THE BLESSINGS OF GOD DECEMBER 2018

THE BLESSINGS OF GOD

                The Bible can be looked at as God’s instruction book. In it He teaches us where we came from and what our purpose is on earth and where we are destined to go in the end if we follow His instructions. It may seem like a small thing, but the truth is that if we live by God’s Word then we live with a sense of purpose and destiny. David said it like this:

                “For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.” Psalms 139:13-15.

                Interestingly enough in the ancient Jewish culture birthdays were not celebrated. God is more concerned with our conception and our formation in the womb. We are meaningfully knitted together in our mother’s womb to fulfill the purpose for which we are called.

                The Lord carries out this theme in a conversation with the prophet Jeremiah saying:

                “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jer. 1:5

                Likewise when Mary visited Elizabeth, Elizabeth was 6 month pregnant and Mary was 3 months pregnant. So Elizabeth exclaimed to Mary saying: “And how should it happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from conception and Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, thus making God His Father.

                If we really understood the biblical concept of conception and that we are formed according to our calling, we would not be aborting our children. God considers them to be people from conception. Likewise if we came to understand that we were formed in our mother’s womb by God to fulfill a specific purpose, then we would diligently seek God for our purpose and we would live by divine appointment and we would by faith fulfill our destiny in Christ Jesus.

                Our educational systems are geared toward self-determination and self-sufficiency with little or no thought given to our calling. We do not seek God for our purpose, but rather consult our own intellect and the opinions of others (often motivated by money) and we choose our careers as if we are not in partnership with God at all. And while we may be born unaware of our purpose and calling, we should certainly take God into consideration when we are born again, for as Paul says:

                “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Cor. 6:19, 20.

                Several years ago, when Bonnie and I arrived at the concept of living by divine appointment, it was a learning process to be sure. But even though we were novices at it, we began to sense from the very start that God had somehow taken over the reins of our lives and caused us to begin moving in the direction of our purpose and destiny. Too often people get stars in their eyes and they want to hop on the first glory train to stardom, but it is really quite the opposite of that. God’s training first of all, introduces us to humility and servanthood.

                Like Moses in the wilderness herding sheep, we have a great destiny, but we have many things to learn in preparation for our calling. For us it started in the kitchen at the messianic congregation in Vancouver Washington. God sent us there to love and to serve and we did so for the five years we were there. We had no greater aspirations than to love and to serve God’s people and it was a glorious time. Washing pots and pans in the kitchen we ended up ministering to more people and encouraging more people and loving more people than we had ever loved and served before. We learned a great deal there and it was wonderful.

                Honestly, I was satisfied to stay there just loving and serving the people for the rest of my life, until one day in the garden, the Lord spoke into my heart and told me it was time to move to Tennessee, 2600 miles away… and I would not have acted upon it except that God gave Bonnie a dream at the same time telling her that it was time to move to Tennessee.

                So we packed up and with great difficulty we moved to Tennessee, like Abraham and Sarah not having a clue where we were going for sure and what our purpose would be. But the important point is this. We came out here presuming that we would find a Messianic Congregation here and continue on as we had been, but instead the Lord guided us to a church where they had been praying for the very things that God had equipped us to do. Bonnie loves loving and serving in the Kitchen and she has a ministry of loving people and praying for people and encouraging them and our church was praying for someone with experience to help in the kitchen.

                Likewise I am a musician at heart and our church was praying for a bass player for the worship team. So within two weeks of attending there, I found myself playing bass with the worship team and when they discovered that I can sing parts, they put a microphone in front of me, and when the Pastor found out that I knew a little about the Hebrew Feast Days, he invited me to teach a class on it which lasted for 10 weeks, but that is not all. Our worship team keyboard player Abishai, also has as recording studio and so we are now collaborating to record songs of worship I have written… songs that have been sitting on a shelf gathering dust for as long as 20 years.

                These songs were inspired by the Lord and I couldn’t figure out why I could never seem to find open doors for them. But God not only inspires the songs that we write, but He waits for the maturity of the one who writes them. Like everything else in life, if we live by divine appointment, then everything will come in its appointed time.

                Now I understand that these songs were not written for back then, they were written for now… and so they are being recorded according to divine appointment at the time when God had planned for them to be released all along.

                The point here is that God’s blessings run parallel to our obedience and our maturity in

Christ. Unless we have gone through God’s process of training; our own talents will destroy us. Pride and vanity will make us believe that we are something that we are not. By the same token, pride and vanity will cause us to think less of our calling than we should as well. Pride leads to fear… fear to step out and to fulfill what God has called us to do. We are too self-centered and self-motivated to hear from God. We are too busy with our own agenda to consider God’s greater agenda.

                After a lifetime of wondering what God wanted us to do, we suddenly find ourselves exactly where God wants us to be and doing exactly what He called us to do. He has taught us humility and obedience. We don’t seek high positions or notoriety. We serve the Lord, doing quietly what He has appointed us to do. He has given us servant’s hearts, but He has also led us to understand that we are in training to be sons and daughters and heirs of the kingdom.

                When we learn that earth is a training ground for sons and daughters of the king, we learn to find joy in the process.

                Jesus gave us a principle of life in Luke 14: 8-11. He tells us that if we are invited to a wedding feast, we should not seek out the place of honor, but rather to the lowest place   and when you have sat there perhaps the master of the wedding will invite you up to sit with him. So the bottom line was this: “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” Luke 14:11.

                As it is in life, we often spend our whole lives hunting for the exalted position, the calling of notoriety and recognition. But if we choose the lowest position and serve faithfully, God will exalt us at the proper time.

                Every one of God’s exalted patriarchs, prophets and kings came to the palace by way of the pit so to speak. David, Moses, Daniel, Joseph, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah… every one of them was sculpted by adversity to fill the position and purpose of God. They would not have become the men and women they were if God had not first taken them through a process.

                Life on earth is a mere blip on the screen of time   and yet the choices we make and the maturity we gain by walking in obedience to God has everything to do with the positions we will hold in eternity.

                Don’t be impatient if your life on earth and your faith and prayers have not yet placed you in the palace. For as Peter said:

                “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” 1 Peter 4:12, 13.

                To a certain extent we have all been victims of a Christian hype. We have been taught that coming to Jesus is the solution to every problem. But the truth is coming to Jesus is the beginning of our training. Being born again is not graduation, but a birth. We begin as baby Christians and we have a lifetime of learning ahead of us. If we humble ourselves and walk in obedience to our Lord, if we will die to self and come under the discipline of discipleship, He will guide us and prepare us for our destiny both in the here and now and in eternity to come. Only God has the wisdom to prepare us for such an expansive role. If we want to be great in God’s kingdom, we must learn to be servants of all and this is the difference between Christianity and all pagan religions and governments.

                Pagan governments are in the shape of a pyramid in which the king is at the top and he uses and rides on the backs of those who serve him. In Christianity, the King comes to wash our feet and to die for us. So whenever you see a religion that looks more like a pagan pyramid than a Christian cross, flee from it for it shares not the Spirit of Christ.

                “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:6.

                As we consider at this season, the fact that Jesus came into the most humble of circumstances, bedded in a manger, a King wrapped in swaddling clothes; may we too humble ourselves before God so that we may fulfill our God given destiny even as Jesus did.  May the blessings of God shape and prepare you for your eternal purposes in Him.