Spiritcode

What can separate us

WHAT CAN SEPARATE US

God’s love created us and God’s love has joined us to Himself (John 3:16). But what is our experience of God’s love? Our experience will be one of being joined to God and his love or one of being separated from his love and even from God himself. We are going to look at why so many people feel separated from the love of God, and what the Bible says about the experience of being joined to God and his love.
Romans 8:35 What can ever separate us from the love of Christ? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow— No power in the sky above or in the earth below can separate us from God’s love—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 ‘no power in the sky above or in the earth below’. 
God does not withdraw his loving, but we can withdraw our receiving of his love. What power causes this, when we just read that no power can separate us? The only power that can do this is the one that lies within us as it did in Adam, to separate ourselves, as we shall see. We are provoked in this by the power of our own desires, and by the power of darkness that seeks to blind our minds, or the bitterness of adversity that makes us feel uncared for. And that lies within us in our mind and heart, either by way of turning away from his love or by not having any inner basis for believing in his love.

Personal turning away
There is an Old Testament Scripture that speaks of God talking to his people about separating themselves through deliberate turning away.
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from God; And your sins have hidden His face from you.
This separation was not from God’s point of view, but from theirs. His face is hidden from them only because they were pursuing their own desires and not God’s. The word iniquity means lawlessness – being a law unto one’s self. It is our face that turns away and we go where our face turns to (have you ever noticed that?)  It is being separated from letting the activity of God’s love flow in their life. 

Personal ignorance 
There is also the warning of separation through not knowing, not seeing and not hearing in the New Testament for us today.
Ephesians 4:17 don’t live like the Gentiles (ungodly unbelieving world) –who live in the futility of their minds, having their understanding darkened (not knowing), being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them (not hearing), because of the blindness of their heart (not seeing).
People who have no idea cannot receive God’s life and love. They are not separated from God (from God’s point of view,) but they are alienated from his life as an experience of being joined to him (that is sad). Their experience is separation from God. Mark 4:12 so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.
(The invisible gorilla and the wrong point of view having persuaded them to look for the wrong thing))

Personal disgruntlement
Magnifying negative circumstances – separation virus – just as widespread as the Corona virus - highly contagious – but it’s caught through negative talk and negative example. However there is a vaccine called being renewed in the spirit of the mind (repentance) and receiving faith.
Separation from the life of God is a mindset that was sown into the minds of Adam and Eve and into all of humanity. This causes us to magnify the negative or difficult things in our circumstances and get bitter and disillusioned and stop trusting God, which blocks us off from the consolation of God’s love and encouragement to stay the course in difficult times. 
We are living in a time of global distress and affliction and disappointment, and a lot of bitterness. The whole world sees chaos and disorder and confusion and uncertainty everywhere at this time – but the Scripture says;

Hebrews 2:8 … You have put all things in subjection under his feet… but at the present time, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him - but we see Jesus… (the invisible gorilla)

When we see Jesus with eyes of faith in the midst of all that is happening we are not separated from God’s love but are more single-mindedly joined to God, who is with us and loves us, and we see God in all that happens – we see all things working together for good and God reordering our lives and helping us to let go of the unnecessary and focus on the necessary etc. This is God’s big work in the earth today (Isaiah 28:21). This is the time to have a single mind and to focus with a single eye of faith and see the supernatural work of God bringing order out of chaos and joining people to himself through his love. 
We see victory instead of defeat, hope instead of despair, faith instead of fear. Nothing is separating us from his love. We are joined and not separated.
1Corinthians 6:7…He that is joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT.
We are able to see through all of this disorder and uncertainty and say we are well able to overcome. 
Joshua and Caleb saw the challenge of the giants that had to be defeated for them to be able to enter into the Promised Land and said ‘We are well able to overcome’. 

A little while after Israel finally entered the land after their forty year journey in the wilderness Joshua blesses Caleb – we made it Caleb! and invites him to have a say – A big shout out for Caleb… this is what Caleb said;
Joshua 14:6 The people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. Caleb spoke: "You'll remember what God said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me back at Kadesh Barnea. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of God sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. And I brought back an honest and accurate report at Hebron with the huge branch full of grapes so big that it needed the two of us to carry it. the other spies discouraged the people, but I stayed the course, totally with God, my God. That was the day that Moses solemnly promised, 'The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance, you and your children's, forever. Yes, you have lived totally for God.' Now look at me: God has kept me alive, as he promised. It is now forty- five years since God spoke this word to Moses, years in which Israel wandered in the wilderness. And here I am today, eighty- five years old! I'm as strong as I was the day Moses sent me out. I'm as strong as ever in battle. So give me this mountain that God promised me. You yourself heard the report of what I said that day, when the Anakim giants were there with their great fortress cities –‘ We are well able to overcome’ - If God goes with me, I will drive them out, just as God said. "Joshua blessed him and he gave Hebron to Caleb as an inheritance.

Hebron was the city where Joshua and Caleb brought back the grapes and the good report. The word Hebron means joined together – the opposite to the word badal – which means separation . Hebron was the place of David’s royal residence where he was anointed king and began that royal line that joined  Jesus to his Kingly Heritage. Hebron was the home of Abraham where the three angels appeared to he and Sarah and announced his inheritance of becoming the father of many nations, joining God to his people Israel. 
God wants to give us our Hebron in these times of challenge – Nothing can separate us and like Caleb, we are well able to overcome.

In these days of pandemic the whole world is grieving the loss of so many elderly people and there is much care and compassion felt for them because of their vulnerability. It is a good thing that a younger generation feels this empathy and gives honour to their elders. But there is another side to this picture, and the eighty five year old Caleb is the message of hope and endurance, and fortitude and faith to all generations that follow on behind. I see daily in the eyes of many of my venerable (and often vulnerable) brothers and sisters the same message, the same report that Caleb gave of ‘Give me this mountain’. Yes there are giants in the Land but I have seen an inner strength in these people, won through faithfulness and patience and perseverance, and a wisdom that has aged like an oak tree. They remain as a shelter and a source of strength and loving comfort to the many younger people in their world, that they safeguard in their prayers and in their peaceful presence. This current Caleb generation is a is a sign board in these days that announces victory and not defeat. It is a testimony of God’s faithfulness.

The narrow gate

THE NARROW GATE
We are offered a choice in life to go down one of two pathways, the pathway to life or the pathway to destruction or ruin. There are many metaphors of this choice in the Bible, starting in Deuteronomy when God offers Israel a pathway to life or a pathway to death, one of blessing and one of cursing. Paul talks in the epistles about walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh, and also about the spiritual mind and the natural mind. In the following Scripture Jesus speaks about the narrow gate and the wide gate. The narrow gate leads to a fulfilled life and the wide gate leads to a destroyed or wasted life. We have one lifetime on this earth and it does not have to be wasted. This choice lies before us all the time.

Matthew 7:13 Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate to destruction (ruin, waste) is wide and the way is easy that leads to it, and many enter in by it. But the gate that leads to life is narrow and the way is hard, and those who find it are few. 

When we enter through the narrow gate we enter into THE LIFE. When we enter in through the wide gate we can enter into A LIFE. There are two words for life in the New Testament in the Greek language, Zoe and Psyche. Zoe is spiritual life – that means Eternal life. Psyche is the word for soul and that means a soul life or a sense life including the experience of our five physical senses. We can experience both of these lives, because we are spirit, soul and body.
Entering into THE LIFE is Eternal life – zoe - we are in the most fulfilling place we can be, within the fulness of God’s life. In this place are able to manage every other aspect of our life because of our hope and expectation of God working with us and within us.

When we enter in through the wide gate we can enter into A LIFE (psyche) which we choose and which is short term and where all things pass away (lead to destruction or waste)
(apolleia – used about 15 times in the New Testament as ruin, loss or waste, not as hell). We are talking about a here and now lifetime on this earth, either as a time of spiritual fulfillment, conscious that we have God with us in every aspect of our life, or a life of relative or mediocre fulfillment and conscious of experiencing the waste of time, money, effort and concern. 

The wide gate
The wide gate can be as wide as a person wants it to be where a diverse number of scattered non-defined ideas and activities go back and forth through the gate and don’t last very long. The wide gate can be narrowed down as much as people want in order to focus on their ideologies or meaningful activities that have intensity but still have a limited energy that fades or wastes away. 
Most people would settle for a relatively fulfilling earthly life entering through the wide gate if there were some worthwhile goals and sufficient focus (EG, family life, or success at work or at other skills or creative pursuits – they put themselves through relatively narrow gates and feel they are who they want to be in that space). But through that wide gate there is will also be a logjam of stress and disorder because other random and unpredictable things always get in the way and lead to too much scattered focus. So let us look at focus.

