God Hears and Yields

I have been blown away of late by this simple fact:  God listens to people.  The prayer of one person has changed the course of nations.  We may think because God is sovereign over all and already knows His complete, ultimate plan, everything is fairly set.  Though God does have a plan, many times we observe in scripture God in heaven listens and heeds the prayers of people who simply pray.  This really is an amazing thing, that lowly man can have an audience with God - and God listens to us when we speak to Him!

Think about the powerful and influential men and women in the world today.  No man easily gains a personal audience with them.  You might write a letter to a politician, but it may never even reach their desk.  They have layer upon layer of attendants and handlers to deal with the requests, calls, e-mails, and ideas of people.  Even if you were able have a phone conversation or a face-to-face meeting with a prime-minister or president of a company, it is utterly unlikely your suggestions would impact the plans which have already been set in motion!  The fact is, to offer suggestions to the Prime Minister on policies from the position of a "man on the street" cannot take into account all the politicking taking place behind closed doors.  We see only a fraction of the big picture.  Since this is the case, what wisdom or insights could a Prime Minister hope to gain from a United States transplant like me, who has only been in country for four years?  From his perspective, I can't see any upside for him agreeing to such a meeting!

If the divide between men can be great, how much more of a infinite chasm stretches between the Creator God and shortsighted man!  Yet God has granted all who trust in Him an audience in His throne room of grace to find mercy and help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).  He does not squeeze us into a 10 minute time slot because He is too busy or important to spare more time.  And wonder of wonders, we can directly impact His decisions.  Does this blow your mind?  Many times in scripture we see God make a statement, only to willingly adjust it according to a direct request from one of His servants.  God does not only hear prayers, but He answers them.  There are many recorded instances in scripture when God was willing to alter His "plan" because of supplications from His children.  It's true that sometimes says "No," but that does not change the fact He also says "Yes" to requests!  Here are several examples:

• God revealed to Abraham He was going to destroy Sodom and the surrounding cities due to their great wickedness.  The text says Abraham "drew near" and asked if God, being a righteous Judge, would destroy the righteous with the wicked.  Genesis 18:23-33 contains the dialogue of the interaction, and Abraham reasoned with the LORD.  Instead of a wholesale destruction, Abraham received God's promise Sodom would be spared completely if there were only 10 righteous people within the city.  God heeded the voice of Abraham.
• When the children of Israel worshiped the golden calf Aaron made during the absence of Moses as he met with God to receive the Law on Mt. Sinai, God told Moses He was going to destroy all the people of Israel and make of Moses a great nation instead.  Moses protested and pleaded with God on behalf of the people, and God listened.  Exodus 32:13-14 reads:  "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" ¹⁴ So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people."
• Elijah was a man like the rest of us, but God shut the heavens at his earnest request.  It says in James 5:17-18:  "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. ¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit."  When Elijah prayed for rain again, God heard and caused torrential rain to fall the same day.
• Nineveh was a city God sent Jonah the prophet to warn of impending destruction:  "Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"  When the people heard of their imminent overthrow, from the least to the greatest they mourned, fasted, and wore sackcloth and ashes.  Though they were Gentiles, they believed God.  God responded and repented from the evil He was planned to bring upon them (Jonah 3:5-10).

God responds to more than mere words:  He is looking for faith demonstrated by works.  God invites whosoever will to repent of sin and come and reason with Him.  Would you refuse the opportunity to converse with your Maker?  Isaiah 1:16-20 says, "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, ¹⁷ learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. ¹⁸ "Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; ²⁰ but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword"; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."  God has spoken, and His Word shall come to pass.  However, this does not mean He will not heed the voice of those who cry out to Him in faith.  David the shepherd wrote in Psalm 34:6, "This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles."

We need not be rich or influential in this world to have an audience with God.  God has invited us to reason with Him, and it is not a token "meet and greet" with a handshake and signed photo:  by God's grace we have the freedom to converse with God, to praise and thank Him, and make our requests known to God.  Who knows?  In the meekness of His wisdom, God is willing to yield at the voice of a man.  This mind-blowing fact rejoices the heart!

Time for Temple Inspection!

"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? ²⁰ For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

When I visited the Temple Institute in Jerusalem this year, it was exciting the see the many preparations undertaken for the rebuilding of the Temple.  Our tour was led through a maze of rooms displaying artwork, models, the ephod and breastplate which will be worn by the high priest, the table of showbread, the altar of incense, and silver trumpets.  As the guide presented the articles and talked of the future temple, there was a sense of awe and excitement.  With all the expense and effort being expended in preparation for the building of the third temple, one might think the temple was always reverenced, being the dwelling place of God.  A brief examination of biblical Jewish history proves otherwise!  Though the Jews were the people God chose as His own, committed to them His Laws, and dwelt among them, the condition of the temple varied greatly.  When we realise that under the New Covenant of Christ's blood born-again Christians are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, looking back at the conditions which existed is instructive in self-examination.

