Before We Carve Another God.

TEXT: HEBREWS 11:6-1

Do you have a god in your life? Is it the one you carved for yourself or The One, Lord God of Israel?

The letter to the Hebrew presents a God that we can’t see, taste, smell or touch. He presents what God is doing on the other side that sometimes we don’t get to see or feel: as from the heavenlies. I took from this author because the church has found herself in the place where she heard a word from God at the beginning of the year but now she’s wondering if God will still come through. ‘It’s the 11^th month and I don’t know if you are coming through for me, your Honor’, she says, ‘I don’t know if I’m coming out of this’. We talk about how: God is viable, reliable, predictable, consistent, never changing and ever standing. ‘If God has all these attributes, why am I still on this level?’ she questions.

Of course, everyone has tasted God’s faithfulness one way or the other. But sometimes we find ourselves at the 11th hour when the world is asking, ‘I thought that God told you in January that…, but how come we have not seen everything under your feet? How come you are not shining yet?’ The bible says that weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. You’re not weeping hopelessly.  You’re not weeping because God aint showing up for you again. You’re weeping because you’re saying good bye to the last things you complained about. Look. There’s joy in front of you.

Sometimes we don’t see the morning cos the night is so dark or too long. I mean 11 months out of 12, for example, is too long for you to now believe God can do what he said he will do. Other times, we don’t see the joy because our hope is deferred and our body is weakened. And so, we don’t see faith the way God wants us to see it. The choir sang, ‘God is able to do just what he said he will do’ and you wish you could believe that. The pastor preached, ‘God said with another one word you’re going to get through to the end.’ And you wish you could believe that too. The question now is, ‘what was He doing earlier’.

Sometimes we ask these questions because our flesh wants us to answer them; just before we carve another god. Then our flesh begins to give us revelations and that heaven help those who help themselves. There has to be a reason why God has kept Himself this long cos He’s never too late or too early. He takes his time to do what He’s going to do but any other alternative aside the authority of God’s word is a god that you are carving. What alternative are you carving for yourself right now because of some things you don’t have yet? What alternative job, wife, lifestyle, decision, secrets and things that people don’t know about?

Let’s look at Enoch’s faith. His faith transcended just material things to the things that could not be seen. He believed God to the extent that he was seen no more and He rocks my world in the hallmark of faith. I read a book some time back and they gave this analogy about Enoch’s translation. “He loved to walk with god every day and each time he’d return home to his family. The second day he’d walk with God and will say ‘Sir, it’s already 11pm I have to go back home’. Then one day, at 11; 45 pm he said, ‘I have to go back home’. God replied, ‘do you really have to go’. Then Enoch realized he could be with God forever.”

Enoch was the first son of Cain, his past. Enoch’s first son was Irad, his future. He had a bad past and a bad future. He had a very grievous reputation when it came to pedigree. But it is here that God introduces his transformation power through his word. God does not need to visit your past to change your future. If there is a word in what you are doing then you can boast of transformation.

The fact that you gave your life to Christ does not mean that troubles will run away from you. But a word in your spirit is all God needs to change where you are going to. Don’t let anybody analyze you or what you got. As long as there is a word from God for your life, you can raise your shoulder and go back to the places you were ostracized and the people that talked you down.

Many of us don’t know how to stand on the word. We think standing on the word is just confessing the word. But you can go a little bit deeper. If truly the word works then you’ve got to go back to those places you’ve always been afraid of. Exams that you’ve failed, the woman that said no to you yesterday, things that made you feel like you were going nowhere. ‘I know your history’, says the Lord, ‘but I have a power that can change you and make you somebody such that when compared, no one would believe you are the son of your father’.

You need to allow God to change you. You need to let go of any other alternatives while you’re waiting on the Lord. It doesn’t matter where you are. It matters who has spoken. The young lion may suffer hunger but those whose heart is stayed on the Lord shall lack nothing good. It’s ok to lack some things now but you will lack nothing good. That’s why you can’t let anybody talk you down when you don’t have some things.

