Psalm 2: 1-4 “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord…….He that sits in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision”.
We are living in strange times. Governments and people in positions of authority are striving to instruct and control the population with man’s methods, with no apparent consideration of God. Some in authority have the welfare of the people at heart, but others seek to manipulate for selfish agendas and gain. They believe in their own powers of authority, but God sits in the heavens and laughs. Almighty God is the ultimate omnipotent One. We may not be able to trust certain people, but God rules and reigns above them all, and we can trust ourselves to Him. We can sit back and laugh with Him!
Isaiah 55:8-9 “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”.
In the economy of God there is no waste. He is the God OF my circumstances. He uses them for His divine purposes. Consider Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest king of ancient Babylon, a heathen nation. During his reign, the Jewish people had rebelled against God and back-slidden into heathen ways time and time again. The long suffering of God had reached a point where God had to chastise the nation to teach them a lesson. God permitted Nebuchadnezzar to take the Jews, His chosen people, into captivity and called King Neb. “my servant”!!!! Jeremiah 27:5-7, God declares, “I have made the earth, man and beast…by my great power and outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed right to me. And now I have given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, MY SERVANT, and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him…..”
This does not sound like a God who is out of control. He will use people and circumstances for His purposes. He is the God of my circumstances. He permits, in His wisdom, what He could prevent by His power. Why?…..for HIS divine purposes and plans that cannot be thwarted!
Today, God is in my circumstances. He is waiting for my surrender in order that He may continue His work shaping me into a “lively stone” to be “fitly framed together” in His building, the Church, the Body of Christ, of which Jesus is head. Humility is the mortar that binds us together in His love. God began this work gloriously and He will finish it triumphantly!
In these strange times God is central in our circumstances. He is using them to reveal what is in us, either a heart that is self ruled or Christ ruled. Wherever Jesus rules in the human heart, there is the kingdom of God established and our lives bear fruit, to His glory. When I am convinced of the Father’s love and affection for me, I have no fear of God’s authority. (….perfect love casts out all fear..1 John 4:18). The sovereignty of God is complete, thus God has made no mistake with my circumstances. He has authorised them to bring my heart’s attitude under His rule. My heart reveals rebellion or submission to Him. If in one breath we state we are having to do with God, and in the next breath we complain regarding our circumstances, our fickleness is revealed and we are unstable, unreliable. “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways”, James 1:8.
Murmuring brings strife, but surrender brings such sweetness. The Holy Spirit cannot resist humility, for it is the very nature of Christ. Our bodies are His temple not made with hands. Let the house be built. LET….. Will I be a “letter”….see God in ALL things, worship the God OF my circumstances and crown Jesus as Lord there?
Romans 11:36 “For of him, and through him, and to him, are ALL things, to whom be glory forever.”
Foundations of building works can be ugly….piles of rock and dirt, mechanical diggers excavating the ground, but a firm foundation is essential. When God is building the Body of Christ, it is not always easy when we resist Him. As our journey progresses, we learn God’s ways and allow His Son room in our hearts. God’s heartbeat for this hour is relationships. Jesus prayed that we all may be one…so it must be a possibility. Concrete blocks are nothing on their own, but when fitly framed together they become a building of form, shape and purpose. God has divine purpose for His building. When a heart is ruled by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a dwelling place for Him. When God gets a people who are one in Him, they shall be His people and He will tabernacle/dwell among them.
Let us meditate and consider Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore….by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God”.
