There will always be more to do, more people who need your help and your wisdom, more projects you feel you are called to complete, more expectations from yourself and others. When you are stressed, when you feel out of control, step back and see if you’ve become a victim of Not Enough Time. Remember you are the Master of Time: Decide how you are going to spend your time this week, today, and to what is left over, simply say “No.”
Keep things in perspective — you’re doing GREAT!
There will be many times that, even depending on God for wisdom and guidance, there will be no perfect solution or choice. These are the times of testing, not in making the choice or decision, but in standing by your decision. Know that the outcome is what it is, and will not always be ideal. Your confidence to stand quietly by your decisions will come from dependence on God and having developed, tested and tried your own judgment.
Be still and choose.
“What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it (betake themselves unto it).” (Isaiah 14:32)
Tell me, what’s going on these days? Is anything happening? What is God’s move for this hour? THE LORD IS FOUNDING ZION! Take a heavenly tour and walk about Zion and count, inspect, look over His new creation. God is raising up PILLARS in the midst of the land, His elect, and they KNOW IN WHOM THEY HAVE BELIEVED. They are willing to be ‘placed’ by God, and there to abide. Let the nations rage, let the people imagine a vain thing. Let the storms blow, and let the darkness cover the earth. They are unafraid because they KNOW HIM. They are upheld by His mighty hand, and they shall become a beacon of light to those who stumble in darkness. When men’s hearts fail them for fear, these shall remain calm, cool, and collected, ready to give an encouraging word to him that is weary. These processed saints have been so disciplined by the Lord that they are not easily disturbed by the pressures without. Thus, God shall have His strong ones in the midst of the land, and the poor shall be able to take themselves unto these FOUNDED ONES, to find safety, security, and help.
We have become ‘a nation on wheels’, driven by a restless spirit, searching everywhere for they know not what. Buried deep in the bosom of every Israelite is that call of God which says, “we have here no continuing city”, and with Abraham we “look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”, (Heb. 11:10). Men do not know this is what they seek, but their very restlessness is an evident token that they are not inwardly at home, at rest, at peace. Not until we find ourselves again contained in the fullness of the will of God, conformed to His image, filled with His Spirit, do we find a satisfaction and an inner quietness. God’s elect, His Zion, is being brought into this place of stability and victory in Him.
You will be rejected and criticized whether you do anything, something or nothing. Embrace the fact that people are watching. Depend on Father to bring those across your path for a purpose and a season. If you continue to get your needs met by Him directly, you will not fall into the trap of looking to people for acceptance and approval, nor be vulnerable to manipulation or trying to meet their needs from your soulical resources. You will be able to accept them as they are, and not be forced to categorize them either as a blessing or a curse.
People are unavoidable, don’t be distracted by them ;).
Stay focused on the task at hand and have a fun week!
Nehemiah and Restoration of the Law (Nehemiah 10:28-39)
28Now the rest of the people—the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethinim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and understanding— 29these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes: 30We would not give our daughters as wives to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons; 31if the peoples of the land brought wares or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and we would forego the seventh year’s produce and the exacting of every debt.
32Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to exact from ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: 33for the showbread, for the regular grain offering, for the regular burnt offering of the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the set feasts; for the holy things, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God. 34We cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for bringing the wood offering into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at the appointed times year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God as it is written in the Law. 35And we made ordinances to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the Lord; 36to bring the firstborn of our sons and our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks, to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God; 37to bring the firstfruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil, to the priests, to the storerooms of the house of our God; and to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites, for the Levites should receive the tithes in all our farming communities. 38And the priest, the descendant of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes; and the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms of the storehouse. 39For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine and the oil, to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers are; and we will not neglect the house of our God.
As Nehemiah and the restored Israelites re-establish their nation, one of the first things they do is re-iterate the tenets of the regulations acknowledging the Lord as their God. This includes the restoration of the tithe (they were not tithing or keeping any of the commandments of the Lord in captivity, previous to entering the land). Again, tithes to the priests was specifically mentioned, as well as the tithes being stored in the temple. Nehemiah even added ordinances concerning payment for specific needs of the temple. (These things may have been more expensive than they were in Moses’ day.)
