Zechariah 14 – A New, Pure, and Perfect Creation

BLESSING does not come without bearing the burden a godly people are called to bear. The promise of a pure and perfect creation — where nothing unholy can exist — where the Lord Jesus, our Davidic King is worshipped in all glory and majesty — is realised only when a great cost is borne. This is something we have to be prepared to die for.

I’m not trying to radicalise anyone here. On the contrary, the faithful ones will not oppress; they’ll be the oppressed. We have to be prepared. And there’s solace in this: we are one death (Hebrews 9:27). The hardship of death is a moment. It’s nothing like an eternity.

That said, let’s hop into chapter 14 of Zechariah: the culmination of all things.

Reminiscent of Revelation, this final part of the oracle that started in 12:1 approaches apocalypse, without exhibiting all the features of that literary genre. It’s been said that apocalypse is “prophecy on steroids.” This is a quote that helps us know what apocalypse is:

“‘Apocalypse’ is a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another supernatural world.”

— J.J. Collins

There is no otherworldly journey depicted nor is their angelic mediation (like we see in Zechariah’s night visions (vv. 1:7 – 6:8), so it can be said that, broadly, Zechariah 14 fits into a genre of “prophecy of salvation.”

The refrain of “on that day” harkens the reader to the hope beyond what is presently harrowing. Seven times this refrain occurs here, as it builds on those occurrences in chapters 12 and 13. It depicts Yahweh’s intervention in the realm of creation. Amazingly, though the battle of the Lord is cosmic (universal) the “epicentre” remains in Jerusalem. On such diverse poles does God in his creation persist; the “machinery” in a single-cell-organism and the ever-expanding breadth of the universe. Everything comes together in one place — Jerusalem — of all the universe — at one time in all eternity… on that day.

As opposed to earlier Zechariah, when the Lord used the nations to bring the people of God to its knees — because of covenant disobedience — the Lord battles for the people, now, against the nations — they will be his people and he will be their God.

The return of Yahweh — a post-exilic imperative — has been anticipated all the way through Zechariah. Here he comes! Jerusalem, and specifically the Mount of Olives, will feel the Lord’s earth-shaking Presence. He “splits” the mountain in two — from “towards the sunrise [eastward] to towards the sea [westward].” As far as east is to west is the Lord’s Presence.

Zechariah personalises his relationship with God in verse 5, and that’s significant for everyone who calls the Lord “my God.” (Those who utter the flippant “OMG” in this age might well be put to shame.)

The creative flow of the cosmos may well be interrupted “on that day” as it was in Joshua 10:12-14 when the sun stood still, the moon was stopped, and the Lord fought for his people. Only God could or would do this — for his purposes; an apocalyptic sign.

The heavenly bodies, during this day, are “congealing,” indicating that the radical changes to physical environment blur into a transcendent reality beyond human comprehension.

Living waters flow out of Jerusalem and they’re fresh, which is a sign of the ushering in of a new creation, given that Jerusalem’s water supply often dried up in summer.

Verse 9 is the climax every God-follower reads with glee! The Lord is one; one for all to see; won to all people who wish to see him come in his glory! The whole earth is full of his glory and the whole earth can see it. (This verse may well be out of place chronologically in the context of the chapter, given that there are “peoples who [continue to] wage war against Jerusalem” in verse 10. Much of Zechariah appears to read non-chronologically.)

Jerusalem will be “elevated” in verse 10 as it depicts temple imagery, and its foundations will be ever secure, meaning the promise of covenant blessings in Leviticus 25:18-19 and 26:5 is brought to perfection. Mentions of the geography here are incredibly detailed. A great return of Yahweh’s “holy ones” follows.

We hardly want to read what it will be like for those against Jerusalem in verses 12 through 15. Plagues with an unequivocal descriptiveness sweep over the land reminiscent of the Passover; the people of God protected by the Lord’s foreknowledge of their obedience of faith. Great confusion will take place. Many will fight who previously would not have fought. We must be prepared to look solely to the Lord.