Focus – wide gate focus and narrow gate focus
Matthew 6:22 The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is single (haplous -  sharply defined - focussed), your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad (ponerous – corrupted, unclear), your whole body will be full of darkness…
In the physical realm, our eyes get drawn to what grabs our attention – a shiny object. But seeing does not only mean physical eye sight. Seeing something can mean understanding something conceptually or at a deeper level seeing something spiritually. This is spiritual vision enlightens the mind and soul, and the heart…
This is where focus is important as we can only physiologically or conceptually or spiritually focus on one thing at one time. A Personal worldview is an individual's philosophy about how life should be and about what forces influence human living. That is what takes their attention and gives them their personal perspective – A POINT OF VIEW! People have been taught one way or another many different stories of what life is all about and they get drawn to certain values and persuasions through what is affecting them in the circumstances that they are in. But because the gate is wide and there is too much distraction their vision becomes scattered instead of focussed. 
This can cause us to fail to see what we need to see even if it is right in front of us. We are going to look at a situation where a physical focus can seriously affect a conceptual focus.
The basketball players on stage and invisible gorilla - Daniel Simons experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

The Narrow Gate - Our Goal
When we enter in by the narrow gate and our eye is single it is like a spiritual laser beam. Laser beams can have what is called a coherence or wholeness of one or more kilometre without scattering, and so entering by the narrow gate allows us to get an eternal quality of accurate vision to know what we need to avoid focussing on because it is a distraction to staying faithful to God’s will for our lives., for what he wants us to see. We are given grace to see what is going on and what is going wrong so that we can take responsibility. We can replace the unhelpful for the purposeful and meaningful. The Holy Spirit draws people towards Jesus, expressing the heart of the Father who draws us to his Son, and draws us away from other distractions and influences. 
John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth… he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine;

We are being trained by God in the spirit, the soul and the body. 
1Thessalonians 5:23 May the God of peace sanctify you completely (set you apart completely for God’s purpose – His goals for your life), spirit soul and body…
Spirit – Revelation to bring light and truth.
Soul   -  Light and truth to bring Love peace and joy.
Body  - Wholeness – to bring rest recovery and restoration. (Vagus nerve stimulation from the brain to the plexus points of the body)

That is the part of the power of what I call Presence Prayer where we are trained by The Holy Spirit to learn focus. 
Presence prayer is sitting quietly focussed upon the love and goodwill of God towards us, his thoughts and intentions for us and his work in the supernatural world of the unseen on our behalf. This is surrendered faith, cooperative faith, shared faith with God.

When we focus on the life of the Spirit we inhabit that place of communion with Jesus and the Father and Holy Spirit. Their thoughts towards us then become the influence upon our life. We get their point of view.
This needs to be connected to a present moment reality that is always available – feelings might come and go and time might pass away, but zoe life and God’s Eternal time (kairos) never disappear, they remain coherent and whole.
At the narrow gate there is a two-way flow of exchange of zoe life between us and God because of our mutual clear focus of shared intention to be there for one another. We are there for Him and He is there for us.
Remember Father’s love for you is as great as it is for Jesus – you are one in the bond of the love of The Holy Spirit. See yourself as part of their circle of love. You are not an outsider, you are an insider. Anything less than that is not the Gospel (Hebrews 4:16). See yourself standing in a prayer huddle with Father, Son and Holy Spirit and receive their faith, and believe. 
This is part of presence Prayer. 
Romans 8:25 the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts (Jesus) knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
When you are focussing on God with that single eye of faith God is focussing on you as the apple of his eye.
Psalm 17:8 Keep me (that means shield and protect me) as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wing… 

Finding meaning

FINDING MEANING
A life without meaning is a life without hope because it means not moving forward to higher things but just going around in futile or unnecessary things. It is important to know that we are being led forward by God on a journey into a higher purpose in God at this time of spiritual challenge. When Israel was taken out of Egypt and led by Moses through the wilderness to get to the Promised Land they found themselves on a journey of discovering the meaning of their life and purpose, and there are lessons for in us these days that we can learn from how they reacted to the challenges of enormous change and disruption so that we can be led by God into our destiny.

1Corinthians 10:1 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about Israel in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. They drank from the spiritual rock that travelled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and many died in the wilderness. Nor should we put Christ to the test, and don’t grumble as some of them did. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to instruct us who live at the end of the age.

It was too hard for Israel, on the inside, to totally to leave the situation they had been in because it meant too much change. When they got to the Red Sea they were too afraid to go across but God did the miracle of parting the waters and they went through. They were also too afraid to enter straight into the Promised Land almost two years later because they saw themselves as helpless grasshoppers in the face of the giants in the land (except for Joshua and Caleb – 10 spies saw nothing but danger and threat and that caused the people to rebel and refuse to go in - Joshua and Caleb saw nothing but fruitfulness and marvellous potential and triumph). So God told Moses that they would wander for another thirty eight more years – forty all together. The actual trek from where they came out of Egypt to Kadesh Barnea, which is the entrance point into the Promised Land can be hiked in eleven days!- by a hiker, not two million people walking slowly (It is across the top of the triangle that is the Sinai Peninsula) However God led them to Kadesh Barneaby their following the cloud of the Holy Spirit on a particular route down to the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula and back up again. That was the two-year part of the journey during in which time he challenged their faith and trust in him by testing their attitudes and reactions to real life survival challenges. 
It would have been like a reality TV survival show where all the worst attitudes in the survivors come to the surface. They went without water for three days and complained bitterly to Moses against God - so God did the miracle where Moses strikes the Rock with his rod bringing forth water (Christ the Rock releases the living water of the Holy Spirit to us). They despised the miracle food called manna that God provided for them and complained that it didn’t taste as good as the food they had in Egypt. They gave up on God when Moses disappeared for six weeks up on top of Mt. Sinai to get the Commandments on tablets of stone, and they made the idol of the golden calf. From the time that God had Moses go to Pharaoh and say ‘let my people go’ and then to go through all the plagues and warnings to Pharaoh who finally said ‘get out of here’ it was at least forty days. The saying goes; It took forty days to get Israel out Egypt  but it took forty years to get the Egypt out of Israel. This meant an unnecessary going around for forty years instead of going forward and going straight in to their land, but they had to learn the meaning and purpose of God for them as a people and that had to wait for the next generation who went into the land under Joshua and Caleb.
Their journey was an example and a warning for us in our generation about not coming to a standstill and going round and round without a sense of meaning or purpose, but going forward in that purpose of God as his people. The world today is experiencing a time of crisis of endurance and survival where many things have come to a standstill, and many people are going round and round, having lost a sense of meaning and purpose in these challenges. We are on a journey with God. This is a time for us to pause and assess where we are individually and as God’s people and to assess where we are going. It is important to know that we are being led forward into a higher purpose in God at this time of spiritual challenge. It is also important to know what we have to do to find meaning on this journey. It means wanting to be where we are going more than staying where we are, and not going round and round as Israel did for forty years. 

A life without meaning is a life without hope. Finding meaning in life is an inner experience of pursuing our highest spiritual goals. For us this means finding partnership with Jesus in every challenge of our life’s journey. The challenge becomes magnified when we are experiencing totally unforeseen situations that require radical change, and the world is in that kind of situation at present. 

We face challenges like survival against an invisible virus, managing an economy that has been overburdened with unanticipated demands upon resources, because the workplace is being demolished. This creates a sense in people of a lack of meaning
We face challenges like the devastating emotional and mental consequences of the hopelessness and confusion and despair of so many needy people. Lack of meaning

Politicians are overwhelmed with such grave responsibilities and many are so preoccupied with grasping for political survival that they are making dangerous errors of judgement, like inviting interference from Communist China to inveigle us into disastrous alliances. Lack of meaning. 

Attempts by people at various levels of government and by political activists to manipulate the uncertainties of our social situation because of special interest ideologies are both foolish and sinister. Ideologies go wrong when people apply an intense narrow focus on things which are not the big picture. Lack of meaning

Many people including some Christians have gone into denial with conspiracy theories that beggar belief, and saying that the virus is a hoax, and ignoring or scoffing common sense precautions. Lack of meaning.

Many regular people who were managing things well enough now find things unmanageable because these challenges have not been faced before. Lack of meaning and sense of futility (giants in the Land)
So for many, the entire situation can appear to have little or no meaning.

That means getting new perspective and understanding and wisdom. It means finding deeper faith, deeper courage and deeper meaning in what we do. But there is meaning in everything that happens in God and we can find that meaning. Reality never disappears when you work at what is real and not just imagined. 
So, are we going forward or just going around? We have everything we need to go forward and find meaning in everything we do.

Here are three pathways for finding meaning in challenging circumstances;

Creative action – When God created the world the Bible says it was without form and void. God brought order into this disorder, or chaos through his Word. We have that creative Logos within us giving us the faith to bring God’s creative order out of disorder. Whenever we do something out of the creative spiritual gift or ability given to us by God we act with that same reordering action of faith! It is a scientific fact that anything left to itself unattended deteriorates or corrupts into a state of disorder- the atomic and sub atomic nature of particles in material things causes them to perish either from the inside out or the outside in. It is the same with things that we have to attend to, like in our relationships or wise self-management of our health or finance or material possessions, we are bringing order out of chaos or disorder, and that is always a meaningful thing to do. We live in a world that has fallen into disorder and corruption in so many ways. It requires energy and action and willingness to be part of the reordering of life in this world and you are called to be a part of that. God is a God of order. 
2 Timothy 1:7 –Not fear (deilia- intimidation) but Power and love and an ordered mind. 

