Pain or Perspective

Pain or Perspective
If you choose pain, you choose to fight, deny, and bury. The choice becomes harder.
If you choose perspective you embrace history, while giving it credit for the better person it can make you, scars and all. The choice then gets easier every time.
We can choose to wrestle with God over the pain or we can do as He told Jacob and remember that we were once slaves in Egypt and not focus on the darkness and the pain but on the fact that God has delivered us out of it and will deliver us again.
Perspective not pain.

Word - July 28th, 2010

Word from the Lord given July 28, 2010 at a Wednesday night intercessory prayer meeting.

"I put kings on their thrones and I have placed Obama on the throne of the most powerful nation in the world in order to call the church out of their sleep and apathy, out of their state of entitlement and pride. This nation was set apart for me and now they have set themselves apart from me through their arrogance and pride. If they will humble themselves and repent and turn their faces from their selfish endeavors, seek my face and allow me to be a part of their lives again I will visit their nation beginning with their king and I will touch every heart from the head down. My glory will once again be the crown on their heads and the world will know my love through them."

Psalm 78 - Post 3

The more I meditated on Psalm 78 the more the Lord continued to reveal to me. Don’t you just love it when you read your Bible and it just comes alive! It is amazing. So as I dove further into the verses I noticed there were three verses that stated that the Israelites tempted God. Verse 18, 41, and 56 all talk about the Israelites tempting God, but each one deals with a different way in which they tempted Him. Verse 18 and following show that the temptation came as a result of them asking for food out of their selfish desires; questioning if God was able to furnish food for them in the wilderness. They questioned His ability.

Verse 41 and following talk about the Israelites not remembering the miracles God had done for them and turned their back on Him and thereby tempted God to anger against them. They forgot what He had already done and were not thankful.

Lastly, verse 56 and following reveal it was the Israelites’ idol worship that tempted God moving Him to jealousy. They turned from Him to other sources of provision, protection, comfort, etc…

This sounds a little familiar to me. There appears to be a progression to their downfall with God. Questioning His ability, forgetting what He had already done for them and not being thankful for it, and turning completely away from Him to other sources. The result of their downfall led to verse 60 where God forsook the tabernacle where He had dwelt among men and never returned to it again.

As I thought back on my own life I can remember many times where this progression has been my mode of operation as well. However I don’t think I realized I was tempting God. It is easy to question if God can or wants to do something when you are faced with a major need. Wondering if God will come through seems a very natural, human thing to do. Unfortunately, this questioning can lead us to forgetting what He had already done and not being thankful.

I think for the most part it is also easy for us to turn from letting God take care of our needs to feeling we have to take care of them on our own. I have even gone so far as to say, God expects me to take care of it. So we come to depend on ourselves or others to meet our needs and in turn miss out on what God wanted to do for us or show us. Thinking of this in terms of tempting God seemed a little foreign to me, so I wanted to dig further into this concept.

I remembered that in Deuteronomy 6:16, God said, “You shall not tempt and try the Lord your God as you tempted and tried Him in Massah.” In order to understand how the Israelites tempted and tried God in Massah we need to go back to Exodus 17: 7. This verse states they were trying the patience of the Lord by asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Wow! How many times have I ask the Lord, “Are you really there, do you really care? I have known that throughout the Scriptures the Israelites were known for tempting God, but I never realized the things that they did to tempt God were the very things I could be accused of as well.

As I contemplated my own experiences I came to realize this is not uncommon for me. God blesses me by taking care of a need and I am grateful but a week or so later I find myself needing something else and wondering will God come through this time? So I begin to pray and beg God to take care of the need hoping He will come through again. As I stated earlier in a previous post Gary Morgan talked about this when he said we need to quit using prayer as a place to beg God for something we need. Instead we need to be agreeing with heaven about who God is and what He has already done, knowing that because He came through before He will come through again. God doesn’t want us begging, questioning His love or ability. He wants us agreeing and declaring.

