Crossing Over

The Lord loves to take us on to new places in dramatic ways. There are so many occasions when God's promises can only be attained when we press through one last test of faith. For many great people in the Bible this test of faith is represented by a body of water. They crossed over and enter the promise. Here are 3 of these:

Moses crossed the red sea with a miracle – into the wilderness – Old Covenant. (Exodus 15)

Joshua crossed the Jordan with a miracle – into the Promised Land – New Covenant. (Joshua 3-4)

Elijah and Elisha crossed over the Jordan with a miracle – into a double portion (2 Kings 2)

1. The place of crossing represents the final great barrier to God's promise. Like Joshua who sent the Ark of the Covenant over the Jordan first, we have to follow the presence of God - don't ever take your eyes off the Lord.

2. No matter what we have been through, we still need  to see our journey through to the end and cross over God's final test. There are times when we are stepping into things we don't understand - but our eyes remain on the Lord.

3. It is possible that the final "crossing over" will involve some of the hardest things we encounter on the journey towards the promise. Our faith will move us forward

4. Somehow the waters become a place of cleansing. Testings will often do that to us - they bring us through great things to receive God's great approval; they clothe us in new layers of holiness if we find God in the test.

5. The "crossing over" brings with it a new anointing and greater fruitfulness

6. The "crossing over" indicates that we have a past that we must leave behind and a future to claim.

7. The "crossing over" affects every area of our lives - spirit, soul and body; mind, will and emotions. In the end all of these must submit to the will of God, the cross of Christ and the leading of the Holy Spirit

Deut. 9:1

Hear, O Israel:
You are to cross over the Jordan today,

and go in to dispossess nations
greater and mightier than yourself,

cities great and fortified up to heaven.

Josh. 4:5 and Joshua said to them: “Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel,

           

Josh. 4:7 “Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”

Each tribe contributed to the story of God’s glory in this place

In Scripture, times of the radical in-breaking of God in the lives of His people were memorialized with altars. To the uninitiated, the pile of stones had no meaning.  But the markers were there so that when the children asked, “what do these stones mean,” a suitable history lesson would follow.

Brokenness - Part 1

Ps. 51:16-17 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.

The Lord is looking for brokenness in His people. We might think of this as a negative thing, but it is not. While I don’t believe for one moment that the Lord is the author of suffering in our lives, I do believe that He uses every situation we go through to bring brokenness and more of the likeness of Christ to us.

We can think of brokenness in the same way a horse is broken. It just means that the power and personality of the horse is harnessed and yielded to the master. When the Lord brings us to brokenness, He is subduing the “self” parts of us and drawing us to a place of being yielded and soft before Him.

David wrote Psalm 51 after his sins of adultery and murder. God used David’s genuine repentance to break his heart and give him the final credentials for leadership and service. I have already written about the specifics of David’s repentant heart HERE, but it is important to note that his repentance lead to the brokenness we find in Psalm 51 and ultimately the worship that filled David from the core.

The Hebrew word for “broken” in David’s psalm is shabar, and it means to break in

pieces, rend violently, wreck, crush, maimed, crippled, crushed, shattered, broken…but also, it means to bring to the birth. In other words, when we are broken as David was broken, it is not the end of us, but the beginning – something of God is birthed in us.

We tend to think of brokenness as the end – something is destroyed and rendered unusable, but in God’s economy, true brokenness is the beginning of Godliness.

The world wants greatness. God wants brokenness. In God, brokenness is the first step to greatness.

The 4 Things That Lead To Brokenness

We are often broken over the things we love the most. I have found 4 things that the Lord uses over and over again to weave brokenness into the hearts of His servants:

1. The Presence of God - (Moses)

Moses journeyed from being a prince in Egypt to becoming the meekest of men. Moses had many encounters with the manifest presence, and it was in the presence of God that Moses’ heart was broken.  His presence breaks our heart when we are confronted with His awesome greatness. The sight of God involves the sight of self. When we see Him, we see ourselves, and a moment of honesty is forced upon us. Our encounter with God’s presence is not simply to give us an “experience” of God, but to build into us the character of God.

Job also had something to say about this:

Job 23:15-16 Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him. For God makes my heart soft, and the Almighty troubles me

Once again, the presence of God changed Job's heart. He was already a good man - now God increased him through brokenness.

Part 2: HERE
Part 3: HERE
Part 4: HERE