Our daily walk with the Master should be a daily transition from self reliance to total dependence on Him.
It’s pretty difficult to depend upon a concept isn’t it? What is the definition of concept you might ask? Lets check with the online version of the 1828 Noah Webster’s Dictionary.
Concept:
Yes, that is correct… it’s blank. For some reason, though existing since the 16th century, the word concept did not appear in Noah Webster’s dictionary in the early 1800’s. However, the Latin variations of the term did.
The following is the definition of concept as quoted from Vocabulary.com.
“Concept was borrowed from Late Latin conceptus, from Latin concipere “to take in, conceive, receive.” A concept is an idea conceived in the mind. The original meaning of the verb conceive was to take sperm into the womb, and by a later extension of meaning, to take an idea into the mind.”
Basically, a concept is a thought or an idea of the mind. For those of you who enjoy creating as I do, you might begin a project with a ‘concept’ of some sort, but end up with something entirely different than what you originally “thought.”
I have known many fellow believers in Messiah in my lifetime. Some are continuing on, pressing forward in their daily walk with Him, and some are now shipwrecked, abandoning everything they “originally” started out believing. What is it that causes people to veer off the course that leads back Home again? Is it a lack of faith? Is it a lack of endurance, persevering ‘through’, that causes people to give up?
Have you ever been in a place in your walk with Yahushua Messiah, our Savior, where you said, “this wasn’t what I expected it to be,” or maybe, “if I knew it was going to be like this, I would of thought twice about signing up?” I know I have said these exact things in my own walk with Him, however it wasn’t until as of late, I began realizing that the trials, persecutions and testings in my walk with Him are not concepts, but very real and tangible.
If the obstacles along my journey are real, how can I get past them if I only possess a concept (idea) of the One who is suppose to help me get past them? How can I cross the lake from one side to the other, with only a drawing of the boat I plan to use to get across? When does the drawing of the boat become the boat I sit in as I sail across?
King David’s cries for help throughout the Psalms were not birthed from some ‘idea’ of his about a “God” that rescues, but from first hand experience from a very real Person. Read Psalm 18 and find out how real his deliverance was from a very personable Elohim (God).
David could no more depend upon a concept of a Deliverer in his day, than we can depend upon One today – though many of us try. Western thinking, through Greek philosophical ideas “about” ‘God’, have been spread throughout the church system so much so that the ‘real’ Person of the Creator has been lost to a flimsy belief system, built upon the trap door feel good message, opening and swallowing it’s victims before they ever know what hit them.
As the days become increasingly darker, and we find ourselves traveling through the river waters of tribulation, we better make sure that the Elohim “God” we depend upon to keep us from drowning isn’t based upon some “idea” of a deliverer made up in the minds of “religious” man, but upon the realness of a proven relationship with a very trustworthy Person!
How do I know this?
Look at the first part of Isaiah 43:3 – “For I am Yahuweh your Elohim, the Set-apart One of Israel, your Savior;”
You cannot depend upon Him to rescue you through perilous times, until He becomes YOUR rescuer in peaceful times.
Fairy tale land believers who have built their lives around a conceptual belief system of a “God” who awaits to beckon to their every call in pouring out the good, have a rude awaking coming. When this fairy tale deliverer fails to show up, what happens to their belief system? What happens when Messiah moves His REAL Kingdom into this realm? Every “concept” will bow to Him and only what is real will reign with Him.
Are you trusting in an “idea” or a real Person? How do I know you may ask? The next time you pass through a fiery trial in your life, check your clothes. Are they burned? Do you smell like smoke? If not, your trusting in a Person – a very personal One Who will see you THROUGH, walking WITH you, to ensure not even the hairs of your head are singed.
If your trusting in an “idea”, no worries – your clothes too, are not burned and you also are free from the smell of smoke. “How is this possible,” you may ask?
…Because you never entered the furnace.
“And whoever does not fall down and do obeisance is immediately thrown into the midst of a burning furnace of fire.”
Daniel 3:6
