Fire On Your Head

We have heard it said that in the last days the good will be called bad and the bad will be called good. During creation, each day God saw everything that He had created was good. Satan wants to flip over everything upside down. He wants people to call good things “bad” and bad things “good.” Therefore, those without a relationship with God will in general or naturally, do the opposite of God.

“There is a way which seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.” “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weights the hearts.” Proverbs 16:25; 21:2

Restoration and Rebellion

God is good. The ways of men-which are inspired by the rebellion of Satan- are evil. This is why we need a Savior.  Jesus undid that which Adam allowed to control the whole human race; the influence, control, and manipulation of Satan.

In God, who is good, there is always restoration. In Satan, who is bad, there is always rebellion. So, who says what is evil, bad and rebellious? God! Not man. Remember, each man will go his own way, thus dissolving any moral standards. With God, the plumb-line of truth is drawn. This is not to keep us from being free, but to liberate us from the desire to do as we please. This desire, when unmasked, is demonic inspiration. Living for God keeps us free from falling into the self-liberating traps of the enemy.

The Order of Creation

The enemy wants to flip the order of creation upside-down so it will worship him instead of God. We think we are free when we pursue self, but in reality we are obeying Satan. If we get out eyes off God and on ourselves we have been deceived. This is the reason why Peter was rebuked so harshly by Jesus. Jesus revealed that He must suffer and die, and then be raised up. This did not sit well with Peter so he actually rebuked Jesus for it. Peter took his eyes off Jesus and did what seemed right to him. What Peter did not realize is that he was actually being led by Satan.

“But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interest, but man’s.’ ” Matthew 16:23

Can you believe that Peter rebuked Jesus? How many times have we done the something for the sake of reasoning or “wisdom?”

In Romans 1 Paul mentions the order of creation. The creation is supposed to worship the Creator. The thing which will turn our hearts is creation looking at itself rather than God. This is the very thing Satan did when he fell.

“But you said in your heart ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God…’ ”

“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:13a: 14 (emphasis mine).

Now he is trying to reproduce this death in us. He is death and his aim is to reproduce death wherever he goes (Job 1:7). Just as Satan wants to reproduce himself in us; it is only because God was doing it first. Jesus did the opposite. He did not look at Himself, He looked at God (Phil 2:4-11). Jesus is life and He produces life wherever He goes. Death cannot stand in His presence. Now He is reproducing His life in us who believe.

The Reversal

The devil looked to himself instead of God. This is not the order of creation. In worship we are to look to the Highest One, the Father. The first fall is to look to ourselves, next we fall further by worshiping animals, and finally we even start to worship the things that crawl on the ground. This is out of order to say the least. When this happens a reversal takes place in our hearts, the good becomes bad, and the bad becomes good. We were looking up to God-the highest place: And now we are looking at bugs-the lowest place. This is unnatural, for we are created to be supernatural. This happens by seeking God and not our own ways.

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” Romans 1:21-23

The gaze of men went from looking above themselves to looking at themselves, and then to birds, then animals, then reptiles (ironic that the devil is a serpent). The order is reversed. The fruit of this is chaos and death. It’s unnatural in every way.

Producing Good Fruit

“For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, no, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.” Luke 16:23

Bad trees cannot produce good fruit. There is no reproduction of creation, that which God created and called good (Genesis 1). This reproductive reversal causes men to have relations with other men, and women with other women. Nothing can be reproduced because the order of creation has been flipped in their hearts by believing the devil’s lie.

“Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

“For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also men abandoned that natural function of women and burned in their desire for one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” Romans 1:26-27

In creation there is natural reproduction. In Homeosexuality there is no reproduction, also it  does not produce good fruit. It is a result of looking to ourselves and not to God. It just doesn’t happen naturally, nor does it practically work. To be homosexual, man has to try and change in some way the natural flow and parts God created for us to enjoy sex and reproduce. This is like removing the ancient boundries (Prov 22:28); altering the way of creation so man can fulfill his own pleasures (read all of Romans 1 for context).

Drawn to God

The book of Romans is about the obedience of the faith (verses 1:5; 16:26). There is a draw in every man’s heart to do good because we were created in the image of God, Who is good. The trick of the enemy is to try to draw that good from ourselves rather than drawing it from God. This results in an unfulfilled life because life comes from God. We did not create ourselves, so we must not look to ourselves by going our own ways, but we must look to God, our Creator.

God is not a puppet master. He came to cut the strings the enemy has placed in our lives that pull us this way and that. The enemy has tried to conceal this by reversing the idea of good and bad in our hearts. God is good and He has a good life for you. To know Him is so much better than anything we can accomplish in ourselves. He will use us to do things that are so awesome that we are not even able to imagine them. He loves us and longs to set us free, and that is what this message is all about.

Lord may this word slice through the enemy’s lines of lies that he has set in your children’s hearts. Take away from it me and add to it You, so they may know how much You love them. Amen.

