(pamclark@prophetic.net)
No righteousness happens in the earth without a Godly person's efforts somewhere.
These are crucial times, but they are more crucial in the Spirit, than even in the natural. The natural will always play out what is happening in the Spiritual.
Many people have decided or feel that it's revealed to them who should win the next election. And God is never taken by surprise on these things, but if He gave us some free choice in the matter, then how we are day to day is important and has an effect on the way things turn out!
The Bible plainly says that God is the Father of spirits. (Hebrews 12:9) Our developing spirits matter to Him! Jesus plainly said, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24)
Jesus emphasized the soul as the prize, in many ways:
Matthew 16:26 - "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Matthew 10:28 - "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
And we know that our body houses both our soul and spirit while we are alive. The soul is the mind, will and emotions (great things!) and it can be profoundly affected by the spirit, if we will allow that. Jesus said:
Luke 21:19 - "By your patience possess your souls."
Matthew 11:29 - "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
As we allow the Holy Spirit, whose virture is is displayed in the fruit of the Spirit (found in Galatians 5:22-23), which includes that patience Jesus talked about, we find we are changed from glory into glory. In other words, we grow and mature in the Spirit. And as our spirit man grows in His Spirit, we possess our souls in pleasure before God.
Psalm 89:14 - "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face."
God has given us this will, this free choice, to accept Him or reject Him. It's our testing ground for eternal life with Him. We have this short life span to make our decision. If we care, He cares (for us), if we don't, then He doesn't, for WE made the choice! He grieves the loss, but can move on. (He gave His all, what more could He do?)
Proverbs 16:2 - "All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the spirits."
Proverbs 24:12 - "If you say, "Surely we did not know this," Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?"
1 Samuel 2:3 - "Talk no more so very proudly; Let no arrogance come from your mouth, For the Lord is the God of knowledge; And by Him actions are weighed."
I want to set this framework for the statements I make next. Many are concerned and are praying for the next election. But if we don't see things as God sees them, we may get caught up in thinking one thing, when how God sees it is another way.
We have to rightly divide things according to God's will in the Scriptures. That is His standard for the peoples. It's more about the Spirit than the theology even! One can get locked up and religious in the theology, but if we are responding to His Spirit, then they will say of us as they did about Jesus' "unlearned disciples":
Acts 4:13 - "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus."
Many in the world in Jesus' day believed they were doing the right thing. But many also had doubts and misgivings about Jesus! Many went with the crowd and lost out on the blessings!
I promise I am not trying to endorse any candidate here in this, but we need to understand that as we follow the Holy Spirit, it does not matter about the candidate as much as it matters about how we respond to the Spirit!
God sees "the Church" and God sees "the world." God sees the lost and God sees the wicked. He wants to reach all of us with His revelations for good and peace and fellowship in Him. It's His agenda, and He declares that He will have "a people"!
So how we pray and act does make a difference. He will lead and guide us as we seek Him in our decisions. But as we work to choose and work for our right leadership, we need to understand something. We are not "voting" for a leader as much as we are working to choose the "right ones" to help us.
Some members of the Church are very notable and some are not as visible as others, but it does not mean their work is not as important. One little thing can turn a whole lot of other things around. If the mechanic is not there to fix the car, the right person needed at the meeting to say or do something crucial might not be there. God is not going by popularity, but function.
The Bible talks about the wise man of a city:
Ecclesiastes 9:14-15 - "There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great snares around it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man."
The people forgot, but God did not. This poor wise man possessed his soul and his gift enough to save a city! It spared his life and those around him whom he knew and loved. And of course there were the greater eternal rewards.
When things get rough, people will listen to the wise, but we need to know that we can miss it if we don't put God first. Because it's not about popularity but relationship with God.
The righteous wise cannot always in their own strength rise to their powers without a Spiritual covering. Many believe wrongly that the world can produce a great leader who can lead righteously without that covering. NO GOOD happens without the right Spiritual covering. Somewhere, a righteous saint is praying before God.
Some who are weak in public have helps (like Moses and Aaron) and some have advisors to their thrones (like Joseph was to the Pharaoh). But these leaders, like many today, had righteous coverings before God. They are not always publicly seen.
This is why we need to seek God and then trust Him. He knows things behind the scenes that we don't always know. That mechanic at the shop can save the day by being helpful and friendly to the person's stressed wife who influenced her husband to keep the faith for his message appointment! We don't know always know "how" God is doing a thing, but we can trust that He hears our prayers.
No righteousness happens in the earth without a Godly person's efforts somewhere. Our prayers matter.
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