I want to encourage you to read Numbers 23-24 with us today and allow the Spirit of God to show you what HE has declared and promised concerning the nation of Israel! Read it in a couple of different translations so that you can get a really clear picture of the place in which the God of the Bible holds this nation that He created! It has not, nor will it ever, do any nation ANY good to come against them! Throughout the years of their history, HE has had to discipline them for their own protection by exile so that they did not totally ruin the land. Now HE has brought them back and they will NEVER be removed again! Make sure that YOU are on the RIGHT side, which is God's side! Be a person who blesses and protects Israel and not one who curses, because the curses against Israel WILL return on those who do the cursing! I had thought to go more in depth on this today, but I MUST share THIS from "My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers. It is similar to this exhortation concerning Israel, but it involves our personal choices where other people are concerned, and is VITAL for walking in the Blessing of God!
If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him Life for them that sin not unto death. — 1 John 5:16
If we are not heedful of the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other folks are failing, and we turn our discernment into the gibe of criticism instead of into intercession on their behalf. The revelation is made to us not through the acuteness of our minds, but by the direct penetration of the Spirit of God, and if we are not heedful of the source of the revelation, we will become criticizing centres and forget that God says – ". . . he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death." Take care lest you play the hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right before you worship God yourself.
One of the subtlest burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things in order that we may take the burden of these souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them, and as we intercede on His line, God says He will give us "life for them that sin not unto death." It is not that we bring God into touch with our minds, but that we rouse ourselves until God is able to convey His mind to us about the one for whom we intercede.
Is Jesus Christ seeing of the travail of His soul in us? He cannot unless we are so identified with Himself that we are roused up to get His view about the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so whole-heartedly that Jesus Christ will be abundantly satisfied with us as intercessors.
Do you see that we are to be a people of love, of prayer, of compassion, of exhortation, of encouragement? (The "sin unto death" is the sin of rejecting Jesus. This is the only sin NOT covered by the Blood of Jesus!) We are NOT to be a people of judgement! Jesus Himself said that HE did not come into the world to judge, but that they may be saved! John 3:17:
17 For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.
When we are told that we will know "them" by their fruits (Matthew 7), He was NOT speaking of OUR speaking judgement! He was telling us that we would recognize false teaching by the fruits of the teaching! Some recently have come against those who teach about God's abundant provision and accused them of being false teachers. The problem with their thinking is that the ministries that they are mentioning are teaching the Gospel of Salvation through none but Jesus, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, Divine health through the Word of God, believers having the Ministry of Reconciliation AND the prosperity found in obeying the Word of God concerning tithing and giving! The fruit of these ministries is that they are helping more people, in both natural, physical things AND in spiritual things, than I have ever dared to dream to do! SO, the next time you are tempted to agree with someone in this, I would suggest being slow to speak AND removing yourself from the conversation! God is NOT in it! We have MORE than enough to do in obeying what we see above in our prayer life AND in our own ministry of Reconciliation (sharing the Gospel with all we come in contact with)! AMEN! Here, to help you stay on the right track, is Hillsong United with a new song called "Touch The Sky" ("I touch the sky when my knees hit the ground" = PRAYER!)
Shalom in Him!
