“Let not your heart be troubled (roiled); believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1 (NASB)
“And He-was-telling them, “Take-heed what you-hear…” “Take-heed how you-hear …” Mark 4:24; Luke. 8:18 (Lit. frm Grk Txt)
When the Hebrews were powerfully delivered from the hand of Egyptian slavery, God’s heart and spoken promise to them was to bring them all the way into the land He had sworn to Abraham to give to his seed (Gen. 12:7; 15:16; 17:8; Ex. 6:7-8 ff). The sad chapters telling the story of halted inheritance are Numbers 13 & 14. But there is so much to glean from this accounting. Of the 12 men who were sent in to spy out the good land, all which testified that this promised inheritance did indeed flow with milk & honey, having brought out, moreover, a cluster of grapes on a pole which had to be carried back by two of them, 10 of these leaders of the people nevertheless let their physical eyes tell them that the giants [the Hebrew word conotes “big bully”, denoting “one who (intentionally) causes (because of using his size, another)to fall “], that these giants were the (logical) reason they were not able to go in to take what God had promised them was already theirs. It was this that they let overwhelm their hearts instead of intentionally bringing back to their conscious memory the bigness of what their YHVH Almighty God had done for them back in Egypt to free them from centuries of slavery. And though Caleb piped up to cancel out these negative words and so to believe God, the words of the 10 who gave the bad report prevailed louder in the hearts of the people … and it was these words, Beloved, that the people mulled over all night in their tents, and so let their hearts get roiled to the point of utter unbelief. (See Num. 14:1-4).
You need to see the LORD’s response, Beloved, from out of one of the Hebrew words:
“how long will they not believe in Me?” Numbers 14:11 (NASB)
The Hebrew verb, “to Believe” ? … “Aman” … from which we derive our English-ized “Amen”.
Even though God had delivered this numerous multitude so powerfully from out of bondage, that generation displeased the LORD, for they would not go on to continually believe Him / they did not give their hearts and mouths to “Amen” Him (ref. Ps. 95:7-11 & Heb. 3). The evil report into their ears became the seed that bore fruit through their words … … words that God Himself heard (see Num. 14:28).
A generation later, when Joshua took in the grown up children of the delivered-out-of-Egypt nation into their promised inheritance, as they were receiving instructions from him in taking the first & the greatest city, he commanded them all NOT to speak during the days of their march around Jericho (Josh. 6:10) … he did not want what their eyes were physically to behold to take root as unbelief in their hearts and then their mouths. Forty years was already too long for him outside in the wilderness wandering by reason of spoken unbelief.
Yet also, as the anointed leader, he was, in essence, letting continue to root in the hearts of his people the power of the mighty hand of God through the issue of the Ark of the Covenant supernaturally having stopped & rolled back the flood waters of the Jordan in order for them to alas enter into this Divinely promised inheritance, along with what happened spiritually with the succeeding circumcision & passover celebration, to be the anchor of their faith. (See previous blog).
And so it was that Jericho fell, yet that Rahab and her family were spared, because she had made room in her heart & home to keep the spies (See Joshua 2). Her faith in YHVH’s greatness was far greater because of the report of that forty year old account of Israel’s God having opened the Red Sea, as well as what He did through His people to the two giant kings east of the Jordan just prior to their crossing. The “big” of all the wickedness of her own city, of all that her city was, did not compare to the greatness of Israel’s God for what He had done for His people. She wanted to be a part of “His People”.
It is what takes place, in the conquering of Jericho, yet not revealed until the beginning of ch. 7, in which is that which has been stirring in my heart for the last several days from the LORD. I did not initially receive it from the Holy Spirit from out of ch. 7, but from reading of Rahab’s hiding of the spies in ch. 2, which led me to a few verses of Psalms 31; (and it was in these verses that the LORD brought me back to one of the key words He has kept alive in my heart for several years).
When the two young men came into Jericho, they came to the woman, Rahab, to her house. Word quickly spread through the city, making it all the way to the king, who sent to have these two young men brought out. But Rahab had hidden them up on the flat roof of her house-in-the-wall. While it is true that she was a prostitute, she apparently was also a seamstress or cloth maker … for she had hidden the two spies under the stalks of flax, a tall but thin plant from whose stalks are taken fiber to make linen. The stalks were up there in thick bunches intentionally because of the process flax is put through to finally end up as linen threading. As I was studying one of the Hebrew words for “hide” (denoting “by burying” – Josh. 2:6) I chanced over to Ps. 31:19-21a (NASB)
“How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up (“hidden [by burying”- same Heb. wrd. used in Josh. 2:6]) for those who fear You, which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You before the sons of men (Adam). You hide (cover) them in the secret place (covering) of Your Presence (Lit. also, “of Your face”) from the conspiracies (snares – meshes) of men. You shall keep them secretly (cover [by burying]) in a shelter (cukkah) from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the LORD, for He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me…” (Bracketed words my insert to show from the Heb. text)
There is a place in the Face of our LORD, Beloved, to be hidden from the striving and noise of this world, from all the words of this life which are set by the enemy of our souls to rob us of faith, of believing our LORD. Yet this is also a place where we can walk confidently complete as a child of God in the Face of Him who gave Himself to be to us both God AND Father (Gen. 17:1; Col. 2:9-10). Even in this life YHVH, our Almighty God, can literally hide us by burying us in the presence of His face (See Ps. 91:1).
