Before you go on, please read:
"A Warning - Straight From My Heart" if you haven't already.
I woke up at 2:30 one morning several weeks ago with this phrase on my mind. "What Happens When You Decide to Follow God Instead of Men?" Let me share with you what I have been learning.
Exodus 17:1 talks about the children of Israel coming out of the wilderness of Sin. They had been sentenced to wander 40 years in sin because of fear and unbelief. In Numbers 13:2 God told Moses to send men to search the Promised Land in advance of taking it. When they gave their report, the people were afraid and believed the giants were bigger than their God.
God made them wander in the wilderness forty years because their perspective was wrong. Why was their perspective off? I don't want to make the same mistake.
In Exodus 20, God "spoke" what we now call the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel. Exodus 20:18-19 the people now realized God was no mere idol, but a real God that wanted to talk to them. They became afraid of God, afraid that if He was THAT REAL or THAT CLOSE to them, they would be held accountable for obeying His commands. It would have put the "Fear of the Lord" into them, but for Moses. They ducked, became submissive and shirked their responsibility. They ducked under the covering of Moses, just like a baby chick ducks under it's mother when it is frightened. Matthew 23:37
The Fear of the Lord
Psalm 111:10 says that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments".
People are still ducking today; there can be immediate consequences when "you don't listen to Daddy". People want a buffer between them and God, some padding just in case there is a spanking coming. It's natural to want someone else to blame when it comes to sin, just look at Adam & Eve. Genesis 3:12-13 When the people chose Moses to come in-between them and God, they turned away from an important tool God gave them for overcoming sin.
Because they distanced themselves from God they became afraid of the giants instead of God. The fear of the Lord was not working in them. The difference was that God loved them and had their best interest at heart; 2 Timothy 1:7 they had refused the gift of God's love. They took their eyes off God just as Peter did when he walked on water in Matthew 14:28-32 and lost his perspective.
The 'fear of the Lord' is a blessing that was meant to help them obey God. By letting someone else have the responsibility for their relationship with God, they refused this blessing and turned away from God's best. They were abdicating their personal responsibility to overcome and thus wandered in the wilderness for forty years.
The Curse of Cain
God cursed Cain when Cain decided that the fruit of his own labor and the sweat of his brow should be a sufficient offering to God and sacrificed his brother instead of his pride. Cain was marked by God when he let the nature of a beast overcome him. See Adam Naming the Animals in What Good Is A Woman?
Before that, while Cain still had a choice, God warned Cain to choose well.
"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." Genesis 4:7
To Cain, the last part of this verse would seem like a blessing to one with what came to be known as an "Amorite" spirit. (Refer to the Amorite at The First Battle For Our Promised Land.)
It is interesting that the curse of Cain is almost word for word, part of Eve’s curse in the Garden of Eden, "and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Genesis 3:16
The curse of Cain has followed mankind all down through the ages changing God’s ideal into His second best. A man ruling over other men in place of God is not what God originally intended. It is a curse, the "curse of Cain" for "not doing well". 2 Chronicles 6:5
I see God chose Moses to come between Him and His people for 2 reasons. First, He created men with free will; He wanted mankind to choose Him. Second, mankind was still under the curse of Cain that let a man rule over his brother. God chose Moses to rule over, and allowed Moses to set other rulers over the children of Israel. Exodus 18:21 Exodus 18:23-24 Acts 7:35
Later on, in the Promised Land, there was a period where there were no rulers. God raised up judges as necessary. God wanted to be the King of Israel but knew that His people wanted a buffer. Because of free will and the curse of Cain, He even set guidelines for it. Deuteronomy 17:14-20.
These same requirements in this last scripture are much like what we desire of our traditional clergy today, but we must be careful to keep the right perspective. We cannot give them God's place in our heart...that is idolatry. We must remember they are our brothers, and so must they.
The curse of Cain can cause us to have a perspective on the clergy, different than what God intended. This difference in perspective is important. Losing God's perspective by not following these guidelines causes us to sin and fail in God's plan for us.
In Ephesians 4:1-8 Paul says that God gave gifts to men. We call this the "gifts of the ministry" (apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors and evangelists) but these gifts were not were not to be treated as "posessions", they were "professions"; vocations for the benefit of others. "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called"
In so many places today, being a member of the clergy is an elite position with special favors and considerations. A vocation is a job, a profession, a skill, but it is not WHO one is.
