BE IT UNTO ME AS YOU HAVE SAID

Date: Thu Dec 25 10:59:31 2008

Title: BE IT UNTO ME AS YOU HAVE SAID

Post: At Christmas time we celebrate the coming to earth of Jesus Christ - the Incarnation, God in human form. Mary was minding her business - being faithful to her God. She was a circumspect young woman, pure as the driven snow, a virgin. She doubtless had dreams of a happy marriage, no snide jokes about having a baby six months after being married as some girls in Nazareth who were not so virtuous would have to endure, enjoying some honeymoon time with her husband, and then in good time having children. She was already engaged to a righteous man and it would not be long now.

All that was interrupted by an angel. The angel said that God had highly favored her. Mary was very troubled by this - what on earth could it mean? The angel went to tell her that God had chosen Mary to bear the Messiah. Mary asked how this would be possible since she was indeed a virgin. The angel explained that the Father would be the Holy Spirit, who would conceive the child in her. The angel gave her more information, but did not leave until Mary GAVE HER CONSENT, and said "Be it unto me as you have said." Now for sure, God had chosen her and determined that she should do this, but she STILL consented. Keep this in mind - It is still that way.

"Be it unto me." Yes, those words are important. God wants us to cooperate with his plans. Jesus had to learn the meaning of those words time and again. He did NOTHING he did not see his Father doing. He went to Gethsemane and pleaded that there be some other way. If we were there, we might have pleaded for him as well. He had the best mind ever to exist, and a mind is a terrible thing to waste. He had the power of God flowing through him in mighty power, and there were countless people and many nations he still had not touched. He was innocent, and was hated without cause. He had escaped death many times, and surely he could do so again.

God did not change his mind. God's will was for Jesus to suffer a horrible death. Jesus said "Be it unto me" when he said, "Not my will, but thine be done." It was not just Jesus. Peter was told what type of death he must die. Paul was told what would happen to him. What is our response when God's will is different from ours? What do WE say when God wants us to go through some difficult times for his glory? Do we name and claim a promise we find and stick our fingers in our ears? Do we reject the voice of God because what he is saying is not pleasing to us? God forbid!

God has chosen us from before the foundations of the world to serve him. When he calls us, we must respond. He gives us a choice. Remember Saul? He was struck with blindness and heard a voice from heaven. He obeyed Christ and followed him. Some choice, you say. Could not have Saul shaken his fist at God and become a bitter man, blinded but unyielding? I believe he could have. But, he didn't, just as Mary did not refuse to set aside her comfort, her life, her reputation. I believe they both saw the surpassing greatness of what obedience to God would bring. Yes, there would be misunderstanding and -persecution. but also great blessing. Saul, now Paul, knew there would be much suffering, but he also knew he was following the truth. Mary knew what being a "single mother" meant in the time she lived, but she also knew the honor of bearing the Messiah.

When God comes to us, he wants the Holy Spirit to come on us and birth Christ in us. Paul let God birth Christ in him. So has everyone else who is truly a Christian. We are born again because this time God is our father, and incorruptible seed is placed in us to bring forth Christ. It just doesn't happen. We must say "Be it unto me as you have said."

So if all this incorruptible seed has been sown in humans by God, where are the results? Why are there relatively few people where the character of Christ has been formed? Are there miscarriages and spiritual abortions? Why have so many gone astray and into strangeness and even perversion while still naming Christ? These things ought not so to be. 1 Peter 1:23 says, "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." 1 John 3:9 adds, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God."

The key really is that be have to continually submit to God. That "Be it unto me as you have said" is not a one time statement. It is a daily commitment. When it is not, it is like a child who accepts Christ as five and as a teen rejects Christ daily. The Bible says that "He who endures to the end shall be saved." God never takes away our freewill. God wants our relationship with him to be voluntary. That relationship needs nurturing every day. Remember Judas Iscariot? He was sent out by Jesus with power OVER evil spirits. Judas saw miracles done through him. Yet, Judas had a falling out with Christ, became disillusioned with what Christ wanted. Judas put his own agenda above that of Christ. The result? Luke 22:3 says Satan ENTERED him. Satan entered a man who had been given power over evil Spirits. The rest is history.

Some of the biggest opponents to the gospel are those who claimed to have been born again at some point. I wrote a piece on homosexuality on the editorial page of the Philadelphia Inquirer. A generation ago, most Christian pastors would have condemned homosexuality outright. Now, they say they are not against gay people and their "committed relationships", they simply don't want it called "marriage". Talk show hosts that many Christians listen to say they have no problem what people do in their bedrooms, it is only the "marriage" issue they oppose. Well, what happens in the bedroom is talked about throughout the Bible, and believe me, as goes the bedroom, so goes the nation! A man CANNOT have public morality without private morality. A man cannot exploit another person and govern justly. My piece in the Inquirer was not an olive branch to homosexuals, it was a Biblical call for repentance and offered the promise of God to deliver from everything that holds us captive. I received 35 emails soon after from homosexual men. About a third of them claimed to have accepted Christ. In fact, there is a Pentecostal church website that looks like almost any other Pentecostal website in terms of worship, belief, and the rest until you notice that it promotes homosexuality. The leaders and attendees are homosexuals. This is a growing phenomenon. it is hardly surprising. It is actually the next logical step in the full formation of the totally harlot church of the last days that will persecute the true believers in Christ who are sticklers for the Word of God.

