21-Day Pilgrimage Devotions Days 4 – 6

Come, join in devotions where we discuss God’s prescribed burnings, His requirement for us to lose our minds as we conform to His image.

January 5

Day 4

Focus: Prescribed Burning

Scripture: 2 Samuel 24:10-15  Living Bible

¹⁰ But after he had taken the census [of his men of war], David’s conscience began to bother him, and he said to the Lord, “What I did was very wrong. Please forgive this foolish wickedness of mine.”

¹¹ The next morning the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David’s contact with God.

The Lord said to Gad, ¹² “Tell David that I will give him three choices.”

¹³ So Gad came to David and asked him, “Will you choose seven years of famine across the land, or to flee for three months before your enemies, or to submit to three days of plague? Think this over and let me know what answer to give to God.”

¹⁴ “This is a hard decision,” David replied, “but it is better to fall into the hand of the Lord (for his mercy is great) than into the hands of men.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel that morning, and it lasted for three days; and seventy thousand men died throughout the nation.

The Ailment

What was David’s error here?

When David counted the men in his army, he moved from faith in God to win Israel’s battles to believing in the strength of his army. He did not consider what it took to make him a mighty leader of a mighty army nor the counsel he had with God in previous battles. He began to gaze at his own stature and prowess instead the presence of God.

God Writes a Prescription – Prescribed Burning

What precipitates Prescribed Burning?

Answer: A condition of error exists that prevents growth.

Some of us recall Smokey the Bear whose motto was—“Only YOU can prevent forest fires!”  Smokey the Bear was referring to fires ignited by accident that get out of control. These fires rage dislodging wildlife and people from their homes.  This fire is referred to as uncontrolled burning.

God’s Prescription – Restore and Liberate

There is another kind of fire that is set intentionally by foresters.  Deliberate burning is called prescribed or controlled burning.  Prescribed Burning is a technique used in forest management for two reasons:

1. To Restore is to clean up the forest floor.
   • Foresters scan the forest floor and see and abundance of dead dry leaves, branches and overgrowth of tangled thickets which indicates the absence of life or activity.
2. To Liberate seed by stimulating germination.
   • Sequoia seeds remain dormant until fire breaks down the seed’s coating. Fire breaks down the outer coating and allows the shell to open up and release the seed.

A Time of Restoration

Just as the dead leaves and branches and thickets cover the floor of the forest so is the same with God’s people that need restoration. The dead leaves and branches represent those that were once alive and bore fruit but are now enveloped with the things and ways of the world.  The Mighty Forester of all Creation prescribes a burning to destroy all dead and unproductive things in your life. 

After the fire, some plants will begin to grow a backup shoot.  So, where there was an insect infested plant there is now a new healthy shoot for a new beginning. The point here is that trials may come to reveal those things that are dead in your life or those foreign bodies that have attached themselves to you that are slowly consuming the life out of you. It’s time to burn them off, it’s time for restoration!

A Time of Liberation

For those who are pregnant with seed of the Spirit, God has spoken a gift into your life as to how you should serve humanity. For some of you it has not yet evolved in its fullness. Just as the sequoia seed is liberated from its shell with prescribed burning so will you be liberated from sleep and stagnation.  The shell that prevents you from action may be lack of assertion, lack of confidence or lack of direction.  It may even be rebellion.  But it’s God’s year and He is going to liberate you! Chose to be liberated rather than consumed.

Prescribed Burning reaps Indescribable Blessings! 

Worship Song: Set A Fire  

Petition:

Pray that the light from Heaven shine within you and magnify those areas where we tend to get ahead of ourselves and God. Identify those tendencies where our trust in God takes a backseat to our ego, our connections and others’ opinions. You, Lord are not our co-pilot, you are THE PILOT of our lives.

Identify infestations and overgrowth in your life. Understand when the Mighty Forester sends fire it is to purge everything that hinders your growth.

Thanksgiving:

Lord we thank you for your patience with us. That even through correction, you are loving us. There is no place we would rather be than in your love. Set a fire Lord!

Praise Song: Open the Eyes of My Heart  

Meditation:

For those of you still struggling with the thought of Prescribed Burning, consider the following.

God calls for us to be perfect and unhindered.

Matthew 5:48 Amplified Bible

⁴⁸ You, therefore, will be perfect [growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life], as your heavenly Father is perfect

Perfection is relative. A baby is a perfect baby although they waste on themselves, scream in inappropriate places and have no regard for what anyone else’s plans are. All of these things are acceptable for babies. However, as babies grow and, let’s say reach 5 years of age, they need to relinquish the use of their pacifier. Pacifiers that were perfectly okay in previous years becomes a crutch in year 4.  Taking the pacifier away is cruel and unusual punishment from the child’s perspective but from the adult’s perspective, it is prescriptive. Got it? I hope this help you process this devotion better.

