What would you choose if you had to decide between God and something you desperately needed, something you had prayed for, believed for a long time?
Not too long ago, I asked this question to a group of Christians. Unanimously more than 100 out of a group of 100 000 guests all said, “I choose God first.”
Then I asked the same questions again to the same group, but I worded it differently this time. I asked what you would choose if you had to choose between Yehovah and something you desperately needed, prayed for, and believed for a long time?
This time only 2 out of a group of 100 000 said, “I choose Yehovah first.”
The first time, the majority of those who replied were American and European Christians from industrialized countries. The second time, 1 of the 2 was from an industrialized nation, the other from a developing country.
Why was it easy for Christians in industrialized countries to pledge allegiance to God, as long as I used a generic title? As soon as I used God’s name, they were not too eager to do the same. When you use a generic title instead of God’s name, you give people room to define who God is for themselves. When you use God’s name, Yehovah, everyone knows who God is and what He expects of us. It was easy to pledge allegiance to a generic God because most Christians in industrialized countries are idol worshipers and not worshipers of Yehovah, the God of the Bible.
Am I saying Yehovah, the God of the Bible, would force us to choose between Him and something we desperately need, have prayed for and believed for?
Yehovah, the God of the Bible, would never force us to make such a choice. Deut 28:1-13, Matt 6:25-34 all say the same thing; if we have Yehovah in our lives, He will provide what we need. Yehovah wants to bless you and meet your needs. But He does not want your blessings to become your idols.
Even though He will never force you to make such a choice, He will never stop you from making such a choice of your own free will. He will never stop you from making your blessings, or even your needs into an idol. Have you chosen to reject Yehovah in favor of something you believed you needed and have prayed for? What if you have made that choice without being aware of it?
When I asked the first question, Christians from industrialized countries responded, “I choose God, God comes first.” As long as I used the generic title God, they were free to define who God was. So it is easy to say, “I choose God, God comes first” if the God you believe in is a God of your imagination.
When I asked the question again using God’s name, only two answered. One was a Christian from a developing country, the other one from an industrialized country. They both said, “I choose Yehovah; Yehovah comes first.” Now that I used God’s real name, you could know what God we are talking about, who He is, and what He expects of us.
Why were so many Christians so eager to pledge allegiance to God but not to Yehovah? Because it is always easy to claim allegiance to a God of your imagination that does not require anything from you. This is idolatry, and idolatry is a sin.
The same thing happened at the foot of Mount Sinai with the golden calf incident. Our forefathers focused on their needs; they rejected Yehovah and made up a god of their imagination. They pledged allegiance to this calf naming him Yehovah, hoping he would be the one to meet their needs their way.
Are you one of them who would easily have said “I choose God, God comes first” but kept your silence if I asked you to choose between Yehovah and having your prayers answered when you know choosing Yehovah could lead to a lifetime of sickness, lack, poverty, and disease?
If so, you are guilty of worshiping the golden calf; it is time to repent. We need to repent and come back to the place where we choose Yehovah, no matter what.
Why would choosing Yehovah lead to a lifetime of sickness, lack, poverty, and disease? In the book of Revelation, the Bible says there will come a time when people around us and society will force us to choose. If we choose Yehovah, we will be cut off from the rest of the community and suffer for it. When that time comes, you can not have both Yehovah and comfortable life. So if you are already making an idol out of your needs, you will be an easy target for the antichrist when he forces you to choose; those who choose idols instead of Yehovah will never see heaven when they die.
In Psalm 37:4, we read, “Delight yourself in Yehovah, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Here in Psalm 37:4, it says if we choose Yehovah, He will give us the desires of our heart. But how do you delight yourself in Yehovah, your God?
When do you feel as if people around you delight in you? We feel loved and respected when people around us take an interest in who we are, and therefore desire to spend time with us. We feel incredibly loved and appreciated when people around us want to spend time with us, not because of what we can give them or not give them, but only because we are who we are.
This is when we feel delighted in when someone wants to be our friend, spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend because of who we are, not because of what we can give them.
In Psalm 37:4, the Bible says if we delight ourselves in Yehovah, He will give us the desires of our hearts.
What does this mean?
It means that if we seek Yehovah for who He is, not for what He can give us, He will meet your needs. If you can come to a place in life where you say, as long as I have Yehovah, I have everything I need, you have repented of worshiping the golden calf. Then He will give you the desires of your heart.
But if you are one of those who would not choose Yehovah over your needs, you still need to repent.
Are you still not sure if you need to repent?
The sad fact is that most Christians have unconsciously chosen health and wealth over Yehovah, and to justify their choice, they have labeled their golden calf Jesus and believe He will give this to them.