After the cosmic battle, the survivors of the nations shall then worship Yahweh. The Lord’s justice in the new creation will not tarry. It will be swift and direct over the nations that fail to worship at God’s festival of Sukkoth (“tabernacles” or “booths”). This festival envisages the “full restoration” of the temple, and implies the “centrality” of the temple for all creation. A covenant failure brings a covenant curse for the nations, but the covenant people delight in covenant obedience.

Zechariah’s fondness for the horse completes the chapter in verses 20-21. The connection of the holiness inscribed on bells with the new creation is remarkable. Everything will have the Lord’s sign on it. Nothing unholy will remain.

There is a day coming, a day full of glory, and on that day, will be the completion of his story.

Do not worry ‘on that day’ or any day. All we need to remember is to be God’s people.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.

Reference: Petterson, A.R., Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi (Apollos Old Testament Commentary, Vol. 25) (Nottingham: InterVarsity Press, 2015).

Zechariah 10 – the Shepherd, Yahweh, Redeems His People

THOSE who bring discredit to God’s name — those encouragers of idolatrous practices — those harlots of harm — those shepherds who are not shepherds — will be struck down by the Shepherd: Yahweh. Yahweh will deliver his remnant; those who ask for rain (verse 1) from the only one who can give rain.

The teraphim that “utter nonsense” are small household gods or idols, not unlike the little buddhas and other spiritual trinkets we see in households of misguided persons in this day. The diviner is the false teacher who leads the people away from truth. They’re a shepherd who is no shepherd at all; the people lack good direction, and they’re given “empty consolation.” Think nowadays of the preachers of prosperity (“success”) doctrine.

These shepherds who are no shepherds at all — for they betray truth at every turn — shall be punished. They offer vain hope in the name of hope; a bad faith when only a good faith ought to be preached.

The Lord, himself, Yahweh, is empowering the people to be like a “battle horse” driven by but one purpose: speed… to run headlong, with audacity, into battle. No fear is present in this people who trust their God, as the martyrs have century after century over the corpus of Christian history.

“Out of them” (the people being redeemed) shall come a leader — a cornerstone, a securing peg, a highly tensioned strong battle bow — a commander who is an oppressor of the oppressors. Little wonder that Israel’s religious elite were expecting a mighty military conqueror as their saviour — not a lamb to the slaughter in Jesus. But Jesus fights a fight that the evil one could not conceive. This is the only viable finalising oppression of the oppressor of oppressors.

Those that fight this good fight for the Lord are assured of his Presence. They’ll put to shame those better equipped warriors on horses because of who they fight for and for the way they fight. They will never be put to shame.

The remnant are “strengthened” and saved by Yahweh. Those from the house of Judah (the Southern kingdom) and those from the house of Joseph (Ephraim; the Northern kingdom) are delivered in such a way as if the exile had never occurred. Such is the Lord’s compassion, his “answer” is to redeem them and restore them. Imagery of close kinship is developed here, as the Lord “whistles” to his people.

The promises of land and progeny are made in verses 8 through 10. There was no better sign of the Lord’s blessing in ancient times than possession of a good land and the provision of many children. Though the people of God were scattered now they shall be gathered, to walk in Yahweh’s name.

That they shall pass through the sea of distress is a promise of prevailing in Yahweh’s Presence, no matter the affliction. The waves of threat are cut off and Assyria and Egypt are made no menace at all.

Verse 12 is ever significant; a refrain for and of the covenant people:

The Lord makes the people strong; they that walk in his name!

Yahweh, the Lord, is adored, by those in his Presence who are assured.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.

Reference: Petterson, A.R., Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi (Apollos Old Testament Commentary, Vol. 25) (Nottingham: InterVarsity Press, 2015).

18 Truths Celebrating the Power of Strength In Weakness

GOD is a paradoxical power for life in so many ways. Those who hate God cannot stand the idea that God makes the truth operate in upside down, or apparently ridiculous, ways. They refute such things and are never blessed. But those who are open to God will be open to experiencing things like the unequivocal strength in acknowledging weakness.

