An Encounter with God

Cain and Abel one perspective

Genesis 4 1 Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.

When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. 3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought a gift—the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

There are many perspectives on the story of Cain and Abel. Many sermons have been preached on Cain's offering vs. Abel's offering. So, when I read this passage about a week ago I was surprised that a different perspective jumped off the pages of my Bible at me.

First off notice, in verse 3, Cain is the first to bring a offering to the Lord, then Abel. I also want to point out that at this point in scripture (reading front to back or chronologically) we are not told to the reason the Lord rejects Cain's offering. Except for this one point, we are told that Cain brings SOME of his crop, but Abel brings the BEST of this flock. This is were most teaching on this stops and jumps strait to Cain's murder of Abel. If we stop at this point though we have missed the rest of what the Lord wants to show us, the Lord also reveal to us a warning that is so pointed and relevant to today.

From the end of verse 5 - 7 we see what the Lord wants to deal with Cain's reaction to His rejection of the offering. Look at what the Lord tells him, "if you do what is right you will be accepted." Oh man, you mean it is possible that the sin was not just in what Cain brought as the offering but more so in his reaction to the Lord's rejection of that offering. I know this flies in the face of much church doctrine on this topic but bear with me for a moment. Cain's sin was not just the offering he brought but that he got mad at the Lord for rejecting it. After all he was a farmer and he brought a offering from what the Lord gave him to do. (Hang in there I am not focusing on why the Lord rejected Cain's offering in this post, in order to prove a different point.)

Has that happened to you brothers and sisters? Did an offering you brought before the Lord get rejected? You know He is a sovereign Lord and He has the right to reject anything He wants, and just because we think a offering should be accepted doesn't mean it has to be. I recently went through a period in my life where I knew that I knew I was doing the Lord's work. Work that He ask me to do and the way He asked me to do it. But as time passed the Lord rejected that work. The reason he rejected it is not the issue at this point and a topic for another time. He has the right to reject or accept anything He chooses He is the Lord, King of Kings. If He should decide he does not want to accept something who are we to tell Him that He has to?

Cain bigger problem was that he got offended by the rejection of his offering, sound familiar? Truth is rejection hurts and we don't like it, especially if think it was the best gift we had to offer. He still had a chance to be accepted by the lord if he would react correctly. How then are we to react when the Lord rejects our offerings to Him? How are we to react when the church or ministry rejects our offering, or help work prayer or even revelation knowledge? What would have been the correct response for Cain? What was the right thing for him to do and then be accepted by the Lord?

Might I propose that the right thing to do is also the hardest for us most of the time. Worship the Lord even if He rejects your offering. Later in Deuteronomy we read that the Lord does not really even want our burnt offerings any more but our hearts. So even the Abel type offering gets rejected by the Lord at some point. The offering the Lord really wants is you. All that you are.

Observing wounded Christians I see, this is what has happened to them. They got rejected by someone or for some reason by the Church body and now they are not doing the right thing. Dear friends if this is you, like God told Cain "sin will come your way and you must subdue it." I know this is a hard message and if you are currently in the position Cain found himself this message is not one you want to accept, but I urge you to come back to the Lord worship Him because He is Lord. Not because He accepted or rejected your gift but because He is the King who reigns on High.

- Lord I pray that if these words reach one, who like Cain, is angry with you because you exercised your sovereignty. Then send your Holy Spirit ahead of the words and prepare their heart to accept your love and fall at your feet and worship you. You rejected the offering not Cain himself. And though you sometimes reject our offering to you, you love us and are calling us back to you. Heal the wounds cause by rejection, strengthen us in your love, that we may come back to you and do what is right.

Amen.

Breakers

Psalm 42:7
Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.

As I meditated on this verse, having heard it many times before, I asked the Lord, "what does this mean?" "Whats the difference between a wave and a breaker?"


Suddenly the Lord answered me in a picture story. First he showed me that the difference in a breaker versus just a wave, was that the breakers are the waves that peak and curl over, and sometimes a "tube" is visible as it is rolling over and rushing toward the shore.

