FORGETTING WHAT LIES BEHIND BUT MINDFUL OF WHAT LIES AHEAD
Wednesday – April 25, 2018, Iyar 10, 5778
I believe all Christians are looking forward to the day of the Catching Away or when we lay down of this natural body and our Savior with outstretched hand welcomes us home. My sweet wife Patti on the 9th of April saw and grasped that wonderful hand of Jesus and was welcomed into Heaven. The Apostle Paul spoke of forgetting those things which lie behind and pressing on and into “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”. We are not to be mindful of the things behind us other then to learn from them. We are to be most mindful, and focused upon, the calling of God before us.
Philippians 3:12-14 (KJV)
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Welcome back to this faith building study from the Book of Hebrews. God is so very good to give His precious Word. All that we need and more is available to us for an exceedingly prosperous life in every arena. Just think of the saints of old like Enoch, who only had the oral Word transmitted from one to the other. Yet, Enoch was able to develop faith in God to the point that God took him to Heaven alive (spirit, soul, and body). Could it be that by faith Enoch reached into the future and obtained salvation, the quickening of his spirit? God showed him the future including the return of Christ to earth in the Second Coming. What is our excuse with sixty-six Books of the Bible available to us and the Holy Spirit as our teacher? I believe a part of it is that we are not taught the exceeding value of the Word of God. We see Christianity or being a Christian as a ticket to Heaven but not a blueprint of an exceedingly abundant life here and there. Let us repent dear ones. Now let’s review our primary text from the Book of Hebrews, read aloud.
Hebrews 11:12-15 (KJV)
12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as all the others that saw the promise afar off died in faith (they believed God) knowing that it was for a future time. Just as we are strangers and pilgrims in this earth so were all those who have gone before us in faith. They were seeking a country, the Jews a physical land, as well as the Kingdom of God, the Holy Heavenly Jerusalem. For them that Heavenly City, the Kingdom of God awaited the Messiah. Now, it is available to all who receive Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. Jesus came preaching that the kingdom of God was at hand.
Mark 1:15 (KJV)
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
He told His disciples at the “Last Supper” that He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God came.
Luke 22:18 (KJV)
18 For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
We know that following the Resurrection that Jesus did indeed eat and drink with the disciples, the work of Calvary and the Resurrection made the Kingdom of God a reality for mankind again.
These saints of old were pressing in faith to see this Kingdom, the one we have the privilege of seeing and being a vital part of. We are not to be mindful of the things of the world, the things that used to be our life without God. We must embrace this new life in Christ Jesus, our place, our responsibilities, and our benefits in this Kingdom of God. We must not like the children of Israel look back with longing eyes and faulty memories for Egypt. When we must lay down the past there can be a tremendous pressure to look back, longing for that past, the things and the people. But if we do we are at risk of returning to sin and becoming useless to God. Even in our Christian walk I would caution those of you who have had a bad experience in a Church or a Church has rejected you, do not look back and do not second guess those experiences. Forgive the people, forgive yourself if you made an error, and move ahead in Christ Jesus for there is a brighter day ahead. When those imaginations rise up cast them down in the name of Jesus and refuse to use thought time, any time with them. Do not rehearse the past, particularly bad experiences! When you do you become like a pillar of salt. Remember what Scripture says about Lot’s wife when she looked back to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Genesis 19:26 (KJV)
26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Jesus spoke of Lot’s wife.
Luke 17:32-33 (KJV)
32 Remember Lot’s wife.
33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
We must forsake that old life and embrace the new! Our life is hide in Christ Jesus and our focus is upon Him and the call of God and not ourselves. We embrace our new reality our mission in the earth in Christ Jesus and we cast the cares of this life onto Him. As per The Blood Covenant, the more we focus on Him and the needs of the Kingdom the more He focuses on us and the needs of our lives. Remember, Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). A clump or lump of salt is absolutely useless. A lump or pillar of salt is like when people gather together in Church, which has little to no influence in the earth or the world. Salt is to be scattered about. Like natural salt which can be found virtually everywhere so are we as the body of Christ to be everywhere. We like salt are to make people thirsty for the things of God. We are to add flavor wherever we may be. We are to be a cleanser, showing the way of righteousness. We are to bring value everywhere we go and the place should be more valuable when we leave. Also, we are to preserve this gospel in purity and not allow the least bit of pollution, or corruption of the Word of God. Human experience is not to ever be an extension of the Word of God.
Until our next publication, I speak this Scriptural prayer for your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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