1.     Acknowledging weakness feels humiliating, until we realise the courage it takes and gives us back. There’s strength in acknowledging weakness.

2.     God blesses the acknowledgement of weakness, as pride is humbled in the acknowledgement of truth. And where there’s truth acknowledged, there’s peace.

3.     God blesses the acknowledgement of weakness as others see and are inspired by our courageous choosing for truth. Much grace is accorded.

4.     Strength is in the truth, and true weakness is in ideas that don’t hold up to truth. Human weakness is never truer in the sight of a life and God that reveals our pitiful strength as weakness. Acknowledging weakness when it’s the truth is blessed.

5.     There’s power in the acknowledgement of weakness, but confess it in the company of mature, caring people who see the strength in such truth. Otherwise we may face the indignity of a fool enjoying ridicule at our expense. What a privilege it is for the caring and mature to celebrate the truth with the truthful.

6.     Power is paradoxical. Pride tells us to fabricate power based in unconsciousness or imagination, but true power is in the truth. Humility is true power in the truth.

7.     Those humble enough to acknowledge their weakness never glory in the humiliation of others. That’s a real strength. Humility is considered weakness by those strong in their own strength. But sooner or later they end up with egg on their face. But the humble are not amused at others’ misfortune, not even a fool’s.

8.     The humble have no problem calling the truth as it is. For them the truth, reality, is both dependable and freeing. If it’s acknowledging weakness they’ve got plenty of courage to dignify such a declaration. They know it’s a blessing to obey God in subjugating their pride.

9.     The humble know full well the presence of their pride. They know it’s weakness presenting as a strength. Only as they abide in truth do they recognise the strength in honouring the truth.

10. Those who are happy to tell the truth, even as it exposes them in their vulnerability, ply courage, and cannot be humiliated by the truth. Only the proud are humiliated by the truth. When the truth is no longer a threat nothing can defeat that person.

11. Power for life rests in the truth that in weakness there is strength. Strength is shown when weakness is acknowledged, and there’s power in resting in the truth.

12. The strength available in being honest in our weakness is a dignifying strength. It’s a strength to be celebrated. It’s a reliable strength that never lets us down.

13. Those strong in their weakness find that in their weakness is the only strength to be relied on. Strength in weakness is God’s immovable strength.

14. Confidence is an acquisition of those founded and grounded in God’s truth. This is the place of acceptance for what cannot be changed, where courage changes what it can, and wisdom knows the difference. Confidence is the balancing of all three truths in unison.

15. The weak are strong, because they’re not afraid of their weakness. They’re strong because they’re weak.

16. Those who can acknowledge their strength lies in their weakness are able to celebrate the very things that are apparently against them. See how nothing is against God’s disciple?

17. A celebration of fellowship is possible when guards are down and where glory is made of true weakness. There God is central and celebrated and much glory goes to his name.

18. Is there any better life than being oneself in the company of others; of being allowed to be our real selves? No. This is the halcyon state of the real life in community. It is God’s will, no less.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.

Zechariah – Book of the Messiah, Yahweh’s Return, Covenant, and Kingdom

ZECHARIAH is an unusual book. It is part apocalypse (revelation), but its first half calls more on prophesy than on the eschaton (last things), but it is considered by some to be a realised eschatology. Its second half calls more on the eschaton, with each chapter slightly different from perspective, but it’s less apocalyptic. Of course, chapters 7 and 8 divide the book; the first half comprising chapters 1–6, the second half encompassing chapters 9–14.

Chapter 1 is a call to repentance, for the people to return to their merciful God. And repentance, in these first six chapters, is about returning from exile to Jerusalem (2:6-8), rebuilding the city (1:17; 2:4) and the temple (1:16; 4:7-10), singing and rejoicing (2:10), and being the remnant through responding in covenant obedience (3:7; 5:4, 8).

