As I wrap up my study from the last 3 weeks on the spirit that leads these movements in the Church today, I am overwhelmed by the treasures the Lord continues to give me. There can be no doubt that if we come to Him for truth, He will reveal it to us, but it is always found in the scriptures. So I pray you will bear with me just a little more as I conclude what the Lord has been showing me in regards to testing the spirits that call out to those of us in the Church today.
David again brought together out of Israel chosen men, thirty thousand in all. He and all his men set out from Baalah of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark. They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. (2 Samuel 6:1-8 )
In our Bible study last week we were reading this scripture when the Lord started to speak to my spirit. This seemed to be the conclusion I needed for all these weeks of study. I want us to look at this set of scriptures and a few more as we try to see what the Lord wants us to know in these last days. The very first thing we want to note is that David was the one who longed to return the ark back to where it should be. David represents our current day pastors, in the sense that David was called to shepherd over God’s people Israel, and pastors have been called to shepherd over Christ’s flock, the Church. As I hear many of these “so-called” pastors or leaders in the Church today, I have no doubt they too think that they are going to return the Church to where it should be. The problem herein lies, that they believe with all their discussions and ideas, that they know best how to do it. Sadly, they could not be farther from the truth. David, even in all of his excitement, knew God’s word and His way. Yet it is David who allowed the “ark” to be moved in the manner it was.
The next thing I want to note is that the scriptures say, They set the ark of God on a new cart. That seems so interesting to me, because how many today will tell you that the Lord is moving in a “new way”. No doubt these men were zealous for what they were doing. I am sure they worked overtime in getting this “new” cart ready. Unfortunatly they forgot to take a look back at the scriptures to see that God had already told them how everything should be done. ( Ex 25:13-16; Numbers 4:5-6, 15) Understand this please! GOD DOES NOT CHANGE. He does not change His mind on how things should be done. He has already established it. That is why the Lord tells us in His word “Preach the Word; be prepared in season, and out of season.” (2 Tim 4:2) When the men of God are teaching us, we should be sure they are teaching not to the relevance of what the culture does or accepts, but to the same truth that has already been handed down in the past. We need only to look at the Lord’s Word to find what He wants for us in the Church, not to some man made method or opinion. So, Uzzah and others obviously decided to go a “new” way. I of course wondered where they got this idea to RE-INVENT the way things should be done. I had to look no further than 1 Samuel 6. Then I remembered, once again, “There is nothing “New” under the sun!” Their mistaken idea came from the pagen, unbeliveing world. They saw what they were doing and probably figured, Hey, this just might work. Maybe we should try things the way the world does it, God will surely honor our sincere effort. 1 Samuel 6 teaches us that the Philistines had returned the ark of the God of Israel on a new cart that they had gotten ready. As you study this chapter you will see all the priests and diviners had told the Philistines what to do. What in the world would make David and these men decide to try this in a “new” worldly way? What in the world leads the men of the Church to look to the way the world does things, to hire a business, or to ask unbelievers what is best for God’s house (the ark)?
So then what were the consequenses for their choices? Undoubtly there are always consequenses for our disobedience. Above in the scripture of 2 Samuel 6:7 it tells us that the Lords anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act. So God struck him down and he died there. That would certainly leave one standing there, watching this event, to begin wondering and even questioning. Even for those of us reading it thousands of years later we to may look to the Lord and ask, “Oh, were you serious about that?” Let me assure you today that He is serious. Dead serious! The scriputures goes on to tell us that David was angry because of the Lord’s wrath. From my own experience, I would venture to say this is the most commen response from Pastors and even those within the Church when you point out the seriousness of their error. I think it has been a feeling all of us have experienced at one time or another. We all want to think that we have good intentions when it comes to doing things for the Lord. The danger in that is, if we are not abiding in the scripture, if we are not led by the Holy Spirit, we may find that just like Uzzah, we made the desicion to serve the Lord according to man’s idea. That my freinds is very dangerous. 1 Cor 10:1-22 tells us that these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. When you have a moment, read those scriputures. The Lord was so gracious to me, to lead me there and tie the old with the new. It shows me in the end, they really are the same.
