THERE IS A PATH(IV)

Text: Romans 6:6-9

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him”. KJV

In the last study we emphasized that there is a consciousness you have exercised longer than the spirit life that makes the path of spiritual progress difficult to find.

In order for God to help us out, He did something significant; that is where the core of our study begins in Romans 6 – Our inclusion with Christ; the elements of the Christian faith or syllabus of the Christian life. Our goal is that at the end of this study you will be able to judge prophecies, utterances and even certain actions, whether they are from the soul or the Spirit. The consciousness will reveal it.

In Romans 6, there are three times that we are admonished to know things, verses 6, 9 and 19.
The words used in Romans 6:6 and Romans 6:9 are different.

Romans 6:6 says “knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin”. KJV

Romans 6:9 says, “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him”. KJV

Verse 6 talks about knowing through your senses, teaching, instruction, and education. That is natural knowing.
Verse 9 talks about a knowing that is deeper than that which you get from the lecture room. This knowing is a function of the operation of the SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND REVELATION.

If we don’t go through this path, it will be difficult for you to understand your Christian life. So we are going to the root of Christianity to draw up a process.

The first step on the path of spiritual progress is called the KNOWING OF REVELATION. It is the sign of spiritual health. If the experience of the knowing of revelation is not something that is sustained in your life, you may not be able to maintain a consistent walk on the path of spiritual progress.

In Romans 6:6, the bible says, “knowing this” – This is a knowing you can acquire when you are taught.
Paul is saying in order for us to advance in our spiritual life there is a knowledge that we must receive. First, the Bible says we must be empowered with the knowledge that our old man was crucified. Why was our old man crucified? It was so that the body of sin might be destroyed.
Before we proceed, it is important we understand what it means for the old man to be crucified. The easier theological name for old man is the soul life. It is operating in that soul life that makes one operate like Adam. As long as a man operate from the consciousness that comes because of the life in the soul; taking decisions from there; and options that comes out of the intellect. He said as long as one functions that way he is functioning like Adam.
Meanwhile in the book of Romans, especially Romans chapter 5 & 6, you will see two men, two things they did and two consequences. The two men are Adam and Christ. The two things: Adam rebelled against God and Christ submitted to God. And Christ’s submission to God was unto the ultimate demand of submission which was submission to the point of death. Adam created a race out of his disobedience and Christ also created a race out of his obedience.
So you are either of Adam or of Christ. You can be born again and still be of Adam. It means you are born again but you don’t function from Christ, you function from Adam and the results you are going to get are the results that Adam got which is separation from God.

Separation from God is not just physical death, which will happen eventually. There is a separation from the anointing of God because such a person functions from the soul life. So he is not in touch with the resources that God has made available in his spirit with which God intends to accomplish His agenda on his life.

In order for us to be spared from that possibility, God did something that we could not do. He crucified the old man. Our soul life was nailed to the cross. The reason why that soul life had to be crucified, brought into death, is to give the Spirit life the advantage to grow, so the path of spiritual progress can be in view. As long as you function from the technology of your soul, access into spirit life is not in view.

Jesus said in John 12:24 that “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone…"
When you harvest wheat or rice, it has protecting the seed. Jesus used that to illustrate the spirit life that except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and dies, the grain experiences what we call the abiding alone syndrome.

Jesus did not promise us just life; He promised us abundant life (John 10:10). If you are not operating from the realm of abundant life, you are living short of what Jesus promised.

This illustration that Jesus gave is to give us insight into the soul and the spirit. The husk is the soul and the grain is the spirit. And so Jesus said except we release this grain and it falls to the ground so that the moisture in the earth and the minerals in the earth can react with the husk and kill it, the grain can never spring forth with life.

There is a battle here; the battle for the death of the grain. That is why God said the old man or the soul life was crucified to give a passage way for the spirit life to germinate so that you can be delivered from the abiding alone syndrome.

The challenge is this, the soul covers the spirit totally because you are used to operating by the soul. If the soul life is still held in place, it will hinder any expression of spirit life. Have you not seen some people that are born again but there is no evidence of it and their character does not reveal it? Why? It is because the soul covers the reality that the spirit has captured and it does not allow it any form of expression. And so Jesus said except the corn of wheat falls to the ground and dies, the abiding alone syndrome occurs. It means Christ cannot move from that person’s life to shed His glory through that life on another life; he abides alone. He can’t go beyond himself because the self-principle is still intact in that life. So that life cannot manifest the glory of God because that life will only manifest the glory of self.