A man can say, “I am a fireman”, “I am a policeman”, “I am a doctor, I am a pastor”, but not really. What they ARE is a “man” or “a child of God”; these are things they cannot change, the others are vocations.
When ownership and pride of these gifts meant to help others come into play, the ministry as an entity becomes a “professional ministry” much like we have “professional politicians” and God's people become less important than the gift. When you hear, "This is the house that Jack built" coming from Pastor Jack, or "a minister is worth one hundred saints", or "I forbid anyone from my assembly to (keep an open mind)" , spiritual abuse of God's people is going on. These are all things I have heard personally.
Don't label me as a rebel. I am NOT saying “we should not have a ministry as an entity” because God uses the ministry as an entity. Ruling over your brother stems from a curse, it doesn't mean that God cannot use it for His purpose. If you believe God is good, then you must believe everything He does, He does for our good...even curses. The ministry is necessary, but the ministry as an entity develops into pride. Proverbs 16:18 Let us be pure in our perspective.
What I am saying is that men ARE the ministry for their families and others that come into contact with them. It's built in, no matter what office they hold.
I used to think there were only a limited and rare number of these "gifts" and as an entity they made up "the ministry"... God's elite gift package to His people. It is important to have our perspective aligned with God's perspective. We must be careful not to put someone in God's place. Exodus 20:3 says "Thou shalt have no other gods before me". Little "g"...little god.
Two chapters that seem to deal specifically with this issue in relation to the perspective of a church leader and how he should look at God's church. They are 1 Corinthians 13 (especially verses 9-11) and Ephesians 4 (especially verses 11-15).
They both discuss the growing up of God’s children, how things change as they grow in the Lord and how the ministry must fade away as an entity. "Till we all come in the unity of the faith..." Children do not stay children forever; the result of our care is that they grow up. This happens in both the natural and in the spiritual.
My wife, Julie has an interesting perspective on letting men grow up in her new blog entitled "Should Women Be Silent?", part of her Womanhood Series.
No matter how badly we want children to remain at home under our protection, we will do them a disfavor by trying to keep them children. When they do not grow up in Christ, it is an indication they do not have the Fear of the Lord; they don't take God seriously. Proverbs 22:15 They have put a pillow in their pants; something between themselves and God. The Lord is not real enough to them to take Him soberly, they have their head covered. They have ducked, and the curse of Cain has helped them. God's saints are not a man's property. Romans 12:3 and 1 Corinthians 11:3
What is our future?
Speaking spiritually, right now, in your life, you may be following Moses, this is God's plan, but there will come a time when your Moses will die. It is certain. What will you do? Will you look for someone else to stand in between you and God? Or will you continue over Jordan? Moses has to die for the people to cross over and God's intent to be fulfilled. Joshua 1:2 Its the first thing God told them to do after Moses' death.
For those in church leadership, Moses has to die. Moses has to die for God's people take responsibility for their own walk with God and to cross over into the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 34:5-12 Neither Moses nor Aaron could enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief when Moses struck the rock, a type of crucifying the Son of God afresh. Numbers 20:12 and Hebrews 6:6 Moses could see the Promised Land, but not take part in it.
Joshua was able to go into the Promised Land. A difference between Moses and Joshua was that Moses was always considered "The man in charge, the guy that got the blame" whereas Joshua grew up in the ranks and was considered a brother and a leader. Deuteronomy 34:9 describes Joshua as a man full of wisdom. Whom do you relate with most? I would say it probably depends on your perspective.
If ownership and pride of your gift have made you feel like a lawgiver, the man in charge, the guy who gets the blame, like nobody does what you say and you feel a touch of resentment about it, you can lay your perspective down and enter into His rest. Hebrews 3:1-19 Matthew 11:30 Hebrews 4:10
Become what you really are; a man… a child of God, a brother, a leader, a man full of wisdom. It is WHO you are that is important, not WHAT you are, not an office that you can take pride in. It is a matter of Perspective. God created all men of equal value. Refer to Division and Unity.
