Are You Still Worshiping Goat Demons?

We all want more from our relationship with Jesus. We want more clarity, peace, joy, love, contentment, direction, vision, hope. The list can go on but the essence is we want to be closer to Jesus. We understand that this is exactly what Jesus wants. In fact, in the gospel of John Jesus prayed about our oneness with him. But we expect it to be handed to us on a silver platter.

Our attitude stinks when it comes to our expectations in this relationship. We expect to put in minimum effort for maximum gain. We look at salvation, which is free for those who believe, because of God's grace, and we think this also translates into a no-effort relationship. But that is not what the Word of God reveals. Relationships take work; "Seek my face", says our God and seeking is a thing of effort.

This relationship requires total honesty. The Spirit wants us to examine and understand our motivations so we can confess and repent of the selfish ones and seek our God in purity of heart and mind. Most of us will not do that. We won't even consider how important it is. We get good feelings now and then. The Spirit is manifested from time to time. We experience God's provision and we don't consider how much all of this is by his wonderful grace but not the fullness that he desires to give in proper relationship.

The Israelites also had the manifestation of Yahweh in a major way. He was always visible to them in the desert. How could they forget what happened in a very tangible way in Egypt. They heard his voice and were afraid. Yet, they never entered into the purity of relationship that Yahweh desired. Here is a little snippet:

"The Israelites must no longer sacrifice their communal sacrifices to the goat demons that they follow so faithlessly. This will be a permanent rule for them throughout their future generations." (Leviticus 17:7)

Goat demons? Really? The strange thing is that we are a crazy creature that would rather hold on to an ugly familiar thing instead of a new and wonderful thing. We will do stuff simply because it is what our parents did. We would rather hold on to demon worship than step into the most incredibly beneficial relationship with the Son of God, just because the former is familiar and the latter is not.

I guarantee that there are attitudes, thoughts and actions that are part of us that dishonour our God, just like worshiping the goat demons. Such things prevent us from growing up into the full measure of Jesus Christ. They are things that are so much part of us that we don't even realize what they are or the source of them. This is especially true of the way we think. If only we could grasp how positive our Father is toward us. If only we could see is desire and longing for us. If only our mental barriers would be taken down, the demons evicted, so that the joy and the peace that comes from the Lord's presence would be a permanent feature of our being.

These things could be discovered by every worshiper of Jesus Christ, if only we would pursue a growing relationship with him. If only we would lose our attraction to the things of this world, to goat demons, and rely fully on the Holy Spirit. If only we would learn to love the LORD our God with all our heart, mind, body and passion. If only we would be willing to lose our pride, dignity and allow those barriers to come down, even if it looks shameful in the eyes of the world. Jesus makes all things new, beautiful and full of himself, and if that is all that matters to us, we will have more of him

Failing To Fully Possess What Has Been Promised

Too many of us are not fully possessing what Jesus intended for us to possess. We have been offered the fullness of Christ and instead we satisfy ourselves with a few crumbs. We are repeating exactly what the Israelites did when they were offered the Promised Land. They never fully possessed it. Some of the tribes took what was given to them but others never did. Even the tribes that did take their possession did not flush out and destroy the other nations like they were instructed to do. And it came to pass exactly what Yahweh warned them would happen, that if they left any of those he sent them to destroy, they would be influenced to turn to other gods.

It's difficult for us to image what Israel could have been and how Yahweh would have been glorified, if only Israel had obeyed:

Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them. But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance.

Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: “How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?" (Joshua 18:1-3)

How long will we neglect to possess all that Jesus has promised us? When he saved us he made us a new creation; no longer bound to this place; no longer bound to sin; no longer bound to the systems of man; no longer bound to the patterns of this world, we were set free to be fully possessed by the Holy Spirit, to be filled by the power of Jesus Christ, the resurrection power, free to be fully obedient to our Father's will. But we have failed.

We have failed to allow our love for the things of this world to die. We have allowed things to keep residence. We have allowed strongholds to remain and we still sacrifice at the high places. These things continue to pollute us, to influence our heart and mind. They drain goodness from us and cause us to have a divided loyalty. We want friendship with the world and friendship with Jesus, but it doesn't work that way.

To be fully possessed means to have one Master, one Lord, one King. To be fully possessed is to be fully committed to walking in Jesus' footsteps, to doing the Father's will, to obeying the Holy Spirit. It is a commitment to live by the Word of Yahweh and not by opinion. It is a full denial of yourself and a complete acceptance of Yahweh's wisdom.

We are serving in a half measure and expecting full benefits. But there is not half anything in the Kingdom; no half measure, half effort, half hearted, half minded. It is all or nothing:

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10:37-38)

I am not exactly sure when or why we lost it but we did. We have allowed the world to possess more of us than we have in the last 100 years. Holiness is almost forgotten as we join in with a society that only lives to be entertained. We are failing to live the powerful godly lives that Jesus saved us to live for his glory, and I am convinced that the only way we can change it is if we encourage each other to turn and seek the face of Yahweh, the presence of our LORD. We need to make the decision to vanquish the strongholds in our lives and place Jesus solidly on the throne, with no hesitation and with all our heart. We need to seek purity in our lives once more that we would be available to be used by our King, to bring salvation to the land and glory to his name.

Say no to being entertained by the sins of this world and yes to serving Jesus with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. Jesus must be our everything.

A Mystery Revealed No Longer Feels Like A Mystery

You never know you are in a special moment until the moment has past. When you are in the middle of living something you don't always have an historical perspective, but later, when you are reflecting on your life, you realize just how important that moment was. We are in an important moment in human history and most of us just see it as another ordinary day.

Do you realize that you are living in an age when the mystery of God has been revealed? They did not have what we had in the days before Jesus. Many prophets looked into it with longing but they did not get to experience it. God spoke about it, foreshadowing what was to come, but it is us, the Church, who get to experience it. Paul wrote to the Colossians:

I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. (Colossians 1:25-26)

And what is this fullness of God's Word, the great mystery that had been kept hidden for generations? This incredible thing:

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

Doesn't sound like any great mystery to us, does it? We speak about it all the time, teach it to our children, live it every day; it's rather normal to us. But it is not normal, or at least, it is not natural to what we once were.

We celebrate the baby in the manger but Jesus, the Son of God, came as a prophet. He was filled by the Holy Spirit to live out a perfect life, to teach us, to set the example, to take our place on the cross and to rise to eternal life so that we may follow him. This was a lot but he did more than this. Jesus also sent the Holy Spirit, that we would not be left orphaned but instead that we would have Jesus dwell in us, to empower us to live as he had lived. This is not normal to the world.

We, my friend, are possessed by God. Where once his presence was represented by a temple, he now lives in his children, transforming us into a new creation; one that houses the Creator himself. He doesn't want us to serve him with the limits of our resources and abilities. He lives in us so that we can live the fullness of who he is, supplied by his power, changed by his character.

Maybe this is old news to you but it is incredible enough that the prophets had longed for it and the angels are looking in. We were made a little lower than the angels but God has now changed us, lifted us up so that we are greater than the angels and the angels serve us. This is who we are, what Jesus has done and continues to do for us. This is the great mystery that has been revealed, the fullness of God's Word. You are no ordinary person and this is no ordinary day. Live it to its full potential in the power of Jesus Christ in you. You are not alone. Live in the moment.