What delays our moving forward in faith, in increasingly believing, in our growing & walking in (and on) deeper waters where we have never walked before, are words of the news of this life which are set to roil our hearts, literally, causing us thus to see a bigger devil than a defeated devil in the face of the Greater One who stripped him at Golgatha. When you look at the account of Joshua 7 and bring out the meaning of names, it is clear that the strife of tongues, the strife coming from the mouths of this age which we let into our lives (our eyes and our ears), will grind to a halt our advancement in kingdom inheritance. Look at this account:
After Jericho, Joshua moved ahead to Ai near Beth-aven which was near Bethel. Ai means “heap of ruins”. Beth-aven means “house of vanity.” Beyond these two was Bethel, “House of God”, where Jacob had had his vision of an open heaven (see Gen. 28:10-19). Israel was defeated in the battle to take Ai (heap of ruins), and so were stopped, yet all because of the sin of Achan, whose name means “troubler” but which is rooted in a word meaning “to roil” like water (being boiled). Achan’s sin was covetousness … he had stolen goods from Jericho of which no one was to take anything. Jesus addressed this issue in the parable of the sower and the seed:
“And other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. … these are the ones who have heard the word, and the worries of the world (age) and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” Mark 4:7, 18b-19 (NASB)
The roiled heart is the one that does not let the Word take root in his heart, having let worries of this age and also the (empty) desire for things to fill it. It is not a heart & soul at peace, and so the noise of this world comes into both ears, keeping the covetous heart roiled – in a state of ongoing worry, in a place of ongoing unbelief. Even when the Word still gets spoken into their ears (i.e. Sunday church sermon), that Word cannot bear fruit because the soil of that heart has too many thorny weeds left there.
That Ai is on one side and Beth-aven on the other is like the news of the age in which we live – bad news of destruction – coming into one ear, and coming into the other the vanity news (such as from out of Hollywood), which is nothing but hopelessness in the end. Both halt our advancement, as it were, towards what ought to be the open heaven of the house of God, where we clearly see and hear through the Holy Spirit in us what all is our inheritance in Christ Jesus our LORD.
A lot of you have heard or read from me as to what I am going to here write, for this is the Word that the Holy Spirit has kept before me for some years, yet the last couple of years provoking me to take this more seriously than I have before. Paul writes by the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 4:31, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger AND CLAMOR and slander be put away from you …” When I saw this some years ago, it was like being slapped in the face ‘pay attention’ because this word to me didn’t fit the list in which Paul wrote it. I remember saying, “Father, ‘clamor’ means ‘noise'”, and He answered me immediately, saying “that’s right”. For years I saw this verse as “don’t let clamor in”. But Paul was actually writing “don’t let ‘clamor’ come out of you.” And then I remembered the old computer saying, “garbage in, garabage out”, and I got it. The noise, the clamor, the multitude of this age’s voices, allowed to come into our ears & hearts turns to become noise that comes out of our mouths, an indistinct sound, which bears no peace and grace in those who are giving their ears to us. But it produces also unbelief. It produces an unsurety in our hearing our LORD Jesus. Even though He said, in John 10, that His sheep hear His voice, too many believers cannot hear Him … and are stymied in their forward faith walk, in gaining more inheritance from what Jesus gave His life to give us.
“Let not your heart be troubled (roiled); believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1 (NASB)
The word for “troubled”, according to Strong’s concordance, denotes “to stir or agitate (roil water)”. From Thayer’s lexicon, “b. tropically, “to cause one inward commotion, take away his calmness of mind, disturb his equanimity; to disquiet, make restless” “.
The antidote, Beloved, is to let the life, the real life-giving life of His Word be “amen-ed” by our hearts and mouths. You will find the Holy Spirit unveiling Jesus to you like you’ve never seen or heard. This treasure, Beloved, will be far more valuable than the treasures or promises (noise) of treasures this world has to offer.
There is a hiding place in this time in the LORD’s face, in the presence of YHVH, Hand of Grace Nailed in Grace. There is Grace, there is a rest for your souls, clear hearing and thus a heart and mouth willingly saying “Amen” to so faithful a God who has stored up Goodness for us for this life. Your “completeness” in Christ is in the unspoiled Glory, the rich treasure of the ripped veil access into the open heaven of the Holy of Holies, where the Father has so much more for you than you can even imagine or dream. Let your heart be captivated by the Glory of your resurrected LORD, Beloved. All the noise of this world will fall off, and you will find your believing heart unroiled in a world of so much turmoil.
You are so greatly loved, Beloved Mark D.
kairos – (Kahee-ros’) – Strong’s concordance defines this word: “an occasion, I.e. set or proper time.” The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (NASB) defines this word; “season, time, but not merely as a succession of moments, which is chronos,” [from which we derive the English word ‘chronology’]. “Kairos, however, implies not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the task at hand, whether the time provides a good, convenient opportunity or not.” This must be understood. Strategic times of the Lord do not necessarily imply good or convenient times. We are in Kairos times. Maybe not good or convenient times, but definitely strategic, opportune times because of the season we are in. We must have “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (Rev. 2:29), so as to respond correctly to the Kairos time.
* Some Scripture for this letter is taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Other references translated from Grk. Txt as presented in T. Newberry’s Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Zondervan Publishing – 1982- originally published in London, Eng. 1877