So what are some of the negative conditions we find in the tabernacle or temple historically?  Here is a brief and hardly exhaustive list:

• The priests did not know the LORD, robbed God of sacrifices brought by the people, and fornicated with women in the tabernacle - 1 Samuel 2:12-24
• The light was allowed by the priests to burn out at night - 1 Samuel 3:1-4
• In the days of Joash there were leaks and gaps, the Levites were slack to organise repairs, and Athaliah's son's had broken into the temple and presented the holy things to idols - 2 Chronicles 24:2-7
• King Ahaz took the holy vessels and cut them into scrap, polluted the holy place, and sealed the doors of the temple - 2 Chronicles 28:24
• Hezekiah commanded the unsanctified Levites to sanctify themselves and cleanse the holy place.  The doors had been shut, lamps extinguished, and no incense or burnt sacrifices had been offered - 2 Chronicles 29:4-7
• The holy place was polluted with so much filth it took 8 days to cleanse it - 2 Chronicles 29:16-17
•  The book of the Law was lost in the temple, and therefore it had not been read, heard, or obeyed - 2 Chronicles 34:15-21
• The high priest Eliashib allied himself with the Ammonite Tobiah, an enemy of Israel.  He prepared a large room for Tobiah to live in which should have been reserved as a storeroom for tithes and offerings - Nehemiah 13:4-5
• On two occasions Jesus cleansed the temple of moneychangers, animals, and kept merchants from using the temple as a thoroughfare - Mark 11:15-17, John 2:13-18

The people God had tasked to build the temple as a house of prayer did not always maintain the purity and reverence of which God is worthy.  This fact should lead to a critical question for every born-again Christian to consider:  what is the current condition of my temple?  Have I robbed God of sacrifices?  Are there impurities in the holy place?  Have I misplaced and ignored the Word of God?  Since we are called priests unto God, have I been slack to be sanctified and do the work of the ministry?  Have I allied myself with enemies of God and provided them space to live and oppose God's work in my heart?  We observe when the nation of Israel was ruled by a wicked king who promoted idolatry, the temple and worship of God was polluted and neglected.  It is the same for us.  Should we allow ourselves to be ruled by sin, lusts, and pride, our temple falls into spiritual disrepair.

Praise God that in every case mentioned above, there remained sure hope and help when people returned to the LORD in humility, repentance, and obedience.  This means there is hope for those who have not kept their temple in holiness and purity.  Even if the temple has been utterly destroyed, it can be rebuilt.  Twice the temple was destroyed, but the Bible reveals it will be built again.  God is more concerned about the people created in His image than mere buildings fashioned by the hands of men.  Those who destroy the temple God will judge, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17:  "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? ¹⁷ If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."  We are to remain pure in a world filled with sin because our God is holy.  2 Corinthians 6:16 reads, "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Allow me to close with an excellent exhortation from 1 Peter 2:5-12:  "...You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame." ⁷ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone," ⁸ and "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. ⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; ¹⁰ who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. ¹¹ Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, ¹² having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation."

Keep the Light Shining!

"And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually. ²¹ In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the LORD. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel."

Exodus 27:20-21

God commanded the lamp in the tabernacle and later the temple was to burn continually in the Holy Place.  From evening until morning it was to be carefully attended by the priests before the LORD.  Oil was to be added and wicks trimmed through the night to ensure it remained lit throughout the night.  Light was to shine continually in the Holy Place though the sun disappeared and night fell.

In the days of the Judges, we read men did what was right in their eyes.  Though God's Law had been committed to His people and the tabernacle had been erected according to God's design, the days were dark.  The priests had neglected the command of God to keep the light burning, and the implications for Christians today are enormous.  We read in 1 Samuel 3:1-4:  "Then the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation. ² And it came to pass at that time, while Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, ³ and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the LORD where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down, ⁴ that the LORD called Samuel. And he answered, "Here I am!" 

There are several telling observations from this text.  The word of the LORD was rare in those days.  There was no widespread revelation.  Eli, the High Priest descended from Aaron's line, was physically blind.  His eyes had grown increasingly dim to the point of blindness.  Whilst Eli laid himself to sleep, the lamp of God was permitted to burn out in the tabernacle of the LORD.  How suggestive is this!  Eli and his sons neglected to tend the lamp of God according to His command, and it was an indicator of their slack approach to God.  1 Samuel describes the sons of Eli as desperately wicked, and though Eli heard all about their debauchery he did nothing to stop them.  There is a clear connection in the passage between allowing the lamp of God to burn out and blindness, lack of vision and divine revelation, and the rarity of the word of the LORD.  The priests had despised the commandment of God and embraced sleep instead.  Darkness in the temple resulted in blindness, ignorance, and distance from God.