Journal:

Heavy but necessary stuff today! Not for the faint of heart. Now’s the time to write what you are thinking. Your questions, your confusions. I have confidence, my God has his way of answering your questions. Feel free to post a question in the comment section and I’ll do my best to answer.

End Day 4:  Shofar

 

January 6

Day 5

Focus: Lose Your Mind

Scripture:  Mark 10: 17-25 Living Bible

¹⁷ As he [Jesus] was starting out on a trip, a man came running to him and knelt down and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to get to heaven?”

¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good! ¹⁹ But as for your question—you know the commandments: don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, respect your father and mother.”

²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve never once^[a] broken a single one of those laws.”

²¹ Jesus felt genuine love for this man as he looked at him. “You lack only one thing,” he told him; “go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor—and you shall have treasure in heaven—and come, follow me.”

²² Then the man’s face fell, and he went sadly away, for he was very rich.

²³ Jesus watched him go, then turned around and said to his disciples, “It’s almost impossible for the rich to get into the Kingdom of God!”

²⁴ This amazed them. So Jesus said it again: “Dear children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches^[b] to enter the Kingdom of God. ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Christianity 101

Today many of us are past Christianity 101. We acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and we consider ourselves good hearted people following the principles of the Bible. As long as expectations fall within traditional norms, and does not cause a departure from our comfort zones we are okay.

Jesus looked on the rich man, considered his request told him to follow on one condition. The condition was that in order to go where Jesus goes, sit where Jesus sits, the rich man must break a stronghold in his life. The stronghold being his possessions.

I wonder, did Jesus see into the future that if this man followed him with his accountant and blueberry in tow that he could not commit to the task at hand? The rich man could not see past his personal wealth. The weight of his wallet outweighed his desire to ascend into God’s glory. He majored on the fruits of his gift and not the reason he was given the gift of wealth!

It’s All in the Mind

The rich man’s mind was compartmentalized.

To him, worship was separate from his riches. God has his place, and his possessions occupied another place. Separate and not necessarily equal. That is what he thought.

Is that our problem also? Mentally, do we make separate rooms for certain things erroneously thinking one has nothing to do with the other? But no, my friend, they are connected.  A position you take on one issue will definitely impact other seemingly unrelated areas in your life however slight it may be.

Was Jesus asking too much of the rich man? Is he requiring too much of us? After all, who takes off and leaves everything? Let’s see if there are some biblical examples.

• Peter the Apostle left his fishing business
• Matthew the Apostle left his lucrative tax collecting job
• Luke the Apostle left his medical practice

All of these left a place, a station in life, but they did not leave the gift that was given to them. They now used their gifts in support of reaching lost souls.

To Find Yourself in the Glory of God Requires You to Lose Your Mind

Losing Your Mind

Phil 2:5 King James

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8: 5-8  Amplified Bible

⁵ For those who are living according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh [which gratify the body], but those who are living according to the Spirit, [set their minds on] the things of the Spirit [His will and purpose]. 

⁶ Now the mind of the flesh is death [both now and forever—because it pursues sin]; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace [the spiritual well-being that comes from walking with God—both now and forever]; 

⁷ the mind of the flesh [with its sinful pursuits] is actively hostile to God. It does not submit itself to God’s law, since it cannot, 

⁸ and those who are in the flesh [living a life that caters to sinful appetites and impulses] cannot please God.

But Marilyn, you might ask, who in the Bible lost their minds? I’m glad you asked.

• Gideon and 300 men fought a battle with Kool-Aid pitchers and candles. Judges 7
• Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down to the image of Nebuchadnezzar at the threat of death. Daniel 3
• Joseph married a woman who claimed to be pregnant by a spirit. Matthew 1:18-25
• Jehoshaphat armed his soldiers with hymn books as they marched to battle. 2 Chronicles 20:1-29
• Hosea knowingly married a working prostitute. Hosea 1
• Jesus stood outside of the tomb of a man who had been dead for four days, called his name and expected him to hear it. John 11

In everything that is considered normal, these folks lost their minds!

Losing your Mind Costs

David said in 2 Samuel 24:24, Living Bible

²⁴ But the king [King David] said to Araunah, “No, I will not have it as a gift. I will buy it, for I don’t want to offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that have cost me nothing.”

When the body of Christ, the Church, loses its mind, it costs. It costs to say to the Lord ‘consume me, take control, all of You and none of me’.