Enduring suffering – Finding hope and strength in times of stress or loss or anxiety or weakness or sickness. This is where miracles of faith happen because Jesus is always with us in those times. That is what having a Saviour is all about, a rescuer in stormy and perilous times 

Matthew 14:24 Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!”
But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!”
Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”
When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped.

Recall the times that Jesus has rescued you in the storms - and expect that to continue. 

Loving care – It was out of love that God created us and it is his love that gives meaning to our lives. There was great meaning for God in creating the universe but what had greatest meaning for God was creating you out of his overflow of love. You were adopted (placed in his family) alongside of Jesus. 
John 17:26 I I will continue to make your name known so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them…vs.23…and you have loved them even as you loved me. The Father loves us a much as he loves Jesus. That is his secret weapon for transforming our lives, not force or coercion but knowing his love.
knowing the greatness his love for us not only gives our personal lives our greatest meaning but it makes loving others more meaningful. Caring for the needs of others in family or extended family, friends or strangers that come across your path gives our lives together its Real Meaning.

 

Prisoners of Hope

PRISONERS OF HOPE 
I want to speak today about the hope that can be found during times of uncertainty when many have lost hope and are grieving that loss. I am framing this within the time frame of Israel trying to find their way forward and still floundering after being in captivity in Babylon for seventy years. The prophets at that time knew that God was preparing them for a new hope and were encouraging and challenging them to prepare for that time. 
Zechariah 9:11 Because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set you prisoners free from the dungeon. Return to your stronghold, you prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will doubly restore all to you.  

Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi all wrote to Israel before there was a four hundred years of silence during which time there was no king and no prophetic voice until the time of John the Baptist and Jesus. Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations about the hopelessness felt by Israel in bondage in Babylon during their time of standstill as God’s people. They had lost all sense of a future and were grieving their past. They needed to find hope.
For almost two generations they had been oppressed by cruel leaders of other nations and many had put their hope inother gods of other nations, and many had felt that God had abandoned them, but he hadn’t. Jeremiah captures their mood in the following Scripture from the book of Lamentations.
Lamentations 3:11 He has dragged me into the underbrush and torn me with his claws, leaving me bleeding and desolate. He has bent his bow and aimed it squarely at me, and sent his arrows deep within my heart.
He has filled me with bitterness and given me a cup of deepest sorrows to drink. He has made me eat gravel and broken my teeth; he has rolled me in ashes and dirt. O Lord, all peace and all prosperity have long since gone, for you have taken them away. I have forgotten what enjoyment is. All hope is gone; my strength has turned to water, for the Lord has left me. Oh, remember the bitterness and suffering you have dealt to me! For I can never forget these awful years; But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

The prophecy of Zechariah about being prisoners of hope speaks to us today, just as it spoke then to Israel. It is a prophesy of renewed hope.
Zechariah 9:11 Because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set you prisoners free from the dungeon. Return to your stronghold, you prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will doubly restore all to you.

This is being set free from a dungeon of disappointment and returning to God’s prison of hope in him. 

Disappointment has to do with what we expect of life, of ourself, and of others. This can lead to a wrong hope because we can have wrong expectations of all these things. Our only true hope is because of a true expectation of God.
Our hope is not based upon what we can do, or others – Our hope is based on what God does do and is doing. Our faith is the foundation of this hope. 
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance (foundation - hypostasis) of things hoped for, the evidence of things (deeds-pragma) not seen. That means the things (deeds) that God is doing in the world of the unseen, what he is doing! That is what our faith is, and that is what our hope stands upon.
Our hope is not always reliable when it is in something we want to have.
Our hope is always reliable when it is in Someone who gives us what he wants us to have, doing the good thing (deed) for us. Faith is not trying to believe as hard as we possibly can, that God will give us what we want to see happen – that can be a wrong expectation and lead to disappointment and lead to giving up on God. Our faith undergirds our true hope in God, that he will do his good thing (deed) that is his will for us.
So what do we expect from God concerning his prison of hope, and not living in the dungeon of disappointment.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of grief, to give you a future and a hope. 
Psalm 139:17 How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking (purposefully) about me constantly! I can't even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me. And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me! (God’s thoughts are about his deeds that he will to do for us in the world of the unseen, the world of faith – which reinforces our hope).
Zechariah 9:11 Because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set you prisoners free from the dungeon. Return to your stronghold, you prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will doubly restore all to you. 

It is not the circumstances that defeat us. It is our reactions to them that defeat us – we lose sight (faith) of God.
Our stress or discomfort or frustration can awaken us to hear the message of hope and to put our hope in God. 

What does our future hope depend upon?
Our future hope does not depend on our controlling our circumstances.
Our future hope does not depend upon what we have failed in in the past that may dash our hopes for the future.
Our future hope makes us ready for action. 

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, preparing your minds to be ready for action (not reaction), and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 
We take on a mindset of moving forward in God’s empowering grace. That means that when God reveals to us what his is doing, and that is seen in the circumstances he places before us after we have surrendered a situation into his hands. We then are empowered to respond to that in a God given faith that Holy Spirit gives to us. Remember what Jeremiah said in that last part of Lamentations;

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord 

Our future hope depends upon how we are responding to what is – now. 
Miracles become familiar occurrences with The Holy Spirit composing and arranging situations with supernatural creativity beyond our ability to organize them. It is not so much seeking these things, but expecting them - our hope is imprisoned in God. 
He is in this situation, and is with me in this situation, and is transforming me, and is transforming my future.

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

This is waiting for us to take hold of, in every challenge that seeks to rob us of a true hope. Get yourself into this hope – it is the true understanding of your faith!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prepare the way of The Lord

PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD

Twelve years after the rebuilding of the walls and gates of the city at Jerusalem had been accomplished the prophet Malachi wrote the last prophetic book of the Old Testament. God’s people now had all they needed to present themselves to the world as a people of God who would be a testimony to the fact that an all loving, all powerful, just and good God was alive in the Heavens. They had rebuilt the altar of sacrifice, laid the cornerstone and true foundation and rebuilt the temple, then re-established the Word of God through Ezra and the priests, then rebuilt the walls and gates of the city, and everything looked so good. There had been such a lot of ‘rise up and build’ on the outside - but unfortunately there had been very little ‘rise up and build’ on the inside that God wanted from them.

Prophets like Haggai and Zechariah’s had been speaking a message of the coming of the Messiah and the completion of the temple (516 b.c). And now a mere twelve years after the completion of all the gates and walls and temple there came the final prophesy of Malachi, who was also prophesying that The Messiah would come to this completed temple. Here is the key verse;

Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord (Messiah) whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

You would have thought that now was the time for something wonderful to happen, but nothing wonderful happened – everything stopped, came to a standstill. There Then there was time of silence for four hundred years – a prophetic pause! The next prophet to speak was John the Baptist. 
What does a time of silence of four hundred years speak of? What does a prophetic pause like this mean?
It speaks of preparing the way of The Lord even in a time of scarceness and insufficiency with a full hope and expectation for something wonderful to happen. I believe we are in a global prophetic pause in this current global catastrophe. But the pause is full of the purpose of God, and a moving forward  in the purpose of God, with the promise of worldwide Holy Spirit activity.

So, There was a silence of four hundred years after the final word from Malachi, no prophets and no revelation of God’s word or priestly instruction in the ways of God. Then something wonderful happened – John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus.
There was also a silence of four hundred years from the time God’s people became slaves in Egypt and then became free, and during that time there were no prophets and no revelation of God’s word or priestly instruction in the ways of God. Then something wonderful happened. God set Israel free to be led on a journey to the Promised Land.

A four hundred years experience is a time of preparation, the time of expectation for something wonderful to come, while at the same time knowing that things should and could be a lot better now. A four hundred years experience in the Old Testament does not have to be a literal four hundred years in the New Testament (Kairos prophetic time). It simply indicates a time of preparation, a time of expectation, and of waiting for God to presence himself among us. 

Paul told us that what Israel went through in the forty years in the wilderness was a prophetic pause for them to be ready to go into the promised Land. He spoke of Israel in their forty year wilderness experience as an example for us of learning how to trust God individually and corporately so as to enter into the fulness of the promise of God in Christ. For us that obviously doesn’t mean forty years – it means the challenges of faith and trust in God that can be jammed into whatever time frame God has to get our attention, to get our response.
1Corinthians 10:11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

This preparation time of waiting and expectation for us becomes the time of understanding how we can be part of the preparing of the way of The Lord, for the powerful presence of God to come, in His time. There are also things we need to attend to that we may need to change, or at least get done with more faith and understanding and revelation from The Holy Spirit. who is our anointed teacher (1John 2:27).

