Posted on

God In A Box

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

What are you fearing today? Where are you doubting God? How are your expectations forcing God into your little theology box? God is God, and he will not be confined to our expectations, so reject fear and follow faith—and remember, faith makes things possible, not easy! Get your eyes off of circumstances and back onto God! Consider that God may have some creative alternatives to accomplish his plan through you, but he will need to blow your God-box to smithereens to accomplish it. Let him!

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 19:11-12

The Lord said to Elijah, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

Elijah was depressed—and who could blame him. He had just come off a spiritual high where fire had rained down from heaven and consumed Elijah’s sacrifice in his contest with the prophets of Baal. God had answered Elijah so dramatically that even wicked King Ahab was impressed, and it seemed, ready to repent and turn to God. All Israel was abuzz with the God of Elijah, and Elijah assumed that a spiritual awakening was about to sweep the wayward nation back to faith in Yahweh.

But Queen Jezebel put a damper on Elijah’s momentum. She threatened to kill him, and the guy who had just called down fire from heaven, who just executed 850 false prophets, who had single-handedly led the nation to the brink of revival, let one mean, nasty, notorious woman ruin his day. Word came to Elijah that the queen had ordered him killed, and now, the prophet’s faith gave way to fear.

Just a momentary sidebar here: Fear is the greatest enemy to your faith. You cannot be a fearful faithful person. The battle in your life will always boil down to fear and faith. Faith calls you to trust God for provision and protection; fear tempts you to look at your circumstances—which will always overwhelm you and call you to trust in your own ability to overcome them. Fear is one of Satan’s chief weapons to get your eyes off God and onto circumstances. That’s why the number one command in Scripture is to “fear not.” Someone has pointed out that there are 365 “Fear Not’s” in the Bible—one for every day of the year—and you will need each one to follow faith instead of fear!

Back to Elijah—this prophet of fire fled. He got depressed. He even contemplated ending his life—“I have had enough, Lord, take my life…” (1 Kings 19:4). His perspective was so messed up and he was so disappointed with God that he sunk to an all-time low. But as the story progresses in 1 Kings 19, God does several things for Elijah that will pull him out of the pit and put him back onto his prophetic path.

  1. God gave Elijah physical renewal. He allowed him to rest—“then he lay down and slept…” (1 Kings 19:5) Sometimes taking a nap is a very spiritual thing. You don’t always need revival, sometimes you simply need rest. And God allowed him to eat—”Get up and eat!” (1 Kings 19:6) There are times when faith is not the issue, it is food. Perhaps our emotional depletion could be the result of the improper care of our physical lives.
  2. God led Elijah to a quiet place where he allowed him to pour out his heart—“Elijah came to a cave…the Lord said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9-10) Now keep in mind, God knew why Elijah was there—so God is not in the dark as to why Elijah is physically standing there. Rather, what God is doing is giving Elijah the opportunity to get some things off his chest. This is God’s invitation for Elijah to pour out his heart. Likewise, we will find holy therapy whenever we pour our heart out to God openly and honestly.
  3. God focused Elijah back on the mission—“Go back…and anoint Hazael to be king of Aram…Jehu to be king of Israel…and Elisha to replace you as prophet…” (1 Kings 19:15-16). Rather than allowing him to stew in his juice, God gave Elijah a new assignment—a purpose that would energize him for the next phase of his ministry. God wants Elijah, and by extension, you and me, to be mission-driven rather than emotion-driven.
    What is God doing in this story with Elijah? He is graciously showing this faithful prophet who had made the mistake of putting God in his little “prophet box” that he, the Sovereign Lord, is, has been, and always will be in control. He has a plan, and he is working it out, even if it isn’t according to Elijah’s expectations. He is the God who doesn’t answer by fire each time—as you would expect, and prefer. He doesn’t always make a grand entrance with an earthquake; the mountains don’t rattle and the wind doesn’t always rip the roof off when God acts—sometimes the Almighty answers in a gentle whisper.

God is God, and he will not be confined to our expectations. That’s the bottom line to this story. God has a plan, and he’s sticking to it. We don’t always know all the details of that plan, and we don’t need to. All we need is to trust and obey, and God will take care of the rest. So take the lid off your box!

