Mercy Triumphs After Judgment
Greetings in the Lord!
Today's word comes from Acts 8:9-25, Deut. 29:18, and Habakkuk 3. The passage in Acts tells the story of Simon the sorcerer, a man who was famous for engaging in the magic arts around Samaria. However, when Simon saw the signs and miracles being performed by Phillip, he was astonished and followed him around everywhere. Scripture even says that Simon "believed and was baptized." Just as many in Samaria were being baptized and believing in the Gospel, Peter and John came from Jerusalem to lay hands on those believers so they would receive the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw the Holy Spirit came at the laying on of hands, he offered the apostles money to be able to do the same thing. Peter quickly rebuked him.
"May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness...Perhaps He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." (Acts 8:20-23.)
Simon wanted wealth and fame and God in his life, but he wanted God to fit into his ways. As I read the passage, the word "bitterness" that Peter used jumped out at me. Was Simon bitter? Well, with further investigation I found a reference to Deuteronomy 29:18)
"Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those (foreign) nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison."
So, Peter was referring to the "bitterness" of the poison of the root of idolatry. Afterall, Simon was a sorcerer, a practicioner of the magic arts--even though he now claimed to be a follower of Christ, a believer of the Gospel. The Word does not say he repented of his magic arts.
"When such a person hears the words of this oath (God's covenant promise with us), he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, "I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way." This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry...(The Lord's) wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven." (Deut. 29:19-20).
Right now is the spiritual separation happening in our country. Blessings to fall on the righteous believers who cling to the Lord and His ways, and curses to come upon those who vehemently reject His ways, although they claim to be sheep. The rest of the passage in Deuteronomy 29 talks about how the coming trials and judgments are a sign to the witnessing nations who wonder at the sight, noting the "burning waste of salt and sulfur" where nothing will grow to that of Sodom and Gomorrah:
"Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?" And the answer will be: "It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers...They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods He had not given them. Therefore the Lord's anger burned against this land, so that He brought on it all the curses written in this book." (Deut. 29:23-27).
Nearly all of my Holy Spirit "training" before the Lord released me to public prophetic ministry involved living in nations that were "cursed," by definition of Deuteronomy chapters 28-29. I too, would sit in wonder at the sights around me, at why they worked so hard and received so little; why their lives were filled with heartache, calamity, affliction, and oppression at every turn; why happiness was so fleeting and weeping so prevalent. The list goes on and on in Deut. 28 of what curses would come to a nation as a result of abandoning the Lord--and my eyes saw it daily as the reality of life in those nations. It was bewildering! While in these countries the Lord would have me study the Christian heritage of the country I was in, whether it was Syria or Albania or Russia. In almost all cases, there had been a period of time in those countries where Christianity was strong and vibrant with many believers. In fact, Christians were first called that in ancient Antioch of Syria. So what happened? Basically, there came a time when those nations had to make a choice: do we serve God or the false gods of the world? Quite often the false religion that lead them astray was Islam, but Communism was not far behind. And by choosing to follow those deceptions, the nations were lead astray and fell under the curses of disobedience as foretold in Deuteronomy chapter 28.
For some years now the Lord had been telling me that our day would come as a nation, where the United States would have to choose her way. Would she cling to the ways of her forefathers who had established our nation on God's principles, or would she choose to follow a false prophet who through economic signs of deceptive worldly prosperity and diplomatic (spiritual compromise) wonders will lead peoples of the world astray? The choice has been made.
Now the United States embarks on a spiritual separation that will come with progressing opposites: abounding conflict and like-minded unity; severe trials and miraculous deliverances. In Habakkuk 3, the prophet recalls with awe the works of the Lord and of His fierce Presence: earthquakes, fires, landslides, flooding and the invasion of His enemies to make desolate the land...but the Lord will arise to defeat of His enemies after they had invaded and overtaken the land. The prophet gets queasy when he discerns from the Lord that all that will happen, Babylon will indeed overtake Judah and desolation of the land will come.
"Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights." Hab. 3:16-19.
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
Today's word comes from Acts 8:9-25, Deut. 29:18, and Habakkuk 3. The passage in Acts tells the story of Simon the sorcerer, a man who was famous for engaging in the magic arts around Samaria. However, when Simon saw the signs and miracles being performed by Phillip, he was astonished and followed him around everywhere. Scripture even says that Simon "believed and was baptized." Just as many in Samaria were being baptized and believing in the Gospel, Peter and John came from Jerusalem to lay hands on those believers so they would receive the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw the Holy Spirit came at the laying on of hands, he offered the apostles money to be able to do the same thing. Peter quickly rebuked him.
"May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness...Perhaps He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." (Acts 8:20-23.)
Simon wanted wealth and fame and God in his life, but he wanted God to fit into his ways. As I read the passage, the word "bitterness" that Peter used jumped out at me. Was Simon bitter? Well, with further investigation I found a reference to Deuteronomy 29:18)
"Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those (foreign) nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison."
So, Peter was referring to the "bitterness" of the poison of the root of idolatry. Afterall, Simon was a sorcerer, a practicioner of the magic arts--even though he now claimed to be a follower of Christ, a believer of the Gospel. The Word does not say he repented of his magic arts.
"When such a person hears the words of this oath (God's covenant promise with us), he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, "I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way." This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry...(The Lord's) wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven." (Deut. 29:19-20).
Right now is the spiritual separation happening in our country. Blessings to fall on the righteous believers who cling to the Lord and His ways, and curses to come upon those who vehemently reject His ways, although they claim to be sheep. The rest of the passage in Deuteronomy 29 talks about how the coming trials and judgments are a sign to the witnessing nations who wonder at the sight, noting the "burning waste of salt and sulfur" where nothing will grow to that of Sodom and Gomorrah:
"Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?" And the answer will be: "It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers...They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods He had not given them. Therefore the Lord's anger burned against this land, so that He brought on it all the curses written in this book." (Deut. 29:23-27).
Nearly all of my Holy Spirit "training" before the Lord released me to public prophetic ministry involved living in nations that were "cursed," by definition of Deuteronomy chapters 28-29. I too, would sit in wonder at the sights around me, at why they worked so hard and received so little; why their lives were filled with heartache, calamity, affliction, and oppression at every turn; why happiness was so fleeting and weeping so prevalent. The list goes on and on in Deut. 28 of what curses would come to a nation as a result of abandoning the Lord--and my eyes saw it daily as the reality of life in those nations. It was bewildering! While in these countries the Lord would have me study the Christian heritage of the country I was in, whether it was Syria or Albania or Russia. In almost all cases, there had been a period of time in those countries where Christianity was strong and vibrant with many believers. In fact, Christians were first called that in ancient Antioch of Syria. So what happened? Basically, there came a time when those nations had to make a choice: do we serve God or the false gods of the world? Quite often the false religion that lead them astray was Islam, but Communism was not far behind. And by choosing to follow those deceptions, the nations were lead astray and fell under the curses of disobedience as foretold in Deuteronomy chapter 28.
For some years now the Lord had been telling me that our day would come as a nation, where the United States would have to choose her way. Would she cling to the ways of her forefathers who had established our nation on God's principles, or would she choose to follow a false prophet who through economic signs of deceptive worldly prosperity and diplomatic (spiritual compromise) wonders will lead peoples of the world astray? The choice has been made.
Now the United States embarks on a spiritual separation that will come with progressing opposites: abounding conflict and like-minded unity; severe trials and miraculous deliverances. In Habakkuk 3, the prophet recalls with awe the works of the Lord and of His fierce Presence: earthquakes, fires, landslides, flooding and the invasion of His enemies to make desolate the land...but the Lord will arise to defeat of His enemies after they had invaded and overtaken the land. The prophet gets queasy when he discerns from the Lord that all that will happen, Babylon will indeed overtake Judah and desolation of the land will come.
"Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights." Hab. 3:16-19.
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
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