I Will I Will I Will I Will I Will

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #132u, Re-Written 17OCT09

The Disciples’ Prayer—Part Twenty One: I Will I Will I Will I Will I Will

by rev dave c

Mt 6:9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "`Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one' (NIV).

Jude 11: Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion (NIV).

Korah’s “I Will!” Jude verse 11 warns us to be careful around those who are destined for destruction due to falling into the sin of Korah’s rebellion. The story of Korah is to be found in Numbers, Chapter Sixteen, and it takes the history of rebellion back to somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 B.C.. Briefly, Korah led a faction of Israelite leaders in an act of envious dissention against Moses and Aaron. Numbers 16:1-3 sums up the situation, Korah...became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly?" (NIV)

The “reward” for the 250 well respected men who allowed Korah to poison their attitudes toward the Godly authority granted to Moses and Aaron was first to witness their families and all of their possessions being swallowed up as the earth split open beneath them...and then to be personally consumed by fire from Heaven. In the same way that God, through Moses, warned the Tribes of Israel to move away from the tents of the offenders before they were destroyed, we need to separate ourselves from anyone and everyone who is sowing and watering the seeds of dissention and rebellion against God’s will through His anointed leadership—lest we are consumed by the judgment that falls upon that person, or upon those people. Korah symbolizes the sin of rebellion against Godly authority.

Balaam’s “I Will!” “The profit of Balaam’s error” (Jude 11) is to be distinguished from “the way of Balaam” (2Pet. 2:15), and “the teaching of Balaam” (Rev. 2:14). The story of Balaam is found in Numbers 22-31, and the “profit of his error” specifically refers to his drive to gain payment as a prophet for hire. For all of us, this payment could be socio-political leverage, personal position, and/or self-esteem—as well as material gain, per se. Balaam represents the sin of presumptuous greed in the face of God’s gifts.

Cain’s “I Will!” Jude 11 also warns us concerning the way of Cain. This takes us back unknown thousands of years to Genesis 4:3-7, In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast (NIV).

We know that Cain gave in to his wounded pride and went on to murder his brother, Abel, and he was marked by God and banished to become a restless wanderer on the earth (Ge 4:12; NIV). Cain had allowed the temptation of bitterness born of envy to first fill his emotions, then his thoughts, and finally his innermost being until the poison of hate consumed him. This in spite of God’s showing Cain the way out of the terrible trap that was before him. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" (Ge 4:7; ;NIV). Obedience is the key to escaping the sin at our door. The way of Cain is the way of man’s religion born of pride.

Satan’s, “I Will!” Although we have taken the history of rebellion, greed, and pride back to just after the fall from the Garden of Eden, we can push yet further back to somewhere near “In the beginning, God created….” Isaiah 14:12-14 is generally held as a recounting of the fall of the morning star, Lucifer, and his becoming the Satan; that is, the Adversary. How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High" (Is 14:13&14; NIV).

“I will...I will...I will...I will...I will” pretty well sums up Lucifer’s spiritual illness—a sickness that, according to the Book of Revelation, proves to be eternally fatal. Consider Satan’s declaration of, “I will,” to that of Christ in John 6:38 where Jesus says, ...I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. Please compare the Devil’s determination to make himself like the Most High, to God’s statement in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” It is exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit to transform our lives into the likeness of the Son in accordance to the Father’s will (2Co 3:18). When we give in to the sin that crouches at our door, we are not worshiping the Great “I Am,” we are worshiping at the altar of the Murderous “I Will.”