What are you fearing today? Where are you doubting God? How are your expectations forcing God into your little box? Reject fear and follow faith—and remember, faith makes things possible, not easy! Get your eyes off of circumstances and back onto God! Consider that God may have some creative alternatives to accomplish his plan through you, so let him blow your little spiritual box to smithereens!

And don’t be surprised, God may call to you in a gentle whisper today!

Fear is faith in Satan;
Faith is fearing God.
Ever see it that way?
Does seem rather odd.
Fear says, “God may fail me!”
Faith knows He keeps His word.
Hitherto the Lord hath helped us;
Doubting now would be absurd.
He careth for the sparrows;
Are you not more than these?
Why are you then so fearful?
Stay longer on your knees.
Dismiss your doubts and feeling,
Stand still, and see it through.
The God who fed Elijah
Will do the same for you!
—Author Unknown

Going Deeper With God: How about offing this prayer today: Dear Father, how many times have I been guilty of trying to force you into my little box? Forgive me, and give me a fresh dose of believing faith today. Blow my box to smithereens. Open my eyes to the unlimited possibilities in you. God, you can come to me in a spiritual earthquake or a gentle whisper—it doesn’t matter as long as you are there. So I open my heart to your creative ways and I renew my commitment to trust you and obey your perfect plan for my life. May your will be done, may your kingdom come this day. Amen.

Posted on

Power Praying

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

Power praying is simply obtaining what God has already provided. Elijah’s story is there to remind us that this is what we should experience in prayer. In fact, we are told in James 5:17-18 that the drought began because Elijah prayed and the rains returned after three and a half years because he prayed. Then James adds that Elijah was someone no different than us—he just happened to pray earnestly. So when you pray today, link your prayers to God’s promises and watch what happens.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 18:41-42

And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

Someone once made a study of all the promises that God has made in the Bible, and came up with a total of 7,474. That’s a lot of promises! Now some of those promises are general in nature. Others are specific; ones that we can appropriate in response to specific needs. Whatever the case, one thing we know about God: He makes promises—and he fulfills them!

Yet we have a part to play in securing God’s promises for our lives, because even though his promises are sure, they are not automatic. Often, there is a gap between God’s promise and its fulfillment, and that gap can be closed only through our prayers.

That’s the truth we observe with Elijah in 1 Kings 18:41-46. God had sent Elijah to pronounce drought against King Ahab and Israel because of the sin—a severe drought of three and a half years. Then in 1 Kings 18:1, God is ready to call off the drought, so he commands Elijah to go present himself to the king. So Elijah announces to Ahab that the time has come for God to end Israel’s punishment by sending rain: “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” (1 Kings 18:41) “Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.” (1 Kings 18:44)

Now here is a powerful point to this story that might be easy to overlook: Not only did Elijah proclaim God’s promise concerning rain, he then obtained God’s promise of rain in prayer. Elijah did some major power praying to procure God’s promise. Notice seven actions:

  1. Elijah separated himself to pray. “So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel.” (1 Kings 18:42)
  2. Elijah took a posture of humility. “He bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.” (1 Kings 18:42)
  3. Elijah expected results. “Go and look toward the sea.” (1 Kings 18:43, compare James 1:6-7)
  4. Elijah persisted. “Seven times Elijah said, ‘Go back’” and look for rain. (1 Kings 18:43)
  5. Elijah acted upon his prayer in faith. “The seventh time the servant reported, ‘A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.’ So Elijah said, ‘Go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” (1 Kings 18:44)
  6. Elijah’s praying produced results. “And there was a great rain.” (1 Kings 18:45, compare with James 5:16.)
  7. Elijah’s praying produced empowerment. “The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to Jezreel.” (1 Kings 18:46)

Could it be that Elijah’s story is there to remind us that this is what we should experience in prayer? No doubt about it! In fact, we are told in James 5:17-18 that the drought began because Elijah prayed and the rains returned after three and a half years of drought because he prayed. Then James adds that Elijah was a man just like us, who just happened to pray earnestly.

The implication from this is that we too can become powerful people for God—if we pray. And if we are to pray those Elijah-like prayers that are “powerful and effective” (James 5:16), we must understand how to link our prayers with God’s promises, and then start doing some major power praying to procure those promises.

