Is there anyone on the throne? (Part 2)

 

The Lord never leaves suddenly, but gradually. The Spirit of God is first grieved then finally quenched. This seems to be the meaning of Prophet Ezekiel’s visions. He says:

“And the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord.” (10:4)

“Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house.” (10:18)

“And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.” (11:23)

He first saw the glory of the Lord in the Temple; then, he saw it leaving the Holy of holies and heading towards the threshold of the house, before finally exiting the city. What a tragedy! But what could have caused this unfortunate situation?

Ezekiel 8:5-ss, “I lifted up mine eyes… and behold, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. 6 And he said unto me,… seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but thou shalt again see yet other great abominations. 7 And he brought me to the door of the court; …10 So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. 11 And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel… every man with his censer in his hand; and the odor of the cloud of incense went up. 12 Then said he unto me,… hast thou seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of imagery? for they say, the Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the land. 13 He said also unto me, Thou shalt again see yet other great abominations which they do. 14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this…? thou shalt again see yet greater abominations than these. 16 And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house; and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty five men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.”

The glory of the Lord’s presence left because of what was taking place within the Temple’s courts: witchcraft (creeping things and horrible beasts), the worship of the Sun and Tammuz (a Phoenician deity whose worship was associated with very licentious rite)s. It was way too much!

We all stumble in many ways (Ja 3:2): it is human. But when a person or a church decides to make sin their travelling companion, then there really is a problem.

During a certain period of grace, the presence of the Lord continues to linger and cohabit with filth (see Eze 8:3-4): that’s when the opportunity to repent must be seized. Afterwards, the Kabod subtly starts to draw away, beginning with the sanctuary.

At an individual’s level, it first departs from the heart, then from the conscience and then, people harden themselves.

At a community level, it starts with the Leadership, then the elders and finally deserts the people. That’s how we end up with perfect Christians who sing, preach and attend weekly devotions mechanically. God has long gone or better still, unbeknown to them, they have left Him somewhere and have continued their journey by themselves.

I remember an incident that happened to my father when I was a child. He had asked a driver to take him to the village which was then, about 5 hours from the Capital City. Halfway, there was an unavoidable stop of 30 to 45 minutes. When it was time to go, the driver started the car and left my father on the spot. He drove for more than an hour before realizing that his boss was not there. Making a U-turn, he began searching for my father on the road, asking passers-by whether they had not seen somebody falling out of the car! The funniest thing is that all the while, he says he was talking, was getting no answer, but kept on talking until he finally decided to check why his boss was this silent and then, turned to look behind !!!

Now and then, some people do feel that something is definitely wrong; but they are either too coward or too proud to say it; so, they pretend and deceive the rest to believe that the glory of God is there indeed. Sadly enough, at the end, it is the city or the nation that will have to carry the can.

The Laodiceans were naked; meanwhile, they thought they were clothed. They lived in darkness so thick that they did not even realize they had lost their sight. They believed they were rich whereas unbeknown to them, their (spiritual) bank had closed down. They were convinced that the Lord was still on the Throne but had not noticed – because of their blindness – that He had left and was now outside, knocking at the door and waiting for them to open it.

As long as there is life, there is hope; and as long as there is life, it is always possible to do right and better. When the people finally pulled themselves together after tasting the wrath of God, Ezekiel saw His glory coming back in the Temple from the East and filling it up again. It was like the noise of many waters…(Eze 43:2-7; 44:4).

The King of Glory will make His entry back into our lives, our families and our Churches if only we would open Him the door: that is our certainty.

 

Have a wonderblessed week in His Glorious Presence.

 

PS: A special tribute to my dear husband who tirelessly proofreads and amends the english articles. May he be highly favoured and richly blessed by Christ Our Lord.

Is there anyone on the throne?

 

Technology has made such progress that we have military planes (drones) and trains that are totally automated. The prototype of an electric car was released a few months ago which is self-driven through a GPS and many sensors; a driver is just there in case…

But even though the movie "Airplane! Flying high" ends well, I don’t think that many people would risk boarding a commercial flight knowing that there is absolutely no pilot on board.

Unfortunately, we do not take the same precautions when it comes to embarking on a spiritual journey. Going to church only means something because those attending are convinced to meet up with God. That’s why they are willing to sacrifice precious hours every week as well as hardly earned bank notes. What would happen if they suddenly realize that there is no pilot in the plane? That God’s throne in the church is empty or that someone else is sitting on it?

In 1Samuel 4, we read that after being severely defeated by the Philistines and losing 4000 men on the spot, Israel’s elders held a meeting and asked for the Ark of the Covenant, the token of the presence of the Lord of hosts to be brought. Quite often, those who are no longer certain to have God’s favour tend to cling on objects that are supposed to carry it. The Ark entered the camp in the middle of the cheers and the Earth was shaken. Having heard of the mighty deeds of the Lord, the Philistines trembled with fear but nevertheless decided not to flee and fight. Then, the unthinkable happened: despite the presence of the Ark, Israel was trashed and multiplied its casualties by 7 ½! To make the matter worse, the victors confiscated the Ark. The same day, the Israelites also lost Eli, their judge and priest and his two sons. Eli passed away after hearing of the fate of the Ark: he could live without his sons, but he could not imagine living a day without the presence of God.

