8.22.09
Ready for Rain 3
It’s only words
Have you ever wanted something really bad, and yet been too afraid to ask for it? Have you ever asked for something that was selfish and not in the will of God, and then wondered why you didn’t receive it?
James speaks to both issues:
Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:2, 3
We don’t ask God when we should, and we often ask for things that are clearly not in His will; things that we think will bring pleasure to us. God knows better, and He won’t usually let you have things that will pull you even further away from Him than you already are.
James adds, in verse 4, this:
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4
The things of this world—lust, love of possessions, love of money, pride, selfishness, deceitfulness, not eating and drinking to glorify God—all of these things, the Bible says, are enmity or separation/hatred towards God. You cannot be a friend to these things, and still be on good terms with God, or life.
Some of the things we ask for are of this world, and God won’t usually respond to that kind of prayer, because you are regarding sin in your heart. The Bible says that He won’t hear our prayers if we regard iniquity in our hearts:
If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear. Psalm 66:18
James continues in verse 5, saying that “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously” for our purity, refinement, and salvation. We need to know that the Holy Spirit will always guard our minds and bodies jealously, not wanting anything harmful to enter. So, when we ask God for something, it should be something that is good for us.
There are certain things that we know we can ask for with certainty and with confidence, knowing that God will answer our prayer in the affirmative. The Holy Spirit is in this category.
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! Luke 11:13
Today we will be spending some time in the book of Zechariah—mainly chapter 10:
Words:
Ask the LORD for rain
In the time of the latter rain.
Zechariah 10:1
We must ask the Lord for rain, the prophet says. Make no mistake about it, we need rain. We desperately need the mighty showers of the Holy Spirit to fill our lives, to regenerate our minds, to refreshen our bodies, to purify our thoughts, to cleanse our souls, to empower our lives. We must ask. Jesus told us to ask for the Holy Spirit, and to ask with faith, believing!
But not only do we need to ask for rain. We must ask for rain especially in the time of the latter rain. Especially now—right now—we need to ask for the rain of God’s Spirit to fall upon us. For we are living in the time of the latter rain. We are dwelling on the very borders of eternity, with much to be done in terms of winning people over to the Lord’s side.
Zechariah says we should ask, and we should ask NOW, IN THE TIME OF THE LATTER RAIN.
Continuing with verse 1:
The LORD will make flashing clouds;
He will give them showers of rain,
Grass in the field for everyone.
Zechariah 10:1
God answers the request for rain by sending flashing clouds that produce showers of rain! This is a promise, my friends! Jesus, in Luke 11, was merely restating what He had previously inspired the prophet Zechariah to write, here in verse 1. This is an overwhelming promise that God will deliver His rain, His Holy Spirit, when His people pray for the Holy Spirit, and when they surrender to that Spirit.
Zechariah, earlier in his book, had reminded his people that there had been times when God absolutely would refuse to listen to their prayers, because the people were not listening to Him, and they were not doing what He said:
“But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. 12 Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts. 13 Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen,” says the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 7:11-13
If we refuse to hear the law of God, and we refuse to put into practice the words that the Lord sends us through His prophets, we will incur the great wrath of the Lord of hosts. And He will not hear our prayers—for rain, or for anything else.
Again, if we regard sin in our minds, if we plan sin, if we develop sin, if we allow sin to be a part of our everyday routine, despite what the prophets of God tell us, God simply will not hear anything we have to say. We are not doing our part.
Our part is to surrender our sins, and to forsake our sins. The same Holy Spirit who inspires the writers also helps us to turn our backs on our favorite sins. If we do not allow the Spirit of God to help us, then we have no part with God. We are not in His kingdom.
Not only should we be reading and studying daily what God has spoken through the Bible prophets, and His modern-day prophet, Ellen White, but we should be asking the Lord to help us put the things we read into practice in our lives. This pleases God, and He delights in sending His Spirit to guide us and to grant us strength to act on His Word, His guidance.
If we are not listening to His prophets, then we are shutting ourselves out from the presence of God. We are turning off the light that shines in our lives. It’s like living in a dark closet.
Today God is calling His people out of the dark-closet existence, and into His marvelous light! Will you allow yourself to be drawn out of the darkness?
