Crave Freedom

Then a wind from the Lord sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground. And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague. Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving. (Numbers 11:31–34)

The people wanted meat like they had before He rescued them from bondage in Egypt. So God gave them meat, but with it came His anger at their desire for that which represented sin. In their consumption, this ‘meat’ meant judgment and death. The place where they died was called Kibroth-hattaavah, meaning graves of craving.

This event points to what happens if I let my sinful desires become so important that I cry out to God to do for me what I want rather than be thankful for all that He provides. My spiritual life is damaged. In their case, it was a physical death. In mine, it is a separation from God and just as deadly. I cannot function when filled with sinful selfishness.

Yesterday I talked with someone who professes faith in Christ but is off on a tangent over worldly matters. Some of it reminded me of this NT warning:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:10)

It was not that person who was caught up in a love of money, but he is listening to several people who seem to be and they have clouded his judgment. This reminds me of another truth:

Let God be true though every one were a liar. . . .  (Romans 3:4)

How do we know that our human sources are telling truth? The Lord calls Satan a liar and the father of lies, and says he can disguise himself as an angel of light. That means we need to listen to the One who says “I am the truth” lest we are deceived.

Going back to that event in Numbers, the root of their sin was a craving for the perks of their old life. They seemed to forget the bondage and focused only on what they were missing, at least for a time. As I listened to the views of the person I talked with yesterday, it came out that his views were rooted in wanting a prosperity rather than seeing the dangers of craving and the consequences of insisting his views were truth. (Long story for this short space.)

For me, the bottom line is: How do I know if something is truth? Jesus said if I know the truth, it will set me free, free to trust Him, free from anxiety about events and the way other humans behave, free from trying to figure out the ‘whys’ of life and free to let God take care of those who live contrary to His will. Truth is found in Christ and in His Word. People who are duped need prayer and His light because they cannot see it without the Holy Spirit opening their eyes. 

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:2–6)

Jesus, I know I can fall for lies too. That is why I run to You every day. You never lie to me. I might get it wrong, but eventually You sort it out and keep me listening to You. The main truth is Your incredible faithfulness to keep Your people from being overpowered by that Liar. 

How to be discerning

Discernment is often the topic of discussion in the small group that I pray with and we agree how easily it eludes us. We sing on Sunday, “I am no longer a slave to fear; I am a child of God” and get fearfully worried about something on Monday. What happened to make that confident faith run off somewhere and leave us in bondage to fear?

One of my readings today offers a likely suggestion — somewhere between the song and the door opening to anxiety was a command that we knew we should obey but did not.

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (John 13:17)

This short remark made by Jesus suggests that knowing and doing are more than connected. If said in the negative, if I know something and do not do it, I lose a blessing. While Jesus does not describe what that blessing is, the devotional writer offers this: When you know you should do a thing, and do it, immediately you know more. That is, obedience produces discernment. If my spiritual life takes a dive and my ability to discern what God is saying to me, it could be that it goes back to a point where there was something I knew I should do, but I did not do it. At the time, it may have seemed not very important but as soon as the opportunity passed, so also did my perception and discernment.

When that happens, at the next time of crisis, I could be spiritually distracted instead of spiritually aware and therefore miss another opportunity to know and do what God wants.

This writer goes on to say that many Christians in that place make another mistake. Instead of confessing their disobedience, they work up occasions of self-sacrifice that God has not called for. This is easier than doing what God says…

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2)

As the OT says, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Obedience leads me forward. Sacrifice hinders progress, even halts spiritual growth. As that writer says, do not go back to what I once was when God wants me to be something I have never been. “If you will do …, you shall know.…”  Obedience is key to discernment.

The song and my heart knows that I am a child of God. Satan knows that if he can get me to act as if I am not, then my ability to know and grow is halted. Knowing who I am is based on what Christ has done. Acting as who I am is a huge part of that. I am not called to forgive others in order to induce Christ to forgive me; I am to forgive others because i know that He has already forgiven me. I am not commanded to be a follower of Jesus in order to become God’s child because I know I am already His child.

Every day brings challenges to rob me of the victory that comes from doing what I know. Satan never retires from trying to delude me and mess up my discernment and growth. Even disobeying what seems like a small request will do it. I need to put my faith in God in all situations to keep from being caught in my enemy’s lies. God can turn defeat into victory whenever I really trust Him and do what He asks.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. (1 John 5:4)

PRAY: Jesus, You are the Savior and my faith AND obedience depend on Your grace and power, yet when both are given a big YES from my heart, You chase off the devil and You bless me — always with wonderful surprises and certainly with an abundant life. Again, You are so amazing!

Whose will is this?

 

Last night our small group started again. We read Scripture, discussed it, then shared prayer concerns. One of the folks expressed the mess in a social issue and that we needed to “do something” about it, yet others suggested that we first pray. After reading MacArthur’s devotional for today, I am convinced that the enemy can suggest action that sounds good but it is contrary to the will of God.

In this situation and in all circumstances, I’m to “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16) and first recognize those darts and where they come from using the temptation of Jesus as an example:

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4:1–4)

Jesus was hungry and had the power to make bread from stones. It seemed a good idea for Him to “do something” but He recognized who was making the suggestion. He also recognized that the appeal was to His hunger, a personal need.

This clarifies what happened last night. That social issue was also a personal issue for the person who wanted to “do something” to fix it. Not that we should ignore social issues, but realize that God uses trials and problems for His purposes, sometimes to bring people to their knees before Him. Any action we might take could thwart the purposes of the Lord and that is the reason to first pray and find out if the motivations I’m experiencing are from God — or an appeal from Satan to get me side-tracked.

These “flaming missiles” refer to arrows with pitch-soaked tips set on fire. When they hit a target, flaming pitch spread to other flammable surfaces and destroyed all it touched. In spiritual warfare, Satan’s arrows are like that. They come in many forms. MacArthur lists: solicitations to impurity, selfishness, doubt, fear, disappointment, greed, vanity, covetousness, and so on. They can also be “do something” to fix problems without first asking God if that is what He wants. James 2-4 make it clear that He uses problems and our efforts to fix or escape them may not be the response He wants.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4)

I cannot know what God may be saying to others, but this principle has become important for me. When trials come, what is God doing? I want it to go away, but He has a plan that I will not experience if I try to escape instead of trusting Him to use them for my good. Faith is my protection because faith elevates God’s will above Satan’s plans. Like Jesus, God wants me to think: “I will not violate my Father’s will by yielding to this enemy’s schemes. In His time He will feed Me and give me what I need for victory. I will not give in, no matter how appealing his suggestions seem to be.”

Yielding to God can mean personal discomfort. For Jesus, it eventually led Him to the cross. However, during that time of testing when Jesus yielded to the will of God and Satan realized his tactics were not going to work, “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” (Matthew 4:11)

These thoughts also remind me of another incident in the gospels when Jesus warned that doing “good” does not necessarily mean I am doing the ‘good’ that God wants:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21–23)

This does not mean that the people of God should avoid prophesy in His name, or doing any other mighty works, but unless my actions are from the Lord’s direction, I could be interfering with the will of God rather than doing it.

PRAY: Jesus, Your Word says I am to “Resist Satan, firm in my faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by my brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:9) This indicates that personal suffering can be God’s will, not the onslaught of evil that we often think it is. Keep me alert, always seeking Your will. And enable all Your people to realize the tactics of Satan.

PONDER: again the principles of battle Jesus experienced, and reread James 4:7.