How could things go so wrong? The sons of Eli who were also priests, did not know the Lord. They were so perverse that they sexually abused the women coming to the Tabernacle to worship and took the Lord’s portion in the offerings without blinking. Since their father was reluctant to firmly rebuke them, the people began to follow their example and murmur. When the Cup was full, God intervened harshly through the events mentioned above. (See 1Samuel 2)

They had forgotten how the Lord had warned them through Moses a few centuries ago, after they had sinned and murmured against Him: “Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.” They didn’t listen and were beaten down and chased by the Amorites like bees. (Deut 1:42-44)

Unfortunately these incongruities are increasingly frequent. When men of God prey on the fattest sheep at will, in order to satisfy their sexual appetites; when they use the church’s funds as theirs (after all, it’s ‘their’ church isn’t it?) and twist biblical verses for unavowed and unavowable motives, it only shows that they do not know God (1Samuel 2:12). And when in addition, their conduct causes the brethren to complain and expose their nudity everywhere, how can the glory of God remain in such a gathering?

The most awkward thing is that for many years, these people kept coming up to Shiloh to worship whereas the Ark and thus the presence and the glory of God, the “Kabod”, were no longer there: the Throne was empty!

Revelation 3:20, « Look! I am standing at the door and knocking. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he will eat with me.»

The Lord is speaking to the Church of Laodiceans. Imagine them in the middle of a service. The choir sings ‘‘You are here amongst us…’’ and also, ‘‘The glory of God is in our midst…’’ Some cry and others even faint… under the anointing. With a solemn voice, the pastor prays: ‘‘We bless You and give You thanks for Your presence Lord, for where 2 or 3 are gathered in Your Name, You are amongst them; and we have gathered in Your Name…’’ What a beautiful and evangelical scene for those who were in the building. But outside, passers-by and neighbours who can hear them – thanks to the big sound system - are quite puzzled: ‘‘Oh, that is Jesus! How can they say He is in their midst while He is outside? Are they mad or blind? If not, who is pretending to be Him in there?’’

Everything was there, except the most important: the Lord in whose Name the service was supposedly done. The Throne was empty!

Story to be continued… ;-)

 

Have a fulfiling week!

Flesh or Spirit?

 

While re-reading Paul’s letter to the Romans two weeks ago, a certain passage caught my attention and inspired me the idea of this posting. It was Romans 9:7-9:

“…Not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: "About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son."”

To which we can add Galatians 3:7, “…It is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”

God had promised Abraham an heir who would come out of his loins and had also told him that his offspring would be as many as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:4-5). After waiting “in vain” to see Sarah’s tummy grow bigger, he decided to follow his wife’s “wise” advice and help God fulfil His promise (Genesis 16:1-4). Forgetting that His thoughts and ways are light years away from ours (Isaiah 55:9), they re-interpreted the Lord’s words. Sarah told him: “He said you would have a son of your own; an heir that would come forth from your very bowels; but not mine. I can no longer have a child and Hagar is the closest woman to me among those of your household. I think God surely meant you should have that child with her. It’s tough; but since it is the best thing to do to wash away your shame. Go to her so that your name will not be wiped off forever.” The rest is history…

So, Abraham had two sons: one by the slave, Ishmael, and one by his legitimate wife, Isaac. Now Galatians 4:23-24 tells us that, “the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.”

Thus, Isaac alone was counted as Abraham’s offspring because he was born through the promise God had made to his father ; while Ishmael was not counted in because he was born according to the flesh. Romans 9 teaches us that the children of the flesh are not children of God. It’s terrible because it’s a bit as if God would say: “I did not ask you to have this child; you decided to have it on your own so deal with him, he is not my business.” The Bible even goes further and adds that Ishmael was born for slavery.

Even though all this should make us think twice and consider God’s purpose before having children, generally speaking, each time we decide to use our ingenuity to help the Lord’s promises to pass, what we produce is always for slavery, because born of the flesh and will never count on the day when God will put everyone’s deeds to the test. Indeed, the Bible tells us that “the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” (Galatians 4:30b). So, these works will never “inherit” the stamp or approbation of God.

We all want to leave our imprint in the world and to achieve that, we often throw ourselves into all sorts of projects in the hope that they will survive us and continue to speak for us after our death. But the Bible warns that “no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” (1Corinthians 3:11-15).

Therefore, it's not just about multiplying works (for our glory), but about multiplying works that remain; works that can be counted as our posterity (like Isaac); works born out of faith and God’s promises because built on the foundation of Christ: works of the Spirit. They are those of gold, silver or precious stones. The others will be consumed and we would have laboured and sweated in vain. Indeed, the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption (Galatians 6:8a). Corruption is synonymous with rot, disintegration, degradation… in short, it alludes to that which is ephemeral and cannot subsist.

