Yes, you love and honour God, but what other HIGH places still exist in your life?
When you identify those other HIGH places, you have to defile them…and burn them down.
Recently, like never before, I’ve been reading and studying the books of Samuel, Kings and the Chronicles. It’s been fascinating. The journey is making me see and understand different aspects of our heavenly Father, like never before. For example, I’m beginning to see, like never before, how important it is to God for us to serve Him, and Him alone. He doesn’t want to share His place with any other person or thing. He says, “You have no other gods before or besides Me. You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it], or any likeness of anything that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down yourself to serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…” Exodus 20:3-5 (AMPC)
Again, He says almost the same thing in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols” (NLT)
When He says that He is a jealous God, He means it. That explains why, in the old testament of the Bible, He did everything to wipe away any King that placed anything or person alongside or above Him (I’m forever Grateful to be in the dispensation of Grace…God’s Grace). That also explains, why King David was a man after His heart, for it is recorded that David didn’t place any one or thing above or besides God. David, literally, set a standard that was used to judge how well every other kings honoured God.
You know, if you read about the Kings of Israel in the Bible, you’ll be tempted to ask, whether the kings that decided to do wrong in the sight of God didn’t see and hear what God did to their forerunners who also did wrong.
They saw. They heard.
But most times, even when we know the right way to honour God, we just let our feelings get in the way of what we’ve heard and seen…what we know, beyond doubt…and we just go ahead to do things our way, downplay the God factor, doubt and question God’s abilities, and just build up other HIGH places in our lives…and when we’re done doing things the way we want to do them, we come back, and just pick up from where we left…until we see yet another opportunity to do things our way…and then we go for it…again.
God is never going to take us out like He did His children in the old covenant… THANKS TO THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS
We can’t be, utterly, wiped out. We’re under a better covenant. The blood of Jesus made sure of it. So, can we just take a station break and be thankful?
The punishment of sin was very terrible. When you transgressed God’s Law; you paid dearly for it. It was not like we have it now. Now, we can go on and on and on and on…and God will just keep waiting on us, because of the blood of Jesus. Then, when the punishment comes knocking you might never get the opportunity to commit that same mistake again. God really took it very seriously. At times, you don’t even have to be the offender; you just have to be related to the offender and the punishment will befall you too. It didn’t matter how young you were, or how old you were becoming…the punishment fell on everyone, on the same level.
So, dear one, you might not be where you really want to be, you might not be doing exactly what you want to be doing…but…if you’re under this better covenant…you have to wake up every morning, being, entirely, grateful to God.
Nonetheless, God hasn’t Changed
God is still the same (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8). His oneness with the Son and the Holy Spirit is still the same. He still loves what He loved. His hatred for sin is still as strong and fierce as it was in the very beginning, but the punishment that comes with sin was laid on Jesus. We’re now saved from His punishment. But, at the end of this side of eternity we’ll still meet Him and give accounts of our lives on earth.
One of the major differences between the old covenant and the new covenant is…now, in the new covenant, we get to do His bidding because we love Him, not because we’re afraid of the punishment of disobedience. Jesus says to His disciples “If you [really] love Me you will keep and (obey) My commandments.” John 14:15 (AMPC). We obey because of Love…not fear. But, it isn’t God’s will for us to be comfortable with things that are against His standards. God still wants to be the Number One in our lives. He still wants that undivided attention He wanted from His children in the old covenant.
So, dear child of God, permit me to ask:
What other HIGH places are you building that aren’t for God?
I mean, what areas in your life are not honouring God and you’re just comfortable with them?
You have to sit in your quiet place and ask yourself these questions and do come up with the right and sincere answers. Is it your mouth and the words that come out of them? Is it the way you organize your life? Is it the way you run your business? It is your goals and dreams? What is it? What is it that has a HIGH place in your life, and yet not honouring God?
Some Kings of Israel did right in the sight of God in so many ways, but they left some HIGH places that were dedicated to other gods, and God still had issues with that. It doesn’t matter if you’re committed to God 97% in all other areas, and have just 3% you’ve dedicated to other gods…even if it’s 1%…it still shouldn’t be.
You know why?