One glorious truth in this tragic passage is though the light was permitted to burn out, God spoke directly to a young boy who did not even know the LORD yet!  It may have seemed a helpless situation with ever-increasing darkness and wickedness, but God graciously revealed Himself to someone who would be faithful to hear and speak forth His truth.  The lamp of God was permitted to burn out, but the light of life shone through little Samuel even as a child, and none of his words fell to the ground.  Jesus said in John 8:12, "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."  Jesus also told His followers in Matthew 5:14:  "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden."  Jesus is the Light of the World, and all who repent and are born again through faith in Him have the Holy Spirit living within them.  Oil is a type of the Spirit who sets us aflame, the fuel to empower Christians to comprehend and live out the scriptures in truth.  We are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus went on to say in Matthew 5:16:  "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

If you are a Christian, consider these questions:  is hearing from God a rarity in your life?  Is fresh understanding and personal application from the scriptures seldom experienced by you?  When you read the Bible is it dry and dull?  Is your vision increasingly dim?  It could very well be due to the neglect of obedience to God's Word.  Perhaps you have never been baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  Maybe the Holy Spirit has been quenched, resisted, and grieved by decisions you have made.  Praise the LORD, there is hope for those born blind as well as those whose eyes have gone dim!  Acts 9:17-18 speaks of when Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit and his eyes were opened.  "And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." ¹⁸ Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized."

How is your vision, dear Christian?  Have you recognised your desperate need for spiritual sight and light from the Holy Spirit?  If your heart has been darkened by sin, there is hope for you in Jesus Christ.  Jesus will forgive, heal, and restore those who admit they are blind, yet those who believe they see will remain blind.  No matter how dark the world becomes, Jesus remains the Light of the World.  Instead of doing what is right in your own eyes, obey God's commands faithfully night and day.  Keep His light shining bright!

Surrender, Praise, and Enjoy!

There is truly nothing more exciting, humbling, and amazing than being part of God's forever family.  The life God has for us is better and broader than we could ever have dreamed up for ourselves.  God is faithful to lead and guide His people faithfully, providing for our necessities and granting opportunities to serve all over the world.  It is wonderful when we experience the joy and peace of God and are content in our circumstances - only to have God prompt us to go through an open door He has sovereignly placed before us.  God's ways are past finding out, and what a joy to know it is He who will be faithful to lead us every step of the way.

Years ago I served on staff at Calvary Chapel El Cajon with Lynette Lynn.  A time came when God moved her to another local ministry where she has been serving for six years.  She posted a status update that took me back in my mind to the time when I discovered God had called me out of ministering in San Diego and would establish my family and me in Australia.  I was blessed by her honesty, transparency, and obedience to share what God revealed and confirmed to her heart.  And with her permission, I am delighted to share her exhortation to faith in God with you!

In early July I sat on the beach with Lord, journal in hand, asking Him to speak to me. As I stared out at the ocean God reminded me of my love for roller coasters. Just as quickly He reminded me of that love, He reminded me of one ride that I HATE at Magic Mountain called "Viper." The reason I hate Viper is because the beginning of the ride goes VERY slowly, giving me 30 seconds to think about all the possible ways I might die on the ride. I love roller coasters that start out fast and end fast because there is no time for me to think. Naturally, I asked God why He was talking to me about roller coasters. Clearly He impressed on my heart this message "Lynette, you have two choices when it comes to doing what I ask you to do. One choice is to hang on for dear life and white-knuckle this ride. The other choice is to put your hands up in surrender and praise and enjoy the ride. The reality is, the ride is taking the same course no matter how you decide to ride."

As I sat there marinating in that thought, God made it clear that my season at the Rock Church had ended. I sat there shocked...I've been there 6 years and I was convinced I would be there until the day I died. I left the beach and didn't tell anyone, including my husband what God had told me. I spent the longest week of my life wrestling with the Lord. I was anxious all the time. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat (much), was in tears at the drop of a hat. I was irritable, angry and just lacking peace. I finally decided I would tell my husband Bob what God had told me. His response: "Lynette, I would go anywhere God told us to go, even the desert." My response: "Whoa, that's just crazy talk! You know I am a beach girl." Well... as God would have it, one text, and 2 hours later I received an email from a church in Indian Wells, Ca. (IN THE DESERT) looking for a someone to direct their Kids Ministry!

I don't want to make this long post any longer but I will tell you that I have NEVER EVER seen God's hand so clearly in directing my life. I would say there has been a minimum of 20 different ways God has confirmed this is the way we should go. So the bottom line is, I am humbled and honored to say that I have accepted a position at Southwest Community Church. We are packing up our world in San Diego and moving to the DESERT (this must be God) early in the month of November. Everything is moving so fast, last night our house went on the market and today we are having an Open House. As Bob Goff would say "We are living on the edge of YIKES."

What I do want to say is that there is NO GREATER JOY than being in the center of God's will. The past month has been a crazy roller coaster ride and every day I have to CHOOSE to put my hands up in SURRENDER and PRAISE and enjoy this ride!  Friends, if God is calling you to do something, whether big or small JUST DO IT and receive the blessing He has for you!