God is Not Holding Out on You!

Introduction:

When Job was in the midst of his struggles, he made some observations about how men think, particularly those who know not God:

Job 21:7, 14-15, 17-18 – [7] Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? … [14] Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. [15] What [is] the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? … 

Then Job observes what the end result of this kind of thinking is: 

[17] How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! And [how oft] cometh their destruction upon them! [18] They are as stubble before the wind and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

The enemy provokes people to think like this because he cannot destroy them any other way.  If the enemy can get men to think that God is not for them or wants to bring them to penury and loss, then Satan can turn men to destruction. This was the underlying deception with Eve when he asked, “Hath God said?” In other words, the implication was that God was holding out on them. 

The Father says to us today, “I’m not holding out on you!” Jesus could not have stated it simpler in John 10:10:

Jhn 10:10 KJV – [10] The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.

There is a Fundamental Flaw in the Foundation of Religious Culture:

One of the major underpinnings of Christianity as we know it has its roots in the Medieval Church when they turned to monasticism and codified a vow of poverty as their highest ethic. This is not God’s plan! Monasticism and aestheticism arose from the cult that persisted around John the Baptist and the Essenes. Because of their thinking on this they were destroyed in fact obliterated. Even John the Baptist was cut short because of this thinking [Matt. 11:3].

This gestalt or paradigm of our religious culture is defined by the very words of Jesus in the great intercessory prayer of Jesus in John 17:

Jhn 17:15 KJV – [15] I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Now this verse plainly contradicts the monasticism of the Medieval church (and the clergy/laity dichotomy), but it also repudiates the veneration of lack and poverty. When Jesus prayed that we be kept from evil, here is what the word means: 

Jesus came to SAVE us from these depredations and sufferings of life. But if the enemy can get you to charge God with an intent outside the parameters of the provisions of Calvary then he can rightly hold you captive.  How does he accomplish this?

Satan Uses the Dominion God Gave Us in the Beginning Against Us as Fallen Creatures:

The enemy understood what the implications were when God said in Genesis 1:26 … let them have dominion…. Satan knew he could not destroy man directly so he had to conspire to get man to collude in his OWN destruction. 

If you believe the scriptures, whatever state of affairs you find yourself in originated at some point in your heart. 

Pro 23:7 KJV – [7] For as he thinketh in his heart, so [is] he…

The issues of life (or the conditions and circumstances of life) according to scripture come forth out of the treasuries of your own inner man (if you believe the scriptures).

Pro 4:23 KJV – [23] Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life.

God will protect you against a frontal assault from the enemy but it is up to you to deal with what is churning in your heart because it has implications for your life for good or evil. 

As a Human Being, You are Responsible For and Subject to What Proceeds Out of Your Heart:

Luk 6:45 KJV – [45] A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

Notice that it is the MAN that brings the release of what is in the heart and NOT God. You are in charge. This is the jurisdiction that God has given unto every man.  It is MAN and not GOD or the DEVIL who has the ability to directly determine the quality and character of his own life. Is this not the implication of Luke 6:45?

God told Me at one time – “If you say it I will do it … if you don’t say it, I won’t do it …”  The scriptures agree with this, according to Isaiah:

Isa 57:19 KJV – [19] I create the fruit of the lips; …

So God’s covenant with Man and the implications of Genesis 1:26 are this: 

What you bring out of your heart by the words of your mouth – – My creative law that I have set in place will bring it about.

When You Align Your Heart with God’s Promise, you Make His Sovereignty Work WITH You for Your Good!

If you don’t like what is in your life – change what is in your heart.

The Human Heart is the Drawing Board of Your Immediate Future. The Images There are the Blueprint that God’s Creative Dominion Will Implement to Shape Your Future.

Things are the way they are because of what you have been doing. If you want something different, you must do something different. The campaign of change begins in your heart. Only YOU can determine the character of what is IN your heart and what is brought OUT of your heart. 

But once what is in your heart is released … God’s sovereignty is activated, and His word cannot be broken – the fruit of your lips will be brought into manifestation. 

This is the very heart of Satan’s assault on Job. In Job 1:11, we find that the only thing Satan hoped to do was to provoke Job to curse God to His face. That was the sole means by which Satan could breach the hedge that God put around Him. Fortunately, Job for all his misunderstanding of God’s ways, knew where to draw the line:

Job 1:11, 22 KJV – [22] In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

In God’s final conversation with Job during his trial Job finally capitulated to the unique relationship between the thought life and God’s created power:

Job 42:2 KJV – [2] I know that thou canst do every [thing], and [that] no thought can be withholden from thee.

The result was REPENTANCE on Job’s part. 

Job 42:6 KJV – [6] Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.

What was the FRUIT of Job’s REPENTANCE?

Job 42:10, 12 KJV – [10] And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. … [12] So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning…

A prophet once asked the Father what He would say if He could have the ear of all mankind for just one moment. The Father replied: 

“I would tell them – YOU’VE GOT ME ALL WRONG!” 

