Breaking Free

509 Reconciliation of Evil... Part II

Will Tomorrow be your friend?

Where is the joy in knowing The Lord? Where is the confidence that one will win? We see it in The Word, we believe it in The Word, but somehow before it is manifested in our life, we doubt, doubt and doubt some more because the circumstances defy our faith. So we see, that when we believe The Word, that circumstances will defy one's faith and real faith is believing in the face of adverse circumstances. That is fine and good, and I have found is a valid plateau for our growing Christian life.

But if we are honest, there are sometimes that we just anticipate the worst. We get used to adversity and become accustomed to it. Then we look for the brighter day, the promised day of deliverance... we have believed The Word and we are just waiting for that day. We wonder, "will tomorrow be my friend, or will it be one more day of adversity?" Twila Paris sings a song in which that question is contained "will tomorrow be my friend?"

Is there any validity to Paul's statement in II Corinthians 8:2 "For in the midst of an ordeal of severe tribulation, their (the Macedonians) abundance of joy and their depth of poverty (together) have overflowed in a wealth of lavish generosity on their part? Was Paul setting forth an algebraic reality? JOY + POVERTY = WEALTH If this is really a formula or to put it more accurately, a law, a spiritual law, then what are the ingredients? Poverty. Most of us have that in some form or other. So we need to see that as a seed or an ingredient to the law. Perhaps just seeing that fact will give us the Joy we need to activate the law, which brings abundance and blessing. The Macedonian church was able to give to the needs of the church in Jerusalem, because, according to Paul they possessed two things, JOY AND POVERTY. I believe that they got a hold of Paul's concept of the ministry of reconciliation. I believe that they saw poverty as a two sided coin, and if they would look at the back side of it with the eyes of the wise virgin, using her spiritual senses instead of her natural senses, that they would see that the back side of this coin of poverty read "ABUNDANCE; A BLESSING DISGUISED AS POVERTY." So for all of us that are in some way experiencing poverty in some way, spiritually, financially, emotionally, etc. Jesus said that you are blessed; "blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall see The Kingdom of Heaven." Why? Because we have ingredient number 1 for the formula for blessing and abundance.

The Kingdom of Heaven principal we see in this case is that JOY + POVERTY = WEALTH. When we see this, we win. Will it actually work? You bet it does! This is not some religious principal meant to be an excuse for some sort of martyrdom suffering.

So then, we now ask "will tomorrow be our friend?" Yes, it must be; there is no way it cannot be! Why? Because whatever comes to you will be your friend. Sickness? It will become health, poverty, it will become wealth, strife will become peace, guilt will become cleansing, and so on. Tomorrow will indeed be your friend if your Friend is Jesus.

Have you ever wondered why God made things to work this way? It seems backwards to our human mind; to have joy because we are poor. Why would God work in such a manner? Why not do it our way, like, "have enough faith, cast the demon out, and watch heaven open and pour down a blessing?" Two reasons I believe:

(1) First it would feed our selfish need for comfort and self gratification and it would keep our eyes on our needs.

(2) Second, it would not really solve our problem or God's problem, which is to forever to reconcile that evil thing (the poverty and its causes) by The Blood and our testimony against the enemy, and eternally turn it into a blessing; to bring His Kingdom to Earth as it is in Heaven; to see the Earth as void and without form and turn the chaos into order as in Genesis 1:2; to reclaim this Earth for The Lord; to dispossess Lucifer from his throne.

If we are saved by grace and bought with a price, why are we so worried about our needs, why not be concerned about God's need? It sure does bring peace among other valuable advantages.

Lets take a lesson from our forefathers in their wilderness wandering in Exodus 15.

The scene is three day's journey and 33 miles from the Glorious Red Sea experience. Their enemies miraculously defeated with the parting of the Red Sea. When it looked like sure disaster, all of the sudden, God came through. They danced and praised God. Now they were in the most barren desert possible; hot, dry and thirsty.

Let us be sure to note at this point that it was no accident or mistake that they were in this position. A few days earlier, they were setting out for the wilderness at a different crossing point, a shallow crossing point of the Red Sea, where it was just a creek. But God told them to turn North and go to the eventual place of the miracle. If they had crossed at the easy place, Pharaoh would have consumed them easily. So to be sure, it was no negligence on God's part that they were in this barren waste, hot dry and thirsty.

They finally made it! Water! But wait. The water is bitter. The place is called Marah which means bitter. The basin of the well is 8 feet in diameter with about 2 feet of water. It is said even now to contain sulfate of lime, magnesia, soda potash, chloride of sodium, bituminous matter, silicic acid and carbonic acid. These chemicals make the water unfit for drinking. Tradition states that if they had taken of this water that it would have given them a good case of "the runs." It has been said that this could have been one way of taking "the world" out of them before the desert journey. They had been used to the rich foods of Egypt, and this would have been a great way to cleanse their systems for health for the journey.

The Lord told Moses to take a certain tree which He showed to him and cast it into the waters. The waters became sweet. I believe that this is a type and shadow of The Cross of Jesus Christ. There is only one place that all of that poison could have gone, and that is into the tree. The tree absorbed the bitterness and turned it into sweet water. This is a classic picture of taking evil and turning into a blessing by means of The Cross and The Blood. The Cross absorbed our sin, making us righteous or sweet. The interesting thing here is that The Lord made for them a statute and an ordinance and there He proved them. I wonder what kind of ordinance? Do you suppose it is like the one mentioned above: POVERTY + JOY = BLESSING? We know for sure that the ordinance was one of healing " For I am The Lord that health thee! To be sure, the promise was conditional; keep His Word!

But wait, look what happened next! They were led to a place called Elim which means palm trees, strength, a strong tree or a ram, a political chief, to make strong by twisting and rolling together into a powerful thing. Do you suppose that the bitter waters of Marah made them strong?

Elim was a great place. It had twelve springs of water (twelve stands for God's kingdom) and seventy palm trees.

The tree was the cross which absorbed the bitter sin; it converted the evil by the blood and became Elim. Therefore I submit, that it would have been impossible to have reached Elim without having gone through Marah.

When we encounter the Marah's in our life, we need to add JOY to the equation in order to make it to Elim. There is indeed an Elim for each Marah and it is God's plan to turn all of the Marah's into sweet water.

How can we not come before His Throne in praise and thanksgiving? Because of The Cross, Tomorrow is always our friend, even, if it shows the bitter side first.

In Psalms 107 it is God who raises the stormy winds, and then hushes it; turns the rivers into a wilderness and a fruitful land into barren salt waste. He also turns wilderness into a pool and dry ground into water springs and there He makes the hungry to dwell and blesses them greatly.