What do I mean by this?
If you listen to most of the preaching done in mainstream Christianity, they preach a Jesus who does not expect anything from you, but He is willing to give you everything you need. This is not the Jesus of the Bible, Yeshua in the Bible repeats time and time, “if you do this, THEN My Father in heaven will do this for you.”
This is an unconscious choice Christians have made, just as the Israelites at Mount Sinai honestly thought the Golden calf was Yehovah. But even so, it is still a sinful choice that has consequences and needs to be repented of.
How can you tell if you have made this choice?
The next time you pray for something, ask yourself this question, can you accept a no or “not now, wait” from Yehovah, and how would you respond emotionally if He said no or told you to wait?
Would you be upset and discouraged?
If the answer is yes, it proves you have made that unconscious choice and worshiped the golden calf named Jesus.
Why?
If you get upset over not having your needs met, you have given them the authority to affect your emotional well being. This is an authority only Yehovah is supposed to have.
If you get upset over not having your needs met, it shows you do not trust Yehovah. If He says no, or wait, and He is who the Bible says He is, then He has a good reason for it. We should not see it as a negative thing; we should trust that He said no, or wait because it is our benefit.
If you get upset over not having your needs met, it shows you do not delight in who Yehovah is; instead, you only delight in what He can give you.
Do you now feel as if you might be guilty of rejecting Yehovah, in favor of a golden calf named Jesus? If so, you need to repent.
So how do I apply this to my life?
When I was a mainstream Christian, I believed in a golden calf called Jesus. The Jesus I believed in resembled more a buddy than a Lord. He did not expect anything from me, He had no standards, He did not care too much about anything, but He was always more than willing to give what I needed.
I quickly realized this Jesus played favorites because I was not always given what I needed even though I honestly loved him and worshiped him as my god. And at times, it seemed as if he was more concerned about the rich and wealthy to meet their needs because they were the ones able to tithe and give money to his kingdom. They were always the ones who got healed and blessed, but the rest of us regular people could only hope he would look our way and someday bless us. When that did not happen, I, like many of my Christian friends, fell into condemnation for not having given enough/believed enough or having unconfessed sins in our lives.
As the years went by, I learned from the Bible how different the Yeshua in the Bible was from the Jesus I followed in Christianity.
Yeshua in the Bible never focused on Himself; He always taught His disciples how to have a relationship with His Father Yehovah. He promised those who had a relationship with His Father would be blessed, cared for, and never have to worry about anything again. The only requirement for this relationship was that we needed to live our lives as Yeshua lived His life in obedience to His Fathers Torah (the written law of Moses.)
This made perfect sense to me because this was no different from how everything else works in society. You obey authority, and you get something in return because of what you have done.
The more I learned to obey the Torah, the more I realized who Yehovah my Father is. When I started following the Torah, I would easily worry about things. Then I would pray about these things, and if nothing happened right away, I would pray more, stress more, and worry more. I was never happy because I was always chasing the next answered prayer.
Living like this, always chasing the next miracle, can get exhausting.
Then one day, Yehovah showed me how I was still an idol worshiper. Why was I still an idol worshiper? Because I had given my needs the authority to affect my emotional well being, I did not delight in Yehovah only in what He could give me, and I did not trust Him.
I repented that day, and I said to myself that I have what I need as long as I have Yehovah.
Did all my needs magically disappear?
No, I still have needs and sometimes pressing needs.
So what has changed?
When I have a need, I make an effort to remind myself I have Yehovah, and therefore I dont need anything else. Then I pray about my need, I tell Yehovah what it is, and I ask Him to meet my needs. But when I pray, I am no longer upset, stressed, or worried, because I know that should He choose to say no or wait, I already have what I need in Him.
So what am I doing?
I am delighting in Him, and Psalm 37 says if I delight in Him, He will give me the desires of my heart.
Just the other day, I got to experience how this works.
I was at work, and I needed wisdom on how to solve a pressing situation. The first thing I did was calm myself down by reminding myself that I have Yehovah and do not need anything as long as I have him. When my mind was calm and focused on Him, I asked Yehovah for wisdom, and I knew what to do there and then. Because I delighted in Him, He gave me the desire of my heart.
So I know, from firsthand experience, this works. If we are willing to repent and be satisfied with having Yehovah and only Yehovah, we will delight in Him. If we delight in Him, we will rest in Him and have no reason to worry about anything because He will give us the desires of our hearts.
Can I pray for you? Can I prophesy to you? I want to do this for free; contact me today on Messenger or e.mail apostleernie@outlook.com
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