As believers we should be cognisant of the fact that things will not always happen according to our wishes and desires. Even for Abraham, the father of faith, he passed through trying times before he could see the promise of the Lord being fulfilled. When believers face problems, they are rested and they know that it’s their resting that will cause their Father in heaven to pay attention to them. Let us read, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1).
It is important that we become positive in the Lord so that we may not be distracted from faith. This will help you because when you believe right, then you will live right. So, there are important things in this passage that I want us to look at, first thing is the name of the king. The name of the king is Uzziah, the Hebrew name, which in English is the strength of Jah (God). This speaks of Jesus when He was on the cross. When Jesus died for our sins on the cross, He died in the strength of the Lord, God was gloried in His heavenly throne. The bible goes on to say that the train of His robe filled the temple; I believe this speaks of healing.
Let me elaborate, “And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment” (Matthew 9:20). The bible speaks of the train (hem) that filled the temple. In this instance, we understand that when Jesus died on the cross, God’s healing was able find everyone in His temple. We know that when Jesus came initially, He came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Read Matthew 15:24). Conversely, when Jesus died on the cross, His healing was able to touch everyone. Subsequently, if you are sick wherever you are right now, accept God’s healing because it’s being given to you freely. Hey, see God in a positive way, see God always willing to see you well and see you healed.
The dispensation of God’s healing is in the past but it’s being given continuously to us each day as we claim it from Him. I say to you right now, be healed of whatever sickness you have or any pain that you may be having in your body right now. Believe in the Lord for His divine healing! The bible says, “...And by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). It’s not our intelligence or the diet plan we are following. Therefore, let us not put our trust on working out or diets, but let us trust Jesus for good health. However, I don’t suggest that people should stop working out and eating healthy food.
Now people of God, the Prophet Isaiah here on this day of distress, he saw the Lord gloried. Imagine how many bad things happen in our lives yet we curse the Lord. Even Job when things turned bad against him, his wife advised him to curse the Lord and die. She knew however that cursing God would cause him to die, yet she advised him so. It’s important who is next to you in your days of tragedy, because if you are with a mundane person, you will do something foolish and suffer the consequences.
When you trust in the Lord, you will always experience happy endings because you don’t see the bad in the Lord but the good only. I don’t suggest that you will always be happy with no problems at all, but even when those problems do come in your life, you will always be positive knowing that the Lord is with you always. Paul said, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). Now we understand that as long as the Lord is with us we are able to stand tall. Now, can the Lord leave us? No. He cannot leave us.
The bible attests saying, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6). Now these words encourage you in a positive way saying that you must strong and encouraged, God will not leave you. This is unqualified. I want to show you this verse where it’s used in the New Testament, it reads, “...For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).
The Hebrew translation for these words He will not leave you, mean that He won’t fail you. However, the writer of the book of Hebrews brings out these beautiful words, He will never leave you. Take note, the word in Hebrew râphâh (רָפָה) means to slacken although it’s still used for leave. The Greek brings out the words ou mē (oύ μή) which is the double negative strengthening the denial. For that reason, God has no intention of leaving you and He cannot do that.
Do you understand the meaning of these words ou mē? God is love. We are the ones who decide to desert God, although so, the bible says that the shepherd still goes and search for the lost sheep. What a wonderful Saviour we have. My dear reader, be a kind of believer that believes in the Lord not only when things go well but even when things seem to go south. The bible says, “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away” (Hebrews 2:1).
My dear friends, this is a reminder that whatever we heard being preached, we must hold fast to it so that we may not drift away. This however doesn’t suggest when we drift away we will lose our salvation. This implies that we will be away from God, but with our salvation still intact in a place where we won’t be glorifying God. When this happens, all the blessings we received from the Lord will be lost. Then what will happen? We will run back to God. When one is cognisant of the Lord, when things go wrong, he will remember how the Lord blessed him and immediately he will go back to the Lord.
Let me quickly provide a reference: “And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger” (Luke 15:13-17).
