LORD GIVE ME MY MOUNTAIN...
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
There will always be seasons...
Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
We live with time cycles. As a real live honest to goodness fact we need to learn to identify and recognize TO DISCERN SEASONS... I am not just weighing summer, spring, fall and winter. I am considering plowing, fertilizing, sowing, weeding, harvest and preparation...
They say: ONCE A MAN, TWICE A CHILD. There is probably much truth to this. We do not get angry when a baby needs a bottle and a diaper change? WE DO NOT THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATH WATER!
We do not expect a toddler to never fall? we will dust him off and kiss his wound?
We almost expect a teenager to pay some stupid taxes...? We pray they will not be too expensive?
We know as one ages --- their steps slow. we also know the steps will get smaller and smaller until one day there will be no more steps. THEN SOME WILL REGRET, others will make excuses. We must accept some of the same old same old stories and confusion. WE LIVE IN A DAY WHERE WE TEND TO NOT WANT THE ELDERLY AROUND US...
I read a story about an old man, that mentally and physically started a terrible downward spiral in his behavior. The old man's son got very angry at his Dad and treated him like a kid. Seems, the mother had passed away and the son had the responsibility of caring for his dad. So, the son made his dad sit in another room where they did not have to listen to him. they had a rubber table cloth that he would spread on the floor. So he gave his Dad a wooden bowl and a big wooden spoon. They would not have to put up with his same old stories and child like behavior.
ONE DAY THE GRANDSON ASKED HIS DAD, WE ONLY HAVE ONE WOODEN BOWL AND ONE WOODEN SPOON...WE DO NOT HAVE ANOTHER ROOM WHERE YOU CAN SIT AND EAT? DAD, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH YOU?
Several days the son pondered the question: DAD WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH YOU? One night the son welcomed his Dad back to the table and for several months the family had the best times together, three generations eating together. At the Grandfather's funeral the family recalled how blessed they were to have that time together.
CAN WE DISCERN THE SEASONS? CAN WE LOOK IN OUR FAMILIES AND OUR CHURCHES AND SEE THE SEASON? SMART PEOPLE ARE LIKE ANTHS, THEY LEARN TO PREPARE FOR THE SEASON BEFORE WE WALK IN IT...
There are realities two seasons...WE MUST PREPARE AND BE READY FOR WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE ARE HEADED....
Proverbs 6:6-10 (KJV)
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
When I was in the fifth grade my Dad pastored a small church in Ohio. To help us Dad and Mom always grew a big garden. They shared with the church people and Mom canned 100 of quarts of food.
We were working out in the garden, it was so hot. The hoe handle never did seem to fit my hands? Mom came to the door of the trailer and yelled for Dad to come. A man at the church was fighting cancer and was being rushed to the hospital. So dad and my older brother left. Before leaving my Dad gave me a big brown paper bag of corn seeds. He turned the hand push plow to me, with the two poles and string to mark the rows of the seed. Then they were gone.
Dad trusted me? Well, I made another row, planted the corn. Seems like there was as many corn seeds in the bag as when I started. I plowed another row, planted the seeds....God is a miracle happening? the more I planted the more seeds are in the bag! I plowed a third row and planted it. that plowing was not for my tender hands. I do not like to sweat. I would rather play or watch TV?
So I got the hoe and dug a big hole and I buried that brown paper bag in the soil. Dad came home later that evening and said: SON, DID YOU PLANT ALL THE CORN SEED? I told Dad, SURE, EVERY SEED IS IN THE GROUND! It was, I am not lying?
Sometime later, my Dad came into the trailer and boy was he mad. He grabbed me by the collar and I started flying out to the garden. We stood and looked at this spot in the garden and THERE IT WAS--- SEEMS LIKE 10 MILLION LITLE GREEN LEVES WERE POKING UP THROUGH THE SOIL...THAT GREEN SPOT TESTIFIED OF MY LAZINESS.
MY DAD SAID: SON, I AM SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU! I THOUGHT YOU HAD PLANTED ALL THE CORN SEE...THEN MY DAD SAID SOMETHING THAT WAS CRUSHING TO ME: DAD SAID, SON, IF THE FAMILY STARVES TO DEATH THIS WINTER IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT. WE WILL NOT HAVE MUCH CORN AND YOU KNOW HOW WE ALL LOVE CORN?
