Lightening Sword

“‘See now that I, I am He, and there is no god beside Me; I kill and I make alive,
I wound and I heal, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand.

For I lift up My hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever,

If I whet My lightning sword and My hand takes hold on judgment,
I will wreak vengeance on My foes and recompense those who hate Me.

I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh,
with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the foe.”
Deuteronomy 32:39-42 AMPC

God has a lightening sword.

Can you imagine being the target of God’s vengeance and judgement? Isn’t that a terrifying thought?

“‘For a fire is kindled by My anger,
And it burns to the depths of Sheol (the place of the dead, the nether world),
It devours the earth with its yield,
And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.”
Deuteronomy 32:22 AMPC

When someone takes what is not theirs, when they betray or hurt someone that we love it is easy to desire for the full extant of justice to be served…but do we really want that, for their soul too? Far be it from us that we should desire anyone condemned to the righteous fury of God on judgement day. The only way we can feel that way is if we think that they are worse than we are, if we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to.

People look at me skeptically when I admit to them that I’ve broken all ten commandments. They think for a moment, “this girl has no idea what she is talking about, doesn’t she know ‘thou shalt not murder’ is one of those commandments?”. When I reassure them I have, it is a bit comical for a moment to watch their faces before I explain that there was a time in my life where I truly hated some people that had hurt me. They had betrayed me and I hated them. In 1 John 3:15 God lets us know that under his standard of holiness if you hate you are a murderer and that no one who is a murderer has eternal life. If we desire for someone to be eliminated from our lives or to be destroyed out of our hatred for them it is the same spirit of murder, even if we don’t actually take steps to get rid of them. The same thing is for adultery. Jesus let us know in the Sermon on the Mount that if we look at someone with lust that we are not married to then we are an adulterer in God’s eyes. God’s judgement is of our heart, of our motives, and none of us is good, not even one.

When we hate, when we lust, when we lie or steal, we are opposing God himself – we are displaying aggression and defiance toward Him & that is something truly to be afraid of.

It hurts when someone betrays us–it hurts God more because it shows Him a heart that does not recognize Him or trust in Him. If we trust in God we will obey Him.

God commands us to forgive the unforgivable, to love the unlovable, to have mercy when it is impossible–just like He does. Christ took the punishment of God’s judgement and then conquered death so we could be restored, to be adopted by God instead of living at enmity with Him. As His children, He commands us to do the impossible so that He can be powerful in us, powerful to help us to be Holy like He is holy. To be people through which He can bring healing and restoration where there is brokenness and pain. Only He can do that. Only He can lead us in the perfect way. Trust in Him alone for wisdom. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to do His will.

Something Has to Die

So I’ve just been thinking how you’ll hear “I’m just letting whatever God’s will is be done”, but the person behind that statement is living in blatant sin. I find this statement strange and unsettling. Why? Because there is a difference between choosing to live in sin with indifference towards God, vs living in submission under God’s authority and therefore denying sinful desires. One is called obedience the other is called rebellion. It is not God’s will for us to rebel but to repent.

It is as if we were told by our mom not to hurt our sibling, and then we just slap them up right in front of her and then say “I’m just trusting my mom for her will to be done because she loves me”. It was not her will for you to hurt your brother or sister, and even though she loves you more than life itself, you will suffer the consequences. If you really trusted her you would’ve known that, and feared that, and obeyed. The only thing is we have all done this before God. Blatant or not before men, it is all blatant before Him. The consequence of thumbing our nose at the Author of Life? Death.

But, God loves us in spite of who we are and so He gave His perfect and innocent Son to take our punishment so that if we are sorry and turn from our sin then when God looks at us He will see the blood of Jesus paying the price of our sins, no matter how many or how great. The thing is we must repent, we must be sorry for our sin, we must cry out to God for His help. We cannot keep on thumbing our nose, we cannot keep on living according to the desires of our flesh.

Something has to die, either it will be our soul, or our sinful desires. He has provided Himself for atonement, and He provides His Spirit to strengthen us to obey. Plus that means we get the greatest, most satisfying thing of all, Him. Call out to Him, cry out to Him, we all need Him.