The next prophet to speak after Malachi four hundred years later was John the Baptist, spoken of in Malachi as Elijah, a messenger to prepare the way for the other Messenger who was Jesus the messenger of the New Covenant. Can we presume this ? Jesus said it! 
Matt. 11:13 “For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.  

The Holy Spirit as our anointed teacher instructs us in the way we should go and challenges when we need course correction through neglect or distraction and inspires us when we need motivation to reach a higher spiritual vision – they needed prophets, we have the Holy Spirit. And at that time the anointed prophet Malachi begins to set a higher goal for God’s people by addressing the priests, who were not honouring God and had become corrupt. Worship had become routine and unfaithfulness in marriage was widespread. Their vision had to be lifted higher. Social justice was being ignored and tithing was neglected. “Will man rob God?” the Lord asks (3:8), and he promised to “open the windows of heaven” (v. 10) if they honoured Him in this way. Malachi assures his people that God knows those who fear him and those who do not. 
now let us look at seven things that Malachi said God’s people would need to attend to for that time of preparation to be fruitful. Malachi was actually seeking to set their vision higher for their sakes, not just to admonish them in their insufficiency. God sets our vision high because it the most efficient way to inspire us to embrace a life full of meaning and purpose. The most positive emotion we can experience physiologically is that of pushing toward the highest most worthwhile goals (emote = Pootho’ Grk = push forward). God created us with a neurological hormonal pathway from a certain part of our brain, the Hypothalamus that stimulates and motivates us into a sense of purpose and meaning when we aspire to higher goals. A substance called dopamine is released and energizes our entire motivational attitude when we set our heart on achieving what is worthwhile and meaningful to us (in fact the artificial administration of this substance makes a person feel that whatever they are doing seems amazingly meaningful – thus the popularity of illegal recreational drug taking. But God always has something for us to aspire to that is full of his reality and purpose for our lives. 

Seven pathways of preparing the way

1. Preparing the way as a priest in the role and example of worship and instruction and faithfulness because a priest was a ‘go-between’ from God to His people. Angels could bless people and mediate the Old Testament Law but they are not authorized to preach the Gospel ( and many strange religions have claimed angelic revelation- the warning of this is in Galatians).
Malachi 2:1 Listen, you priests—The words of a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge of God, and people should go to him for instruction, for the priest is the messenger of the Lord. But you priests have left God’s paths
We are ALL his priests and able to give Words of life as God’s messengers of hope in a bleak and disheartened world. (1Peter 2:9 …you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood). So who gets us back on the path, the Holy Spirit, who makes the truth of God’s word alive to us so that we can make it live in other people.

2. Preparing the way as bridge-builders of trust in God’s Covenant.
Malachi 2;10 Are we not all children of the same Father? Are we not all created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors?
We can see all of humanity as belonging to God the Father, and we can be bridge-builders of trust in a world where many people are polarized because of tribalism and identity politics. Holy Spirit can give us wisdom when we become engaged in conversation with people who are being overwhelmed with all the negative talk they are hearing these days, and the abusive criticism they see people attacking one another with constantly on TV or radio. 
Mark 4:24 Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; 
We have the choice of what to have multiplied within us.

3. Preparing the way through loving relationships
Malachi 2:14 You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her.
God honours faithfulness in marriage and wants to see healing in our land because of the wounding caused by unfaithfulness. He wants to see faithfulness in all of our relationships and because we are His beloved as His bride we have a special work of the Holy Spirit releasing a loving faithful response back to Him from our hearts -what an aspiration!

4. Preparing the way through showing justice and mercy
Malachi 3;5 I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans…says the Lord.
True leadership is demonstrating integrity and honesty and mercy in the workplace. When we work as unto The Lord he resources us and rewards the work of our hands (Colossians 3:23)
God’s people can be blessed in the workplace in their faithfulness and their faith and be seen as givers and not takers of all God given blessings. We are here to be blessed and to bless.

5. Preparing the way by embracing trials of faith
Malachi 3:1-3 I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver…
Malachi is talking to the priests again here (that’s us!) and we can only pass on to others what we have actually received from the Lord and then we have the authority  declare the purposes of God – and you will do that by living out the purposes of God.’ That comes by embracing the trials of faith that purify our hearts, knowing that they transform us into his likeness, which is the gold that speaks of the nature of God. (1Peter 1:7). 

6. Preparing the way by honouring God financially and materially
Malachi 3:8-12 Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!
“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’
“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven. “Then all nations will call you blessed,
New Testament tithing is a willing response of grace filled gratitude for God’s provision. It is not a legalistic way of earning God’s blessing or negotiating a deal with God.  We do not tithe to an Old Testament levitical priesthood. We tithe out of grace to Jesus our Melchidisek priest. In all my years of ministry I’ve never believed in putting people under the law in this truth because no human pressure or manipulation  should touch this this act of faith. I have been blessed to witness the response of many hearts of such and grace, and seen the blessing of God upon that.
Hebrews 7:8 Here mortal men (Levites) receive tithes, but there (Heaven) He (Jesus) receives them, and that is our witness that we believe that he lives.
(I have expanded on this special priesthood of Jesus in Commandment eight in my podcast on the Ten Commandments – click the link at   uncreated.podbean.com  ) 

7. Preparing the way through family harmony and honour. This is the final Word for us to hear and respond to in our time of silence, our time of hope and expectation to see the blessing of God upon this world. 
Malachi 4:1 The Lord says, “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse. (So let there come a blessing and not a curse upon our land)

In these times in which we live this is not only a word spoken by Malachi in the very last verse of the very last book of the Old Testament about Elijah/John the Baptist – it is the Word being spoken to us in these days.
Jesus has made us one with Himself and with His Father. That was his great work to make us a part of his family. We have the power of The Holy Spirit drawing us into his family bond of love with them and with one another.

These times of challenge are the times to expect to see the blessing of the healing power of Jesus for families in spirit, soul and body. Pray for reconciliation to happen in families to bless our land of hope and faith and love. There may be ones who feel they have reached out and done all they can, and what more can be done? Remember – We keep our hearts aligned with God’s and It is God who turns the hearts of people. God wants to bring this final blessing upon the earth in these days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malachi’s message is in the context of preparing the way for the Father’s heart of 
blessing to be received by his children
And now Malachi writes. The opening statement from God through Malachi (Ch 1:2) is in the context of a loving Father whose inheritance is not being appreciated. He uses the illustration of Jacob and Esau, where Jacob regarded the inheritance and Esau did not. Then a few verses later (CH1:6) God says ‘A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name! 10 How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord.’
The theme of the honour due to a father is not only spoken of in the first few verses of the book, the aggrieved fatherhood theme is also emphasised in the centre of the book where God speaks as the Father/Creator of all of humanity. 
Malachi 2;10 Are we not all created by the same God? Are we not all children of the same Father? Then why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors?
The theme of the honour due to a father is also the theme of the last verse of the book (Ch4:6) I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.
In the last few verses of this book Malachi speaks of judgment and of blessing to come, and so it commands the attention of everyone who reads it.

 

As in the previous accounts of this reset and rebuild of God’s people after a strange time of standstill and disorientation, there are parallels to the Church in this strange time in which we live, in a time of standstill and disorientation. The Church today appears to have all it could need in the form of resources such as churches and worship and leaders and helpers and programs and marketing, but is God calling for something more? What we want and need is the presence of God in our midst, rather than just the presence of all the sincere and wonderful human ability and performance and Bible knowledge in our midst.

From the first few verses of this book Malachi’s purpose was to assure his people that God still loved them and was keeping his Covenant with them (Ch.1:2-5 - "I have loved you," says God. But you say, "In what way have you loved us?). Malachi tells us throughout the book that God calls for respect and honor, and faithfulness and love.

But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations,” says the Lord.

 

Walls and Gates of Safety

WALLS AND GATES OF SAFETY

The story continues of God’s people returning from the seventy years captivity in Babylon and the rebuilding the temple and now, the walls and the city gates of Jerusalem. This entire story is like a second Exodus of Israel coming out of captivity and entering into the Land, with this re-entering taking many long years like the first Exodus. This re-entry spanned the reigns of three kings in Babylon and Persia, with many delays and disruptions because of the enemies in the region.
Zerubbabel led the first wave of returning exiles out of Babylon and some years later there came the arrival of Ezra for the rebuilding of God’s Word into the peoples’ hearts.
The Temple had now been built, the sacrifices were now being offered, the Word of God had now been restored, but there were still no walls and gates of safety and security for God’s people and they were still open to enemy attack. 
So now God sends Nehemiah to return from Babylon to oversee the rebuilding the walls and gates of the city. This was the final work needed for the reset and rebuilding of God’s people as his witness to the nations. So we see again in this continuing story the parallels of Israel experiencing a reset after their world had come to a standstill and the Church today preparing to experience a reset just as our world has also come to a standstill in this global crisis we are living in today.