As I conclude, I pray that all of you will heed the seriousness in my writing. I do not write of my own opinion, or even what I would prefer to write. It is for the Lord that I write and speak. With that said, there is good news, once agian. Isn’t that always the case with our Lord and Savior Jesus? In the remaining part of 2 Samuel 6 we see that after David’s first response of anger, He became afraid. He was not willing to move another step without the Lord’s direction. David left the ark for 3 months in the house of Obed-Edom and his whole family was blessed while it remained there. David returned without the ark and inquired of the Lord once again. If you read 1 Chronicles 15:1-15 you will find that David repented before all of Israel, acknowledged why the Lords anger was against them and returned to doing things God’s way. A way that had never changed. The Lord showed mercy to David because of that, and the ark was once again able to return to Jeruselum. You know friends, this reminds me of our Lord’s mercy to us today. The kind of mercy He longs to show to the Church of Laodicea. (The Church we are in today ladies.) It is this Church that thinks it has recieved the Lord’s blessing. The one that thinks they are doing it the right way. Yet the Lord says the same thing to us in Rev 3:19. “Be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne.” Oh, my friends if anyone of us, or any pastor today will hear the rebuke of the Lord and repent, just as David did, if we will turn back to His ways, we can finish like David did. We can return to having His presence among us and we can sit on that throne, as David did, with our Father, because He overcame the world. The only question that remains now, is not if He is serious, but are you? Are you ready to surrender your whole life to Jesus and what He wants? To His way? Or are you perfectly content to follow the “new” ways of this world?
hi, regarding your blog post, i generally understand that what you want to say is for us to do things God’s way. even if we have good intentions, doing things our own way is not an excuse.
but i have a question regarding the Bible verses you had written and explained. according to you, Uzzah was struck down because of the people’s disobedience. according to the Bible, he was struck down because his irreverant act was taking hold of the ark when the oxen stumbled.
question is, if the reason why he died is because of the people’s disobedience, why did God struck him down instead of David, since David is the leader. we all know God is fair and just, and we all answer for our own wrongdoings. if Uzzah is merely following orders just like everyone else, it doesn’t make sense that he dies. from the way i look at it, it is because he took hold of the ark instead. of course, i admit that David and the rest were wrong in the way they bring the ark to a new place, but it don’t look like that is the reason why Uzzah died.
i don’t know if my question sound stupid to you, since i haven’t been exploring the Bible as much as you do.
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Great question! Herein lies the seriousness of what we teach “or tell others is okay”. Uzzah was still a part (himself) in moving the ark in a way that was unpleasing to our God. The point is the people’s disobedience was the orginal point of Uzzah being put in a postion to have to touch the ark in the first place. I think sometimes we want to make things a little more cut and dry but the fact remains the Lord had already given the instructions of how things were to be done and they did not obey. Uzzah was an example of how serious the Lord is when it comes to our disobedience, the consequences that we will suffer. Even David himself in 1 Chron 15 points out why God’s wrath was against them. He notes it was for their disobedience.
As far as why David was not struck down. That was the Lord’s merciful choice. He knew David would repent. I think that teaches us a valuable lesson as well. Our poor choices affect others. Makes me think of the drunk driver that kills an innocent driver on the road. Why does the one with the orginal crime survive, but the one that was innocent die? The Lord knows our hearts, but He also allows lessons to be taught. Our choices bring consequences and others will suffer for them if we include them. As I was trying to point out in the dangers of these false teachings, there will be many that say Lord Lord on that day and He will say depart from me. False teachers will draw away many for themselves and led them to death (hell). So the end result? Their disobedience in teaching was the first problem, but we still have the individual choice of what we do with it. Whether Uzzah was just trying to be helpful or not doesn’t seem to be the issue, it seems to teach us that even our most sincere efforts can not stand in front of a Holy God (the ark). We must come to Him on His terms only, through Him only. And when it comes to sharing the gospel and building the Church it can only be done His way. We already have the blueprint, when do not need to go back to the drawing board. If we do, there will be many more Uzzah’s I fear! May the Lord bless you.
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i see. i had read the verse many months ago and did not understand why Uzzah was struck down. but your explaination makes sense. thanks for the reply! May God bless you too…
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You know something else the Lord just brought to my mind that is a valuable lesson for pastors today is, just as David knew where to go to find the answers, the truth of what the Lord had asked and required, he choose to try it a different way. In the process he led many to “worship” the Lord with an irreverent act. How many pastors are leading “Uzzah’s” in our congrgations today? Reminds me now to check with the Lord before I just follow a man.
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what you say is true. pastors are like min-leaders of the people (the church) and what they say do influence other people. that comes another problem. i believe whichever church we are attending are being set by God, as in that is where He wants us to be. and God set a pastor to be the mini-leader of the church to help lead the people. let’s say for example we take it as pastor A of church A is doing something wrong, and if he doesn’t listen to the correct advice of the congregation, there is nothing the congregation can do, except to wait for the Lord to deal with him. even Samuel did not criticize Eli about his mistakes for many years (although i have no idea if it is the correct thing to do) because Eli is the person God has chosen to be in the temple, if you get what i mean. and you cannot say you want to jump church because the pastor is bad, because that is where God wants you to be and we have to follow the Lord’s instructions.
