Contending in The Courts of Heaven - Reverend Brett Connell
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The backbone and foundation of Heaven’s Courts is God’s
logos (written) and rhema (prophetically spoken) word. The exact weight placed
upon one side of the scale is God’s will in the situation.
Whatever we petition or ask for should coincide with God’s
desire in the situation and be compatible with God’s perfect or permissive will
for a favorable verdict to be rendered.
Mighty men and women in the Bible have petitioned God and
contended with Him boldly, and these examples serve as our guide as we move into
Heaven’s Courts. Take, for example, Abraham:
[Genesis 18:17, 20-28] 17 And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from
Abraham what I am doing, 20 And the Lord said, “Because the outcry
against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21
I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the
outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” 22 The men set out for Sodom, but Abraham stood in God’s path,
blocking his way.
Interjecting here for a moment - Abraham began to exercise a certain boldness here, blocking God's path and readying his argument before the Lord in the next verse. Look at Abraham's passion behind his chosen words, and see what happens afterward:
23-25 Abraham confronted him, “Are you serious?
Are you planning on getting rid of the good people right along with the bad?
What if there are fifty decent people left in the city; will you lump the good
with the bad and get rid of the lot? Wouldn’t you spare the city for the sake of
those fifty innocents? I can’t believe you’d do that, kill off the good and the
bad alike as if there were no difference between them. Doesn’t the Judge of all
the Earth judge with justice?”
Amazing, how Abraham went off like that and is still breathing! But we're about to see something awesome here, after all Abraham said to God while blocking His path - look how God responds:
26 God said, “If I find fifty decent people in
the city of Sodom, I’ll spare the place just for them.”
See how God responded with a gentle, calm attitude? This is why:
27-28
Abraham came back, “Do I,
a mere mortal made from a handful of dirt, dare open my mouth again to my
Master? What if the fifty fall short by five—would you destroy the city
because of those missing five?” He said, “I won’t destroy it if there are
forty-five.” (NKJV, MSG)
Abraham reveals to us what God knew all along, he was boldly approaching God not just with a passionate plea for the righteous, but hidden within his outward actions is a truth Abraham knows in his heart: he is actually confident that God's character of righteousness and holiness will not allow Him to do such a thing, that is, lumping the good with the bad and executing them both.
You also have to note Abraham's humility here, after his 'outburst' he immediately confesses what God knew all along also, that Abraham understands he is a mere mortal made from a handful of dirt - that the only reason he would block God's path and speak to him so, is purely to place God's character on the witness stand to do what is right in this situation.
Remember, Abraham is probably thinking, "God... my nephew lives there." You could say this entire process of contending was out of Abraham's love for Lot. It is no surprise that the greatest commandment, according
to Jesus, is entirely centered upon love:
[Matthew 22:36-40] 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in
the Law?” 37 And Jesus replied to him, “‘You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38
This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 The second is like
it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, unselfishly seek the
best or higher good for others].’ 40 The whole Law and the [writings
of the] Prophets depend on these two commandments.” (AMP)
Because Abraham had humility and understood God’s character,
he was able to contend with God appropriately. If God was about to entrust Abraham with descendants as
numerous as the stars in the sky, perhaps God wanted to see how far Abraham
would go to protect the kin he already had?
Also consider Moses, how he contended with God and pleaded
with Him to spare the Israelites from His judgment:
[Exodus 32:9-14] 9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen these people,
and I know that they are very stubborn. They will always turn against me. 10
So now let me destroy them in anger. Then I will make a great nation from you.”
11 But Moses begged the Lord his God, “Lord, don’t
let your anger destroy your people. You brought them out of Egypt with your
great power and strength. 12 But if you destroy your people, the
Egyptians will say, ‘God planned to do bad things to his people. That is why he
led them out of Egypt. He wanted to kill them in the mountains. He wanted to
wipe them off the earth.’ So don’t be angry with your people. Please change
your mind! Don’t destroy them.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. These men
served you, and you used your
name to make a promise to them. You said, ‘I will make your people as
many as the stars in the sky. I will give your people all this land as I
promised. This land will be theirs forever.’” 14 So the Lord felt
sorry for the people. He did not do what he said he might do—he did not destroy them. (ERV)
Moses understood God’s nature that not everything God says
is a direct command written in stone, but perhaps some of God’s statements are
designed to invoke a response from our hearts? I am talking about God's rhema words and prophetic approaches, primarily. But we do see Biblical examples of God telling someone something, waiting for a response, and judging accordingly (like King Hezekiah). In these Biblical examples, we see anointed people of God
using certain strategies to contend with God. We can use the same approach
ourselves in Heaven’s Courts. Moses reminded God that He swore on His very own Name that
He would fulfill this promise to Abraham and his descendants. God heeded because
He is faithful and does not break His promises.
Perhaps God wants to see our response before He acts, or
even better, perhaps God wants us to see what’s hidden in our hearts after we react? God will sanctify us through these and many other means so
that the enemy’s accusations against us do not have merit in His Courts. Abraham was able to boldly contend with God while remaining
humble and submissive to His will. He also put God’s character on the stand
during his petition, knowing that God is a holy and just God, and that the righteous would be spared among the wicked. Both men remembered what God had said, knew His word, and
had a deep enough relationship to understand His character and nature. We
should be no different, and this will avail success in Heaven’s Courts.
As with all things, there needs to be a healthy balance. We
need to take the bad with the good, as Job put it best:
[Job 2:10a]
But he replied, “You talk like some heathen woman. What? Shall we receive only
pleasant things from the hand of God and never anything unpleasant?” (ERV)
The context of that Scripture is when Satan is afflicting Job with curses, disease, destroying everything he has including killing his children - his wife basically told him that he's so miserable he might as well just curse God and die.
Job’s spiritual wisdom highlighted that we should have a
healthy mindset of balance and middle ground. We should praise God and rejoice in
the times of blessing and in the times of want. How this relates to the Courtrooms of Heaven is simply that
sometimes despite your petitions and contending, God’s answer can be: No. Some reasons why God might say no are in cases where the
request is not in line with God’s will for the person or situation. It could be that the motive behind the request may not be
lined up with God’s word or that granting the request may do harm or have
unintended consequences for the people involved.
The fact of the matter is that God sees and knows all these
things – and when we enter Heaven’s Courts with a case, we should be seeking
God’s will and desire in the situation first and then agreeing with God’s
perspective. We don’t want to go into Courtrooms in God’s Kingdom with
the mindset of trying to convince God to do things our way because only God
sees the ramifications of the matter from front to back. Our spirit should want to agree with God’s process and the
final result more than our soul’s desire for our request to be granted.
This is the gauge of our spiritual maturity.
God often grants our requests on behalf of another, sparing
people from judgment because of God’s favor towards us. The person we're contending for might be a heathen and not even saved, but you would be surprised what God will do for them because you're asking. Remember, the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. This is God's nature.
But sometimes, judgment must be set, and despite our pleas
for other people, only a person’s own righteousness will spare them from
judgment:
[Ezekiel 14:19-20] 19 “Or if I send a pestilence into that land and
pour out My fury on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast, 20
even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,” says the Lord God,
“they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only
themselves by their righteousness.” (NKJV)
When God does something different that we don’t expect,
there is a purpose in the detour. Many times, we do not see what lies ahead,
but God does. Operating in Heaven’s Courts requires a level of trust with
God and a quieted spirit with which to hear His voice. We must note everything
we hear in humility and give God room to be the Judge He is.
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