Critical Adversaries -9: The World Part B 1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for ouradmonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Abba wants to teach us a little more from the experience of Israel and the world so that we can learn and apply our hearts to wisdom. Yesterday, we examined how the things Israel learnt from Egyptians played out in the pressure put on Aaron to built the Golden Calf in the absence of Moses. When they got into the Promised Land, Israel enjoyed the privilege of direct rule by Yahweh through His human assigns called Judges. They knew Him as leader of the nation and could go to any war in confidence. Then tragedy struck again through the World: they desired what they had seen amongst the surrounding Gentile nations! Let us read this dramatic account as recorded by the Prophet and Judge Samuel: 1 Samuel 8 (KJV) 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Looking to the Gentiles produced Saul and disaster! A people who Yahweh had made peculiar unto Himself as a Kingdom of priests to the world rejected His direct rule and preferred a human Monarch who would lord it over them, just like other Gentile nations! That demand set the stage for the emergence of Saul the son of Kish: a man who had all the external appurtenances of royalty but was at heart a profane person. Look at the description of his physical features: 1 Samuel 9:1-2 (KJV) Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. 2 And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. You know the story. This same man was to disobey express instructions of Samuel, spiritual leader of the nation as he sought to please men rather than Yahweh in the matter of Agag and Amalek.1 Samuel 15:1-23 Saints, we can learn a whole set of lessons from the choice of Saul outside the perfect will of Yahweh. Yahweh does not impose Himself on the will of humans who He created. He makes known His will and expects those who are called by His name to receive and walk in same. The highest expression of true worship therefore is to have a heart that is inclined to know and do the will of The Father! This inclination moves Yahweh to no end and accounted for why He chose David to replace Saul. Hear the testimony of the Word concerning the man David: Acts 13:22 (KJV) 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. To this agrees the testimony of Yahweh Himself about this remarkable vessel, David, who was a true worshipper so much that his iniquities were blotted out by grace: Psalm 89:20-27 (KJV) 20 I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: 21 With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him. It was no wonder that when Nathan the Prophet was used by Yahweh to indict David of his sins with Bathsheba what came out of his heart was the epic words of Psalm 51. Though a King, David recognized that Nathan was the assign of Yahweh for spiritual things and submitted to his authority when he sinned! Between these two, Saul and David, we have the two opposite leadership types that will be predominant in the end time. There will be those who will seek leadership based on their comeliness, height advantage, family back ground, education and other great features of soul and body. Consequently they will be proud in heart, not subject to authority and the very qualities they trusted in will constitute their Achilles heel. Unable to repent when they err, they will seek to cling to what they think, even when the Kingdom is plucked out of their hands! They will seek the approval of humans and do things to attract applause. They are the Saul type of leaders. On the other hand, the David type will be men and women who have laboured in the back side of the wilderness, faithful in small things such as David was in tending his father’s sheep. By the Sovereign election of Yahweh, they will be thrust forth after completing their wilderness training! Such saints will take down the Goliaths of the world looming large against saints. Even where they stumble, because they will not argue with the Father in His Word and His Spirit at work in their hearts, the Father will undergird them with His grace to stand and overcome. They will seek His will in all things and have hearts inclined to bow down to He who sits on the ultimate Throne of Majesty! Saints, this is a type of where the Church of Yeshua, Jesus is at this point in time! Unable to take in the Word as it is, great ministers are importing into the Church concepts from various religious and worldly traditions ‘which work’ and are recommending same to their gullible followers! With no questions asked, Yoga, Kundilani, Palm Reading, Horoscopes and various devices which have their roots in other religions and the occult have been embraced for their ‘benefits’. Worldly ways of doing business, politics and general living are now accepted norms in ministries and congregations. Babylon has come to Church, fully dressed up! The ways of the world are now prominent features of Church in North America, Europe, many African nations and to some extent, world-wide! How sad! Let us pray that Abba will raise types of David in this season! The Kingdom deserves better and will have leaders after the heart of our Father in these last days! Let us pray that the elect remnant of Yahweh on earth will be in the mode of prayer and watchfulness as the end of the age appears closer than ever before! Let us intercede that none will swallow the dangerous leaven of Babylon which has invaded the Church in a massive way. Solomon and misplaced grandiosity designed to impress the world, not Yahweh! From the time of David, Israel enjoyed rest. As a man whose heart was inclined to know and do the will of Yahweh, David was so occupied with Kingdom Business so much so that he had no time for himself! David was so faithful that he was elected to be two things to the Messiah: first a Son of David and secondly, Yeshua would sit on his throne in Jerusalem during the Millennial reign! Another Saul was to arise, this time in Solomon who Yahweh loved greatly and for whose purpose other claimants to the throne of David were rejected. Though he was begotten by Bathsheba, election secured for Solomon a place of honor, proving the reality that Yahweh does not consult our past to determine our future! Solomon reciprocated by loving Yahweh more than the throne. A man who knew how to worship and invest in worshipping, Solomon broke all records when the Temple was dedicated by the quantum of what was offered. He also desired wisdom more than wealth and power which pleased Yahweh greatly. 