Think about it: Power praying is simply obtaining what God has already provided.

Going Deeper With God: Before you pray today, take a moment to reflect on 1 John 5:14-15, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Posted on

More Than Enough

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

Charles Spurgeon wrote that a thirsty little fish doesn’t need to worry about drinking the mighty river dry. All he needs to do is drink away. Likewise, God’s children need to realize that they are standing on the shore of the ocean of his all-sufficient grace—and the invitation is plunge in and drink away. Whatever you are going through, whatever you are facing, whatever your need is, God will supply it—he is more than enough for you! Will you trust him and drink from his all-sufficient supply?

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 17:5-7

So Elijah did as the Lord told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land.

I have no doubt that the reason some of you are reading this devotional today is to be reminded of this powerful truth: God is more than enough.

God is committed to teaching you that he is sufficient for all your needs. And his sufficiency is your greatest strength! He is sufficient for your eternal life, of course, but if he is sufficient for something as great as that, he is also sufficient for the smaller things as well, including the daily provisions you need for earthly life. God is more than enough.

Now to prove that to you, sometimes God will allow your current source of provision to dry up—even if brought that source into your life. Like Elijah, the Lord may have led you to the brook, fed you with ravens, sustaining you by his hand through these very sources, then by that same hand cause the brook to run dry and the ravens to take flight.

Tough lesson, but God is committed to keeping your eyes on him. He is your source, and he alone. Not the brook, not the ravens, but he is more than enough for you. Not the bank, not the boss, not your belongings, but God is sufficient for all your needs. He wants you to be grateful for what he has given—which includes everything—but to know that he is the all-sufficient God, you need to hold all those things loosely.

If you are facing a situation right now where you don’t have enough—enough wisdom, power, influence, money, energy or will-power to do anything about it—and in all honesty, you are on the brink of disaster—you are in a good place for God to show up and remind you that he is in control, and that he is more than enough, and that he will supply what you need. If you are not sure what your next move is, spiritually, emotionally, financially, maybe even physically, just know this: the Holy Spirit has caused your life to intersect this moment in time to have you relearn the Christian’s most important treasure: Your God is more than enough for you.

The Bible has revealed God as the more than enough God. The Holy Spirit inspired a writer to pen an entire letter, the book of Hebrews, to teach us that this Jesus we love and serve is superior to any force, power, religious system on the face of the planet; he is the all-sufficient One. The Apostle Paul, who knew something about utter dependence on God, wrote in Philippians 4:19, “My God will supply all you needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” There were times when even Paul needed to be reminded of that. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, after a long run of very difficult ministry, where Paul even despaired of life, that God spoke these words to the apostle, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

You might say, “That sounds great, but you don’t understand my situation.” You’re right, I don’t, but God does, and he says to you, “Trust me, I am more than enough for you!” And his track record is that he is more than enough:

He came through for Abraham when he was asked to give up his only son Isaac, and God said, “I’ll provide.”

When Moses stood with the Egyptian army behind him and the Red Sea in front of him, God said trust me and I’ll open up a way. When Elijah asked the widow of Zarepath to give her last meal, God provided an unlimited supply for her family during a time of famine.

Jesus asked the little boy for his lunch, and look what God did…he provided more than enough. That’s just the way God is…and that’s what he wants you to know this morning. He’ll meet your need out of his supply…his grace is sufficient for you.

Charles Spurgeon wrote that a thirsty little fish doesn’t need to worry about drinking the mighty river dry. All he needs to do is drink away. Likewise, God’s children need to realize they are standing on the shore of the ocean of his all-sufficient grace—and the invitation is plunge in and drink away.

God will bring you through it—he is more than enough for you! Will you trust him and drink from his all-sufficient supply of grace?

Going Deeper With God:Whatever your need is today, declare this truth to yourself, your situation, and to the powers in the unseen realm: My God is more than enough for me. Now keep praying, obeying and watching expectantly for God’s provision.

