Simple Salvation Church of God
Prayer Request: A GENERATION PREPARED FOR THIS HOUR
Subject:
A GENERATION PREPARED FOR THIS HOUR (Jun 8, 2008)
Prayer Request:
A GENERATION PREPARED FOR THIS HOUR
God has always wanted a people who would hear and do His Word. But never has it been so crucial for believers to do what God tells them to as it is in this end-time hour before the return of Jesus.
Remember I stated in a previous teaching that studying the book of Jeremiah we would discover how faith God is and if we would simply “hear and obey” we would be on the road to victory. With that said, let’s take a look at Jeremiah’s words and pray that our understanding would be opened up concerning the last days.
“God and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, thus says the Lord: I [earnestly] remember the kindness and devotion of your youth, your love after your betrothal [in Egypt] and marriage [at Sinai] when you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holiness [something set apart from ordinary purposes, dedicated] to the Lord, the firstfruits of His harvest [of which no stranger was allowed to partake]; all who ate of it [injuring Israel] offended and became guilty; evil came upon them, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 2:2-3 AMPLIFIED).
Do you realize that significance in that statement: Israel was holiness to the Lord.
In this scripture, God was talking about Israel’s long sojourn with Him in the wilderness. The generation that grew up in the wilderness was consecrated or dedicated unto Him as the first fruits of His harvest. God actually sent the children of Israel to the wilderness to prepare for Himself a generation sanctified and made holy unto Him!
In Hebrew, the word translated “to be holy” also means “to sanctify,” “to take out and separate unto God.” According to Vine’s, the word “sanctify” means “an act whereby, or a state wherein, people or things are set aside for the worship of God [and] treated with special care as a possession of God.
Another word that basically means the same thing is devoted. The tithe is a good example of something that is devoted to the Lord. God designed the tithe to be used by Him for His purposes. We separate the first fruits and the best of our increase from the rest of our finances and set them apart for Him.
That word “devoted” can also mean “set apart fro destruction” in some cases. For example, the tithe is either devoted to the Lord, or it is devoted to destruction.
Just like the tithe, you and I are devoted to the Lord. 1st Corinthians 3:16 says your body, the temple of the Holy Spirit is holy. And just like withholding the tithes cause it to be devoted to destruction, if you don’t keep your body the way you should be obeying God, it will begin to destruct.
The reason God has called us, as His sons and daughters, to live set apart and sanctified lives is not because He wants to be a dictator. It’s because He knows what is best for us. Each of us is a spirit being. We have a soul (mind, will and emotions) and we live in a body. Being devoted to God involves all three. That simply means that we obey God in everything He tells us to do-we live for Him and refuse to participate in the world’s ungodliness.
As you spend time in prayer and in God’s Word, your spirit relays to your soul what the Spirit of God is saying to you. Hebrews 4:12 talks about the Word of God divides between the soul and spirit. It will distinguish within you between what is coming from your mind and what is coming from your spirit. Then it’s up to you to be obedient and walk holy (separated) in your body.
Because of disobedience, God sent the children of Israel into the wilderness to prepare for Himself another generation of people who would do what He said. This new generation did not include anyone over 20 years of age. God plainly told the older generation, “you’re not coming out; you will die in the wilderness. You will never see the Promised land because of your unbelief and your sin” (Numbers 14:29-30).
That generation had heard the Word of God, but they didn’t mix faith with it (see Hebrews 4:2). They didn’t believe what they had heard, and they wouldn’t hearken to what God was telling them to do through Moses to possess the land He had given them.
God said, “Go in and possess the land and I will be with you.” Their reply was “No, we can’t take that land. They are too big for us to fight. Besides that, their walls are too big. It’s exactly like you said God, but there are giants over there! We are mere grasshoppers in comparison! (Numbers 12:26-33).
So the people refused to go up to possess the land. They began to complain, “Why do we have to die? We were better off in Egypt.” They forgot what Egypt was like. They forgot how they had to make bricks without straw. They forgot the cruel taskmasters. They would not obey.
The Scripture says, “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper” (2nd Chronicles 20:20). They wouldn’t believe Moses. They wouldn’t believe Joshua and Caleb, either. Instead, they believed the evil report of unbelief. Unbelief is an evil report!
Unbelief is dangerous. That older generation would not walk by faith. They would not go in and possess their Promised Land. So they wandered in the wilderness for the rest of their days because they would not hear and do what God had said to them.
Meanwhile, the younger generation grew up in the wilderness knowing nothing but God. Out there, God supernaturally fed them. God took care of them. God gave them light by night and a cloud by day to guide them.
These young people did not grow up among the heathen, exposed to their evil practices and foreign gods. Instead, they grew up eating manna from heaven every day. Think about that. They saw the power of God in manifestation every time they ate a simple meal.
Growing up in the wilderness, they never saw lack. Every day of their lives, they saw that their shoes didn’t wear out. Their clothes didn’t wear out. They grew up knowing only God’s ways and His supernatural provision.
