Lesson five

According To God:  (Isaiah 55:8,9) 

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.

For My thoughts are higher,

so are My ways higher than your ways,

and My thoughts your thoughts." 

 

I felt it necessary to start off this next lesson with this verse because it will be very important to keep in your mind that God knows more, sees more,

and is much more deeper than we are.

 

I prayed about this chapter because I really had to ask God to help me convey His thoughts for this teaching to be developed. It is a real spiritual eye opener, and I still have to ask God for his power to reveal His thoughts in how blessing verses cursing according to Him.  It saddens me to have known and to know even now, sincere Christians who truly believe that if someone sins against them, all they have to do is ask God to let something happen to them. Then perhaps they will learn their lesson and turn to Him. I have never found that to be true. God simply will not do that. There was a man who grew up hearing his mother pray for his father this way; "Lord, just dangle him over the flames and let him feel the heat of hell."  And feel it He did, and so did his family. He knew about the teaching of speaking blessings and not curses over people, so one day he asked his mother, "why don't you pray the peace of God on him so we can get some peace ourselves?"  Thank God, she finally did. His mom did not know it at the time, and neither do some Christians. Asking God to turn up the heat on someone so they will repent rarely works.

 

You see, this is what you really have to get ahold of.....are you ready?  God defends the cursed under the new covenant. If you curse someone...He will defend them. This new covenant truth runs counter to what many are taught. If we curse someone, God will withstand us even if the one we cursed is not a good person. Cursing puts us in opposition to the reason Jesus came to die.  (Galatians 3:13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us- for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree."  When we set a standard of cursing or speaking evil toward others, then God by His own nature and righteousness, will defend the one we cursed. We can then find ourselves opposing God. Isn't that interesting? If someone curses you, God will defend you even if He doesn't agree with what you are doing. I told you this would be deep. Remember His ways are higher than ours. God is a father, a father does not want other people to say bad things about their children or get on them for doing wrong. Now, the father of the child may want to get on them for doing wrong, but he doesn't want you to do it. As a parent, you will defend your children to the fullest degree. In the same manner, God will defend the cursed, even if it is against a sibling.  I know you are probably shocked, and possibly in total disagreement with me, but proclaiming the good news is staking the claim of Jesus. He came to release people from their pain, and not to tell people how deep they are in sin.

      

(Luke 4:18)  "The Spirit of The Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set those free who are oppressed".  I quote this verse to explain the meaning of the word proclaim here and what it means in this context. In this particular verse, it means to advance and claim a right to something, or to assert and demand the recognition of a right, title, or possession. So here proclaim means "to advance the claim". In the previous verse, it means to proclaim God's goodness and mercy and favor in a situation. Blessing is proclaiming this truth and the intentions of God over our families and all that concern us. Jesus fulfilled (Luke 4:18).  His life on earth was given to the preaching of the good news, healing and delivering the oppressed. He forgave sins. Even the sins of the woman who was caught in the act of adultery and deserved punishment according to the law, (John 8:3-5; 7-11).  Forgiving her did not mean that Jesus was agreeing with her sin.  Instead, He stopped the curse on her life by telling her to go and sin no more. Jesus, mission was to save the world, not condemn it. And with His life, He delivered humankind from the curse. It was a complete work and it was enough.

        

The prophet Amos wrote, "can two walk together, when they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3 NKJV).  Being in agreement is vital for any relationship. Our idea of agreement is that we cannot agree if we do not feel the same way, but that is not God's way of agreement. He is on a higher level. Agreement with God is to say what He is saying. We do not have to feel the same way He does. Just because we feel the same way as someone, does not mean that we are in agreement. Are we being hypocrites then, if we are blessing someone when we want something bad to happen instead? NO!  We don't have to agree with what they are doing or with what we are blessing. We are simply agreeing with God. Feelings can change, but God's Word does not. Blessing is being in agreement with the Word of the Lord, and that truth remains regardless of feelings or situations. I have been in conversations where someone would say, "well, I think God should do this", and my reply was, "what does God's Word say?" It disarmed them, especially if they knew what God's Word says. The point is this---what I think is not invalid, but agreeing with what God's Word is saying is more important. Agreeing with God is standing and declaring His will "on earth as it is in Heaven". That is being on His side.  (John 4:23 NKJV)  "But there is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; forThe Father is seeking such to worship Him." The word worship is very similar to "blessing". Since God is seeking true worshipers, we can say that He is seeking blessers. God looks at how we treat others as a form of worshiping him. He seeks blessers who will bless the name of The Lord and those He created to worship Him. He is seeking people on earth to declare what He is expressing in Heaven.