be a normal reaction to be angry.  While it is taking some effort on my part to further uncover things and do my due diligence to rectify the wrong; there is a peace in me about this.  The matter is already settled.  God already said it will be ok.  It is already finished.

While I was at work before getting home to write this, God spoke to me in another way; through a preacher.  The program I was listening to came from Joshua chapter 1.  He was explaining how Israel was about to go in and possess the land that was already theirs.  It was already a done deal.  God had already given it to them.  Certainly it was not easy.  Israel fought many battles along the way before they actually owned the land.  But, while they fought the battles, the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion.  It was theirs.  They just had to root out those who were there.

The Devils Deception

I Peter 5: ⁸ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:


Nowadays you don’t hear a lot of sermons about the devil or what he is up to.  I don’t really hear a lot of discussion about him either.  I think it is important to be reminded sometimes that we have an enemy out there; an enemy who wants to destroy us.  Many of us are not even engaged in the battle, unaware of what is going on.  Let’s take a look at what he is up to.


In Isaiah 14 it is written of the devil, ¹³ For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: ¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.  That closing phrase holds the key to most of what the devil is up to.  He wants to be like the Most High.  He is a counterfeiter, a knock off brand, trying to duplicate the original.


He has two intentions, either to take you with him into the pit, or if you are saved, to make you as ineffectual as possible.  It is the latter that I intend to deal with.  The Devil want to strip you of your power, your authority, and your protection.  He wants you to not believe what is true, and fall for a lie.  He wants to keep you off your knees, out of the word, and in denial of what God has promised for us.


The most likely place you would find the devil and his demons is probably not where you would expect.  They don’t need to spend time down at the local tavern, or brothel.  He already has those people and they are no threat to him.  The most likely place to find him is at the church.  He might be behind the pulpit or in the leadership of the church making sure the message is all gobbledygook.  He’ll take what god has said and promised and pervert it.  In doing so He knows that not only will he fool those who fall for the perversion, but also get those who are not to then reject what God offers because they think it is perversion.


For example, the devil has taken a perfectly legitimate gift of tongues and perverted it into a bunch of over-emotional diarrhea of the mouth gibberish that looks to the outsider like a scene from a loony bin. The real gift of tongues is found in Acts 2:6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.  This is quite different than the crazy babbling we hear in some circles today.  Yes, I know I am stepping on some toes here.  This topic often gets into heated discussions.  But the devil likes that too when he can get Christians acting hateful toward one another instead of loving as Christ said.  Some people, because of the perversion, deny the gift of tongues even operates today. 


And this is how the devil operates; a point by point copycat perversion of everything God has set in place.  Healings is another.  We see ministers slapping people around on stage and people falling out and flopping around like a fish out of water.  This isn’t healing.  This is perversion.  Because of this perversion, many don’t even believe in divine healing.  Another tool stolen away from us.  More arguments and divisions among Christians. 


Dreams, prophecies, prosperity, and other doctrines that have been twisted and perverted by the evil angels of light sent only to deceive and divide the family of God.  Any more you get attacked by other Christians if you say you believe even the true biblical gifts.  It is even to the point where people don’t even think God communicates to us any longer.  How ineffectual can we get when we even deny the voice of the Father?  Satan has his people out there doing evil deeds claiming “God told them” it was ok.  It has become so common and widespread that when someone does really hear from God, they are not believed.  They might not even believe it if it happened to themselves, they have become so gunshy because of the perversion.


And of course there is the word.  If the devil can pervert and distort the word, he can destroy the standard by which we measure all things.  If he can get us to doubt its authenticity, or authority; question what it says or just plain not believe what it says, he can manipulate us into perversion.  Every year there seems to be some new translation coming out, each one more removed from the original text and meaning.  Some of the newer translations have verses that use words that change the meaning of the verse 180 degrees.  If he can make us think the word is unreliable, than anything goes after that.


If we can be made to believe that God no longer communicates with us, what is the point of prayer?  Disrupting the communication between God and man, getting them to believe a lie, dividing the body, isolating the individual, then going in to devour them as a ravenous and roaring lion; this is the plan of the devil.  

Prosperity or Persecution?

Recently, I posted a praise report on my Facebook page.  It read as follows: I was going shopping at Wal-mart this evening. Before I got in the parking lot, I thought I heard God say he'd save me a front row spot, in an aisle where I would be facing away from the store. So, I go in the lot a few minutes later. I'm rolling along slowly, stopping to let people and other cars by, crossed the whole store to the far exit when right then, someone pulls out of the first spot, and I rolled right in. That's not all. In the store, I got the first cashier with nobody in line while the other lines were into the aisles. I zipped right through. That's not all. I got permission to go to McDonalds. When I went to the store, it was packed. When I stopped on the way back, not a single car in the drive thru. This is rush hour mind you, the whole time. And people laughed at John Osteen for saying God saves us parking spots. We serve a great and mighty God.

It certainly did not take long to hear some chime in with the negative.   I heard about how we were only promised suffering in life.  I heard about how if we are not being chastised by God, that we must not be His.  I heard about how we are not blessed in material ways in this life.  I heard about how God is not our magic genie to make our lives all comfy.  Why is it so hard for people to accept the idea that at times, God may choose to bless His children with good things?  And why would a praise report about the goodness of God make people react as if you have uttered some profanity?  Maybe it was the Osteen reference, but I dealt with that issue on my last blog.

All throughout the Bible, we see the promises of blessing on those who believed.  A quick perusal of the Book of Proverbs will quickly show this.  Proverbs 10: ⁴ He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.  Is that not a promise from God?  There are many more in this book and the other 65 books to be found.  Mathew 7: ¹¹ If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?  If God knows the very number of the hairs on your head, don’t you think he would be intimately involved in your daily goings on? 

On the other hand, we also see throughout the bible men being tested, scorned, and persecuted.  Look at what Joseph went through, and Job, and Jesus himself.  We can cite a number of examples where we are told to shun riches and worldly things and look to spiritual things.  Mathew 6: ¹⁹ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:²⁰ But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:²¹ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  Numbers of other examples can be found.

It seems to happen that people run to the extremes.  Some will solely focus on teaching only prosperity and leave out the suffering.  Others will focus on the suffering and forget about the blessings.  Each of those extremes will miss out on what the real message is.  You won’t handle suffering well if you think God only blesses, and you will pass on great blessings if you think this life is only about suffering.  Neither one is the full council of God.

The truth is that there is a balance.  When we submit ourselves to god, we are His to do with as He so pleases.  If it pleases Him to bless us, we are so blessed.  If it pleases Him to try us, we are so blessed, for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)  I close with these words from Ecclesiastics 3
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

² A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
³ A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
⁹ What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
¹⁰ I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
¹¹ He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
¹² I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
¹³ And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
¹⁴ I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.