SPIRITUALLY ALERT, HEARING & SEEING (10/20/15)

“Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch & be sober…let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith & love…” (1 THES 5:8) In ancient Israel, the officer in charge of Temple security in Jerusalem would make the rounds at night to check the security police to see if they were awake. If they were caught asleep, their clothes were taken from them & burned, so they would be publicly naked, a fitting visual demonstration of how they had left the Temple security naked. What kind of spiritual clothes & armor do we wear?? How well do we protect our Temple of the Holy Spirit, which the Bible says is our body?

“The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, & let us put on the armor of light.” ROM 13:11-12

TAUGHT BY THE SPIRIT NOT BY WISDOM. “…God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God…Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God: that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.(A) “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall be all taught of God…”(B) 1 COR chap. 2 gives the clearest explanation of how the Spirit teaches us: “We interpret what is spiritual in spiritual language.”(Moffatt trans.) Or KJV: “…the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1 COR 2:13 So the Spirit places things into us in the language of spirit, and our knowledge, wisdom and skills play a role in how we translate that into human words. We see an example of this at ISA 61:1,3 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because YHWH hath anointed me to preach good tidings…to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion…the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the YHWH, that He might be glorified.” Spiritual “garments of praise”, sounds interesting. The Word of God recognizes that His people may be burdened with a spirit of heaviness.

OUR FAITHFULNESS & ALERTNESS MAY AFFECT OTHERS. Many people don’t do “cause & affect” thinking, and even those that do, may not realize that what we do can affect others. The Bible is clear that in terms of criminal law, punishment/guilt is only for a person’s own actions.(C) But there are consequences for our neglect that can hurt others. If a sentry goes to sleep, an entire army could suffer the consequences. The consequences of David’s sin with Bathsheba were for their first child (conceived in sin) to die.(D) The nation of Israel had a treaty with the Gibeonites in the name of YHWH, which Saul violated.(E) A famine comes to Israel and Saul’s 7 grandchildren are put to death because of that broken treaty.(F) This is an example of corporate responsibility & corporate consequences. So we need to ponder, who else will suffer if we neglect our spiritual responsibilities? Our children? Our grandchildren? Our city? Our nation? All the more reason to spiritually listen to God & to watch the signs around us. You impress God more by how you listen to him, than by what you say.
STAY AWAKE. “Awake, Awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city…”(G) We need to be awake & watching out for moral infiltration of our land. Let us clothe ourselves with righteous deeds. “And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”(H) Christ warned us that the last days would be like the last days of Sodom.(I) Many are aware of sodomy, named after Sodom, but what were Sodom’s other 3 major sins? People will be shocked to learn what they were. They were PRIDE, PROSPERITY, and IDLENESS.(EZEK 16:48-49) Hmmm. America is more like Sodom than we realized! May we not be like those described at 2 TIM 3:1-7, “Ever learning & never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Let us listen to the Spirit and watch for moral infiltration & moral assaults, and then let us come to the knowledge of the truth. AMEN.

(A) 1 COR 2:10, 12 (B) JN 6:45 (C) EZEK 18:4 and others (D) 2 SAM 12:14-18 (E) JOSH 9:3-15 (F) 2 SAM 21:1, 5-9 (G) ISA 52:1 (H) EZK 16:48-49 (I) LK 17:24-30