Having brought conviction of sin, and presented before the mind the standard of righteousness [the law], the Holy Spirit withdraws the affections from the things of this earth and fills the soul with a desire for holiness. "He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13), the Saviour declared. If men are willing to be molded, there will be brought about a sanctification of the whole being. The Spirit will take the things of God and stamp them on the soul. By His power the way of life will be made so plain that none need err therein. Acts of the Apostles, 52-53
The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, shows us the standard of righteousness—the law of God—takes from us our affection and infatuation with the things of this world, and fills us with a desire for holiness. Then He molds and sanctifies our entire being! He stamps the truth of God on our very souls! He completely converts us and transforms us!
My brother, my sister, I ask you, IS THERE ANYTHING THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES NOT GIVE US? What is keeping you right now from saying “YES” to God and His Spirit, and asking the Lord Jesus to be the King and Savior of your life?
Returning to Zechariah 10, and verse 1, we see that God promises to send showers of rain, and God promises grass, that is, fruitage, maturity. So, again, the Spirit of God fills our lives, and as we submit to Him, He brings about the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, purity, temperance, sobriety. GOD TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPIRITUAL FRUIT IN OUR LIVES! WE DON’T HAVE TO MANUFACTURE THIS FRUIT. HE GIVES IT TO US, THROUGH HIS HOLY SPIRIT.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. John 15:4-8
Jesus makes it clear that in order to live we must be in an abiding relationship with Him. We must pray, and we must read His Word. And if we do this, we will bear fruit to God’s glory. A real disciple is one who is in an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, and who bears fruit to God’s glory. It is all the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Now, there is a Flow here in Zechariah 10. There is a reason that God sends rain, as evidenced by the word “For” at the beginning of verse 2. God has to counteract the untruth and delusions of Satan, in order to protect and save His people all over the earth.
2 For the idols speak delusion;
The diviners envision lies,
And tell false dreams;
They comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wend their way like sheep;
They are in trouble because there is no shepherd.
3 “ My anger is kindled against the shepherds,
And I will punish the goatherds.
For the LORD of hosts will visit His flock,
The house of
And will make them as His royal horse in the battle.
Zechariah 10:1-3
Today I want you to take notice of the concept of words, good words or truth, and false words or untruth. This is a common theme that shows up over and over in the passages we are looking at today. In Zechariah 7 we already saw that God was angry with His people, and He was refusing to listen to their prayers, because they had not listened to His words that He had spoken through His prophets.
Here in chapter 10 verse 2, we see that the idols are speaking words, but they are words of delusion. The diviners are having visions of lies. They are also telling false dreams. Words. They are using words in the form of comfort, but it is a false comfort, and it is in vain.
God says He is angry with the false shepherds who are misleading the people of God, and causing their ruin.
It’s only words. Ah, but words can make an eternal difference in your life and mine.
So first let’s get some definitions of these terms:
1. Delusion: A false belief or opinion. A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence, especially as a symptom of mental illness.
Examples of delusional beliefs and thinking: delusions of persecution—believing that everyone is out to get you, and there’s a enemy behind every door. If you are truly delusional, someone could literally show you that there’s nothing at all behind those doors, but you still would not believe it. Delusional thinking also occurs in people with anorexia, when they think they are really fat, but everyone who looks at them see a skinny body. Even looking at themselves in a mirror and seeing the evidence of the skinniness won’t convince them that they are not fat.
2. Idol: An image used as an object of worship. A false god. One that is adored, often blindly or excessively. Something visible but without substance. An object of supreme devotion. An impostor, a pretender.
Anything that absorbs your supreme devotion and the majority of your attention is an idol in your life. It could be a person, a musical instrument, a drug, or a particular sin. There is no substance or life in an idol. Idols fade, go away, and disappoint after they are done being impostors in our lives.
Now, how does an idol speak delusion? The idols in the days of the Israelites convinced God’s people that, in spite of numerous evidences of God’s love and power, they still needed to worship something tied to nature—something that appeared or pretended to give life. No, it didn’t make one but of sense, but an idol doesn’t care if it makes sense. An idol speaks to the love of sin that is deep within us. An idol makes us feel good when we are in the process of worshipping it.
The Israelites turned away from the real God, who lovingly points out their sinful ways, that He might heal them. This kind of God cramped their style—and He still cramps peoples’ styles today! We still run from the real God to serve meaningless idols in our lives, because we want to continue to be comfortable in our sins! We are
And God is saying, “Wake up, My people!! Wake up, and live!! Turn from your favorite idols that you cling to instead of Me. Turn and live.”
