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The Lord's Controversy
by Greg Robbins Micah 6:1-5 "Hear now what the Lord says; Arise, contend before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and you strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. O my people, what have I done unto you? and wherein have I wearied you? testify against me. For I brought you up and out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal: that you may know the righteousness of the Lord". Hear now what the Lord says. I honestly think that the modern church has for the most part lost the ability to hear what the Lord says. If they could hear his voice then why are churches full of sin and adultery. The divorce rate among Christians is nearly as high as that of the world, which is above fifty percent of all marriages. Churches are now considered to be hospitals full of spiritually and morally sick people. They used to be called the house of God and were filled with victorious saints. If people could hear the voice of God, then they would hear his controversy against their sins and they would repent of those sins. The Lord invites us to Arise, contend before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. There was a time when I did a lot of camping in the mountains and sought the Lord there. The mountains and the hills literally heard the voice of my contentions. Now maybe some trees, a lake, or the walls of my room hear the voice of my contentions. Do you have contentions or controversies with the Lord? I do all the time! And the Lord invites you and I to have them. It is healthy and God inspired. We are not called to have blind faith, not even a little. They are contradictory terms. Faith comes when you SEE with your spiritual eyes and HEAR with your spiritual ears. As long as you are spiritually blind you cannot possibly have faith. Whenever I have questions or doubts concerning God's word, I don't go to a man to seek the answers, I go directly to God. I have discovered that the best policy to have with God is to be transparent and brutally honest. God knows your every thought and motive anyway. He likes it when we voice them to him in prayer. Most prayer today seems to be prayers of petitions. People are constantly asking God for his help and for material things. I am in no way saying it is wrong to ask God for these things, but when that is the only prayers that you pray, then something is really wrong. There are prayers of intercession when we pray for the needs of others. There are prayers of fellowship where we just take time to fellowship with the Lord about whatever is happening in our lives. There are prayers of fellowshipping with God over his word, where we ask him questions about what Scriptures mean and also voice our opinions. And then there are the prayers of controversy and contention where we allow the Lord to hear our mind concerning his word and his commands. I have had it out with my God on many more numerous occasions than I can remember. He has heard my thoughts, opinions, doubts, and unbelief, about a multitude of issues. I really had it out with him concerning an eternal hell where people are damned with no chance of ever escaping. I have had it out with him about the terms of discipleship, sin, divorce, money, giving away all that I have, street preaching, what woman I would marry, going on mission trips, living by faith, being persecuted, and many other issues as well. What has been the result of doing this for the past nearly 37 years? I have learned a thing or two. As I waited on the Lord and voiced my controversies, slowly but surely the Lord has revealed his way of seeing these things to me. I gained God's perspective and found that I agreed with him. As a result my life has changed and a higher level of holiness has entered my life. I have gotten to know God in intimacy and he truly has become my friend. Then, the Lord has his own controversies with us. They are always about sin in our lives or for us to obey what he has commanded us to do. I know what it is like to wrestle with God all night long because he told me to give away a large amount of money or even my home. I know what it is like to wrestle with God for months about going to a foreign country by faith to be a missionary. Or wrestling with God for weeks and months over sin in my life and the need to repent. It is neither fun nor easy. My will was against it, but God told me to do what he wanted me to do anyways. One of the saddest conditions for a man or woman to be in is when they cannot hear the controversies of the Lord against them. When the conscience is so callous and hard to no longer be capable of hearing from God. That is a very bad and dangerous place to be in. If that is where you are right now I counsel you to cry out to God for eyes that see, ears that hear, and a heart that understands. When we think that everything is going great in our lives, that is when you can be assured that it isn't. 1 John 1:8-10 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us". http://jesuswordsonly.org My books on Amazon/Kindle https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Gregory+Robbins Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |