An Associate Child of God

Background: 2 Kings 13:20-22 "20 Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. 21 Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.
22 Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. 23 But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence. "
These verses bring me to the end of Elisha's valiant life, in the Living God. It was amazing for me to see that even though, Elisha had passed away, his bones still had the power of God. In Acts 19 we read "11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them." More than that, even with our Lord Jesus, when the woman with the issue of blood, touched the hem of Jesus' garment she was healed.

Lessons I learnt:

1. Associate-When we hang around someone too long, we start getting impressions of that person on our life as well. In our terms we call it to "rub off on"-meaning: to become transferred or communicated to by example or association". Elisha had been associating with God so closely that God's power rubbed off on him, even to his bones. God's power was so intense on Jesus and His disciples that even the inanimate objects like clothing carried the power of God. I had never thought of associate as a powerful word, probably because I hear of it more in a business perspective, but it is, it even goes as far a meaning "union". The Amplified Bible expands associate as [closely and habitually]. So can you imagine what can happen to our lives, when we closely and habitually associate with our Lord Jesus.


2. Realise-Can we know God's power has rubbed off on us or not?? We may not know immediately, but the people who will see us, outside of us, they will know, because they will experience it. I had a friend who I used to like a lot for her happy nature, she had a british accent, soon in a few months I was sounding like her, no, I didn't know I was sounding like her, other people told me so. Well I liked that accent a lot so I didn't mind that. You see, we will not know, even Moses did not know his face was shining after he had met God, people were afraid when they saw him and then he realised something was different about him, his face shone. Exodus 34:28-30.


3. Demonstrate-For us who are already steadfast about our Living God, believing is seeing.(Hebrew 11) but for those who do not know, they would need to see first in order to believe. What best example there could be than to show through our lives. People read us first through our behaviour and then our words. Our words will have no impact, unless our life can demonstrate it. Before we can even share the gospel to anyone, we must have our lives in close and habitual association with our Lord Jesus, once we've got the association right, you're life automatically starts demonstrating signs of the Saviour in it, may not be to you, but definitely to others who see you.

Conclusion: We may have a heart to serve the Lord, but we may not be finding an "opportunity". Looking at the example of Elisha's bones, I don't think Elisha might have had a clue what his bones could bring about. Also, for Paul, I don't think he would have himself been aware of the power his handkerchiefs were bearing. For both Paul and Elisha, they could share God's love and power with the obvious crowd, but their lives bore far more results than that. Their associated life with God, touched the obvious before them, and also those in the bakground who had watched him from far. Our lives are capable of being an example of association with the Living God and touch lives far beyond the obvious. No matter how dead we may feel, when our lives come in contact, in associations, with the Giver of Eternal Life, His life flows right through us and people will see the results of the association.

Emmanuel

I discovered in yesterday's post that God loves to stay with the people who invite Him in their lives.

God is so in love with us that He loves to be with us every single moment of our lives, if only we want Him. He is so serious about this fact that even His name reads "Emmanuel" meaning "God with us".

Results of God being with us.

1. Fullness in God- Elisha wanted to bless her with what was lacking. He searched and found out, through his servant. 14 "What can be done for her?" Elisha asked. Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son and her husband is old." (2Kings 4:14). When we've invited Jesus to dwell in our lives, He will search what is lacking in our lives and fill up our lives. Our Lord Himself said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:10)
2. Protection of God-When God dwelt with the Israelites as a pillar of cloud and fire, He provided them protection from their enemies.
3. Guidance from God-Not only did the Israelites get God's protection, when the pillar of fire came between them and the enemy, but also the pillar of cloud showed them the way to go. The pillar of fire lit up their path.

Conclusion:Our Loving Father, paid a heavy price just so He could have fellowship with us. He paid it in the blood and death of His only Son. How can we let go by such a costly sacrifice? No matter what you're in, God wants to be in it and bring you out into fullness. If, like this woman we are invite God to our lives. He will complete it in ways we could have never thought possible. God is able to provide for us, of things we thought we could live without, like this woman thought she could do without a son, yet God knew how and what could fill up the person's life. The person who values God's sacrifice, for the sake of our fellowship with Him.

