A man walks into work one morning with a bag of donuts in one hand, powdered sugar stains on his shirt, glaze glistening on one corner of his mouth.
As he clocks in, his friend say, “Jimmy, I thought your doctor put you on a diet. Man, you promised that you were going to give up the sweets.”
“Leave me alone, man,” says Jimmy. “I prayed about these donuts.”
“You what?”
“Look,” Jimmy answers, “You know my favorite donut shop is on the way to work. Well, instead of going another way to avoid the donuts, I drove past this morning. As I was passing by I prayed, ‘Lord, I’m going to go around the block, and if You want me to have some donuts, make a space free right in front of the door.’ Well, man, you know how bad parking is downtown; but sure enough after I went around the block the 12th time, there was an empty space right in front of the door.”
Jesus said in Matthew 7: 7, 8 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
This applies not only to the good things of God, but to the bad things, too. If we keep asking for what we don’t need, if we keep looking/seeking in places we shouldn’t look, if we persist in knocking on doors for opportunities to do wrong—we will get what we’re after.
In 2 Chronicles chapter 18, the kings of Israel & Judah have decided to go to war against a certain enemy. They’ve already decided, but they ask God for “confirmation.” They consult a string of false prophets who all declare prosperity and favor. The one sincere prophet around at the time is Micaiah. The kings’ messenger pressures Micaiah to say what the kings want to hear (v. 12), and at first he does.
However, the king of Israel replies: (v. 15)“How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?”
This reply shows that he knows that “Yes” isn’t the true answer. He already knew that God doesn’t want them to go into this battle.
Micaiah explains: The Lord had actually declared that if the kings go do what they want to do, they are going to lose—badly. But, since they kept asking the question even though they obviously knew the right answer to begin with; God let someone else answer them.
2 Chronicles 18: 18-21…: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and His left.
And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab king of Israel to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner.
Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’
[The spirit] said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’
Then most commonly denied thing about our sin is that we generally enjoy it. Because we like our sin, but we don’t like thinking of ourselves as sinners, we try to get God to tell us “It’s O.K.”
He won’t.
Because it isn’t.
But we keep asking. Like little children begging for another piece of candy.
“Daddy, can I have it.”
“No.”
“Can I have it now?”
“No.”
“Please, what about now?”…
God answers us clearly. We usually know when He answers —just like the king in 2 Chronicles 18 knew that God hadn’t really told Micaiah to prophecy prosperity on their war.
But, if we don’t like the answer, we pretend we didn’t hear/understand & we keep asking. God won’t lie. We won’t listen when God speaks truth, so God sends somebody else to answer us.
Enter the lying spirits.
Jimmy asked God for a parking space at the donut shop. Eleven times, God told Jimmy, “No.” Eleven times God offered Jimmy a chance to get out of there.
The 12th time it wasn’t God who answered. It was a lying spirit.
1 Corinthians 10: 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
At times we really are unsure, confused, overwhelmed and we need to hear from God. If we ask we’ll receive an answer.
You can keep asking/seeking/knocking if you want to. But when the answer changes, when you find the trouble you were looking for, when the door to sin opens to your persistent knock, remember—It ain’t Jesus answering.
When Jimmy finishes his donuts, goes into sugar-shock followed by a diabetic coma, no one should blame God for telling him it was O.K. to go where he went.
God didn’t.
It wasn’t.
If we receive the lie instead of the truth, we place ourselves in the hands of a lying spirit. Spirits speak directly to our spirit, and the lying spirit won’t just lie to you about the initial sin. The lies will continue & spread into more & more corners of your life.
One day, you’ll look up and wonder how in crap you got so far from the path God had shown you, why after all this time you still haven’t accomplished the task for which you were anointed.
You get what you ask for.
No comments:
Post a Comment