1 Kings 3:1-14 (KJV) But tragedy struck when Solomon started to marry foreign wives and looked away from the simplicity of a vibrant personal relationship with a holy Yahweh. His heart enlarged to accommodate other things and forbidden ones for that matter: people and objects of the world! With the benefit of hindsight, we can safely say that worldliness was the grand bane that did Solomon in. From desiring foreign wives whose back ground was in strong idolatry to desire for vain glory, Solomon began to slip down a long slope to infamy. Grandiosity always has a price and even in the building of the magnificent Temple called by his name, Solomon would have escaped the snare of danger, if he gave heed to the warning of Yahweh: 1 Kings 6:1-14 Emptiness can be masked with grandiosity! Worldliness in his mindset was so much that by the time he was finished; Solomon had 1000 wives and concubines! To compete for pre-eminence in his heart, each of those women from foreign lands enlisted the support of their gods. The man who inherited the everlasting legacy of David became a moral wreck, fit for a place in the dust bin of history. Most often, people who are empty within tend to mask that state with grandiose sacrifices and structures! Today, there are many Solomon’s in the House of Abba! They deem the House of Yeshua dull and have gone to Babylon to import its whorish ways. The flesh is the object of music whose beat is purely worldly. There is a strenuous effort to build structures which people will see and hail them as great in the Kingdom. Whether it is to gather the most crowd of pew warmers who are not disciples of Yeshua but their fanatical soul-tied fans; or to build the most expensive Church Campus or Cathedral; drive the posh cars of the age; wear the most expensive designer labels or install lighting and stereo systems which will incur the envy of night clubbers. Church leaders can play Solomon when they take away the main things < worshipping Yahweh in Spirit and Truth out of a pure heart in Love, Unity and Serving one another; evidently seeking first the Kingdom and making disciples of Yeshua of all nations> and rather erect grandiose projects as evidence that they serve a ‘good God’! They have no time to pray but every time to preach. They do not study for personal application but to get points to preach at people. They are ever so busy plotting the graph of personal manifestation with Public Relations consultants, courting the Media and cannot wait on the King. In the process, using gifts of the Holy Spirit to make money and build personal empires become common place. As leaders go, so are those who are soul tied with them. The House of Yeshua, Jesus on earth is in great danger with the spirit of the world invading every available space! Babylon, House of Captivity and Assimilation, a type of the Church and the World To round up this survey of Israel and Gentiles as a type of the Worldly-themed Church, it is fitting to consider how Israel became captive to Babylon and the principles that undergirded their relationship. Years of disobeying Yahweh came to a head when Israel was given over to Babylon as its overlord. The lesson we learn here is simple: those who refuse to walk with the Father in Spirit and Truth, separate from pollution, automatically opt for captivity with task masters that assimilate them! About 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar the Imperial Monarch of Babylon defeated Israel, ravaged the land and carried the Hebrews into captivity when their cup of iniquity was full. In Babylon, Israel was not treated like Egypt and given a separate land such as Goshen to settle! In Goshen, they were in Egypt but not of Egypt. They had the opportunity to worship Yahweh in Goshen and crossed into Egypt to labor for their task masters only to return. Babylon rather adopted the principle of assimilation. This seemingly harmless solution of absorbing them into the culture and religion of the Chaldeans was the basis of the extreme devastation Israel was to suffer for a long time, when their values and culture derived from Judaism underwent such erosion that they never really came out of it except for brief periods of time. The Nation and people who were created to be separate from all nations on earth and be a peculiar treasure unto Yahweh as a Kingdom of Priests who were His sent people to the nations found itself in an unusual place: within the bowels of the greatest expression of the World in their day! As the Head of Gold which Prophet Daniel interpreted for King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel Chapter 2, Babylon was the greatest power on earth. It was a Kingdom of the Chaldeans who were masters in sorcery, astrology, magic and all the evils associated with idolatry. Here was the Pearl that Nimrod dreamed up as an alternative to all that is righteous and pure, satiated with gold, silver, precious stones and all the good that made it the apogee of worldliness! (Read Genesis 10: 10-12 and all of Revelation chapter 18) It was to this bastion of all that was contrary to holiness, purity and presence of Yahweh that Israel was not only subjected to but was required to conform to. The elect people had come to be unequally yoked with the world (2 Corinthians 6:14-18!) A measure of what Israel suffered in this unholy relationship can be gleaned from what happened to Daniel who was among Hebrew youths recruited to serve the King. The Babylonian principle of assimilation required Hebrew youth to conform to culinary habits of the land and even change their identities through adoption of Chaldean names! Thank Yahweh for His grace on Daniel and his colleagues! If you open your heart, Holy Spirit will teach you what Daniel 1:1-8 means. This will give you an understanding of why Babylon or the world is such a dangerous proposition for the elect remnant! If there is anything that wars against the soul of saints with such pervasiveness, it is the world around us to which subtly or overtly, we are put under pressure to conform! Let us therefore reserve till the next lessons, applications and analysis of how the World, much like Babylon seeks to assimilate the Church and make her miss the mark! Let us be in intense intercession for the souls of all leaders whose hearts are gripped with ideas and patterns of Babylon, that the mercy of Abba will intervene! To be continued. Please share this freely so that the Lord may reach some people within your loop of influence with liberating truth! If you need clarification, please contact us. If you need prayer support, please write to frontlineprayer7@gmail and real prayer warriors will stand in the gap for you.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 04:15:10 +0000
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