Just as God moved the hearts of world rulers and intervened sovereignly in history for his people under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Ezra, God now moves history for Nehemiah through the Persian King Artaxerxes to finish the rebuilding of the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. He uses these unlikely allies to fulfil His promises of restoration for His people. 

It was the task of Nehemiah to see both the restoration of the walls and the rebuilding of the gates of those walls. 
Nehemiah 1:3 "Those who are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is still broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
The lack of walls around the exiles who had returned from captivity over those last few years meant that they were living an unprotected life in the sense that they were allowing alien and sometimes hostile influences from the outside world around them to bring confusion into their lives. 
It also meant that they allowed themselves to wander out into the surrounding regions where corrupt cultural values and practices caused many of them to be enticed into an ungodly lifestyle.
Nehemiah 2:17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision… The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build
Nehemiah returned and had to teach the people how to build and how to fight the enemy at the same time, and the enemy’s tactics were sometimes subtle and sometimes brutal. They were being discouraged, and their values being despised and mocked. Sanballat, who was one of the leading adversaries of Israel’s return and rebuilding was continually conspiring to hinder the work and spoke these words of derision to the work of Nehemia; 

Nehemiah 4:1-6. "What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they are doing?" he scoffed. "Do they think they can build the wall in a day if they offer enough sacrifices? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” 4 Then I prayed, "Hear us, O Lord God, for we are being mocked…..for they have despised you in despising us who are building your wall…So we built the wall… for the people had a mind to work.

This same thing happens to God’s people today and God wants his people to maintain rule over their spiritual and natural lives, and to rebuild the walls and gates of safety and security around their souls and minds. God is giving us spiritual authority in these days I believe, through faith in His Word and the empowering presence of The Holy Spirit. We are challenged in the Scriptures to maintain this authority.
Proverbs 25:28 Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.
Notice in that prayer to God that Nehemiah called the wall ‘your wall’. The wall of faith that we build around us is God’s wall. 
They also had a challenging problem with all the broken down rubble left around from the old wall. 

Neh 4:10  Then some of the leaders began complaining that the workmen were becoming tired; and there was so much rubble to be removed that we could never get it done by ourselves. (TLB) 
This speaks to us of the brokenness and vulnerability that our lives have suffered, but that is where God shows his miracle working power to redeem all the things in our lives that have been broken down.
Satan tries to get us spiritually and emotionally fatigued by us walking around in our minds in the rubbish of our own past mistakes or failures. Our soul can become emotionally fragmented and our minds overcome with negativity and stress. These blows can turn healthy solid pieces of building blocks into rubble.

The spiritual building blocks that God builds into our lives make up the many diverse aspects of who we are, and the good news is that God takes all these experiences and turns them into fresh opportunities to look at the situation His way – The Holy Spirit is waiting to show us what God is saying to us in these experiences. He builds our wall – he surrounds us. Self destructive attitudes of fear can be changed into healthy attitudes of faith when they are placed in the safety of God’s walls of refuge.
Psalm 32:7 You are my place of refuge, You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.
Nehemiah took all the rubble and recycled it into building material, just as God does with our lives, and even the dust and dirt and gravel was mixed with clay to make mortar for the stones. God won’t waste a thing! God turns our weaknesses into our strengths – to bind our wall together and to strengthen his wall for our lives. Nehemiah and all the people finally completed the work and rebuilt the walls and the ten gates that had been destroyed and burnt down. The gates were where the elders of the city sat and made decisions for the government of the city. There is also an individual gatekeeping ministry that we each can exercise in our coming in and going out through the spiritual and natural gates of our lives in this world in which we live at his critical moment in time. Having walls and gates does not mean living a life cut off from the world. It does not mean exclusivity but it does mean selectivity. When we look at the name and the nature of the ten gates that were rebuilt we can see a spiritual application in them for finding wisdom as to what we convey through our spiritual gates into and out of our lives. We can also find we are given gatekeeping occasions for helping others in their gatekeeping management decisions. 
The ten gates were in order; The Sheep gate, the fish gate, the old gate, the valley gate, the refuse gate (garbage gate!) the fountain gate, the water gate, the horse gate, the east gate, and the gathering gate.

Let us look at an example of a few of these gates; Some speak for themselves and only need a brief mention.
The sheep gate speaks to us of always being open to the forgiveness and mercy of the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world for our sins.
The fish gate speaks of the word of Jesus to his disciples to making us   ‘fishers of men’
The old gate speaks of the established ways of God that never change in guiding our paths
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths,where the good way is; and walk in it,
The valley gate speaks of going through the valleys of grief and suffering in our lives.
The refuse gate - garbage gate. Remember what I said earlier Satan tries to get us spiritually and emotionally fatigued by us walking around in our minds in the rubbish of our own past mistakes or failures. Get rid of that at the garbage gate.
The fountain gate speaks of allowing the fountain of living water to spring up from our innermost being John 7:37 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive… This is the powerful flow of life of His Spirit
The water gate is the actual cleansing of our spirit from the water of his Word. 
Ephesians 5:26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
The horse gate – This speaks of the power we have in spiritual warfare.
Zechariah 10:3 and will make them like the powerful horse in battle. 
Job 39.25 He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;he does not turn back from the sword.
he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha! 

The east gate. In Ezekiel the east gate faced towards the direction of the mount of olives, looking for the coming of the Lord in the end time. This gate is sealed shut until he comes.
The gathering gate. This speaks of the calling together of the gathering of God’s people. We have experienced the Covid safety challenges to the keeping of this gate in these times in which we live. Nonetheless ‘unto him shall the gathering of the people be’ (Genesis 49:10)

Nehemiah 6:15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, knowing that this had been the work of God.
52 days is a very short time – but to see in Nehemiah chapter thee the names of all the people in there helping one another. I gave up counting them. We are to be like them, there with one another for on another. It is an attitude of being beside each other in prayer and care, in willingness to help in whatever way we can so that the same will be said of them, that just as in the verse we just read – All the nations round about them saw them rebuild the gates and knew that this was the work of God. It is our lives together here on earth revealing that there is a God in heaven.

 

The Temple and the Word

THE TEMPLE AND THE WORD 

This is the continuing story of God’s people under Zerubbabel returning home to rebuild the temple that was broken down. This story also includes the later arrival of Ezra upon the scene, returning with up to two thousand more exiles, to be part of the rebuilding, but not of the temple his time, but of the rebuilding of God’s Word into the peoples’ hearts.
There are parallels in this story of Israel experiencing a reset of their place as God’s people in the Earth, and the Church today experiencing a reset as a witness for God in the Earth. Their world had come to a standstill just as the world we live in today is in crisis and has also come to a standstill. However there is no standing still in God’s purpose to rebuild and restore his people and to take them forward into his purposes.

 

God moved the hearts of secular world rulers (Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes moved history for Zerubbabel and Ezra and later Nehemiah) to allow, even encourage and help, the Jewish people to return home. He used these unlikely allies to fulfill His promises of restoration for His people. 
Proverbs 21:1 – “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”

 

It was not only in the kings but in the officers, and the mostly indifferent bureaucracy where God moved men’s’ hearts for His purpose.
This is also a time for us to encounter unlikely sources of blessing. This is the wonder of God really working all things together for the good of those who are called by His name. These are times for a new kind of expectation of the unexpected. These are times to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and mercy.

Zerubbabel had now laid the foundation of the temple. But there was no temple and there was no real city, and there were no walls – and that meant they were open to enemy attack, and they had to learn how to deal with that. Stories of the glory of Solomon's temple began to breed discouragement that they could never rebuild this temple as glorious as that one. 
It was now time to rebuild the temple, and the prophets Zechariah and Haggai encouraged Zerubbabel to get on with the work. It took many years to complete the building because there was the continual harassment of the enemies, and as yet there were no walls.

It is God’s heart to see his people dwelling together in unity where his presence resides with them and within their hearts. This is God’s home, his temple made up of people, called ‘living stones’.

The prophet Haggai speaks firmly and soberly to the people about their priorities. They had been preoccupied with giving more meaning to their own personal affairs instead of the will of God as being central for the meaning of their individual and corporate lives. God’s life matters. Here’s what Haggai says;

Haggai 1: 7  Consider your ways says the Lord. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? Declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.

That rebuke then becomes an encouragement to them that he desires to be with them and will be glorified in them, and that means that their lives will express His life among them in an even greater way than he has in their past history ‘The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former’. He wanted them to identify as His people, His Nation and not scattered in a foreign land with a foreign culture. They were coming home- their home and His home.
The following Scripture is a powerful encouragement for them then and for us now – It tells them that all nations will be shaken but they will be provided for…
Haggai 2:1 Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’

Haggai encourages Zerubbabel that God is with him in this work, just as The Holy Spirit is telling is that he is with us in this critical time – His Spirt is in our midst .God is bringing his people back into a rebuilding of their unity based upon the unity of the faith. The unity of the faith is simply the expression of the life of Christ being lived out individually and corporately wherever we are and whatever the cultural or traditional background we have.