Revelation is a process. The truth about revelation is that it won’t come through once and for all. There are some words that’s going to be cooking. The reason God is taking this long is cos there’s about to be a tsunami. When the clouds are heavy they empty themselves. There’s about to be an outpouring of blessings cos the clouds are heavy with something for you. I don’t need to another god while I’m waiting on my God. Put me on the island; I’ll organize a crusade. Lock me in a room; I’ll break the roof. There must be a way out of this. This can’t be end of everything. God must have a plan for my life.

For you to please God you must have the school of thought that He is and He rewards those that diligently seek him. This was the dimension Enoch walked in. You’ve got to say to yourself, ‘this year is not going out until some things happen to me’. If you get a word or a dream from God you become a traveler of that word; a Joseph that must go to Egypt; an Abraham that must leave his parents, out of Mesopotamia to a place where God will show him. You don’t really know where you’re going to but you know you’re not where you’re supposed to be. You sure do not want to go back to your past cos you know there’s sth bigger about your future.

Each time God speaks he doesn’t speak for you to stay where you are. The reason why God gives you a word is for you to defile our environment. There is a Goshen in front of you. That’s why you are the only one that feels that way and goes through those things in your family. You better be ready to change your environment, paradigm and lifestyle if you want to get a word from God. Joseph, Egypt is a place of sin. But if you are going to transform that place God’s going to have to raise you first. God needs to teach you and make you grounded. You got great dreams. You can interpret them too. But you can’t get to the palace now. Why does God wait that long? It’s because He wants you to represent Him well when you get to the gubernatorial platform.

You want half-baked success and that’s the problem! If you are going to go up there, sit down! When you see yourself as the only one able to do some things, it’s because you’ve had to wait on the Lord to let him deal with you. You’ve got the alternative of doing it now. But you won’t cos then will it not be of God. He that comes to God must know that He is. It is the coming that confirms that you have faith and you are still standing. Coming is a continuous thing. You are not there yet; the word is right in front of you and you are coming to that word even if it is the last day. We have the end and we know the beginning cos we have the Alpha and the Omega resident in us. That’s why you can confidently move towards your goal cos you know that He will provide.

Have you ever met people who told you, you were wasting your time? But he that comes to God must believe that He is a present dimension of power. The reason you are shaking is because you are listening to the boisterous wind. Don’t just come to God, talk boldly. And don’t just talk, walk boldly. While they are talking you down, He’s preparing you for what He’s prepared you for.

The reason why I’m still standing is because there is a promise over my life. The devil does not like your patience. He designs temptations to distract you from purpose and the reason God has placed you in a place. God still loves you. Don’t carve another god. God is waiting on you to be faithful to Him and know that He is. Believe Him until the 31^st of December. It’s not over until it is over. Babylon is where you found yourself not where you are supposed to be. So don’t sit there. Don’t settle. They said you just have to do it once but that’s a trap from the devil to get you to become a slave to it. Sleep with him, collect the bribe, go to the club once is all they require of you, just once. One night. You don’t need to do it twice. They required of them a song, just one song.

God is and He rewards those who diligently seek Him. Reward here is not salvation. Salvation is a free gift. You don’t call it reward if you didn’t work for it. The reason why you work and endure on the farm is because there is a reward in front of you. That’s faith. Faith means you are working and there is a reward in front of you. So what pleases God is that you are coming to Him recognizing the things that you have to do. And when you come out on the other side and you declare praise to the Lord. People will say Wow, you’ve been translated. But you know what you had done. You walked with God. You pleased God and then you were translated. That’s why I know that there is a translation in front of you. This is your time.

The source of a thing is the value of a thing. If you disengage yourself from your source which is the word of God on your life, you become a copycat. We are exhausted in this generation cos we are copycats. The anointing for originality is missing. Else, they look at you like someone who dropped from heaven yet you attended the same classes. There’s a decision that’s got to be made. Come up hither. I don’t know how many days you’ve got left but you’ve got to know that you are coming out. The only thing they’ll require of you is to make you feel that God is dead and that it’s all over. But after death is resurrection.

Didn’t I tell you that if you wait you will see the glory of God?