Heard Of God

The richness of God's word is beyond compare.  It is a light to our feet, a lamp unto our path and more still:  they are the words of life revealed.  In pages filled with history, narrative, dialogue, poetry, praise and prophecy, we discover situations we can identify with and apply personally to our situations.  Though it was penned thousands of years ago and translated in English centuries ago, it remains relevant spiritual truth that transforms and sustains countless people through faith in God.

Last night I read the passage when Hannah wept before the LORD at the tabernacle in Shiloh, deeply hurting from the provocations of her rival concerning her barrenness.  She cried out to God who had closed her womb to answer her request for a son she promised to give to the LORD and His service.  Eli the high priest, who watched her with a degree of disgust as her lips moved without audible sound, rebuked her for being drunk!  Hannah explained she was not inebriated but in her affliction of soul she cried out to God.  1 Samuel 1:17 reads, "Then Eli answered and said, "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him."  Without knowing what she requested, Eli by faith assured Hannah the God of Israel would grant her petition.

God was faithful to do according to Hannah's request and gave her a son she named Samuel whose name means, "heard of God."  Every time she said his name she was reminded of her former anguish, how God heard her prayer and was faithful to answer.  Hannah kept her word to the LORD and when Samuel was weaned she brought him to the tabernacle in Shiloh with a princely offering of three bulls, flour and wine.  Years had passed and many people had visited the tabernacle since the last time Hannah was there, and she identified herself as that woman whose prayer had been answered 1 Samuel 1:26-28:  "And she said, "O my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to the LORD. ²⁷ For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. ²⁸ Therefore I also have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the LORD." So they worshiped the LORD there."

Eli did not know what Hannah prayed for at the time, but he rejoiced to see her prayer answered and her promise fulfilled.  The last part of verse 28 says in the KJV, "So he worshiped the LORD there."  The "he" and "they" is Eli and Hannah, not Samuel who did not yet know the LORD himself.  Worship is intrinsically tied to knowledge as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John 4, "We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews."  Without knowledge of God and what He is done a person cannot truly worship God, and when we know what God has done how can we not worship Him?  When Hannah declared how God answered her prayer she and Eli worshiped God, and the beginning of 1 Samuel 2 is a lovely prayer as she rejoiced over the greatness of God.

I can identify with the joyful worship of Eli and Hannah's prayer because I too have been heard by the LORD.  Today marks 25 years since God was faithful to answer my prayer for a wife.  God has given us two sons, guided us to serve Him in Australia, allowed us to be permanent residents, then dual citizens and even provided us a house!  My soul swells with gladness in the worship of God as Hannah prayed in 1 Samuel 2:1-2:  "My heart rejoices in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation. ² "No one is holy like the LORD, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God."  Who is like the LORD who does marvelous things without number?  His ways are past finding out, but all He has made known shows Himself to be good, gracious and glorious.

Has the LORD answered your prayer, believer?  Worship Him in prayer with thanksgiving, beloved of the LORD.  He has been faithful to us, and may we like Hannah be faithful to Him.  He has heard our prayers, and God delights to hear our praise as well as our hearts rejoice in Him.

Divine Delays

I have heard it said God works in mysterious ways, and we can rest assured He is working through intentional delays.  We can often tie God's love for us by His prompt responses to our prayers and requests, and some even doubt His favour if a painful trial be prolonged.  A passage in the Gospel of John reveals God delays with a glorious purpose in mind to accomplish far more than we could ever ask or think.

When Lazarus the friend of Jesus was deathly ill, his sisters Mary and Martha sent a messenger to Jesus to notify him.  They knew Jesus had the power to heal, and appealed to His love for Lazarus so He would quickly respond.  John 11:4-6 said, "When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was."  Martha and Mary thought because Jesus loved Lazarus (which He certainly did) He would immediately respond by coming to them, but out of love for Lazarus--and Mary, Martha, His disciples, people in Bethany, believers and unbelievers for all time--He chose to delay.

While Jesus delayed, Lazarus died and was buried.  By the time Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days.  This was no surprise to Jesus, for before they left on their journey John 11:14-15 reads, "Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him."  Jesus allowed Lazarus to die because He was going to raise him from the dead and His disciples, the eyewitnesses and their testimony to others would cause people to believe Jesus was not merely a Rabbi but the Messiah, the Son of God, the Resurrection and the Life, and by faith in Him people would receive eternal life.  He would accomplish this amazing feat by waiting, by delaying when people were desperate for Him to act immediately.  Delay was a divine decree out of God's love for everyone, and His delay still bears everlasting fruit to this day.