What part of “Jesus paid it all” do we not understand? 

What part of “by His stripes we are healed” [1 Pet. 2:24] do we not understand? 

What part of He became poor so that we could be rich [2 Cor. 8:9] do we not understand? 

What part of “if He withheld not his only son how shall he now with Him freely give us all things?” [Rom. 8:32]

The Prophetic Office and Gifts are in the Earth to Keep Our Thinking Aligned with God’s Character:

One important instrument God uses to correct the drift into the negativity of religion is the prophetic: 

This is the NEW COVENANT PURPOSE of the prophetic. 

1Cr 12:7 KJV – [7] But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

The word PROFIT here is where we get the English word SYMPHONY. It means that which MAKES IT ALL COME TOGETHER!! God wants to make things come together for your blessing, and if you will align yourself with His voice, shift, and change will come to you for your good. 

1Cr 14:6 KJV – [6] Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?

These gifts are not here to tell you how bad things are or what awful things are about to happen or what a bad guy you are – the intention at the end of the matter is that you be PROFITED and know how to navigate the shoals of life no matter what is happening around you and be blessed and prospered and benefited. 

Paul’s Message to the Lost was Rooted in an Emphasis of the Goodness of God:

1Cr 10:33 KJV – [33] Even as I please all [men] in all [things], not seeking mine own profit, but the [profit] of many, that they may be saved.

Paul was not seeking the impoverishment of many but the PROFIT of many. Because he understood that emphasizing and demonstrating the goodness of God and the power of God to bless was the key to activating repentance in even the hardest of hearts. 

Rom 2:4 KJV – [4] Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Even in the Old Covenant the Prophetic was the Key to Deliverance and Prosperity:

If you believe that God isn’t that concerned with prosperity and blessing then why not divest yourself of all your worldly goods and take the lotus position on a perch on Himalayas?  

It’s amazing that people think God uses sickness but they go to the doctor so they won’t be so useful to God? They think poverty and lack somehow serve some murky agenda in the purpose of God but they work two jobs so they can avoid being in His will? 

It is time for the prophetic gifts in the earth to vindicate the character of God and the intent of the cross! 

2Ch 20:20, 22 KJV – [20] Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. … [22] And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the [enemy] and they were smitten.

The harsh and denunciatory prophets claim that prophesying blessing is a sign of a false prophet but if you study the discussion of false prophets in Jer. 23 you will find that the ear mark of a false prophet was one who did not profit the people and didn’t accurately represent the character of God but rather laid false burdens and heaviness that didn’t not originate from the heart of the Father. 

Jesus Reconfigured the Prophetic to a New Covenant Paradigm of Blessing:

Jesus and his disciples had a negative encounter with a group of people, and the disciples fell back on what they knew. In the Old Covenant, if you got out of alignment with God, you got struck down. How did Jesus correct this?

Luk 9:54-56 KJV – [54] And when his disciples James and John saw [this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? [55] But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. [56] For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save [them]. And they went to another village.

Unfortunately, prophets today think they have the authority to circumvent the correction Jesus gave to the twelve. 

1Cr 14:3 KJV – [3] But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men [to] edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

This verse does not give a pass to the Office Gift of the Prophet. You will not find one New Testament Prophet operating outside this profile. If you consider yourself a prophet and think you can speak correction, repudiation, and denunciation, you are operating above your pay grade, and you will be called to account for it! Be careful how you speak to God’s kids. He lives in them so I wouldn’t be throwing rocks or deprecations or denunciations at His house!

We need to rethink the giddy approval that provokes us to give standing ovations to the prophet or preacher prancing on the stage and stepping on every one’s toes! Jesus didn’t come to step on toes but to wash feet, yes? 

Conclusion:

Luke 9:[56] For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save [them].

The NEW COVENANT PARADIGM is NOT TO DESTROY but to SAVE:

 

Let us purpose in our heart to acquiesce to the sovereignty of God in the midst of our circumstances. We may be suffering and we may not be able to account for the cause or root of it. We might look at our lives and just not find the smoking gun of blame for the troubles we may face now or in the future. But we can however pick up the threads of the plain teaching of scripture and embrace the love of God, the blessing of God and the price that he paid! We can correct our thinking and correct the words that are coming out of our mouth.

 

We must also correct ourselves and withdraw the endorsements we have made to a body of leaders in the earth who prance about and denounce and criticism and vilify God’s heritage all in the name of righteousness, good preaching and a “we deal with things” mentality. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for correction, even rebuke but the prophetic gift as demonstrated in the new testament serves a different purpose.

 

What do you want asks the Father? Do you want OLD COVENANT PARADIGM or NEW COVENANT BLESSING? 

 

Let us purpose as Job not only to allow the goodness of God to be restored to us but let us PRAY for our friends (who criticize, vilify and tell you that hard sermon was for you). Let us pray for them because in praying for them (faith works by love) we activate the goodness of God in our own behalf!