From the desk of Steve Shultz:
I like this opening statement by Kathi Pelton: "It is the Lord's desire to bless His people!" She goes on to say: "If you have been in a season of testing and refining (and I'm sure that most of you have), then do not lose heart, because your season of testing is unto a release of a lifetime of blessings."
It's sure hard to see the "blessing" through the trials and testings we go through, BUT THEY ARE THERE! Read this word by Kathi and be encouraged for the blessings coming your way.
By the way, here are also a couple of resources that will help you know just how blessed you are:
Blessings,
Steve Shultz
Steve Shultz, Founder and Publisher
The ElijahList, Breaking Christian News and Prophetic.tv
http://www.elijahlist.com
Kathi Pelton:
"The Blessings of an Obedient Life"
Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God...—Deuteronomy 28:1-2
It is the Lord's desire to bless His people! His blessings upon our lives are not just "wishful thinking" in the minds of Believers, but they are God's promises to His children who will live according to all the words that He has spoken to us. If you have been in a season of testing and refining (and I'm sure that most of you have), then do not lose heart, because your season of testing is unto a release of a lifetime of blessings.
Though I cannot speak to each of you individually, I can speak to the larger Body of Christ and say that we have sometimes been a bit "hard of hearing" in the past season. Though I know that we have walked in the level of discernment that we have known, there is a maturing coming upon us which is releasing a greater ability to hear.
In the past season, there has been grace to walk in a mixture of natural logic and understanding as well as God's knowledge and wisdom. But as we are going through this season of refinement, I have found that many I talk to these days are not satisfied with any mixture, but in each decision they only want God's wisdom. It is as if there has been a "crossing over" from the wilderness into the Promised Land; but before possessing the land there had to be a circumcision in our lives in order to prepare us to walk only by His instructions.
God's Ways Are Not Our Ways
Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in. The LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors. You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days.
"Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
"It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead."—Joshua 6:1-5
Let's face it—there is no mixture of man's logic or wisdom in these instructions! But, God's ways are not our ways. God had a plan to reveal His power as His children obeyed His voice—not the voice of logic but the voice of God.
God's instructions to Joshua were ridiculous in the eyes of men. What kind of strategy is there in marching around a city for days, and then letting out a shout? If your goal is to be mocked by those on the walls of that city, it is a great strategy! But, God wasn't concerned about showing the strength of men, but rather showing His glory and power in the midst of the weakness of men who were simply willing to obey.
My husband and I feel a bit like those who marched around the walls of Jericho right now, because what the Lord has asked us to do looks like absolute foolishness, even to us. But, like Joshua, we know that we have heard the voice of our God, and so we obey. The amazing thing is that, just as the walls of Jericho fell, all that God has spoken to us will happen too. Obedience releases miracles!
The Blessings
Deuteronomy 27:9-13 recounts how God separated the tribes on two mountains to release both the curses of disobedience and the blessings of obedience:
Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, "Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have become a people for the LORD your God. You shall therefore obey the LORD your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you today."
Moses also charged the people on that day, saying, "When you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. For the curse, these shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali."
This did not happen prior to the crossing of the Jordan River; but as soon as the crossing over had taken place, God "raised the bar" of obedience. The consequences of disobedience were greater, but the blessings of an obedient life were (and still are) amazing. Let's look at the blessings that God releases upon those who keep His commandments:
Deuteronomy 28
If you will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed the voice of the Lord your God.
Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock.
Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.
Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.
The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouse and in all that you undertake. And He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
The Lord will establish you as a people holy to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.
And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name (and in the presence of) the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.
And the Lord shall make you have a surplus of prosperity, through the fruit of your body, of your livestock, and of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
The Lord shall open to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day and are watchful to do them.
And you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
I believe that over the past couple of years the Body of Christ has experienced a time of "crossing over," a time of circumcision, and a time of consecration that requires a higher level of hearing and obeying the voice of His instructions. Hearing and obeying is the key to great blessings. This is a time that we need to flee from any place of presumption in our lives. We cannot just go about our days in the ways that we used to. We must stop, listen and obey, even when we do not understand His instructions.
