John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
There have been those who have gone beyond the standard Christianity set by tradition, over the centuries. We've heard about men and women who walked a Super-natural walk with God and sadly, we've followed after these people, instead of developing our own personal relationship with God. Many thousands of people came from miles around to see Oral Roberts and attend his revivals. This was great for many who were sick or diseased, but why wouldn't we stand on the same Promise and Word that Oral Roberts did, receiving from the same Heavenly Father?
Multitudes followed Jesus, because they could see a man and put their faith in that. Only certain people could walk in the Anointing and do miracles in the days of old. In this day and age, we're all anointed by and through the indwelling Holy Spirit. We've become the temple of the Holy Spirit, but it seems like we've given over having a personal relationship with Him, to others. We're not laboring to develop a personal relationship with God, on our own and rely on others to do that for us.
I understand that we don't all have the same calling, as far as ministry and I know that we're not all set in places of the five-fold ministry. But, we are all God's children and He wants to have a personal relationship with each of us. We've relied on others to develop our relationship with God, by their knowledge, instead of laboring to develop our own relationship with Him. We've made up excuses for why prayer doesn't work and accepted them as being Truth.
Prayer isn't something like playing the lottery, but it's a place of Rest in God. When we have the certainty of our needs being met by the Father, then we can Rest. 1John 5:14-15 (Amplified) says, "And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) we have in Him; we are sure that if we ask anything, make our request according to His will (in agreement with His Own Plan), He listens to and hears us. And if, since we positively know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know with settled and absolute knowledge, that we have granted us as our present possessions, the requests made of Him."
How long has it been since you have had the confidence, assurance, and the privilege of boldness to have settled and absolute confidence that your request will be granted to you? We've devised a myriad of answers and excuses for why our prayer life falls short of help from God. Many have simply stopped praying altogether, because it seems like nothing was happening. We've done like those in the Wilderness did. We read in Exodus 14:12 about their finding it much easier to stay in Egypt, rather than to labor to enter into God's Rest and trust in Him. This happened, even after they witnessed everything God did for them. We've not supposed to depend on a Moses, Joshua or Caleb to lead the way, because we have God's Own Spirit and assurance through Jesus, that "He will never leave us, nor forsake us, but will be with us always till the end of the world."
This isn't just a Promise God makes to the Church, but for each individual in the Church. Just because the majority wishes to stay in bondage and stay in Egypt, doesn't mean we have to stay there too. We must develop our own relationship with Jesus, by spending time with Him. We must learn to hear His Voice and not follow the voice of a stranger. Prayer was supposed to be a two-way source of communion with God. We were supposed to hear from On High and bring God's Presence into the life of men and women here on earth.
If you belong to the Father through Jesus, then these Promises are yours, even if others don't believe in them. If you're part of a fellowship that doesn't believe that God is still a Healer and you're sick, then do you have to remain sick because they say, "God doesn't heal any longer" or can you trust God for yourself? Romans 3:3-4 (Amplified) says, "What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and His fidelity to His Word? By no means! Let God be found True though every human being is false and a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified and shown to be upright in what you say, and prevail when you are judged by sinful men."
The Israelites in the Wilderness from Numbers 13, listened more to ten men who didn't believe God was able to fulfill His Word, which resulted in their dying in the Wilderness. Only two men (Joshua and Caleb) believed God's Promise. The majority is not always right. Hebrews 4:2 (Amplified) says, "For indeed we have had the glad tidings (Gospel of God), proclaimed to us just as the Good News of deliverance from bondage came to [those in the wilderness]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith, with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, by those who heard it, neither were they united in faith with the ones, Joshua and Caleb, who heard and did believe."
This wasn't God's choice or His Plan for the people He freed from the bondage of Egypt. God wanted the people to enter into His Rest and the Promised Land, but only Joshua and Caleb believed Him. The people chose not to believe Him and they were each responsible for their decision.
The "Wilderness Journey" being preached today in the Church, is false and shouldn't be accepted by God's people. We're being taught that, "We must all have our wilderness experience." The thing we call the wilderness experience, was of their own doing and not God's. They chose not to believe God and His deliverance for them. It might surprise you to know that not everything happening in your life is God's Plan or purpose for you.
Hebrews 4:2 tells us that the people didn't trust God and died in the Wilderness. We should focus on Verse 1, where Paul writes, "Therefore, while the Promise of entering His rest still holds today and is offered today, let us be afraid to distrust it, lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of reaching it." Some have already chosen to distrust it and are still in bondage, but for those who choose to do like Joshua and Caleb did, the Promise is still valid.
The Promise was made for everyone, but only some choose to believe. The people in the Wilderness were all God's children, but they didn't all enjoy the Fruit of the Promise or the Promised Land. God has many things in His Promise for us today, that are really not part of just going to Heaven when we die. His Promises are for us, while we're still here in these earthly bodies, as well as when we leave these bodies. Psalm 78:40-42 (KJV) says, "How oft did they provoke Him in the Wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert? Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy."
How many times have those of us in the Church Age, "temped and limited" our Heavenly Father? What sort of limits have we placed on Him with our saying, "God no longer does these things" or "Those things were for another time" or "God's Promises aren't for everyone." These things angered God and limited Him, when the people in the Wilderness said them. How much do you think we limit God in the "new and better covenant that is established on better Promises and all of these Promises are now Yes and Amen to the Glory of God in Christ Jesus," according to 2Corinthians 1:19-20.
Even if God's Promise wasn't fulfilled in my life, I would rather die going into the Promised Land, than to die in unbelief, in the Wilderness. We've made God's Promises, hard to walk in, by our own unbelief. God called it a Rest. We don't have to earn it or make it come to pass, we only need to trust in Him and His Word. Grace will do the rest.
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