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Eli was not teaching false docterine about who God was, and he never asked Samuel to do things against God. Eli’s sin was a personal sin against God. Choosing what was better for his own son’s over God. Not taking their sins serious enough to use discipline. (You know the thing most people won’t use today, because that means you are judging). I am unaware of if Samuel even knew about this personal choice of Eli, the Bible doesn’t make that clear. The New Testament is full of warnings to flee from false teachers though. Many scriputures will tell you not to partner with them, flee from them or as in 2 John do not even welcome them or you take part in their wicked work. And today God has not placed every leader that is leading a church in that postion. That is why we must be very discerning. We have no more excuses now that we have the Truth before us.
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what you said do make a lot of sense, and it is true we have to flee from false teachers. here then comes another contradiction (sorry though, i have alot of things i still don’t understand fully). out of the so many churches, we can assume that there will be some churches that contains false teachers. and in a church, the members of the congregation are chosen and placed there by God. which means, until we received instruction from Him, we cannot switch to other churches when we feel like it. so what should we do if in a church there are a few false teachers? if we make people get away from them, we will be guilty of sowing discord in a church. if we don’t, people will get the wrong teachings.
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I might be a little confused by what you are asking. Can you give me some scriptures that say the members of a certain congregation are chosen and placed there by God? There would be some difference if false teachers were among you and the leaders were dealing with it, but to have the false teacher as your main leader, that is a different story. I also don’t think we need to wait for further instructions when it comes to fleeing from false teachers (who are unrepentant) because we have our final instructions in His Word. And fleeing and exposing false teaching will always cause discord or division. Even Jesus said He came to divide. Unity is only found in the Truth. With that being said I personally would never advocate just leaving a church, without first praying for and talking with the leader who may be teaching things falsely. We should always point out the errors and ask the Lord to speak the truth in love. It is only when they do not listen and fail to repent that we must flee. If we are led by our emotions, it may seem we have lost so much. But if we are led by His Spirit, He will guide us into all Truth and provide for us. Pray and see the Lord Jesus for His guidance and wisdom. He will reveal to you what you must do in all circumstances.
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hmm…i can’t find the verse out now, but if i do i will tell you again. thats the thing, a church should never have division, and if we are the ones guilty of dividing up a church, i don’t even want to think what is the punishment waiting for me after i die. anyway, i got to sleep now. is way past midnight. good nitex and happy labour day, if your country celebrates it.
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That would be great. I am always open to take a look at scripture so I can pray and let the Lord correct me or affirm His Truth to me. The one thing I would say in regards to your last comment, is that we must be very careful about what we consider division. Remember, test it all back to scripture, not emotion or what a human has said to us. Exposing false teaching and fleeing from it if the “pastor” is unwilling to repent will always cause division to the one it seems to be offending. The facts are though that you are not the one causing the division, the false teacher is. You are the obedient one who is fleeing. Romans 16:17 says: I urge you brothers, to watch out for those who cause DIVISIONS and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the TEACHING you have learned. KEEP AWAY from them. For such people are NOT serving our Lord Christ, but their OWN appetites. (emphesis mine). These men are the dividers not the exposer or the one who flees. Yet I can promise you the world and the enemy will certainly want to make you the divisive one. Keeping you involved and silent allows them to continue in their ways and for Satan to continue his job. Fleeing and exposing, causes a roadblock for them. If you are a false teacher or the Lord has revealed that you are dividing a church for false reasons or out of impure motives, then you are right in saying I would not want to undergo the punishment of the Lord. But if you are being obedient and exposing or fleeing, you should not fear punishment from the Lord. It is tolerating the sin (like Eli did, as you wrote me earlier) that I would worry about. Keep pressing into the Word!
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ok i have searched and asked around, it seemed that i was wrong about my comment. i think i need to get back to the source of how i get the idea in the first place and examine it. i remembered it was in a devotional material i read. it seemed that i did not check the ‘fact’ against the Bible to see if it is true and the idea get knocked into my head. what a mistake i made.
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Hey I understand. I have had many ideas in my head in the past just because the majority said so. Sadly to say it was not because I had tested it to the Word. As I said, just keep pressing in. If you long to know the Truth according to the Lord and not the world, He will guide you to it. Read John 16:12-13 just for a little encouragement! May our Lord Jesus Christ make His face shine upon you and lead you into all truth.
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What a thought-provoking site you have. I found a link to you at Slice of Laodicea. It is Sunday morning and I will not be going to a “church” because I have not found any yet in my area that seem safe to be in.
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Kathleen,
Thanks for stopping by! I will keep praying that the Lord can lead you to the right place. I remember when I was living in Florida, it seemed everywhere I went I was facing something else. We ended up doing housechurch for a few weeks until we moved here to CA. It is a struggle to find a place to worship these days! It seems like so many are leaving the faith and falling for anything, yet I know we must keep praying and asking the Lord for His guidence. His return in so near, even at the door. Keep looking up and pressing into His Word. He will not let you down. May He bless you and keep you dear sister!
Stephanie
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