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Faith. Purpose. Relevance. |
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There is this silent truth that I discovered as I began to meditate through the lives of great men of purpose and destiny in the Holy scripts. There seem to be a time in the lives of each one of them when they were either hidden or went in to hiding by themselves. Was God weak in protecting them? Or is it a principle that God adopts in raising His men? We need to know! In order to be able to take proper steps on our individual journeys to destiny. Noah
was hidden by God in a ship until the floods were past, Moses was hidden by his
parents until a time came when he could no longer be hidden, Elijah was hidden
by the brook Cherith until God was ready to act, David was divinely kept in the
wilderness till the day of his showing unto Israel, Even Saul went to hide
behind the stuff until Samuel picked him out. Joseph was divinely kept in the
palace prison until the time that his word came, Josiah
was divinely hidden until he was ready to displace Athaliah, Mephibosheth
was snatched in to hiding until nobody thought any member of Saul’s house was
left alive, Elizabeth had to conceal the pregnancy of John the Baptist for
several months and top on the list are the several hidings the Lord Jesus had to
experience, from the time that Mary stayed with Elizabeth till Herod (they that
sought the child’s life) had died and of course the 12 disciples had to wait
in an upper room in Jerusalem. The big question here is why
did they hide? Why
did they hide? I
believe they neither hid nor were hidden because God was unable to protect them.
This is exactly what makes this study very worthwhile. I have seen very
spiritual people suffer because of this salient matter and the kingdom of God
had lost several generals who stepped out too quickly and lost their lives in
return. Why did Jesus have to be taken away from the reach of Herod? Could God
not have killed Herod? Certainly! But the
answer is simply found in the statement, “That
it may be fulfilled according as it was written in the book…” which
appears very frequently in scriptures. Beloved,
it looks as if there are some things that God has set ever before you came to be
which cannot be altered but be fulfilled. The implication of this is that the
safety of Jesus had been predetermined and it had specific dimensions that had
to be adhered to if Jesus were to escape premature death though He were the Son
of God. It was the Lord’s will that Moses should be hidden while other babies
lost their precious lives. It seems to me as if God delights in this strategy to
defeat the hordes of hell as they let loose to destroy any precious life that
God releases on this earth even from the womb. The wonderful thing is the way
God hides them. Another
thing is that this is just the way God chooses to do it. Remember the scripture:
in the furnace of affliction thou has chosen me, (Isaiah
48:10). Beloved,
here comes your own responsibility. Whenever you notice that there seems to be
some greatness attached to your destiny or you sense a very unique purpose of
God over your life. It may be that you are the Lord’s strategy to counter
attack a particular move of hell in our land and nation or even in the entire
world. Do you sense God raising you to be a deliverer in Israel? You may need to
face some hiding just before your day of showing. Joseph
like many of us today, rather than settling down to find the real meaning and
implication of his dreams, was busy shouting about a vision he didn’t really
understand. Rather than get support, he only succeeded in arousing enemies and
men that would attack the purpose of his life. Friend, have you also been a
parrot like Joseph? Then get ready for what he got. Most of the times the people
we celebrate immaterialized visions with are the people who hate to see it
happen. May I advise you to be like Elisha who kept telling those 50 loud
prophets that, “I KNOW, HOLD YOUR PEACE!” There
is a time to hide and there is a time to manifest. The truth is, “ONLY HIDDEN
THINGS ARE REVEALED”. You may never have any day of manifestation until you
have been to the hiding station where God’s great men are prepared. You may
have noticed that God has been telling you great things about the future but you
seem to be very far from the manifestation of these things. Rather than going
out to the public to begin to work them out, why don’t you wait in God’s
station until He is ready to manifest you. Certainly
we would not be in hiding forever but only until a time appointed by the father.
A time is coming when Jesus will be bold enough to tell Herod that he is a fox
and that he cannot do anything to him but that was IN HIS DAY. Remember that he
had to run away for the Herod of his beginnings. You may need to avoid today
what you will still come and quench tomorrow. This is God’s strategy to
disillusion the devil. He told the disciples not to turn in to the way of the
Gentiles yet but he ended up using the same disciples to open up the gentile
nations for salvation. There is a lesson to learn from this. EVERY
TIME IS NOT YOUR TIME. DO YOU HAVE A PURPOSE? THEN YOU HAVE A TIME. You need to
recognize the divine timing over your life and learn not to step ahead of it as
well as not to lag behind it. In
hiding, God veils your real purpose before the world and leaves them guessing
and perceiving that something is about to happen. He takes you through lonely
and tough roads as He separates you from all that you’ve ever been used to.
This period is not the time to be shouting around the little secrets that He
reveals to you in order to keep you going. You need to know how to nurse your
Moses out of public view otherwise the sword of Pharaoh will hit it ever before
it grows at all. Take a deep thought now and realize how many dreams you lost in
the process of sharing it ever before you did anything about it. Rather
than talk or even minister on the purpose of God for your life, WHY DON’T YOU
KEEP QUIET AND NURSE THIS VISION TILL IT BEGINS TO SPEAK FOR ITSELF. I
believe several works, dreams and purposes have died already as we kept shouting
about it ere we did it or even gained a full understanding of it’s
implications. It’s
time to repent before another Moses is cut to shreds. God
bless you as you do so.
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