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Sometimes It Takes a Mountain

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Sometimes It Takes a Mountain

By Gloria Gaither and Mark Mathes

“Sometimes it takes a mountain

Sometimes a troubled sea

Sometimes it takes a desert

To get a hold of me

Your Love is so much stronger

Then whatever troubles me

Sometimes it takes a mountain

To trust you and believe.”

This song has captivated my heart.  It resonates in my spirit even in my sleep.  It has caused me to meditate on the mountains, the troubled seas and the deserts of life. 

In scripture, mountains often represent difficulties and hardships that must be overcome.  

Jesus assures us, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:22-24.)

Holding onto the promises of God, we discover that those mountains of obstruction in our lives can be removed, most often one layer at a time. 

However, the mountain image is not one-sided.  We often describe those victory moments in our lives as “mountain top” experiences.  Remember the ark rested on Mt. Ararat.  Abraham offered Isaac on Mount Moriah and received the provision of God for salvation.  Later, Solomon built the Temple on that sight.  Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.  Elijah called down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel.  Golgotha gave us the ultimate mountain top experience when Jesus cried, “It is finished” and died to pay the price for our sin.

Whether the mountain offers obstruction or deliverance, a mountain top experience opens us to the revelation of God.  God gets a hold of us on the mountain.

On the troubled seas of life, we can either be like Jonah or like the Apostle Paul.  Jonah tried to escape the Lord on the tumultuous sea.    Jonah asked to be thrown overboard in the storm and found himself in an unlikely and uncomfortable place of protection.  God got a hold of him in the belly of the great fish.

God previously had got a hold of Paul on the road to Damascus.  When the tempest arose, Paul prayed and fasted during the storm and received the assurance that though the ship would be lost, all the lives on board would be saved.  When the stormy sea arose, Paul prayed because he knew his Lord.

God's love surrounds us even in the most turbulent times.

Romans 8:38-39:

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor messengers, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,

nor things about to be, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, that in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Then we come to the desert times when we feel empty, deserted and spiritually lethargic.  During those times, we must remember the Israelites in the wilderness.  God found his people in that desert: "He found them in a wilderness, a wasteland of howling desert. He shielded them, cared for them, guarded them as the apple of his eye" (Deuteronomy 32:10)

When the people of Judah were exiled in Babylon, God told them to return to their homeland.  The desert wilderness that lay between them and Jerusalem became a pathway back to God: "A voice proclaims: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!" (Isaiah 40:3.)

We are not deserted in the desert.

What we must learn in difficult times is that His love is stronger than anything that might trouble us.  It is in those seemingly impossible situations that we learn to trust and believe. Sometimes it takes a mountain for us to accept that.

 

Fulfilling Our Nation’s Destiny–Part 3–Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

 

As we focus on believers as the key to fulfilling the destiny that God has for our nation, we have examined the importance of consecration and regeneration in activating the righteousness that exalts a nation.  As we continue this week in Joshua 5, we see the provision of our Lord in His loving care for His own. 

 

Joshua 5: 10-12: “Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.” 

 

God had fed the Israelites manna for forty years.  When the wilderness years were over, the manna ceased, but the provision of God continued.  Our God is Jehovah Jirah, the God who provides.  When we forget that, we will act out of our fear rather than out of our faith.  Our nation’s current crises have caused many believers to forget our Lord’s ability to provide.  We panic rather than pray.  The crisis appears to be overwhelming, but “with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:37)

 

Matthew 6:31-33: ”Do not be over-anxious, therefore, asking ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For all these are questions that Gentiles are always asking; but your Heavenly Father knows that you need these things—all of them. But make His Kingdom and righteousness your chief aim, and then these things shall all be given you in addition.”  The key to divine provision is seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. 

 

We must remember, also, that God’s provision is not limited to food and clothing.  He has provided us with salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  We usually have a limited concept of what all is involved in salvation.  When we examine the definition of two Greek words translated as “salvation”, we find that the word means deliverance, safety, healing, health and prosperity.  If salvation meant only that we may have eternity with our Lord, it would be enough to cause us to live always in hope.  However, our God is a God of abundance.  Not only does salvation insure our eternity, it insures our today. 

