Lukewarm Ain't Hot Enough For Me Part 6

Grace to you and peace from our Father dear brethren. In the last segment we covered the necessity of the Word of God in igniting us with a fire for God and bringing us into the knowledge of His power. We will pick up from there. 1st Samuel 3:13 ‘For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them (NKJV)’. In the previous chapter of 1st Samuel, the Bible makes us aware that Eli (a priest in the house of the Lord at Shiloh) had two sons (Hophni and Phinehas) who were wicked in the sight of the Lord. They had perverted the ways of worship and sacrifice and acted with iniquity. It is however the inaction of their father Eli that causes the wrath of God to fall upon them. As we established in earlier segments of this message, lack of action against wickedness often has the same result as a blatant engagement in wickedness. Therefore inaction is a dangerous path to follow when it comes to matters Spiritual.

In the New Testament account in John chapter 5 of the man who had an infirmity (state of mind that incapacitated him) for 38 years at the pool of Bethesda, there are many lessons to learn here. The irony in this situation is that Bethesda means house of mercy, yet there were so many people around that pool that had no access to mercy. Interesting enough, these were times of feasting in Jerusalem but the state of Bethesda was pain and sorrow. This man with an infirmity was not incapacitated in his physique like everybody else! The problem lay in his mentality! We get this from the answer he gives Jesus in John 5:7 ‘The sick man answered “Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming another steps down before me” (NKJV)’. This man for thirty eight years had let his environment (blind, lame, paralyzed) define him; he had developed the mentality of the physically incapacitated (who needed someone to carry them into the pool). This is not different from the lukewarm believer!

Lukewarm teaches us that circumstance is in control and we can do little or nothing about it, yet God consistently from the beginning of the Bible (and throughout the scriptures) has revealed to us that we have dominion and authority. We are influential in ways that we cannot even begin to fathom but that influence is only applicable when we are in total alignment to God and His word. When we start to do something about what God does not want, we begin to align to what He wants. It is in this regard that Romans 10:14 is set. We have to become active propagators of what we carry. And the world will begin to call on Him because we obeyed by taking the truth of the Gospel to them. 

PRAYER: Lord I thank you because you have given me a mandate and the authority to propagate Your Kingdom to the entirety of the world. I revoke every definition my environment has given me. I question the status quo and refuse to conform to it. Define me Lord according to Your will over my life. Amen.