Sunday, January 20,
2013, 4:35 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Not By Might.” Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I
read Isaiah 7 (quoting vv. 1-17 in
the NIV 1984):
When
Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram
and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem,
but they could not overpower it.
Now
the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the
hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are
shaken by the wind.
Then
the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz
at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s
Field. Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose
heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce
anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. Aram, Ephraim and
Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, “Let us invade Judah; let us
tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king
over it.” Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘It
will not take place,
it will not happen,
for
the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.
Within
sixty-five years
Ephraim will be too shattered to be a
people.
The
head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s
son.
If
you do not stand firm in your faith,
you will not stand at all.’”
Again
the Lord spoke to Ahaz, “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the
deepest depths or in the highest heights.”
But
Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.”
Then
Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the
patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth
to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey when he knows
enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. But before the boy knows
enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you
dread will be laid waste. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on
the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from
Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.”
A Personal
Illustration
A few months ago the Lord Jesus, I believe, provided a
website (http://originalworks.info) for
me where I could post the writings he gives me each day from my time daily in
prayer and in his word, where I could post the songs he has given me to write,
and where I could post audio devotionals he has given me, as well. The site has
certainly been a blessing, but not all has been smooth sailing. Sometimes we
face technical difficulties.
A few days ago we ran into a snag. When my husband posted
the song “Where is Jesus?”, though it published fine, it appeared, and it
created a “uniform resource locator” (URL), and we could see the post on the
site by use of this URL, if we went to the site by itself, as “Joe Public,” the
song did not display. It was obvious it was physically there on the site, but
it was not visible to the public. My husband tried posting several other songs
after that, and none of them displayed. So, I inquired of our webmaster
concerning any thoughts he might have on the matter. He said he found “3 problem
posts” which he moved to trash, and that fixed the public site. He named the 3
posts as: “The Joy of You,” “Where is Jesus?” and “Realizing.” Then he asked me
if I could think of anything common in these three posts that might be
different from other posts. The not-computer-geek that I am, my mind began to
go to the common theme of the messages in these three songs.
Then, this morning, as I was praying for understanding of
this passage of scripture, the Lord brought this situation to mind, and he gave
me an illustration from it to demonstrate the meaning behind this passage of
scripture. What he showed me is that “post” means “support,” so these three posts
represent in some way 3 problem areas of support that must be “trashed” from
our lives.
Judah and Assyria
I will try my best to summarize what I believe is going on
in this passage of scripture. The nation of Israel was divided in two. The
northern kingdom was called Ephraim or Israel, and the southern kingdom was
called Judah. Jerusalem was located in Judah, the southern kingdom. Ahaz was
the king of Judah at this time. During his reign as king, the kings of Israel
and of Aram (Syria today) marched up against Jerusalem to take it, but they
were not successful. The people of Judah and its king learned that Aram had
allied itself with Ephraim (Israel), “so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were
shaken.”
So, the Lord sent Isaiah to speak with King Ahaz. He told King
Ahaz, “Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of
these two smoldering stubs of firewood” -Israel and Aram. God said that,
although these kings conspired to ruin Judah/Jerusalem, they would not be
successful, for they would be brought to ruin. Then, Isaiah, speaking for God,
told Ahaz, “If you do not stand firm in
your faith, you will not stand at all.” Isaiah told King Ahaz to ask God
for a sign, but Ahaz would not. Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of
David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience
of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:” the sign of
Immanuel, “God with us,” fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Then Isaiah told Ahaz (and Judah) that the kings they
dreaded would be laid waste, and the Lord would bring on Ahaz and his people “a
time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah – he will bring the king of
Assyria.” The Lord would “whistle” for Assyria, and they would come and would
settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, etc., evidently
present but hidden from sight, and God would use this king to humble his people
because they had evidently chosen to put their trust in Assyria instead of in
God.
