August 16, 2005 – DID YOU TAKE A WRONG TURN? TURN RIGHT TO GOD!

In my last message to you, I said God gave me five lessons for the next few weeks, but during the night He awakened me and laid the above title on my heart.  I want to share with you the thoughts He gave me.  Dear ones, God is really working out His last-day scenario. God knows the heart and Spirit of every man.  The problem is that man does not know his own heart  Proverbs 21:2  all a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.

The Spirit of God said to me, “the stage is set, I have prepared the players; the script is mine and I will direct.” I believe that God will produce great and mighty works among men.  Everyone from the greatest to the least will know that God alone is ruler and judge of all mankind.  Satan is the ruler of the powers of the air and, through man, rules much of the earth. Satan will soon find out that God is directing everything according to His ordained word and divine will.  God is preparing His coming and the gates of hell will not prevail against Him.  Psalms 86:8  among the Gods there is none like you, o Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.  9  all the nations you have made will come and worship before you, o Lord; they will bring glory to your name.  10  for you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.

God gave all of us the right to choose.  But if we choose to live according to the standards of the world today, we will completely miss God’s will for our lives. Only God knows the right choice because He alone knows the future He has planned for us.  We will be held accountable for not seeking God first in all things. Isaiah 55:7  let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.  8  “for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  9  “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

God implemented a sovereign law that states:  Galatians 6:7  do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. This law shows us what our “sinful” choices produce.  We sow gigantic weeds (i.e. sins) in our garden of life; then we question how they got there and what we can do to remove them and guard against future intrusion. These weeds continue to flourish unless we destroy them from the root.  Reaping what we sow is a huge warning sign from God.

The world and its ways can be a “God” to us, and God declares that we are not to have any Gods before Him.  Worldliness will only bring the ways and thoughts of satan. Our mistakes and actions so keenly affect our lives that it is like a knife that cuts in all directions. Wrong choices will not be blessed of God.  Wrong choices will keep reproducing sin until our situation becomes untenable. Eventually we are forced to listen to the voice of God and become willing to make changes.

In the Bible there was a prophet named “Jonah.” There was no doubt in Jonah’s mind what God wanted him to do.  But Jonah didn’t want to preach to the Ninevites, as God asked, because Jonah hated them. Instead, Jonah chose to ignore God and do his own thing.  Of course, we all know the story of how he ended in the belly of a great fish.  God read Jonah’s heart; God knew that Jonah was going to be disobedient.  The scripture says that God had already prepared the fish and had scripted all of his circumstances. Jonah was in a stinking mess and there was no way out!  He turned to God in the belly of the whale to get him out of trouble.  This experience taught Jonah that it doesn’t pay to disobey God.  God programmed the fish to vomit Jonah on dry land, which gave Jonah a second chance. After seeing all of God’s miracles and how quickly God responds to prayer, Jonah’s heart was filled with obedience and contrition. God will always give us the opportunity to correct our mistakes and to please and obey Him.  If we don’t get a second chance it is because we didn’t learn our lesson the first time and didn’t ask God for help.  The Lord does not give up! If we don’t move from the heat of the fire He will throw on more wood. 2Peter 3:9  the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance

None of us are perfect and we have all made wrong choices.  The message from God is to change our ways and turn the right way—turn to God. He alone can literally save us from our sins! When we repent and will to change, we stop the destructive behavior within us. A broken and contrite heart before God always brings results.  Psalms 51:17  the sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit; a broken and contrite heart, o God, you will not despise.   Psalms 34:18  the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in Spirit.  Isaiah 57:15  for this is what the high and lofty one says – he who lives forever, whose name is Holy: “I live in a high and Holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in Spirit, to revive the Spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.  Isaiah 66:2  has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the Lord. “this is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in Spirit, and trembles at my word. 

Sometimes we feel we are completely innocent of wrong attitudes and actions because we are Christians and pray, but we do not truly know our own hearts Ezekiel 18:23 do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? Only God can make our way perfect! Only God, through the Holy Spirit, can reveal our true heart.  When He does, we are often incredulous.  It feels so good when God baths us in His forgiveness and cleanses us from sin.  We receive perfection in our lives through the word of truth.  John 8:32   then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  We find spiritual freedom from the sins that beset us when reading, hearing, and knowing the truth of God.

When we choose to make worldly friends and live like the world we become enemies of God.  Especially this is true of a Christian. Romans 8:7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. When we choose our closest friends from the worldly way of life, we allow great temptation to enter. Amos 3:3  can two walk together except they be agreed?  When a Christian places himself on satan’s territory he becomes his prey and is vulnerable to satan’s full arsenal of destructive weapons.

Reaping our choices becomes a blessing if we learn from our mistakes, turn from sin, and let Christ be Lord of our life. Hear what the word of God says about who has control of us. John 8:41   you are doing the things your own father does.” “we are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “the only father we have is God himself.”  42  Jesus said to them, “if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.  43   why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.  44   you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  45   yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!  46   can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?  47   he who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” 

I have lived over eighty years in this world and I have seen how sin can destroy the body, soul, and spirit of man.  The fact that it separates us from God is the worst sentence that we could receive.  It is a death sentence! The good news, however, is that we can “turn right” and become a child of God for now and eternity.  A child of God receives rewards in this life and throughout all eternity.  Do not let the pleasures of sin and the bondages it brings deceive you.  Satan does not want you to go to the beautiful place God has prepared for His children and live in joy and peace for the rest of your life.  Satan has already been condemned to the lake of fire and he wants to rob God of all His children.  Satan can’t go to heaven and he doesn’t want any of us to go either.  My God is all powerful and He wants to set you free!  Do not say “no” to God.  Perhaps you say there is no God!  I say to you, “then how come He walks and talks with me; He has done many miracles for me; He has shared with me the riches of His kingdom; He knows my name and what I have need of even before I ask.”  I have experienced His presence for many years.  2Timothy 1:12 yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day

~The righteous and the wicked contrasted.  Psalms 1:1  blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  2  but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.  3  he is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.  4  not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.  5  therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.  6  for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Let me challenge you!  Apply this scripture to your life and you will know the truth and it will set you free.  John 7:17   if anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.   

Anita