Laps Taken

Laps Taken

9/15/18

Do you ever wonder if you really had to go through all that you did while taking care of a situation in your life?  All of us have asked God this question but most of us have learned a great deal about our setting after all was said and done.  God has a plan for each one of our lives and it is this plan that He must prepare us in order to execute.  However, this process can take time to produce for it is all up to us to either resist God or to totally submit to Him and allow Him to complete the work in our lives.  Either way, it is important to allow Him access to our lives and then accept the changes that He makes, for if we do not then we will find our journey a tad bit longer than originally thought.

I must say that I have wondered many times in my adult life if I would have allowed God to be more in control of my life if the things and settings that I had to endure both when I was younger and present day would have been different.  As I am older and believe to be a bit wiser, I cannot disagree with this question’s answer for when I study God’s Word, which I did not when I was young, I see what people have to endure when they do not fully understand the reasoning behind obedience and full surrender to God.  There were so many worldly idols and issues in my own life that I refused to give up even though I knew that their presence in my life did harm and damage, but I kept them close to me because they had become a part of my world and a part of my life that Satan had convinced me that I needed and could not survive without.  It is this holding onto ridiculous patterns that cost me a bunch of my territorial dominion that I should have been cultivating instead of just sitting around and watching it grow uncontrolled.

When I place these old issues of mine into perspective it becomes easily recognized how I am not alone in this category and that the Bible has plenty of examples of when people obey God and when they do not.  In no way do I consider myself to be a saint and nor do I deserve all of the blessings that God has poured out over my life even in those rebellious years, but for some reason He has seen fit to continue my life so I can be a witness for His grace and love on an eternal level.  It is still hard for me to process this truth about God but I know one thing for sure and that is if I do not tell others about Christ and His eternal Love for us I will be held accountable for each blessing that God gave me to share with others according to His Ways and not mine.  I cannot take back those foolish and selfish years of my previous time on earth, but I can do my best to show and to tell others that they do not have to endure such travesties that I created and then went through that there is an option away from such events and that option is God.

We have two great stories from the Bible that will serve as our examples for this topic one will come from the Book of Exodus and the other from the Book of Joshua.  Both stories have a unique conclusion and yet are tied from the same beginning another unique characteristic that we should be commonly familiar with as well.  From the beginning of God’s Word, He has repeatedly stated that all He wants from us is simple yet complete obedience.  Time and time again we read that we have chosen not to obey God in this manner and through this choice have chosen to accept our own ways and selfishness over the holy and righteous Ways of God.  While this pattern of rebellion must frustrate God to no end, He continues to supply His grace and gifts of life over us hoping that one day we will wake up and “get it”.  If humans would ever figure out that living under obedience to God would make our lives far less complicated than doing it on our own, it would be a total reversal of how our world lives and operates because it would force Satan’s kingdom to fully submit to God’s Kingdom and its Ways.

I can imagine that when Moses told the people of Israel to get ready to leave Egypt that loud cheers and cries to God filled the atmosphere for an unspecified amount of time.  God had miraculously and unusually fulfilled His promise to the Israelites in that they would be freed from their bondage in Egypt, but at the same time, they must have thought about how things transpired during this captive end time period progressed.  We can also predict that the children of Israel believed that once they were physically out of Egypt that their troubles were over and that they could return to their normal state of living without God having to do much more freeing of their lives.  It is this point of order that they miscalculated God and ended up not seeing the Promised Land as they had been hoping and longing to see for God’s freedom does not and cannot stop at the physical level the inner or spiritual aspect must be placed in order as well.

When one looks at the geography of the wilderness that the children of Israel wandered in for forty years it has to be mind-bending because the area in which they were in and where their point of destination was is not that far of a distance.  Yes, it is called a wilderness for a reason for it is a lonely and dry desert but in terms of distance, there should have been no way that it would have taken that long to get from point A to point B.  So, there must have been another area of freedom that God had in mind for their lives and that point of freedom was getting Egypt out of them.  Even though they were captives of that land, they still had developed roots there deep enough that when they left they took physical items from the Egyptians with them.  Why would anyone decide to take items from a captive land unless you wanted to remember such captivity and their captors?  In keeping these items, God knew that even though their feet had been out of Egypt that they still had Egyptian dust on them that needed to come off.