There is a picture of the relational unity among us in the picture of the stones being cut to shpe for the temple.
The stones in the temple had to be shaped. The stabilising wall was made of stones that were cut out and shaped at the rock quarry and brought into place to fit together without any mortar in between, sometimes rubbing the rough edges off each other – just like us in managing our own relationships with each other. God has to do a lot of work upon us, taking us out of one huge rock structure as big as a mountain and fitting us together, so we come out of our rock Christ, and get shaped by the Holy Spirit to take our place next to each other in Christ. That is what God is preparing us for in these days. 

 

He then says ‘The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts’ so that the treasures of all nations shall come in. That is his message to all the world - that He is the possessor of the Heavens and the Earth, not the nations ruled by dictators who covet the wealth of other nations to wield more corrupt power in their oppression of millions upon millions of people. God is preparing a people who will express his  justice and mercy and blessing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            As I said before - Haggai Tells Zerubbabel that He will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and that He will shake all nations. So all of this work of rebuilding his people together to contain and to express his presence is being done in the midst of upheaval all over the world, and that is our experience at this very time. There is a special grace upon this coming together of a living temple. There is a grace for us to be in supportive prayer for one another and the healing of relationships. The Scripture said  He will fill this house with greater glory, the expression of the life of Jesus within. 

And now it is time for the rebuilding of the Word 
After a few years Ezra leads the second of three waves of returning exiles. Even though the temple was being restored and God was with his people it was time for them to be challenged by the Word that would bring personal growth to their lives, because by the time Ezra arrived, the people had again fallen into sin and allowed the values of the godless culture around them (not just the one back in Babylon) to influence their values and corrupt their consciences. Ezra preached God’s word and the people repented. There were close to two thousand people who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem for this mission. 
This next phase in the rebuilding of God’s people coming home was the inner rebuilding of their faith and faithfulness through his Word. This also speaks to us today, to live more deeply but simply in His Word to us. Paul told Timothy to study to sow himself approved, confident that he was correctly dissecting the Word of God (2 Timothy2.15)

Ezra 7:6 -10 Ezra was skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, and he succeeded for the hand of the Lord his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

Ezra received favour from the Persian King’s officers and counsellors so that people of influence were willing to make a way for him to do what God has said, and God also put others who had a heart for God’s Word to be part of Ezra’s vision to see the Word of God renewed in peoples’ hearts. They were described as men of insight and faithfulness and discretion. Again we see God working on the hearts of those who do not know him, for His word to make its way to wherever God sends it  and to do its work and not return empty.

Ezra 7:28 Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

In Ezra’s words, he declared his faith in God’s protection over him and all that accompanied him.

Ezra 8:22 For I was embarrassed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king that the hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who abandon him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. And the gracious hand of our God protected us and saved us from enemies and bandits along the way. So we arrived safely in Jerusalem, where we rested for three days.

So this was a different kind of building that Ezra was asked by God to do. This was a time of the revival of the power of God’s word coming alive in the hearts of His people. This was a time of divine protection from the enemy, and it will be the same for us as we fight a good warfare.
This is a time for us to join ourselves in prayer for all who believe and trust in God, that he will revive the hearts of the humble, and the spirits of those who have been oppressed. pray first that he will revive our hearts with the grace and faith to be the Ezras who make way for God’s Word to flourish in His House, His Home. His temple of living stones – to declare His Word to our world.

 

Reset rebuild

RESET REBUILD

We shared last week about Israel returning home to Jerusalem after seventy years of being in bondage in Babylon, and now the 50,000 exiles are under the leadership of Zerubbabel who was in charge of the rebuilding of the temple which was destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar had demolished the city of Jerusalem . The first thing that they did was the rebuilding of the altar of sacrifice which launched them into a new future. I likened this reset for God’s people at that time to the reset we can prepare ourselves for at this moment in history Everything had come to a standstill for them –There are parallels in this story in Israel’s experiencing of a reset of their place as God’s people in the Earth, and the Church’s experiencing of a coming reset of taking its place as a witness for God in the Earth today.

The next thing for Zerubbabel to do was to survey and lay down the foundation of the temple. There was not only no foundation and no temple there was no real city, and there were no walls – and that meant they were open to enemy attack, and they had to learn how to deal with that. Pressures that came from having to re-settle had drained their energies, and comparisons to stories of the glory of Solomon's temple began to breed discouragement that they could never rebuild this temple as glorious as that one, if at all.

Where do you start? It is hard to get started when there is discouragement. But they knew they had to just start. They were facing a time of enormous change but they had started with the right project – the altar of sacrifice, and then came the temple foundation, and after that there would be the temple.
It was going to be hard work, and that never changes because hard work will always be hard work, but what does change is our faith. That is based on knowing that God is with us and God is for us, no matter what comes against us. Zechariah who was a prophet of Judah at the time was directed by God to encourage and instruct Zerubbabel.

Zechariah 4:2-10 "This is God's message to Zerubbabel: `Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty-- you will succeed because of my Spirit, though you are few and weak.' 7 Therefore no mountain, however high, can stand before Zerubbabel! It will flatten out before you! You have laid the foundation of this Temple and you will finish building it with its capstone in its place shouting 'grace and thanksgiving' for God's mercy, declaring that all was done by grace alone. (Then you will know these messages are from God, the Lord Almighty.)"… Another message that I received from the Lord said: 10 Do not despise this day of small beginnings, for the eyes of the Lord rejoice to see the work begin, to see the plumbline in the hand of Zerubbabel.

FOUNDATIONS AND THE CORNERSTONES
In relation to architecture, a cornerstone is traditionally the first stone laid for the foundation of a structure, with all the other stones laid in reference to that. The cornerstone marks the geographical location by orienting a building in a specific line of direction.
I would like to read a Scripture from Isaiah is quoted in the Gospels and Epistles about Jesus being the cornerstone and foundation of the Church.
Isaiah 28:16 Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will be ready.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line;

THE FOUNDATION
The Church is God’s living temple today, the Body of Christ, and Jesus is the foundation upon which our lives, individually and corporately are being rebuilt and restored. When the church shares the common foundational apostolic and prophetic truth of growing up together into His life we begin to occupy that precious ground of truth and are called to build upon that foundation.
1Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Part of the reset of the Church is the rebuilding together upon that foundation of apostolic and prophetic truth that brings the unity that is called the ‘unity of the faith’.
Ephesians 4:13 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

The unity of the faith is not defined solely by articles of faith agreed upon by the different councils of the Church .These have been gifted to us through the centuries, because as true and substantial as these may be, they can tend to represent the ‘complete’ fund of the knowledge of God. I personally embrace these confessions of faith as part of sacred tradition, but I do not see them as exhausting the work of the Holy Spirit in leading us into ALL truth as he reveals Jesus to us through his word.
The unity of the faith is simply the expression of the life of Christ being lived out individually and corporately wherever we are and whatever ethnic or cultural background we have. There have been times in the past when there was the need for the reset of reformation throughout the history of the church because of misleading doctrines of man made errors of emphasis or self serving agendas. There are doctrines based on valid Scriptures that are not necessarily part of that foundation in the sense that for the time being they remain veiled or obscure, like what will be the lifestyle management structure of the millennium? Arguments and uncertainties abound about these Scriptures that bring division, not unity. I have a real certainty about the millennium – It is that whatever the millennium will be, it will be nothing like what I would have imagined.

There are foundational doctrines that become distorted because they are more about ‘my will be done’ rather than ‘thy will be done’. The doctrine of the power of Jesus for forgiveness and salvation itself becomes narrowed and limited to a predestined ‘elect’. Doctrines of healing become demands of healing from God just by quoting a verse of Scripture at him, whether or not the person actually gets healed. I see a prayer for healing get answered when I see a person actually healed. God does these things of course when he WILLS them to be done. I do not see these failed acts of misled zeal as always the craftiness in deceitful schemes mentioned in that verse from Ephesians above, but rather as an incomplete understanding of faith. People get possessed by an idea, and it can be a good idea, but it is not a God idea, and the idea ends up possessing them They become possessed by an idea that brings agonizing striving for it to succeed and just as agonizing justification for its many failures. An idea is incomplete when it it’s manifestation in reality is not completed, and so that person’s faith life is incomplete. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and shared this concern with them.
2Corinthians 11:3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from the simple and pure devotion to Christ.

