Knowing our Father's Voice

1 Kings 22

Israel and Judah have been separated since Solomon's reign and now for the first time after 3 generations the two divisions of the Israelites decide to act together to fight for Ramoth Gilead. At this time Israel is being led by Ahab and Judah by Jehoshaphat.

3 The king of Israel had said to his officials, "Don't you know that Ramoth Gilead

belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?"
4 So he asked Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?"

Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses."

5 But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "First seek the counsel of the LORD."

Notice here that Ahab asks Jehoshaphath for alliance to win Ramoth Gilead, after all it was their territory and Jehoshaphath agrees to it, yet he also said "First seek the counsel of the Lord"

6 So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—

and asked them, "Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?"

"Go," they answered, "for the Lord will give it into the king's hand."
7 But Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?"

Notice again that Jehoshaphath asks him for a prophet of the Lord who could prophesy the real Word from God.

I couldn't help but see the difference in these 2 kings and the following characteristics stood out

1. First seek counsel from God- While Ahab must have been thinking of acquiring more land,(even though it was theirs) Jehoshaphath knowing that it was theirs wanted to know what God would have them do, whether to go ahead with the plan or remain. Jehoshaphath clearly brings God first and asks Ahab to "First seek counsel from God" . The Word of God says "5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" It is to acknowledge God in ALL your ways, in ways when you can guess the right answer or not. A friend may need a good word for guidance, yet maybe God would have us shut up and just be there and that would mean more to the friend than us trying our best to do something we think is right and talk. Let is first seek the counsel from God for no matter what we face. The result, God will make the path straight
2. Discernment- Though 400 prophets were prophesying the king to go on for the battle, Jehoshaphath asks him, isn't there someone who can inquire of the Lord. It almost sounds to me like, don't you have any real prophets. Jehoshaphath had a discerning spirit to understand whats from the Lord and what is not. 1 Corinthians 12 says "7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good........10 to another distinguishing between spirits,". This is something God would have all His children, all His sheep know. The Bible says 27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:26-28

Conclusion:These 2 points bring out to me the very heart of God. The centre of God's training of His sheep academy, to lean on God and to be able to discern His voice. When a child is born, they start recognising their parent's voice, it comes to them naturally, because they are born of them. So also we who are born of the Holy Spirit and of our Living God in our spiritual lives have the ability to listen to our God's voice in our spirit "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." Romans 8:15-17. Now, how well we listen to our God's voice depends on how often we listen to His voice. If we get accustomed to listening to other voices of this world , soon we will start doing what other voices tell us. Let us continue to go to our Father in Heaven every single time we have a need and in every situation of our life, let us continues to read His Love Letter to His children, the Bible and God's Spirit Himself will help us get connected in our spirit to our Daddy in heaven.

God's mercies are new every morning & God's love endures forever & His Word is true

As I continue to read, how Absalom, plots against his own father, David, and plans to steal the kingdom from him. I am more and more impressed by the way David deals with the situation. At this time, he's running away from his son Absalom, who has built up a large number of followers and would kill him(David his own father), so he may become king!!! The Bible says "David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he was barefoot" (2 Samuel 15:30). Moreover David's counselor was also with Absalom, David did what he knew best at this situation ; "David prayed, "O LORD, turn Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness." A cry of a desperate man. His trustworthy man Arkite came to support David during this trial and wanted to go with him, but David asked him to go back and watch the situation at his home, and so he did.As David travels further, Mephibosheth's (Jonathan's crippled son) person, Ziba waited with food and supplies for David and his people. David asked why Mephibosheth didnt come and he learns that Mephibosheth is waiting in Jerusalem hoping to get a part of the kingdom when Absalom takes it.Furthe now on his way to Bahurim, one of Saul's descendants meets David's convoy and he throws stones at them and curses David. The situation, as it is, being grim, being made unbearable by the words that this man was cursing David with.David does not retort in anger or defence, but does nothing, in fact he tells Abishai, who wanted to defend David; "David then said to Abishai and all his officials, "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to. 12 It may be that the LORD will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today." (2 Samuel 16:11) David knew, there was no point in trying to defend himself from an outsider, when his own family member was seeking to kill him. They finally reached their destination all exhausted, however there David refreshed himself.

In the midst of such an emotional and physical unrest in his life, I learnt some lessons on how David tackles the situation