 

We need the total package that salvation provides.  We need deliverance and healing from fear, hopelessness, and despair.  We are conscious of the war of terror that is being waged on the national  and international fronts.  We are not so aware of the war of terror that is being waged in our own hearts.  The news media reports what is happening in the world, but can offer no solution or hope.  Even most believers have resolved to expect the worst. 

 

How can believers reconcile what we see and hear around us with God’s word that He delights in us and has a future and a hope for us?  We must walk in faith in the promises of God.  Philippians 4:19: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  Do you need faith?  God will supply it.  Do you need hope?  God will supply it.  Do you need wisdom?  God will supply it.  Is a solution to our nation’s needs available?  Yes, and God has it.

 

As consecrated, regenerated believers, walking in His righteousness, let’s intercede before the throne of God on behalf of our nation.  Let’s declare His promises and walk in His hope.  One of my favorite hymns is “I Don’t Know about Tomorrow” by Ira Stanphill.  Let’s sing with him.

 

“I don’t know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day;

I don’t borrow from its sunshine, For its skies may turn to gray.

I don’t worry over the future, For I know what Jesus said;

And today I’ll walk beside Him, Because He knows what is ahead.

 

Many things about tomorrow

I don’t seem to understand

But I know who holds tomorrow

And I know who holds my hand.”

 

 

Father, we are thankful that when we walk in Your righteousness, we can trust in Your provision.  We receive Your wisdom and Your hope.  We rebuke any spirit of fear that tries to attach itself to us.  We pray for the decision-makers of our nation that they, too, will seek Your wisdom. Amen.

 

Fulfilling Our Nation’s Destiny–Part 2

–by Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

 

            The fulfillment of our nation’s destiny lies within the hearts of our nation’s believers. God’s justice is dispensed based on what is happening in the hearts of His people and not on what is happening in the hearts of others.  Believers are the representatives within America who carry the destiny that God sees for our nation. 

 

Proverbs 14:34 declares, “Righteousness exalts a nation.” However, the righteousness that exalts a nation is not righteousness as determined by man.  Through the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, righteousness has been imputed to those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior. (Romans 4: 22-25): Speaking of Abraham, Paul writes, “And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”  To impute is to assign, to empower, to allot.  When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God assigns righteous to us and empowers us to live righteously in Him.

 Righteous living is seen in those who honor God by following His ways.  (John 14:15) Jesus said, “if you love me, keep my commandments.”  Through our imputed righteousness in Jesus Christ, we are to live lives that honor Him. Not only does righteous living honor God, but righteous living also brings blessing into our lives. Many blessings come to us because, through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are able to make better choices.  God’s Holy Word has given us a road map to attaining the heart attitude for righteous living.  Joshua, Chapter Five, is only one of many passages of scripture that outline that heart attitude

 

In Joshua 5, the Israelites have followed the Ark of the Covenant across the Jordan River near Jericho.  The conquering of the Promised Land is both historical and spiritual.  The battles represent spiritual battles we must all overcome in order to walk fully in the promises of God in this life.  Israel came out of Egypt with a slave mentality, wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and developed into a nation empowered to fulfill God’s destiny for them.  God prepared them spiritually for the battles ahead.  The first step was consecration. 

 

All those who had left Egypt had entered into a covenant with Jehovah through circumcision.  However, all those who had left Egypt, except Joshua and Caleb, had died in the wilderness.  Although they were God’s chosen, the new generation had not yet entered into the covenant and had to be circumcised as a sign of their consecration unto the Lord.  Consecration comes as we embrace what God has prepared for us and choose to walk with Him in covenant.  Consecration goes hand in hand with biblical regeneration. 

 

“Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). Regenerated people can testify that things are different now. We have received a new power and pattern for living. Regeneration and consecration bring with them new life, and new desires and new goals. 

