Deuteronomy 2:3
“Ye have compassed
this mountain long enough: turn you northward. (KJV)”
If we look closely at this passage in Deuteronomy we can see
that God provides us with some training for times when we find ourselves
wandering in the “wilderness.” The supposition here is that God knows that our
tendency is to fall or slip into a state of wandering. We all get to places where it seems that we
move without vision, without passion, and without purpose. One of the dangers we face as Christians is
that of becoming religious, where our routine is often substituted for
relationship, and we trade rituals for power.
2 Timothy 3:5
5 Having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
One of the worst things that can happen to a child of God is
to fall into this lifestyle of making allowances for the wrong attitudes and
appetites of our flesh, but continuing on just as though we have fully dealt
with it. The children of Israel turned an eleven-day journey into a 40-year
death march because they were more comfortable with the form than the power.
They would rather go through the motions than to submit themselves to God.
Just before entering their promised land, God brought them
to a place called Gilgal, which means “rolled away.” It was here that God would
take away the reproach of Egypt from them. This place represented all of their
wilderness wanderings, their endless circles, their ceaseless activity, their religious
ceremonies void of God’s power.
Joshua 5:2
“Make thee sharp
knives and circumcise again the children of Israel.”
Our Gilgal is where God delivers us from the carnal cycles,
or the excessive flesh that is keeping us from experiencing real power,
transforming power in our lives. In the
book of Hebrews, it says that the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged
sword. Don’t hide your flesh from the
Word, do not protect your flesh from the sword of the Spirit. I can confidently
tell you from my own experience: that which you spare from the sword will continue
to enslave you and keep you from true freedom and the victory over the flesh that
Christ died to give you, until it is cut away.
It says that they tarried in the camps till they were whole.
Listen to what God is showing us here, the pure Word of God will cut, and
sometimes it cuts deep. It will force us to let the Holy Ghost cut away the
layers of flesh that keep us from His power. It won’t always be minor surgery
and it often involves pain, but ultimately it produces wholeness, healing, and
power. Only God can make us whole and he does it by delivering us from the
flesh by His Word, and filling us with the Holy Ghost.
Many people know just enough of the Word to make them
argumentative, but not enough to make them change. They have studied enough to
make them religious, but not enough to make them hunger for righteousness. They
have memorized enough to make them seem happy, but not hidden enough in their
hearts to make them pursue holiness.
They are “stuck in the rut” of carnal cycles. They are continually
moving but never growing, always learning but never coming to the knowledge of
the truth. The great danger that faces everyone who continues in this
condition: they mistake activity for progress.
They convince themselves that being busy for the Lord is equivalent to growing
in the Lord. They deceive themselves!
They are stuck in a carnal cycle and they continue to “compass”
the mountain over and over; year after year. The mountain represents those
things in your life that you never seem to be able to get victory over: a
habit, a critical spirit, unforgiveness, gossip, cussing, losing your temper,
over eating, lust, jealousy, or hate. Compassing the mountain means that every
time you are faced with these sins, you react according to the flesh and not
the spirit. It seems like a never ending cycle, a carnal cycle in which
you abuse the grace of God time and time again; you react according to the
flesh, you feel guilty, you repent, and then you feel better. At least until
the next time you experience similar conditions and it seems the cycle starts
over again.
Compassing the mountain means that you
never deal with the real issue, you skirt the issue, you put on your spiritual
blinders and then continue on religiously as though the problem doesn’t exist. It’s the cycle of responding to the pressures of life,
pressures which are common to all, by surrendering to the temptations of the
flesh. Some surrender to sexual immorality, others to drugs and alcohol, many over
eat, lose their temper, lie, hold a grudge, sulk and pout, draw into
themselves, or get moody and unpredictable. It’s what the Word of God refers to
as “being conformed to the patterns of this world.”
In every situation you have a choice whether you will respond
according to the flesh or according to the Word of God. If you respond
according to the flesh, it’s one more time around the mountain.
Are you fed up with circling your mountain? Have you compassed
this mountain long enough? Then allow the sharp edge of the Word of God to have
its way in your life and identify those attitudes and characteristics that are
of the flesh, and allow the Holy Ghost to cut it away and crucify your flesh
once and for all!
This means that we have to surrender to the operation of the
Holy Spirit as he addresses those secret places in our lives, and we submit to God
as our deliverer and our healer. It means that we pray through until the Holy
Ghost makes our heart His dwelling place. Only then can we continue into our
promise land and start enjoying the inheritance of being God’s children.
Galatians 5:19-25
“19 Now the works of
the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and
such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Amen! Preach it Brother
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