When that soul life dies, that coat dies, that covering dies; loses its ability to influence; loses its ability to manipulate your decision making processes, you come to a point where spirit life can now find a room; ventilation sufficient for it to begin to sprout out.

At this point you know you are set on the path of spiritual progress.

We shall continue from here next time. Rem

THERE IS A PATH (III)

 

Text: Job 28:7-8

“There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen. The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, not the fierce lion passed by it” KJV

It is needful for us to understand this path.
Now, we have given our lives to Christ, and because we have given our lives to Christ the consciousness of Spirit things has come through the Spirit of God that is in our spirit. But we have a challenge; the challenge is your dependence on the soul for as many years as you lived before you gave your life to Christ is going to obstruct the perspective of this new consciousness.
Hence, the path of spiritual progress is the path that the fowl does not know because it is clustered and cumbered; a place that the vulture’s eyes have not seen because it is shelved in by an oversized soul that you are so used to living by.
It is difficult to access and function from that path consistently. Even the pastor knows that is why he decided to reduce the scope of his teaching to what will embolden the soul so that the people will be comfortable with his message because he knows that if he is going to preach in such a way as to bring the people to the path of spiritual progress it is going to be quite some challenge for them. They will have to make decisions. They have to come to that point where Christ becomes the centre and circumference of their being and that is a radical decision to make. And he knows that the average Christian that has not seen the glory and the Excellency of the knowledge and the personality of Christ will not want to embark on such a journey. So he is likely to lose members and lose involved participation so he now changes his posture and decides to give men ‘false hope’.

When God promised Abraham a son, how many years did it take for the son to find expression? How many times did he make mistakes? He went into his maid and produced a strange child that is a burden to us even at this time. Why? Because you cannot locate the path of spiritual progress even if you take deliberate intention to locate it. The pride of a lion doesn’t give him access to that path. So your pride and the exertion of your ‘will’ will by no means reveal that path. It is a path that you cannot study into, you cannot be taught about. It is a path that must be REVEALED to you.
It only takes the transport that is initiated by the Spirit of God to bring you into that path.

It is easier for a pastor to say it is time for breakthrough especially because it is not contradicting the word of God. God speaks about increasing you, multiplying you. True! But we need to understand that when God administers His counsel in the life of mortal men as examples, IT TOOK A PATH. But we don’t like that, the pastor is in a better position to ignore that there is a path.

God promised Abraham a child and it took 25 years before the child came. Why did it take so long? Meanwhile, before the 25years he produced a child that was not part of the prophecy. Because every time he exerted his will he produced something else but the path was still there. It doesn’t matter how many years of religion you do. Those days we used to wear short trousers that were suspended. We thought by exerting ourselves we will find the path. Lions have been denied access.

The average Christian for example has embraced religion and thinks that was the witness that was borne by our first fathers. There is darkness in the land and we need to see it. In a city like Lagos for example, people preach in the bus and say things like, “If you wear trousers you will go to hell”. Who taught this people? That is not an evangelical message. An evangelical message is the example Peter gave us on the day of Pentecost – It is presenting Christ. And the man believes because his preaching is sanctimonious and pious that he is on the rock. That is a delusion. Jesus must be returned to the altar. There is a path!

When Adam declared independence instead of him to function by the divine life, he began to function by the life of the soul.
Jesus made a lot of strange statements and most people that heard him did not understand what he was saying. They felt He was not of this world. For instance, Jesus said,
“He that loveth his life shall lose it …“(John 12:25).
He used words like ‘he that loveth the life of his soul’. The life of his soul talks about the consciousness that comes from the soul.
There is a consciousness that comes from the soul; it furnishes knowledge of me. He is self-centered and self-seeking. He builds weapons of self-defense; entertainment for self-adornment, work for self-sustenance, and everything that he thinks about is that which will give nourishment to self.
You can decide to build your world on it. But Jesus knows that if that consciousness is kept unchecked, you will never grow in the life that brings the consciousness of the kingdom of heaven. And so He needs to do something about that consciousness if you are going to grow in kingdom consciousness.
There is always a choice for you to make even if God speaks to you; there is contention that comes because there is a consciousness you have exercised longer than the spirit life. That is why the path of spiritual progress is difficult to find. Because the average man that comes to Christ is not willing to give up the perspective of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that speaks through his consciousness of the soul.
The Lord will help us in the name of Jesus Christ.

We shall continue from here next time. Remain in His grace.

THERE IS A PATH (II)

copied from Remnant Christian Network

 

Text: Genesis 2:7

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” KJV

We have embraced and romanced religion for too long. Now let us find out the original path that the apostles walked on. What could change a common fisherman to become one that speaks about a kingdom that is not visible?
Some of us have done religious things before that were empty of God. We came out from grace and were living by laws. And all the insufficiencies of our humanity showed up again.
You will notice that as prophetic as the birth of Jesus Christ was, it had nothing to do directly with your redemption. His birth was prophetic but there is no direct connection of His birth with anything in your life. Where the connection began from is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. That is the high point of His operation. It is on the basis of those three things that we are included with Him. So when the story of a Christian is told, his life and everything about him is back dated to the cross at the point of salvation.
So our point of inclusion with Christ is the cross because the cross is the point of substitution. And the reason why God had to include us (the believers) with Christ was because God’s estimation of the old creation was that the old creation could not serve the purpose of God. And everything that was of the old creation will have to be subjected to the death test. The old creation can neither be modified nor upgraded. Everything that is part of the old creation comes under the judgment of death because of the cross. THE CROSS ONLY SPEAKS DEATH AS ITS PRONOUNCEMENT OF JUDGEMENT ON THE OLD CREATION.
In case you are confused as to what the old creation is, let us go a-back and gain a little insight.
In the book of Genesis, man declared independence because God wanted man to be a creature that was created in the image of God. All other creatures were made after their own image. But the design pattern for man was that man was to be a being that will function after the image of another. So the creation of man is not accomplished according to God’s specification if the product that results is not a being that sustains the image of God. God’s idea for man is that man will be a being that function the way God functions because he thinks the way God thinks, he understands the principles of God, he functions the way of God. That is man’s calling. That is man’s ordination by destiny.
God Created Man (Gen. 1:27) - The aspect of man God created was immaterial. That part is his spirit.
God formed man (Genesis 2:7)- The aspect of man God formed is the physical part. For He formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.
The implication of that statement is that man sustained consciousness in his soul. So the most conscious part of man was his soul.
Man according to Genesis chapter 2 became a living soul. So if he wants to make a decision, it is the awareness that comes from his soul that he uses as the basis of his evaluation and the basis of his decision making. For instance, when he wanted to make a choice of whether or not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in his consultation processes, he said that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes and desirous to make one wise which were all analytical (Genesis 3:1-8). In order words, consciousness was in the soul. The soul became the strongest point of his consciousness. That being that has his consciousness in the soul was not man by God’s design.

At that point in the creation process, Adam was man in the image of man. So man in the image of man has his strongest consciousness in his soul. What the consciousness in the soul does is that it gives you a consciousness of you.

If man had been in the image of God, he would have had to eat of the tree of life and the implication of eating of the tree of life is that the Spirit of God would have tabernacle from henceforth in his spirit providing a different line of consciousness; and the consciousness he would have had is that he would have been a Being that is conscious of the realm of God.

Notice: Jesus said if a man be born again, he will have the capacity to perceive the kingdom of God (John 3:3) – that means a new consciousness is born and the proof of life is consciousness.
So the Adam in the Garden of Eden is the Adam that was man in the image of man. God wanted him to choose which line of development he wanted in his existence – if he wanted the spirit life to develop or if he wanted his soulish human life to develop.
On the strength of his choice; he chose that his soul-life should be the line of development. That means his destiny and the result of such a choice is something different from what God originally intended. His destination, his endpoint was going to be different from what God intended. He was not that man that was consistent with the design of God. He became a different creature that does not have the capacity to fulfill God’s will and God’s purpose and could not by any means attain to God’s end. That was the day Adam declared independence meaning that with the faculties of the soul that has developed he can take decisions for himself. He can do what he wants; he is conscious of himself. This is the summary of what the old creation represents.
Meanwhile, if he were in the image of God, he would have been conscious of God; conscious of the ways of God. That consciousness was going to rule his entire being and pedestal him as a creature that can access the dimensions of God in the heavens and bring that template into manifestation upon the face of the earth. But since Adam chose a different form of consciousness he was going to live thereby from the soul which is a diminished state of existence compared to what God was offering us.
We shall continue from here next time. Remain in His grace.