Because other HIGH Places are distractions that comes from the devil…nothing else…nowhere else…just distractions, directly, from the devil
The devil knows that he cannot change who we are in Christ…so, his best shot towards us are…distractions. The devil achieves his goal by observing the things we express love towards, things we’re gifted in and our weaknesses. So, being a “good talker” isn’t a bad thing, but then the devil tries to turn it against you. Having a “strong will” isn’t negative, but then we express it in the wrong environment…for example, when we need to let go and forgive. Looking cool, calm and collected is awesome, but the devil drives our imaginations so wide, that we forget to prepare for the day in/with prayer, but we spent so much time trying to put our outfit together. So, we don’t necessarily have an issue with God, but we can, easily, decide to spend time with our favourite talk show on TV, than spend time with the Word. Yielding to these distractions isn’t healthy for our Faith walk.
Hence, you shouldn’t just overlook any other HIGH place you notice in your life. The devil shouldn’t get to win even a half% from our 100%. All of our 100% belongs to Jesus. We should, deliberately, learn to submit ALL to Jesus. There’s nothing good about the devil, even though he pretends to be good, sometimes. His mission is to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). We can’t let him; he doesn’t care about us. We are his enemies; he isn’t sincere or has mercy…and will never be a little bit sincere or merciful with us. We should, always, remember what Jesus told the devil, “You shall do homage to and worship the Lord your God; and Him only shall you serve.” Luke 4:8 (AMPC)
Then,
There are levels and blessings in our walk with God we won’t access until we defile and burn down every other HIGH Places
God won’t love us any less. But, when we keep accepting distractions from the devil…we will be distracted from God. That’s exactly what the devil is going for…to distract us from God.
When we start believing the lie that says “the little HIGH places we erect for other things and persons don’t matter” we step into a realm where we limit God’s access into other lives. When we get convictions in those “little areas” it becomes hard for us to accept the convictions, because we’re already comfortable the way we are and how we are in them.
It isn’t on God; it is us. God will never leave us (Romans 8:35-39); it is us that withdraw from Him, when we become comfortable with all these distractions from the devil. The devil will fight us with quilt and unworthiness. We’ll shy away from God in those areas. We’ll always be in a dilemma…wanting to let go at some point…and just thinking it doesn’t really matter at other times. We, all by ourselves, put ourselves in an environment where we’ll find it hard to grow in Christ…and when we don’t grow we can’t bear much fruits for the kingdom…and if we don’t bear fruits…well…what else are we living for?
This also shows us, clearly, why some Christians can understand the will of God and some can’t. It shows why some are winning souls from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and some aren’t. Some are very confident and bold about their Faith and many aren’t. Some know what the Bible teaches, and some can barely study the Word…at least once a week. Some walk in divine health and prosperity and quite a whole lot are struggling to step into that reality.
There are many more things that can be said…but…let’s just end by saying…Heaven needs You
See,
Several times in my life…I mean several times…I’ve, literally, asked God, “If I’m not going to go to hell, then why bother? I mean, if I’ve, successfully, made it to the point of not going to hell, then I’ve done noble, right?” How ignorant I was.
If you’re like the old me, there’s something you really need to understand…HEAVEN NEEDS YOU. Jesus needs men that are ALL IN for Him. We’ve been called into a relationship. We’ve been adopted into God’s family. We’re fellow heirs with Christ; hence, our lives should be all about our Father’s business. We’ve been given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthian 5:18). We’re soldiers of the Cross (2 Timothy 2:3). We don’t belong to ourselves; we are Christ’s (Galatians 5:24). When we accepted the Lordship of Jesus, we “bended” our knees to ALL His “Wills”, so He leads; we follow.
Accepting the offering of Jesus is not the end; it’s the beginning of a journey that last as long as eternity. This is a journey with Jesus…a journey where we get to ask him, daily, where to go, and listen to Him, daily, as He keeps speaking. This is the journey the devil tries, daily, tirelessly, to distract us from. So, are you just going to let the devil? Are you just going to let his subtle distractions find places in your life? Are you just going to accept and welcome these other HIGH places that the devil is trying to erect in your life?
If I’m to answer on your behalf, my answer would be…no matter what, choose to honour Jesus, and Him alone. Don’t let any other HIGH place come up in your life. Let Jesus, always, “be the center of it all…nothing else matters…nothing in this world would do…everything revolves around Him.”
“…God has highly exalted Him and has freely bestowed on HIM the name that is above every name. That in (at) the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue [frankly and openly] confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11 (AMPC)
My prayer for you:
As you step out with your baby steps, may you feel the warm embrace of God’s Grace. May you keep seeing the love of God towards you and may you keep falling in love with Jesus. May you find every other HIGH places in your life…may you find these distractions of the devil…and may you have the audacity to defile and burn them down.
May Jesus, truly, be lifted HIGHER than any other in your life…forever.
Amen.
Do get in the gym, and
Stay Spiritually Fit.