But it isn’t just idols speaking delusion. It’s diviners envisioning lies, telling false dreams, and comforting God’s people in vain.
3. Diviner: one who practices divination.
Divination: The art or act of foretelling future events or revealing occult knowledge by means of augury or an alleged supernatural agency.
2. An inspired guess or presentiment.
Augury: foretelling the future by means of signs, or the sign itself.
A diviner is someone who claims to be able to tell the future by having some sort of connection with the supernatural realm. Can the devil tell one of his people that something he is about to do will take place soon? You bet. The devil can cause disease and take away that disease. Diviners are people who basically make inspired guesses based on their wacked-out beliefs. Modern theologians and preachers are perfect examples of divining. They present false doctrines and say it comes from God.
God says that the diviners are envisioning lies. They claim to be having a religious experience, claim to be receiving a vision from the Lord, and claim to be led by the Holy Spirit of God. So they cast a vision for the church. They claim to have a new approach, and a new way of reaching people, and a new way of bringing people into the church. BUT THEIR VISIONS ARE NOT OF GOD! THEY ARE DISTORTING THE TRUTH, AND MISLEADING GOD’S PEOPLE! But God’s people can’t tell that this is happening, because they do not read their Bibles and the additional guidance that God has given them in the Spirit of Prophecy writings.
God says these false shepherds also tell false dreams. Are there any people that you’ve heard of who are receiving dreams from the Lord? All the time this is happening. We only hear about it now and then, but it’s happening constantly. Just recently, of course, we had the unfortunate experience associated with Ernie Knoll, who claimed to be receiving dreams from God. He spoke the Adventist language, and truly appealed to conservative Adventists all over the country. He developed a large following, and some churches were divided right down the middle because some of the members embraced his dreams, and others didn’t.
Long story short, his own people came to the disappointing conclusion that brother Knoll had been lying to them, and that a demon had actually been guiding him, rather than an angel of the Lord. Very discouraging indeed. Yet God warned us all through the Bible that false prophets and false dreamers would arise among us.
God says the idols are speaking delusions, the diviners are envisioning lies, they are telling false dreams, and they are comforting in vain. False comfort.
13 “ Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them,
Everyone is given to covetousness;
And from the prophet even to the priest,
Everyone deals falsely.
14 They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No! They were not at all ashamed;
Nor did they know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
At the time I punish them,
They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.
Jeremiah 6:13-15
The false shepherds are giving false comfort to the people of God! God calls it an abomination! They are making them comfortable in their sin, not calling sin by the right name, and making them comfortable in their lukewarmness.
9 “My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of
10 “Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. Ezekiel 13:9, 10
Satanic seduction, at the hand of religious leaders! Such is the state of affairs for modern-day
In our day as well, it is the RELIGIOUS LEADERS who are lulling the people of God to sleep, and filling them with FALSE COMFORT THAT IS NOT FROM GOD!!
Today from pulpits all over our land you will hear that it is not necessary to obey the Lord in order to be saved; that your salvation has nothing to do with good works, or fruits, or keeping the Sabbath, or how you dress, or how you live, or what you eat and drink. AND THOSE PULPITS ARE NOT ONLY PULPITS OF SUNDAY CHURCHES—NO!! OUR OWN SPIRITUAL LEADERS IN VARIOUS STATES ARE TELLING US THAT WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE, AND BECAUSE WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE, OUR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IS NOT A NECESSARY PREREQUISITE FOR ENTRANCE INTO HEAVEN. EVEN THOUGH THIS CONTRADICTS THE BIBLE AND THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY! EVEN THOUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR SALVATION AND OUR DEVELOPMENT!
“OH NO, WE MUST NOT TELL THE PEOPLE THAT THEY MUST REPENT AND OBEY THE LORD—IF WE TELL THEM THAT, THEY MIGHT LEAVE THE CHURCH! NO, WE NEED TO HELP THEM RELAX, AND NOT BE SO WORRIED, AND WE NEED TO ATTRACT NEW PEOPLE TO OUR CHURCHES! AND NEW PEOPLE ARE TURNED OFF BY RULES AND DOCTRINES! WE MUST NOT SCARE THEM AWAY!”