Posted on

God Is Still Watching

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

“He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.” The book of 1 Kings repeats that phrase in describing every king who ruled in the northern kingdom of Israel. In the Lord’s sight—God was watching! Do you think God has changed? Does he not watch what presidents do in their inner chambers, or what they think in their hearts, or what they do to lead a nation either toward or away from him? Of course he does! Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” Perhaps today we should tremble before God in repentant prayer for our country.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 16:30

But Ahab son of Omri did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, even more than any of the kings before him.

1 Kings 16 is not a fun chapter to read, unless you are a history addict. Otherwise, it paints a pretty bleak picture of what is going on in Israel during the run of kings described in this chronological narrative. While Israel’s cousin to the south, Judah, was concurrently enjoying forty-one years of godly reign under good King Asa, the northern nation had a succession of five very nasty kings that covered a span of sixty years. To make matters worse, there were evil kings before this chapter, and evil kings after—in fact, the northern kingdom did not have one single righteous ruler. But at the top of the heap of evil was King Ahab, the final king described in this chapter.

Each of the kings—Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri, and Ahab are each described with the same exact phrase: But he did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.” For Ahab, the writer adds, the evil was “even more than any of the kings before him.” Literally, things were going from bad to worse for Israel—with both king and people willingly participating in increasingly blatant, unspeakable sinful practices that caught the eye of God.

And therein lies the operative phrase in this chapter: “in the Lord’s sight.” The persistent, in-your-face-sinfulness against God could not be ignored, and divine judgment was building in the counsel of the righteous Godhead. Judgment would come to each of these wicked kings, who would all die an ignominious death; and a day of reckoning like no other was building that would ultimately take the nation of Israel into exile from the land of promise God had given their ancestors, a homeland to which they would not return.

God was watching! Do you think God has changed? Does he not watch over the earth today like he did back then? Does he not watch what kings and presidents do in their inner chambers, or what they think in their hearts, or what they do to lead a nation either toward or away from him? Of course he does! And while it took two hundred years for devastating judgment to come to sinful Israel, it came. It will come to nations today, as well. It may take similar lengths of time, but there will a payday someday. Perhaps the next day of reckoning will be the final payday, the Day of the Lord, but judgment comes to nations that deliberately rebel against the rightful ruler of all the earth.

What is true for nations is true for persistently sinful people, too. While modern people do not want to hear of it, God is a just and holy God. He never winks at sin. He will not withhold judgment, for to do so would impugn the very character that makes him God. It is a sobering reality, but it is reality. And those who embrace the reality of judgment are the ones who will escape it.

But what is equally true about this just and holy God is that he also longs to forgive the sins of people. He lives to offer reprieve for our sin. And he has made a way for total forgiveness through our acceptance of the propitiatory sacrifice of his Son, who died on the cross to take away our sins. And the thing that he has built into our existence to continually and powerful remind us of this is his patient delay in executing judgment and his daily kindness in providing us with life. Romans 2:4 says,

Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

Every time you read a harsh chapter like 1 Kings 16, I hope you will remember that. God is “being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” (2 Peter 3:9) It is true: God’s certain judgment reminds us of God’s patient kindness.

So remember, God is watching. That is what a loving God does!

Going Deeper With God: Make sure you offer your life to God for cleansing today. And pray for your nation, that God’s patience will lead it to repentance!

Posted on

Impressing God

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

We do not have the same authority as the king of Judah to demand obedience to God’s law, but we have a domain over which God has given us rule: our inner life, our household, our sphere of influence at work, in friendship circles, our place of ministry, the resources he has given us to advance his kingdom. God has given us the irresistible witness of righteous character, the power of respectful persuasion through mind and voice, divine enablement through spiritual gifts, and the external tools of money, position and power—all of which are things in our possession that we can leverage for the advance of his kingdom. And when we use what we have us to lift up the good in such a compelling way that the bad is exposed as bankrupt, then we are living the impressive life before God.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 15:11-14

Asa did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, as his ancestor David had done. He banished the male and female shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made. He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made an obscene Asherah pole. He cut down her obscene pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley. Although the pagan shrines were not removed, Asa’s heart remained completely faithful to the Lord throughout his life.

