Good Morning John,
In reading my Old Testament* assignment in Kings 15:14, I had a thought–not sure if it’s right but just going to ask: Asa’s heart was perfect with God all his days yet there were still high places, which God had forbidden. I thought of you, John. You are doing the work Jesus gave you to do with a perfect heart, yet there are still high places (churches), because as was recently said, Jesus has not yet anointed you or anyone to take down those high places.
Asa did what God told him to do with a perfect heart, but maybe he wasn’t anointed to take down those high places mentioned?
Thank you,
Bess
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That is right, Bess. That verse struck me, too, when I was young in the Lord. I even preached a sermon about it in the old farmhouse. And it gave me a different, more godly attitude toward some mighty men of God, such as Oral Roberts. The Lord was showing me that men can have perfect hearts, yet God’s people can be so addicted to a wrong thing that God leads those men to leave them alone in that area.
God said that Asa’s heart was perfect with Him. And God said that the hated high places of worship were not destroyed by Asa. Put the two together, and what other conclusion can we reach but that God’s people can develop traditions that God hates, and become so attached to them that God will not force them to abandon them?
That’s how it looks to me. I know that God hates church-based religion, and I know that God’s people are devoted to it. And I think that He expects us to love His people as He does, that is, to have nothing to do with their addiction, but also hold nothing against them.
Thank you for asking. It is an important lesson for us to learn who have been taught the truth by Jesus.
Pastor John