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| Earl Gillespie |
What Is The Promise of God?
Reminiscing on the testimony of the church lady, she spoke of the many things she had placed before God, and how she was waiting for God to fulfill his promise. A mental picture was painted of a young lady standing with faith and conviction, waiting on God. As her health began to deteriorate it still could be said that she never wavered in her faith. When the hands of death seem to reach out and caress her, it was that mental picture that caused some to stumble. There can be no question as to whether God keeps his promise, because to think otherwise would be destructive to the faith. Yet, when we hear the masses interfacing their prayers with, "Lord, you said you would, or Lord, I know you will," and it seems as if God is silent, it is important that we ask and re-ask, "What is the promise of God?"
When the children of Israel were enslaved in the land of Egypt, they prayed fro the promise of deliverance, but God was silent. Between the Old and the New Testament God was silent for at least four hundred because of the sins of his people. Today we cannot accept or even consider the implications of a silent God. A miracle once was considered to be something that stood apart and could not be explained in-according to the natural laws put in place by God. Even the Devil was forced to acknowledge the power of God. In todays society we have to dumb-down the meaning of blessing and miracles to show that God is doing great things for us.
According to modern day prophets, we are standing on the threshold of massive blessing being poured out. On any given day there is a cloud of witnesses testifying of the blessings they have received, from waking up in the morning to buying new cars. There seems to be a great need to study and understand what is a blessing. Everything that God allows or provide is not a blessing.
In the Bible, a blessing was something special. When a blessing was given it gave the receiver the power to act in the name of the giver. Isaac had two sons, one he blessed and the other he did not offer the blessing, yet they both were his sons and enjoyed the wealth of their father's household. They both enjoyed the fruit of the land and became prosperous. One received 'the' blessing from his father and the other did not.
The recreation of God has allowed us to form God in our own image, as a good God who is standing ready to give us all of the good stuff. A sellable attribute of Christianity is, "For 35.98, I can show you how to get what you want from God'. Now, I am forced to ask, Is this scripture or is this a gimmick? Why is it hard to hear a message from God without the request for money? Did God say if you give me some money I will give you a blessing? A better question is, can we buy God's blessings?
The evolution of modern day religion into an entertainment platform has allowed Christianity to morph into a come and get your blessing platform. One cannot help but wonder whether or not this expectation was shared by John the Baptist, Peter, Paul or even Jesus Christ. It seems that the ancient promulgators of Christian lore were content to live a life lack and persecution with the hope of reigning with Christ in the Kingdom to come. Oops, now ain't that what salvation is all about, been saved from the destruction that is coming upon this earth, and ruling with Christ when his new kingdom is established? The evolution of Christianity is fueled by the lack of knowledge as to what Heaven is like.
God promised the Children of Israel, he would fight for them. Deuteronomy 1:30 The LORD your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; When their enemies came up against the supernatural power of God, they were left with one expression, the God of Israel is a powerful God and he struck fear in their hearts. Exodus 14:18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. It seems that there was a greater purpose here rather than providing a way across the Red Sea. In the vernacular of the church lady, "God can do anything he want to", seems to indicate that God could have delivered the Children of Israel without the parting of the Red Sea. It seems that he was trying to establish that He was God and there was none other.
The works of God and the promises of God are divided and separated by ages and dispensations. The legal dispensation that ended when Jesus said, "it's finished", ushered in the dispensation of grace. In this dispensation it is the works of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, that is supposed to serve as our guide. The Bible clearly states that there was a time when the Father enacted with his creation, they became so unruly that he left and went into a far country, then he sent his son. They killed his son.
Proper prospective is important in understanding the Word of God, We can claim the blessing of Abraham like a little kid who want all of the toys and we can even promote living by a Jewish Law. We can mix the Word of God into a polluted mess, one group saying this and another group saying this. We can even claim that prayer is the solution to the problems of the world and charge money to open the doorway to Heaven. This world has already been condemned to a day of judgement, praying for world peace is a wasted effort. According to the Book of Revelation the promise is salvation and it is extended on an individual base.