Do you want to impress God? I do! Now of course, that was a hypothetical statement, since not on our best day can we come close to what it takes to impress the Almighty. At our most impressive, our righteousness is as filthy rags before the great and holy God. (Isaiah 64:6) Only by his grace are we brought into any kind of favor at all. We are impressive to him only because we have accepted the righteousness of his Son, Jesus Christ. So let’s be clear about that.

Even still, there were people in scripture that earned God’s favor by their impressive lives of complete dedication to his law. But what we see of those people was that to serve God with such ruthless fervor often meant they were a serious irritation to most everyone else. And therein lies the other edge to the sword: to impress God often requires us to depress people.

What do I mean? Let’s look at Asa. For the most part, Asa was a very good king. Once we get to 2 Chronicles—remember, 1 and 2 Chronicles tells the story of the kings from a different perspective—we see that Asa stumbled a bit in the latter part of his very long and prosperous reign of forty-one years. But for our purposes in this devotional from 1 Kings 15, what made this king so impressive that he was known as good King Asa?Simply this: “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” (2 Chronicles 14:2)

What does that mean, “good and right in the eyes of the Lord?” It means that as the new king of Judah, he took sin head on and crushed it. He was born into a time of spiritual drift in the nation of Judah, and even his parents and grandparents had abandoned the Lord for the worship of idols. We are not sure how it happened, but somehow when Asa was young and being mentored, he came under the godly influence of a person that remains unnamed in scripture. Raised in a cultural stew of idol worshipping godlessness, Asa chose the Lord. And when the opportunity came as the supreme human authority over God’s wayward people, he went after sin on both national and personal rebellion against the Lord with passion and urgency. He removed the places, practices and practitioners of idolatry and restored temple worship. Moreover, he even removed his own grandmother, Maacah, who was queen mother in Judah, because of her idolatry. In a word, Asa dealt ruthlessly with sin wherever it was in his power.

That is why he was impressive in the sight of the Lord. His heart was fully devoted to the things of God, which meant that his heart was fully devoted to destroying the things that were against the law of God.

We can be impressive too, for the same reasons. Of course, we do not have the same authority as the king of Judah did, but we have a domain over which God has given us rule: our inner life, our household, our sphere of influence at work, in friendship circles, our place of ministry, the resources he has given us to advance his kingdom. And he has given us the powerful witness of godly character, the power of persuasion through mind and voice, supernatural ability through spiritual gifts and natural talents, and the external tools of money, position and power that we can leverage for the advance of his kingdom. And when we use what God has given us to lift up the good in such a compelling way that the bad we stand against is exposed as bankrupt, then we are living the impressive life.

Yes, it is only by God’s gift of grace that we impress him, but leveraging his grace to offer ourselves back to him at all times and in every way in full devotion certainly catches his eye.

For the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

Going Deeper With God: Take a stand for God today. Speak up for him when he is being profaned. Call people to a better way when evil practices are being touted. Offer your godly character before the sinner in such a compelling way that they want to know the secret of your graceful life. Point people to Jesus. The eyes of the Lord are looking for people like that.

Posted on

The Prophetic Voice: God’s Gift of Last Resort

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

The sinful world is famous for rejecting God’s prophets. Unfortunately, the church today often sides with the world in marginalizing the prophetic voice. Morally and spiritually, our culture is drifting dangerously toward the point of no return, and more than ever it desperately needs to hear what it desperately tries to avoid—the call to repentance. As believers, we must decide, and decide today, if we will stand with the world or behind the prophets. That will be a tough choice if you have grown accustomed to coddling what God is condemning.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 14:4-7

Jeroboam’s wife went to Ahiujah’s home at Shiloh. He was an old man now and could no longer see. But the Lord had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife will come here, pretending to be someone else. She will ask you about her son, for he is very sick. Give her the answer I give you.” So when Ahijah heard her footsteps at the door, he called out, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else?” Then he told her, “I have bad news for you. Give your husband, Jeroboam, this message from the Lord, the God of Israel…”

Thank God for the prophets! No really, thank God for the prophets—they are his gift of last resort.

Prophets with harsh messages never fare well in popularity polls. They deliver bad news—bad from the perspective of those who are being called to account for their sin, and those who stand with them, either actively cheering them on or silently disapproving but going along to get along. Bad news prophets are usually not all that lovable anyway; they are not the warm, cuddly types. God has called them to a difficult assignment, and to pull it off, they best develop a thick layer of skin.

