1 Corinthians 2:9-14
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Starting question:
Question: in everyday life situations, how do we go about comparing spiritual things with spiritual things?
Answer: A right understanding of God’s word mixed with the discerning help of the Holy Spirit!
Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but [WE] will remember the name of the LORD our God.
Israel is about to go to war and before they do, King David does a wise thing. He goes to the house of the Lord and along with the congregation, they all pray together for victory.
This is what some of the rest of the prayer sounds like:
Psalms 20:1 The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;
Psalms 20:2 Send thee help from the sanctuary —this is where His presence dwells…Zion/sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion;
Psalms 20:3
Remember all thy offerings, Sing praises to the Lord O ye His saints & give thanks His holy name ps 30and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah—God remembers and accepts the worship of His anointed!
Psalms 20:5
We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.
Psalms 20:6 Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
Praise God. The Lord saves His anointed. In the New Testament you are the anointed of the Lord. He wants and expects you to do more than just come to church and sit down. And when you go out there to minister, you will be covered by the Lord. He desires for you to walk in the plans that He has for your life. You have been smeared with the oil of His presence. His word says that He will hear from heaven and He will save with the strength of His right hand. Your enemies may come against you. Family members, people that you thought were brothers and friends may come against you. People may secretly and maliciously want to see you fall, they may feel animosity in their heart towards you, say one thing to you and something else to someone else, but the God of Jacob will hear in the day of your trouble and He will deliver you. If God be for you who can be against you. Watch it! Watch how you treat the anointed of the Lord. That goes for everyone in this place. Look around, the eyes that you make contact with— these are the eyes of the people of God. The people that are anointed by their God.
The King said, “Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but [WE] will remember the name of our Lord!
Man, that’s good—- remember the name of Jesus!
Yahweh— The existing one
Jehovah Rapha—healer
Jehovah Shalom— peace
Jehovah Shammah— presence w us
Jehovah Tsidkenu —righteousness
Jehovah Nissi—our banner
Jehovah Jireh—provider
El Shaddai God almighty—all sufficient—omnipotent
Adonai— Lord God— you are my master— Abraham called him that
Life as a Christian would be so much simpler if there was a period at the end of that saying:
“Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but [WE] will remember the name of our Lord!
or better yet an exclamation point. I mean there is literally a form of punctuation, at least in the translation, but I’m talking faith. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of our God [exclamation point— period]!.
But O’ God, we your people repent. I repent Lord for myself and for all your people of all times when we place: a semi colon, a comma, a dash-dash, a comma and a coordinating conjunction comma [and] comma [but]
Isaiah 30:1-3
1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: 2 That walk to go down into Egypt— going somewhere else and haven’t asked the Lord about it and have not asked at my mouth;to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
PRAY
Isaiah 30:1-2 NASB
1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “Who execute a plan, but not Mine, And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, In order to add sin to sin; 2 Who proceed down to Egypt without consulting Me, To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh. And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
Isaiah prophecies and Israel lives in rebellion. They are no longer serving God. They go through the rituals of religion while living in rebellion and sin, like a Christian in church hearing the word but living in sin. People in the world and the church live like one day it’s not going to come to an end, like there won’t be any judgment to face, whether it’s a great white throne judgment or a judgment seat of Christ, both are final, and they are both rapidly approaching.
Much of the church world today doesn’t want to talk this way. It sounds mean, too harsh. We’ve been trained to accept the worlds ways in the church because we’ve grown accustomed to accepting the world into our lives.
Israel had been in sin, Judah, was also in sin, and their sin will result in bondage. Anytime, a child of God finds themselves in sin, or anytime they have a problem, they should go to God, no-one else, nothing else— Okay, if you have a friend or a spouse that tells you to go to God, that’s good, but YOU MUST GO TO GOD!
If you are living in sin right now and hear my voice, you need to know that you have an advocate waiting for you, but do not let a preacher lie to you and convince you that it’s okay.
We have an advocate…
1 John 2:1-4
Christ Our Advocate
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
1 John 3:6-7
6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
Succor…. Hebrews 2:18
For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour (Give aid) them that are tempted— it doesn’t mean that He wants to comfort you while you’re in your sin! No He has come to rescue you from its chains and fetters. He has come to release you from the snare of the Fowler
What the Lord has placed on my heart this morning are
Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses:but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
&
Isaiah 30:1-3
1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me;and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: 2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth;
The word that the Lord gave me this morning started with the thought of alliances that we make for ourselves. From that thought, the Lord gave me this scripture about improper coverings and alliances.
But in this case, they’re not going to God. They’re being tempted to go to Egypt to form an alliance or agreement to get help from another source instead of God and God calls that adding sin to sin.
God is chastening them because of their sin, and instead of them being willing to hear the rebuke of their Father and receive His correction— the correction is captivity, it’s what God has chosen, sin has consequences. Their consequence is a foreign country taking them into captivity— it’s going to happen Christian! If God plans a course of chastening, its coming, and the word clearly states to trust Him through it and endure the chastening of the Lord, endure and understand that the Lord chastens those whom He loves.
Alliances and coverings.