Chapters 1:7 – 6:8 comprise the eight night visions (not dreams) that Zechariah had. It’s been shown (by Webb, 2003) that the first four visions represent God returning to his people, and the second four visions (5–8) represent sin departing from the land. The four horseman vision anticipates the judgment of the nations. The second and third visions show, through the building of God’s house, that Yahweh is returning. The fourth and fifth visions depict Joshua and Zerubbabel as God’s chosen leaders. (I note that Joshua and Zerubbabel, together with Zechariah, cohabit in a trinity representing Christ’s three offices — priest [Joshua], prophet [Zechariah], and king [Zerubbabel].) Wickedness is removed from the land in visions six and seven (chapter 5) and a house is made for it (evil, idolatry, and sin) in Babylon! With chariots comes the final (eighth) night vision, showing the execution of judgment against the nations.

Chapter 6, after the final night vision, ushers in the coronation of the Branch (or Shoot), which was first anticipated in verse 3:8. Key verses attending to the messianic nature of Zechariah’s material, as they came to manifest in Jesus Christ’s life, are 3:8, 6:12, 9:9-10, 12:10, 13:7-9.

Ethics in Zechariah are strong, which diminishes the argument that the post-exilic prophets reflect a shift in emphasis from ethics back to the cultus. 1:3-6, 3:7, 5:1-11, 6:15, 7:1-14, 8:14-17, and 13:2-6 all show how important covenant obedience was for Yahweh in returning to the people of God. Zechariah understood this and affirmed it in his writing. The rebuilding of the temple and of the city was not wholly and solely about returning to the legalistic ritualism, though the post-exilic prophets might be thought to anticipate the age of legalistic Judaism at the time of Christ. So compelling are ethics of the covenant in Zechariah that chapters 5 and 7 are replete with ethics of the Kingdom.

Chapters 7 and 8 feature an astounding chiasm where the Lord is entreated in Jerusalem (7:1-3 and 8:20-23), there are details about what the Lord says about fasting (7:4-7 and 8:18-19) and what the Lord wants (7:8-10 and 8:16-17), as well as their ancestors’ refusal and punishment (7:11-14 and 8:14-15), and the hinge is the topic of a future salvation in 8:1-13. Chapter 8 is a collection of ten oracles in two sections — seven in the first (8:1-17) and three in the second (8:18-23) — with each oracle introduced by the general wording “So says the Lord of hosts.” Chapter 8 also connects to the themes of chapters 1–6, the earlier prophets, particularly the eschatological blessing of Jerusalem and the nation’s pilgrimages to it, and, because these themes are well developed in chapters 9–14, it’s easy to see the hinge that this section is in connecting the first half with the second, amalgamating the book as a whole.

Chapters 9–14 are much different to the aforementioned. For starters there are only two main oracles, the first of which is 9:1–11:17, which is a portrayal of the future in terms drawn from Israel’s history. Chapter 9 can be broken up into three headings: 1) 9:1-8 (the restored land); 2) 9:9-10 (the restored king); and, 3) 9:11-17 (the restored people). Although the people of God in Zechariah’s time were out of exile, they were, of effect, considering the exodus imagery waiting for a ‘second exodus’ to occur.

Chapter 10 is a standalone unit in its own regard. It speaks of the results of good and poor leadership. Yahweh is highly critical of the leaders (shepherds) in this section — a theme that will spill over into chapter 11. Shepherd imagery links chapters 10 and 11.

Chapter 11 is a complete enigma on our first reading of it! Can we possibly see Jesus — the coming Davidic king — in it? That seems impossible. Jesus is Lord, but the Lord of destruction? Of destroying ‘favour’ (grace) and ‘union’ (unity). No, for these he came. But if we read Zech. 11 in view of what had been, the troubled pre-exilic time of the people of God, the remnant still has hope in view of what is to come in the next chapter.

Chapter 11 comprises two sign actions involving shepherds (11:4-14, 15-17) given to Zechariah as instructions from Yahweh. There is merit in seeing the prophesy in this chapter as being past tense. The breaking of the two staffs ‘union’ and ‘favour’ represent the division of the kingdom and the exile respectively, speaking of the veracity of a past tense attribution of how this chapter is to be read.