We need prophetic voices like that in our day—men and women who will fearlessly declare God’s truth about the condition of this culture of ours that has drifted far from God. And just as importantly, we who call ourselves people of faith must quit rejecting the words of the prophets out of hand—as if the Lord doesn’t’ speak through the prophets today. Of course, there have been so-called prophets who are anything but, who have blown it for the good prophets by offering dates for the Lord’s return, who traffic in books that make boatloads of money for themselves, who flock to the Christian airways with hairdos like Elvis and suits like Liberace. But the all-too-public showmanship of the faux prophets must not condition us to reject the message—and the messengers—of the true prophetic word. God still speaks today. And given the drift from biblical morality of a nation that was founded upon scriptural values, God is probably speaking with increasing urgency through the prophets.

In 1 Kings, God began to call the nation to account for their spiritual and moral drift. He allowed much time to go by—which totally frustrates those of us who would prefer that God show up and out an immediate end to evil leadership and corrupt culture. In the present chapter, wicked Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years in Israel and wicked Rehoboam ruled for seventeen years of Judah. They were followed by mostly evil kings who led the two nations into greater and more inventive ways of evil for decades, even centuries. Graciously and mercifully, God gave his wayward people more time than we would have to see the error of their ways, repent, and return to him. But he never left them without prophetic voices that courageously spoke his word.

Yet the kings and the people continued into deeper expressions of rebellion. As a result, they began to suffer the natural consequences of the law of sowing and reaping (Galatians 6:7) as well as the divine insertion of judgment from time to time to get the nation’s attention. In the case of Jeroboam, the young son of this wicked king became deathly ill, so the king who had rejected God sent his wife in disguise to the man of God who has prophesied that he would become king. Even in the depths of his sin, the king knew the truth—and he knew Ahijah the prophet was the truth-teller. Yet, absurdly, he thought he could maneuver the word of God about his sick son by manipulating the man of God.

Before the king’s disguised wife arrived, the Lord had already given a word of knowledge to the prophet. So he exposed her false intentions right away, and quickly followed it with the hard word the Lord had given him for evil king Jeroboam. Sadly, there was no repentance on the part of the boy’s mother when told her son would die, nor did the king turn from his wicked ways. They, along with the nation, were hell bent on doing evil.

Sadly, so is our culture—or so it seems.

And God is sending us prophetic voices to call us—the culture and the church within the culture—back to his heart. He is calling us to acknowledge our evil, repent of it, and return to the ways in which he has called us to walk. These voices are not well received by our culture—sinners stop their ears and kill the messengers, so to speak. But even more concerning, much of the church sides with the culture in rejecting the prophetic word because we fear guilt by association—that is, few hear that our culture will be uncomfortable with the church because of the church’s messengers.

We need true prophetic voices more than ever as we see our culture approaching the moral-spiritual point of no return. God has never lifted judgment from a non-repenting people, and we, too, are headed there without national repentance. So it is time we open our minds to the prophets, be willing to do the hard work of separating the false and fake voices from the authentic, then stand behind the real ones as they deliver God’s loving rebuke to a wayward nation.

Perhaps if we get behind the prophets in large enough numbers, our culture will be forced to take notice. Maybe not, but I think we owe it to the nation we love and the God we serve to give it a try.

Going Deeper With God: God is sending us prophetic voices, but we will have to distinguish them from faux prophets. So pray for the gift of discernment. Then nurture it: know the Word, be constantly prayerful and alert to the times, ruthlessly look at the motives of the prophet (if it is for money, power of fame, reject them) and quit hoping the world will like us. They won’t. Our calling is not to get the world to embrace us; it is to persuade them to listen to our God.

Posted on

Demons of Darkness As Messengers of Light

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

Since loving obedience is the key to our relationship with God, it should come as no surprise that Satan will do everything in his power today to sidetrack you from full and continual surrender to the Lord—inclusive of sending well-intentioned but misguided friends to tempt you with justifications for fudging on total allegiance to the command of God. Obey God—not out of fear or duty, but out of gratitude and joy—it is the most beautiful and loving sacrifice you can offer God today.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 13:20-22

Then while they were sitting at the table, a command from the Lord came to the old prophet. He cried out to the man of God from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: You have defied the word of the Lord and have disobeyed the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back to this place and ate and drank where he told you not to eat or drink. Because of this, your body will not be buried in the grave of your ancestors.”