Consequences of Obedience

1 Kings 18

The Lord commands Elijah to go meet king Ahab(1 Kings 18:1). It was the same king Ahab who's wife Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Living God. However during such time there was another devout man of God named Obadiah who had hidden 100 prophets of God in caves and had kept feeding them. At this time the drought in the land is very severe and Obadiah and Ahab have come out to look for grass so that the horses could be fed and kept alive. Obadiah and Ahab split ways in search of grass for the horses. Elijah meets Obadiah on the way and asks him to take him to Ahab. Obadiah is very afraid and tells Elijah "9 "What have I done wrong," asked Obadiah, "that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death? 10 As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you. 11 But now you tell me to go to my master and say, 'Elijah is here.' 12 I don't know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn't find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth." (1 Kings 18: 9-12) Obadiah is scared for life to take Elijah to Ahab. Yet Ahab is determined and finally goes to meet Ahab.

In this little episode from Elijah's life, I learnt the following lessons

1. Obeying God's commands opens communication with God-When God commanded Elijah for anything, Elijah did it immediately, not waiting not killing time. Obedience to God opens more ways for us to listen directly from God. Then God no longer has to ask someone else to tell us anything, He Himself will talk to us, because we are willing to listen and obey.
2. Obeying God's commands sets the course for our faith-As Elijah continued to follow God's commands, his faith grew and as a result the miracles in his life grew to higher power. From being miraculously fed by ravens, to the neverending jar of flour and oil, to raising the dead, to calling fire from heaven and then being carried into heaven. What a life!!! If there is a command God has given us a good way to find out if we are doing the right thing or not is to check the result of our lives, has the power grown or decreased. If it has decreased lets go back and do the last thing God had asked us to do and we will be back on track again.
3. Obeying God's command may bring obstacles, obey God rather than men- When God gives a command, soon enough something will come up which will challenge your faith, challenge your obedience even. When Elijah started off to meet Ahab, Obadiah (a man of God too) met Elijah and was so scared that he did not think meeting Ahab would be a good idea for Elijah. Yet "15 Elijah said, "As the LORD Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today." No matter what staying steady on the Word of God matters. Acts 5:29 "Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! " It may be a weird command, it may look contrary, it make look disastrous, but if thats what God would have us do, lets do it. For God gives us the grace to do whatever He commands us to do.

Conclusion: The only way we will grow is by faith and obedience. Willingness. Jesus said "Luke 11:28 "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." 1 John 5:3 "This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,"

Dear God, I know I haven't fully been obedient to You and have failed many a times, yet You have been so merciful to me.I thank You for your grace and mercy. Please help me to be completely obedient to you that I may see Your work in my life and that my life would turn into a blessing to others.

In Jesus Name I pray.

Amen

"Obedience surely is better than sacrifice"

If we don't who will...fight the spiritual battle

2 Samuel 10:12 "12 Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in his sight."
This is what David said, when confronted by the Ammonites for battle. The Ammonites had demeaned David's men when they had gone to Nahum, their king, to mourn the death of his father. Nahum's counsellors told him, that David has sent men to spy the land and hence dishonoured David's men.
Its amazing to be able to say, let God do what pleases Him.
I learned a few lessons from this chapter(2 Samuel 10) from the Bible

1. Total trust in the Lord-David leaned wholly on the Lord, no matter what the outcome was going to be. Can we trust God so completely, without a shadow of a doubt, when the outcome can go either ways, for you or against you, when no one else is there to guide you, when the answer is not in sight.
2. Relationship with God is good and strong-David's statement, teaches me that David has a constant relationship with God, which actually has emboldened him so much, that he knows that when God does something that He thinks is good, it WILL be good for him. Do we have that kind of relationship with God, that no matter what hits, we'll know it in our heart that our God will never leave us nor forsake us. Also that God has plans to prosper us and not to harm us.
3. A right attitude to fight-David had the right attitude, he wasn't fighting because he was angry with that king, but because now they have come to attack the Israelites and he wanted to protect the people, God has given him to be king of. He wanted to fight in order to defend God's people.God has given us people to be around too, maybe our family members, our neighbours, our colleagues, our friends who don't know the Lord, because our enemy and God's enemy has blinded their eyes, that they cannot see the salvation and wonderful gift that Jesus has to offer them. Do we have that attitude to face any situation, to defend God's people. All the people on the earth are God's people, did you know? Psalm 24:1 says " 1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it" We fight not for ourselves, or our own benefit, but for the people of God, on behalf of God, but our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities in heavenly places, which are trying to rise up against our Living Lord Jesus.

