A TALE OF TWO SAUL'S

 

    I know this is going to sound crazy, and you are asking how a new hot water heater and a story of two Saul's fits together, but if you know my writing at all, by the time you get to the end, it will all fit together, perfectly. GOD always uses everyday kind of events to teach us more and more about Himself, and about the kinds of people He chooses to use. I learned a very valuable lesson through the heartache that GOD caused in my life through the disrespect of two men.  I wrote much about these two men in a previous blog.  The Two Men Who Rejected Me  and you can go back and find that. GOD taught me all about his love through those two men that I love beyond my own ability to stop. The human side of me wants GOD to get back at them in a Biblical way, but the Jesus that dwells in me, also wants GOD to get them, but in the Jesus way. In the Old Testament days, when GOD says that He's going to put a hook in someone's nose, He wasn't kidding, He literally puts a hook in their nose. You can find the stories in 2 Chronicles 33, and Isaiah 37. GOD chooses his own unique ways to get our attention, and all of them hurt! It's kind of like when we were children and we stepped WAY over the line of our family rules, we felt the consequence, either by suffering through a month long grounding, like when I got suspended in high school for getting caught smoking in at school, OR, when I was a small child, and caught the back end of that dreaded and hated wooden spoon.  

2 Corinthians 7:10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance [a]without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. 

     GOD will put a hook in our noses, either by punishment, or by correction, depending on whether or not we have His favor. One of those men, I believe GOD will use as an example of His punishment for his unfaithfulness to Him, and the other as his chastisement and correction to bring him closer to Him. Today, instead of talking about those two men, I'm going to tell you a different story about two men named Saul. If you are familiar at all with the Bible, you know that there was a King Saul circa 1,000 BC, and a Saul, the Pharisees in the book of Acts about 1,000 or so years later. They were two VERY passionate zealous men about their beloved Israel. One was passionate about the people, the other about their GOD. One was humble and afraid, and yet became obstinate and obnoxiously disobedient. The other was obnoxiously disobedient who became humble and afraid. Both, however, were chosen for two very different roles for two very different lessons about the will of man versus the Sovereign will of GOD. One was an example of not having GOD’s favor and the other of having GOD’s favor.

     

   The first Saul was a very tall handsome man, chosen first, and he wanted nothing to do with being a king, until he realized the perks of kingship, and I don’t have to tell you what perks a man likes best, it’s fairly obvious, but I won’t go there. This man saw much success in all areas, as a leader.. All was going well, until all that success started going to his head.  Eventually, obeying GOD wasn’t part of his agenda, but doing things his own way became the agenda in his own eyes. The perks of kingship started slowly slipping away from King Saul, and he became a mad king, not just the angry kind. GOD let his heart grow stone cold, because GOD’s hand of favor never really rested on this man. King Saul had a rival, and that rival would end up outshining and performing King Saul, because he was a man after GOD's own heart.  King Saul is the perfect example of the man GOD chose to use as an object lesson of what happens to the natural man that GOD did not choose to do a mighty work for Him. King Saul died in the worst of circumstances, he was decapitated, and his body hung as a trophy in the palace of the king of the Philistines as a tribute to their pagan god that they believed delivered King Saul into their hands. Little did they know, it was the GOD of gods who allowed it to happen.

     About a thousand years later, GOD chose another Saul, one who was just as arrogant as the first, so full of himself from the start that he felt murdering innocent people all in the name of GOD was his true calling. I’m talking about the Pharisee of Pharisee's in the book of Acts, Saul of Tarsus, who later became known by his Greek name, Paul, the greatest of Apostles and writer of most of the New Testament. This man had GOD’s favor, even while he was out persecuting GOD’s people, the new followers of the Way, and approving of their murder. How can GOD favor such a man? It’s because GOD does not see the murderer, but the finished product, the one whose heart would be so broken, so humbled, so pliable and moldable in His Precious hands, that nothing but good would eventually come from this man, and a great and mighty work would be done by GOD through this new heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36). The rival of the church, the enemy of GOD's people became their biggest and most valuable proponent.  Only GOD can do that. 

     I have known and love two such men in my life. I asked GOD, last night, while so confused about these two men, having watched both grow stone-cold hearts, “If you are so powerful, how is it that you can’t break the stubborn stony hearts of these two men, and turn them both into Biblical heroes?” The answer came back, “Because one has My favor, and one does not.”  When one is chosen by GOD with whom GOD’s favor rests, He will move heaven and earth to break that man’s stubborn willful heart, to shine a light on it’s ugliness to that man. His reflection in the mirror will become less and less attractive to him. Once that heart is shattered into a million pieces, GOD will carefully, like an expert Craftsman, take that busted up heart mold it and shape it, and create the most beautiful, gorgeous masterpiece out of it, then use it for the good of His Kingdom and people.

