You’re invited to tonight’s New Life Covenant Mid-Week Study – Crash the Chatterbox – Hearing God’s Voice Above All Others. 7 PM at Taft High School 420 Ezzard Charles Drive 4214. Enter through the Rear Parking lot. TONIGHT’s topic is Overcoming FEAR. You don’t want to miss it!
I was teaching on the Vision Statement of New Life Covenant: a church for the hurting…because everybody wants to be F.R.E.E. (Favored, Restored, Equipped & Empowered). We need to be FREE to do God’s will in the earth. Favor (blessings that are undeserved, or overgenerous preferential treatment) should be a part of the expectation of a Kingdom Citizen. God grants His children favor!
But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD, You surround him with favor as with shield. Proverbs 5:11-12
At the hotel, check-in time was 4:00 PM, it was about 1:00 PM and I went in to see if early check-in was possible. The clerk said, yes. I’d reserved a room on a discount online site. I desired a King bed, so I asked if one might be available, to which she responded curtly, “No, your reservation only allows for a double. That’s why they gave it to you!” I replied, “Ok. That’s fine.” So she began to give me the room key 249. I asked, “For this room should I park in the front or in the back?” “Oh, you’ve been here before?” “Yes, this is my third time.” “You like it here?” “Yes, it’s fine. It would be better with a King bed though, ” I joked. She smiled and I watched her switch the room card to 211. “Mrs. Bradley, I’m going to use my authority as a manager to OVERRIDE the room type for you.”
To override means to use one’s authority to interrupt, reject or cancel an action, or decision. In government, policies are overridden by veto or by winning more votes. In industry, an override is a device for suspending the automatic function on a machine. In the Christian life, an override means that God will use His authority to interrupt, reject or cancel something in order to do something HE DEEMS more important!
- Abraham and Sarah schemed to have a male heir through a surrogate: their maid Hagar. God allowed them to have the child, then did a rejection override, “This man will not be your heir. but a son who is your own flesh and blood (Isaac) will be your heir.” Genesis 15:4
- Later, God instructs Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him on the altar. When Abraham reaches out his hand and takes a knife to slay his son, he experiences an interruption ovveride of the greatest proportions. The Angel of the LORD calls out to him from Heaven. “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replies. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now, I know you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Gen. 22:10-12
- Peter, a devout Jew, ate only Kosher food. In a Vision, the Lord tells him to now eat four-footed animals, crawling creatures and birds. “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” Peter protests, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean.” The voice comes again, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” Acts 10:12-14 This cancelling override signaled the God’s intention to include the Gentiles in His family.
Christ followers must be pliable in the hand of the Potter. (Jeremiah 18:1-6)
Jeremiah sees a pot being molded on the potter’s wheel. The potter’s pot did not turn out as he’d hoped, so he crushed it back to a lump of clay and re-made another vessel as seemed best to him. Our immutable God never changes…but He changes situations and people. I wonder if I would have killed Isaac because, “God told me to do this,” and I couldn’t or wouldn’t let it go. What if God wants something different now? Can He re-direct you? Are you open to His override?