As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”–in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.
No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:17-22, ESV)

Look at this testimony about Abraham. It says he didn’t waver in his faith. But is that true? I want to show you something interesting. Recall with me if you will that in Genesis 15, he and his wife Sarah were promised the child Isaac, but it was not for roughly 25 years before the child of promise was born. In the next chapter, Sarah gave her maid Hagar to Abraham to bear a child with her, after growing weary of waiting for the promise to come about, and how often are we like them, and we think God needs our help to bring about His promises? How many Ishmaels do we have in our lives because we resorted to “plan B” while waiting on God to fulfill his Word?

Abraham wavered not? Did not weaken in faith? No distrust made him waver? Did the apostle Paul actually read the story of Genesis? Oh, he did alright, and he caught on to something I didn’t necessarily notice until recently. God didn’t look completely at the 25 year span of time it took since the promise was given and the boy Isaac was actually born and find in Abraham a man of doubt. He saw a man of faith ultimately in the whole of the picture. Clearly, we can learn from the life of Abraham two things (at least two from this passage, I’m sure there’s way more things to learn if we went into more thorough study of Genesis). Also, praise God that He looks at the cry of our heart instead of just the last mistake we made or doubt we acted on.

The first one is evident, the second observation of mine is a little more speculative, but not completely unfounded.

First, Abraham clearly didn’t begin with “great” faith to see the promise come about. His faith grew or his heart was changed over time. This is stated in verse 20.

Second, could it be said that we ourselves are in charge of how long it takes for us to believe the promises of God? Can our faith or lack of it accelerate or slow down the process of receiving the promises we’ve been given? I believe so.

Romans 4:20 states that Abraham “grew strong in his faith.” If you can grow strong in your faith, then evidently you can stay weak and not grow at all in faith. I’ve taught that faith is like a seed and we are in charge of watering it ourselves. I believe God gives each of us a seed (so to speak) of faith to each one of us, and some people have greater faith not because God gave them “greater faith” but because they’ve taken more time to grow their seed. Others, keep their seed small, thinking “God will only do what God wills” and take no initiative of their own to believe for greater things. It makes people angry to be told it, but if all it took to move the mountains was faith that stayed the size of a mustard seed, then we’d have all the mountains moved already.

Keep in mind the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-9) for a quick sidenote/reference, and how in each instance the seed actually is planted and goes into the soil, but for various reasons like shallow soil, or weeds choking it out, the result is unfruitful, but the one that goes in properly is up to a hundred times more fruitful than its initial form. Do you notice something implicit in the passage? Let me ask you this way: what is easier for the devil to steal–a seed or a tree? That is why we must water our seeds so they grow and become established, making sure also what kind of soil we’re planting in. The conditions of our hearts and minds are important.

Could it be possible, that Abraham is a man whom it took twenty-five years to reach the place where his faith was strong enough to finally receive the promised son? I know some reading this will totally object, because some believe everything is based on the sovereignty of God, canceling out our actions and decisions. But God’s sovereignty is just one side of double-sided coin, and it seems way too many believers only accept one of either sides of it. But that’s for another entry.

For a real cool example I’ve heard and I liked , there’s a difference between how far a car will go if the gas tank is full or if it’s empty. So it is with our faith—are we full or running on empty?

Faith is not believing that if you sit in a chair it will hold your weight (maybe some reading this need HOPE that chairs will hold your weight!)–Faith is not mental, it’s in fact the action of going ahead and sitting in that chair knowing you can.

Let’s also look specifically at the things highlighted in our selected passage:

Do we believe God (v. 17)? I don’t mean mental ascent to what the Bible says. Believing the Bible is like the ‘entry level’ faith. Do we LIVE beyond the mental agreement like it is real?  Is it normal to our lifestyle and beliefs that He gives life to that which is dead, spiritual and physical (v.17)? Do we KNOW and not just think that through him, that which does not exist can be brought to existence?

This statement is one that rocks me when comparing it to my life: Belief against hope (v.18). What does this mean and look like exactly? Remember, Sarah wasn’t the only one that was barren—they were both old, and in Genesis 18 when the three angels/men come to tell Abraham they’d bear a son a year from then, Sarah laughed to herself, saying “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” (v.12) We’re all mature who are reading this right? So Abraham’s body was just as unable to take part in creating a child as Sarah’s at their age, but yet he believed against the circumstances, he believed what God said, not what his body demonstrated to be true. So technically two bodies were touched by the power of God to make this miracle happen.

With that said, faith changes circumstances.

Do you weaken in faith (v.19)? Or do circumstances make you change your mind? Do you look at your body and say “sorry God, it just won’t happen.” Or do you look at your body and say “sorry body, but God said________ will happen” and have expectation that things will change?

Some of these truths are life-changing and I know there are pessimistic Christians content to stay in the ruts they are in, but if you really want to rise above circumstances, meditate on this passage and ones like it and really absorb the principles in it, and get to a point where your life resembles who this passage says Abraham was.

That is all for this time.