What am I doing with my blessings?

Without much ado, I move on from this victory Hezekiah received from God, over the tyranny of the Assyrian king. I skip over the incident of healing that God worked out for Hezekiah, when he was almost on the verge of death. God healed him and extended 15yrs of his life. As a proof of this miracle that God would do for him, God moved the shadow 10 steps behind, on Hezekiah's request.
I now move on to one very disappointing episode from Hezekiah's life. Hearing about his illness, envoys from Babylon sent their regards and gifts for him. Hezekiah received those messengers from Babylon and showed him everything he had, from his storehouses full of gold and silver, tohis armory with all battle equipment. He showed them everything in his palace. The word of the Lord then came to Hezekiah "16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD : 17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. 18 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

Notice Hezekiah's reply 19 "The word of the LORD you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?"

Though Hezekiah lived an amazingly close life with the Lord, obeying the Lord and was even blessed, was miraculously healed and had an extension from an almost ended life, to 15more years, he was a selfish believer. As long as all goes well during the time i live, I am ok!!!

Lesson I learnt

• A good believer not only lives a blessed life, but "is " a blessing to others-Abraham,Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, they all followed the Lord God, but they also were blessings to their descendants. Am I seeking to be blessed, not just for myself, but that I can extend God's blessings in my life to others?

Conclusion:It was clear to me, that Hezekiah loved his life more than loving others. He did right in following God and he did receive God's blessings for his faithfulness and devotion, but his name does not receive mention when God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Or when God says "For my son David's sake I will do this.....". Remember the time, when David was so very grateful for all the blessings God would give his descendants. Hezekiah was happy with the blessing being just for him.

As I read this part of Hezekiah's life, I was reminded of a time in my life, when I wanted to get by on God's blessings, atleast I would be blessed, atleast I could live well and my living well was all that mattered to show others of God's love for "me". Well I learnt, in order for them to see or experience God's love, I had to share my blessings, it wasn't enough for others to see what I was being blessed with, rather what I was doing with those blessings!!!

"1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

God is ready to fight your battle

Background:Hezekiah has been recently threatened by the Assyrian king, to either give in to him and surrender or fight and die. Hezekiah has decided to fight, rather than to give in. Isaiah, God's prophet sent a reply to Hezekiah's request "6 Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! I am going to put such a spirit in him that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.' "
Soon after this word had come from God, through Isaiah, the Assyrian commander had to withdraw from Jerusalem(Judah) because the Assyrian king had gone away for another battle to Lachish. Instead of going on to fight his enemy, Assyrian king Sennacherib sends a letter to Hezekiah threatening him and discouraging him from believing God for his victory.(2 Kings 19:10-13)
Hezekiah didn't budge from him faith but goes with that letter straight to God and says a beautiful prayer "14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD : "O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.
17 "It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by men's hands. 19 Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God."

Lessons I learnt

1. In despair turn to God-Hezekiah turned to God when the Assyrian commander came to threaten him with words. More often than not, the enemy works in our lives with negative words and negative suggestions, or luring temptations. The way to turn away from them is to turn to God.


2. God always has an answer for any situation, in His Word-The moment Hezekiah sent his men to ask Isaiah for the Lord's Word, they got their answer. God has our answers ready, if only we turn and go to His Word. There is one special request I have made to God and He sure did answer my situation through His Word. It made me glad.


3. Enemy will not let go easily-In our walk with God, sometimes when we've heard the Word of God and found an answer for our situation, things don't seem like they're changing the way God said it would, oreading about the way the Assyrian king did not immediately go away, but in fact sent him a letter, discouraging him to believe in God, trying to cause doubt in Hezekiah, thats the 1st attack our enemy the satan tries to put in our heart, when we have and we know God has directly given in our heart His Word.


4. Take it to the Lord in prayer-Thats what Hezekiah did with the threat letter he received from Assyrian king Sennacherib. He took it to God and prayed a simple prayer, surrendering all to God. Thats what we must do when the enemy sends waves of doubt and fear, and tries to say, God's Word won't work. This is the time we have to wait in order to see God's word at work in our lives. It's the only time the enemy can make his last attempt to defeat us. Hezekiah trusted God's Word over the enemy's word and he saw glorious victory in a battle he didnt even have to fight. "35 That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. "

Conclusion: The essence of it all, I realise, is to stand. Ephesians 6:10-15 "10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.". God didn't want us to fight alone, He just requires of us, to wear His armor, His protection from the enemy, and "stand". God didn't say to wear all that armor and fight, but to "stand". So while we're standing who's fighting? God is.

Believe that you may See

Lessons from 2 Kings 18-19. Be blessed in reading through this.

I have been reading through Hezekiah's life and seeing how God was working in it. During his reign in Judah, he had seen the Israelites, being captured by the king of Assyria and being deported from Samaria to Assyria. He also watched as the new settlers, the Babyblonians came to Samaria and the changes were uncomfortable.
He was more tensed during this time, as he had received a threat from the Assyrian king, to either comply with him and become his vassal or lose his kingdom, like the other kings . Hezekiah wasn't willing to give up yet. He had trusted the Lord wholeheartedly like David (the only one compared in likeness of his faith to David).
There by the city aqueduct the Assyrian commander in chief, had come and was giving a speech to the Israelites (the remnant in Judah). People watched as he spoke in their own language, they understood it all, as he described what a loser Hezekiah is to stand up against the king of Assyria. How other kings like him had been dethroned by the Assyrian king and how foolish it was for these remnant Israelites to depend upon their God. He even dared compare their God to the gods who didn't help the other kingdoms which had fallen before the Assyrians.