Conclusion: David won the battle. Yeah, and not by a small margin too. The enemies stood to fight, "18 But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers. [b] He also struck down Shobach the commander of their army, and he died there" I cannot imagine that much damage in a battle where no bombs and nuclear weapons are involved.God's people are very precious to Him, thats why God sent His One and Only Son Lord Jesus to die on the cross, and not just anybody He could have picked. God's people are too important to Him, thats why He longs to meet them, longs to commune with them. God's people are very special to Him, thats why He says 'You are mine". How can we being God's children, walk away from our other brothers and sisters who have been blinded and dont know our Heavenly Father's love. Lets be strong and fight bravely for our people...and God will do what He knows best.

The Outcome of Constant Connection

Sometimes, when we think its all ok, thats when things start curling up again. David is now crowned king over Israel, has made the City of David after he took back Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Just when everything looked good, the Philistines, who had once given David refuge/some land in Ziklag, now came to fight David, when they knew that he had become king of Israel."17When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they all went up to find [him], but [he] heard of it and went down to the stronghold. 18The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the Valley of Rephaim." (2 Samuel 5: 17-18) . In response to this "19David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will surely deliver [them] into your hand. 20And David came to Baal-perazim, and he smote them there, and said, The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like the bursting out of great waters. So he called the name of that place Baal-perazim [Lord of breaking through]."(2 Samuel 5:19-20) So you think it got over here do you...well not so... Soon after this battle we see "22The Philistines came up again and spread themselves out in the Valley of Rephaim. 23When David inquired of the Lord, He said, You shall not go up, but go around behind them and come upon them over opposite the mulberry (or balsam) trees. 24And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then bestir yourselves, for then has the Lord gone out before you to smite the army of the Philistines.25And David did as the Lord had commanded him, and smote the Philistines from Geba to Gezer."(2 Samuel 5:22:25).

Here's some lessons I learnt from this experience David had

1. No two situations in our life are exactly the same, so we need constant direction from our Lord- Though David was fighting against the Philistines, twice, in the same valley of Rephaim, in the same manner. The Philistines coming and spreading themselves out in the valley and the likes. David did not forget to inquire of the Lord both times.Many times in life, we think, oh we've done this before, I know the strategies, I've fought the same battle before and I will win, but here David shows us something different. Though both situations, seem exactly the same, but when David inquires of the Lord, he finds that the way he has to fight the 2nd one is different from the 1st one. David did not take the situations in his life casually, he wanted God to be involved. Just because we won a spiritual battle by a certain direction from God earlier in our life, doesn't mean we'll win another one, by using that as a formula or a model. I have been through this in my life, when I thought, hey I've done this before and I prayed for the situation the same way I did for the previous one and guess what it didn't work. But then when I asked God to show me an answer for this one, I found the answer to be totally different, even though the end result of both situations were the same.We need to inquire of God, regarding every, I mean EVERY situation of our life.
2. Yesterday's strength will not win today's battle-Here's something wonderful I get to stress on again. Now just because David had inquired of the Lord for the 1st battle and God had given him the strength to win that one, that did not confirm David's victory over the 2nd one. Every day is new and different, even though sometimes we do the same work on most of the days. Just because I had food yesterday, doesn't mean that I don't need food for today. Today's strength to work comes from today's food, not because I ate yesterday. So also, our fellowship with God, strengthens us to face any situation in our life. Now thats a daily spiritual food requirement. Remember in the desert, the Israelites collected Manna every day for each day in the morning. So also, we must inquire of our Lord, every morning, for the directions to win our battles we face on this day.
3. We're never alone in our struggles/battles in life- Most of the time , when we read an account of battle in the OT, we might think David fought and won the battles. However in this episode, I find again, (another account was from Joshua's life) that the angel of the Lord fights against the enemies and the Israelite army just follows.In verse 25 of 2 Samuel 5 we read "24 As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move quickly, because that will mean the LORD has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army." .". So who do you think did the fighting. I remember reading this passage earlier when I was in college, and boy did it stir up my excitement about God. God told David to wait behind the Philistines, then they would hear the marching over the balsam trees. Now if David is waiting behind there somewhere, then who's sound of marching is it, on the balsam trees? It is our Lord God. I would like you to imagine, David and his army swinging the sword in every direction as they fight and the Lord striking the enemies on behalf of their swinging sword. It tickles me to think, that even when David might have missed hitting someone, that person would be dead, because its the Lord who was striking the army.In our lives too, when we're going through some trouble some pain, or battling a disease, or a fight for a soul of some loved one, God has given us directions, that He has gone out ahead of us and is fighting for us. We've got to swing our sword anyhow, we've got to do or part anyhow. That's faith, that God is doing what He promised. God would mold the person's heart, God would start healing that disease, God would make all finances become whole..and so on. If we ever thought, God has left us alone to fight the battles, I'd say, considering what happened here with David's life....THINK AGAIN.
   
