Thinking today about the Egypt, red sea, wilderness and Jordan river progression in relation to the gate versus pathway principle, that was outlined briefly on Tuesday.
"On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands." - Ezekiel 20:6 ESV
God speaks of it almost in a summary but there were two rivers (gateways) and a fair amount of wandering that was sandwiched in-between. Most of those who left Israel did not pass over chilly Jordan.
I want to respect the process God has in a person's life. I don't want to hang on to an assessment that was made that falls short of God's promised end result for a person.
God has gateways for us to pass through... all of us. Impossible barriers that get rolled back or parted by His power. Transformation and renewal are happening during the wanderings. The old generation is dying off and the new generation is coming of age.
Those who pass over Jordan are not the ones who made the golden calf at Sinai.
I was thinking of a man recently who I love but He really got under my skin at one point. He is a charismatic person who misused the scripture in his preaching and hurt people I love. I haven't seen him for a while. His wife recently died and he is preaching again after a time of being utterly devastated and humbled.
God convicted me heavily that I shouldn't know this man after his flesh or his past. God only sees Eygpt and the promised land in our lives. We shouldn't know people after their wanderings. It isn't God's mind. Moses was an angry man in Eygpt but by the end of his wanderings God made him into the meekest man on the face of the Earth.
God has gateways for us. On the other side we will find ourselves in a new place. I want to respect that process and pray if someone is wandering and in a conversion process. I want to have mercy for myself if that person is me.
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Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Friday, December 23, 2016
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Egypt's Help Is Worthless
" 'Ah, stubborn children,' declares the LORD, 'who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation... Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her 'Rahab who sits still.' " - Isaiah 30:1-3, 7 ESV
Grace is an alliance with God's Spirit. To live in grace is to live in God's reality.
But people just return to Egypt and forget that it was a place of pain and contradiction. People are laughing and eating well in Egypt. They had things there that we don't have here. Maybe that is a better way? Maybe it isn't so bad there? It might be different this time then it was before.
For some it isn't that kind of identification. The wounds they received in Egypt ache and plague their thinking. Their identity becomes an identity based on what happened in past bondage.
"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." - Psalm 1:1-3 ESV
The word for law here is Torah (Strong's H8451) which references God's written instruction.
"Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God." - 1 Peter 1:18-23 NASB
Yes. Instead of going back we can move forward. The Torah came as a flesh and blood man and came as the living word. The Torah is testifying of Him.
Let's acknowledge the slavery of the past but go forward to freedom. There is no quickening in Egypt. Quickening comes far away from the neon lights. Quickening comes when the historical resurrection becomes a present day reality to us and we live in a agreement with the Holy Spirit about the nature and character of the living word and what He has already accomplished on our behalf.
Grace is an alliance with God's Spirit. To live in grace is to live in God's reality.
But people just return to Egypt and forget that it was a place of pain and contradiction. People are laughing and eating well in Egypt. They had things there that we don't have here. Maybe that is a better way? Maybe it isn't so bad there? It might be different this time then it was before.
For some it isn't that kind of identification. The wounds they received in Egypt ache and plague their thinking. Their identity becomes an identity based on what happened in past bondage.
"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." - Psalm 1:1-3 ESV
The word for law here is Torah (Strong's H8451) which references God's written instruction.
"Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God." - 1 Peter 1:18-23 NASB
Yes. Instead of going back we can move forward. The Torah came as a flesh and blood man and came as the living word. The Torah is testifying of Him.
Let's acknowledge the slavery of the past but go forward to freedom. There is no quickening in Egypt. Quickening comes far away from the neon lights. Quickening comes when the historical resurrection becomes a present day reality to us and we live in a agreement with the Holy Spirit about the nature and character of the living word and what He has already accomplished on our behalf.
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