Commander of the Army of the Lord (2)

Joshua 5:14 “…No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”*(NKJV)

The question which Joshua asked the man who appeared before him required choosing one of the options presented by Joshua. But the man said “No” Wow! You have to choose a side, you cannot straddle the fence. You’re either my friend or you’re my enemy, you must pick a side. But the man refused to pick a side.

We understand the man with whom Joshua spoke was the Lord Himself. We know this because when Joshua fell at His feet in worship, He did not reject the worship, He accepted it and proceeded to give Joshua instructions. When John fell at the feet of his tour guide in Revelation 22:8-9, the angel rejected the worship.

The Lord wouldn’t pick sides because He loves us all, we are told in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” and in Jeremiah 31:3, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.”

When He formed man, He breathed the breath of lives into man and man became a living soul.  We are told that He made man in His image and after His likeness, so how can He take sides with one man against the other?

All I’m leading up to is this: we fall in or out of alignment with God. He is constant and He is Love so when we cry to Him, He immediately hears us. This is not to say that He has taken sides when He hears and answers us. Does it mean He takes sides against us when our prayers are not answered as we expect or desire?

God had heard me and delivered me out of the situation in which I found myself. Did He stop hearing and loving me when I later found myself in dire straits? Or was He punishing me? Where then do we put the scriptures that talk about God chastising the ones He loves or about Him being the potter and we being the clay for Him to mold as He pleases? When we ask for purification, what do we really think the process entails? In Malachi 3:3, we are told that God “will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

When calamitous situations befall us, before we fall out, let us fall to the mercy of God and He will strengthen us through the ordeal. In Psalm 66:10-13, we find that when He is through purifying us, He will bring us to a large and wealthy place.  By this time however, He will be able to see His reflection in us, because He would have taken all that is flesh and self out of us and we are totally reliant on His grace. He would have brought that which is of value to Himself and the Church out of us.  Then we can be useful to Him.

While going through my wilderness experience, even after I realized that God’s hand was in it, and had yielded myself to His will, my situation did not change physically, but the internal panics had stopped, the bad dreams had stopped, the bitterness and anger were all gone. I was no longer blaming anyone for my lot in life but realized that God was cleaning me up from the choices I had made before. No flesh can glory in His presence.

Now I could quietly wait for Him to finish His work. Now the work is never finished while we’re here because He still has to continue to prune us so we can bear more fruit.

Tomorrow, we will discuss the fears and the reason for them, should our Lord tarry.

Prayer

Have your way, Heavenly Father. Break me, and mold me to your pleasure in Jesus’ name, Amen.

#momomily2013