God Encounters – Dreams Die

As we continue on in the series of post on God Encounters, I want you to first remember the most important God encounter is where we encounter God and understand salvation that comes through Christ. After that there are other encounters we can have with God where he shows us things like direction in life or seeing Him in fresh and new ways. God encounters are where we have an overwhelming sense of the presence and power of God in our lives and they happen when we have an open heart and attitude toward God.

So far in these posts we have looked at two encounters – the first was Jacob and Jacob had trouble on every side and he was a manipulator and one who was fearful but God changed him. God changed his heart and God even changed his name. God encountered Jacob and Jacob held on to God until God made him let go by knocking his hip out of joint! Jacob gladly left that encounter with God with a limp that reminded Him of who God was and how great God was! The other person we looked was Elijah who had great a victory – he defeated over 400 prophets of Baal – but quickly after that victory Elijah turned into a man who is discouraged, thinks he is all alone and who is running for his life. God encounters Elijah not in a strong wind, or an earthquake, or in fire but in a gentle breeze and with a still small voice. In that encounter God gives Elijah a job to do. He was to anoint two men as kings of nations and anoint the one to take his place. God forced Elijah to look forward to the future with the job He gave him and that is how God dealt with Elijah’s discouragement. Elijah’s encounter with God changed him and helped him out of his discouragement.

This week we will look at Ezekiel and his encounters with God through visions and some of the apparent crazy things that God asked him to do. The first thing we need to do is get to know something about Ezekiel. Here is what we know about Ezekiel. He was a priest and he belonged to the family of Zadok, who was a famous priest. Ezekiel was taken into exile and taken to Babylon. He lived with other exiles at the river called Chebar. His wife died in the 9th year of his exile. Ezekiel lived at the same time as Jeremiah the prophet, but Ezekiel does not mention Jeremiah. Jeremiah was still in Judah while Ezekiel was with the exiles, but Jeremiah still plays a part in Ezekiel’s life as we will see later.

The book of Ezekiel is full of personal experiences where Ezekiel encounters God and God asks him to do things that would look foolish to the rest of the world.  Here are some other things that seem pretty crazy that God told Ezekiel to do – for instance in Chapter 4:4-8 you can see that God told Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days then to lay on his right side for 40 days as a sign to Israel of the siege of Jerusalem. Later in Ezekiel 4 God put a limit on Ezekiel’s food and drink during that period and told him to cook his food over human excrement and Ezekiel obeyed and again is was a sign to Israel about eating defiled food. In chapter 5 God calls on Ezekiel had to shave his head and his beard and divide the hair up and burn part of it and again it is all done as a sign to Israel. In chapter 24 God did not permit Ezekiel to be sad at the death of his wife and then takes Ezekiel’s use of speech away. These are just some of the thing that happen with Ezekiel’s encounters with God and you might wonder why? It comes down to this, God intended Ezekiel to give a message to Israel by means of the experiences in his life. God uses our obedient experiences in the lives of others.

If you want to get an idea of Ezekiel and his call click here and read at least the first three chapters.  If you read these chapters you will see that the call on Ezekiel’s life is a tough one because he is called to go to a defiant and obstinate Israel.  When you read this you will see why when God asked him to do things that seemed crazy that he obeyed him fully. He had encountered God in a very real and personal way that was life changing for him.

You might say this is all well and good but difference does this make in my life today?     Let me share a couple of areas this will make a difference in:  the first is that an encounter with God can come after our dreams fail and we do not know what to do. The Jewish captives were exiles in a foreign land. Most of us do not understand the experiences of the exiles and we do not have the experience of being a prisoner. God’s people were living in Babylon and there was no kosher food, nothing that resembled the comfortable surroundings of their home and really all they wanted to do was to go home.

In Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah writes a letter to those in exile and in and in that letter the exiles are given news that their dreams of going home were not going to happen. The letter from Jeremiah told them that they should build houses and settle down and have families because it would be 70 years before they could go home which meant that most of them would die there. It was in this disillusionment that Ezekiel encountered God and learned what it was like to be a prophet to Israel. Ezekiel as a prophet gives both a message of judgment as we have heard and a message of hope at the end of the book. It is in this encounter that Ezekiel gets are fresh dream or a fresh direction – a dream and direction that would replace the one that died when he realized he would not make it back home.

God can encounter you in the midst of your dreams that seem to have failed and give you a new dream and a new direction. Do you have a dream that has failed or died? God wants to give you a new dream and new direction but you need to have an open heart and open attitude so that He encounter you and give it to you. You also need to be receptive of the new dream but the problem is this – we do not like to change and so a new dream means change. Here is the thing – we serve a God of change! He changes lives and people – it is all through the Bible.

To go along with the fact that God can give a fresh dream in an encounter he can also prepare us for an encounter with him like he did Ezekiel here. When Jeremiah’s letter came it produced gloom and pessimism and some rejected it because of what it said. Jeremiah in his letter warns against false prophets who were predicting prosperity for Israel. God used the letter from Jeremiah to prepare Ezekiel for the encounters he had. God will prepare us with what is happening around us to encounter Him. Again – are you open for an encounter with God? In life’s circumstance you can encounter God!