Paul discusses this in 1 Corinthians 11:1-4 when he said, "Follow me AS I follow Christ", and “I would have you know that the head of EVERY man is Christ” and having something between you and Christ DISHONOURETH the one who should be your head, Christ. Why did Paul have to emphasize this if it wasn't an issue back then too? It dates back to the curse of Cain.
About being led into the Promised Land
In Joshua 3. when coming to the Promised Land and crossing over Jordan, the people were supposed to follow the Ark of the Covenant, the covenant between God and His people, but to have a space of about two thousand cubits. Most people think of this as the span of time in years, about two thousand years between the early reign church and the latter reign church. But these verses also say something interesting I never wrapped my brain around before.
3And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.
4Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.
5And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.
The officers went through the host and commanded the people, saying in verse 4, “come not near unto it (the Ark), that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.”
Two thousand cubits is over ½ a mile! How does this make sense? Come not near to it? They couldn’t even see the Ark! How could they follow it?
The priests were carrying the Ark. Weren’t they supposed to follow the priests so they wouldn’t get lost? I always thought they did, but perhaps not.
This seems to say, “Stay back, you need to keep your perspective. This is NEW territory and you cannot be led”.
The priests were important because they supported and bore the weight of the covenant between God and His people. Jordan would not part until those bearing the Ark made a commitment to cross into the Promised Land and stuck their foot in it, but the people crossed over and completed the journey into the Promised Land FIRST. The people crossed in a place nowhere near the ark.
When the Children of Israel finally came to Jordan they crossed over because of obedience to God, they were not following the ministry. They crossed over because of God's promise. They stepped out in FAITH because they knew God was on their side. Hebrews 11:6
What does this mean?
1. The ministry as an entity cannot hold your hand when crossing into the Promised Land, you must do this by faith and they cannot lead you or force you to cross over no matter how much they want to.
2. Those that bear the Ark must make a committment and step into Jordan before the people as a whole can cross over. If they do not, they will remain in the wilderness and so will their people.
3. Following God or His ministry brings a person to the Promised Land, taking responsibility for your own walk with God enables you to cross over.
What ever happened to the cloud that led them by day and the pillar of fire by night? These filled their purpose in the wilderness but the people moved on.
Let us press on into our inheritance and become the people of God. Embrace God’s original plan, not his second best from the Curse of Cain.
Numbers 13:30
Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
A poem from a dear sister,
Rebecca Gholson
Once I was astray from my Savior,
Though I didn't know I was then.
So certain that I'd get to heaven
by faithfully trusting in men.
I urgently sought their approval.
I did everything that they taught.
I thought they could give me salvation.
Anything they were selling, I bought.
Now, I wouldn't charge them with evil, Nor any mistreatment of me,
For it couldn't be their transgression,
That I wanted a god I could see.
In each seed of Adam, a failing.
In every mortal, a defect.
I trusted in men, and they failed me,
But what could I really expect?
And that's when my foundation crumbled,
And that's when my world fell apart.
As Lucifer fell down from heaven,
Man fell off the throne of my heart.
And, as my heart broke in repentance,
My Jesus ascended the throne,
And I found that all my Salvation,
Was finished in Jesus alone.
And, oh, what a peace is prevailing!
My confidence vested above.
Since God brought me out unto Jesus,
I'm safe in my Dear Father's love.
I have such a firm, sound foundation.
No earthquake can shake me apart,
Now that Jesus is highly exalted
Alone on the throne of my heart!
Additional Thoughts
Crossing over into the Promised Land is NOT overcoming. Why?
-The Ites must be defeated AFTER crossing over. This is something we can only do with the help of God's people. We need each other's help. We do not choose God's people, He does. God knows who are His, who are we in our arrogance to think we know? See "Who Do We Think We Are?" Let us not be arrogant like the Amorite and try to choose who helps us overcome our Ites.
-They were told they could not take the land in a year because without the Ites, the beasts would get out of control. Exodus 23:28-29
-They had to grow and occupy, then kill the beasts. Wisdom hath killed her beasts... Proverbs 9:1-2 See Manna, Old Corn and The Fruit of the Land Deuteronomy 34:9
-The 144,000 that stood with the Lamb on Mount Sion did not have the name (nature) of a beast. Revelation 13:16-18
Good stuff. I really appreciate Rebecca's poem. :)
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