“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NASB)

“To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him.  Deuteronomy 4:35 (NASB)

In a group discussion on 6-11-16, the Spirit asked me, “Is there a lid on your vessel?”

I come to you in the name of my savior Jesus the Messiah, “Yahweh is salvation, the anointed one.”

I also come to you in my name Michael which means “who…is like God?” for there is none like Him, who is gracious and kind towards those that are His in Spirit and truth, and even towards evil men which many of us were.

Even in the face of dreadful happenings, or in examining our own self, let us not weep as though we are forsaken, as though we are cut off from God. For if we grieve as though cut off where shall we run for help? There is only One to run to, our refuge, a high tower. Do we not have a God of mercy and justice?

For even as Nehemiah said over the weeping people, weeping because they had heard the Words of the Law being read by Ezra and the law without relationship is death; as it was supposed to be.

“This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.”

”Then he said to them, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”  Nehemiah 8:9 (NASB)

Nehemiah somehow knew that our grief is misplaced if when we finally hear the Word only sorrow comes to heart. What we did not understand we are not held accountable for.

“…for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.”

In His great mercy, it is not what we have done but what we do in our repentance, what we do next, that makes the difference with Him!

As the Lord is trying to expand our understanding is it to grieve us? Will He not strengthen us to walk in it? Will He not even give us a vision for it lest we perish?

As Jesus changes our paradigm; our “…generally accepted concept that explains a more complex idea or set of data ” * We must ask ourselves, if there is a lid on our vessel?

* Webster’s New World Dictionary, (revised and updated)

As a vessel of His do we say what He is to pour in or not? Like the pot, are we to say to the Potter how and for what shall we be made?

So was there a lid on the minds and hearts Jesus spoke to? A lid is a containing and protective device. Back then they were protecting what layers of credibility (Rabbi’s) had spoken and yet they did not see the Messiah standing right before them. (Matt 16:3) This is the danger we face as believers today. We must ask ourselves, “Do I have a lid? What is my lid protecting?” “God’s Word!” you say?” Maybe we should say, “Our understanding of God’s Word or the doctrines we have built our house upon!”

I am NOT saying everything we have believed is wrong. I am saying God in His sovereignty and by necessity is redirecting our attention to our part in His timeline and this must be understood by us with an entrusting belief and obedience.

Jesus came to heal our impaired judgment through teaching, Jesus had NO lid. Even in the anxiousness and distress in the Garden, He knew the future. Do we? Do we trust the future He has revealed or is our lid on too tight?

Is God still able to pour in? Is the Holy Spirit able to pour into you more of His “all truth?” He cannot with a lid in place. He can not pour in something fresh. What about when we are preparing to preach or when an alarming teaching comes forward? Are these not alarming times? We limit God and His Holy Spirit when a lid is in place.

Loved ones, I took the lid away a long time ago. Some of what I write about seems unorthodox. God is the most unorthodox of all. God is never inside the box except to grasp us by the collar and lift us out! He understands our reverence but points to His sovereignty. He is pouring out a new thing. Can He pour from us? In our claim to “believe” (Pisteuo entrust) in Him, will we then obey?

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36

God and what He pours into us does not need our protection. It, in all its freshness, needs to be poured out. We can neither receive, fresh truth and the critical insight for our times, nor pour it out as intended, if we have a lid… on our vessel.

“If we remain in His grip, how far from His heart can we be!”

In the guardianship of Christ,

Michael

    Exit Strategy

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