THERE IS A PATH(part1)

Text: Job 28: 7-8

“There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen. The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it” KJV

The first topic we will be considering for the first few weeks in this series is: “There is a path”.
If you take an inventory of the creatures mentioned in the verse above that do not have access to the path, you will find creatures that are detailed and diligent. If you cast a grain of rice to the ground in the midst of rubble,the fowl, if it is really determined, it has the working tools. The feet are like rake. It can isolate every other thing that is not the grain and reveal it. But the Bible says the fowl, in its diligent activity of searching out a thing in the midst of a rubble, has not by any means stumbled upon this path.
The Bible reveals that the vulture’s eyes have not looked upon it. The advantage of the vulture as a scavenger is its height advantage. It lifts off the ground and stabilizes itself in a dovetail kind of flight mode and it views. Oversight is part of its advantage. The Bibles says the vulture’s eyes have by no means beheld that path.
It says the lion’s whelps have not trodden it. When lions give birth and the cubs come to hunting age, they are taught how to hunt by the lions. And one of the things they get to learn is how to discover the secret paths of the pride land because when lions invade a particular place they cut out a region. The lion as the attitude of increasing its perimeter so that its enclave is enlarged; through such enlargement it wonders into deep aspects of the territory. In their searching, the Bible reveals that by no means have they stumbled upon this part; even the fierce lions never passed by this path.
The truth of the matter is that given these four creatures that have the capacity to search for food, we can conclude that the path of which the Bible speaks is not natural. That path is a spiritual path and that is the path that is unveiled in the book of Romans. That is what the entire book of Romans is about; the path of spiritual progress. The scope of our study is the discovery of the path of spiritual progress.
When somebody gives his life to Christ, what are the things that should find expression?
What are the things the person should expect in order for the person to be delivered from the invitations of the enemy to embrace religion and embrace the path of spiritual progress towards advancement and towards perfection in Christ Jesus?
You will notice that when Paul hears about Churches that embrace Christ and are sold out to serve His will, he goes there to encourage them giving them some apostolic tips. Why does he do that? He does that because he is aware of the fact that it is possible for religious people to come and prescribe a pathway that is not consistent with the path of spiritual progress to them and they will be derailed and will be walking a path wherein they cannot gain Christ. And that path will lead them to a place where they will never be able to attain to maturity and never be able to discharge their destiny in Jesus.
So the leading apostles of those days whenever they hear there is revival somewhere they shut down their itinerary and they move over to that place so that they can bring discernment to the people as to how to keep pace on the path of spiritual progress because the devil will send people that will come and sow seeds to ensure that you can never find that path.
There are many Christians that have been in the Lord for so many years but when you look upon them you will know they have lost sight of the path.
And with the increase in the kind of preaching and teaching that majors in the minors in our time, if something drastic does not happen to the church (in Nigeria) soon we are going to suffer a great loss especially at this point where the powers of Islam seeks to encroach the entire territory. We need to understand what Jesus called us into.

Jesus’ curriculum, as seen with the disciples, is that any feeble Christian that remains on the path of spiritual progress and is consistent should be ready to be released into ministry after three and half years.
Charlatans and fishermen after three and half years of being on the path of spiritual progress took cities, rattled the foundation of nations, and took control of the dominion of the territory from Ceaser. The power of the sword was not able to quench and discomfit their faith. There was something deeper than the fear of death that propelled them. These were common fishermen that Jesus harvested from different places.
By the time John was speaking in the book of first John1:1, he said “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of life”. Was it a fisherman still talking? He was on a path and at that point on the path he was speaking kingdom things like a son; a joint heir with Christ in the kingdom of God.
It happens to be that the kingdom to which we subscribe is not a kingdom of kings and subjects; it is a kingdom of kings and kings so what John was saying, he was speaking like a king. He had entered into some dimensions of our heritage in Christ Jesus. He was not talking about something he picked up from Bible school or Sunday school. He said we saw eternal life manifested and we are witnesses to it. That is what we call you to fellowship with. That was not a fisherman talking; it was a joint heir talking. He was talking about secrets in the kingdom of God. Only partakers can talk that way because he had touched the things. He spoke from the point of originality. He was not working on duplicates.
It is good to say so and so man of God says this but if that is all you have in your archive, making references to people, you are not on the path.

We will go into further details of what this path entails as we advance in this study by God’s grace.