How many times do we read this passage about the children of Israel and wonder how come they did not understand what God was still trying to do in their lives?  I mean, wouldn’t you think after a while that something else was hindering you from being able to complete the journey and then enter into the world that had been promised to you?  Yet, with each step of the way, their hearts continued to forget that it was God who was supposed to dwell in their hearts and this is evident through all of the detailed follies that are recorded in this great book of the Bible.  Miracle after miracle had been presented before their eyes but they continued to serve Egypt within their heart long after they had physically been freed from her grasp.  It boggles my mind of how many unnecessary years they spent fulfilling nothing for God while they waited for their promise wandering around aimlessly in the desert.  This picture really reminds me of those who sit in the pews in church and wait for Jesus to return while doing absolutely nothing for God or the advancement of His Kingdom.

How many laps around the desert perimeter did the Israelites have to take before they finally got it?  That number of laps may not be accurately measured today but I do know that it was enough to cost the original ones that left Egypt the remainder of their lives and did not get to see the Promised Land because of this failure to recognize that God needed to be first in their heart and not the world.  It was the generation of Joshua and beyond that finally was able to inhabit the land that God had promised them so many years earlier, but even with this truth, it was not an easy going process for resistance continued on all sides of the spectrum.  What more of a blended picture can we examine today than from this type of setting Joshua faced when troubles began to take hold?  Having to take that many laps around the desert was not a command issue per say, but a command issue of the hearts of the people that were not willing to surrender their hearts over to God completely and instead of destroying them outright for their disobedience, God allowed them to live out their lives in their physical freedom from Egypt all the while hoping that they would realize their heart’s need for their Creator and Liberator instead.

This period of obedience did not stem with the children of Israel during the preparation time for the battle of Jericho, it was extended to a harlot and her family for her obedience and change of heart in accordance to the plan of God.  God would not and could not allow such detailed information concerning the victory over Jericho to surface without the same type of preparation on the part of Joshua and the children of Israel.  God always waits and sees what His prized people do when it comes time for any changing circumstance and He acts accordingly with the information He has given them previously.  This is evident in the battle plan that God had for Jericho and through the exact details of God’s authority would claim the victory over this city if they would obey His command.  It did not take forty years for this victory to be accomplished but it took only seven days for complete victory.  The difference was that the children of Israel listened AND obeyed what God had commanded them to do and it was through their obedience that made all the difference.

It is the condition of the heart that allows the person to choose to obey or not to obey the laws of the land and the same goes for the Laws of God.  As we see here in the battle of Jericho the people obeyed what God had commanded them to do and while it seemed like a simple command there still had to be obedience and direct completion of said command.  Because God was dealing with humans and with the idea that humans have about being superior to others, especially authority figures the truth must be incurred that the children of Israel could have done things their own way and blown the entire battle in the name of their selfish providence.  We see that this type of selfish display did not come into play at this time but after the victory was secured through the mighty hand of God, the human toll did acquire its possessive accounts.  This is a topic that will be addressed in the future but for now, we are sticking to the vision of laps taken for those who obey and for those who do not.

God understood that His people were still sinners, just as we are today but He also knew that they wanted to follow His command and to claim victory in His name.  Their families had wandered in the wilderness for forty years and while they were free from Egypt physically the entire process of getting Egypt out of their hearts took over forty years and the original departees from the condition of slavery were not allowed to see the Promised Land.  The laps around the wilderness weighed heavy on those people, this cannot be denied but when a people or even an individual becomes so stubborn in their own quest for freedom that they ignore their hearts and what it has acquired from that stay total freedom cannot be achieved because of this spiritual holding on to slavery.  As long as any part of our lives cling to the world then we are in danger of losing our lives and entering into an eternity without God and this loss shall be due to our continued support of spiritual slavery which shall automatically turn into physical slavery.