This story is strange in so many ways, as we have come to expect from the Old Testament: a man of God is divinely called to announce judgment on King Jeroboam. He is to pull no punches—God is angry with the evil ways of this king, and he must deliver the harsh word precisely. He is to speak with no one; he is to just deliver the message and then get out of Dodge. He obeys God initially—and the judgment of God that befalls Jeroboam is immediate and as dramatic as it gets—but then as he is returning home, he gets sidetracked by an old prophet’s invitation to dinner. By the way, the old prophet lies to get the man of God to come to his home. While he is eating, the Spirit comes on the old prophet who rebukes the man of God for his disobedience in accepting the duplicitous dinner invitation. As the man of God leaves, a lion attacks and kills him in fulfillment of the prophetic judgment. Then the old prophet retrieves his body, mourns over it, buries it in his own sepulcher, and instructs his son to bury his old prophetic bones in the same grave, next to the man of God’s remains, when he dies. Weird!

Now as we read these strange narratives from our twenty-first century perspective, we must keep in mind that the people we read about were from an ancient world. They were also uniquely God’s chosen people, and God gave them special rules to follow that would not only honor his holiness, but keep them as his holy people. They were not a modern, pluralistic American democracy with the rights of freedom of religion. They were a theocracy, obligated to follow God’s law; they were not free to do as they pleased. They were servants of the Most High God, and with that privilege came the imposition of very high standards upon them. When they obeyed, the divine blessings that came upon the nation were beyond belief, but when they stubbornly disobeyed, divine punishment was unleashed upon them, often in the most severe way.

So does the Lord still deal with people today like he did with Israel, like he did with this disobedient man of God? Not usually. If he did, every church would need a morgue in its basement. Rather, we have these stories to teach us about God’s character—his grace, mercy, generosity, and yes, justice. They also teach about the seriousness of our sin before a holy God. And often in the Old Testament, this story being one of them, God really knows how to get our attention. When he does, there is a point that he is making that we would do well to discern.

One of the points that I take away from this story is that when God gives us a word, he expects nothing less than our complete obedience to it. Commenting on this, Charles Stanley insightfully writes,

When we know we have heard from the Lord, we cannot let anyone convince us that He has changed His mind—regardless of the source of the supposed new revelation. Remember the warning of 2 Corinthians 11:14, 15, “Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”

Do you think there is a fair amount of that going on in our land today, especially in light of some of the cultural issues that church is wrestling with? Far too many churches and denominations are twisting themselves into knots over a response to these issues that they hope our culture will find acceptable. That itself is curious given what Paul said about Satan disguising himself as an angel of light and the servants of Satan disguising themselves as prophetic voices.

God had clearly warned the Israelites, “Suppose there are prophets among you or those who dream dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles. and the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, ‘Come, let us worship other gods’—gods you have not known before—do not listen to them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul. Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4) That Old Testament word is as valid today for the people of God as it was back then.

The Apostle Paul sternly warned us in Galatians 1:8, “Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.”

Let me reiterate the point: God is divinely serious about our obedience—corporately as the community of faith and as we stand individually before him. Will he send a lion to attack you if you disobey? Not likely. But disobedience does unleash death in our lives—we begin to spiritually decay. We open the door to Satanic intrusion and forfeit the protective covering of the Lord. Since loving obedience is the key to our relationship with God, it should come as no surprise that Satan will do everything in his power today to sidetrack us from full and continual surrender to the Lord—inclusive of sending well-intentioned but misguided friends to tempt us with justifications for fudging on total allegiance to the command of God.

Bottom line: obey God—early, often and every time! Obey out of love. Augustine said, “Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.” Obey God, for it is the most loving thing you can offer him and the most benefiting thing you can do for yourself.

Going Deeper With God: Meditate on Jesus’ words from John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Demonstrate your love for God today through full obedience to his commands.