SERIES: BASICS OF CHRISTIANITY

Introduction

This is to introduce you to Remnant Christian Network Weekly Newsletter.

We will be sending Newsletters to everyone that is registered with RCN on a weekly basis.

The aim is to erase biblical illiteracy amongst the brethren by bringing biblical perspective to various topics of interest so that each of us can become a workman that is approved unto God (2 Timothy 2:15); that is not easily tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine haven seen so much perversion going on in our generation (Ephesians 4:14).

To the end that we become technically correct scripturally and spiritually accurate and mature to handle matters of the kingdom and live the kingdom life in Jesus’ name.

NOTE: You can forward email addresses of brethren that you believe would be interested to receive this newsletter. I could also forward the news letter directly to anyone interested.

FOCUS: The template of true Apostolic Christianity.
What was the vision Jesus had in His heart when He came down from heaven to work among us like a mortal man because so much of that is being misrepresented today and so much of the emphasis we have sustained in the house of God has been found not to be consistent with original witness of the first fathers.

On the path towards tracing our heritage in God, it is needful for us to pay attention to the witness of the first fathers so that we can understand the scope and the content of their conviction and burdens. We must understand the things that they lived for so that we can know precisely what they were willing to die for. And if these factors are not in their proper places we are guilty of subscribing to religion.

One thing about religion is that it gives a false sense of satisfaction but it is not consistent with the biblical truth of the word of God and as such the Spirit of God will not furnish it because the Spirit of God cannot operate outside of the letters.

As we advance in this series, you will discover what Christianity is from the pages of the Bible trusting the Spirit to grant us illumination. Then you will discover many things that we have believed are not in the scriptures. You will be able to understand why you grew to a level and your Christian life was pegged at that level. It was because you deviated from being a Christian and you became a legalistic and a religious personality. You came out of grace and came into law. Anytime you come out of grace and you come into law, the inefficiencies of your humanity begin to play out. You begin to find impossibilities, difficulties and hindrances. But if we operate by the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus, the grace of God is abundantly available to us and we will do the supernatural things so naturally and we will do natural things supernaturally.

This series will span for the next 6months in which we will consider several topics starting from next week.

Retaining Your Crown

Rev 4:10-11  The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. 

A crown is a reward given for some achievement or that which is worn to signify  a person's position of importance or to announce the office of an individual.

When we have worked hard to attained some great achievement in life, the tendency to look at the mirror and applaud ourselves is only natural. We look at the effort we have put in to get there and feel good that at last, it was all worth-while. This self appreciation that envelops us, is only a natural reaction that humanity has adopted. In fact the lack of recognition of the efforts we put in, leaves us feeling sad. The point remains that men will always desire recognition for every input they made towards the success of a venture. We insist that our names be written, our achievements be heralded, and our efforts noted. 

While this tendency remains human, we have all seen men who take this issue of self recognition to a whole new level. For instance, we all may have met those men, who if you introduce them without their titles are offended. They are loud about their achievements and accomplishments.Note that such men who display all that they have and all that they are are small men!

The error of this way of thinking is that some individuals in the attainment of their goals in life forget God.Nebuchadnezzar was such a man. In the book of Dan 4:30 he uttered a statement that did not acknowledge God's input in his life. Hear him: The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? This statement, expressing the pride in his heart, cost him his throne for a season.

 Several personalities as recorded in the bible, also towed this line, and the result was always the same. Herod did not acknowledge God and was eaten by worms. Lucifer looked at all God had made him and sought even more than his station was, losing sight of  the honor that is due to  the one that made him all that he is. Whatever made them who they were, was lost because they did not know how to lay it all down at the feet of their creator. Nebuchadnezzar who lost his throne for a season only had it restored when he acknowledged the God of heaven. 

In our main scriptural text above, we see a practice around the throne of God that made the 24 elders able to retain their crowns even in the very presence of the King of kings. 

These elders, knew that no matter what they had become, He was the one that made them that! They acknowledged this openly and unashamedly. They took their crowns, they very symbol of their achievements, and cast it at His feet. They knew that without His help, they would not be here in the first place. They knew that even though they had become partakers of His glory, that He and only He, ought to receive all the praise and worship. They cast their crowns and for that act, they became worthy to retain their crowns.

Friends, sometimes our achievements or accomplishments blind us. We feel we got it all by our skill, intelligence, hard-work or self effort. The term self made man is common place in our time because we fail to see a need to lay it down at the feet of God. Many have failed to see how God sustained them through the process and have held on to such titles.  

