“All That God Has Said, We Will Do”
They say that the road to
hell is paved with good intentions.
Israel’s history was written for our caution and learning (1 Cor 10:6,11).
So, if you think you stand firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (1 Cor
10:12, NIV.)
I was working in the garden recently, when God spoke. Appropriately, I was
digging up weeds!
He took me back a couple of years and
reminded me of a person in Kenya. Jesus had appeared to him in a night
vision – spoken to him as clear as crystal – and told him to promote MM
literature in his area.
This individual had received our literature,
had read it, accepted it and believed it (up to the level he could at that
time), but when he didn’t get money out of us he went and joined a church
that opposes us and denies what we teach about the power of the Spirit.
He wrote to me, telling me that Jesus
appeared to him. I have no reason to doubt him. Jesus appears to quite a
number of wayward people, urging them to turn around and do God’s will. The
guy told me that Jesus had said to him to go out and distribute or share MM
literature with others. But instead of doing what Jesus had said, he wrote
to me asking me for money.
He already had our literature. He had
Witnessing For Christ which explains how to go about it. He had
Guidelines For Evangelists which gives more pointers. It explains that
if you receive an instruction from the Spirit, that you do precisely what
the Spirit says first, and then Jesus backs you up and provides for you.
But, instead of beginning to do what Jesus
had said, he did the opposite! He didn’t go out and share what Jesus had
given him in ‘our’ literature.
His reliance was upon money. He asked me for
money to fulfil Jesus’ command. He was not looking to Jesus, but to me.
I didn’t send him what he asked for, because
Jesus had not told me to. It’s not my responsibility to pay for others’
outreach. When Jesus speaks to you, it’s your responsibility to learn
to follow His lead, not mine to carry you. My responsibility is to follow
His lead in what He shows me to do.
In Kenya and other poor countries there is
such a fixation on money, as if money can solve all problems (which it
can’t), that Jesus has been substituted. That guy couldn’t see his own
idolatry. He put his reliance upon money and me, instead of upon Jesus and
His Word. He didn’t really trust Jesus.
It was no different in Israel. They had seen
the stupendous miracles God performed to deliver them from Egyptian slavery.
It seemed there was nothing God would not do in order to deliver His people
and fulfil His plan (Ps 106).
He’s the same today (Heb 13:8). There is
nothing that He will not do for you, in order to fulfil His plan, IF you are
totally sold out to Him (Jn 15:7; 14:12-14).
Israel did not trust God. She did not believe
Him, despite the miracles, despite seeing His pillar of cloud or fire all
day, every day! (Ex 13:21,22.)
Knowledge OF God is not the same as KNOWING
God. Israel didn’t KNOW God. They didn’t understand what He
considered important. What was important to them was what they wanted
physically.
It was the same with our friend who turned
against us. Because his mind was on the physical, he couldn’t have trust in
the spiritual. As Jesus said:
...without Me you can do nothing (Jn
15:5c).
And so, our friend didn’t. He didn’t do
anything. Conversely:
He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears
much fruit (Jn 15:5b).
Pride And Unbelief Go Together
Coupled with his unbelief, there was pride.
He took Jesus’ words to mean what he wanted them to mean. To him they
meant he could be someone important.
He envisaged himself as prominent, perhaps
rich, handing out MM publications like sweets to children who have never had
them before. Perhaps he had illusions of personal grandeur, as people who
receive look up to him with admiration. He thought he would do what Jesus
said with a ‘big splash’ and bring himself acclaim and even fame. That’s why
he thought he needed lots of money.
But Jesus didn’t tell him how to do
it. He certainly didn’t tell him to spread MM publications that way! Because
of the pride in his heart, he wasn’t interested in just sharing one
publication with just one person. He wasn’t interested in sharing what he
had. He wanted to keep that for himself. And because of this wrong
preoccupation, he wasn’t able to listen further to the Spirit to hear how
to go about Jesus’ command.
Had he been sensitive to the Spirit, and
willing to share and show love and concern for the spiritually hungry, God
would have led him to someone spiritually hungry with whom he could share
God’s saving truths.
But those who are self-seeking, with pride in
their hearts, they can’t share Jesus with others, because Jesus is not
inside them. You can’t give someone else what you don’t possess in yourself.
It’s no good having print on
paper, if the meaning of that print is not inside you. You’ve got to be
living it to be able to share it.
The promises of God’s guidance and help are
to those who are careful to DO what He asks:
If you diligently heed the voice
of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight... (Ex
15:26).
But humanity doesn’t. Hence, massive
problems.
You, chosen by God in Jesus, are called to
be:
A special treasure to Me above all people
(19:5).
But only if... as God said:
If you will indeed obey My voice... (Ex
19:5a).
In the third month (Ex 19:1), when Pentecost
is observed, God tested His people at Mount Sinai. He had Moses instruct the people to be consecrated, ready for God’s
appearing on the mountain on the third day (19:10,
11). He warned them to reverence God (19:12, 21). On the third day, true to
His word, God appeared in a display of frightening thunder, fire and
lightning (19:16). Moses led the people out to meet with God! (19:17.) They
were terrified!
On that tumultuous occasion God thundered His
commandments to all Israel from the mountain (Ex 20). Afterward, Moses told
the terrified people:
Do not fear; for God has come to test
you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin (Ex
20:20).
Sin destroys your relationship with God.
Eventually it would destroy you. Hence God’s vehemence against sin – which
is doing anything contrary to God’s will.
Seeing the ferocity and power of God,
Israel vowed:
All the words which the Lord has said we
will do (Ex 24:3).
Moses wrote all God’s words down, so the
people could be reminded (24:4). And he read all those words to them (24:7).
And the people again declared:
All that the Lord has said we will do and
be obedient (Ex 24:7b).
To ratify that Covenant, Moses sprinkled
blood on the people, to remind them of the solemnity of their vow, which
they were required to keep until death (24:8). All the people intended to
keep it (Deut 5:27).
But they didn’t, and nor do many Christians
today, who come to Christ, with equally good intentions!
You know what happened to
Israel. Do you know what happens to believers in Jesus today who deny their
calling like the man I cited earlier?
You have not come to the
mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness
and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of
words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be
spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded...
And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly
afraid and trembling.”) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of
angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are
registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all... See that you do not
refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who
spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him
who speaks from heaven (Heb 12:18-25).
Malcolm B Heap, June 2006
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