[SW175] 02/27/2015 message notes by
Evangelist Susan J. Wynn ©2015
“Seeking His Hand”
When someone is in chains, they are totally bound — legs, arms, neck.
But there’s one chain that has a lock on it, and when it’s unlocked, the prisoner is set free from those chains.
I tell you, Jesus wants to set some prisoners free today, and there’s a particular chain the Lord wants to break so all the rest fall to the ground!
Text: Psalm 78:12-33, 40-43
Israel longed for the things of Egypt (Numbers 11:1-6).
They forgot the oppression and the hard master they served there.
They forgot what the Lord had done for them:
— The plagues He set upon Egypt that resulted in their freedom, and
especially, the night the firstborn of Egypt were killed, but Israel’s
firstborn did not die. Death passed over them.
— Deliverance at the Red Sea
— The manna, bread from heaven
— Water from a rock, enough for a million of them
— The pillar cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, to lead and protect them
— The promise of the Promised Land
How could they forget? Or more importantly, why did they forget?
Numbers 11:33-34
Greediness!
They sought His hand and not His face (His presence).
Hey, Lord, I’m hungry. Feed me. But it has to be the kind I desire.
What is this? Manna? You expect me to eat this stuff?
I want meat, like I had in Egypt. I never should have left.
As Richard “Stonefingers” Johnson wrote in a song, “I Want To Go Back:”
I want to go back to Egypt.
That pillar of fire’s light keeps me awake all night.
I want to go back the slavery I once knew, something I can hold on to.
This desert is hot, a picnic it is not, I miss the cool Nile breezes and the shade.
This promised land’s a dream, that I have never seen.
Who does God think He is, to make me live like this, out here with all these scorpions and snakes?
If I was in charge, I’d stop this forward march, and hustle my way straight back to Egypt.
Israel didn’t trust God. They demanded from Him, saying “Fulfill our own desires (Psalm 78:18, Numbers 11:8-20).
Even today, there are pastors who encourage people to complain to God, demand what they want from Him, to seek His hand, to ask for material blessings continually.
But these pastors do not tell them that their hearts are selfish and that, by demanding that God fulfill their desires, they are rejecting what He has already supplied, and rejecting God Himself!
These false teachers feed on greed — the greed of the people who want their ear-tickling message. It even works in underdeveloped countries, which amazed me.
But fallen human hearts are the same everywhere — greedy, selfish, and desperately in need of transformation by God’s Holy Spirit!
May the Lord bring upon them something that will make the ears of all who hear tingle (vibrate, quiver with fear) not tickle (see 1Samuel 3:11, 2Kings 21:12, Jeremiah 19:3).
What is the cure for greed?
2Peter 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Hallelujah! By what has He granted that we become partakers of His nature and escape the corruption and lust of this world?
2Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
Knowledge — full knowledge, the knower having an experiential relationship with the One whom he knows. He knows God because he has experienced God, by being filled with the Holy Spirit!
Matthew 6:19 “ Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal . . .”
Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Nowhere in the gospels does Jesus say, “Demand what you want from God. He’s here to meet your lusts and desires.”
Romans 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
The Holy Spirit! Father God gives you a new heart when you are filled with the Holy Spirit! He is the One who makes you a partaker of the divine nature. It must be done in you in the same way it was done in Peter in the upper room in Acts 2!
— Father God’s love, the very same love with which He loves His Son! In you, filling your heart!
— Knowing Father God deeply and experientially and intimately because He is in you!
There is no other way to know Him but through Jesus Christ, His Son (John 14:6).
And there is no way to receive unless you are willing to offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing, for that is your spiritual act of worship (see Romans 12:1). The sacrifice in view here is a whole burnt offering. But you get to live after sin has been burned out of you, after the Refiner has come and purified!
Then you will no longer have greed in your heart, even greed toward God, wanting Him to give, give, give you what you lust for. You will always approach God with your needs, humbly and contritely, but with confidence.
No greed — once that chain is broken, the rest fall to the ground!
As Charles Wesley wrote:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray-
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Is that chains that I hear falling, in the name of Jesus?
There is power in the name of Jesus, to break every chain!
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