• Distressed, but not letting go of faith- David knows he has to go through this test in life, remember the time when God told him , after his sin with Bathsheba that David would have unrest in his family. Yet he also shows that his only hope is the Lord and he prays. Just because there are effects that remain from sin, until the time we're put back on track, we should not and must not, let go of our hope in the Lord. Apart from our Lord there is no hope. Would there be any other way out? No, sometimes the only way out is to lay down complete trust on our Saviour. Do you know why we need to "lay down" our trust upon the Lord, because lying down is resting, because when lying down, your entire body is supported by the floor or the bed on which you lie down on. In the physical sense,it demonstrates complete trust on the bed, that it will support, thats what we need to do when situations seem overwhelming, lay our hope upon our Living God
• Frank about his feeling-Its not an easy thing David is going through, its not hidden, its so overwhelming David cries and walks barefoot. Sometimes people say, we should not cry about the situation, but I think, its human to feel sad, to be disheartened when faced with situations like David did. If we dont feel any emotions then what would we be? If we're not at the end of our strength how will we see God's power, how will we experience God's greatness and God's love and strength which is so freely given to them who believe. In spite of the condition they are in, though they are weak, then they are strong in the strength of the Lord.David could have easily enforced his security, people were willing to give up their lives for him, he could have acted as a king and got Absalom killed, probably in the way he did Urriah, but he preferred to remain weak and see God take him out of this situation. He might have wanted to see God working in his life.
• Surprising Favour returned- David had helped, Mephibosheth, Jonathan's crippled son, after Jonathan died, in return he receives a favour from Mephibosheth's son, who comes to give David and his men, food and water supplies for their journey. Its amazing, that at one time the guy who called himself a dead dog, when David asked him to dine with him (Mephibosheth) has now turned greedy for a part of the kingdom David had to leave from, because of his son Absalom, but his son has remembered David's favour towards his father Mephibosheth and returns it. Well, I'd say its better to never hope any favour from someone you have granted favour to. In other words, don't give favour with a hope of return favour, it might never be returned. However be hopeful, that God has seen your heart when you reached out to someone in need, God will make sure, thats returned from somewhere. Sow a seed of blessing in someone desperate's life, the fruit of it might come from anywhere, even though the person whom you blessed turns away from you. God is your rewarder.
• Dealing with "Big Mouths"-In the midst of trouble, sometimes you would find people who love to find out more about the situation or ready to judge you for the misfortune that has come upon you. People who are ready to further your emotional pain with harsh words, they think they are the ones sent to "deal" with you. This man from Gera who came out to curse David saying ""Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! 8 The LORD has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The LORD has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood!"(2 Samuel 16:8). Sounds apt doesn't it. Sounds like David should have received all this punishment. But remember what God told David when he had sinned "13 Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die." God had forgiven David. No matter what the Big Mouths say, when we asked God for forgiveness, God has taken away our sin. Why carry a burden which Jesus has already taken away, when you asked Jesus our Lord to wash you with His precious blood, which he shed for your and my sins" There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Yes we might have gone off track for a while, but when the prodigal son returns, the Father accepts him with open arms and much rejoicing. If our Father in heaven has accepted us, what does anything else anyone say matter. Our connection should be directly with our Lord Jesus, not because of what someone else says about our situations.
• Steadfastly trusting God's amazing mercy, they are new every morning-When this Shemei was cursing David and throwing stones at him, David had his heart steadfastly trusting in God's mercy. He would rather trust in God's mercy, rather than the condemnation of another man."11 David then said to Abishai and all his officials, "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to. 12 It may be that the LORD will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today." Isn't that beautiful, no matter how condemned people might think we could be because of whatever has happened in our past, we can trust in God's mercy.Lamentations 3:22-24 says "22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." If you are distressed and the people around you are like Shemei, trust in the Lord's mercy, they are new every morning. Wake up get up, look up and see, they are new every morning, GOD"S MERCIES ARE NEW EVERY MORNING. Oh the Psalms are full of songs of God's love and enduring mercies. Can you imagine, what weight that testimony in Psalms has, coming from a man like David, who went through it all and wrote them.
  
  Conclusion: I can't imagine any of our situations being as terrible as it has been for David until this time, well there is more to come, yet the one thing that remains common between all the situations, is David's steadfast trust in God and God's power always standing strong on a man after God's own heart, David, even when David did good, even when David sinned, even when David killed Urriah ruthlessly, even when David asked for forgiveness, even when David faced severe family issues, in that his own son trying to kill him.
  I hope this post brings hope to the ones who have been through rough times, faced unrest in the family, have suffered the emotional stress of cursing from others who dont have a clue about your life. Finally it is God's Word that stands and matters, if you really want a change in your life.
  

Growing - Child

I remember the first day when I met Jesus, what a wonderful time we had. That went on for a couple of years. However as I grew in the knowledge of God I somewhere lost the knowledge of what I was in God's eyes.

I watched a father and son playing yesterday. The child was about 3-4 yrs old and was running around in his wobbly steps, his dad was pretending to chase him and they both were having a real good time. Now, the same child a few years later would just go on with his friends and maybe forget to think of his dad. Later would be married and start thinking about his family and wife etc......I am sure the time they had yesterday they will never have when the child is 20-30 or 50 yrs old. The older human beings get, the lesser we tend to relate and spend time with our parents, because we have our own agendas, because we're grown ups-little do we think that no matter how old we become we'll still be children to our parents.

The same is true for our spiritual life, the more we grow in the Lord, the more we start thinking "Oh I know this Lord, I know that Lord, I've read this verse before..." and tend to decrease our fun times with the Lord. We no longer go to God with the same enthusiasm as we did when we first met him. No longer, does living with our Lord Jesus excite us to the point of utter joy and laughter. Why? I guess somewhere in that growing we forgot, that God is still our Heavenly Father. He still thinks of us as His little children, still expects the same giggles and joys we used to have when we were new borns. Still waits for us to totally depend upon Him for all our needs, still waits for us to sit and have a time of enjoyment with Him, still waits to hear our voice reading the Word of God as if it was a brand new book. Waits to explain new things to us from His Word, even if it be the same verse or chapter.Waits for us to go running to him for every silly reason like children do.

