Sunday, September 6,
2015, 6:39 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Blessed Are You.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Isaiah 14:24-27 (NASB).
The
Lord of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has
happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand, to break Assyria in My
land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed
from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. This is the plan devised
against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all
the nations. For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And
as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”
As He Intended
Our God and Lord Jesus Christ is far above all rule and
authority, power and dominion. God the Father has placed all things under
Jesus’ feet. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. In
everything he has the supremacy. Amen! He is the ruler of God’s creation; the
head over every power and authority; and all angels, authorities and powers are
in submission to him. Praise God! In that we can rest secure, knowing that God
rules supreme over all. [Eph. 1:15-23; Col. 1:15-20; Rev. 3:14; Col. 2:9-10; 1
Pet. 3:21-22.]
God had everything planned out for how things were going to
go even before he created the world; even before he created the angels in
heaven. He knew when he created Lucifer that he would rebel against God, along
with many other angels, and that he would become the tempter of God’s people,
their arch enemy, and that he would roam throughout the world seeking whom he
may devour. God could have destroyed him as soon as he rebelled, but he allowed
him to exist, even knowing full well what Satan would do. As well, he gave Adam
and Eve the choice to follow him or to disobey him. When they sinned against
him, he banished them from the garden, and he put a curse on them and on the
earth. He thus allowed evil to exist in the world, and for Satan to come after
his people.
Throughout history God has allowed evil kings and
authorities to exist, who are instruments of Satan. Not only that, but
scripture teaches that God is the one who places kings and rulers in place, so
he puts evil rulers over his people at times, too, and for his purposes. In
fact, he uses evil rulers, at times, as his divine instruments of judgment
against his wayward people. As it was in the days of old, so it is again in
these last days before Christ’s return. The dragon (Satan), the beast and the
false prophet serve God’s purposes as divine instruments of judgment against
God’s people, and against the people of the earth. God’s purposes in this,
throughout history, has always been to bring his adulterous people back to him,
to revive and renew them in their faith, and to restore them to fellowship with
him.
Yet, he also purposes that once he is finished with the
instruments of judgment he uses against his people, that he will judge those
who have oppressed his people, and he will remove from his people the yoke of
oppression their enemies have placed upon them. I believe in these last days
that this will happen when Jesus Christ comes to judge the earth and to deliver
his people, the bride of Christ, the saints of God, his church, from this
wicked earth and from all the suffering that they have had to endure at the
hand of Satan and all his cohorts. So, our suffering is temporary. One day we
will be set free of all this and we will be with our Lord in our eternal home,
if we have trusted in Jesus to be our Savior.
As well, God planned that Jesus Christ, God the Son, would
become the Savior of the world, to deliver us out of Satan’s hands, and to free
us to walk daily in Christ’s righteousness. This salvation is not on a physical
level, but on a spiritual level. God does not remove us from the earth, when we
are saved through faith in Jesus, or deliver us from ever being tempted of
Satan, or keep us from going through difficult times, or prevent us from being
mistreated, hated, persecuted and perhaps even put to death for our testimonies
for Jesus Christ and for his gospel. In fact, he promises us we will have to go
through these things. Yet, this salvation frees us from the punishment and the control
of sin and Satan over our lives, gives us new lives in Christ Jesus, and frees
us to walk daily in the Spirit and no longer according to our sinful flesh. This
salvation fills us and empowers us with the Spirit of God, and gives us all we
need to withstand difficulties and persecutions, to flee temptation, to resist
Satan, and to follow our Lord Jesus in surrender to his will for our lives.
The Yoke
As humans, we will all suffer temptation to sin. As those
who live in flesh bodies, we will also suffer sickness, pain, and sadness. A
couple of days ago I ran my left foot into a metal bed railing and it hurt like
crazy, and it is still in pain, and my far left toe is all black and blue, so
it hurts to stand or walk on it for any length of time. I can’t wear shoes
right now. In other words, we will all suffer pain just as a natural course of
everyday life. People we love will get sick or injured, and some of them will
die. Some death is expected, while other deaths are not anticipated, but are
sudden and even horrific or extremely tragic in nature. People will not like
us, usually because we are different from them, whether because of skin color,
nationality, social status, financial status, religious beliefs, or whatever.