The thought I would like you to leave this page with is this:

Men who discard their importance before Him are counted worthy of more relevance to the kingdom. John the Baptist who sought to decrease for the increase of Jesus, was regarded as a burning and a shining light. Jesus said of him in Luk 7:28  For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist..

Lay down your crown before him today. Learn to acknowledge God and praise Him for his help in your life. You can be sure to retain the crown but you must learn to cast it before Him. 

That's the only way to retain your crown. Worship and Praise Him for all He has done for You!

An Unqualified Aaron

Exo 32:23  For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

In continuation of the earlier article, my mind was drawn to the above request of the children of Israel. Make us a gods which shall go before us, was their request to Aaron. In that request I see a strong indictment on the ministry of Aaron. Let me explain.

Aaron was to be second-in-command to Moses and was meant to be the man on ground to provide direction in Moses' absence.  In this regard, he excelled to provide direction(briefly). After all the people came to him to request for a god. However, I am more inclined to believe that the reason why the people came to him for this was that they felt that the main man had left him in charge. He was riding on past recognition or glory conferred on him. The people did not really trust Aaron to be able to provide them with the same level of God-enabled leadership as Moses had. If they did they would have asked him to lead them and not make gods to lead them.

Let's consider that for a minute.

Here is Aaron the high priest. He was not just some ordinary member of the priesthood but the HIGH priest. He was, based on his stature, supposed to have access to the very presence of God. The most Holy place within the tabernacle, containing the ark of God which symbolizes the very presence of God, was where his ministry was to be conducted regularly. He was the man to have fellowship in the place illuminated by the very glory of God. He bore the burden of the people upon the breast plate on his heart. He had the Urim and the Thummim by which he could inquire of the Lord. Surely, he should have been more than able to guide the people in the absence of Moses. Instead he choose to make them gods.

He made the gods ,and when he did, the people thought that what he had fashioned must have been inspired from his experiences in the Holy place. After all he had been there and should by know know what God looked like at the very least (We would be surprised if we knew the source of inspiration for a lot of what we thought men must have received from the Holy place).

However, the people despite all the qualifications of Aaron requested for gods in the place of the man, Moses. They seemed to have judged, rather correctly as we find later,  that he was unable to provide them with the much needed spiritual direction. They saw in him a man who did not have the same relationship with and understanding of God to influence things in their favor should they encounter difficulties. When they came to him for direction, he made them a golden calf! The High priest of the God of Israel was the one that fashioned a golden calf,  allowed the people to declare that the idol he made was the same God that brought them out of Egypt and even declared a feast for the people to dance before this idol.

As I thought on these things I wondered. What came over the high priest of God? Surely for one that had been to the Holy place he should have known something of what God looked like. Why did he continue with the deception when he heard the people attribute to his idol the glory that was due only to God? I mean, when the people declared that the idol he had just produced a few minutes ago, a god that was only a few minutes old, was the same  that  had brought them out of bondage and had led them all this way. That would have been a good place to bring some form of correction to the madness and redirect the people but instead he compounded things by setting in motion a feast. A continuing statute that would have occupied the people even though he knew there was no presence of divinity in the idol he had fashioned.

Are there men like Aaron in our day? Men who occupy people with activities rather than reality. Men who, when the people have lost faith in their leadership credentials, resort to fashioning gods instead of travailing before the true God? Men, who continue deception to keep up with appearances and meet the immediate need of the people. Men, who fashion gods out of gold and expect men to bow before it. Men, who will keep the people happy at all costs? who see the ministry as a customer service affair and the congregation as the king-customer. Do men who are hungry for God, see your ministry as a place they can come to be connected to God?

As you consider these questions, I would like to ask further, Are you like Aaron?or a Moses?

Aaron needed gold to provide an suitable god for the people, Moses needed God at no material cost(even an angel of God's presence will not do for Moses). Aaron would gladly declare a feast, Moses time and again would declare a fast. Aaron can settle for a fraud as long as the people are pleased, Moses would not settle for any less than God even if the people wanted it so. Aaron could function without God, Moses wanted only that which the hand of God prescribes.

May God make us men who like Martin Luther will declare before God and Men 'Here I stand I can do no other'. Men uncompromising in the face of opposition and conflict. Men who pitch their tents with God and seek only that which comes from above. May we be such men indeed!