Breaking The Spirit of Misery – Part III
Characteristics of Misery: Forgetting or Not Knowing Who You Are
Luke 15th Chapter
11 And he said, A certain man had two
sons: 12 And the younger of them said to his father,
Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto
them his living. 13 And not many days after the younger
son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there
wasted his substance with riotous living. 14 And when he
had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in
want.
15 And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And
he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and
no man gave unto him. 17 And when he came to himself, he
said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare,
and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my
father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before
thee,
In our first message from this series, we discussed extreme poverty and how
it contributes to a spirit of misery. This is what we wrote:
"Webster’s
dictionary has a very interesting and accurate definition for poverty
concerning religion: "The renunciation made by a member of a religious
order of the right to own property." Now here is where it all ties
together. If Christians lack understanding of the word of God, then they will
not know what God has in store for them. And by being spiritually ignorant,
they will renounce their property. In other words they will say, "God
doesn’t deal with your wants, only your needs." Or they will say, "Jesus
said come to me just as you are, so we can always be poor, broke, busted and
disgusted."
These
are examples of poverty mentality. Some people live in poverty; they feel there
is no other way they should live, but this is not so. Of course, Jesus will
love you if you’re broke and even if you stay broke, but that doesn’t mean He
wants you to stay there."
This week we will study the circumstances surrounding the prodigal son’s
misery/poverty. This son asked his father to give him all that was coming to
him (12th), and the father did. The son then went away and foolishly
spent all that he had. Then a famine hit the land, and the 14th
verse tells us that he began to be in want. In an attempt to meet his need, he
went to a citizen who allowed him to feed swine as employment.
So during his lowest low, while hungry and in need, "he would fain have
filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat." Now the word
"fain" means to be "obliged or required [forced] by [one’s]
circumstances." In other words, based on the situation that he was in, he
could have and would have gladly eaten what the pigs were eating, especially
since no one was willing to help him.
However, after wasting his inheritance and even desiring what the swine were
eating, he received the revelation of who he was. The 17th verse
states, "And when he came to himself." In the midst of his despair he
realized that he was not where he was supposed to be. He could have stayed in
the hog pen and thrown the world’s biggest outdoor pity party. Instead, he came
to himself!!!! He realized, "This is not my wealthy place. I’ve got a
father who can solve this problem if I only go to him. I just had to remember
that I’m his child and he loves me too much to want me to stay where I am. All
I have to do is just go to him.
When we forget who we are (and worse than that, "whose" we are),
we have a tendency to want what the swine "world" wants. We will
settle for being up to our ears in debt with no hope of getting out. We will
settle for a mate that doesn’t really cut the mustard, and will believe that
verbal and physical abuse is "just a part of the relationship." We
will believe that we have to come up the "rough side of the mountain"
when God’s word tells us to tell the mountain to be cast into the sea (Mark
11:23).
Now is the time for us to "Come to ourselves." We need to get
reconnected with the Father. By knowing who He is, we find out who we are, and
that’s something we should never forget. Deuteronomy 4:7 states,
" For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them,
as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?" He is
closer to us than we’ve ever imagined; He’s just waiting on us to walk in the
covenant that He authored and His son completed.
So the next time you’re asked, "Who are you?" Even though you say,
"I am (your name)," if you walk in the fullness of salvation,
you will know that this is who you really are:
"I am (your name), and I have a covenant with the most high God.
I walk in the divine favor of the Lord, and I am blessed by Him at all times. I
am a man/woman who walks in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and by doing
so I have no wants. I am a child of the most high God constantly under the
shadow of His wings of protection and love. I am God’s glory in the earth and I
am blessed by Him, loved by Him and protected by Him. Through His Son Jesus I
am an inheritor of His kingdom through blood covenant. And by this covenant the
forces of hell are bound and the forces of heaven are loosed because "I
Am" is my "I Am," and that is who I Am."
Exodus 3:14 – And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.