AND NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH! THE TRUTH IS, PEOPLE WHO ARE SEARCHING FOR GOD WITH ALL THEIR HEART WANT AND CRAVE THE GUIDANCE OF GOD’S WORD, AND THE GUIDANCE OF GOD’S LAST-DAY MESSENGER MRS. WHITE. PEOPLE WHO ARE SICK OF THIS SINFUL WORLD AND ALL IT HAS TO OFFER DELIGHT IN THE THINGS OF GOD, AND WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HIM, AND HOW TO PLEASE HIM.
BUT WHAT DO WE FIND IN THE CHURCHES OF 2009? WE FIND PASTORS WHO GO OUT TO EAT WITH THEIR MEMBERS IN RESTAURANTS ON SABBATH!! DESECRATION OF GOD’S HOLY SABBATH! ALL OVER OUR NATION WE FIND LEADERS DOWNPLAYING THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROPHETIC GUIDANCE GOD HAS GIVEN US—DOWNPLAYING THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVING OBEDIENCE ON THE PART OF GOD’S PEOPLE—WE FIND THEM SERVING FOOD AND DRINK AT THEIR GATHERINGS THAT THEY KNOW VERY WELL ARE NOT HEALTHY FOR OUR BODIES, WHICH ARE THE TEMPLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD! BUT IT’S OK, IT’S ALL RIGHT, BECAUSE WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE, DON’T YOU KNOW.
WELL, I’M SORRY BUT IT’S WRONG. JESUS SPEAKS LOUDLY TO HIS LEADERS AND TO HIS PEOPLE IN 2009, SAYING,
“HOW LONG WILL YOU FALTER BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS? HOW LONG WILL YOU SEEK TO SERVE GOD AND SELF AT THE SAME TIME? HOW LONG WILL YOU GIVE FALSE COMFORT TO MY PEOPLE
_________
The result of the delusions, lies, false dreams, and false comfort, are that the people are lost, in trouble spiritually, and without a shepherd. God says is verse 3 of Zechariah 10, that His anger is kindled against the false shepherds. Do you know what kindling is? Kindling is what happens just before the BIG FIRE; think: lake of fire.
Do you sense that God is appealing to His shepherds to speak WORDS OF TRUTH to His people? God loves His shepherds. God loves His people.
In verse 1, God is telling His people that He is sending flashing clouds, and He is giving them showers of rain. We looked at the “For” that follows.
The Rain given in response to the false words, false dreams, false comfort of the false shepherds. My friends, who would have ever thought that God would have to protect us against His own shepherds? But that’s exactly the case in Zechariah’s time, and it’s the case in our time.
God will outpour His Spirit in Latter Rain power on a people who are emptied of self, and ready to be filled with the presence of Almighty God. AND THIS OUTPOURING, MY FRIENDS, IS EXACTLY WHAT IS NEEDED TO COUNTERACT NOT ONLY THE FALSE SHEPHERDS, BUT ALSO THE DECEPTION AND CONFUSION OF
Yes, it’s sad but it’s true. You and I will have to fight a spiritual battle that has two different fronts: the Western Front has fallen, apostate Protestantism, a union of church and state, and Laodicean lukewarmness. The Eastern Front has errononeous Catholicism, mysticism, New Age, Wiccan magic, the false teaching of the eternal soul that lives on after death, and downright Satanism baptized.
Two fronts, my friends. And that is why we need the indwelling, the empowering of the Holy Spirit—to engage in spiritual battle on these two fronts, and to be protected in the process.
The Rain brings about power for a spiritual battle. God will use His people to counteract the false work of the enemy. In Zechariah 10:3, God says,
For the LORD of hosts will visit His flock,
The house of
And will make them as His royal horse in the battle.
Zechariah 10:3
The Holy Spirit is not merely a feel good enterprise. The Holy Spirit is a CLEANSING FIRE WHO PURIFIES US, MOVES US TO BATTLE FALSEHOOD WITH TRUTH, AND PREPARES US TO FINISH THE WORK OF SAVING SOULS FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED.
God’s people are His royal horse that rides into the fray, conquering and to conquer.
If it is your desire today to surrender to God’s Spirit, to allow yourself to be purified from all sin and wandering, and if it is your desire to love the truth, and to say Yes to God’s truth now and always, won’t you stand just now, and indicate your love for the Lord?