 

In the New Covenant, the sign of consecration is baptism. In believer’s baptism, those who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, enter into the baptismal waters to declare their decision to leave the old life behind and enter into a new life consecrated to our heavenly Father.  (Romans 6:4)

 

It is in that new life consecrated to God that we will become more than conquerors in the chaotic world around us. It is there that believers will, through righteous living and intercession, fulfill the destiny that God sees for our nation. When we believers humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways, God will forgive our sin and heal our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14.)

 

Father, we pray for Your guidance to walk in the righteousness that You have imputed to us.  We covenant with You to leave our old lives of defeat and discouragement behind and to walk in victory in Jesus Christ.

 

Amen.

 

Fulfilling Our Nation’s Destiny

by Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

As Christians and concerned citizens, we can easily be overcome by the barrage of discouraging reports that fill our newspapers and television and computer screens.  Our economy is not what we want it to be.  Our family structure is threatened.  Sensuality seems to have become our god.  Devastating tornadoes, floods and fires have left many homeless, frightened and in despair. Many feel that God has abandoned us or has, at least, withdrawn His blessing from us.   If God has turned His back on us, where, then, is our hope?

Whenever we have questions about our heavenly Father, the first place to look is in the Book He has written for us. In Jeremiah 17:7-8, we read, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”  According to His Word, if our hope is in the Lord, we can prosper in the midst of and in spite of the circumstances around us.

The fulfillment of a nation’s destiny lies not within the halls of the Congress, but within the hearts of believers; that to understand the destiny and purpose of God for a nation, we must look with spiritual discernment at the believing remnant within that nation.  More simply put, God’s justice is dispensed based on what is happening in the hearts of His people and not on what is happening in the hearts of others.  Believers are the representatives within America and every other nation who carry the destiny that God sees for that nation. 

We often quote 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  We quote this passage and point our fingers at non-believers and declare their need to repent.  We often choose to overlook the fact that God is calling His people, believers, into repentance and holiness.

In Genesis 18:17-23, God agrees to spare Sodom from destruction if only 10 righteous men can be found within the city walls.  In Ezekiel 22:30, God says that He will spare Jerusalem if only one righteous person is willing to stand in the gap and intercede for the city. It is a righteous remnant who can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, bring into fulfillment the destiny of a people.

As the believing remnant of the nation, let us join together in prayer.

“Lord, I humble myself before you and acknowledge that You alone are my God and my Savior.  I repent, first of all, for my own sins, and then for the sins of my nation.  I pray that You, in Your mercy, will heal our land.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

During the next few days, we will look into the deeper implications of the righteousness and holiness of God’s people and how that righteousness and holiness will lead to the healing of our hearts and of our land.

 

Kings and Priests Continued

Rev.  Lonnie C. Crowe

Jesus is the only one who is both King and High Priest.  Yet He has called His followers “a royal priesthood.”

1Peter 2:9:  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession, so that you might speak of the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

We will reign with Him during the Millennial Kingdom.

Rev 5:10  And You made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign over the earth.  

We are both kings and priests.  Those positions have specific, but different, functions. Kings are called to govern.  Priests are called to come before the Lord to worship, pray and intercede.  We are also called to evangelize and disciple.  That ministry begins in our homes.

Deuteronomy 6:5-7  And you shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart. And you shall carefully teach them to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 

It is the ministry of the church, of those who Jesus has called to be priests, to lead our people in prayer.  If Christian schools receive no government funds, they are under no obligation for follow government rules on prayer. They can pray in school.

We are naïve if we do not understand that no prayer in schools is a protection for our students.  If some prayer is allowed, all prayer is permissible.  My son once said, “If people are upset because prayer has been taken out of our schools, imagine how upset they would be if Mr. Abdul Mestopha, a Muslim, asks his students to kneel facing east 7. and pray to Allah.”  

As priests of the Most High God, do we want a practicing Wiccan to take our children outside and have them dance around a tree praising Mother Nature?

Spiritual warfare is the ministry of believers.  The purpose of government, of kings is to protect that right. Many people who advocate for prayer in schools do not have consistent prayer in their homes. Prayer had been taken out of many homes long before it was taken out of the schools.

Rember James 5:16b: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous one avails much.” 

It is not the job of federally funded schools to pray in our students.  However, it is the job of the government to protect our freedom to worship. 

