Cyber Truths By E-mail
23. Are You a Maneuverer? (August 22, 2006)
Dear Friends,
The whole concept of what it means to
maneuver people and circumstances became clear to us recently,
and we were impressed to share this with you. When you read
about Jacob in the Older Testament, there's a certain
satisfaction in watching him out-maneuver the shrewd Laban. But
we need to remind ourselves how he ended up living with his
uncle in the first place.
First, Jacob's parents, Isaac and Rebekah,
showed favoritism. Isaac had a heart for his firstborn Esau
while Rebekah was partial to Jacob (Genesis 25:28). Jacob
learned how to maneuver people to his advantage at an early
age. He tricked Esau into giving up his birthright (Genesis 25:
29-34). With his mother's guidance he deceived his father Isaac
into giving him the blessing of the first-born. Needless to
say, he incurred the hatred of his brother Esau (Genesis 27)
because of this. So Rebekah again intervened on Jacob's behalf,
convincing his father through dishonesty to send him to live
with his uncle Laban.
While Jacob was with Laban, he experiences
deceptive maneuvering on the receiving end. His uncle tricks
him into marrying his older daughter, Leah, after seven years
of labor. Then, at the cost of seven more years of toil for his
uncle, the young man ends up with the woman of his heart's
desire, Rachel.
God prospers Jacob, enabling him to
out-trick his conniving uncle. All throughout Genesis 29
through 32 you see several people at work maneuvering others to
achieve personal gain (Genesis 30:14-16). The whole account of
Jacob's adventures in Haran offers clear insight into human
maneuvering.
Even though God blessed Jacob during his
time in Haran, He couldn't at this point entrust him with the
responsibilities of being a patriarch—the man who would
bear the promise the Lord had given to Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation and I
will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a
blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses
you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed
through you” (Genesis 12:
2,3).
God needed a specific, unforgettable event
to change the very character of Jacob. Remember, He had chosen
Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, "...so
that he will direct his children and his household after him to
keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so
that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what He has promised
him” (Genesis 18:19).
God didn't need Jacob role-modeling cunning and shrewdness to
future generations. Remember, Abraham was considered righteous
because of his absolute trust in God (see Romans 4:3).
¶The Patriarch's trust in God was the
foundation for the covenant our Lord established with him: "...you must keep My covenant, you and your
descendants after you for the generations to come" (Genesis 17:9).
So the night prior to Jacob encountering
Esau after so many years, we find the seemingly strange account
of him wrestling with someone (Genesis 32:22-30). Now, you need
to realize that a name in the Hebrew language and culture is
much more important than it is to many today. A name carried
meaning about the individual. (As an aside, when I was 49 my
Mom told me why she named me "Michael". "I knew
someday you would be a "messenger of God.'")
After fighting all night with this
mysterious holy stranger, Jacob ceased to be the
"Jacob" who had "grasped the heel" of his
brother and supplanted him: “Your name will no longer be
Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with
men and have overcome” (Genesis 32:28). Jacob marveled at
this life-altering incident: "So Jacob called the place
Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face,
and yet my life was spared” (Genesis 32:30). The man
experienced a direct encounter with God. And through this event
God was changing Jacob's life from being 'horizontally'
oriented, that is, leaning on his own mental reasoning, to
living 'vertically', that is, being God-dependent. [See our O c
t o b e r-November 2003 Newsletter: Love the Lord Your God with
All...].
Many have speculated about the person with
whom Jacob wrestled. Was it an angel? Jesus? Our perspective
focuses instead on God's purpose. He needed a representative
who would deal squarely with Him as Abraham and Isaac had. God
didn't want someone who trusted in himself and take pride in
his own success (Philippians 3:8). He needed a man who would
wholeheartedly serve His purposes in obedient trust.
This had to be a man who had no confidence
in himself. A man whose righteousness was completely dependent
on his trusting obedience in God. Isn't this what Paul is
affirming for each of us as followers of Jesus? "For it is we who are the circumcision, we
who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus,
and who put no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).
Our Own Pilgrimage Into Covenant Trust
"Mike,
you're a survivor". A close
friend who had a gift of prophecy spoke these words to me back
in the 1980s. God had sent him to warn me that I lacked
intimate dependence on Him. In Nicolaitan terms of worldly
standards you would have considered me successful. A thriving
retreat ministry—a trusted counselor to clergy—a
Christian worker reported around the nation in an article by
the Associated Press.
But that which man considers success even
in ministry has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN COMMON WITH WHAT GOD
ESTEEMS—"The LORD does
not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward
appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
Yes, my friend's words were true. I was a
"maneuverer". I relied a lot on my own mind to make things
work for what I thought was the good of God. My pride was
blinding me, because I had minimal God-dependence if any.