Absolute Biblical injunction after absolute Biblical injunction has been winked at and set aside in church after church after church - the authority of Godly men (read the qualifications) is mandated in the family and in the church - many now push women into leadership in preference to men; the requirement that the church cares economically for its members and spreads the gospel throughout the world has been ignored, with churches spending perhaps 95% or more of their money on the building and the pastor and staff and a paltry 5% at most on missions and the poor; the requirement that each one comes with something to contribute to the service, prophecies, tongues, songs, hymns, exhortations, encouragements is ignored and replaced with a carefully choreographed program on the platform presented to a largely passive audience that is kept in spiritual impotency; the prohibition of partiality in terms of leadership and treatment of the flock has been ignored until we are at the point where churches are more divided ethnically than neighborhoods are. Churches which are truly integrated in terms of members, leadership, and cultural flavor are extremely rare. We are at the point where, as one church attorney pointedly told me, "We layer prosperity on the gospel". More and more pastors refuse to teach about hell even though Jesus talked about it a whole lot. Absolute opposition to allowing the killing of preborn babies for any reason not involving the mother's own life has been replaced with a simple desire to "reduce the number of abortions"; the beat goes on. I am told that sexual impurity is so rampant in the church that singles there expect premarital sex - it just takes more dates before it starts. People have called me for counseling that are living immorally, claiming to be Christians, but not fulfilling God's mandates for them. And, explaining in part perhaps why men seem less passionate about Christ than women, at least a quarter of Bible-believing Christian men have some involvement with pornography.

We hear more and more strange doctrines, such as the "born again in hell" heresy, an atonement that sounds more like an infomercial on getting rich quickly than a presentation of the blood sacrifice for sin, and equating God's power with people falling down all over the place even though that is a cultic phenomena and never once referred to as a common experience in the Bible (in the cases of Daniel and John, they were terrified of what God showed them). Today, people love to lay on the carpet, much like those "awakening their chakra" through the "kundalini" yoga techniques of Hinduism, or those engaging in "serpent power". The Shakers did it, but they also did necromancy. Others did it, and went off the deep end in key areas. It is significant to me that wherever I have seen the phenomenon, the people who practice it are not more spiritual. going about the Great Commission and delving deeper in to the word of God. Rather, they are constantly seeking mystic experiences and, in my experiences, open themselves to all manner of other deceptions. Sound Christians have adopted heretical positions and practices and feel totally justified because they "fall out under the power".

Sound Christians must not worship their worship, which can be more about worshipping themselves than God. Worship acceptable to God is worship from a pure heart that exalts him, not "worship" that is sensual and self-centered by nature. Sound Christians must be Biblical Christians, and must never compromise one jot or one tittle of the word of God. If sound Christians do not constantly say, "Be it unto me as you have said" in every area of their Christian lives, they will be in a bad place. Satan may never enter them as he did Judas, but their effectiveness will be gone and they will be judged for misleading others and bringing those they impact into poor spiritual places. The seed God planted does not result in a conformance of their mind and character to that of Jesus Christ.

It is no easy pathway to follow the path of constant surrender to God and to constant awareness of the pitfalls and traps that lie in our pathway. John Bunyan in "Pilgrim's Progress" chronicled some of these. The Bible still more. I am studying Galations in my personal devotions - the Galation Christians were set free from the law and its rules and regulations, but were drawn back in by teachers who were more interested in them being bound to their leadership than to Christ. Even the great Apostle John noted in I John that MANY anti-Christs went out from among them. He was at Ephesus - the LOVE Church, and even at a great church, there were anti-Christs. God forbid that ANY of us should ever be an anti-Christ in ANY way. We must be steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. If we are more interested in doing the work of the Lord than humoring every wind of doctrince, we will be spared much heartache. If we are like the Bereans and check out EVERYTHING we hear by the scriptures, we will be spared much turmoil. We did over 1,000 radio programs in a period a little over five years - I used to tell my listeners from time to time to check out everything I said, and to let me know if I misspoke! NO ONE is exempt!

"Be it unto me". Lord Jesus, that is my prayer. Hover over my life, Holy Spirit. Fill me, use me, speak through me. Give me total loyalty to you and a protective shepherd spirit over the flock of God that I impact. May I never fall short. Keep me close to your breast and under your wings, safe in that sweet haven of rest, oh my God, Redeemer, and Friend.

May you experience the joy of Mary as your "soul doth magnify the Lord" this Christmas season and always. Ask for a fresh filling of his Holy Spirit and we sure to speak in the prayer language(s) that he gives to you. Be filled with the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh! RATHER, CHRIST WILL BE DEVELOPED IN YOU! OLD THINGS WILL PASS AWAY, ALL THINGS WILL BECOME NEW! YOU WILL PUT ON THE MIND OF CHRIST! YOU WILL LIVE AND ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WONDERFUL CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST. Lord God, we are tired of the half-way, the partial, the incomplete. BE IT UNTO ME AS YOU HAVE SAID!