As is written in Matthew 18:1-4 "1At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "

The key to enjoying our relationship with God is to be His child, so what if we're 99yrs old in earth years, God is still our Daddy.

How much of a Daddy does God want to be for us? Isaiah 46:3-4 answers that

3 "Listen to me, O house of Jacob,

all you who remain of the house of Israel,

you whom I have upheld since you were conceived,

and have carried since your birth.
4 Even to your old age and gray hairs

I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you;

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Even to our old age and gray hairs, God wants to take care of us and what was I thinking. Do you remember how much fun it was being a kid? No worries of food, clothing or shelter, because we had a dad taking care of us. We just had to listen to what daddy said and everything else we needed was taken care of. We had to just let daddy know our need and he would meet it. If our earthly dads and moms could do so much for us, how much more our Heavenly Father wants us to have that same kind of Faith in Him every single day of our life on earth, even to our old age and gray hairs.

Thank you Lord for reminding me that though I am growing in the Lord but still am a child to You and you're constantly watching over me like a mother and father watch over there little ones.

What a Dad!!!

I don't know how to put this any better. Our God is soooooooo patient, beyond we can ever imagine. Judges is full of His compassion, a Loving Father, desperately waiting and wanting His children to return to Him. He did not spare the rod so that His children don't fall into the wrong things.However even when they got hurt, He would bind them up and care for them. Only wanting to let them(His children) to know, He cares, He's forever there for them, He's made a covenant with them and He will never break it.

The Israelites, once in the Promised Land, forgot God who brought them up out of Egypt and gave them this new land. Started following a different God which was not God at all. Its so sad that someone so despised by the one He loves, still keeps coming back to them and helping them and loving them and rescuing them. What a Loving God!!

1. "11Then the sons of Israel did (L)evil in the sight of the LORD and [c]served the (M)Baals, 12and (N)they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the LORD to anger...."(Judges 2:11-16) God still helped them out, because He is true to His promises, once He's made a covenant with you, He doesn't move back from it even if you do. Thats what God did, even to the point of giving His own Son so that no one should perish but every one should have everlasting life.
   "God loves people more than anything, He'd rather die than let them go"
   Thats how loving our God is. So amazing is His Mercy, His Love, His protection. Even when the Israelites forsook Him so many times.
2. 18When the LORD raised up judges for them, (U)the LORD was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was (V)moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19But it came about when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways.(Judges 2:18-19)

Over and over again, throughout Judges, we see the people of Israel doing wrong, falling into captivity, calling out to God, God delivering them and then the Israelites go back and serve other gods.(Judges)

What does this bring out about God? Everywhere else, people might say, how can the Christian's God be just and loving at the same time. I think Judges gives us a better picture of how the Israelites kept going and doing their own things in disobedience and then God keeps coming and helping them out. No one wants to see the wrongs that the people did, rather they are willing to point out the fact that God made disaster come to them. Why?

Here's what I see about God in the Book of Judges, for all whom He called His children-

1. He trains His children to be the best-which of us parents would want our kids to be uneducated, foolish and not having enough knowledge to do well in this world. I think NONE. "1(A)Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan;
   2only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly).
   3These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and (B)the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.
   4They were for (C)testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses. "(Judges 3:1-4) God left the nations to train the Israelites who had not fought battles before.
2. He disciplines His children-"12Now the sons of Israel again (K)did evil in the sight of the LORD So (L)the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD."(Judges 3:12) God allowed, meaning He had control over the enemies as well, for correction and for training to see if the Israelites would obey God. As also written in Deuteronomy 8:5 "Know also in your [minds and] hearts that, as a man disciplines and instructs his son, so the Lord your God disciplines and instructs you. ". Why does God discipline His children, because Proverbs 22:15 "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him. " Most beautifully put in Hebrew 12:5-7 6For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes."
3. He never leaves you nor forsakes you- In all that the Israelites did, God did not leave them. They despised God, even though every time they were in trouble God helped them, yet they turned to those which were not gods and served them, instead of the Living God. Deuteronomy 31:8 "The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." The Israelites had forgotten the covenant that God and Abraham had made, yet God had not forgotten His part of the covenant.
4. Unconditional Love- God did not deal with the Israelites as they deserved, Ezra 9:13 says "What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have given us a remnant like this" If God had to deal with us as we deserved, oh where would we be, but He has called us His children(John 1:12) He is so magnificent in mercy and forgiveness.

Lesson: Let's learn from our Daddy, what is it that He's trying to teach us. If we're in a disciplining situation, lets ask God, what should I correct Lord. A teacher gives a student wrong when they add 2+2 and write 5, why? so that the child learns Math correctly. So also does our Father, the giver of Life, wants us to know the Good Life. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. so I think He's the best one to show us the way. Lets learn right.