THE CORNERSTONE AND THE PLUMBLINE
The plumb line touches the foundation spot on at the Cornerstone – Jesus. Everything becomes straight up and down when it comes from heaven to earth through Jesus and then touches us and goes back to Heaven through Jesus, without who we can do nothing, and through whom we can do all things. When the plumb line is dragged across to some point on the field of that foundation where one of those incomplete ideas of faith is energized by our urgency to see something supernatural happen that plumb line is not straight up and down anymore - there’s an angle.
The plumb line speaks of the vertical touching of Heaven and earth and about how that can be measured in our lives. We are part of both Heaven and earth through Jesus and The Holy Spirit. The plumb line plumbs the depth of our alignment with The Holy Spirit’s revelation of God’s Word to us, and our harmony and devotion to Jesus. So that is both about the knowing of God through his Word and in the living out of his life within us.
Not only do we need to ponder the wonder of receiving the life of Jesus into our lives, but more importantly to marvel at and deliberate upon the desire of Jesus to receive us into his life and to share with him in his loving and obedient life with The Father.
Deliberate on the simple truth of who God is through the revelation of what the Word (Logos) says that HE says about HIMSELF.
Jeremiah 9:24 I anyone wants to boast about anything let them boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and uprightness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

There are some things coming out of this that you can say to yourself about God;
ONE – You love me with an everlasting love. That teaches me to love.
TWO – Your justice means that I receive mercy and am accepted despite my shortcomings. Your justice also means that because you love me you will discipline me so that I can say ‘You are right (always) and I am wrong (mostly) – and that teaches me about repentance.
THREE – Your uprightness means that you will always guide me in the path of your wisdom and truth and provide your best for my life. That teaches me about faith and trust in your supernatural work on my behalf in the world of the unseen.

The Cornerstone (the foundation stone, or setting stone) is where the plumb line from Heaven touches the foundation on the earth. Jesus is the Cornerstone of the foundation where Heaven touches the earth. That is where the perpendicular measurement is spot on. Any other place on the foundation can be pushed out of alignment! The closer you get to Jesus the better the reading.
Many times in the Old Testament people placed a stone to mark a special place of orientation or remembrance of a work of God. Jacob placed his head upon an anointed stone and had the vision of a ladder reaching to Heaven. The anointed stone is the place where Heaven touches the earth.

God tells Zerubbabel that it is not by might or power or human strength but by the Spirit of God, that the work would be completed. He tells him to shout 'grace and thanksgiving' for God's mercy, declaring that all was done by grace alone. Grace means that it is not our power but the empowering presence of The Holy Spirit which flattens out the mountains before us.
God tells Zerubbabel to ‘despise not the day of small beginnings for the eyes of the Lord rejoice to see the work begin,’. So make a start to reset and rebuild through grace and thanksgiving and see the work begin. I remember sharing to people in church some time ago about deliberating upon the desire of Jesus to receive us into his life and to share with him in his loving and obedient life with The Father, to deliberate on the simple truth of who God is through the revelation of what the Word (Logos) says that HE says about HIMSELF – his Steadfast love and justice and uprightness etc. and to do it for ten or fifteen minutes at a time - no prayer requests, just deliberating on God – meditation if you like. I though maybe I’m putting too big a yoke on these dear people. Then I found myself saying – Look, try it for ten seconds whenever you can. I was incredibly blessed to get feedback from someone who said that this had been lifechanging for them. We start NOW. The reason we procrastinate is that we despise small beginnings and never make a start because there’s always something more important to do – well not this time.

(What reason do you have to not accept Jesus as your best friend?)

 

Sacrifice

SACRIFICE
After seventy years in Babylon God’s people Israel had been in bondage in a strange land. Everything had come to a standstill for them – an enforced seventy year Sabbath to give the land its rest. The Persian King Cyrus sends the exiles, fifty thousand of them, back to Jerusalem in 538 b.c. There are parallels in this story, in Israel’s experiencing of a return and reset of their place as God’s people in the Earth, and the Church’s experiencing of a coming return and reset of taking its place as a witness for God in the Earth today.
A man by the name of Zerubbabel was chosen then to lead the exiles back, and he was announced on their return to the Holy Land as the governor of Judah and sometimes referred to as ‘Prince of Judah’, as he was from the lineage of David.
Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation… The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord.

The seventy year standstill experience of the judgment upon Israel had led to a sense of disorientation and discontinuity, and a radical break with the past. In Babylon they were in virtual lockdown and they had lost all sense of a ‘future’, and now they were heading home - but there was no home. Their temple and their city had been left in ruins.

They couldn’t pick up from where they left off. There had to be a reset. Prior to their exile they were organized as the tribes of Israel, but now they were to be gathered in families and clans, and remnants of Benjamin and Judah, with the only full tribe left being the Levites, for the priesthood. This became the transition from the religion of Israel to that of Judaism.
The first major event for them on their return was when the time of the year came for them to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast of the yearly gathering of all the people as families. As for the rebuilding, they didn’t start with building the temple, or city walls or gates. They started with the very core of what God was calling for from them - the re-building of the altar of sacrifice. Zerubbabel and his clan, and the priests, led in the rebuilding of the altar on the exact place where it had once stood, and they sacrificed burnt offerings upon it, and voluntary or free will offerings. The Bible says that the foundation of the temple was not yet laid. That was next and that had to wait.

Ezra 3:1 … Zerubbabel (of the lineage of David) and his clan, rebuilt the altar of the God of Israel and sacrificed burnt offerings upon it. The altar was rebuilt on its old site, and it was used immediately to sacrifice morning and evening burnt offerings to the Lord;
And they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles as prescribed in the laws of Moses, sacrificing the burnt offerings specified for each day of the feast… free will offerings of the people were also sacrificed… The foundation of the Temple was not yet laid.

 

I believe that our experience as the Church in the current worldwide pandemic of Covid 19 is a parallel in so many ways to the experience of God’s people back then in captivity. Life for them had suddenly come to a standstill leaving them for a long time without the same expectations and hopes and freedom and security of what used to be a normal life, plunging them into a sense of disorientation and discontinuity, and a radical break with the past – no temple worship - church for them. Today this sense of disorientation is invading the minds and hearts of people all over the world as it goes through the distress of this moment in history. Then it came time for Israel being called to a reset of their past because things would never be quite the same as they remembered and they would do a reset for their new future, and I believe we are also being faced with this same challenge. God was calling for them to return to the place where he has always met with his people – the altar of sacrifice. The first reset was to rebuild the Altar. That is what God is calling for from us. That is what our reset needs to be. The altar in our lives speaks of a life of sacrifice. A life of sacrifice speaks of a continual launching of the future into the will and purpose of God. Why?

A sacrifice involves giving up something now that will present to you something better in the future, whether it is spiritually, emotionally or materially. This is only done if you value what it is that you are sacrificing something for now. In the natural world if there were no sacrifice of time and effort and study or discipline there would be no advancement or betterment of self and character or any real life outcomes. There would be an empty future.
God calls for sacrifice for our sakes, so that we can reach the future that he has created us for. He offers them to us - the greater the sacrifice the greater the hopes and the more blessed future – but HE has to make the offer to us (missionary).

Prior to their exile they were organized as the tribes of Israel, but in their reset they were to be gathered in families. The observance of the Feast of tabernacles for them back then was the celebration of the togetherness that Israel enjoyed as God’s family in the earth, and in our reset it is our celebration of being one Body in Christ like never before, as his family under the Father.
They couldn’t pick up from where they left off. There had to be a reset.

Zerubbubel called for the offering of the burnt offerings and the free will offerings on that altar. There are many offerings, like the sin-offering, the peace offering. But the burnt offering and the free will offering had special meaning for them as it does for us today, in our time of reset.
The burnt offerings speak of total commitment of our future to The Lord, and the free will offering speaks of thanksgiving and appreciation of what we have in The Lord, even when we experience loss and disappointment and we can give God thanksgiving in that situation, that free will offering brings about the all things working supernaturally together for good for us in that situation. This heart of sacrifice has to start at an individual level before it becomes visible at a corporate level.

It is a harsh reality that pain and suffering define the world we live in. The person who wants to alleviate suffering for themselves and for those in their world make the sacrifices necessary to do this. They become part of the answer to the pain and suffering we see in people today, because being there for one another in their suffering is a sacrifice that grows bonds of love and trust and releases the supernatural power of Jesus as the fulfillment of that sacrifice ( look at your situation right now in being there as a living sacrifice for others),.. There would be less suffering in the world if there were more people who valued the virtue of self-sacrifice toward God and for one another.

The first mention of the burnt offering in the Bible was not in Moses time of the priestly sacrifices – it was when Abraham was called to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering. He gave his future back to God and put it into God’s keeping, or guardianship, and he showed mighty faith by believing that God would provide the sacrifice and bring forth a spectacular future upon the earth of all the families of the earth being blessed. Abraham’s future (and ours) was the life of his son Isaac. Then Isaac heard the words of Abraham;
Genesis 22 – God will provide a lamb for the offering my son...God said now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.
God also called upon himself to make the sacrifice of his only son and bring about the ultimate blessed future for all of us, and Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice to bring about this unsurpassable future for us to share with him here and now and for eternity. There was no other way. Paul wrote in Romans 12 for us to offer ourselves o God as a living sacrifice and When we say yes in faith to God regarding sacrifice he provides the sacrifice, his Son - and our future in God comes to pass his way. Our burnt offering for us is giving our future into God’s good will for us. Jesus is the completion of every task committed to him
2Timothy 2:12 which is why I am willing to suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed or disappointed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him until that Day.