Facts are facts and we cannot deny them, so the Israelites had nothing to say to him. They did good in that they didn't speak or try to argue. Up until that time, whatever the Assyrian commander said had been right, and Hezekiah knew, the ONLY way to prove it all wrong would be to win a battle against them and prove to them Y-H is the ONLY true God. In my life too, sometimes reality stares into my face and screams "I am the truth, this is what you've got and you can't do anything but to give in. Where is your God?" The only way out, I know, is the unseen, powerful power of the resurrection of God working within me(Ephesians 1:19-21), which requires my believing before seeing, rather than the way the world would like to have it. I guess thats what Hezekiah might have felt.

At the wall that day, in Judah (Jerusalem) v36 ..the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king(Hezekiah ) had commanded, "Do not answer him." That makes sense to me, I know I have tried a debate with the enemy, through words, through my experiences of faith earlier, but it only left me without words and more with doubts. Faith must be renewed and every situation requires its own level of faith, yesterday's faith cannot win today's battles. Maybe thats what God was teaching the Israelites from Egypt and gave them Manna to be collected each day and not on a weekly basis. Hezekiah, had to renew his faith, right then if he wanted to prove those enemy's facts wrong.

Hezekiah could have given in, but he didn't want to, he had experiences of triumph with God(2 Kings 18:5-8) and knew God could come through for him, no matter what came up in life. It is true, he was very afraid, watching his guards by the city wall, his messengers updated him on the speech they had heard. He was very disturbed, devastated and tore his robes and went into the temple. He didn't go in the fancy, he didn't remain in the cloud, he was being human, man with grief in that situation. In those days they didn't have the Bible to read the Word of God and find out God's will, so he called his administrator and secretary and sent them to talk to a man of God Isaiah, so they would know God's plan for them, now.

The word from God, through Isaiah, came almost immediately(2 Kings 19:5,6). It is amazing the way God work. Ever ready for the children who would call Him in their times of trouble.I have seen in my trying situations, God truly is an ever present help. When my circumstances are desperate, and when I open the Word of God in desperation, in total dependence, as if -if I don't get a Word from God, I don't know what I'm going to do- I have found Him. In my desperations I have found my God waiting with a Word for me, just for me and so apt and so powerful that all doubts and fears must leave and again I believe, that for me believing is seeing and I believe hard in order that I may see.

Conclusion: God waits for His children, looking out for them, every turn of their life. Waiting to see when they will turn to Him and seek His presence, His friendship, His love. Will they try to go on life through their own feeble strength. He knows the enemy is powerful, He has made him and He knows whats needed to overtake Him. The only thing between His hand and ours is whether we are willing to extend our hands towards God. He doesn't need to be defended from the enemy, and He knows, we need help because, the enemy is out to destroy us and He wouldn't be able to intervene in our lives, until we reach out to Him, the clause of free will. No matter what you're going through, no matter what the enemy is shouting by your wall, no matter what his facts say, that is not the TRUTH. For God is the ONLY WAY, the ONLY TRUTH and the ONLY LIFE. Believe that you may See Him at work in your life.

Studying Enemy Strategy-I

This post has blessed me and opened my eyes to see clearly and I know it will bless you too. While reading through Israel's journey through spiritual darkness, with kings that didn't follow the Lord wholeheartedly, worshipping all other gods and forgetting God's covenant, I've come to the point where Israel (one division of the entire Israelite tribe) was taken captive after a 3 day siege by the Assyrian king. The Israelites lost their promised land and were deported to Assyria and the Assyrian king brought in other people babylonians and others to resettle Samaria. In the meanwhile, Judah was under the rule of king Hezekiah. For the first time after a long time, the Bible now describes Hezekiah as a man who did like his ancestor David "3 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.". He saw what had happened to the Israelites for being a traitor to the Assyrian king, but that didn't stop him from rebelling against him. I now focussed on the way the Assyrian king behaved with Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a god-fearing man, he trusted God and God gave him victory in all he undertook.

Let me show you the lessons I learnt
What is the enemy like?

1. The enemy wants to take it all-Assyrian king was not satisfied by having the entire Samaria as his newly captured state, but he wanted more. He wanted to take over Judah as well. So it is with our enemy the devil, if you think he will let other people be, just because a few have already traded themselves with him. No. We the children of God, who want to live for the Lord are his nightmare. He knows he cannot defeat us, but he will not stop trying. So we've got to keep our guards up, the Sword of the Word of God sharpened at all times.
2. You are deceived if you think you can make a fair trade with the enemy-After capturing Israel out of Hoshea's hands, the Assyrian king turned to Hezekiah, to take over Judah too. Sennacherib the Assyrian king attacked Judah and captured it, but Hezekiah begged him to leave and that he would give him all he wants (2 Kings 18:13-16). Hezekiah gave Sennacherib everything even to the point of, stripping the gold with which he had decorated the temple of God. It might have given him temporary relief from the attack, but that wasn't going to be for long. Sometimes when we knowingly let go of our stand on some "harmless" things, like backbiting, lying, tolerating evil, we're making trades with the enemy. It might give you temporary relief, but soon we might get trapped. I fall many times, but the key is to get up, ask for pardon and move on never to return to that trade again.
3. Give the enemy a little space and he'll want to stake a claim-When Hezekiah paid Sennacherib with gold from the temple and everything he could find within his jurisdiction, that didn't stop the Assyrian king from sending his commander in chief to make another trade with Hezekiah, to the point of making him his vassal as well (like king Hoshea of Israel was). He wanted to claim the entire land little by little. He wasn't going to stop at the point where he got all that gold. He wanted the people in the land as well and more. So the Bible says to counter this attack "Resist the devil and he will flee from you". Resistance needs something within you which will counter what's trying to happen to you. Without Jesus we would have no resistance, but now for us we have this assurance ,"1 John 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.. So stand and resist.

there are more lessons than I could probably try to fit into this one post...therefore to be cont'd