Having lived in Hawaii for six and a half years, I have very fond memories of afternoons spent watching the awesome surf on the north shore of Oahu. On days when the surf is 15 ft plus, as the waves break over the reefs, you can feel the vibrations rumble you to the core as you watch from the safety of higher ground. It is of course a surfers paradise. The whole coast littered with amazing surfing spots, known to all the big time surfers around the world. In the winter months especially, it is awesome surfing conditions for the big wave surfers. Well known big wave riders from all around the world wait for a call, sometimes less than 24hrs notice, about a location having optimum conditions for catching a monster wave. Big wave surfers are indeed surfers, but not all surfers are big wave riders. Big wave riders are a class all their own. Brave? Yes. Daring? Yes. Crazy? Probably. High risk, high reward. Big wave riders have left mere recreational surfing in search of something more. The deep, we might say. They probably still enjoy playing around on the 7 footers, don't get me wrong, but they longed for more, the deep cried out to the deep within them, and called them to a place of higher risk, higher reward.

Being called to the "deep" for these surfers required training beyond what a recreational surfer might endure. It is absolutely necessary for their safety if they are going to attempt to ride a 30 foot wave. The waves they are after are absolutely "breakers" in every sense of the word. Imagine a thirty foot (or taller) wall of water staring you down, making you feel like an ant. When these waves tip over the amount of force coming down is enough to plunge you down deep into the water, and roll you over and over, onto reefs and rocks that chew you up and spit you out. You have to condition yourself to be able to endure these harsh conditions if you are going to be out in water like this.

In Hawaii, they train by diving down to the bottom of the ocean in ten feet or so water, and run across the seafloor as long as they can carrying a huge rock. In addition they build endurance by swimming in the ocean waves, for lengths of time, and swimming underwater as far as you can, to simulate wipe out conditions. They have to train their bodies, and endure the pressing and crushing that comes with this territory. The learned ones know how to paddle out into the water and evaluate the surf. To take note where the good spots are, where to paddle in to a wave set, and where to back off and get out before they get crushed. They look out for each other, and sometimes risk their own life to help out a buddy.

Beginning sometime after we left Hawaii, I was having these recurring dreams about me surfing these big waves, and how crazy it seemed that I didn't wipe out, and how exciting it was to look down the face of the wave I was riding. I didn't really know why I was having these dreams, because I never once surfed while I lived there, only elementary boogie boarding, and never in waves that were more than 4-6 feet! I really thought I was having these dreams because I missed Hawaii. But now I think the Lord was calling to the deep in me, to be drawn to the deep of Him. He was going to teach me to be a "big wave surfer" so to speak, and equip me to endure the place of high risk, (or high cost), high reward. He led me to a "brotherhood" of ones that were more learned than I to train with, who would watch out for my soul as well. Just like real life big wave surfers do.

Do you hear the Lord calling and drawing you to the deep of Him? You should respond. But know that it will mean endurance training, a crushing and a pressing like you haven't experienced before, and submitting to authorities who are more learned who have been charged by the Lord to look after your soul. It is high cost to leave "recreational" Christianity, but what you will receive is high reward, from the Lord himself.



Blessings be unto you from Christ the Lord,

Emily

God's Promises

Dear Readers,

I wonder just how many of us have found ourselves in a place of needing to hear from the Lord so desperately, that you cry out and cry out for Him to send you a word that will get you through another week, day or hour. I know that in this past year I have been in that place more than I ever thought I would be. And as I would cry out, the Lord would answer me, as I sought him from a place of humility and brokenness. He would answer. Sometimes His answer was in the form of his written word, Logos, and sometimes he would send a prophetic word through a pastor or friend, a Rhema. I held on tightly to those words of the Lord, his very promises to me. Many times they would penetrate my heart and move me to tears as I cried from the depth of my soul, "thank you for hearing my cries Lord." I was careful to write these words down in my journal to have them available to read over when the enemy tries to convince me that those things will never happen, or I was never changed, or so on. But even through all of this it is still possible for us to forget, and consequently hand over these promises to the enemy.

I was deeply troubled by this, having seen it play out recently in peoples lives and even my own. I took this to the Lord this morning in worship and what he showed me was amazing. The Lord is faithful and he is so in Love with us, his Bride, and it is his good pleasure to give us his promises. What he showed me was that his promises are indeed like a promise ring, that a young lover gives to his beloved in his love and adoration of her. That ring is a symbol of a promise that he intends to keep. The Lord gives these personal promises to us to prove himself, to glorify himself working in us and through us. Gods holy word says this about his words and promises:

Psalm 12:6 the words of the LORD are flawless,
like silver refined in a furnace of clay,
purified seven times.

Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?

We have to stop listening to the enemy! The enemy is the father of lies, and a thief and a robber, and just like worldly thieves and robbers he is after that which is yours and has value! Your "promise rings"! Why on earth would we ever just willingly hand over for the enemy's spoils that which should be so precious to us? But we do that when we do not trust in the word of the Lord and his promises to us. The enemy knows what angles to play, to try to get you to loose hold of those precious promises, look at what happened to Abraham:

Genesis 15:2-6--

2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit [c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

The promise to Abraham here from the Lord was in verse 5; "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." And Abraham believed the Lord, verse 6.

Now back in Genesis 11, we learn that Abraham marries Sarah and that she could have no children. Many years go by and then this promise is made to Abraham, and then more time goes by and Sarah decides that this promise must not be going to come to Abraham through her, because she is barren, after all it has been about 50 or 60 years now of marriage and no children. So they decide to have Hagar, Sarah's servant fulfill the promise. Another almost 20 years go by before the Lord comes to Abraham and says I will bring you a son in the next year through Sarah. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac is born.

No matter how old Abraham was when this promise was made to him, he already knew that Sarah was barren but he was married to her. They were barren, yet God makes this outrageous promise to him and he believed it. Now the clock just starts ticking away. Years go by, no children. I believe that early on they just took God at his word and completely disregarded all the physical facts of this case. I believe that for years they believed God and disregarded the facts of Sarah's barrenness. Brazenly having the audacity to hope for the impossible through God in the midst of the physical reality. But then, the enemy caused them to doubt and showed them another way to fulfill this so called promise that God had given them. They fell for the bait and Ishmael was born of Hagar, Sarah's servant, and boy did this cause problems in the camp. Read the story for yourself.

The point I want to emphasize here in this passage of scripture is that we tend to start off well, believing God and hold on to a promise that was given, but then time goes by, and we think things are not changing, in fact they look much worse, and more time goes by, and here is where the enemy gets us. We need to be remembering what the Lord has said more often! If you are one to write these personal promises down, like me, we need to remember that when everything looks bleak and utterly impossible, that is when we go to our journal or Bible and read for ourselves again what the Lord said! Out loud to the enemy if necessary! This is not the time to be duped into believing that the promise will come another way (of our choosing) by laying our own hands to it to try to make it come about through some vain imagination!

Now even though Abraham and Sarah fell for the bait, the Lord was faithful to keep his promise to them. They had to wait another almost twenty years, but a son was born to them to be the beginning of the stars in the sky. This is our faithful loving God. The Lord made a promise to Abraham about his offspring, while he was already in a covenant relationship with Sarah, the barren one. Because of this covenant relationship, (the marriage) this promise was for Sarah too. God was not deterred by the fact that Abraham had married a barren woman to bless him outrageously! With God all things are possible! God was not pursuaded to cancel this outrageous blessing when Abraham and Sarah imagined a way to make it come about. God is faithful. Just like Numbers 23:19 says!

As I was worshipping and praying and receiving this vision of the Lords promises to us being like that of a young lover's promise ring to his beloved, the Holy Spirit kept reminding me of the passage of scripture from Hosea. Now Hosea was instructed by the Lord to marry a prostitute, and though he had children with her, some were not his. At some point she ran away to another man, and the Lord instructs Hosea to go and get her. To actually buy her back from the other man with silver, barley loaves and wine. The Lord says in Hosea 3:1, "Go and get your wife again. Bring her back to you and love her, even though she loves adultery. For the LORD still loves Israel even though the people have turned to other gods, offering them choice gifts". This is amazing to me what the Lord showed us through Hosea and his wife. We are so unfaithful to Jesus but he keeps wooing us back to him, and pledging his love to us. Giving us still another promise ring. We forget so often the promises that he has made to us, were made in love, with the intent to carry them out at the right time. He is faithful and loving when we are not. I believe that the Lord wanted us to see the Lover side of him in this way so that next time we would not so easily forget that his promises are an expression of his love and intent towards us. That we would not hand them over to the enemy for his spoils, because it grieves the Lords heart that those "choice gifts" he gave to us are given up.

I will close this letter with a few of the Lords own promises to us:

Isaiah 54:10--Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Jeremiah 31:3-- "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

Psalm 147:11--the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Blessings--

Emily