“The king says to put this man in prison; and feed him only bread and water, and not much of that, until I return in peace.’” 1 Kings 21:27
This verse is about a prophet who told the King truth when the king did not want truth, he wanted to hear what he wanted to hear. And ironically it was regarding going to war, which is the last thing you want to ignore with Adonai. Adonai has the power to either destroy you or make you extremely successful, it has nothing to do with you.
Let’s move this forward 2,000 plus years and look at things today. Because Yeshua has the right to judge us, he is our judge. And his judgment is based on your works. Are they works of righteousness or un righteousness? The righteous inherit the Kingdom of God. The unrighteous remain with satan, their god. Because satan is the unrighteous liar.
Yeshua said, “do not fear he who can kill the body but not touch the soul (namely anyone other than Adonai). But instead fear him who cannot only kill the body but also put your soul in hell (namely Adonai).
This is a bit difficult to explain as the Lord is showing me three things simultaneously and it is hard to put it all together in words. I can only do it one at a time, but God is putting all three together at once.
So the first thing is our sin which is dysfunction or creates dysfunction. With God it is really not about the sin, it is the dysfunction which is created by the sin. This is why so much of the laws in the bible are dependent on the situation. Because for example the ten commandments say do not kill. Yet over and over we see the Israelites destroying other nations, killing everyone including women and children. Why is this? Because those other nations worship idols and other gods, and these people would rise up to destroy the Israelites so they needed to defend and rise up against the enemy. Killing women and children so they could not confuse the Jews to worship their gods. King Solomon is a perfect example, Adonai told him to kill all of a certain group of people and make sure to not take any of the women as wives or they would turn his heart to their idols. King Solomon ignored this and did exactly what Adonia said not to do. He worshipped their gods.
But yet murder is wrong and against the 10 commandments, so Adonai goes against his own laws?
Actually no, he goes against the dysfunction which comes from disobeying the laws. And more so his commandments to the Jews directly. He is the only one who knows if the people he goes up against will repent and change to worship him, or if they will remain in their dysfunction and worship their gods and get the Jews to worship their gods also. There were many people from other nations who came to live with the Jews and in their customs. And there were many times Adonai told the Jews to NOT go to war against the opposing nation. Everything is subject to what is righteous in the eyes of God. And we do not know what is righteous to him without asking him, not always but most of the time.
So the second thing, the current preaching, like saved by grace, or a works based doctrine like catholic or baptist. Neither one is right, but the men prefer to hear the lies they teach instead of the truth which sets them free. So they heap up these people to tell them what they want to hear.
Next point and then to tie it together is about the mess the people leave behind when they are doing works of unrighteousness. Remember, we all do works, all our actions are works. So it becomes, are the works done in God and righteous? Or are they done in our own thoughts and spirit and unrighteous? If done in our own nature, we leave messes behind. As Yeshua said, “you will know them by their works!”
So to tie this together, we must know Yeshua, do the good works he tells us to do (commands us to do). So they are not works leaving messes and problems behind to be cleaned up by other people. Many of these works might not be in sin, but they leave messes and are not righteous. And when we do unrighteous works it almost always leads to sinful behavior. At minimum it keeps us out of the truth and in bondage.
Two examples, first I am redoing some stairs in our condo, because another one of our owners changed them. I gave her permission to do it, but also told her how to do it, and she and the worker did not follow them, so it created problems, ones we did not have before she changed everything. So now I am making changes (cleaning up her mess with my own money) to fix the problem. This is not the first time, but what irritates me even more is how she then complains about the after product (the mess she created). Making it the fault of me as the developer when I did not leave it like that.
The Lord has made it clear to me that this is the way most of us treat him. We go out, do our own works of unrighteousness. And then blame God for the outcome, making it his fault.
I have written this before, but it applies well here again. The story of a lady I dated some 18 years ago whose daughter was living with a guy who killed himself. It caused all kinds of problems, even between us which is a big part of the reason the relationship ended.
Anyways she more than once said f**n God. As if it was all his fault this kid drank heavily, smoked mariguana and was lazy and did not work. By the way, this ties into the end of times prophecy in Revelations where it is written, instead of repenting they will curse God. I see this happen all the time, people doing things their own way, even praying for God to do something their way. Only to have God ignore them because he does not do things our way, he tells us how to do it right (righteousness). But we do not listen. We are too busy being bossy instead of listening for a better way to live, by living in the truth he tells us.
The man who does things in righteousness does not leave messes for others to clean up after them.
Last point for now, which is about my wife. Many times she listens to God and hears him and repents from her actions. Right now is not one of them, she is extremely mad at me. And the reason why is because she expects me to support her instead of supporting what is right. And the funny thing about it is the mess she is creating for herself which I see and she does not. Being she is beautiful and has a way with people, she tends to get what she wants and most men would do whatever she wants, right or wrong. But I cannot, I must stay right with God in his righteousness and truth. The truth which sets you free. The freedom my wife does not understand or have because she is ignoring this truth in favor of her demands which are not in truth.
Most of it is because she does not understand the business and how it works. Seeling things like real estate is much more than just showing homes and writing up offers. There is a marketing and business side to it as well as working with other agents in fairness (what is righteous is righteous to both sides).
She wants to have the financial cost of the business side of marketing done for free, while getting all the commission. For example, the only thing she sold in the last year was a lead for the listing from me, I even showed it with the buyer. Yet I did not see a penny from it. Which is fine, I do not need it and it all will go to her in the end. But the problem is when other agents come into the mix. She expects the same thing, but the other side does not live with her and profit from her so they expect their part as well.
And in this particular situation, a buyer got in touch about one of our listings, and also got in touch with one of the other agents by a referral. My wife was very upset, feeling like because this buyer got in touch with her on this listing (which is actually my selling client again). That he should have not talked to him. The other agent had no idea this buyer was working with both of them. Plus as I pointed out, which made my wife upset with me. The buyer has the right to work with whoever he wants to work with. It is not either of these agents’ decisions who he will work with. Maybe he does not like either and finds another agent? She is being possessive and thinking it is her client when she has not earned the right to work with him.
Over my years in business I had many buyers get in touch with me after a showing to switch agents to me because they did not like their agent and thought I was much more professional. And I know I lost a few clients over the years for similar reasons, maybe I did not have the time to deal with the buyer so they found someone else. But I can tell you I was on the better end of this deal most of the time and the fruit of my labor showed it.
So back to the verse and to tie this together. Because this is why so many people never come to know God and have works of righteousness which are what God requires to enter into the Kingdom. They want things their way, and if you stay in righteousness and go against them, they get upset and many times leave you to find someone who will comfort them in their dysfunction.
This is not the first time this has happened between me and my wife. I hope it is the last time! I see her growing a lot and she knows this lesson. She was taught it a few weeks back. I have been praying for her to open up her mind to let Yeshua show it to her again, and that hopefully this time it is the end time and it never happens again.
Because right now she wants and expects me to change, to accept her unrighteous works and support her or else. But I cannot, because I know where it leads when you show favoritism towards a person over the perfect will and way and truth of God. It will NEVER end up good for you, nor the other people involved. The only way it turns out good is if all the people involved do it in righteousness and truth. And that means it must be done in Yeshua and his Spirit. Because the true worshippers worship in Spirit and truth! And these examples are exactly what it means to worship in Spirit and in Truth!