The pre-wrestling Jacob and the Mike of those days had a
kindred spirit. After Sue and I left the retreat center to go
to Israel, another prophetic friend said of our time at the
center, "Even a place can become an idol."
I thank God for His wonderful words of
grace, "Mike, you're a survivor". They opened
my eyes, and I didn't like what I saw in me. I was not only a
survivor, but all the clergy I was counseling were survivors
too. While we were in Israel, Sue and I attended a prayer
conference. I met about 40 other men who had been torn out of
their ministries like we'd been, and God had steered them to
Jerusalem. During a group discussion we realized we were all
"survivors" who maneuvered by relying more on our
reason than on ABSOLUTE TRUST.
Perhaps I'm indicting you:
"You're a survivor if you can't
immediately come up with one or more things
that you are
absolutely trusting God for.
Things that your heart and soul are
hanging on Him to answer on your behalf.
Things that you value more than your next
breath.”
Many of you have admitted you can't trust
Him this way. We know this from experience over the years we've
shared the Hebraic foundations. You may not be a shrewd and
cunning maneuverer, but you rely more on reason than you do on
trust.
• You may maneuver yourself into
feeling good about your Christianity by not evaluating yourself
in light of God's word (Hebrews 4:12); rather you look at
people around you and conclude in your heart, "I'm not as
bad (as arrogant, as worldly, as... ) as they are."
• You maneuver by hanging on to a
particular denomination or congregation out of habit pattern or
dullness. You're too fearful or too lazy to ask God how HE
would have you fellowship in a way that brings Him glory.
• You maneuver when you choose to
fellowship based on parameters that suit you—lively
worship, great youth group, entertaining preaching, enjoyable
social gatherings—even opportunities of service, like a
week of short-term mission that makes you feel good about what
you've done.
Every key decision in your life that you
make or have made that suits you but doesn't flow from God's
will for you makes you just as ugly a maneuverer as I was. For
anyone who doesn't have at least the trust Abraham chose to
live by is falling short in trust to be in Covenant with our
Father. Just look at Abraham's life and the life-changing
circumstances he trusted God for....even to the point of
willingness to sacrifice his own son in obedience to God's
command!
If you're a maneuverer, trusting in your
own mental reasoning to decide how you should live, you need to
let God's words rebuke you:
“‘For My thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' declares
the LORD.
'As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways and
My thoughts than your thoughts’’’
Man present and past has constructed his
Nicolaitan practice of man-centered religion through the
constructs of his mind and ego. Any person who believes that
his "religious comfort" is pleasing to God needs to
heed Jesus's warning on earth to forestall His rejection at the
Judgment Throne: "Thus you
nullify the word of God by your [man-made] tradition that you
have handed down. And you do many things like that” (Mark 7:13).
My own pursuit of God led Sue and me to
pursue His outstretched arm together. I hated the thought that
I was only a survivor—a man who trusted in his mental
maneuvering. Our despising ourselves is what led us to the
trust-based faith of the Hebrew, Abraham. He was and is the
role model of anyone who would claim to be a follower of Jesus
(Romans 4:16).
If you are Abraham's child, you can never
be complacent in your relationship with God. If you're married,
you can't rest until your marriage shines collectively with the
character of Jesus between you. Ask your children and those
close to you in the faith what they're observing in your
pursuit of Christ's likeness through the work the Spirit would
do in you. You may find that they only see two survivors, doing
that which they think they're expected to do as Christians but
not emanating from the heart of God in their motivation.
If you're not married, is your life
hanging on your ABSOLUTE TRUST in God? It needs to be more than
a mental attachment that acknowledges His existence but keeps
Him at arm's length except in crisis situations. Your very
being must be dependent on His direction! Jesus is still
speaking to you today: "Man
does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from
the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:
4). And, God is still speaking through His Spirit and the Bible
today....
What words of life are you hearing from
our Lord and from His human instruments that guide your life?
Are you hearing anything? Remember, from the Hebraic
perspective, to "hear" is to "obey". If the
answer is "No", then you're a maneuverer. If His
Spirit isn't guiding you through your spirit, then you're
relying on your soul, that is, your mind, will, and emotions.
You're a maneuverer, surviving as a "Christian" and
going through "Christian" motions.
As we did, we encourage you to repent
until you despise your independent self and your enactment of
that way as much as a man who is caught in adultery must do if
he wants to save his marriage. Because that is what you are: a
spiritual adulterer! You're allowing something to come between
the intimacy of spirit our Lord wants with you.
"The deeds of faithless men I hate;
they will not cling to me.... I gain understanding from Your
precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path" (Psalms 101:3; Psalms 119:104 ).
Our heart's desire is that each person who
reads this teaching would walk hand-in-hand with the Spirit in
the trust-based faith of Abraham—the minimum requirement
of our Father for those who would follow His Son, Jesus.
Mike & Sue