Chapter 12 begins with the nations battling God’s people and the affliction of Jerusalem and wider Judah. But God will defend his people and his land. God, himself, will be “pierced” and there’s a great outpouring of grief and mourning. This chapter commences the seventeen ‘on that day’ phrases in chapters 12–14. As with themes in other chapters the coming of God’s kingdom — a great Day for the remnant people of God and the obedient nations — will not come first without great cost.

Some themes that are collected in latter Zechariah (chapters 9–10, 12–14) are as follows: 1) There are battles against the nations, yet 2) Yahweh fights for and 3) protects his people. 4) Mention is made of a future king. 5) Yahweh saves his people. And finally, 6) the exiles will return/be gathered.

Chapter 13 commences in a similar way to other sections — the removal of sin — targeting false prophets, idolatry, and every spirit of impurity. But then there’s three very important verses (7–9) that conclude the chapter with an image that is unmistakable to the New Testament reader who’s also aware of the Suffering Servant image in Isaiah 40–55.

Chapter 14, say many commentators, including Martin Luther, is difficult to interpret as to the time of its setting, its purpose — metaphorical or literal — and its meaning in the overall context of the world. But all ends well for Jerusalem and Judah, and the nations are either complicit with the worship of the Lord or they’re decimated or punished. It seems fair, in modest appropriation of view considering the hermeneutical challenges, that this chapter be classified as applying to both first and second comings of Jesus. As far as ‘fulfilment’ is concerned, it’s a case of ‘now and not yet’.

***

A large book for the profile of its prophet, though just as important as any of the Twelve as far as apocalyptic, eschatology, and messianism is concerned, Zechariah every bit as large as any, theologically and hermeneutically.

Zechariah speaks of the coming Messiah, the return of Yahweh to Jerusalem and the people of God, of covenant, and of the future reign of God’s Kingdom.

The faithfulness of the New Testament is that Jesus is found in the Old.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.

Reference: Petterson, A.R., Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi (Apollos Old Testament Commentary, Vol. 25) (Nottingham: InterVarsity Press, 2015).

Zechariah 13 – Jesus In the Old Testament

⁷ “Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
    against the man who is close to me!”
    declares the Lord Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
    and the sheep will be scattered,
    and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
⁸ In the whole land,” declares the Lord,
    “two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
    yet one-third will be left in it.
⁹ This third I will put into the fire;
    I will refine them like silver
    and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
    and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
    and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

— Zechariah 13:7-9 (NIV)

NEW TESTAMENT buffs are to be forgiven for being totally perplexed by the Twelve — the Old Testament prophets. Reading them through our typically Western eyes, through our cultural lenses for technology, of materialism and education, and for an individualistic dialect of comfort, we are quickly puzzled by scriptural riddles. But many New Testament concepts appear lurking just underneath the prophets. The prophets reveal the same principles that the New Testament does. The Old Testament illuminates the New Testament, but only if we’re curious enough to find out.

What I like about a site like Bible Gateway is it’s a one-stop-shop in terms of biblical translations and paraphrases, and, when it comes to doing our own exegesis, we can contrast the many versions of the Word with ease. Before we make life easier for ourselves in our use of commentaries.

In the abovementioned Word — from penultimate Zechariah — we see the oracle about the Shepherd who is struck and their sheep that are scattered. From this text we can tell that it was God’s intent to scourge his Son. Jesus would need to be slain in order for the New Covenant to be realised. The Son Incarnate was learned in the Old Testament (it was his Bible; the Bible he and everyone used in his day), duly obedient in doing God’s will to reveal in his being what the prophets said about him, and was also directly implicated in what the prophets said about him beyond his own control. Jesus was Israel’s Messiah. He would need to die. And the sheep would need to necessarily be scattered. But they, themselves, are not scattered for no reason. The third that Isaiah talks about is a remnant; a portion of the people of God who, though they will be refined, will be made good for the journey; those who survive and who carry forth the glory seed until the day of Jesus. They will be the faithful people. And to God will they look, as God will view them with unconditional kindness. They are his people and they will ever proclaim the Lord is their God. And they will trust and obey. They’ll be those who embody the Holy Spirit and seek God will all their heart.

