Driven by the Spirit or Fear?

  I asked myself if it was David’s fear or the Holy Spirit that drove David to go live among the Philistines. (I Samuel 27 –it’s an awesome story.) Perhaps it was the Holy Spirit using David’s fear.  What I realized is that it didn’t really matter in the scope of things.  God knew everything about David.  He loved him, he called him, he protected him, instructed him and fulfilled his plan for David’s life and all the promises he made.

  I remember how hard it hit me when I realized that this man of the bible, that I admired so much, was far less than perfect –except in his faith.  You may say, “But if he doubted, then he was not perfect in faith.”  Yet, like Abraham, he believed God and that ran his life regardless of the things he didn’t get right.  Faith counted for righteousness again. 

  Even Elijah spoke in doubt a couple of times.  But when God spoke, Elijah believed him and it drove him.  God is bigger than mankind’s weakness.  God is not flighty or changeable. 

  He certainly was not in David’s life.  And David was not unaccustomed to walking into precarious situations.  He had, just before this, walked into the center of Saul’s camp at night with one other man and taken the king’s water bottle and spear.  I think he knew God had caused a supernatural sleep, but he still taunted the head of Saul’s army about not guarding his king.

  So it is that we find David living among the enemy, conducting raids on a regular basis, continuing his fight for his nation even as a fugitive.  We find David asking the king to give him a place to live outside the capital city and the king’s palace and being given Ziklag as a dwelling for his men and their families and flocks.

  Regardless of what drove him there, it is the story of a bold, purposed life.

Also Miraculous.

This morning I got a bit of insight into the purpose of miracles.  I have mentioned before that I’ve seen many miracles in my life.  I’ve also seen miracles not happen at what seemed like the crucial moment.  I believe in a miracle working God completely and I’ve asked him many times for understanding about why one and not the other.  I came to the conclusion several years ago that all the hoops people create that put this and that onto the miraculous as conditions are just man trying to be in control of one more thing –the miraculous.  It would seem that the very word opposes such. 

As a result of years of my own study, prayer and seeking –listening many hours to this preacher and that teacher and coming away as unconvinced as ever- I’ve kinda walked away from the ‘faith’ teachers.  I have not walked away from faith or teachers.  Without faith –that includes the miraculous and the seeming lack of the miraculous- it is impossible to please God.  There wasn’t much to look at when God said take your stuff and follow me, or when he said, “You guys are old, but you’re going to have a son by Sarah,” but Abraham believed God and it became his righteous standing before God, pure and simple.  Every now and again, I’ll hear a speaker –preacher, teacher or friend- in my spirit.  God will say “Pay attention.”  This also happens when I read scripture.

God is training me to hear and respond.  We are created as earthlings and we are raised to hear and respond to the natural world.  In my teacher training I became well acquainted to the concept of ‘lifelong learners.’  We are created new as spirit beings and we are taught to hear and respond to the Spirit.  I hope to continue to pursue that to for the rest of my earth life.  With that said, I will back track to this morning.

I was seeing people in a different light this morning.  I was being stirred in my spirit as I looked on familiar and not so familiar faces.  First I realized that I truly love that body of believers.  I think God is responsible for the kind of love I feel.  Some are friends, some aren’t, really.  Some have insulted and debased me at times, some have encouraged and supported me throughout my time there, but I realized this morning that the love I feel for them is universal.  I think it is because God loves them universally and, so, I do; I must.

Second, I realized that most if not all of them have some serious needs.  They may not raise their hands or ask for prayer or they may, but they have needs, prayer needs, deep, sometimes overwhelming, prayer needs.  And God loves the ladies that have lost children to disease and disaster as much as the ladies who live a cush life and pray for prodigals that have broken the heart and spirit.  He love’s the drug addict as much as the squeaky clean business man.

That leads me to the third thing that became obvious: All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.  Some have brought Jesus into their hearts and lives through faith in his grace by a pure life forfeited for us and given back after three days to be raised to sit at God’s right side and argue our case, since he will live for ever and cares enough to take our side. Some have never reached that point of regeneration and restoration and don’t yet know the power of the Holy Spirit sent to lead us into right thinking and right living.  And yet God is still in this world reconciling people to himself through the sacrifice of His son.  He loves them all and desires them all.

It was then that the Spirit whispered the thing I know and knew, but didn’t really understand.  “The miracle comes to create questions in the mind of the people.  Some will not ask the right question this time.  Some will and they will be changed.  The believers should be ready to answer the questions like Peter and John did: “Why are you looking at us as though we made this man well?  Jesus, who you crucified but was raised by God, has done this great thing.”  They went on to preach to and win those who were ready.  The battle is the LORD’s.  The strategy is him.  The orders are his.  The success is his.  If the miracle is not there, his word still will not return empty because he promised.  The glory is his.  The purpose is that men would know him in truth.  The believer’s responsibility is to be ready to give the answer when the question is asked.

And so I questioned “But sometimes you meet your children in a parking lot or by a sick bed or at the desk paying bills.  Sometimes the miracles have nothing to show to the outside world for they are hidden in the life, cries and tears of a believer.”  But he continued my thought. “And when the believer is thankful, when the miracle becomes part of a testimony, the questions will arise.  And when the believer knows to honor me, the unbeliever or the new believer will turn their heart to me.”

I recalled Jesus words “If I am elevated, all men will be drawn to me” to believe and turn and be healed from unrighteousness.  The heart is the issue.  The body will die or be changed but the heart is the issue.  That coat you prayed for was only a coat unless it became a testimony.  Another day to live is meaningless if Jesus is not honored and lifted up for others to know.  The purpose of miracles is to turn eyes to Jesus and help people believe in the impossible and improbable – eternal redemption of a failed life.

And so I trust God with the outcome.  I will pray for healing and be ready with an answer when the question comes.  I will pray for mercy on the road and testify to what I have been given and be ready to answer when the question comes.  I will speak my desires before God in private prayer and testify to his faithfulness and intervention and be ready with an answer when the question comes.  But when people sit in darkness, bound by chains, I will love, pray and believe and be ready to show the Christ of the Bible to those who have not witnessed a miracle and leave the rest to God.  He knows how and when to fight his own battle and the battle is the LORD’s.