     GOD did favor King Saul, temporarily, He poured His Spirit into him to enable him to accomplish a work. In just the same manner, one man succeeded in his workplace, but failed in the Kingdom work.  Success caused King Saul to not finish well, he went his own way. GOD also chose and favored Saul the Pharisee. Both men were decapitated, one in shame, the other in such glorious victory, that two thousand years later, the world is still astounded daily with new insight from the writings of this newly molded heart. So, that was my answer. One of the men has GOD’s favor, and He will shatter that man’s heart in glorious victory, and tragically, the other, GOD has let the other's heart grow so hard, that’s it’s calcified now, and nothing good will ever come of it, but a legacy of abandon.

      So, you ask, what does all this have to do with a hot water heater? Well, it’s dollars and sense, and I mean that as written. One man is paying through the nose for his hard heart. Everything in his house is breaking, and each repair is costing way more than he expects or wants, because money is his god, and the GOD of gods is ripping that money right out of his hands. The other? I don’t know what is going on in his life and heart, but if I was a betting woman, I'd put my money on money. GOD knows that the provider in a man is most concerned with providing for his family. Eventually, he'll break and call out to YHVH GOD. "What do You want from me?" When that glorious day happens, and it will, it is my hope that he will have that same glorious experience I had on March 20, 2012. GOD will get a hold of that man’s stony cold heart, and will replace it with a wonderful warm heart of flesh that chases after His heart. There are only two kinds of Saul's in every man, one is an arrogant king, hell-bent on having his life play out his way, and the other is a humble man of GOD, having his life play out His way.

 TRADITIONA SOUTHERN REVIVAL STRIKES A CHORD, BUT THE NOTE IS FLAT

The "sermon" tonight at the "revival" was about business as usual, but the Scripture reference was 2Kings 6 1-8. How he got the loss of the joy of the LORD because of dead or ceasing prayers from this Scripture is a stretch. BUT, what he said was Baptists are at the business as usual, the joy for working for GOD is gone. Their prayer life is powerless. No truer words have I heard. So, I talked to GOD about this. Here is what I think He "said."

They give Me a laundry list of things they want or expect Me to do. They don't want to really hear from Me, because they already have it settled in their minds what I should do, based on their traditions and preconceived notions of who I AM. They don't want to hear what I really have to say, because it won't fit in their settled ways. They don't want to know My truth, because they have created their own truths. Don't bother trying to talk to them, they'll have none of what you have to say. The end of the time of the Gentiles is approaching and they can't even see it. They won't listen anymore than Judah would listen to Jeremiah or the Religious right would listen to My Son. The time of Gentiles spreading the Gospel served its purpose, now it's up to the reunited house of Jacob and Ephraim to finish the work. (

Of course this is not a proclamation from God, lest I call myself a prophet, which you will never hear me say. It is however what I heard in my mind and spirit based on the truths of the Hebrew Scriptures and the words of Yeshua (Jesus) in the Gospels. It won't go over well with "Baptists." The Hebrew Scriptures have prophesied that for thousands of years that YHVH GOD will reunite the two houses of Israel to bring an end to the times of the Gentiles, but the gentile Christian church wants nothing to do with that truth. They are convinced that they are the vehicle to bringing God's truth to the earth, and yet, they could not be more wrong about it. They don't want anything "new," because they've "never done it that way before." Christians are CLUELESS when it comes to the Hebrew Scriptures. So, on my walk, I asked YHVH, what's the purpose of this story? This is the Scripture verses that He spoke about:

2 Kings 6:1-8:6
Complete Jewish Bible

6 The guild prophets said to Elisha, “As you can see, the place where we are living in order to be with you is too small for us. 2 Please allow us to go to the Yarden; each of us will collect a log there, and we’ll build a place there for us to live.” He answered, “Go ahead.” 3 But one of them said, “Please, won’t you come with your servants?” He answered, “All right, I will”; 4 so he went with them. When they arrived at the Yarden, they cut down trees; 5 but as one was felling a tree trunk, the head of his axe fell in the water. “Oh, no!” he cried. “My master, it was a borrowed one!” 6 The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” He showed him the place. Then Elisha cut a stick, threw it in there, and the iron axe-head floated to the surface. 7 “Lift it out,” he said. So he put out his hand and took it.

So, I asked GOD, what is the stick for? This was the answer I got.

The "sons" of the prophets, like the third generation after Joshua, wanted to build their "high places," like the gentile NT Christians build their church buildings. They build them bigger and bigger, because they outgrow their smaller dwelling place. (That's not a sign of GOD's work, that's man's work in his own strength.)

The borrowed ax are the buildings with mortgages. They borrow money to build their man-made dwelling places, when GOD does not live in a building. Yeshua called them OUT, and said GO, not shut your selves in and gather. Basically, the NT gentile Christian church has to be "buried" or washed in Mikvehs in order for the true TORAH to rise out of their, "unholy water."

The stick Elisha tore off is the "man-made" steeples, or rather the cross, which is a man-made symbol, NOT instructed in the Torah. The axe head rising to the surface is the Menorah, a GOD-ordained/instructed METAL instrument of the Tabernacle, which represents what? THE TORAH! Now, that makes perfect sense.