On that day, the day of Jesus’ slaying on the cross, the faithful will call on God’s name and they’ll be saved.

The faithfulness of the New Testament is that Jesus is found in the Old.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.

Who Am I That You Should Wish To Use Me, Lord?

AMAZED am I. I cannot believe that God should choose to use a person like me to do his Sovereign work.

I cannot honestly understand it… when I’m being honest… when I’m not prideful and thinking God’s lucky to have me. Yet if it wasn’t for Jesus I’d be ruined. He’s not lucky to have me; I’m incomprehensively blessed because of him.

I cannot credit it… when I’m being honest… when I’m not deceived into thinking ‘my obedience’ is a credit to me. ‘My obedience’ is my privilege to respond; and, being Christian, my responsibility of response.

I cannot hope to look at Jesus who hung on the cross for me… when I’m being honest… when I’m not pretending I’m already super close to Jesus. Yet despite my oft-deception, Jesus looks at me with such amazing love, despite my offence.

I cannot comprehend that a hurt and fundamentally fallible man like me… when I’m being honest… makes a good servant of the living Lord. I’m more a barrier to his Kingdom than I could ever help, but God, so gracious, so gentle and so kind, gives me this thing to do — to serve him — because he knows it’s all I can do. I can do, and have, nothing else. So wonderful is his grace that he dignifies someone so irretrievably lost. In him I’m found. In him is my purpose. And in him I’m complete!

I cannot reconcile it in my own mind, let alone synthesise its resonance in my heart… when I’m being honest… when I’m not holding and keeping others to a Jesus standard I myself cannot hold or keep. Oh, how rotten through am I! Yet, never rejected like I reject others, Jesus loves me with an unconditional acceptance.

I hardly believe that Jesus has his work for me to do… when I’m being honest… when I actually understand how privileged I am to love… when I’m not lost in how wonderfully pastoral my love is — ‘my love’, which is not mine at all, but the Saviour’s. I have little love that isn’t self-centred or a skill. Without Christ my ‘love’ would be indelibly shallow.

I cannot boast in a thing that I offer God in the work I do. The cross levels my pride and shows me how much loss Jesus suffered; I cannot come close to the cross without being awed and backwashed in wondrous grief and grievous gratitude. The scale of the cross and its eternal significance. I cannot in all honesty look. The truth blazes holes in my eyes right through the back of my head. Yet because of the cross I’m irrevocably saved. I cannot understand this but I can accept it.

How loving is God that he uses broken vessels to bequeath his love. What divine love that a broken vessel like me has value in the Kingdom of God. The supremacy of value in Jesus Christ alone.

***

In eternity there will be only one boast: our Lord Jesus Christ.

I boast in too much that is not God. And daily be my lament as I choose to repent.

Lord, contain my bragging boast,

Make me boast only in you,

Make me love your rugged cross,

Make me live only a life that’s true.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.

God’s Comfort When Life’s Inextricably Hard

Some weeks you’ll struggle,

Many days will be hard,

But pray for wisdom to wait them out,

God’s comfort in you to guard.

There are those moments, feeling betwixt and between, foreigners even in our own homes and workplaces, where anxiety rails and panic besets us in an inconsolable torment. A moment, an hour, several hours, or a day. We’re found in an impossible place.

The truth is life won’t always be this way. It might be easy to say life won’t always be this hard. But struggles can rarely fit so neatly into a quantitative comparison. Another truth is struggles are part of life, and our opportunity is to learn — to bear, to endure, to create joy, to be honest about what we feel, and principally, to share our burden. Life won’t always be like this, because we’re constantly learning and adapting.

Getting stuck inside anxiety is like being wedged in a place that refuses to be open to learning — where learning is somehow too hard, too humbling, too loathsome. But learning truly is joy if we go there by faith.

