Friend or foe? Part 1 - Korah and co

1 Corinthians 15:33-34   33 "Don't be fooled by those who say such things for "bad company corrupts good character" 34  Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don't know God at all" (NLT)

Blessings everybody!

Welcome back to Words of Righteousness. Hope your week has been blessed so far.

Before I get into this post, I just want to thank God for the success of this blog so far. At this point I don't even care about views because I'm just thanking God for the people that have been convicted by my posts. Before I publish each post, I just pray that the post gets to people who NEED to see it. All the praise goes to you God.


This two-part post is just basically going to be about the importance of your association as an Ambassador of Christ.

These are just what I have gotten from listening to sermons and reading the Bible and if anyone has anything to add or disagree, you can message me on Twitter.

As I mentioned in my last post, it's easier to pull someone down than to bring someone up which is why I stressed on the importance of going to Church.

 "Your company determines what accompanies you" #PDAK


Let's look at the story of Korah


Wow.

That's all I have to say when it comes to this story.
God really displayed that He was and is on crUUUDDDDD when it comes to His anointed ones.

Psalm 105:14-15 NKJV -"14 He permitted no one to do them wrong.Yes, He rebuked kings for their sake 15 Saying, "Do not touch My anointed ones, And do my prophets no harm"

Keep this scripture in mind as you read through this post. I'll be referring to it later on.

Now back to Korah. If you turn your Bibles to Numbers 16 (I'm going to be reading this in NIV)
Verse 1 says that Korah, Dathan,Abiram and On became "insolent (showing a rude and arrogant lack of respect) and rose up against Moses". Now, if you don't know who Moses was, Moses was a prophet, the man of God that was leading the Israelites' out of Egypt to the promise land. He was appointed by God.
 Psalm 105:15 (NLT) says "Do not touch my chosen people, and do not hurt my prophets" - in Exodus 3:14, Moses was sent by God. He was chosen therefore he shouldn't be touched.

Again, BACK TO KORAH. I'm going to summarize the story and put scripture references throughout. So Korah and gang weren't happy with fact that Moses was leading them. Their point was that all of them (the people of Israel) too are holy and all of them have God with them. (which is true) But the thing they said that shocked me during my study of this story was in Numbers 16:3(NIV) - "Why then do YOU set YOURSELVES above the Lords assembly".

They thought Moses had elevated himself to lead them......
These people failed to recognize the anointing on Moses and therefore didn't respect him! If you can't see the anointing on a man of God let alone respect it, how is the anointing going to work for you?
This is something that Rev. Dr David Antwi said in his sermon called "It's an issue of Honor" which I will attach below and it is so true! A church can only grow as far as the honor the congregation give to the man/woman of God in charge. Now Korah and co spoke with insolence and therefore disregarded the Godliness on Moses and if we go back to Psalm 105:14-15, although they didn't physically touch Moses, they attempted to touch and undermine the position that God had put him in.

 God was not happy at all - LOOOL

Numbers 16:20-21 (NIV) - "The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, " Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them AT ONCE"


Moses and Aaron were probably like:

"Oh, you wanna do the thing now Lord?"






crrUUUUUD, the Lord said "at once" wasting no time or anything.

Moses and Aaron were near the meeting tent with Korah, Dathan and Abiram  when God said this. But what is key is that Moses and Aaron still pleaded for the rest of the assembly and God told them to tell them move from the tents of Korah ,Dathan and Abiram. Even when they were being disrespected, they put aside their feelings and pleaded just like leaders should. That is what ministry is about.
 Imagine being disrespected in the office that you are in and then feeling convicted to ask for mercy on your offenders behalf??  I know some people would I G N O R E the Spirit.
If anything that shows that Moses and Aaron really knew what God was about and it proves that God made the right decision by picking them.

Now that the separation had taken place, God was ready.

Then Moses said to everyone that this is how they will know that God sent him and that everything he is doing is not his idea: if they die a normal death of old age then God did not send him. However, if God "brings about something totally new and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them,with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt" Numbers 16:30 (NIV)

Contempt - "the feeling that a person or a thing is worthless or beneath consideration"

 Let's pause for a second.

Not respecting God's anointed ones means that you don't respect his decision to appoint them. Yes, maybe not every 'man/woman of God' may have been sent by Him (we've been warned about false prophets)  but sometimes we just can't tell. Jesus said in Matthew 7:22-23 that people will be casting out demons and performing miracles in His name and but on the last day, He will tell them leave his sight because He does not know them. Therefore only He knows those who are fake and who is real really and truly. Especially if they are doing miracles in His name it'll be very hard to discern. 
 If you go ahead and insult someone appointed even if they have lost their way, you will suffer the consequences as mentioned in 1 Samuel 29:9. So let's just keep out mouths shut and focus on the plank in our eyes :)))

BACK TO KORAH AND GOD'S TOTALLY NEW THING


Lo and behold! "the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households and all those ASSOCIATED with Korah, together with their possessions" - Numbers 16:31

God did a new thing and proved that He was not playing around. If you continue to read, you'll see that the people of Israel did NOT learn from this and came out the next morning to grumble and complain against Moses again. Guess what God did? Read on - Numbers 16:45 - don't talk out against God's chosen ones!!

Now I don't know whether those associated with Korah were good people or bad people but the message is clear. God punished those who were associated with Korah too.

Now take time to think...

 Are you associated with anyone that has or are you someone who has spoken bad about a man/woman of God? Whether you believe it or not, God has appointed and anointed people to Shepard us. However, WE do not know who has been anointed and who hasn't. God chastises those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:6) so He will certainly put them on the right track or they will be judged on the last day so why should you take matters into your own hands (or mouth)?

Now, to relate this back to today's title 'Friend or Foe' - on this walk with Christ, we need to be mindful about our association. Are the people around you people who will drag you down by their actions or people who will edify you? If someone is around you and they are gossiping and you just allow it, are you allowing the Christ in you to shine forth? Try and change the topic or if you're more direct, tell them to stop and remind them not to talk about these things around you. You are hosting  Christ in you so you need to be careful about the environment that you are in.

Step away from their tents and move away from their vicinity. Make sure that you are nowhere near them so when God decides to do SOMETHING TOTALLY NEW to them, you're not close enough to be caught up in it.

If you have spoken out against and man/woman of God, please after reading this, go and repent. Don't say you didn't know it was something bad because I have told you now. Don't ignore the conviction.

That's alllll for Part 1.

I'll be back with Part 2 soon, stay blessed and remain focused on Christ during this season :)

To listen to the message 'It's an issue of Honor' click here





Also, if you can, comment whether you would like my posts to be longer or shorter.

Many tenks.

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