The Truth, The Whole Truth, ANd Nothing But The Truth

SCRIPTURE: 1KINGS 22:8

“The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.’
      ‘The king should not say that,’ Jehoshaphat replied.”

OBSERVATION:

Jehoshaphat was asked by Ahab to partner with them in battle against Ramoth Gilead.Jehoshaphat says “It sounds good to us kings, but what is God saying through His prophets?”  They survey the prophets and the survey says... DING, all clear for battle!  But it seems that Jehoshaphat has a “gut check” and wants to make sure there are no opposing thoughts among the prophets.

Ahab says, “You know, I left this guy, Macaiah, off the list.  I really can’t stand him because he never tells me what I want to hear.  He is always prophesying against me.  He just doesn’t like me.”  At least that’s what I hear as I read this passage.

When I read the stories of people in the Bible I always try and find how my life measures up.  Is there something I can learn from this persons experience and apply to my own life.  Can I learn how to walk with God closer, follow Jesus more confidently, lead and care for people more skillfully, be a better husband and father, avoid a pitfall, or build character.  So as I read Ahab’s words, “I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me...” I have to ask the question about myself, “Do I disqualify negative voices from speaking into my life and into decision making processes?”

Nobody likes negativity.  However, we should desire truth.  Unfortunately, not all truth is fun to hear.  Not all truth feels good and nice.  Some truth is contrary to what we’d rather do and to how we are thinking.  

APPLICATION:

If I want to become the man that God has planned me to be, I need to invite words of truth into my life to encourage me in righteousness and to confront unrighteousness in me.  I need godly counsel to speak into my life and let me know when I am about to do something stupid.  I need to invite truth into the process even when it might wreck my plans.

I think we call them accountability partners rather than prophets.  However, our accountability partners need to have a prophetic place in our lives.  They should be seasoned believers who are sensitive to the Lord’s speaking and leading.  They should be people of wisdom that is born out of prayer and the Spirit not simply worldly wise.

PRAYER:

Father, thank you that you are working in me.  You are helping me to become the man you planned from the beginning of time.  Thank you for the men and women you have placed in my life.  Help me to trust you to work thru them to bring truth and righteousness to my life.  Help me to be vulnerable and transparent - knowing that you are for me and not against me, knowing that you are good and wanting to take me from death to life.  Knowing that you desire to make me whole.  I invite truth in my life.  In Jesus name, AMEN!!!

No Turning Back

SCRIPTURE: 1 Kings 18:19-21

“So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.  Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. ‘Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,’ he said, ‘and then I will come with you.’

      ‘Go back,’ Elijah replied. ‘What have I done to you?’

So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.”

OBSERVATION:

I guess the first thing that I see in this passage is that has never in all of history been easier to follow God than it is right now - at least in the United States.  Yet the United States (along with much of the Western World) is getting increasingly hard to reach.  The people are getting increasingly humanistic and atheistic.  Even those who are open to the concept of God seem to do so very academically rather that relationally - their ascent to God has little impact on how they do life.

I think of how people pass on opportunities with God because they seem “too scary.”  It might put a cramp on their plans to party it up in college.  It might “squeeze them a little too much financially if they tithe.”  It might swing them in a different direction career wise or muddy the waters with ethics and values that “don’t work in the business world.”

I want to have the faith and the zeal of Elisha.  These were tough times for God followers.  They were dangerous times for prophets.  They were being hunted down and killed like animals.  Yet Elisha didn’t have to think about it - He immediately said, “Let me say my good-byes and I’ll be on my way - wherever God takes me and whatever may happen.  So sure was his decision that he burned down his old business as if saying, “I’ll never return to this work again, the door back has been nailed shut, plan “B” is non-existent.  He threw a party for his neighborhood to celebrate his new direction in life.  He slaughtered his oxen for the BBQ and use the wood from his tools to cook the meat.  It was a done deal.

He could have put it in storage, you know just in case this whole prophet thing didn’t work out.  At least he’d have something to fall back on if God didn’t quite come thru for him.

