The whole essence of a Christian lifestyle is for us to be us and to let God be God. It is important that we do our part in His Kingdom work and that we allow Him to be God and do His part in Kingdom work.
So, why must we always interfere? This is not a facetious question.
It is a serious attempt to analyze the true depth of our trust and faith in a loving Father who is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. If we believe the whole Bible — as many claim — then why do we act as though we don’t?
Whenever we pray, we try to give Him directions and advice. “LORD, you know Jimmy. LORD he needs . . . . ., can you do that LORD, please?”
We pray this sort of thing time after time and then wonder why God doesn’t answer our prayer. As if He needs us to tell Him the answers when we probably don’t even understand the “problem”.
Then, we have the cheek to pray our own wants list. I don’t know this for certain, but I imagine our thinking goes along the lines of, “LORD, I know you know everything I need but, LORD, could you please let me have . . . . ?”
As if He really doesn’t know what we really need, or want, so we pester Him frequently with our perceived needs list.
Sometimes The LORD will answer those prayers but frequently He doesn’t.
Ask Him? More like, we beg Him. “LORD, I really could do with . . . . . LORD, I’m getting desperate.”
This is the sort of selfish prayer that leads to so much disappointment.
This is God we are talking to! This is the creator of all that exists from the universe to the speck of dust on your spectacles.
So often we talk to Him as if we are ordering our shopping from the grocery store. We talk to Him as if we know whatever is best for us instead of simply acknowledging Him as our heavenly Father who only ever has our best interests at heart.
We try to organize He who knows everything about us. We try to influence and advise He who knows our tomorrows.
Leave Him to do it!
“The LORD, He is God!” 1 Kings 18:39
Let God be God — doing His Godly things.
He is our provider and healer, our banner, and our protection.
All He actually asks of us is to do our job — to fulfill our part of the deal.
More of that tomorrow. For today – just let God be God.
Think on all these things and let he who has ears to hear . . . . .
Now we turn our attention to The Church.
Let The Church be Church — doing Great Commission things.
So much has been written about the Great Commission – either the Matthew 28 version or the Mark 16 version.
Both are agreed that we should preach the Gospel to all men, baptize in water, and make disciples of all men.
The dissent comes when we start looking at baptizing in the Spirit, healing the sick, and casting out demons.
Then we come to the business of freeing the captives, opening blind eyes to see, and opening deaf ears to hear.
We haven’t even looked at feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, sheltering the homeless, or looking after widows and orphans.
Yet Jesus said that, “In as much as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Matthew 25:40.
I emphasized the ‘My Brethren’ because it is important to recognize that, as a Church, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We are told time and again to love God and our neighbor.
So many things to do for The Kingdom of God, yet many do not recognize anyone outside their four walls as brothers and sisters — “they are simply the lost and we can’t do much about them.”
Yet the Word of God, which so very many claim to believe from cover to cover, is frequently ignored and even disregarded as ‘for old times but not for today’.
Yet Jesus gave us all of these commands with regard to following Him and being The Church.
In Matthew 28:18-20, He says this –
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”
‘Observe ALL those things I have COMMANDED you.’ All things — not just the ones you choose or the ones that suit you!
This means healing the sick, casting out demons, and all the rest that we looked at earlier.
It’s not as if it’s that difficult. We do nothing except speak it out — God actually does it ALL through the power of The Holy Spirit.
These are things that identify The Church as being The Church. Let her be so.
Let The Church be The Church and do her job in Kingdom work.
Let her also stand back and allow God to be God and play His part too.
Think on all these things and let he who has ears to hear . . . . .
We have seen God’s role and we have looked at The Church’s role. Now we come to the children — tomorrow’s Church.
Let children be children!
Jesus spoke a great deal about allowing children to come to Him. He spoke about us being born again. He spoke about having faith like a child.
Unless we are born-again, He said, we cannot enter The Kingdom of Heaven.
Unless we become ‘babes’ again — child-like.
Unless we have faith like a child, He said, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
A child’s Faith is totally accepting, it is simple and straightforward.
A child believes what he or she is told. Tell a child that God heals and the child accepts it, believes it, and expects it.
Children receive the same Holy Spirit as you and me – not a junior version. When we realize that our children and our children’s children are the next generations of The Church, we encourage them into their own personal relationship with The LORD.
When they come into that relationship, many of them very quickly receive the Holy Spirit and His gifting.
They do not receive any lesser version of Him. They receive exactly the same as you and me.
The difference is that they believe He will do things, they believe He heals, and they believe He “makes things better.”
We now have to learn to allow children to minister. Let the children pray for the sick.
Have you ever seen Heidi Baker’s ministry? She uses children to pray for miracles all the time and I suspect this is why her “success” rate is so very high.
Children have the same Holy Spirit and a much higher expectancy rate.
Think on all these things and let he who has ears to hear . . . . .
We have discussed letting God be God, letting The Church be The Church, and letting children be children.
Now, as always, we look to God again!
Let God be God!
Each of us, God, you and I, and children all have a place in God’s Kingdom work here on earth.
We pray earnestly for God’s Kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I suggest that, if we are to see the reality of that in our lives, then we all need to stick to our roles and encourage others and our children to play their part too.
If we were only to allow God to be God, without us restraining Him or restricting Him in any way, then our prayers will be answered, miracles would be an everyday occurrence, and the world would once again take notice of The Church of Jesus Christ.
God will do it — He promised in Numbers 23:19
“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Why must we always interfere and “help” God do His own work?
Why must we always give Him directions or advice? Does He not know best?
Why must we always pray our wants list without trusting Him for all that we need?
Leave Him to do His part — He is “The LORD, He is God” (1 Kings 18:39)
Think on all these things and let he who has ears to hear . . . . .
“Behold, The LORD God shall come with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance?
Who has directed the Spirit of The LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.
To whom then will you liken God?” Isaiah 40:10-18
This is my God – Hallelujah
Featured Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
[…] Open the full article on the kingdomwinds.com site […]