A Lamb and A Lion

(Rev. 5:4-10, Isaiah 11:6, 65:25, Rom. 8:28-39)

I hear and see much among the Lord’s people of the Lord as a lion.  He is called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  He is the root and the offspring of David, of Judah.  A year or so ago I was in a meeting on a Sunday morning and a visiting woman was given opportunity to speak.  I saw her as a teacher.  She also had a ministry to young people and shared a video of the baptisms of some.  As those young ones were dipped under the water, the words of their testimonies were filled with passion and the fire of God’s Spirit.  I thought that’s how every baptism should be.  That is not always the case but it underscored my appreciation for this sister and the maturity of  her walk.

She mentioned that the Lord Jesus is referred to as the Lion once in Revelation and 29 (I think she said) times as the Lamb.  My own research shows the word “Lamb” appearing 25 times.  Do you think the Spirit is making a point?  Jesus Christ was introduced by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God.  John, the beloved one, the apostle, was given a revelation of Christ as he writes in the opening of that book we call Revelation.  So why are we, as so-called prophetic people, seemingly obsessed with a sense of a roaring, devouring lion?  Now that is not true of all that I know as believers and I am careful of being obsessed myself with pointing out our distractions from the Lord’s ways.  The great contradiction (to our natural minds) of God’s great wisdom in spiritual warfare is that the Lamb destroyed death by dying.  Our means of warfare are the same.

He did not in this age rise up as a lion to defeat His enemy and ours.  His ways are higher than our ways.  So we see in Isaiah, a lion and a lamb mentioned together in a place of true peace.  This does not look like a lamb rising up to be ferocious but rather of the lion lying down in peace with the lamb.  Of His kingdom and of peace (true peace) no end will be found.  His peace is eternal and it is powerful in that it stills every storm.  It is never about shouting, although we do shout.  Jesus said He is meek and lowly in heart.  Yes He flipped the tables.  That was in His Father’s house.  And among those who claim to be His, we do well to expose greed and corruption.  And that will never look kind nor meek.  But ultimately, He was crucified before those same ones to pay for their iniquities.

We cannot pay for anyone’s sins but we are called to bear personal abuse and hostility (Heb. 12:3-8) as we are learning obedience by suffering, allowing that abuse.  We share in His suffering.  If we see ourselves as roaring lions, we will always be ready for a fight.  That is not the Lord’s way and no one will receive us.  We need to walk as He walked.  We are called to this, to walk worthy of our calling.  Do we confront evil?  Do we have the authority to cast it down when it appears?  Yes.  But be sure to cast it out and allow for repentance.  All this said, as Peter directly rebuked the one who wanted to buy the authority of the Spirit, we do not shrink back from addressing such a person sharply.  May His words be in our mouth as a sharp, two-edged sword, and a fire to devour our enemies, when necessary.

Our reward is a heavenly one.  When John’s eyes were opened, when heaven was opened to John on Patmos, he saw the scene in heaven for the scroll to be opened.  This was the unfolding of God’s working in the earth.  He weeps when none was found worthy but a voice says behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome.  When John looks he sees a Lamb as slain.  His blood was seen.  His blood is on the mercy seat forever.  And He is known in heaven as the Lamb.  For all eternity, He is worshipped as the Lamb of God who was given so that we might live and so worship Him forever.  And as His sheep, it is so for us, to bear our cross and so follow Him.  Read the passage in Romans and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into the truth and His ways for your own walk.  We are counted as sheep for the slaughter, dying daily, so that life might touch others and work in them.  All for one purpose that the Lamb of God might receive the reward of His suffering, that our Father’s house would be full.

Seasons

(Ecc. 3:1,17, Psalm 1:3, Rev. 22:2)

God is eternal but His working in the world has seasons.  He purposed creation and it had a specific time of His doing it.  He had a season of the flood and preservation of Noah in the time of His judgement.  And in the fulness of time, in that season that only God fully understood and knew, He sent His Son to be born of a young virgin and Jesus came on the scene.  In His life we see seasons also.  Yet now He has fully entered the eternal realm while He remains with us always even until the end of this present evil age.

Jesus had seasons.  After Bethlehem, He had a season in Egypt.  And the scripture was fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my Son”, as the Lord said through a prophet.  He grew as a child and young man in Galilee.  He was baptized by John, had a 40 day test in the wilderness, and then moved among the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  As we follow Him, it will be so for us.  God works in our lives as we move among His people.  We know a time where we come to know Him as Father.  We became part of His new creation.  For many of us, an instant birth happens, a suddenness, a coming out of a womb where we were not yet aware of Him.  That is the awakening needed in this season.  It has been the same in every season.

I know a sister in Christ.  When we spoke about the president of the US, she said she prays that he will encounter Jesus.  That is the prayer for every man, woman, and child.  I have written elsewhere of my encounters with Him, those moments where a spiritual transformation takes place.  We need His continual presence, an awareness that we walk before Him.  The Lord spoke to Abraham, “Walk before me and be blameless.”  That is a walk of faith and confidence in the truth that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness.  You cannot hide your bad self from Him.  Your flesh is exposed and you are at His mercy.  There He shows you His lovingkindness, His grace.