We sacrifice when we put our hearts and minds and bodies into the appropriate hard yards that allow us to go forward in life. We persevere patiently through that slow work but then God does the quick work, the supernatural work that brings about his result, the best future. We say yes to the offering of sacrifice and just as with Abraham he says I have provided the lamb, that supernatural sacrifice of his Son, to complete the work of the sacrifice. We then rest in our faith and trust and hope in him, Jesus, and he takes us into our future, his future for us.

John 6:15-21 – Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He went back up again to the mountain by Himself alone, and when evening came he told the disciples to row to the other side ,(Matthew 14:25). His disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid. But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.
They did the hard yards and Jesus completed the journey. We are in the boat rowing at the moment and it is scary

If parents support a culture that lets their children have everything they want and does not train them in self-sacrifice and sharing and contributing and accountability they will find themselves living in a generation that demands their rights and protests against any form of discipline and community responsibility. This is what is happening now.

 

How the rest was won

HOW THE REST WAS WON
Exodus 17:7 the people of Israel had argued against God and provoked God by saying, "Is Jehovah going to take care of us or not?". And now the warriors of Amalek came to fight against the people of Israel at Rephidim, so Moses instructed Joshua to issue a call to arms to the Israelites, to fight the army of Amalek.

‘Tomorrow, ‘Moses told him, "I will stand at the top of the hill, with the staff of God in my hand!" So Joshua and his men went out to fight the army of Amalek. Meanwhile Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. And as long as Moses held up the staff in his hands, Israel was winning; but whenever he rested his arms at his sides, the soldiers of Amalek were winning. Moses' arms finally became too tired to hold up the staff any longer; so Aaron and Hur rolled a stone for him to sit on, and they stood on each side, holding up his hands until sunset. As a result, Joshua and his troops crushed the army of Amalek, putting them to the sword.

Then the Lord instructed Moses, ’Write this into a permanent record, to be remembered forever, and announce to Joshua that I will utterly blot out every trace of Amalek.’ Moses built an altar there and called it ‘Jehovah-nissi’ (meaning ’Jehovah is my flag’).
"Raise the banner of the Lord!" Moses said." For the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation."

So let’s look at the background story to the lead up to this battle that Israel had with Amalek.
Israel had been complaining continually that God was not looking after them and was no longer with them. There are ten major incidents spoken of where they provoked God concerning this complaint, and God acted from Heaven every time to either show himself as their savior and provider(crossing the red sea- feeding them with manna etc), or to bring judgment upon them for their rebellion and unbelief.

In this story the complaint that Yahweh was not with them and not caring for them came at the time of Israel’s first experience of warfare against another nation, the nation of Amalek. This was at a place called Rephidim. Rephidim means ‘The land of rest – hence the title of the sermon – How the rest was won…

Moses was told by God to take his staff and hold it up to God from on top of a mountain overlooking the battle of Rephidim.
This was the staff that God told first Moses to take up when he spoke to him at the burning bush. It proved to be symbol of the faith and authority that God was giving to Moses to show that God was with him and would do mighty works through him for the salvation and provision of his people. God said to Moses; ‘what is that in your hand Moses’ which meant ‘what is it that you have within your grasp - your God given ability to do with your life as God would have you to do. In this story what God says to Moses he is saying to all of us. God then told him to throw it to the ground, whereby the staff turned into a snake that chased Moses who fled from it through fear, then God told Moses to turn and take up the snake and it became the staff of authority again. God says the same to us. When Moses let go of the staff of his faith and authority in God he invited the serpent in - to come after him to overcome his faith. The snake - from the beginning, speaks of deception and temptation and sin. Fear took over instead of faith. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12 to cast aside the sin that so easily besets you, or ensnares you. It is called the besetting sin and it is driven by some kind of fear. Moses appears to have had a fear of injustice that trapped him into having to get justice done in his own emotional strength instead of having faith in God to work justice. Moses fell into this trap a number of times in the Bible. The first time was forty years earlier when he killed an Egyptian because of the injustice being done to his fellow Israelites as slaves of Pharaoh – this got him into a lot of trouble and he had to escape and stay in hiding for forty years in Midian, where God finally came to him at this time at the burning bush. He did it later by disobeying God striking the rock twice instead of simply speaking to it as God told him to – again another angry outburst because of the injustice of Israel’s murmuring against God. That cost Moses his entry into the promised land.

But he turned ie repent and picked up the snake by the tail and faith and authority returned.

Moses was instructed to use this staff of faith and authority to perform the supernatural works in Egypt in turning the rivers to blood and bringing the plagues and judgments upon Pharaoh before Israel were set free from Egypt. It was that staff of faith and authority that Moses held over the red sea and the staff that he used obediently (on that occasion) to bring forth life-giving water from a rock. And now it was the staff of faith and authority that would win the battle for Israel against Amalek at Rephidim.

THE BATTLE. Moses had instructed Joshua to lead Israel in the battle, and whenever Moses held up the staff Israel under Joshua would overcome Amalek, but when Moses lowered the staff of faith and authority because his arms became weary then Amalek would start overcoming Israel. Aaron and Hur supported Moses arms and allowed him to sit down so that the staff of faith and authority kept Joshua in a winning position. This is an illustration of the power of prayerful intercession from those who support one another in times of spiritual challenge and warfare. Aaron was Moses brother and Hur was the son of Caleb. These were men that were both faithful to the purposes of God, for his will to be done. We can uphold our brothers and sisters as an Aaron and a Hur and we can know that we are being upheld as a Moses by them also. I expect to be upheld by my brothers and sisters in this way, just as I expect of myself to be effective for my brothers and sisters in my upholding them.

JOSHUA – This is the first time Joshua is mentioned in the Bible, and he is seen as the one who leads God’s people in this battle and saves and overcomes for them. They would not have been skilled soldiers at this stage but it was the skilled leadership of Joshua and the faith of Moses in raising his staff to Heaven that released the supernatural victory through Joshua, or Yeshua, which means savior and which is the same name as Jesus. This is how our faith operates. We, like Moses, take hold of our authority of the faith that we lift up to God, for him to be with us and care for us and to provide for us and for those we pray for. and Jesus is released in our hearts and he goes into action on our behalf.

WHAT WAS THE CONFLICT ABOUT? -The battle was to win the territory of REPHIDIM.
‘The place of rest’. That speaks to us of winning the place of the rest of faith in our hearts, knowing that Jesus does the fighting for us. When Jesus goes into action on our behalf the power of Heaven subdues all things on the earth that would try to prevent God’s will from coming to pass. Our faith is that Jesus is at work on our behalf to bring about the father’s good will to us.

WHO WAS THE ENEMY COMING AGAINST GOD’S PEOPLE? – Amalek went into war against Israel. Israel was the nation that descended from Jacob, who wrestled with God and would not let him go and whose name was changed to Israel which means ‘power with God’. Amalek was the nation that descended from Esau, who was Jacob’s brother.
The Bible tells us in the New Testament (Hebrews 12) that Esau was not interested in the things of God, but in the things of the world. But Jacob valued the spiritual blessing of God and received that blessing instead of Esau, and this brought them into constant conflict. God is referred to in the Old Testament as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that speaks of the Trinity – Abraham the father, Isaac the Son, and Jacob speaks of the Holy Spirit.

THAT CONFLICT IS AT WORK WITH ALL OF US. We have the conflict of the Esau side of our nature that trusts in the things of the world and go after them, the Bible calls that the flesh - and we have the Jacob side of our nature that values the spiritual blessing and goes after that. The Bible tells us that our old nature of the flesh is always fighting against our new nature of the Spirit, and that Jacob side to us, the Spirit releases our Joshua, our Jesus going in to fight for us.
and here we have the battle plan that wins for us the place of rest in our hearts and our minds and in our souls – our Rephidim.

GOD WANTS US TO BE FULLY CONSCIOUS OF THIS AT ALL TIMES.
Then the Lord instructed Moses, ’Write this into a permanent record, to be remembered forever, and announce to Joshua that I will utterly blot out every trace of Amalek.’ Moses built an altar there and called it ‘Jehovah-nissi’ (meaning God is my battle flag of victory’).
"Raise the flag of the Lord!" Moses said." For the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation.
One day when we see The Lord face to face there will be no more sin and temptation and the Old creation will have passed away and the New Creation will have finally come. But until then we are in this battle of Rephidim every moment of our lives.

This is the living out of the Gospel, the working out of our salvation to be who God wants us to be where he wants us to be doing what he wants us to do.

You will either be taking hold of your faith, as the staff that God has placed in your hands to do his will in your life, or you will be being chased by the serpent who will confuse your mind and emotionally trouble your soul and weaken your will and seek to get you to miss the mark in your faithful decision making to take you forward in life. You will know when the serpent is after you in the way I just described it, and that is when you turn, with faith and courage and pick that cunning thing up and lay hold of your faith again. Remember also to uphold your brothers and sisters and to know that you are being upheld by them also, when the weakness and weariness of our humanity bears upon us. God bless you all Amen.