So, apparently questioning God’s abilities and desire to help us; forgetting what He has already done for us and not being thankful; and turning away from Him to other sources to meet our needs are ways we can tempt God. Unfortunately according to these verses tempting God in these ways may lead to Him withdrawing His presence. Being a Christian and not feeling and experiencing the presence of God would be like living in the wilderness without water.

If we are thankful and remember who God has been to us in the past we won’t tend to question his ability and desire to be there for us again. We won’t feel the need to beg Him for what we require, because we will know He will come through again no matter the circumstance. We can agree with heaven and declare the goodness of God over every situation. Being confident in the goodness of God and in His ability will keep us from turning away from Him to other sources, as well as keep us from tempting God.

I want the presence of God to be a constant within my life. These verses show me that if I will be intentional in my pursuit of God, remembering what He has done, thanking Him for being there through my worship and obedience, and allow Him to be my source instead of relying on myself, others or other things; He will be that constant I can depend on.

“Who is like Me? Let Him stand and proclaim it, declare it, and set his proofs in order before Me, since I made and established the people of antiquity. Who has announced from of old the things that are coming? Then let them declare yet future things. Fear not, nor be afraid in the coming violent upheavals; have I not told it to you from of old and declared it? And you are My witnesses! Is there a God besides Me? There is no other Rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:7-8 (amplified)

Psalm 78 - Post 2

For this second post I wanted to dig further into several verses found within Psalm 78. The Lord highlighted particular verses and as I meditated on them certain questions arose. Psalm 78:9 is one verse that Gary Morgan highlighted within his message during the conference and when I read it I knew there was something God was trying to get me to understand in it. That led me to search through other verses as well.

Verse 9 (amplified version): “The children of Ephraim were armed and carrying bows, yet they turned back in the day of battle.”

The question that came to me almost immediately was: Why? Why did they turn back in the day of battle? If they had all the weapons to fight and were trained and ready for battle what made them turn back? Was it fear that they weren’t ready to face the enemy? Or was it a lack of trust in God to be with them and bring them through the battle?

I then realized a correlation with the church today and the perceived fear and lack of trust that the children of Ephraim were experiencing. It appeared as if God was trying to say something about our hearts. He has given us every weapon we need to fight, He has also promised to be with us in the mist of the battle, yet so often we opt to not fight. We give in to the lies of the enemy and let him control how we feel and what we think. What is in our hearts that make us turn back from the battle, listen to the enemy and cower at the thought of him coming against us?

So many verses in the Word tell us a different story. “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us…” (Rom. 8:37); “The weapons of our warfare are…mighty before God to overthrow strongholds…” (2 Cor. 10:4); “We can do all things through Christ…” (Phil. 4:13); “I am with you always…” (Matt. 28:20).

It is about agreeing with heaven and declaring the truth using the weapons He has given us to face the fear and put it back in its place. What is your heart focusing on? Is it fear or is it truth? Do you trust God to be there and give you what you need? Do you expect the enemy to come against you, or do you expect the power of God in your life to override any attempt the enemy may make?

Verse 10 (amplified version): “They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk according to His law.”

Okay so the Israelites weren’t keeping the covenant again, so what does this have to do with me? When you put this verse in context with verse 9 it begins to tell a story. It is as if the Psalmist is saying they turned away in battle because they were not keeping the covenant and not obeying God’s law. So what are the conditions of this covenant? It is clear this verse is talking about the covenant God made through Moses with the implementation of the Ten Commandments. This is the Law that they were not walking in.

It appears that there is a relationship between keeping covenant, obeying God and being strong enough to face the enemy head on with the assurance that you will be victorious. But there is more, this verse continues in 11.

Verse 11 (amplified): “And forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them.”