The lady sitting in the Wal-mart parking lot praying for God to start her car was in no way deterred by the strange looks given her by shoppers as they passed by. It was obvious from the smell of the exhaust that the engine was flooded, but her prayers were for God to work a miracle and this miracle was to be preformed in the parking lot of the local Walmart store. She would even later testify of how God worked that miracle and started her car. Once this type of testimony become in vogue many began to testify of incidents where God repaired cars and performed other irreverent acts. When Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, why God did not allow him to use a full fighting force. When the Children of Israel cried out for water, why didn't God send Moses out into the wilderness to find a rock that was already gushing water? These are examples that we ought to live by.
When Jesus was called to raise Lazarus from the dead, he alluded to the fact that he was doing it so that those standing there might believe. From that demonstration we can conclude that Jesus is able to raise the dead, but except on special occasions as it was prophesied, we have not seen an influx of people being raised from the dead. Modern day leaders have perfected the art of selling the blessings of God. It is an MLM scheme, a get rich quick scheme, an I want to be a superstar, look at my fancy suit, my big house, my fancy car, I will show you how to get the same thing. God forbid, what happen to the promise of salvation? There is a massive move to capitalize on the need for hope in this world. If we are peddling hope in this world, then our message of Christianity is a contradiction. Many have tried to recreate the miracles of Jesus through trickery and special television effects only to be tried and found wanting.
When your life revolves around cancer, treatments, death, survival and the bizarre side effects of cancer treatment, acceptance is highly rated on your "bucket list". Acceptance allows you to spend your days in peace, not screaming out of your belly and begging for a little more time to indulge in the frailties of mortal fantasies. Acceptance allows you to believe in God without believing that God has preordained that he was going to heal you. We often want to believe in the healing virtue of God so bad that many go to their death begging for God to heal or deliver them.
John the Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was allowed to languish in jail until his head was chopped off. There is no record of John crying and begging Jesus to come and deliver him. John accepted the facts that his death was imminent, his only prayer was, "are you the Christ or shall we look for another."
All of Jesus disciples approached death bravely. Simon Peter had numerous chances to escape, but he chose not to because it would have endangered those that was assigned to guard him. Paul said he was caught in a dilemma, he wanted to go, yet he wanted to stay for the good he could do.
Revelation 3:19-22 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
When the children of Israel were enslaved in the land of Egypt, they prayed fro the promise of deliverance, but God was silent. Between the Old and the New Testament God was silent for at least four hundred because of the sins of his people. Today we cannot accept or even consider the implications of a silent God. A miracle once was considered to be something that stood apart and could not be explained in-according to the natural laws put in place by God. Even the Devil was forced to acknowledge the power of God. In todays society we have to dumb-down the meaning of blessing and miracles to show that God is doing great things for us.
According to modern day prophets, we are standing on the threshold of massive blessing being poured out. On any given day there is a cloud of witnesses testifying of the blessings they have received, from waking up in the morning to buying new cars. There seems to be a great need to study and understand what is a blessing. Everything that God allows or provide is not a blessing.
In the Bible, a blessing was something special. When a blessing was given it gave the receiver the power to act in the name of the giver. Isaac had two sons, one he blessed and the other he did not offer the blessing, yet they both were his sons and enjoyed the wealth of their father's household. They both enjoyed the fruit of the land and became prosperous. One received 'the' blessing from his father and the other did not.
The recreation of God has allowed us to form God in our own image, as a good God who is standing ready to give us all of the good stuff. A sellable attribute of Christianity is, "For 35.98, I can show you how to get what you want from God'. Now, I am forced to ask, Is this scripture or is this a gimmick? Why is it hard to hear a message from God without the request for money? Did God say if you give me some money I will give you a blessing? A better question is, can we buy God's blessings?