14 years passed between the birth of Ishmael and that of Isaac (Genesis 16:16-17:1). In other words, in trying to play God we put ourselves at risk of provoking a great delay in the fulfilment of what He had promised to us. And still, we should even count ourselves lucky if things are simply delayed because, as we saw in the last two postings, the real danger is actually to never see their materialization.

This topic could have been an excellent suite to the posting ‘‘Beware, danger!’’; but I decided to treat it as a separate posting in order to make it deeper. The Bible says that the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other; and it therefore exhorts us to walk by the Spirit in order not to gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:17,16). Therefore, let us make sure that having started in the Spirit in January, we continue in the Spirit so that by December 2011, we may obtain all that the Lord had promised to us at the beginning of the year. Let us particularly avoid helping God to succeed: He is neither slow nor unable. He is the Master of the times and circumstances and the Lord God Almighty. We can trust Him.

 

Sow to the Spirit, reap from the Spirit and God bless you.

Have an excellent week!

Beware, danger! (Part 2)

 

1Cor 10:1-12, “For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 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. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”

Last week, we saw how sexual immorality and idolatry can prevent us from entering into the land of God’s promises to us. Here are three other dangers to avoid when we really want to succeed.

 

Let us tempt not the Lord:

We sin by ignorance, weakness (“The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”) or arrogant temptation. In the last category, the sinner sins by daring God to react: « I have decided to do this; and I know You are against it but I am not afraid of You; I will still go ahead with it. In any case, I know You won’t strike me; the stories of Ananias and Sapphirah, Achan, Korah, Dathan and others are just fables.” (See Acts 5, Joshua 7 and Numbers 16)

On the Mount of Temptation, quoting a verse from Deuteronomy 6, Jesus told the devil who was asking Him to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple that: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." In other words, it is not because preservation in danger is divinely pledged that I shall create danger, either to put the promised security skeptically to the proof, or wantonly demand a display of it.

In the anecdote to which the apostle Paul is referring, it is said that after winning a great victory at Hormah, the children of Israel set out from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; then, they became impatient on the way and spoke against God and against Moses, saying: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." (Numbers 21:1-5) By the way, the loathed worthless food was the manna: the food that was supernaturally falling from heaven for them! The Bible says that the wrath of God was triggered; He sent fiery serpents among them, many were bitten and died on that occasion.

The apostle Paul writes that they desired evil. Have you started getting impatient about that promise that is taking too long to be fulfilled? Are you tired of wandering in the desert and going around in circles and have you already started regretting your past life? Do you have enough of the fact that your life is still not resembling what God had promised to you? Be careful because you are the risk of speaking against God and His anointed, thus attracting fiery serpents into your life for your own doom. Beware of the danger: come back to your senses!

 

Let us grumble or murmur not:

God almost wiped the whole nation of Israel away so many times just because of murmurs. Whenever we grumble, we say that what God has just done or told us is not fair. Therefore, we are only submitting because He is bigger than us; if not, we would have given Him a piece of our mind. We must serve the Lord with joy and diligence, acknowledging that He best knows what He does and trusting Him.

 

Let us disobey not:

“…Those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:6)

To disobey is to refuse to do what the authority has required from us. This authority can be God Himself, a big brother, a parent or a grand-parent, an ecclesiastic, a boss etc… We must always obey unless what is required from us is in clear contradiction with the Word of God. Indeed, since every authority comes from God, they receive the mandate, the delegation of power to act, from Him. Thus, refusing to submit to them is refusing to submit to God: it is rebellion. And in the Bible, rebellion and witchcraft go hand in hand (see 1Samuel 15).

When God has asked you to do something, whatever mouth it comes from, -the authority, a friend or even a child- just do it. If a child speaks to you and you don’t listen whereas he was not speaking on his own but by the Spirit of God, you would not have despised the kid but the Holy Ghost. Remember the posting ‘‘Surprise, surprise’’? Be careful not to be surprised because you won’t even be able to say, ‘‘I did not know.’’ Indeed, Jesus said His sheep hear His voice, know it and follow Him. Who then are you the sheep if you cannot recognize the Good Shepherd’s voice? He also said that those who truly want to do the will of God shall always know whether those who talk to them speak on their own or if they speak on God’s behalf. If you fail to recognize the Voice beyond the voice, ask yourself what will you really want to do; is it God’s or yours?

In order to obtain what He promised us at the beginning of the year, God will ask us to do or not to do certain things. We will certainly not understand all of them; but if we sanctify the Lord in our hearts and bodies, if we make sure we do not miss or lose any of His words and if we obey Him with joy and without murmurs, we will not fail to get to our destination. God is not unjust so as to overlook our work and the love that we have shown for His name… For when He made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself, saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. (Hebrews 6:10, 13-15)

May God bless you!