Fear and Covenant Proposal
Have you ever had the feeling that God was disappointed with you – or just downright angry with you? It’s a subconscious sense of fear… an awful feeling! Your faith and sense of peace is completely undermined by this perception. But does God feel this way about me when I know I’ve missed the mark?
One summer morning 2013 the Lord started speaking to me about it, and this article was born there in our intimate time together.
He said, “To those who think I hate them, am after them, and that I am angry with them…I have addressed that in my word. Comfort them with these words from Ephesians and Isaiah.”
So I began writing what He said. He took me first to these two scriptures:
1) Ephesians 5:29-30 …No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones!
2) Isaiah 54:5, 9-10
"For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has mercy on you. (NKJ)
Do you know what culture He was coming from? This is covenant language - heavily accented with by a love dialect. I think that very few in the church have caught sight of this. Jesus wanted a marriage relationship - not an angry boss relation to his indentured slave. Just look at the surrounding verses in Ephesians. It’s point blank obvious, the connection made:
- Ephesians 5:28-32 (NKJ)
So husbands ought to love their own wives as (literally) their own bodies. (She is no longer a separate but the two have become one); he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. (Jesus and me)"
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and (Jessica/ your name) the church.
This revelation preserved someone I love very much from dying this summer! I remember sitting there watching them, having to control my own emotions. God said share that passage and, like a life jacket, they locked on to it. Later that person said they felt their body shutting down, and may not have lived otherwise. But faith comes where the will of God is known. Faith is activated by the Word, and things change. (Romans 10:17) Thus this study…
…Then God led me over to Isaiah 54. We are coming back to look at the surrounding verses because:
1. They emphasis the type of relationship God wants
2. He clearly attacks the fear issue of God’s angry with me
Isaiah 54:5, 9-10 “For your Maker is your husband (2 become 1 flesh), the LORD of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; he is called the God of the whole earth… "For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you… nor shall My covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has mercy on you. (NKJ)
This is His standpoint in the relationship forever, even like His rainbow covenant.
God is not an angry, grumpy man. Not a boss trying to fire you! These are images the enemy has suggested for generations until the church accepted it as fact… But a wedding banquet has been prepared and a ring offered.
Even in America a husband and wife wear a wedding ring to declare they are in marriage covenant…Did you notice how serious Jesus took marriage with us, and how intense He longed for us? When Jesus rose from the grave, He could have had an entirely “perfected” body – perfect hands. But He chose, by His choice, to have the nail hole in both His hands. Rings declaring covenant on both His hands! To the universe, all heaven, earth, demons, and hell He declared, this is My Beloved! She is Mine, My Body, one with Me! - To bring a reviling word against her, you’ll have to bring it against me...
Every time Jesus looks at His hands, He remembers. He sees His love for His Beloved, whom He wants to talk too.
Isaiah 49:15-16 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands… (NKJ)
Have you accepted the proposal? The ring has been offered. He wears His for eternity. Have you accepted yours?
Intimately connected to an individual you
Psalms 139:16-18 “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet (I had lived) none of them (Listen, God was able to see an individual you, by name, when Jesus hung naked and rejected. And He wanted you. Saw all your life. And after He rose from the dead had no regrets for what He went through to be able to have you.) How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You. (NKJ)
If you do not believe Jesus loves, you stop. If you believe He’s angry, your faith falls; you hide, even as Adam did. But God sings over you, with bottomless love. I don’t care what you did – even last night. Psalms 42:8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me... (NKJ)
Your mind may shrink and say, “But I have done wrong!” Well, confess it! He’s faithful to forgive. (1 John 1:9) You need to get back into intimacy with Him so you can thrive in the place He’s called you to be. Hiding outside covenant love is not a good place for your mind, health, finances, or relationships…
I must ask, “Have you accepted the proposal?” The ring has been offered. He wears His for eternity. Have you accepted yours? If you believe in your heart Jesus really did die for you and rose again to have covenant with you, and you confess this with your mouth, you shall be saved. You shall come into covenant with God. (Romans 10:9-13).
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