Ah! This is interesting. Does God in fact have favorites that He listens to more than others...well, that has been fascinating me. Reading an amazing children's explanation of the Bible, Mrs. Untermeirers l930s thing I keep speaking of, I honed in on Elijah for the first time and examined what he did.
Amazingly, the Bible records that people would tell him of horrible things going on in the palace, perversions, bringing back actual devil worship ceremonies and idols to please the courtiers in Isreal who still yearned for the dark side of life, that type of report. The Bible does NOT record that Elijah disappeared to seek God's face and then came back with a message. Actually, amazingly, we are told that Elijah would respond while still there, apparently without a whole lot of thinking on the matter, "Go tell the king he will be dead in (X amount of time).
I have seen this pattern repeated other places also. Now...
here's the very important point to examine and try to make sense of...are we told that we PRAY only for those exact things that GOD wants to do, and when we do, He kind of gets off the dime so to speak and finally does it, or is the lesson from the scriptures that the PRAYING PERSON holds the keys.
I am trying to see the exact truth there, and until then I try to pray in the acceptable "Christian" 20th century method, which is unfortunatley that Jesus, the stoned hippy, just loves everyone, man, and there is not a single soul on earth He has anything against, period. This is of course insane theology, yet I have been in the middle of it for 25 years, trying to make sense of it all. If so, what happened to the God of Elijah, the FATHER OF JESUS CHRIST, whom Jesus clearly said, YOU SEE ME? O.K. THEN YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN THE FATHER. Of course He did not declare with astonishment, "What do you mean, what is the Father like, I AM the Father. It's just me." That also is an interpretation which stresses me greatly and leads to a pagan diety created by man alone.
Do you follow me here? I hate to wax philosophic and look like a theologian wannabee, but I read actual "theologians", and frankly, I personally get the feeling one of us is a tare, or from the X-Files, and it isn't me. That is usually not born-agains, of course, but many of those writing now do not seem to have the power of connecting to God that leaps off the pages of those from the past who actually were quite burned in the Fire.
well, I'm going to throw this out and see what you say. Perhaps it's time for some delving here?
When I was very little I lived in comic books, of course, and there was one of those little stories on the back page about the leprechan that got caught and the kid made the Leprechan tell him where his pot of gold was hidden. The Leprechan said, first you have to let me go, because it is hidden in the forest and I will go and I PROMISE YOU FAITHFULLY I will wrap a yellow ribbon AROUND THE TREE THAT HAS THE GOLD. The kid said, on your Leprechan Oath? He said yes. The kid knew the Leprechan oath had to be kept.
So, the next day he went to the forest to find his tree and every single tree in the forest was wrapped with a yellow ribbon. The Leprechan had kept his oath.
And so satan does the same in the "body" of Christ for 2000 years. Any complaints and satan screams, "judge not!!!!!!!" Then, up until a few years ago, had his minnions in clerical robes go kill you.
I never get over the wonder of it. |