In my mind, prayer is one of the most powerful things that Christians can do and when we consider our own lives, we can probably admit that there have been seasons that we have neglected the privilege of bringing our petitions before God?
He already knows what we need, but He wants us to bring our needs before Him. Wednesday night they were singing that song, “You tore the veil! You made a way when you said that it is done!”
That means to me that you and I can bring our needs before the Lord. Jesus chose a parable about a wicked judge and widow that refused to stop asking:
Luke 18:1-8
1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
You know there are some really important things in our lives that we should pray about:
Our marriage
Our spouse
Our children
Our job
The church we go to
There is so much more that we should pray about
Our nation
Our friends
The rest of our family
Christians should pray all the time about everything. If that makes you feel irritated in your spirit because you don’t pray much, I’m not sorry! Get your heart right and what I just said will feel better!
Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray without ceasing.… whatever your definition of praying without ceasing is, it’s probably safe to say that most of God’s people are probably not praying as much as they should.
I didn’t say that they aren’t talking— Christians I mean— I didn’t say that they’re not talking. They’re talking, just a lot of the time, they’re talking to someone else besides God.
***Israel planned to sit down and talk to Egypt. God saw what they were doing. They were about to make the world (Egypt) their covering.
The word for alliance, more specifically the word covering used in the KJV is used multiple times to describe a molten image. The idea is that people are putting something before God. The covering is something that they are using for protection or comfort, support or even advice instead of God. It could be a multitude of things. It could be:
AA, NA, Alanon
It could be a Psychiatrist
It could be a counselor
It could be a medicine
It could be a job
It could be a church
It could be a Pastor
It could be a spouse
A friend. It could be a friend at work. It could be a spouse or a friend that mean well.
The point is, you’re talking to them instead of God. So, I can’t talk to my friend or my spouse? I’m not saying that we never talk to friends or spouses. I’m saying that it’s a slippery slope when alliances and coverings are trusted instead of God. When I speak to earthlings instead of God!
READ: This amazes me. Five different Christians, filled with the Spirit, have read the Bible for years, and all five have a differing opinion about the topic, and each will leave the situation convinced that they are right and the others are wrong. The reason that they believe that is because they pray and hear from God, but what if they all pray and they all hear. The only answer left must be that I am more spiritual than them, and they can’t see what I see. What about a spirit of humility? What about a teachable spirit that says, “Maybe, I’m wrong about this situation, or better yet, maybe all of us have some elements right and some elements that need to be tweaked and we all need to keep seeking Him and humbling self and when we do, we all may get closer to His truth? O’ Hallelujah I feel the Lord on that. We might be on to something church. The answer is to humble self, have a teachable spirit, talk less to earthlings and talk more to God! And everything must be aligned with the written word.
How should a Christian determine an answer to a situation? God’s word and God’s Spirit? All this garbage about, “I think or I feel needs to go!” It’s okay to think or feel a position on scripture but bring your biblical position, not just your opinion. That’s how the natural man makes a decision, not the spiritual man. Now, in the end if you don’t like something that’s fine too, that’s called an opinion, but that’s what it is an opinion, not the word of God.
Okay, I will stop, and leave you with this, since God’s people can’t agree that we all have the ability to hear from God, can we at least agree that we would be better off talking to God than other earthlings when we have an issue regarding important matters?
What is this covering or alliance that you have placed over yourself? It could be anything that you have in a place that is positioned between you and God and prevents you from going directly to God for the things that you have need of or the things that you have concerns about
Back to the things that we should pray about:
What happens when something good like a friend, more specifically a brother or sister in the Lord becomes my source of information regarding God’s will about my marriage or the way that things are going at the church? Maybe they agree with me in my frustrations. Yeah, I agree with you about the way that your husband does that, that needs to stop or you need to get rid of him, or vice versa, that needs to stop or you need to get rid of her. I’m not saying that there is never a scenario where this could be true, but do you realize how easily we can manipulate our own story in our mind and share it with others who will agree with us, and just because we agree with each other it doesn’t mean that the Lord agrees with us.
We can take this scenario into the church. I don’t agree with Pastor on that. I don’t like the way that is being done. I believe that is wrong, what about you what do you think? Yeah, I kind of agree with you about that. Let’s see what he says or she says… We all agree that Pastor is wrong about this, and surely we’re right because look how many of us agree with each other. We have formed an alliance, and there is a bunch of us, so we must be right. And we pray and we hear from God.
In your experience in the world, when things aren’t going the way you want to, what is the normal course of action that you have moved towards? Say for instance you go to work or even a family get together and you’re around people that you’re familiar with and something is heavy on your heart, what is it that you’re likely to do at that moment?
You will likely begin to talk about the things that are concerning you—right? And then the person that you’re talking to, what will be their likely response? They will likely give their opinion on the matter. They may not influence your thoughts on the matter, but it’s hard to think that their opinions or words and your opinions and words would not likely influence the thinking on the situation. And if we have allowed our opinions to influence our thinking, is it possible that we have influenced our thinking and brought it outside of the will of God?
David was about to go to war and at that time, he knew what to do, and he wrote:
Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will remember the Lord our God!