So here is more insight into the reason behind the retreat from the battle. It says they forgot His works and wonders He had shown them. The next several verses recaps all the miracles God did for the Israelites from bringing them out of the slavery of Egypt, parting the Red Sea so they could walk across on dry land, leading them with a cloud by day and fire by night, bringing water out of the rock and feeding them manna in the wilderness. Apparently the Israelites did not have a thankful heart as they forgot what God had done for them. They forgot the terms of the covenant He had made with them as well as the Law He had set before them to follow. Apparently this is what led to their courage failing in battle. If you believe God is not on your side the enemy can look really big and really scary. Because they forgot all God had done for them, they could not see how He would help them defeat the enemy and their courage waned.

It is important that we remember what God has done for us in the past and have a thankful heart so that we do not lose sight of who He is in our lives and the power He possesses over the enemy. A natural progression seems to occur when we are thankful, recognizing and remembering all God has done for us. This progression causes us to trust Him and love Him more and it creates intimacy between us and God. Then when we love and trust God we want to obey Him and follow His Word. So when we are led into battle just as Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit (Luke 4:1-2), we will trust that He has our back, and we will come out victorious (just like Jesus did). We can trust that we have the weapons we need for the battle. We can trust as well that the Word of God is inside us (Psalm 1:2) and that the Lord is on our side (Hebrews 13:6).

Over and over again this Psalm reiterates the fact that Israel would love God, obey Him, and walk in covenant with Him, but would also lose their way, break covenant, forget His faithfulness and love and turn their backs on Him. Each time the central reason for their disobedience and lack of trust appears to be their lack of thankfulness and gratitude remembering what He had already done in their lives.

Let’s make it a point to remember God’s faithfulness toward us, the blessings we enjoy every day, and His love toward us that is unfailing. Let’s also remember by being thankful everyday in our speech, our walk, and our obedience toward Him.

Psalm 78 - Post 1

We had a special conference at our church a week or so ago and one of the speakers, Gary Morgan encouraged us to read Psalm 78. I felt very impressed by the Lord to do this and once I did I began to see some things I have not seen before. God is so good that way. This blog and maybe one or two to follow is a culmination of what the Lord gave me from these Scriptures.

Psalm 78 in a nutshell gives an account of the back and forth relationship between Israel and God from Genesis up until David became king. The picture is sobering as all God wanted from Israel was their loyalty, trust, and obedience and because of their selfish hearts they would consistently turn away from God. The cycle went something like this: God would bless them, they would enjoy it for a season, and then they would forget that what they were enjoying was God's blessing and want more, so they would either get mad at God for not giving them more or they would go against God's law to get what they wanted. God would then get angry at them for not being thankful, for not trusting Him, and for not obeying His law. In His love and mercy for them He would give them what they wanted even though it was not the best for them. His hand of protection would be lifted as what they selfishly desired was not in His will for them and they would experience the full weight of the consequences of their sin. They would then repent and cry out to God and He would cover them again with His protection blessing them. Unfortunately this cycle went on and on until the Psalmist writes that the Israelites began worshiping idols which produced jealousy in the heart of God. God in His love and mercy gave them what they wanted and took His presence from the tabernacle and placed David on the throne over them.

As I read this I couldn't help to notice the similarity of the heart of Israel and the heart of the church, as well as the heart of Israel and my own heart. Why is it so easy to turn away from God and attempt to do things on our own? Why is it so easy to forget the blessings God has poured down upon us? Why is it so easy when things get hard to quit trusting God? I felt very sobered by this Psalm because I could see where my heart has forgotten the many blessings from God that I live with every day. My heart has continued to seek after its own selfish desires for my life, and it has so many times turned away from trusting God. Forgive me Lord.

I do not want to follow the same cycle the Israelites followed. It seems as though there is a connection between thankfulness, trusting, obeying, and blessing. One of the things Gary Morgan was trying to get across to us was the idea of agreeing with heaven when we pray instead of pleading with God for things we think we need or want. I think this goes along with being thankful for the blessings we have, trusting that God is who He says He is and has proven to be in our lives, and obeying as we hear His voice. We must live in such a way that we believe He already knows what we need, has our best interest at heart, and is continually working on our behalf.