This then shows us that God uses political and cultural conditions to prepare us for an encounter with Him. When Nebuchadnezzar brought 10,000 Israelite captives to Babylon, he brought the best 10,000 he could find. He brought the young warriors, statesman, and spiritual leaders because they were all young and impressionable and would in the end make his country stronger because he would train them in the Chaldean ways. Ezekiel was one of these smart ones brought to learn the Chaldean ways. Here is the thing – God was using this experience to prepare Ezekiel for what it was that He had planned for his life. God used what was happening in the country to prepare Ezekiel for his encounter with Him.

God can and will use what is happening in our lives and experiences to help us to be molded into who we are to be in Him. When you are going through life – look for the opportunities that God is giving you, look for the ways that God wants to teach you, find the ways that God is pointing you. He is in the middle of all that is happening around us and He is pointing us toward His goal for each of us. Are we looking and willing to take the opportunities God provides regardless of if they are big or small? God is providing and now we need to trust Him in it.

Have you ever had a dream die and then God give a new dream or vision or passion?  What dream died and what was the new dream, vision, or passion that God gave?

Death of a Dream (Part 3)

We have talked about the death of David’s dream to build the temple for God and I encourage you to read the first two parts here and here.  Now we are going to look at this one last part of this. 

In reading about this did you wonder why did God say “No” to David about building him a temple? The Word of God tells us why in these verses from 1 Chronicles 22:8-10 which explains this: But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight . . . a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest . . . He shall be build a house for My name. God wanted a man of peace like Solomon to build it, not a man of violence like David, so think about this, how David lived affected his dreams.

The way you live your life makes a real difference in many ways in life. David was unable to see this one dream come true because he was a man of violence.  Even in the midst of his receiving a “No” from God, God still blessed David greatly, even more greatly than allowing him to build a temple when he blessed him with the Davidic covenant. Remember, when God says “No” to what you propose, God will show you His better plan and you can count on that as a sure thing. 

The deal is though you need to be open and aware of what is going on around you.  If you get a “No” and you are pouting and complaining, you might just miss what great things God has in store for you.  That is why how you react to the death of a dream is so vitally important!

Let me ask you some question to ponder as you go through you day today.  How is it that you are living your life? Are you living in a way that honors God? How do you handle getting a no from God? Do you act like he says yes and move forward anyway? Do you ignore God? Do you pout, complain, or get depressed and miss out on what God is doing instead of that?

Then again when you get the no do you continue to look for where God would have you go, what He would have you do, who He would have you help or serve? Do you help others achieve what you are not able to? Do you continue to make a difference in the world in which you live in? The difference between a powerful Christian life and the mediocre and anemic Christian life can be found in how you answer these questions. I pray you look to honor God with you attitude and actions whether he tells you yes, no, or maybe in the situations of life and in the dreams you dream.

How would you help someone who got a “No” from God and was just stuck pouting, whining, complaining, and depressed about it?

Death of a Dream (Part 2)

Continuing on with where we left off yesterday in looking at the death of David’s dream of building a temple for God. Yesterday we saw that when God says no to something that you want to do for him that He will do something even more amazing.

2nd Samuel 7:10 And I have provided a permanent homeland for my people Israel, a secure place where they will never be disturbed. It will be their own land where wicked nations won’t oppress them as they did in the past, 11 from the time I appointed judges to rule my people. And I will keep you safe from all your enemies. ‘And now the LORD declares that he will build a house for you—a dynasty of kings! 12 For when you die, I will raise up one of your descendants, and I will make his kingdom strong. 13 He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he sins, I will use other nations to punish him. 15 But my unfailing love will not be taken from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed before you. 16 Your dynasty and your kingdom will continue for all time before me, and your throne will be secure forever.’" 17So Nathan went back to David and told him everything the LORD had said.

What we have here in this portion of Scripture is something called the Davidic Covenant. What is it? This is an unconditional covenant made between God and David through which God promises David and Israel that the Messiah would come from the lineage of David and the tribe of Judah and would establish a kingdom that would endure forever as seen in verses 10-13. The Davidic Covenant is unconditional because God does not place any conditions of obedience upon its fulfillment. The surety of the promises made rests solely on God’s faithfulness and does not depend at all on David or Israel’s obedience.

The Davidic Covenant centers on several key promises that are made to David.

1) God reaffirms the promise of the land that He made in the first two covenants with Israel which are the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants. This promise is seen in 2 Samuel 7:10, “Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously.”

2) God promises that David’s descendant or “seed” will succeed him as king of Israel and that David’s throne will be established forever. This promise is seen in verses 12-13, "I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” This is a reference to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The provisions of the covenant are summarized in 2 Samuel 7:16, “And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” The promise that David’s “house,” “kingdom” and “throne” will be established forever is significant because it shows that the Messiah will come from the lineage of David and that He will establish a kingdom from which He will reign. The covenant is summarized by the words “house,” promising a dynasty in the lineage of David; “kingdom,” referring to a people who are governed by a king; “throne,” emphasizing the authority of the king’s rule; and “forever,” emphasizing the eternal and unconditional nature of this promise to David and Israel.

