BEYOND THE BARRIERS, GOD IS SHAKING YOU! Isaiah 33:5-6-The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times and the strength of salvation. The fear of the Lord is His treasure.” If a person has put their faith in being accepted or approved of others, it will be shaken. If a person puts their faith in their employer or their finances, eventually it will be shaken. If a person’ faith is in their own abilities, God will weaken them. If a person’s faith is in certain things that have become idols, God will allow them to fail. If a person’s faith is in government, God will shake it. If a person’s faith is in their good works, or in their own name, God will shake it. If a person’s faith is in their church, or faith has been misplaced in their leaders, God will shake it. If a person puts their faith in some aspect of God that they have misunderstood, He will shake it. He takes people through experiences to teach them truth. How often people think they can avoid the truth, but God will take them on the journey whether or not they want to go! If a person’s faith is in anything except Jesus Christ, then what has been built upon is a foundation of sand that can be washed away in the next big storm. He will burn up everything that reeks of pride. He will tear apart anything that is built upon the wrong foundation, for a weak foundation will always be subject to instability and failure. Never think that just because something has been built a certain way, that it cannot be torn down. God is always in the construction and renovation process! Part of building is tearing down, clearing away the debris and then laying a new foundation. When the foundation is flawed, there can be no other course of action. Things can and do change, and we must learn to accept... not fight... the Lords plan. Let me give you a simple illustration. We all know what concrete is. It’s used to lay a foundation, for one thing. When mixed properly and with the right minerals and hardening elements, concrete sets up quickly and easily. But, did you know that adding a little bit too much water, for example, or even a simple thing such as sugar, can alter the concrete mixture so that it doesn’t set properly? In a similar manner, this is the way truth and error can never provide stability or cohesiveness. Faith and doubt are polar opposites from one another. They only ever produce double-mindedness. Anything that produces fear, suspicion, anger or faulty judgment can never produce a stable foundation. And so, there often comes a time when God will let it all get torn up one side and down the other. He will take a jack-hammer to tear up every last bit of faulty foundation. Remember friends, a mess often precedes a miracle! A wise Master Builder will never build with faulty bricks, and He won’t lay a foundation on anything except the true revelation of Jesus Christ. Are you currently experiencing something that is being torn up in your life? A job? Marriage? Reputation, or something else? The devil may have his hands in the mess in your life to tear things up, but God uses him only as long as he’s needed. Without a solid foundation of trust, there can be no true covenant between any two people. The strength of any relationship is dependent upon the weakest place where the two are joined together. If trust isn’t solid and strong, that relationship lacks strength. It’s like a table with a shaky leg. It will never be able to endure much stress or weight before it gives out. This is why the enemy works so hard to undermine the integrity of relationships. This applies whether it is between us and others, or between us and God. Real trust can only be developed where it is built upon truth. Real trust is built upon grace, forgiveness, love, acceptance and humility. Real trust is built when people can own their own mistakes and acknowledge their own weaknesses. Sometimes we need the scales removed from our own eyes, like Saul did. His pride got in his way and blinded him to who Jesus really is, and it was that pride that made him persecute not just the Lord he professed to serve, but other Christians as well. He knew the law but didn’t know the Lord. Friends, if we don’t truly know the kindness and graciousness of God’s heart, we will miss the truth every time. It is so important to recognize when Satan has secretly introduced lies that undermine a person’s ability to put their entire trust in the Lord. You may not like something you’re going through right now, but trust that the Lord is digging up the things that prevent Him from building something of eternal value in your life. If you have a hard heart, He may have to take a sledge hammer to some things in your life just to knock a few walls down. Ultimately, the thing He is after is your heart. He doesn’t want your finances, your health, or your home. He doesn’t want your retirement, your job or many of the other things you might fear - but, He will ask you to surrender them if they stand as a barrier between you really understanding His heart and His ways. The Lord is after your heart. He is looking for loyalty above all else, for a loyal heart has earned God’s trust. Jesus has already proven He can be trusted when He laid down His life for us; we, however, must earn the Lord’s trust. Job professed early on in his trials, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Yet after a period of prolonged trials and unjust criticism from trusted friends, Job began to accuse God of being unfair. His heart was being tested in the fires of adversity. When things were going well for Job, he didnt know what resided in the depths of his heart. God knew Job was a friend and a faithful servant, and because He knew Jobs heart, God allowed him to be tested severely. He knew Job would come out of the trials as pure gold. He had a plan for Jobs restoration, but at the time, Job was in so much pain he couldnt see it. Friends, never lose sight of WHY God does the things He does. He wants us to sell all our old junk to gain the treasure of His Kingdom. He wants us to surrender our fears and insecurities in order to gain stability and trust in our King. He wants us to relinquish the faith we have built up in our own good works, approval from others or power or position. The people that love you one day may just as easily hate you and be willing to curse you the next. You cant put your faith in that. The pressures of life and the trials of adversity are there to bring the lies we believe up to the surface so that they can be removed. That’s all. When the lies are removed, the vessel becomes more pure. When the vessel is pure, it is a stronger container for Gods glory. If He poured in His glory into a weak and unstable vessel, it would break apart at the pressure of being filled
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 02:58:20 +0000
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