 

Kings and Priests

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

In the Bible, kings and priests serve distinct yet complementary roles with kings governing and protecting God's people, and priests mediating between God and humanity, a pattern pictured in Melchizedek and ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ and extended to believers.

Genesis 14:17-20: And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and of the kings with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's valley. And Melchizedek the king of Salem brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of Heaven and earth.  And blessed be the most high God, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him tithes of all. 

Melchizedek means King of Righteousness.  He was the king of Salem.  Salem mean peace.  Melchizedek was the King of Righteousness and Peace.  He was both a king and a priest. This event was a preincarnation appearance of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 7:15 -17: And it is still far more evident, since there arises another priest after the likeness of Melchizedek, who is made, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. For He testifies, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." 

Jesus is the only one who is both King and High Priest.  Yet He has called His followers “a royal priesthood.

1Peter 2:9:  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession, so that you might speak of the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

We will reign with Him during the Millennial Kingdom.

Rev 5:10  And You made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign over the earth.  

We are both kings and priests.  Those positions have specific, but different, functions

We rule and reign with Jesus during the Millennial Kingdom. In the meantime, we have a dominion only over what God has entrusted to us.  We need to know the boundaries of that dominion.  A relative said that I was the matriarch of my clan.  A matriarch is a ruling woman, often the oldest woman in the clan.  I am the oldest, but I am not the ruler.  I am the Grandma, and I function as a priest in my clan.  I love them and I pray for them, but I don’t rule over them.  I am busy enough, just keeping myself in line.  This currently is the extent of my dominion.

We must understand the equivalent, yet different, functions of the king and the priest.

I received a phone call that the Holy Spirit used to lead me into the path way of the Kingdom and the functions of the king and the priest.

I have an associate who has reached out to me for advice and prayer for several years.  He is a Christian journalist. He has an understanding of the need for spiritual warfare, but has no idea how to go about it because he doesn’t understand the roles of kings and priests.  He feels that world leaders need to call their citizens into spiritual warfare against the Prince of Persia.

The "prince of Persia" appears in Daniel 10:13-21, where an angelic messenger explains that he was delayed for twenty-one days by the prince of Persia before Michael, one of the chief princes, came to assist him: “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me” (Daniel 10:13 KJV).

As believers, we have been given authority to engage in spiritual warfare. That is a priestly function, not a governmental function.

 Luke 10:19: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.” This verse reassures believers of the authority granted to us over spiritual enemies.   

The need for spiritual warfare against the Prince of Persia is vital. However, it is not the job of political leadership to engage in spiritual warfare as part of their office. Perhaps in their personal lives, but not in their office.  It is the job of the Church to engage in spiritual warfare. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)

Progressive Christianity preaches another God, one without the power to save, heal and deliver.

Isaiah 29:13 “And Jehovah said, Because this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the command of men.”

The hearts of many, who name the name of Jesus, have moved away from Who God says He is and have received the fatalistic viewpoint of man, of ancient Greece, where everything that happened was thought to be fate and that fate was inescapable. If fate is inescapable, it must, therefore, be acceptable. Paul wrote described the resulting consequences.

2 Timothy 3:1-5: “Know this also, that in the last days grievous times will be at hand. For men will be self-lovers, money-lovers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unyielding, false accusers, without self-control, savage, despisers of good, traitors, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS BUT DENYING THE POWER OF IT; even turn away from these.”

The Word says that the God of the Bible is still the God of today. He is still our deliverer from the works of Satan. One of His names in Hebrew is Jehovah Maphalti (deliverer). “Yeshua” also means to save, to rescue, to deliver.

It is the ministry of believers to bring the word of God into world. Not the job of the federal government.

Deliverance is in the hand of God and is available to those who truly desire to be delivered.

Psalm 18:2 “Jehovah is my strength, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock; I will trust in Him; He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.”

Deliverance comes from a relationship with Jesus. I encouraged my associate to seek out leaders in the Church about the importance of spiritual warfare against the forces of evil including the Prince of Persia.

Our God is an awesome God. Our God can and will save, heal and deliver.