heaven's tree book club

September 23, 2012
Defending the Decrees of the King

Our pastor and his wife came back from their one month vacation today. They shared special green bean cookies with the congregation. The sermon today was taken from the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3. What I like about the pastor is that for some reason his message is always simple and he always includes the phrase "you are never useless with God" in his sermon. I don't know why he says that so much and maybe it has something to do with the fact the average age of the church is 75, but I also need to hear that right now also. I feel so useless right now. I mean really useless. My dad has a teaching ministry and right now I have no use in the church.
"WE'VE seen how God has called us to glory and how true humility and honor are vital attributes for carrying that glory properly. Humility and honor are sustained by understanding and maintaining a heart of covenant love for God and each other. Bill Johnson says, "You can tell what a person loves by what he hates." God loves His children, He is jealous for them and hates anything that violates love. He calls it injustice. As we grow in His heart for one another and for the world, we begin as royalty to develop a hatred for injustice and a deeply rooted drive to see it undone.
Let's look at the need for justice in a few of the characters we've studied in this book. If y7ou remember, Moses always knew he was a Hebrew but grew up as a prince in Pharaoh's house. He was raised in an environment where the contrast between his situation and that of his people was in his face. One day he sees two of his brothers being mistreated by an Egyptian and takes action (see Exod. 2:11-12). What caused Moses to defend his brothers? Why didn't he just hang out in the palace and watch movies? Why do people who "have it made" mess up their comfort /one to stand up for some poor soul who is being abused?"
I really like this point about you can tell what a person loves by what he hates. God loves the church. God hates anything that destroys the covenant relationship with His church namely sin. God loves justice and hates injustice. The author goes on to discuss the story of Moses. He was moved to do something about the injustice done to the Hebrews, his own people. Many of us would have been content hanging out in the palace. I know I sure would. God doesn't call us to sit quietly in the church and turn a deaf ear to the injustice even in our own backyard.

"While Paul was provoked by what he saw going on in Athens, Gideon was a man who became provoked by what wasn 't going on in Israel. Before we meet Gideon in Judges 6, let me describe the historical setting. The Midianites, Amalekites and the armies of the east were oppressing his country. The Lord had already sent a prophet to remind the Israelites of their history7 with the God of Heaven, and how He freed them from Egyptian oppression using powerful signs and wonders.
Unfortunately, no such deliverance had come for Israel yet. As a result, we meet Gideon hiding in a winepress, trying to save the wheat crop from the enemy who came at harvest to destroy the fields. An Angel of the Lord came to him with this great proclamation: "The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior." Gideon's response was stunning. He said, "O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying. Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian" (Judg. 6:12-13).
Gideon was tired of hiding in the winepress beating out wheat. (Have you ever been sick and tired of being sick and tired?) He had been hearing the prophet's reminder of all Israel had seen God do, and he wanted to know why there was such a huge gap between the miraculous works of the past and Israel's utter powerlessness to change their present circumstances. Like us, he wanted to know why there was such a distance between what the Bible said there should be and what he was actually experiencing. Royalty cannot live with this incongruity in their hearts.There is a passion that lies in our souls that causes us to rise up and confront the injustice of our day.This passion was boiling under the surface of Gideon's soul, waiting for an opportunity7 and encouragement from the Lord in order to act.
It's great to hang out in the palace and enjoy all the benefits of being the King's kids, but the more we begin to walk in our royal identity, the more we are going to find something rising in us when we are exposed to injustice. For many of us, the need for justice has been disempowered by false beliefs we've embraced in the midst of unresolved injustices we've experienced. But as we encounter God's faithfulness in our own lives, we will find ourselves provoked to action."
I think I am drawn to Gideon more than most of the people we find in the Bible. He says he is the least in his family and his family is the least also. That can be said of myself. I am the youngest, the only unemployed, and the only disabled in my family. My parents do not have much money and my mom is a child care provider. My parents are also not educated. I feel powerless and I know my parents also are even though both of my older brothers are educated and have respectable jobs, I personally have no source of income or purpose. I feel like Gideon that God has abandoned me and there is an inconsistency between what the Bible says about the miracles and power of God in the past and the absence of God now.

"This is just one of the stories I have experienced while using my gifting to right injustice. I have had similar experiences all over the United States. I don't understand people who think that Americans aren't hungry for God. Everywhere I go I see folks who are famished and longing for a spiritual awakening, and we have the ability to demonstrate a gospel of power.
I am convinced that many people who are caught up in witchcraft are the "unpaid bills" of the church.A lot of these folks have experienced spiritual realities and come to our churches to find an explanation for this dimension of life, but only find a powerless religion. It is sad but true that most people wouldn't know whether God showed up in church or not, because so little of modern Christianity requires Heaven's intervention. Jesus never expected people to believe in a gospel absent of power.Therefore Jesus said, "If I don't do the works of My Father, do not believe Me" (John 10:37).The people who can't find power in church visit a seance or a cult meeting and find the eneirry's counterfeit power.Although it's the dark side, it is real, and they turn to it. If they cannot find supernatural power in the church, they will sadly go to where they can. Proverbs 27:7 says, "To a famished man any bitter thing is sweet."
At Bethel Church, as in many other churches that are rising up in this hour, we see miracles of healing, salvation, and deliverance each week in our services."

Prayer:
Father, like so many, like Giedeon, I am so tired of powerless religion, empty of Your might and healing and transformative strength to make hopeless situations turn around. I pray for breakthrough even in my life with challenges I cannot handle and depression that does not lift. Father, please let me experience Your presence and power in my life. I want to see Your glorious healing and feel Your hope that restores my soul. In recent weeks, I feel like giving up on life like so many of the testimonies in this book. I don't want empty relation which is void of Your love and power. Father, more than any period in my life, I need You now.