Don't Succumb to Selective Obedience

"Speak to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, saying: 'I will shake heaven and earth.  I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms.'"  (Haggai 2:21, 22a--from today's Minor Prophets reading)

Those folks who are called intercessors are also those who are easily overwhelmed, that is, if they are also true watchmen and not "instructors" of the Lord Jesus Himself.  Today's text tells us, "I will shake heaven and earth."  I don't know what the means.  O, I have thought I did, as have so many others, but................ 

Yes, we are to ask, seek, knock, but not with the presumption that we know exactly what is going on in the world, and, have just the right request which Jesus needs to answer.  No matter for whom or for what I pray, there is always the sense that there is so much more here than I understand.  This is a great reason for walking in the reality of 1 Corinthians 14.

The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not a nice option for you and me, some "add-on" religious experience which is just for the "Pentecostal-type."  The Church needs to get beyond this embracing only that which one prefers and accepts, what is popularly accepted, the surrender to "seeker friendly" church.  We have a clear command from our Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 24, "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."  Have you?!?

Praying as 1 Corinthians 14 says, "with the spirit," or, "pray in a tongue," was obviously central to the Early Church, but by the end of the First Century it had already succumbed to "intellectual church."  Groups such as the Montanists attempted to revive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and accompanying gifts as the Book of Acts and I Corinthians describes, but soon disappeared.  Don't let it happen to you.

Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray for great conviction if I ever engage in selective obedience.  Amen.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2