As long as we live in obedience to God and to His Ways our journeys will be more productive and will contain less fearful obstacles due to the ability to listen to the correct authoritative voice.  Never, as we take a breath on this earth will our journey ever be heartache free, but when we know that our guide is the almighty Creator of everything we will have the confidence to stand up and fight for our existence because we will know what kingdom and what realm to fight against.  It does not matter what kind of environment we may find ourselves in, God shall always guide us and will be there for our everyday needs, but most importantly we must allow Him complete access to our hearts while walking in this wilderness path for it will serve as the guideline for our remembrance pattern of how to trust in God and not our surroundings.  The children of Israel were free but were immediately led into the wilderness not as a punishment but as a time for them to restore their inner hearts back to God and to completely rid themselves of Egypt within.  The same children of Israel won a great victory over a heavily fortified and walled city, the method of the walls falling down was very unconventional but that is how faith, trust, and obedience in God are expressed to the world.

Another huge difference in these settings is the fact of how each looked at the walls surrounding their victory in that the obstacles around them were to be solved.  Of course, both settings offer us examples of understanding God and His Wisdom but due to the hindrance of spiritual slavery and the refusal to allow God to rid them of this condition, the walls of the wilderness proved to be detrimental to the children of Israel.  But on the other side of the issue, we have people that obeyed what God wanted to be done and with a whole heart that obedience shown through as the walls of that city collapsed and allowed for easy access to the enemy.  It is this difference that causes one’s faith to either rise or fall and gives definition as to how our mountains can be moved as well.  Which of these stories bring the most into light to our current state of affairs before the Church and her witness to the world?  The answer is both settings provide us with direct evidence of the condition of the heart in which the people in these biblical settings had and that we have as well.

God wants His people to know that He loves them so very much and that it is His desire not to see one more person lose their life and remain separated from Him for eternity.  This article has provided us with a great number of examples that we can use for our individual lives so that we may be better witnesses for those who are lost and do not know God.  There is no question that God heard the prayers and the cries of the children of Israel while they were in captivity in Egypt for their impossible situation was thwarted by God and they were freed from their captors.  However, they refused to allow their captors leave their lives completely and thus had to wait for a considerable amount of time to receive the promise that God had given them.  In the other example, we have here obedience was of the utmost and the accomplishment of God was fulfilled within a short amount of time and the children of Israel were victorious through the name of God.  Today, we see a floundering Church who cannot make up their mind and hearts about what to speak to a dying world.  Sadly, many of the people do not even consider the world to be bad are thus indifferent about teaching the Word of God.

It is unfortunate at best that we fail to recognize our own position in Christ so much that we cannot have any burden what-so-ever in allowing God to rule our entire lives.  We beg to have answers to some of the issues that surround us on a daily basis and react violently and with contempt to those who offer solutions that seem contrary to how we see things should be fixed.  Our apathy towards one another is downright repulsive and through this vitriol, we define our stance against our enemies.  Remember a while ago when we had the blessing of reading about “Your Age In God” article and we learned how God sees our maturity or lack of it?  How can we advance the Kingdom of God when we do not even consider the Word of God to be the authoritative and Holy Word of God?  There is nothing more than obedience that God wants from us and if we only would live under such authority then our problems will decrease and become minuscule so that we can again be the true witness that God wants for those who do not know Him.  The question that remains is this: are you going to continue to refuse God the complete access He desires in our hearts and then have us wander aimlessly and without cause and purpose for an undetermined amount of time or are we going to surrender our lives COMPLETELY?  It is not a hard question to answer but know that what we answer shall determine the direction of not only you personally but of this nation as well for it is the Church that directs the people and the direction that it shall walk or in other words how many laps we shall take.

DLB