Genesis 12:7-20
Job 13:15-16
John 3:11-21
Heavenly will tops worldly ways is the way God wants us to apply
everything we do and say, but most people seem to believe and act as if
their worldly ways can somehow supersede God’s heavenly will.
In other words, most people want their worldly ways to be acceptable to God,
such as praying at mealtime over the tortured remains of a once living
animal is something that God should be pleased with, which in fact is not in
God’s heavenly will, for there is no pain or mourning or death in heaven,
and He wants us to bring His heavenly will to earth as it is in heaven.
Heavenly will tops worldly ways all the time…there are no exceptions.
Let’s keep this fact in mind as we look at Genesis 12:7-20, and see how many
worldly ways are thought to be acceptable to God.
7. And the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
God did not ask Abram to build an altar; Abram thought that was what God
wanted him to do; it was something that came from Babylon.
At least Abram did not kill an animal and offer it up on the altar, for all
death is outside the heavenly will of God.
So, here on earth we are to eliminate as much human caused death as we
possibly can.
This is one way that we can show that heavenly will tops worldly ways, for
it helps bring real peace to the world and helps free creation from its
present corruption.
8. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.
Again, we show no reference to the altar as having anything to do with sacrificing animals, even though it is still in the Babylon tradition and not in the heavenly will of God.
9. And Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.
The Negev is the desert land in the south of Israel.
10. Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.
But then Abram seems to lose his faith in the Lord, and the fact that heavenly will tops worldly ways.
11. And it came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his
wife, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman;
12. and it will come about when the Egyptians see you, that they will say,
'This is his wife'; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.
See how Abram’s speculation, whether triggered by the devil or not, makes him turn away from his trust in God; in his mind, he is making these worldly ways more important than the heavenly will of the Lord, so he compounds his sin by telling his wife to lie.
13. Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you."
Abram is digging himself further and further into the worldly ways of the devil, and away from his faith in the Lord.
14. And it came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the
woman was very beautiful.
15. And Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the
woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
Now Abram’s selfishness and worldly fears have put his wife in danger.
We need to hold onto our faith in God and always remember that heavenly will
tops worldly ways.
16. Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.
Abram didn’t deserve any of these worldly riches; he is gaining them through subterfuge.
17. But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.
The Lord was not letting Sarai suffer for the lack of faith and worldly ways of her husband.
18. Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
Even “worldly” Pharaoh had more sense of right and wrong than Abram, and understood the truth behind Abram’s lies.
19. "Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife?
Now then, here is your wife, take her and go."
20. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him
away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.
NASB
We all may have bouts of doubt and fear, but we need to always realize that
our faith in God can overcome these worldly ways.
Think about all the horrible things that happened to Job, and note what we
are told in Job 13:15-16…
15. "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.
Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.
16. "This also will be my salvation,
For a godless man may not come before His presence.
NASB
Think about Abram in the context of what Job said.
If Abram thought like Job did and acted upon it, he and Sarai would not have
lied to the Egyptians, and the outcome would very likely have been
different, for after making the promise to Abram, God was not going to let
him die.
Heavenly will tops worldly ways, always!
Now, let’s take a look at John 3:11-21, where Jesus tells us…
11. "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and you do not receive our witness.
Why didn’t they receive it?
Because they were living in the worldly ways of most of the people, and this
problem still exists today, and unfortunately in most of our churches,
particularly when it comes to animal issues and living in the heavenly will
of God.
12. "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
If we live in the heavenly will of God, we should understand both the things
of this earth and the things of heaven, and that knowledge should cause us
to reject the evil ways of most of the people here on earth, in favor of the
heavenly things.
After all, didn’t Jesus teach us to bring God’s heavenly will to earth, and
live as it is in heaven?
13. "And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man.
Jesus is speaking about Himself, whom He refers to in John as the “Son of Man”.
14. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up;
15. that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life.
Jesus is speaking about His pending death upon the cross, a Roman way of
torturing a person to death, an act that sometimes took three days.
Then Jesus tells us why this will happen.
16. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
In other words, we could say that heavenly will tops worldly ways, for the devil seeks to destroy, just as people do who exploit animals and eat them, but God brings eternal life to all who will receive it.
17. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
God wanted to save the whole world, but most of the people rejected it, and continue to do so to this very day.
18. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The major problem is that most people say they believe, but their actions say that they don’t, thus they miss out on this grace, and end up being judged.
19. "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and
men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.
20. "For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the
light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
If we are honest with ourselves, we should be able to see that this is the
problem in the world today.
People are still corrupting creation and refusing to live by God’s heavenly
will.
They are still causing or contributing to the horrible suffering and
violence that causes millions of human beings and billions of other animals
to suffer and die every year.
21. "But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may
be manifested as having been wrought in God."
NASB
These are the people who are the peacemaking children of God who live in His
heavenly will here on earth as it is in heaven.
These are the people who know that heavenly will tops worldly ways.
We should all know this.
We can live in the heavenly will of God.
We can.
Amen.
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