v) I desire to give more than just hope to every believer, which lives in fear or in the inferiority complex or in any other spirits, which come from Satan and not from God. All our fear, worries, even the inferiority complex are present in our old creation, which has no value either for God or for any man. If the SPIRIT OF GOD TRULY LIVES IN US, THEN HE IS in us the foundation for all possibilities, which we did not even dream about and which we may today consider as unattainable, as “walking on water” or as an unrealistic dream. But the Lord is more than able to make out of each of us not only a successful believer, but a victor over Satan and over all the powers of evil and darkness in this entire Universe. The only ones, who stand in the way of the Lord towards this astonishing success a towards Lord’s great joy and satisfaction are WE OURSELVES! WE OURSELVES – our natural being with its fastidiousness, sheepishness, anxiety, unbelief, worries, uneasiness, inferiority complex, etc. So – we are the limiting factor for the Lord. We stand in His way in manifold manners, and all those “tests by fire”, in fact, remove US from His ways! They remove the fastidiousness, sheepishness, anxiety, unbelief, worries, uneasiness, inferiority complex and substitute them with peace, faith, trust, courage, vision… and thereby they free the way for the Lord so He may do in us and also outside of us what He needs to do for our spiritual growth and change.
Maybe the most eloquent Word of God, which touches precisely this fact of reality is found in Psalm 46:10, where the Lord gives us only one brief, but important instruction, saying: “Be still (calm down, be quiet, stop it), and know that I Am God:” Here, the Lord is inviting us to find out in our own selves, to have our own proof, that HE IS TRULY GOD ALMIGHTY and He is showing us how can we get to this knowledge and proof. It is possible by obeying His command “Be still…”, be quiet, calm down, stop talking, stop carrying and worrying, stop speculating… and this is not simple at all!
Let us look at two practical examples in the real life of His people.
v1) Victory at Jericho. When its stately walls fell down onto the ground by themselves, that was a valid proof that God is truly GOD. But this did not happen just automatically without Israel being prepared for a very strict test of quietness and trust. Joshua commanded people and said: “Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you Shout! Then shall ye shout” (Jos. 6:10). This means that all Israel was supposed to walk around Jericho for seven days in an absolute quietness – WITHOUT ONE WORD! Even without whispering among themselves. It is quite obvious from the above, that “be quiet” did not mean to be passive, paralyzed or idle. On the contrary, their quietness was a part of their active faith and obedience to God. They could only talk when they were returning from the walls into their tents, and in the morning when they were getting up and went back to the walls. As soon as they were assembled at the walls and began to walk, an absolute quietness dominated the scene! And if they looked up the walls, on top of them, no doubt, were many inhabitants of Jericho standing and watching that unusual “spectacle” down there. And if they were mocking them or throwing things down at them, the Israelites were tempted and desired to comment all this at least by whispering something to the neighbor. But even this was not allowed! They no doubt felt emotions, which must have compelled them to say something, anything, maybe just to cheer up their souls so they could continue in their obedience to be absolutely quiet. But even this was forbidden. God’s power does not manifest itself when we make a lot of noise, and this applies also to the so called services. Any rattle, comments or whispering would have dispersed their spiritual concentration and damaged their attention and focus, which they had to maintain to fulfill their God given task. They could start shouting only when Joshua gave them sign. Then they began to shout and blow trumpets – and the walls of Jericho fell down! When we talk much or pray much, the Lord waits and does nothing. The Lord starts to work only when we become quiet and obey Him, are focused on Him, have faith and trust in our souls that He is able to do what we cannot possibly do.
v2) Feeding of 5,000 people. This was equally impossible situation, which none of the people present was able to resolve. The Lord resolved it by commanding that the people would sit on the grass. And when the people obeyed and sat on the grass, the Lord blessed five loafs of bread and two fishes and began to give to His disciples and they started to hand out this food to those that were sitting on the grass (Jn. 6:9-11). It is evident that everyone was sitting as there is no mention that some would not be sitting, since they might have not received the food. The point here is that this miracle also took place only after all people obeyed and sat down on the grass waiting! This was a similar condition for the believing people through which, when they obeyed, they received a proof that Jesus Christ is GOD. Hence, they similarly had to obey to “be quiet… do not leave, do not speculate, just sit on the grass and wait!” They had nothing else to do. Therefore, if we obey and with trust turn to the Lord, He will show us His Power. “Be quiet” here means “sit on the grass” though in this case, people could speak; they were not commanded to be quiet as at Jericho.
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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