Seasons bring growth.  In the natural, we know four seasons.  Think about them and how they reflect God’s working in your life.  The picture in the references in Psalms and Revelation uses the picture of a tree.  We are like trees.  Be planted in Him, in His Spirit.  Let your roots go deep into Him.  Don’t ever try to run away.  You will injure the roots already there and bring extra trouble.  When Israel rejected the Lord, it meant great trouble.  Learn to cooperate with His discipline.  Jesus said the Father would prune us to bring more lasting fruit.  I was struck by the picture in Revelation 22.  The tree of life, the Lord Himself, the Spirit, is in the middle of the street which is a river, and it is on both sides.  And it’s season of fruit-bearing is monthly.  That is a short season and a very large tree.  Those pictures are yet like parables.  I have learned to be careful not to over-analyze them but the Spirit brings understanding.  Allow the Spirit to speak.

The Lord and His kingdom are eternal.  They are not subject to time and seasons.  We are entering His kingdom.  We are in a process, on a journey, growing spiritually.  The process may move slowly at times and then suddenly accelerate.  As we walk with Him, real growth will result.  John describes the phases as children, young men, and fathers.  Read and consider that passage in 1 John 2.  I have found after many years of following and listening, I see aspects of all 3 yet in my life.  Growth is uneven for us.  But Jesus never changes.  While Smith Wigglesworth is often remembered for miracles, he was a teacher and preacher.  He said when Christ died and was raised from the dead, time ended and eternity began.  He was one who more fully entered that kingdom and so moved in great faith so that God was able to do more than most believed.  May we be so encouraged by that great cloud of witnesses and by Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, and press on into the heavenly kingdom. It is always time to seek the Lord.  Seek His face continually.

Roots – Good and Bad

In Matt. 13 Jesus shares a parable using the theme of seed being sown in a field.  He contrasts different qualities of soil, the wayside, stony ground, thorny ground, and good soil.  Each of us, if we are honest in the secret places of our hearts, has known something of each of these.  Before I knew the Lord, I was like that first type.  The seed didn’t find any place to start.  It just bounced off me.  Stony ground includes the areas of our hearts that are hard.  Jesus says that type of soil starts out well, with joy.  Yet that one has no root.  When trouble comes, that one stumbles.  That one struggles and looks for escape from the trouble.  Those are my words, not His, but I have seen it to be true.

When trouble comes, God is after something in us.  He locates a hard place and wants us to see it.  The process is for us to see our hardness and bring it to Him.  As we grow, we learn to put aside the hardness, unforgiveness and bitterness.  Paul wrote somewhere for us to put away all anger wrath, clamor and bitterness.  The clamor starts in us and if it festers it creates more hardness.  In Hebrews, we are told, to not harden our hearts so that we could hear His voice.  His voice is that seed.  When we do turn away from Him, He lets us go, gives us some rope, so that we learn.  The issue is one of the ground in our hearts.  It needs to be plowed to expose the rocks.  Then the rocks can be removed.  Being plowed is never fun.

When trouble comes to us, we often feel the distress and the pain.  The hurt and pain can be on many levels.  We can fight it, run from it, or turn to God.  Sometimes it may be that we need to get away from the source so that we can get with God.  I have heard it said that Jesus Himself knew emotional abuse as a child.  I can believe that.  The Pharisees called Him illegitimate as a man.  He probably heard that as a child in Nazareth.  And Jesus learned to get off by Himself and pour His heart out to His Father.  When the pain comes, we need to seek God.  Our nature is to lash out, to give place for our anger to vent.  Some sort of destruction is usually the result.  We have all known it.  Then we have to clean up our mess.  I have known that.

When we do not go to God, we blame others and can end up spreading all their weaknesses and failures.  Some truth may be in all that but love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Pet. 4:8)  Speaking out of our pain and bitterness can cause trouble and divisions.  Hebrews 12 is an important passage for us to understand God’s working.  Read the entire chapter and let the Lord speak to you.  Trouble comes to change us, to cause us to grow.  Now focus on Heb. 12:3-15 and hear how submitting to God’s discipline of us affects our relationships.  Verse 15 refers to a root of bitterness.  The following verse refers to Esau whose life was set to satisfy himself.  Very important is that we do not fail of, or come short of, the grace of God.  Grace is not to give us an excuse but to provide the strength to pursue peace with all men, even to love those who cause us trouble.

Look again at verse 3 which tells us to turn away from discouragement and weariness of soul.  That is where the grace is needed and will help us.  In Colossians 2, we are encouraged to walk by His life (vs. 6) as we are rooted and grounded in Him.  When we are stumbling and struggling in our troubles, and not walking in love, we need grace and to grow deeper in Him.  We need Him to work the soil in our lives and we must allow the pain.  Hebrews 12:11 says this.  As He turns over the soil in our hearts, we are strengthened by grace.  His power and strength are in the grace, not for us to be known as strong and look good, but for us to walk in love.

In closing two other thoughts and scriptures.  Eph 3:17 calls us to be rooted and grounded in love and Jude 21 adds to keep ourselves in the love of God.  No room is left there for our self-righteousness and anger and bitterness.  In His presence is mercy and grace for us and for all our enemies, as they come to Him.