Anxiousness is a terrible condition, because we cannot for the life of us determine where to start in bringing it to an end. But that’s only as it seems. If, on a good day, we’re willing to explore the causes and consequences of our anxiety, God will guide us through that little journey. And confidence will build.

But on days when we’re sharply challenged, we rest in the comfort of God which is the affirmation of his loving words, the imagined gentle touch of his Spirit, and quality time in his Presence, just being.

God is a comforter and a guide. He is one and the same God. He knows what we’re dealing with and his comfort and guidance are synonymous with our every need.

Most of all, in these moments of great personal risk, God is our guard; our gardener. He will care for every part of us as if all our foliage were visible to him. He prunes gently, and shapes with loving intent. He cares for our health, wanting us green and lush. God knows when we’re stressed and he’ll do all he can to restore us to health.

Hope: for a different time coming; different challenges and different opportunities.

Some moments are veritably tenuous,

Many moments away we’ll shy,

God’s help will help when life’s strenuous,

Bring God into times when you sigh.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.

Prayerful Experience of the Presence of God

OH POWERS of God in the Spirit-filled person. Powers of God all through the world in the angelic realm. But only by prayer would we ever know. Only by a depth of prayer that takes us out of this world would we ever know. I love the not-of-this-world truth in the following quote:

“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.”

— Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892)

Praying is many more times important in the Kingdom realm than preaching is, but it’s preaching that will get people convinced of the Kingdom in the first place.

I decry the world’s religions for their love affair with preaching. They miss the more important spiritual ministry. Preaching is of this world. Prayer is of the next. But this is obviously a hobbyhorse of mine. Let me continue.

There is much more a spiritual realm beyond the physical grips of this earthly life. It is here to be tapped into; eternity reaching all the way into our lives. But we can only know the blessings of this other realm not-of-this-world through the powers of surrender — to give up our carnal life, which cannot sense angelic Presence, in order to receive our spiritual life that God has pre-ordained for all of us.

God has so much more for every one of us. So much. Incomparable are the heavenly delights that may be experienced in the body in this world. But first we must purge ourselves of every darkness and doubt and deficiency of faith. We must become pure and as little children, again and again.

To encounter the realm beyond this physical world, to sense the angelic realm, to join their cause, we must give up every carnal impediment — every striving, jealousy, resentment; every debasing presence that takes us out of God’s holy Presence.

***

God has much to give us in this life. But we must first be willing to let go of the world. The world is pitiful in comparison to what God has.

God invites us to a foretaste of heaven in this life, by a prayerful life.

Prayer gives us entry into the realm the mystics experienced. Those that inspired the likes of A.W. Tozer have much to teach us about prayerful meditation.

Prayer is entry into the Presence of God with power and much peace. Prayer gives much more than we give, but our giving must be whole and unswervingly authentic.

Prayer is about the heart with which we come to God. A heart purified of sin is bound to sense God’s Presence.

God blesses the prayerful heart; the soul absolved of daily wrongs will experience the reality of the Lord.

Prayer is for the sake of healing. We’re not healed because we do not pray.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.

The Spirit of Conquest or Cooperation

CORINTHIANS 13, the very first book, holds the holy spiritual gifts of the Lord on either sides, i.e. chapters 12 and 14. The spiritual gifts — which are given and need only be claimed — are not from ourselves, lest we boast. They are from God for the Kingdom’s use, and not for our own gain at all.

What sets apart our appropriate use of the gifting we’ve been given? L O V E, love.

We’re given to a spirit of conquest or of cooperation.

If we ply our gifts in a loving way we behave in a spirit of cooperation: others come first. Others always come first. Love looks outwardly. But if we don’t practice our gifts that way we pursue the unworthy ideal: conquest: the building and making of a kingdom of our own choosing and design. Such a kingdom is not built in God’s name, it has no Kingdom purpose, and that kingdom will be built in vain, and may well come ultimately to fall into ruin. (Although, it’s fascinating how things not honouring to God can still often be instruments for his glory.)

