10/01/2024
Ministration for 10/01/24
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”(2Corinthians 3:
17-18).
Commentary
All true Christians are knights of the Holy Spirit. And as such, we are not called to a life of comfort, luxury and ease. Believers who respond to the true calling of Christ will always have difficult times: Jesus never said His Way would be easy. He simply stressed that it would be worth it. The Gospel revolves around deliverance, freedom, peace and fulfillment - these are all free on arrival at the promised Land, but not without the wilderness....
Satan, the Devil, that old serpent in the garden, the mother of liars, always manifests himself in the wilderness for us to worship him directly! (Christ, too, went through it). The Devil knows that it takes great and genuine faith, perseverance and patience to follow God and to inherit His promises for all- hence he (satan) catches in on our weaknesses of doubt and impatience. The supplication must be to earnestly ask for God’s grace to help us forebear and persevere.
Faith moves God, but lack of it through unbelief, demonstrated by grumbling and complaining, prompts the veil. Sadly, many Christians repeat this same style. Because of our unbelief, we wander in spiritual circles in our model of wilderness for a very long time, missing out on God’s promise to us. This, however, does not go to suggest or confirm that those who failed to get into the Promised Land are eternally condemned. No! This is because, according to Francis Frangipane, “we never fail God’s tests; we just keep taking them until we pass.”
On account of this same failure of tests through unbelief and impatience, some of us fail to draw close to God ourselves, but would rather choose to stay aloof at a distance, and then solicit for ‘some man of God’ to mediate for us! 😳. We tend to conscript or hire ‘spiritual professionals’ to hear from God on our behalf. This is wrong and it’s a serious issue both for all Christians and the Church too. The lsraelites did it at their time of Exodus by Mount Sinai, when they exhibited fear, asking Moses instead to go alone to face God: it later caused great problems then in their camp in the wilderness, because they avoided His presence, which surpasses every earthly gifts or affluence. (See Exodus 20:18-21).
We are not called as spectators to God’s vineyard. We too, like any other person at that, should plead the grace of and for His presence. We are all equal partakers. We, too, are children of Abraham.
Having said this, we should maintain and carry the humility for which we are always open and willing to be taught by others, who we are “sure” walk with God. But we must never settle for that alone, because God can equally speak to everyone directly if we diligently seek Him, by His grace through strong and true faith. If we settle only for teachings or counsels of perceived reverends or pastors alone, then we will be veiled both from His presence and seeing His true glory in our lives.
After the wilderness, we get into His presence - a treasure much more valuable than anything the world can offer. Nothing can be more gracious and overwhelming than having the Lord make us His dwelling place.