APPLICATION:

Seeing this makes me sad about the many back doors and alternate plans I make.  All in the name of godly wisdom of course.  It sounds smart.  It looks right and not as crazy.  However, I wonder if it limits the fullness of my experience as a God follower.  Does it keep me too pinned down to only an earthly/physical reality?  I never want to be so “heavenly minded that I am no earthly good”; however, the opposite is probably more dangerous to our walk with God.  I never want to be so “worldly wise” that I plan myself out of the miraculous and fulness of following God.  I want to let heavenly realities trump worldly concerns.  I want to commit to God so surely that I can burn down my past, knowing that I’ll never need it again.  Knowing that I’ve taken the right road and won’t need to U-turn.  Over and over again Elijah says something to the effect of “Surely as God lives”.  It almost seems that our ability to experience the miraculous and fulfilling plan that God has for our lives is determined by the degree that we believe that statement - “as surely as God lives.”  As surely as God is able to sustain you, give you purpose, keep you, give you fulfilled life, see you thru, do significant things thru you, build His kingdom with your hands, overcome your issues, meet with you....

PRAYER:

Father, I want the faith and faithfulness of Elisha.  I want to commit to the path you place before me in such a manor that I burn down my past, knowing that I will never have to return to them again.  That I will pursue you and your will afresh every day and will depend on you for my future.  No turning back Lord.  In Jesus name, AMEN!

REPENTANCE RELEASES RESTORATION

SCRIPTURE:  Psalm 51:1-17 (New International Version) For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.  Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.  Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;  wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness;  let the bones you have crushed rejoice.  Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,  and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.

 

Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

OBSERVATION:

David was God’s anointed one, the man of God’s choosing, to lead lead Israel.  He replaced Saul as King because God saw him fit.  While fulfilling his God given role he fell into sin - every man’s battle, LUST!  He noticed a woman bathing (not a sin), but he set his mind on her beauty and had an idea (the sin begins in his mind and heart).  He sends a servant to invite her over (the sin of the heart and mind takes flight in action).  He sleeps with her knowing she is married to another man (the sin in all its fullness).  He has her husband killed to hide his sin (sin multiplies for lack of repentance).

God sent Nathan, a prophet, to assure David that while his sin was hidden from men, it wasn’t hidden from God.  Nathan let David know that God would take all that He had given David away because David wasn’t fulfilled with God’s provision - He fulfilled himself with another man’s wife.  In fact God said to David, “If you wanted more, all you had to do was ask, and I would have given you more.  But you wen your own way and took for yourself from someone who had less.”  So God ultimately said “Since I am not enough, I will give all that I have given to you to somebody else.”  It was at this point in David’s life that he wrote this song, this plea for forgiveness.  This cry for redemption and restoration.

The crazy thing is that God actually listened to David.  He entertained His prayer and negotiated with David.  He heard David’s cry, forgave Him, and restored His calling on David’s life. Though He did take away the blessing that came from David’s sin - the son that Bathseba birthed.  However, in God’s mercy and restorative power, He gave David and Bathsheba a son named Solomon.  God loved Solomon and Solomon became heir to the throne of David and the greatest, wisest, and wealthiest king in Israel’s history.

APPLICATION:

God loves to bring people into right relationship with Him and into their original purpose/plan for their lives.  Everyone starts where David was - outside of God’s plan and outside of God’s favor.  In fact everyone of us end up their from time to time.  Maybe not as dramatically as David’s story nor as crucial of circumstances, but in some way we find ourselves in sin.  We notice something, we let it grab the attention of our mind, then we let it become the desire of our heart, then we give it the energy of our efforts.  The next thing you know we are trying to find fulfillment outside of God.  If not ultimate fulfillment, at least temporary/circumstancial fulfillment.

We find ourselves out of God’s favor and the words that He spoke to David thru the prophet Nathan ring in our ears, “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.  I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.  Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes?”   Maybe for us it sounds like "I have anointed you as husband and father - as priest and prophet of your home.  I have provided a job, home, and a wonderful family.  If all this had been too little I would have given you even more.  Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes?” 

At this point we have two options PRIDE & DEFENSIVENESS or HUMILITY & REPENTANCE.  Choose the latter.  Make David’s song your prayer.  God is good and delights in restoring people to Himself and His perfect plan for your life.

A second, and better application, is to anchor yourself in this truth - GOD IS ENOUGH.  I don’t have to find pleasure outside of God.  If what we have is not enough God will give us more.

PRAYER:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,  and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.”  In Jesus’ strong name - AMEN!