At moments when God speaks to you, especially when He gives directions that seem rather odd or untimely, He is in fact offering you a unique opportunity to share in His Glory.

Because,

• Gideon and 300 men won the battle with Kool-Aid pitchers
• Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stood in the midst of a fiery furnace communing with the Son of God
• Joseph married Mary and raised the Son the God, our Savior
• Jehoshaphat’s army sung their way to victory
• Hosea’s love for his wife saved her from the judgement she was due and emulated God’s love for us
• Jesus caused Lazarus to rise up just in time for dinner

Glory happens when you lose your mind and gain Christ’s.

I dare you to lose your mind! Totally surrender! Tear down your strongholds, give up your secret compartments and give in to the will of God for you!

Worship Song: Give Myself Away

Petition:

Lord help us to know that following you is an act of worship.  Worship, who we are and what we own (own, I say this tongue in cheek) is not mutually exclusive from each other. We acknowledge that you gave us all things good. Help us to be good stewards of what was given so that it may be multiplied and used to perpetuate the gospel and your kingdom. We seek your kingdom first because you promise to add everything else we need.

Thanksgiving:

Thank you Father, for this time in worship. We thank you that no matter how short we come of your glory you send grace to bring us the rest of the way. You’re an awesome Father!

Praise Song: Way Maker

Meditation/Journal:

Take some time think about what may be a nagging thought in the back of your mind. Present it to God. Write what comes to mind. The important thing is that you are in communion with God.

End Day 5:  Shofar

 

January 7

Day 6

Focus: Made in His Image

Scripture: Genesis 1: 26-28 Living Bible

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make a man—someone like ourselves,* to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas.”

²⁷ So God made man like his Maker.
Like God did God make man;
Man and maid did he make them.

²⁸ And God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals.

God was the first to initiate the practice of making images. The theological perspective of being made in His image is that man was made a moral, ethical and intellectual being. However, these characteristics can also be ascribed to angels. What then is the difference between man and angels besides physical brute strength and the ability to transport self from one atmosphere to another?

Humankind were made as images of God to represent God’s reign on earth. In the ancient Middle East when pharaohs conquered a region, they would make statues of themselves and place them throughout the land to denote their rule and reign.

Pharaoh’s image could represent his power by symbol only. God’s “images” were given life, and power was transferred from God to those living images. Humankind was given dominion over the earth. Likewise, they were also given power to pro-create unlike the stone or marble images of pharaohs.

The Spoken Word

God created by speaking words. There was void, emptiness, turmoil, and chaos in the earth. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the world to execute the words of God making all things “good”.

We also create with our spoken words. We can create as well as destroy.

Proverbs 18:21

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

James 3:5

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

God has gifted intelligence and power to His living images. How has this been demonstrated throughout history?

• Man is the single, solitary threat to every animal/living thing on the earth – creatures are subject the man
• His intelligence evolved a simple stone implement to earth moving machines like backhoes, etc
• Simple mud shelters evolved into sky scrapers, mansions, etc
• Simple skin covered canoes and horses for transportation have evolved into cars, supersonic jets, trains and spacecraft

So man has the ability to dissect a problem and implement a solution superior to any animal on earth. Isn’t this action like that of God in creation?

The Power of Words

As Christians when Jesus returned to Heaven, he left us the Holy Spirit. Before Christ, we simply spoke creating with intelligence in absence of spirit. Today we add to our intelligence, faith. We now speak by faith in the face of our circumstances to change them. Those that understand we represent God on earth,

• we can speak life or death
• we can speak to our circumstances
• we speak to the mountains in our lives
• we can endure through anything that comes our way (as Jesus Christ did)

If we can do this, then we are the mirror image of Jesus Christ that grows sharper every day.

And God says “it is good.”

Worship Song: Good Father

Petition:

Pray that you always remain aware of whose image you are. Yes, Christ looks just like you! Pray that the words of your mouth heal not hurt, create and not destroy.

Pray that you display the fruits of His image,

Galatians 5:22-23 Living Bible

²² But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  

²³ gentleness and self-control; and here there is no conflict with Jewish laws

We pray that we carry the weight of your glory as you have purposed from the beginning and that we do not make you ashamed but bring you joy.

Thanksgiving:

Lord thank you for thinking us worthy to be made in your image. What are we that you are so mindful of us, that you love us so! Thank you for your love, your forgiveness and mercy!

Praise Song: Reckless Love

Meditation/Journal:

Give some time to meditate on who you are and how you are evolving. Consider those you have power over. Is it good for them? Reflect Christ.

 

End Day 6:  Shofar