My Dad made me stand there for an hour and think about my stupidity? I was so ashamed. I knelt down in the garden and started praying: God, please do not allow my brothers, sister and Mom & Dad starve this winter.
Well, I am before you today 50 years later, GOD WAS MERCIFUL...SEE THE KID IN ME COULD NOT SEE HOW IMPORTANT THOSE SEEDS WERE TO OUR FAMILTY. I COULD ONLY SEE TODAY, MY VISION WAS RESISTED TO TODAY. I SAW THE PLOWING AND THE PLANTING, I COULD NOT SEE THE HARVEST --- I COULD NOT SEE THE QUART JARS UNDER THE BED? I NEVER FOCUSED ON THE FAMILY SITTING AROUND THE TABLE EATING THE CORN...
SPIRITUALLY I CAN SEE MORE CLEARLY TODAY THAN WHEN I WAS YOUNG. Honey, you cannot plant poison ivy and expect strawberry preserves.
2 Corinthians 9:6
But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
Galatians 6:7 (KJV)
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
WE MUST KNOW THE BEAUTY OF SEASONS OF RE-INVENTION...CHANGE...WE MUST PASSIONATELY FORGIVE AND RELEASE THE POWER OF THE VISION..
Moses, Moses knew THE PROMISE...Moses sent out 12 spies and they returned and said: IT IS THE LAND OF PROMISE, IT IS JUST LIKE GOD TOLD US...
Little did those 10 NEGATIVE SPIES EXPECT THE SEEDS THEY HAD DOWN WOULD HAVE SUCH A TERRIBLE HARVEST. Of over 600 men, 2 will experience the PROMISE.. Your 40 seeds will reap a terrible harvest.
Numbers 14:34 (KJV)
After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
OK, MOSES, YOU WERE RIGHT, WE WERE WRONG? BUT THE SEEDS WERE ALREADY PLANTED. THE HARVEST FOR A GENERATION OF TEARS AND COMPLAINING...
NO SADDER WORDS OF PEN OR TONGUE THAN THE WORDS: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN? NOW, WE WILL GO!???
Numbers 14:41-42 (KJV)
And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. 42: Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.
COME WITH ME AND LET US ACKNOWLEGE POSITIVE THOUGHTS WILL GROW POSITIVE RESULTS..MAYBE, JUST MAYBE A NEW ATTITUDE CAN CHANGE THE HARVEST..
Look at this old man, his positive: GOD CAN ATTITUDE IS STILL ALIVE WHILE 600,000 MEN ARE DEAD IN THE DESERT..NO PROMISE FOR THEM?
Joshua 14:11-14 (KJV)
As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.
12 Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.
13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.
14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel.
THE POSITIVE RESULTS OF THE POSITIVE THINKING PATTERN OF FAITH WILL CATCH GOD'S ATTENTION..COME ON..ACCEPT THE PROMISE...
GIVE ME YOUR BLESSINGS --- PASS IT ON ....DAD GIVES HIS DAUGHTER HIS BLESSING...
THE PROMISE IS PASSED FROM CALEB TO HIS FAMILY..
THE NEXT GENERATION MAY BE DOOMED OR BLESSED BY THE SEEDS YOU PLANT?
Moses paid dearly for his little temper fit?
But let us look to CALEB'S FAMILY..DID YOU KNOW OLD TESTAMENT WOMEN AND GIRLDS NEVER OWNED LAND..WAIT THE SEE MULTIPLIES..
Caleb had a beautiful daughter, ACHSAH.. ASHSAH REAPS THE BENEFITS OF CALEB'S POSITIVE REPORT,,,
Joshua 15:18-19 (KJV)
And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wouldest thou?
19 Who answered, Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs.
AT A TIME WHEN MOST WOMEN ARE LEFT EMPTY, ACHSAH RECEIVES HER BLESSING BECAUSE HER FATHER WAS FAITHFUL AND CLAIMED HIS MOUNTAIN.
Judges 1:14-15 (KJV)
And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou?
15 And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.
CONCLUSION: What will we leave behind. Soon your life will be but a story. What kind of heritage, a living legacy are you leaving to others? Will your negativity become a trap that dooms you and limits the GOD PROMISES to your family? Will you place yourself where YOU CAN CLAIM YOUR MOUNTAIN? Do you see how important claiming God's promises are for you and the next generations?
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. kyfingers@aol.com