The Purification
Now that I have your attention with all of these wonderful blessings in store for us, let me address the process of purification that we have been going through leading up to this point in time. Let's go back to when the Israelites crossed the Jordan in Deuteronomy 27:2-7:
So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime and write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over, so that you may enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.
So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime.
Moreover, you shall build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield an iron tool on them.
You shall build the altar of the LORD your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to the LORD your God; and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God.
Prior to the release of the blessings of obedience in Deuteronomy 28, God first gives instructions of how to build an altar of stones to Him on which His law will be written. I believe that these verses are a picture of the "living stones" that God is preparing at this time.
In verse 2 they are instructed with these words, "...shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime..." These were large stones because they were not to be cut by the tools of man, but they were to remain uncut. Even today, God is restoring us back to the form that He originally intended for us. He is healing us from the areas in our lives that have been distorted by the hands of man's "tools" or religious ways.
Then the stones were "coated with lime" (which makes a plaster to hold them together). Here is the Hebrew definition of lime:
The Hebrew word so rendered means "boiling" or "effervescing." From Isaiah 33:12 it appears that lime was made in a kiln lighted by thorn-bushes. In Amos 2:1 it is recorded that the king of Moab "burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime." The same Hebrew word is used in Deuteronomy 27:2-4, and is there rendered "plaster." Limestone is the chief constituent of the mountains of Syria. (Easton's Bible Dictionary)
Once again, we as living stones are being coated with lime as the plaster that will usher in the unity that Jesus prays for in John 17:20-21: I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
The lime is made in a kiln lit by thorn-bushes, and this represents the fiery kiln that we have been in to prepare us during this past season. The "thorn-bushes" in our lives are being burned away and creating the fire for this preparation. I know that personally I have been quite surprised by the "thorns" that I became aware of in this past year that I had no idea were present in my life. I also have experienced a "burning away" of these thorns in my life that could have posed a threat to God's plans for me in the days ahead. Plus, how can you be "one" or in unity with someone whose life is like a thorn bush? Have you ever hugged a rose bush? They are beautiful to look at, but not to embrace.
I remember when my youngest son was four or five years old, he was learning to ride his bicycle without training wheels. On his first loop around our cul-de-sac he did great, but the second time around he crashed straight into a rose bush. We could barely see his little body that now was "one" with this thorn bush. If it wasn't bad enough seeing him crash into it, it was even worse getting him out of it. His entire body was scratched and bleeding from the thorns tearing into his flesh. Sometimes interacting with others has been like crashing into a thorn-bush; it rips and tears going in and coming out. This has been a huge obstacle in seeing the desire of Jesus to have us "be one as (He) and the Father are one."
In God's mercy and love He has allowed the thorn-bushes in our lives to become the fuel to refine us into what the Master Potter desires us to be. We will not be vessels formed by the hands of man but by the hands of God. I hope that I am painting a picture through the Word of God regarding what His people have been facing in this past season. It is not unto despair but unto great blessings and promises fulfilled.
Move into the Blessings
Beloved, now is the time to allow the completion of this refining process and preparation. Surrender to the Potter's skilled hands, allow yourself to be restored to being an "uncut" living stone, allow the thorn-bushes to be burned away and the lime to be poured over you for the sake of unity. Then let the "blessings" that the Lord desires to overtake you be released upon you as you live by every word that He speaks to you. Remember—all of His promises are "Yes and Amen!"
I would like to encourage you to read and declare the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 over your lives, your families, your relationships, your work and ministries each day. This is a time to offer a sacrifice of rejoicing to Him and to agree with every promise and blessing that He has offered His children.
I call Heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.—Deuteronomy 30:19 (Amplified Bible)
Today...choose blessings and choose life!
Kathi Pelton
Light Streams Ministries
Email: jkpelton@sbcglobal.net