When others come first, which is to choose to build the Kingdom, albeit slowly, we may seem to be frustrated at every point. Just getting people onto the same page, in the spirit of gentleness, compassion, and mutual respect, may seem such a taxing endeavour. But unless everyone swims in roughly the same direction, there’s no progress. And still there needs to be plenty of room for diversity and even dissenters. Love encounters, and is able to accommodate, much opposition. Out of opposition, a patient response of gracious poise showers all in the glory of God. Out of opposition is the test of conquest and cooperation. Opposition, and not agreement, reveals leadership’s motives. God uses opposition. He proves the leader through opposition.

The true test of a leader is how they respond to opposition. This test will show if they’re conquest-oriented or cooperation-oriented.

If ours is a ministry of reconciliation, within the Lord’s purpose in reconciling the whole world under himself, we’ll be avidly of the cooperation camp — embracing of opposition, seeking to learn, and to win friends of enemies, even as we bear the costs ourselves. We’ll find innovative ways of accommodating people, of bringing people along, of turning people toward love, of modelling the sort of humility Christ showed when he went to the cross on our behalf; that is, to lose is to gain.

***

The underpinning of conquest and cooperation is love; love is lacking in and possibly missing from the former, yet love is to the glory of God in the latter. Only by love can the glory of God in myriad manifestation be seen.

Whose kingdom are you building in your life: the Lord’s or your own?

How does God choose leaders in the eternal realm? How lovingly do we apply our leadership here on earth?

This, ultimately, is the question for every leader; for every aspiring leader… for leadership in the heavenly realm: is my goal for leadership one of conquest or cooperation?

Is it ‘my way or the highway’ or is it ‘God’s way and the die (to self) way’?

© 2015 Steve Wickham.

One Day, As the Spirit Whispered

ONE DAY as I lay in bed on a cold and rainy winter’s day, alone, musing about how life had turned out, I wondered aloud, praying, as if God were real. But he didn’t feel real. I soon felt as though I was wasting my breath. I rolled over and wept myself to sleep, praying, even as I didn’t believe I was being heard, that I’d not wake up like this again. I needed to speak this out. I did so to my rattled exhaustion.

I sobbed and lamented in this place of mortal hell. I felt vanquished of soul and bereft of spirit, yet to feel this way proved I had much of both. Such was life, it was torment. A ghastly, perplexing state of affairs.

I eventually feel fast asleep.         And I dreamed.

The dream was a vision of God in real life, present with me, beside me, as Jesus — his Spirit whispering to me, yet not audibly, though I could hear him in terms that I understood him in language. He communicated as if through extra sensory perception.

The dream was the strangest reality; so different from the reality it appeared I couldn’t escape from, yet, from the dream’s perspective, it seemed so irrelevant. Then the Spirit whispered, “The hope you can see here, that which is coming, eclipses your present torment. Can you see this? Do you believe this?” I could say nothing except for, “Yes, I can see. Yes, I believe. Yes, it will come. I choose to know this by faith.”

At that point I awoke from my dream and immediately arose from my slumber.

My soul had been awakened to the eternal truth we just as easily read about in the Bible, yet hardly believe, because this life, this world, seems so real — the only reality we can know in this life.

The Spirit told me without words, but in a way that I understood as if by words, that all will be made known and all will make sense, one day (which is strange to call it a day, because it’s not a day in our sense of the word “day”).

The Spirit urged me to calmness. I was whispered into a sustaining tranquillity. I felt great peace even if my life seemed hopeless and I felt helpless. What I was experiencing was a peace that surpassed not only my understanding, but a peace beyond my circumstance.

In one instant of time, that waking moment, I recognised that God was with me, palpably, undeniably, healing my need, but without changing my situation. I was granted peace without being rescued out of the midst of the horrors of the consequences of life. Then, and only then, in that moment, I understood what eternal life meant.

Eternal life is the feeling of peace that transcends our tormenting realities of life.

Eternal life is the foretaste in this life of the life we’ll have in eternity.

In eternity we’ll trust Jesus without doubt. Trust Jesus to live eternally today.

Eternal life today is peace surpassing understanding; a peace surpassing our daily dis-ease.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.