Eph 1:17-18
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
As the curtains of 2009 are being closed and the dawning of 2010 stands before us their will be many people who will be desiring changes for the new upcoming year
Changes that will impact them physically emotionally and even financially
Allow me to present to you the greatest New Years resolution that you will ever be given the opportunity to participate in.
Luke 9:51-53
And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
Christ has once again come into the city of Samaria, this is the same city where the woman at the well spoke to Christ and He told her all that she had ever done and she and the entire city believed on him as the Messiah
Christ on his way back to the city sends two of His disciples ahead to make ready for Him and the word of God tells us that because His face was set towards Jerusalem they refuse to receive Him.
His appointed time is at hand where He is to be scourged crucified, buried and raised from the dead.
His face is set towards Jerusalem to accomplish that and they refuse to receive Him
Have understanding,
They know who He is, they know that He is the chosen one, they know that He is the Christ from God and they still refuse to receive Him and the reason that they refuse to receive Him is because His face is set towards Jerusalem.
Why would they refuse to receive Him simply because He is going to Jerusalem?
Because two of the most powerful prejudices known to man exist between the Jews and the Samaritans the prejudice of race and the prejudice of religion.
The prejudice of race where the Jews would not accept marriages that were not of true Jewish linage, any Jew that married some one who was not of true Jewish linage was cast out of the Jewish culture and then also the prejudice of religion for if you were not a true Jew you were not allowed to worship in the temple
This is the reason that the Samaritans had such hatred for the Jews and when they saw Christ steadfastly setting His face towards Jerusalem they refused to receive him
Luke 9:54
And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
Here is a tragic situation, the Messiah is on his way to Jerusalem to become the sacrifice for the entire world and that mission is being hindered because of the prejudices of a group of people,
Their motivation stems out of nothing but hatred
Look at
2 Kings 1:7
And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words?
And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.
Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven , and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven , and consumed him and his fifty.
Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven , and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven , and consumed him and his fifty.
And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
Behold, there came fire down from heaven , and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.
When the king sent his Captains and their men to Elijah to have him come down to him these men were only obeying orders,
Elijah was in no physical danger
God even told Elijah not to fear that He would protect him
The bottom line is that Elijah did not have to do what he did when he called fire down out of heaven, the situation really did not warrant the response that Elijah gave and I might add that the circumstance before Christ warranted fire from heaven more than the fire that was called on by Elijah.
Luke 9:54
And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
What James and John wanted to do was to mimic and to do exactly what one of the greatest Old Testament prophets did and that was to call fire down from heaven and consume them.
This was not just something that they dreamed up, they had scriptural precedent for what they were going to do and they thought that their actions was going to glorify God when they called down fire from heaven and killed all of these Samaritans who were hindering the work of God
And look what Christ did
Luke 9:55
But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
The Disciples of Christ wanted to do to the Samaritans exactly what Elijah did to the king’s captains and men and Jesus rebuked them
He rebuked them for wanting to follow a scriptural example in the Old Testament
That is an awesome piece of information!
Here is reality
If you try to model yourself after Old Testament examples
If you deal with people according to Old Testament examples
Or if you think that God is still dealing with people according to the Old Testament examples you could be rebuked by God
And the reason that you could be rebuked is because you are misrepresenting God and His nature
You are bringing people to a place of rejection and fear, a place where they reject God and where they serve God out of fear instead of love and it is a hindrance to there relationship
Let me tell you truth,
If Christ would have been on the earth when Elijah called down fire from heaven Jesus would have rebuked him
And the reason that he would have rebuked him was because it does not show the true nature and character of God
Christ would have rebuked him
It is amazing to me that when I ever I run into people who call themselves a prophet or a prophetess they are always wanting to be like Elijah
Cursing the earth, speaking the judgments of God, speaking the destruction on this thing or the destruction on that thing, if your mentality is to be like any of the Old Testament prophets you would be rebuked.
This is a tremendous statement!
New Testament prophets do not go around trying to be like Old Testament prophets
The difference between the old and the new is as different as night and day
In the Old Testament the prophets stood in the gap, in the New Testament Christ stood in the gap
In the Old Testament prophets were intercessors; in the New Testament Christ was the only intercessor, the only mediator.
In the Old Testament you could not be saved, in the New Testament salvation was secured for whosoever will
In the Old Testament you were saved on credit, you were saved looking forward to that blessed hope that would take place in the future
That is one of the reasons that Christ descended into hell was to preach the good news of the gospel to all that were gathered there waiting for that blessed hope
In the Old Testament even though you were saved by looking forward to that blessed hope your nature was not changed, your fallen nature was not replaced with the nature of Christ because Christ was not yet the firstborn among many brethren.
Listen to David in
Ps 32:2
Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Hear what David is saying and to what He is looking forward to
Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
That word guile in the Hebrew is remeeyah and it means where there is no falseness,
Blessed is the man that in there spirit there is no falseness
Rom 4:6-8
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Blessed is the man whom God imputes righteousness without works
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven
Blessed is the man to whom the lord does not impute sin
This is what David was looking forward to
Today our sins have been forgiven
Past present and future
Sins that you have not even committed yet have already been forgiven
David did not have that
Do you understand that in the Old Testament people did not have dominion over the devil?
People were not delivered and made free as they are through Christ; in the Old Testament the devil had dominion over people
In the Old Testament there are only fifteen references to the devil and twelve of them are in the book of Job
Every body who has ever read the book of Job knows what was taking place in the life of Job but Job had no idea what was taking place in His life
Job had no authority over the devil.
To day because of what Christ has done we have authority and dominion over the devil
We have authority over those things that the Old Testament saints never had, their natures were never changed, they were never delivered, they were never made free and they were never redeemed and brought to the place of the perfect law of liberty.
They were never joint heirs, they were never partakers of His divine nature and they never walked in the perfection of the spirit of Christ
Are you looking for a goal in the coming year 2010?
Are you looking for a challenge?
Then begin to walk in the revelation of who you are because of what He has done in you.