Article of the Month
January
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Faithfulness
– Having a Single Eye The
level of activity of the Lord within our lives is determined by our desire
and sincerity toward Him. The
Lord looks deep within us to see if there is any indication of a desire
to know and fellowship with Him.
When we become, in any measure, interested in Him - He notices
and responds. “I
love them that love Me; and those that seek Me
early shall find Me ...
that I may cause those that love Me to inherit substance; and I will fill
their treasures.” Proverbs
8:17,21 When
a young man becomes infatuated with a particular young lady and she responds
to his interest, she soon becomes singularly interested in him. This is similar to the approbation, or
the favor of God resting upon one’s life.
Our desire toward the Lord moves His heart toward us. “For
many are called, but few are
chosen.” Matthew 22:14 It
can be said that the Lord chooses a person who has chosen Him. The Lord knows our heart intention and
what is within us, and He responds accordingly, “He
chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: from following
the ewes great with young He brought him to feed
Jacob His people, and Samuel
had been sent to the house of Jesse to pick one of his sons to reign in
place of Saul. Jesse had
eight sons, of whom seven were present when Samuel arrived.
Outwardly, it seemed to Samuel that the first, Eliab, would be
the right choice, but the Lord had something else to say. “But
the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance,
nor on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the
Lord sees
not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord
looks on the heart.” I Samuel 16:7 One
by one, the seven sons stood before Samuel and were rejected. During this time, David, the eighth son,
was in a sheepfold, helping give birth to a lamb. When not thus occupied, under the stars
of the long nights, David sang of the majesty of his Creator, and came
to be a worshiper of God. Here,
many of the Psalms he later wrote were formed within him. The Lord had noticed the spiritual hunger
and desire that was within David, and would give Samuel no rest until
David was called. “And
Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all your
children? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, and, behold, he
keeps the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we
will not sit down till he come here.” I Samuel 16:11 David
was brought directly from the sheepfold to stand before Samuel. There was nothing in his outward appearance
that would seemingly qualify him, but the Lord spoke to Samuel: “Arise,
anoint him: for this is
he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of
his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day
forward.” I Samuel 16:12b-13a There
was something within the heart of David that had touched the heart of
the Lord, and he was singularly set apart from his brethren. There had been a “faithfulness”
in caring for the sheep. Now,
the quality of faithfulness that had been formed within David was lifted
into a higher dimension of responsibility, through intervention. Later, David was brought into the presence
of Saul in the palace. Saul
was being troubled by evil spirits, but as David played his harp, these
spirits were soothed and Saul had rest. Soon it became apparent to Saul that the
anointing, and the favor of God rested on David. Saul
became jealous and threw a javelin at David and ordered him killed. David fled and hid deep within a dark
cave while Saul’s army was outside seeking to kill him. Here, under intense pressure, David began
to quietly sing to the Lord, as he had done during the long nights of
watching sheep. “The
Lord is
my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the
Lord is
the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even
mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and fell ...
in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord,
that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire
in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion:
in the secret of His Tabernacle shall He hide me ... I will sing,
yea, I will sing praises to the Lord.”
Psalm 27:1-6 This
dark cave became a For
many of us, when things do not go as we feel they should, we complain,
telling the Lord that He should change our circumstances, because we are
doing the best we can. But
rather, we are to meet the Lord IN the place where we find ourselves to
be, and rise above it with a heart attitude of worship toward Him.
All too often, we whine rather than worship the Lord in our place
of pressure. “To
him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me
in My Throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father
in His Throne.” Revelation 3:21 A
specific challenge to “overcome” is repeated to each of the seven
Churches in Revelation with a promise for those who overcome. For us to become an overcomer, there must be something for us to overcome. The way we react to our problems has much
to do with the approbation of God resting upon our lives, and with our
being lifted into a new realm of spiritual life and responsibility. Many
wonder why they were brought into a salvation experience when there was
seemingly nothing in their lives or background to justify the Lord taking
an interest in them. This
may have happened simply because the Lord saw the potential that was buried
deep within them. When
David was in the sheepfold, the Lord knew how he would react when he was
hiding in the back of a cave. All
the Lord did was to provide an arrangement in which David had to make
a choice. In this place of intense pressure, he
chose the Lord, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I
seek after.” For
us also, the Lord gives us plenty of “room” to see what we will
do. In His foreknowledge, He knows, but we
must make the decision. Therefore,
He draws us through many trying circumstances to equip and prepare us
for a higher purpose. Where
there is a demonstrated seeking the Lord in our place of pressure, a pathway
will be formed that will lead us to God, and result in a greater release
into the realms of the Spirit. No
one else may recognize that this higher relationship to the Lord is being
formed within us, but we will know.
When we pray, we are told by the Lord to go into our “closet”
and shut the door and pray to our Father in secret.
Then our Father, who sees in secret, will reward us openly. When
parents who have a small child go out, the child may say, “Who will
keep me?” This is built
into a child. Jesus said
that we cannot enter the Kingdom except we become as a little child. This child-like trust and dependence is
important to our Heavenly Father. There
is a Kingdom principle that has nothing to do with right or wrong. Rather, it has to do with the attitude
behind the act. This is because
the Lord is using the circumstance to produce an inner spiritual quality. Thus,
the Word tells us that “all things work together for good.” Things do not work, rather God works even terrible things together to produce
His purpose - the image of His Son within us. When I understand and accept this, I have
an alignment, or set of spirit, within my being that will bring me into
the place of His higher calling.
Nothing will be able to turn me away from this path. The
circumstance that I face can only enhance my relationship with the Lord
and teach me the ways of God, and His Kingdom principles. Then, my capacity for spirituals (spiritual
ability)
will also be enlarged. Knowing
that David qualified for the throne of |
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