“Yeshua called His twelve disciples and gave them the authority to drive out unclean spirits and to heal every kind of disease and weakness.” Matthew 10:1 So far everything appears to be amazingly good. Never before had there been anything like this until suddenly we recall that Judas Iscariot was included in the number commissioned. He participated fully in their mission and experienced the exhilarating power and glory of God manifested through him. Yet, this same person later chose to betray the One he claimed to serve.
All of this boils down to the fact that there can never be a substitute for placing God first in our lives and walking in genuine closeness to Him. Although to perform miracles in the name of Jesus may be a wonderful privilege, and exercising His authority over the dark hordes of hell needful, it must always be as an outflow rather than the sum total of who we are. Judas was a sad example of the latter and history is littered with countless others just like him.
At the end of the day, we must choose whether to do things His way, in His timing, on His terms or not? Not my will but Your will, relinquishing even our heartfelt dreams for the sake of knowing Him. Sometimes, our reluctant ‘yes’ is accompanied by much kicking and screaming, but that merely reveals our spiritual immaturity rather than a rebellious heart. The point is that anything less than this places us in a precarious position which Peter himself was later to experience.
None of us is immune to the snares which Satan scatters across our pathways, but they need not be anything less than stepping stones to a deeper appreciation of our Lord when we yield our fragile lives unto the One who is our refuge and strength, the
‘All Sufficient One,’ the God of ‘More than Enough!’
Sometimes things do not always make sense, and we wrestle with God, trapped and hemmed in by circumstances out of control which we are forced reluctantly to contend with. The following true story illustrates this point well.
The soldier crouched shin-deep in the mud of the jungle on a sensitive military mission with his platoon. The slightest noise could reveal his position to an enemy ambush and therefore required complete radio silence.
He slithered inch by inch in the mud. Suddenly, he heard a flickering sound and froze in his tracks as he turned and came face to face with a large nine-foot cobra with its fangs exposed braced to attack.
He instantly froze – Jungle survival school taught him that this was the only way to survive an encounter with an irate cobra. The snake continued with his head cocked ready to strike and seemed to lock itself in a hypnotising pose maintaining direct eye
contact with the soldier.
One hour passed agonisingly slowly, then another. The snake held him hostage as every muscle in the soldier’s body screamed out in pain and anguish. It seemed a hopeless situation, impossible to endure yet somehow he did…….
Then, without any warning, after eight hours of unimaginable pain and torment, the snake uncocked its head and slithered away to the thick of the jungle noiselessly and as suddenly as it had appeared.
The soldier’s head dropped as he released himself from his numbed ‘frozen’ position, his body eaten up by insects and leeches. He shuddered, then completely broke down as the full impact of his encounter began to sink in. He had survived…barely.
After a few moments, the soldier sought to reunite with his platoon several hundred metres away but when he finally arrived, he received the shock of his life: each one of them had been slaughtered in a counter-ambush.
A new understanding of his recent encounter with the snake began to sink in. The cobra who had threatened his life and caused him such torment and anguish of body and soul had in fact been the source of his redemption.
Maybe, if you are experiencing a ‘cobra’ in your life right now it is, in fact, an emissary used by God to ultimately preserve your life rather than destroy it! Even though you may be paying a price that seems too high and nothing appears to make sense, never underestimate our Lord and God who is always in full control and loves you with an everlasting love!
