Innocent as Children
08.25.09
Innocent as Children
Offence and unbelief in God’s goodness can be two of the most crippling forces in the life of a Christian, and something that all believers need to guard against. It was unbelief in the goodness of God that caused Adam & Eve to eat from that tree in the Garden of Eden. God had already given them everything AND they were created in the image of God Himself! (Gen 1:27 And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him). But Satan convinced them that somehow God was still holding out on them, that they “could” be like Him, when in fact they already were!! The writer of Hebrews also commands us to guard against this same attitude: Heb 3:12 Take heed, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
We see the same thing in the hearts of many Christians today. We have all been disappointed or hurt at some point in our lives, either by life itself or by people, and when we have on top of this a heart that has been hardened to a certain extent towards God (who is NOT responsible for any hurt or pain in our lives), we tend to start asking Him why these things have to happen to us. “Why me Lord?? Why are You allowing this?” The biggest cause of people doubting the goodness of God is the filter through which they see life. The goodness of God can be seen all around us, and when we get to know Him as He TRULY reveals Himself through His Word we can not help but to be overwhelmed by His goodness! Even the angels shouted it out when Jesus was born: Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Even mature Christians can carry offence around when they know that the disease they have commanded to leave in the name of Jesus is supposed to leave that person’s body, but it doesn’t. Even as I am writing this I have just spent the past WEEK at home suffering from the worst flu I have probably ever had. Now in my life I have seen deaf ears open, cancers healed, demons cast out, etc etc, but no amount of rebuking, resting, commanding the flu to go, having communion, simply “receiving” or soaking would make this flu go. I could easily have begun asking God: “Why Lord? Why do I have to suffer like this? Your Word says that by the stripes of Jesus I have been healed, so why am I not seeing my healing?” I can choose to adopt this attitude and let offence creep in, or I can choose to worship God in spite of my circumstances. In heaven there will be no suffering or sickness, so this life is the only time that I can bring God an offering IN my pain and in spite of my pain, even though He is not responsible for it.
Bill Johnson from Bethel Church in Redding (California) says that he has learnt that the secret to staying fresh in God is to focus on the things that God is doing, and not on the things that God isn’t doing. Rob Rufus from City Church International (Hong Kong) says that the secret is to have the innocent heart of a child restored to you, feeling as though you have never sinned and as if nobody has ever sinned against you.
Some people’s hearts are so hardened that they have become filled to the brim with skepticism and doubt in the goodness of God. These people, even if God were to perform a mighty miracle right in front of their eyes, they would still try to find some way of explaining it away. They will believe that there could have been some form of a hoax involved, some trickery and that they are actually being “holy” not to be deceived by this so-called “miracle”.
John the Baptist, the mighty prophet and forerunner of the Messiah, whom had seen the Spirit of God descend and remain on Jesus, had been imprisoned Herod. Now John could have chosen to keep on believing because of the things he had seen, but instead he became offended and began doubting Jesus because of his own sorry circumstances, so he sent messengers to Jesus to ask Him if He were REALLY the Messiah. So Jesus sent him this reply: Mat 11:4 Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John again those things which you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel proclaimed to them. 6 And blessed is he, whoever shall not be offended in Me.
About 3 weeks ago I had an amazing conversation about “ministry” & “calling” with my friend Johannes Loubser in South Africa over Skype, and just as we had said goodbye, a feather (which I believe with my child like faith to be angelic) came floating down right in front of me out of nowhere (remember I was inside a closed room) and landed on my desk! If I had given any room in my heart to offence with the flu this week, I could easily have forgotten about the feather from 3 weeks ago. But you see the faith that sprung from that miracle 3 weeks ago kept me going through this tough time! I have learnt in my life that offence can never be given, it can only be taken. No matter how bad the insult, the denial or betrayal, you still have to TAKE offence.
Offence & unbelief in the goodness of God can creep in through years of indoctrination by powerless preachers who form theologies to make excuses for their lack of power, instead of adjusting their theologies to conform to the level of God’s Word. Mar 7:13 making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have delivered. Heidi Baker from Iris Ministries (Mozambique) often lets her orphan children pray for the sick and they have a success rate of over 90% in healing deaf people, as well as seeing many other breathtaking miracles occur daily. She says that the reason why she mostly has her children pray for the sick is because all children still believe that God does miracles, that He can heal cancer and open deaf ears. And they will keep on believing it until an adult tells them God can’t do it. They have not been “ruined” yet by materialism and unbelief and they have pure hearts that believe in the mighty power of the kingdom of God.
Maybe this was part of the reason why Jesus said the following: Mat 19:14 But Jesus said, Allow the little children to come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven. And also Mat 18:3 and said, Truly I say to you, Unless you are converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe
www.NewCovenantGrace.com