The evolution of modern day religion into an entertainment platform has allowed Christianity to morph into a come and get your blessing platform. One cannot help but wonder whether or not this expectation was shared by John the Baptist, Peter, Paul or even Jesus Christ. It seems that the ancient promulgators of Christian lore were content to live a life lack and persecution with the hope of reigning with Christ in the Kingdom to come. Oops, now ain't that what salvation is all about, been saved from the destruction that is coming upon this earth, and ruling with Christ when his new kingdom is established? The evolution of Christianity is fueled by the lack of knowledge as to what Heaven is like.
God promised the Children of Israel, he would fight for them. Deuteronomy 1:30 The LORD your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; When their enemies came up against the supernatural power of God, they were left with one expression, the God of Israel is a powerful God and he struck fear in their hearts. Exodus 14:18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. It seems that there was a greater purpose here rather than providing a way across the Red Sea. In the vernacular of the church lady, "God can do anything he want to", seems to indicate that God could have delivered the Children of Israel without the parting of the Red Sea. It seems that he was trying to establish that He was God and there was none other.
The works of God and the promises of God are divided and separated by ages and dispensations. The legal dispensation that ended when Jesus said, "it's finished", ushered in the dispensation of grace. In this dispensation it is the works of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, that is supposed to serve as our guide. The Bible clearly states that there was a time when the Father enacted with his creation, they became so unruly that he left and went into a far country, then he sent his son. They killed his son.
Proper prospective is important in understanding the Word of God, We can claim the blessing of Abraham like a little kid who want all of the toys and we can even promote living by a Jewish Law. We can mix the Word of God into a polluted mess, one group saying this and another group saying this. We can even claim that prayer is the solution to the problems of the world and charge money to open the doorway to Heaven. This world has already been condemned to a day of judgement, praying for world peace is a wasted effort. According to the Book of Revelation the promise is salvation and it is extended on an individual base.
The lady sitting in the Wal-mart parking lot praying for God to start her car was in no way deterred by the strange looks given her by shoppers as they passed by. It was obvious from the smell of the exhaust that the engine was flooded, but her prayers were for God to work a miracle and this miracle was to be preformed in the parking lot of the local Walmart store. She would even later testify of how God worked that miracle and started her car. Once this type of testimony become in vogue many began to testify of incidents where God repaired cars and performed other irreverent acts. When Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, why God did not allow him to use a full fighting force. When the Children of Israel cried out for water, why didn't God send Moses out into the wilderness to find a rock that was already gushing water? These are examples that we ought to live by.
When Jesus was called to raise Lazarus from the dead, he alluded to the fact that he was doing it so that those standing there might believe. From that demonstration we can conclude that Jesus is able to raise the dead, but except on special occasions as it was prophesied, we have not seen an influx of people being raised from the dead. Modern day leaders have perfected the art of selling the blessings of God. It is an MLM scheme, a get rich quick scheme, an I want to be a superstar, look at my fancy suit, my big house, my fancy car, I will show you how to get the same thing. God forbid, what happen to the promise of salvation? There is a massive move to capitalize on the need for hope in this world. If we are peddling hope in this world, then our message of Christianity is a contradiction. Many have tried to recreate the miracles of Jesus through trickery and special television effects only to be tried and found wanting.
When your life revolves around cancer, treatments, death, survival and the bizarre side effects of cancer treatment, acceptance is highly rated on your "bucket list". Acceptance allows you to spend your days in peace, not screaming out of your belly and begging for a little more time to indulge in the frailties of mortal fantasies. Acceptance allows you to believe in God without believing that God has preordained that he was going to heal you. We often want to believe in the healing virtue of God so bad that many go to their death begging for God to heal or deliver them.
John the Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was allowed to languish in jail until his head was chopped off. There is no record of John crying and begging Jesus to come and deliver him. John accepted the facts that his death was imminent, his only prayer was, "are you the Christ or shall we look for another."
All of Jesus disciples approached death bravely. Simon Peter had numerous chances to escape, but he chose not to because it would have endangered those that was assigned to guard him. Paul said he was caught in a dilemma, he wanted to go, yet he wanted to stay for the good he could do.
Revelation 3:19-22 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
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