   Conclusion: God honoured David amongst all the people of Israel, because David acknowledged God in EVERY step of his life. So far, whatever David has undertaken, he has not missed inquiring of the Lord. Even though the situations seemed the same, the fight seemed the same...David did not forget to inquire of the Lord. David had a steadfast relationship with God, and God did some pretty amazing things in David's life. David's life episode teaches us the importance of having a continuous dependence on God, because God knows even before we ask. He knows the end from the beginning.
   Isaiah 46:10 (Whole Chapter) I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come." Wouldn't we want God to steer our lives, to be blessed and to be a blessing?

What is Fellowship?

Naomi, a woman who was born and brought up with Israelites, and Ruth a Moabite woman, who had not known a God, Who could be personal and take care of His people.These 2 women taught me the meaning of fellowship.

Naomi a woman who had lost all hope of life getting better, was bitter with life."Don't call me Naomi, [ Naomi means pleasant ; also in verse 21. ] " she told them. "Call me Mara, [ Mara means bitter . ] because the Almighty [ Hebrew Shaddai ; also in verse 21 ] has made my life very bitter." Ruth 1:20. Yes Naomi was human alright, she went through trials and like most of us would put the blame on God, she did too even though it was due to their own wrong decision to move to Moab. She didn't want people in her already distressed life, she wanted her daughters-in-law to return to their own homes and start new families(Ruth 1:8). Sometimes, we just want to be left alone when we're in some trial.

Ruth on the other hand, I see as a new believer or just about starting to believe.The only one she knew who could show her God's work was Naomi so she decides to hold on to Naomi for life."16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17 ). She knew what Naomi thought of her own self, but she also has known, the Naomi who has faith in a Living God and always blessed anybody who came into her life in the Name of the Living God.(See Ruth 1:6, Ruth 1:8, Ruth 2:20)

In spite of what their own situations looked like, the key factor I see in their fellowship is "LOVE". Love is manifested in various actions and behaviour that these 2 women have towards each other in building each other up.
Ruth's love for Naomi and Naomi's love for Ruth. Nobody was preaching to the other, they were just living out their love for each other. Now thats a rare thing between in-laws in our time.

Lesson: Its very easy to love someone who is the same as you, thats what we call, people who click with us.However God has been recently trying to show me to love people who don't know Him or who are trying to find Him, but looking in the wrong places. People who would want to know Him, but have no way of knowing Him unless I can show it to them through my life.
I think, there are believers out there too, who are in situations like mine, to love someone in their life, they don't know, they don't like.I am learning to Love people who don't know my God, sometimes I feel like just sitting and explaining the whole salvation, redemption, confession, belief package to them.But this lesson from the fellowship between Ruth and Naomi has taught me that fellowship is not only about talking about spiritual things, but also living out the Words of our Lord Jesus. Thats what I think is fellowship, so lets live out our Christian Life. There might be a Ruth somewhere in our lives, someone wanting to know our Lord, lets learn from the lesson Ruth and Naomi teach us.