The supernatural or soulical environment consists of those areas between the natural (that which was created and can be recognized by the natural senses) and the spiritual (that which has the same characteristics as God; holy, eternal, omnipotent, etc.). Most of us spend the majority of our time and thoughts dwelling in this realm. Though this is one realm, it contains many regions. In order to understand our beliefs we can say that the supernatural realm is where the angels and demons dwell, also described as heaven and hell. We can also say that the realm to which our soul relates is the soulical environment. Our soulical senses work just as well (or as poorly) in heaven as in hell.
The most important law that predominates over this realm is that God reigns supreme, and nothing happens here without His express permission, just as in the natural realm.
The supernatural realm can also become a distraction, as many believe that it is the same thing as the spiritual realm. So we often mistake what happens there, and what we see, as being 100% true and infallible. Thus, we can experience visions, manifestations of God, angels and demons, etc., and falsely conclude that there is absolute authority and clarity in them. This can be not only a distraction but misleading and a deception, especially when doctrines are then built upon what we believe God has shown us in this imperfect realm.
“And they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.” (Acts 11:22-23)
Barnabas beheld the GRACE OF GOD working in their lives, and he was glad. This is a beautiful, positive approach. He could have seen all the imperfections, how much spiritual growth was needed, worried about the errors of doctrine, whatever else might be common to the beginnings of the Christian walk. But he saw the grace of God, and knew there was a work begun, and viewing God’s handiwork, he knew that the One who had begun in these people a good work, He also would bring it to a successful conclusion in due time, so he only sought to encourage, to exhort them to continue, to follow on to perfection, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
The word ‘cleave’ comes from the Greek ‘pros’ meaning toward, and ‘meno’ which means to remain, abide. What an excellent exhortation, to remain towards the Lord, to abide in a walk that is always directed towards the Lord, to keep Him in the center of our vision, and to remain in that close union with Him. “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth,” (Psalm 16:8-9)
This vital abiding, remaining ever towards the Lord, is the resultant action of our PURPOSE OF HEART. It speaks of the action of the will. True, spiritual depth and maturity come with growth and processing under the workmanship of the Spirit of God within us, but our responsive action to His inworking is the exercise of our will, willing to live out that which He has wrought within. “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself,” (Dan. 1:8). The deliberate, pre-meditated, chosen course of action. It was the action of his will motivated by his heart, his inner state of being, that gave strength to face every test, which followed.
Lord, we will to have Your will in all things. Amen!
Don’t be distracted by the many roadblocks. The journey itself is more important than arriving at your goal. You have not passed this way before, and will not again, so enjoy the gifts Father has for you along the way.
Keep your eye on the horizon, Father will guide each footstep.
Have a restful week!
“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.”
(Acts 24:14)
The word “heresy’ literally means: ‘to take, to choose’; and then can be understood as to refer to the belief which was chosen. The Dictionary gives it to mean “religious opinion opposed to the authorized doctrinal standard of any particular church”. Thus, an opinion held in opposition to the commonly received doctrine.
While in a negative sense it refers to one who has chosen a cultist doctrine, methinks there is also a positive sense for those who use the right and privilege of choosing to pursue truth regardless of the commonly accepted traditions of men – though those traditionists will brand them as heretics.
Of the way of the Pharisees Paul was well familiar, and well he knew that “in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” (Matt. 15:9). He had an encounter with God, and the Light had shone deep into his being, now he desired to WORSHIP THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS, and it was esteemed a way of heresy, because he was ready to BELIEVE ALL THINGS which are in the law and in the prophets. It was this realm of ‘believing’, this faith in the truth which set him apart from all other ways. He was now a part of the very WAY, which earlier he had persecuted so violently.
All the Jews know about this ‘sect’ that was everywhere spoken against. Of our Lord also it was said that He was “set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against,” (Luke 2:32). He, who came forth, visible expression of the invisible God, was spoken against by all those who refused to receive and believe Him. Therefore it follows that all who would FOLLOW HIM would likewise be spoken against, branded as heretics. Organized religion has always been against those who would believe the truth, choosing beyond what their traditions offered. But truly we have found it to be a way of joy, life, and victory.
There have been areas that you have gone back and forth for so long that any answer you receive from the Lord is merely confusing you more. This week is an opportunity to pick one choice and go with it. Father will guide and direct once you get going but you must leave this place of confusion and doubt. He will give you clarity about what happened as you move forward.
Stay optimistic and have a great week!