God's sovereignty

Our God has many names, each representing different aspects of His nature. We see some of His characteristics in our own nature, such as love and justice, because we are made in His image. But some of God’s characteristics remain solely His, such as Omnipresence , Omniscience, and Omnipotence. We have nothing in our personal lives to compare these aspects of God’s nature to, and it is by His Word and our own personal relationship with Him that we become acquainted the characteristics of His sovereign greatness.

In knowing God, many times we are satisfied with what He chooses to share about Himself through our daily lives. We experience and live out grace, mercy, forgiveness and many other parts of God’s nature as our relationship grows. We grow in His likeness, yet not all of His nature is in us.

At times, God’s people become bored with their every day relationship with Him. Some want to experience His power and glory, so much so that they think they can pull it to themselves by their faith. It is a sad day when Man thinks that the kingdom of God will come down because of his own efforts. Power and glory isn’t the sum total of God’s nature, nor is it the entirety of His kingdom. Yet these things are what some believe mark God’s presence amongst us. Their yearning is for the supernatural manifestation of God.

Though God is supernatural and He shares supernatural gifts with us, His desire is that we would know all His nature. If we become focused on the supernatural and addicted to the thrill of these things alone, we will become bait for deceiving spirits. Jesus told us that in the end times there would be many false Christs and false prophets performing great signs and miracles, “to deceive the elect – if that were possible,” (Mt 24:24). These are those deceiving times which Jesus spoke about.

Men and women who are not content with their place in God’s kingdom will become bored, and want more excitement. The walk of faith can have long pauses in it, and trials. Those who long to be heroes will focus on changing things through works of power, and they will teach the younger generation to do the same. So it is they, who are discontent with the everyday walk with Christ, who will seek for manifestations of God’s power. They cannot bear the trial of waiting, nor silence.

Before a man becomes bored with his own relationship with God he will be found to be questioning his own worth. This stage is the playground of the enemy. Satan will accuse people who doubt their worth by condemning them for their inactivity and accusing them of lacking faith. The unstable man will then perpetrate his own dreams, which he calls “faith”, and he will take action, which he calls “serving God.” This man will lose sight of God’s nature because he seeks only to know what he can see concerning God’s sovereignty; His works of power. As in the parable of the Tenants (Mt 21:33-40) these people want the inheritance of the kingdom without the Son ruling over the circumstances of their lives. But those who seek to know God, to worship Him in Spirit and in truth, will endure waiting and trials, for their desire is to know all of His nature.

do not add nor take away from the Word of the Lord

of these instructions are repeated, and today I will be talking about one that we have from Moses, through to John in Revelation.

When God was dispensing His covenant to Moses, He asked him to tell the people not to add to nor take away from His commands (Deut 4:2 & 12:32). God’s words are important and stand alone, independent from our own thoughts. His words reveal His nature to us, and if we add to or subtract from them, we do not pass God’s nature along to the hearers.

In the Proverbs we read “Do not add to His words, or He will rebuke you and prove you a liar,” (Prov 30:6). Sometimes it is hard for a man who has had the Lord’s word to be silent at times when the Lord is silent. It takes great discipline. There was a time in my life of great outpouring of prophetic dreams and visitations from the Lord. One dream, however, showed me walking with the Lord into a whiteout. He was showing me a time of information sequestration, or a literal information whiteout. The years that ensued were difficult. I kept comparing how the Lord used to give me so much information to the current desert experience, information-wise. However, He did not leave me alone in my desert experience. I learned to trust Him when He is silent, and obey Him when He speaks. I also learned that it is pride that makes us want to speak when He is silent.

Paul writes to the Corinthians that they should not go beyond what is written (1 Cor 4:6). We should not let our pride add our surmising to what God is saying. If we want to appear to have secret knowledge, or additional information on something the Lord is saying, and we do not in truth have more from the Lord, we are seeking to have men look up to us as someone special.

In Revelation we have the same instructions from the Lord; do not add to or take away from the words of the prophecy (Rev 22:18-19). It is pride that causes us to add to the Word of God, and fear of men, or man-pleasing, that causes us to take away from what God says. If we want to be received by men, we will be tested to see if we will be true to deliver God’s message, for it may make us unpopular with men.

There are many teachers of the prophetic who instruct their students to speak only what is nice. These students are learning to take away from the Word of God, should God be revealing what they consider “not nice.” They exchange the bitter for sweet, and the truth which could save the listener for a falsehood which abandons his soul to his own devices.

Let everyone who has the Word of the Lord be true to God, the giver of the Word. Let not the listeners become hardened in their hearts against prophecy due to the carelessness of men. In this time, more than ever before, prophecy will lead God’s people. Amen.

Before Disobedience

When we listen to bad thoughts about someone it tears down our love for them. We have a choice. God gave Adam and Eve a choice in the garden. It was the first time He forbid them something. But then, love must be chosen to be given.

Satan gave Eve bad thoughts to think about God. He challenged what God told Adam by saying “Has God said . . .? “ and he undermined God’s integrity, insinuating He lied by saying “You will not surely die.” Satan challenged God’s motive by saying “He (God) knows that when you eat it you will become like God, knowing good and evil.” (see Gen 3:1-5) Eve had a choice to love God and rebuff Satan, or to believe Satan’s lies and let her love of God be torn down. Before her disobedience, she chose to believe bad about God.

The ultimate test was to choose love. When we believe bad about God, or a person, we feel justified in thinking, saying and doing wrong. When we rebuff evil thoughts, we grow strong in love.

Satan not only wanted Eve to doubt God’s integrity, but he also wanted her to believe that, though she disobeyed, she could be like a god. This was Satan’s sin; wanting to ascend to a place higher than God (Is 14:13-14). All his words were carefully planted in her ears so that Eve and her husband Adam would sin like he had.

We face the same thoughts now as Adam and Eve did long ago. Do we want fellowship with God based on mutual love, or do we want to be our own god, thinking we know better how things should be done? Before every sin is self-justification, and before every disobedience is a choice. Will we strengthen love today?