Let us not dismiss how God demonstrates love by delays.  We see delays as an unnecessary inconvenience to be avoided, yet faith teaches us God works in and through circumstances in a miraculous fashion beyond what we could ever ask or think.  Martha and Mary desired Jesus to heal the body of Lazarus, but Jesus raised Him from the dead so they could receive eternal life and realise the death of a body does not mean all hope is lost.  For the believer it is a glorious entry into the presence of God where there is no sickness, suffering, pain, tears, sin or death.  Praise the LORD for His wondrous works, and through His divine delays He is accomplishing great things beyond reckoning because He loves us.

The Person Jesus

Jesus is LORD over all, and God has put everything under His feet.  When I grew up in the church I often heard of my need for Jesus as my "personal LORD and Saviour."  It was not enough for me to give mental ascent to the fact there is a God and He has been revealed in the person of Jesus, but to make a personal decision to receive Him by faith.  Whether my parents were "saved" did not remove my personal responsibility to choose to follow Jesus and obey Him.

When we say something is personal, we often mean it is something to keep private.  This is not the case when a soul is born again by the power of the Gospel, for a supernatural and transformational event has taken place.  The pop band Depeche Mode wrote a song about a "personal Jesus" that is not a Gospel song at all, for it suggests a person can be a "Jesus" figure for someone else, one who makes their life have meaning.  The "Jesus" depicted in that song who assures a caller of their acceptance and forgiveness reminds me of a personal pan pizza which translates to being very small, a light lunch for one person.  This isn't the meaning of Jesus being your personal LORD and Saviour at all, for He at once is a Saviour to all who trust in Him--with plenty left over.  To have "your own personal Jesus" excludes others and has it all backwards, for Jesus owns us having purchased us with His own blood.

Since the word "personal" never appears in scripture in the context of the Gospel, I view it as an unnecessary ornamentation or cliche that can potentially confuse people.  The Bible teaches God was manifested to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ, the "Word that became flesh and dwelt among us."  The disciples were eyewitnesses of His glory and many of these chose voluntary death rather than deny what they were convinced of:  they knew Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.  Jesus is not the Saviour we imagine He should be, for being God He is Who He is.  Jesus identified as "I AM," the almighty God who revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The personal opinions of men have no power to shift who God is.

It is an awesome truth the KING OF KINGS can and will save all who believe and receive the crucified and risen Jesus as Saviour.  This reality changes who we are as people, for Jesus is our life.  Paul urged believers in Colossians 2:6-10:  "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, ⁷ rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. ⁸ Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; ¹⁰ and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."  Those who receive Christ are made complete in Him, having an abundant life with thanksgiving.

One miracle Jesus did was to feed 5,000 men plus women and children with 5 loaves and 2 fish--a personal-sized lunch of a lad who willingly offered it.  Jesus blessed the bread, broke it and directed His disciples to distribute it among the people who ate to the full.  There were 12 large baskets of fragments left over they gathered up.  This is a wonderful illustration how Jesus ministered to each one as much as they desired, and He is the Bread of Life who supplies more than we could ever need or want.  Our relationship with Him is deeply personal and eternal, and the abundant life Jesus offered by the Gospel is available to all who will choose to submit to Him in faith.

The Word Manifest

It is a wonder God has chosen to reveal Himself to us.  What a time to be alive!  We are blessed beyond measure with the reality of the truth proclaimed in Hebrews 1:1-3:  "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, ² has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; ³ who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high..."  Many people who feared and sought God did not have the benefit of being introduced to Jesus Christ, the Son of God who created all things, purged our sins and sat down in heavenly glory.  He is our High Priest and KING OF KINGS, the One who calls those who follow Him in obedience "My friends."  This isn't a snoozing, blocking, unfriending kind of friend, but One who sticks closer than a brother for eternity.

As I was reading Lead Like Christ by A.W. Tozer, I was reminded of words found in the beginning of another epistle, Titus 1:1-4:  "Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, ² in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, ³ but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior; ⁴ to Titus, a true son in our common faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour."  Jesus is the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, and in our time God has "manifested His word through preaching."  This is really a startling announcement.  God who spoke through prophets, has angelic messengers and His own Son Jesus, has chosen to manifest His word through preaching by man.

There is something supernatural and amazing when God's word is proclaimed with faith by those filled with the Holy Spirit, whether they stand at a pulpit or sit in the lunchroom with co-workers.  The proclamation of the Gospel does not require amplification to be powerful or the dimmed lights of a sanctuary with music in the background to be meaningful:  the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.  When believers gather with the expectation and desire to hear from God, through His word God is faithful to speak.  Knowing God has chosen to manifest His word through preaching ought to increase our personal priority to hear preaching and heed the message.  God is faithful to keep His word, and we ought to be faithful to hear and declare it with our lives.  David wrote in Psalm 138:2, "I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name."  That is the word we have the privilege of proclaiming.