Daily Archives: September 16, 2012

Pastor Wrinkles: Hey Jude Pt. 9

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“So I want to remind you, though you already know these things, that Jesus [fn] first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful.” Jude 1:5 NLT

We have been talking over the last several days about learning to contend for the faith against “secret slipper-inners”. Our first step to contending…defending the faith is to recognize someone who is a “slipper-inner” when we meet them.

Jude tells us the first sign is that such men “do not remain faithful”. They are mē pisteuō … That is they are NOT BEING TRUE TO, GIVING CREDIT TO, OR TRUSTING IN JESUS, GOD OR HIS PROMISES.

The example  given is the Israelites who came out of Egypt by God’s mighty hand. They saw the miracles of God on their behalf. They experienced God at Mount Sinai. Yet when it came to trusting God to take them into the land He had promised, they backed down. Instead of looking to God’s strength to fulfill His promises they measured the promise against their strength to bring it about. Unbelief for them was defined as relying on what they were able to accomplish without God’s help and forgetting God’s wonders.

the church has always been called to operate in the supernatural… that is beyond what can be accomplished by normal means. To walk in faith means to always be in the place of “It’s not possible but we are doing it!”

There is an aspect of being faithful to God which causes us always to challenge ourselves to something further. Now, whether that challenge  is being truly joyful for a full twenty-four hour period or building a 3,000 seat church in Africa, the devil is always trying to crush the over-comer in us. Jude says that the enemy of our souls will raise up people to help him accomplish that task.

Christian, beware of people who encourage you to give up the God-dream whatever that is in your life. True brothers and sisters in Christ may encourage you to tailor or redirect your God-dream. They may even point out that there are many steps to be fulfilled before you reach it. They may call you to change and growth; But brothers and sisters in Christ are not God- dream-killers. God-dream killing is the territory of the “secret-slipper-inner”, the man or woman who has forgotten what it is to operate by real faith and who now chooses to walk by natural strength alone.

Remember that, discern it and walk in faith!