The 3 Songs
The first song removed was “The Joy of You,” which is based
off of Philippians 3:7-14. The message is the message of the cross in our
lives. Phil. 3:8-9: “What is more, I
consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them
rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness
of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” See: https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/the-joy-of-you
The second song deleted was “Where is Jesus?” which asks the
questions, “Where is Jesus now in all of our life’s activities?” “Where does he
fit?” “Where can he be found?” Often Jesus takes a back seat or is forgotten
altogether from our life’s activities. The purpose of the questions posed is
for us to do self-examination to see if Jesus is involved in our life’s
activities, or if he is more of a second-thought or a passing glance. See: https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/where-is-jesus.
The third song trashed was “Realizing.” The song is based
off the premise that if we truly realize all that Jesus Christ did for us on
the cross for our sins, that it should cause us to walk with Christ in truth,
to trust him to be our Lord, and we should turn from our sins in humble
repentance and submission to God. See: https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/realizing
There is obviously nothing faulty in any of those messages,
yet somehow in the transition between the original messages and it getting to
the public, the messages got corrupted.
The Application
Ok, this is what I am seeing here. Judah looked to Assyria
to be her support instead of trusting in God to be her support. She refused the
cautions and the warnings against trust in man and the strong encouragement to
put her trust in God alone. So, God used what she trusted (Assyria) to come
against her in judgment to teach her that her trust must be in God alone (in
Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us).
The church of today, in particular in America, I believe,
has put her trust in men often times over and above or to the exclusion of
God/Jesus altogether. She has been given the right messages (represented by
these 3 songs), but mankind, men’s thinking and philosophies, the traditions of
men and their marketing schemes, over time, have corrupted those messages so
that they are hidden from the public view. The messages still exist, but they
are just not visible because man has distorted the truths of God’s word and is
thus feeding the American public lies (falsehoods; distortions) instead of the
truth of the gospel of Christ.
The messages themselves have not been removed. They still
exist, and you can still find them if you look for them, but what had to be “trashed”
were the corrupt files, i.e. the distortions of the original truth (rep. by the
original documents) that were now halting the process of the truth of the
gospel from continuing to go out, and of revival in the hearts and lives of the
church in America. And, I believe God is going to use a foreign entity of some
kind to remove, through divine discipline, those corrupt files from our minds
in order to fix the problem, so that we can see the truth revealed, and so we
can understand the truth that we must turn from our sins, and we must obey God,
we must honor God as holy, and we must submit and surrender to his will for our
lives. Jesus died so we would be free from slavery to sin, not just so we could
go to heaven one day. The true gospel, in relation to the cross of Christ in
our lives, can be found in Eph. 4:17-25 and Luke 9:23-25, et al.
So, if you are experiencing “corrupt files” in your minds
due to man’s methods and thinking corrupting the gospel of Jesus Christ to
where the true gospel is not visible to you, the public in America (or across
the globe), I pray today that you will allow the Holy Spirit of God to remove
those corrupt files (faulty thinking) so that you can see the truth and the
truth can make you free!
Not
By Might / An Original Work / March 29, 2012
Based off
Zechariah 4
“Not
by might, and not by power,
But
by My Spirit,” says our Lord, God.
“Mighty
mountain, O what are you?
Before
Christ you will become level ground.”
The
hands of our Lord, Savior God,
Formed
the foundation of His church.
He
alone will complete the work
He
began in His servants’ hearts and minds.
Who
despises small beginnings?
Much
can be done in Christ’s strength within.
Be
of courage, and trust your Lord.
All
sufficient He is for all your needs.
Opposition
and apathy:
Holy
Spirit will set us free!
We
can be overcomers in our faith
In
our Lord, and our Savior, King.
Don’t
be troubled by God’s timing.
He
has ev’rything in His command.
Hasten
to obey His commands fully,
Trusting
Him to work all for good.
Not
by might nor by human strength,
But
by God’s power; strength within;
My
dependency now on His working
His
will in me in righteousness.
No comments:
Post a Comment