Some people will suffer abandonment, and/or will be the victims of spousal
unfaithfulness and/or abuse. Others will be severely persecuted because of
their faith in and testimonies for Jesus Christ.
In all of this, though, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are
to consider ourselves blessed that we are suffering for the sake of the name of
Jesus, and we should rejoice in our sufferings, and not let them govern how we
live, act and respond, but we should allow the Holy Spirit within us to govern
our actions and reactions to poor treatment or difficult times. We need to
allow the Lord to walk us through the pain and not get stuck in it to where we
can’t function, we get depressed, we withdraw, retreat, and especially to where
we might fall back into sin. We need to be victorious through God who loves us,
and keep going forward in his strength, wisdom and love. We need to forgive
those who have hurt us or who are presently coming against us, and we must rely
upon our Lord to lead and guide us as to how we should respond, what we should
say or do, and how best to love those who mistreat us, use us, abuse us,
abandon us, and/or who reject us because we follow Jesus Christ.
The Burden Removed
As has been mentioned here already, there are two different
kinds of deliverance God promises to all those who put their faith and trust in
him as their Lord and Savior. He promises first of all that by God’s grace,
through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be set free from the yoke of slavery to
sin and to Satan, and can be set free to live to righteousness. Part of this
deliverance is also the promise that we will not spend eternity in punishment
in hell for our sin, for Jesus paid the price for our sin so we could go free,
but we will be with our God in glory for eternity because we believe in Jesus
and in what he did in dying on the cross for our sins. One day we will no
longer suffer pain, sorrow, sickness, persecution or the temptation of sin, but
all that will be gone. By his grace we have been set free!
The other kind of deliverance from a yoke, is a physical
deliverance from physical (human) enemies who hate, persecute, oppress, mistreat,
bind, or enslave us. Many followers of Jesus Christ throughout the earth are
presently being persecuted and killed for their testimonies for Jesus Christ
and for his gospel of salvation, while others are being held captive through
manipulation, deception, and trickery, and are thus being rendered useless for
God’s kingdom work, because they have believed the lies of Satan. God will one
day judge our persecutors, and he will deliver his people out of their hands.
For those who have believed Satan’s lies, and have fallen prey to deception, he
will open many of their eyes, and will turn them from darkness to light, and
from the power of Satan to God, either through a revival of his wayward church,
and/or through redeeming those who are lost in darkness. For his faithful
followers, who are being persecuted because they stand on the Word of God, do
not deny the name of Jesus, and because they obey Christ’s commandments, this
will mean physical deliverance out of their enemies’ hands one day. We have
this hope as a sure thing, because our God is faithful to all he promises. Amen!
Blessed Are You /
An Original Work / August 29, 2012
Based off Luke 6:20-49 NIV 1984
“Blessed are you;
Blessed are you who are poor
For God’s kingdom is yours.
Blessed are you;
Blessed are you who are hungry,
You’ll be satisfied.
Blessed are you;
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you will laugh with joy.
Blessed are you;
Blessed are you when men hate
And reject you because of Christ.”
“Rejoice in that;
Rejoice in that day and
Leap for joy; great your reward.
But I tell you;
But I tell you to love those
Who hate you; do them good.
Pray for those who;
Pray for those who treat you wrong
And say kind things of them.
Do to others;
Do to others as you would have
Them do; have them do to you.”
“If you love those;
If you love those who love you,
What praise is there for you?
Because Christ is;
Because Christ is kind,
Be merciful, just like He is.
Forgive others;
Forgive others their offense
Against you; be ye kind.
Hear My words and;
Hear My words and put them
Into practice, then you’ll be fulfilled.”
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