Chapter 5: What Does God Want?

God Pursues His Family | Meditation on a Book | What Does God Want? Series | Jesus Christ | Christianity

Featured image credit: The return of the prodigal son, icon written: 2018 by Elena Murariu | her website

We’re half way through the book, dear readers.
Thank you for continuing on this journey with me. It’s my hope that you may be able to use some of these posts in this series to share your faith with others.

Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Summary and Preview | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9

God Pursues His Family

Chapter 5 in “What Does God Want?” by Dr. Michael S. Heiser has these three sections:

• The Beginning of the End

• Supernatural Infiltration

• You’ve Got No Business Being Here

Father God raised His Son from the dead. Jesus left an empty tomb behind then ascended back to heaven to sit down at His Father’s right hand. And when He did, His power and authority in the heavenly realms was declared to His enemies. Jesus’ work is the beginning of the end of the evil spiritual beings’ horrible hold on humans.

In Father God’s pursuit of His family, He sent the Holy Spirit to live in those who believed and were loyal only to Him. The indwelling Holy Spirit in Jesus followers is God’s supernatural infiltration into this world that’s under the painful rule of the evil ones. Imagine it all! Emmanuel, God with us, walked this Earth, and then He remains here by living within His followers. Perhaps this has angered the evil ones?

Yes.

There is a consequence with the Holy Spirit’s arrival in God’s redeemed people: war…spiritual warfare. For through the Holy Spirit, God challenges our enemies’ battle lines, and basically He’s letting them know that they’ve got no business being here.

Let’s back track a little.

Remember the tower of Babel? God’s image bearers decided they wanted their own way, straying from God’s ways:

Genesis 11:4, verse 8-9 (NIV)
4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

And, this scattering created various nations that were then ruled by the “sons of God”, the lesser and created bene elohim, because they had rebelled against God:

Deuteronomy 32:8-9 (ESV)

8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,

when he divided mankind,

he fixed the borders of the peoples

according to the number of the sons of God.

9 But the Lord's portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted heritage.

The fragmentation of humankind after the flood into nations occurred at the Tower of Babel incident (Gen 11:1–9; compare Gen 10). Deuteronomy 32:8–9 (compare 4:19–20) notes that Yahweh then chose Israel for Himself as a nation. The nations would have no direct relationship with Yahweh, but instead were allowed to worship and follow other gods. Other passages envision the future reversal of this situation with the nations coming to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh (e.g., Isa 2:2–4; compare Rom 1:16–17; 3:29, 9).

John D. Barry, Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar, Faithlife Study Bible, (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Dt 32:8.

on Logos.com (register for free for the free version 9)

In the next chapter, Genesis 12, God and Abraham entered into a covenant, creating His chosen people, the nation of Israel. Yahweh was the God of Israel alone, while the other nations were ruled by the lesser and created gods (bene elohim).

But, God always wanted His family back, all of His image bearers, and after the Son of God sat down at the Father’s right hand in the heavenly realms, asserting His authority over all nations on Earth, Pentecost occurred, as Jesus had promised His disciples in Acts chapter 1.

Pentecost not only gave Jesus’ disciples the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Spirit gave them the gift of speech in many languages. Why was this important? Because Jerusalem was filled with visitors during the holy feast of Passover. Who were these visitors? They were descendants of the ancient exiled Israelites, the Old Testament Jews, who had lived for many generations in the nations ruled by the lesser and created gods.

Through Peter’s preaching (Acts 2:14-41), through this supernatural infiltration by the Holy Spirit, the Lord declared to the rulers of the age, the principalities and the powers, that Pentecost announced the beginning of the end of their rule, and that they no longer had any business with His image bearers. Through the Holy Spirit’s power and gift of speaking in other languages, the Lord declared to approximately 3,000 Jews visiting Jerusalem for Passover that the day of salvation had finally come.

Acts chapter 2 (ESV)
Select link to read the entire chapter

And, this day of salvation was for everyone, not just for the Jews. Jesus had told His disciples:

Acts 1:8 (ESV)
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” [ Emphasis mine ]

This day of salvation, with the unleashing of God’s Holy Spirit, is for the rest of us…those in nations ruled by the lesser, created gods (bene elohim). And that means war, a spiritual war, for God is relentless in His pursuit of His family. He wants His family back. The approximately 3,000 Jews who heard the gospel, the good news of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus, the Messiah), went home to their nations as baptized Jesus followers. They spread God’s word not only among their fellow Jews in these “divorced” nations but to any Gentiles (pagans) who would listen. They participated in Jesus’ Great Commission!

Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV) [ Emphasis mine ]
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus declared to the lesser and created gods (bene elohim) that their time was up, their authority over the other nations was over (see above Deut. 32:8). Jesus is Messiah for everyone and the rightful Lord of every single nation on Earth. And, we are to live in this truth that Jesus has proclaimed. We are to have the mind of Christ and not listen to the corrupt lies of our spiritual enemies. Paul makes this point in many of his letters, and chapter 2 of Colossians is only one of many words of encouragement:

Colossians 2:8-10, verse 15 (ESV)

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Yahweh continues to pursue His image bearers, so He can have His family back. The Son of God’s victorious authority rules over all beings in both the heavenly and the earthly realms. The Holy Spirit empowers us and encourages us as we partner with the Lord in fulfilling His Great Commission. As we do, the kingdom of God increases and the realms of the rebellious ones decrease.

Meditations on Chapter 5

This chapter comforted me during the tragic times the past couple of weeks as the world teeters on the edge of more and more wars (Matthew 24:6 NKJV). I found comfort in the reminders that God our creator always comes back to His rebellious people, always pursuing them in love. He always seeks their repentance, their belief in Him, and loyalty only to Him, the One who created them.

No matter life’s circumstances, He’s always faithful in His commitment to get His family back. And, He seeks us to partner with Him.

The facts are that when we believed in Jesus and pledged our loyalty to Him through baptism, we were conscripted by Him into His army, to be His soldiers in an often-difficult spiritual war, battling for the souls of those who God pursues. The rebellious and evil ones do not just roll over and surrender; they fight back, and hard. But Jesus has already won and He is now the ultimate authority over heaven and Earth whether our enemies want to accept that or not. He encourages me to keep this in mind and to press ahead in His power.

And so we fight: through prayer for the lost and through sharing our Jesus story with others. As I venture out in His Great Commission, I take comfort in knowing He wants me to join Him as He pursues the image bearers He loves so deeply.

The result, their salvation, is His job and He’ll take care of that.

John 16:33 (ESV)
”I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Your Turn

Dear reader, if you’re a Jesus follower, God pursued you because He cherished you. He wanted you set free from your sins and from death. He wanted you back in His family. Question: Are you willing to pray for increased boldness so you can help your Father bring back into His family more lost image bearers?

Dear reader, if you’re not yet a Jesus follower, God is pursuing you because He loves you, He cherishes you. He made you and wants to set you free from your sins and from death. He wants you back in His family. Question: Are you willing to pray to Jesus and ask Him to reveal Himself to you?

Soli Deo Gloria!

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