So again there are two promises for David:

1) God will provide a permanent place for the Israelites to live.

2) God will build David a house or in other words a dynasty will come from David’s line. What this is saying is that David would live on long after his death. Funny how David wanted to build God a house but God said no thank you but I will build you a house! What we see here is God honored David’s sincere intentions.

Each of these great promises was partially fulfilled in Solomon, David’s son and successor to his throne.

· Solomon ruled on David’s throne

· God’s mercies never departed from Solomon, though he sinned

· Solomon built God a magnificent house

God’s promises to David are completely fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

· Jesus does reign, and will reign on David’s throne forever

· The Father’s mercies never departed from Jesus, even when He was made sin for us

· Jesus is building the Father a magnificent house as we read in 1 Corinthians 6:19 and we are God’s temples as read in 1 Peter 2:5 and the church is God’s new house. We also see Christ fitting in to these as well as the prophets foretold of fulfillment of these promises that are seen in the life of Christ. This covenant here had a double meaning; all these things fit Christ as well as Solomon. God promised that the Christ would come through the line of David and He did. God truly blessed David in the middle of saying no to his dream!

Have you ever had God say no to a dream of yours?  If so, what was it and did God give you something even better?

Death of a Dream (Part 1)

This week we are going to look at how to deal with a No from God by looking at David and the No He got from God.  Let us get right into it.  1st Samuel Chapter 7:1 When the LORD had brought peace to the land and King David was settled in his palace, 2David summoned Nathan the prophet. “Look!” David said. “Here I am living in this beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of God is out in a tent!” 3Nathan replied, “Go ahead and do what you have in mind, for the LORD is with you.”

You can see the control that God has; He is the one who brought the Peace to the land. There is a lesson for us in the first line of this Chapter. God is in control and He is the one who brings about the Peace in our life. Any attempt of us trying to bring about peace is useless. How often do we attempt to be the ones who bring peace but the only true peace comes from God.

So what we see is that David comes to the realization that God deserves the best. David sees that he is living in the lap of luxury in his new palace and God is living in a tent. Then we see Nathans reply to this and that is that He sees nothing wrong with David having an idea and tells him to go for it because God is with him.

Then we read this:4 But that same night the LORD said to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a temple to live in? 6 I have never lived in a temple, from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until now. My home has always been a tent, moving from one place to another. 7 And I have never once complained to Israel’s leaders, the shepherds of my people Israel. I have never asked them, “Why haven’t you built me a beautiful cedar temple?”‘

There is a lot of information in it that we need to look into. The first thing comes is this is where God uses His veto powers and vetoes David’s idea for him to build the temple. What we see is that God is honored that David thinks enough of Him to build him a temple. God sees someone who is willing to go above and beyond for Him. Are you willing to go above and beyond for God or are you doing to what it takes to get by? Unfortunately most will only do what it takes to get by. Let us never fall into the let us just to the bare minimum for God mentality. Give God your all.

Now God’s veto of this is not done in a mean way but in a very nice and complimentary way. He did not treat David’s idea with anger or distain but in a loving and gracious way told Nathan to tell David that it was not what He had planned for him. He has honored David even though he tells him that it is not what he has planned for him.

Sometimes what we plan and what God plans are two different things in life. We need to be willing and understand that God might have something completely different in store for us. Part of understanding this come in the idea that we need to trust God and trust that he has our best in mind at all times.

David is going to find out that God didn’t want him to build the temple. Here is the important thing and it is in the response of David in this. David didn’t respond by doing nothing as we will later see. Instead of building the temple, David gathered all the materials for its construction so Solomon could build a glorious temple to God.

Lesson for us in all this, is that when God says no to you, you do not pout about it and do nothing. You help out and do what you can to serve God and others! Read this quote by F.B. Meyer: “If you cannot have what you hoped, do not sit down in despair and allow the energies of your life to run to waste; but arise, and gird yourself to help others to achieve. If you may not build, you may gather materials for him that shall. If you may not go down the mine, you can hold the ropes.”

Here is the difference between those who are successful in life and those who are not. When you get word that you are not to do something or a door has closed – instead of pouting and getting angry – the successful person figures out what God wants them to learn and where He wants them to go and what He wants them to do. In is not about hanging your head, being depressed or climbing back in bed and pulling the covers over your head. When you get the no then your job is to seek God for what you are to learn in the no, where He want you to go, and what He wants you to go. Sometimes it is going to involve helping someone else achieve what you dream as in the case here with David.

Here though is an incredible principle when it comes to all this and if you can understand this, it will be life changing for you when you get a No from God. When God says “No” to what you propose, God will show you His better plan. You can count on that. When God says “No” He will show you his better plan. You are going to get to see it here in the life of David, so when you get a no you just wait and let the Lord work!

How are you at getting a no from someone else when you are really looking forward to something?