Fate; Destiny; Doom
Did you have one of those black plastic 8 balls that would tell your fortune? Remember? You ask a question – will I be handsome….Shake it up. Turned it over, the little white triangle would rise to the top.
Try Again…
So you probably did the same thing I did, shake it up again, turn it over. Little triangle rises..Not likely…
Ugh – shake it up again.
Now who really, is going to stake much on a water filled globe for predicting an outcome in their life? Still – we have to grab that eight ball and shake it up….
We had Chinese food the other night. Great meal, I love Chinese food.
After the meal - the fortune cookie. Again – I open it, I hope it says something good. But as usual something irrelevant. I was bummed. I want good news. I want to open the cookie and read: You are a very sincere and loyal person. You will have much happiness and joy. I want that, even though I place no trust in a cookie. Why is that? To be doomed by a horrible fate is something most of us want to avoid. To believe we are going to end up plummeting over a cliff and to not be able to do anything about it...
We start out life imagining, hoping, believing life will work out for us. There are days you can wake up – how did I get here in life? Sometimes it can seem that we are trapped, doomed, no end in sight - no matter how many times we shake the 8 ball.
The good news is this: Our life is not set on a course of which we have no control over. We are not subject to fate.
Sometimes we hear people say: Circumstances just spun out of control!
Story – Silver shoe kid.
I worked for years in a department store. There was this kid that worked in the China Department which is a place of high value products. This kid was offered a much better position with much better pay – turned it down. Why? Because he walk out each day with a set of silverware I each shoe. He had big feet! Later on in life he did other petty theft. He was a cat burglar – during storms, in town. This was always in the paper, these robberies. Finally he got caught in credit card fraud bysending credit cards to his house - in other people’s names. In the paper he claimed fate - “circumstances just spun out of control”. Was it fate or his own sin?
The concept of fate – is not a biblical concept. It is pagan. We do not have a distant God who just sets things in motion. We have a very personal God, who deals in every intimate detail of our life.
This summer – we have been looking at the Holy Spirit. That third person of the trinity, who is really, a mystery to many of us. The trinity in action: Father – initiates; Son - accomplishes Father’s will; Holy Spirit – brings to fruition.
The Holy Spirit is our connecting point. Through the Holy Spirit the Inaccessible God is accessible. The Holy Spirit is not just a new testament phenomena. He has always been around, always empowering God’s people – for God’s purpose. When the Holy Spirit speaks to us - Guides us - Empowers us - He works with us, He works with who we are – as individuals. In other words: God does not push us and we obey robotically. We are not products of fate. No – it is a dialogue – a working together to accomplish his will.
Today we see the Holy Spirit at work through the prophet Isaiah. In our Scripture today we see a pronouncement made – you will die. A broken man, king Hezekiah is, and God relents. Hezekiah – is not doomed, because of the Grace and Mercy of our Lord God. This here is not an isolated incident.
Remember Jonah in the city of Nineveh? "God will destroy your city" preaches Jonah. But they repented – God relented. It wasn’t fate after all.
The wonderful, glorious thing about knowing the person of Jesus Christ is: No matter who you are, No matter what you have done, No matter, how you have altered the course of your life, No matter how doomed you feel - Through the power of Jesus Christ you and not doomed, you are free.
Dynamic Power of God.
OT through the NT through Today. The Power that we see in the Old Testament and the Power we see in the New Testament is the same power that is available to you and I today. It is not a different God we read about in the Old Testament. He is the same. This dynamic power of God is available to those who call upon Jesus Christ, who give their life over, who commit their life to Christ. If you find yourself thinking
"I have never experienced any power from the Holy Spirit in my life." It is possible, more common than you think and maybe you have never really given your life over to Jesus Christ - Maybe you have just been good at church.
That’s what happened to me. I was just good at church.
Again, this power is fully available to all Christians…The source of this power has always been the same. Spiritual Power – Found in the Holy Spirit it is the empowerment to do supernatural things.
We see the Holy Spirit working all over the NT and we see throughout the OT the Holy Spirit empowering people. He Falls upon them. The Hand of God is upon them. The Spirit of God Came upon them.
Same Spirit as today.
Often, in the OT, we see this happening with a prophet. The prophet is called forth and speaks for God to the people.
The Nature of Prophetic Spiritual Things. The prophet has Spiritual Vision – everyone goes about their business, but the prophet sees, spiritual things, others are unaware of. At times a prediction of the future.
The word prophet – means to speak before. The prophetic word is not only about prediction, t is about empowerment. this is not like the Occult. In the occult a spirit speaks through the medium. The medium only a vehicle to work through. A spirit drives the medium, as we drive a car. Fortune telling assumes a fixed universe, where we are governed by fate. It is going to happen, and there is nothing you can do about it.
This leads to bondage. This leads to despair. The old 8 ball intensified.
What can we do, we think, the future is set?
No. The power of the Holy Spirit is dynamic, working with us, with who we are. Not simply driving us.
We see the prophets, by the power of the Holy Spirit working with God, to accomplish his will.
Calling to Faith.
The Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets to call us to faith.
Jeremiah 2:31 “You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD:
Wisdom.
The Holy Spirit spoke though people to give great wisdom.
Joseph Gen 41:38-39
Genesis 41:38 So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”
Genesis 41:39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.
Ability.
The Holy Spirit gave great abilities to people in the OT.
Bezalel
Exodus 31:1 Then the LORD said to Moses,
Exodus 31:2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,
Exodus 31:3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts —
Exodus 31:4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,
Exodus 31:5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.
Wake Up Call.
The Holy Spirt uses people to give others a wake up call.
Isaiah tells Hezekiah - We are not controlled by fate, repent!
Cloud of Doom – the example of Hezekiah.
Isaiah addresss the Hez.
(Verse one)
Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
Pretty clear. I think he got it. Yet he turns his face – he offers humility toward God and God hears him ever through a self serving prayer: 3 “Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.”
It is not even a much of a prayer. None of that seems to matter…God reverses himself and circumstances change. Now the reason for reversal is not for the king, but for the people. God reverses himself,
under a man’s selfish reasons, even though the Hez, doesn’t pray well.
This is great news – for us. We can come before God with selfish motives and with incompetent communication with God and it doesn’t matter.
God still relents. Because our spiritual life is a dialogue with God. We are not mediums which a spirit works through. We are human beings, which God works with. Sometimes we feel that we are in a place where life is moving on ahead and that we have no control, like the circumstances of King Hez. We see no way out, and even if our motivations are not pure, God has mercy on us and our lives can change direction.
Know that God, the Holy Spirit, works with us. Know that even when we aren’t even close to having it together, God can change everything for the better.We are not doomed to follow a path to a dead end with circumstances spinning out of control.
We are blessed with a loving God who cares deeply for us.