God had to raise up a people who would do what He said. He needed a people who would enter into the rest of faith, believing His promise that He would go with them and give them that Promised Land, despite the odds that were against them in the natural.
Joshua and Caleb were the only two faithful spies of the 12 that spied out the land. These two men believed what God told them. They told the people, “God is for us-we can take the land. Those giants are nothing before us with God on our side!” (Numbers 14:8-9).
So for the next 40 years these two men of faith watched every one of their contemporaries; those they had fought battles with-die in the wilderness, while they remained strong.
They could have become bitter. They could have said, “God, we did all we knew to do. But all those others got into disobedience and now here we are, wandering around in the wilderness year after year.”
But they didn’t do that. They just kept holding on to God’s promise. Finally, they were left with a completely new generation. By the time God passed the torch of leadership from Moses to Joshua, the younger man had a people to work with who would obey what God said.
Meanwhile, God had not forgotten what He had told Joshua and Caleb. God is exact. He had told them because of their willingness to obey Him “you are going to inherit the land,” and His word rang true. God never forgets obedience and loyalty.
So five years into the campaign to take the Promised Land, Caleb came to Joshua and said, “I’m 85 years old, but I’m just as strong today as when you and I went into the Promised Land 45 years ago. Give me my mountain! (Joshua 14:7-12).
For 45 years Caleb held on to a promise. He believed God! Then he did what God had told him to do. He took by conquest what God had promised. Caleb possessed his promised mountain. Joshua 14:14 says, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.” That is how to receive your inheritance from God.
James tells us what it takes to be part of the first fruits God desires us to be. Read James 1:18-25).
Hear and do. There is that same key again. As over the years many have heard and obeyed the Word of God, God has separated us unto Himself and made us a nation within a nation. We think God’s higher thoughts and we live in God’s higher ways (Isaiah 55:6-12).
God had to have a people for this hour who would hear His Word and obey it. He had to have a people who, like Moses and Joshua, at His word would stretch forth their rod over a sea or put their feet into a rushing and rising river, all the while believing that somehow He would make a way for them. God simply will not operate on this earth without a people who will hear and do.
Look at what Jesus said in His prayer to the Father: “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through they truth: they word is truth. (John 17:14-17).
Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them, purify, consecrate and separte them for Yourself. Make them holy by truth because your Word is truth.”
There are different degrees of separation, but a life that is set apart unto God is available to all of us. Those of us who live by faith may be further along than that one that just started last month. However, some who only recently began to live by faith are catching up fast! You can grow fast if you dedicate yourself to the challenge.
Even though you may be new to this walk of faith, those who are coming into the Kingdom of God now are learning and gaining spiritual maturity much faster than 20 or 30 years ago.
Revelation of the Word is stronger now that it’s ever been. It’s the same revelation, but it’s easier to get hold of than it was back then. Why? Today we have opportunities that were not available then. Today we have DVD’s, Bible believing churches, Bible Schools that teach to live by faith.
We are a generation prepared for this hour! We all are in training for whatever is going to happen between now and when Jesus returns.We have been separated by the Word of God. We believe His Word. It doesn’t matter if the world says it ain’t working or isn’t true. We are determined to honor God’s Word and do what He tells us to do. We are taking dominion in the Name of the Lord and seeing this final harvest through.
We need to cut out the fluff, keep growing and keep our focus on the Lord. As we keep putting God first in everything and doing what He tells us to do, we will eventually come into the unity of faith. It’s up to us. You do your part. I do my part. Then in unity we will get the job done at any cost in the name of Jesus.
Look at Jesus’ prayer in John 17 from the Amplified Bible:
“Just as you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And so for their sake and on their behalf I sanctify (dedicate, consecrate) myself, that they also may be sanctified (dedicated, consecrated, made holy) in the truth. I have given tot hem the glory and honor which you have give me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that you sent me and that you have love them [even] as you have loved me” (verses 18-19, 22-23).
The world as a whole has never yet been shown the power in that kind of unity within the Body of Christ. For Jesus’ prayer to be answered, the world will have to see the Church operating in the power and the glory of God. The church can’t come to that place of power and glory without hearing and doing what God says in His Word.
Am I going to be one of those that says “yes” to the Lord? Am I going to be one of the set apart generation living by faith? If your answer is yes, then begin to see yourself as devoted unto the Lord.
Jeremiah 2:3 says about Israel: “[No stranger was allowed to partake]; all who ate of it [injuring Israel] offended and became guilty; evil came upon them says the Lord (AMP).”
In other words, you don’t mess with God’s separated people! You either join them or leave them alone.
You belong to God. You are devoted. You have been set apart for His use. Ephesians 1:4 says you are holy before God in love. You can’t live like other people.
In Exodus 19:5-6, God talked about His desire for a holy obedient people-a devoted treasure to Him.
“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”
That’s all God has ever wanted-a people He could work with who would faithfully hear and do. That is what He wants in you.
|
Discussion:
A GENERATION PREPARED FOR THIS HOUR
No messages have been posted.
You must first create an account to post.