The younger son decided that it was too inconvenient for him to have his inheritance managed by his father; therefore he wanted to take what was due to him and manage it for himself. This sounds like most of us, when the Lord blesses us we feel like we are being robbed if we are asked to honour Him with our tithes. However, if we can have a good opinion of God, we cannot see tithing as a burden. Above all, tithing in the New Covenant serves as witness that Jesus lives (read Hebrew 7:8).
Therefore, this young man rejected the supremacy of his father and sought the independence where he could spend all that he had with no one reprimanding him. He thought that was cool little did he know that he would be poorer than almost everyone else. When we reject the Lord, our state of being changes for the worse, just imagine a Jewish man eating food meant for pigs. My fellow believers, when we deliberately forsake God’s way, we will inevitably invite the bad things to happen in our lives.
Why would the bad things come into our lives? The Lord Jesus said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten...” (Revelation 3:19). The word chasten in the Greek is paideύō which in English means to train up a child or to discipline (by punishment). Therefore, the Lord chastens believers not people of the world. When you leave Him, He will chasten you by allowing things to be hard on your side till you remember where He took you from.
This is why the Prodigal Son remembered where he came from. Listen, after we have messed up we develop a sense of pride and think we can fend off with our self-efforts which lead to even more frustrations. We want to prove to God that we can also do better by ourselves, like how this younger son did but that dragged him even deeper when he was hired to feed the pigs. The pigs in the Jewish tradition are the picture of uncleanness. Therefore I submit to you that the Lord will expose you in your sins, and He will cause you to suffer financially and you will have nowhere to go but Him.
Others don’t make it back alive, some lose their lives. We don’t want that, am I right? Whether they went heaven or hell, we still want to live and see our dreams becoming possible. Paul said, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). Now understand this, we are called to reconcile to God. What does that mean? It means that we had a bad opinion about God.
Then through Christ, we are made God’s righteousness in Him. Now believers, I recommend this to you, if you are under attack of certain addiction, you have to confess your position in God and not your state. What is your position? Your position is that, ‘You are the righteousness of God in Christ.’ Remember that this is who you are in God apart of the works of the flesh. You don’t need man’s approval about your position in God, you only need to believe it that you are God’s righteousness.
Therefore, if you believe in this, there is no way the devil will be able to defeat you. When you confess your position in Christ, your addictions won’t find any grip on your life. Through this, you will find freedom. The bible says, “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). Now if you reign in life through the abundance of grace, then your sinful passions won’t reign that includes your addictions because you have been touched by the grace of God.
Therefore, it is clear in this regard that confessing that you are God’s righteousness in Christ it’s not an excuse to suit your conscience while continuing sinning. It’s a way of saying to Satan, ‘I belong to God’, and to God it’s as if you are saying, ‘Father, set me free from this addiction.’ Subsequently, those who repeatedly confess that they are God’s righteousness in Christ, they rise above their sinful passions and reign in life. We must preach more on grace and righteousness than on what should a man do or shouldn’t do so that the Holy Spirit begins working in that person’s life.
The devil will always try to make us feel as if we don’t deserve certain things, but when we confess that we are still in our Father’s hands no matter what, then we will always be faithful and the devil won’t have anything to accuse us anymore. This is why we must see God even in the utmost darkness, King David said, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me...(Psalm 23:4). Positive statement, ‘For You are with me’, when? In the utmost darkness, perhaps even where death is lurking.
We must always have this positive attitude toward God everyday and not allowing these repelling statements from our fellow believers that God is with you only if you are with Him. In fact, when you are feeling dejected, God comes to you personally than when you are at your best. See Psalm 23:4, and again the disciples who were dejected going to Emmaus Jesus saw it fit to go them by Himself and opened the scriptures for them personally. My friend, those disciples were disappointed pertaining to what had happened concerning Jesus.
When you are feeling down and feeling like dropping everything, remember this beloved, Jesus comes to you directly. He won’t send angels. Jesus values you more than you can ever imagine; have a positive attitude and understand that you are loved and valued. See Him loving, caring and supportive even during your days of hardships. We have to be cognisant of the fact that we will not always be on cloud nine, or fit as a fiddle, but God will always come to heal us and to comfort us.
Again beloved, every cloud has a silver lining, read what Paul said, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Stay justified...!
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