The Check of God

Matthew 5:23-24 NIV

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Who Makes Your Decisions?

The other day I was driving on the freeway and a car was behind me in the left hand lane.  Suddenly he sped up and cut in front of me but then slowed down so that I had to put on my brakes.  I was a bit perturbed because he could have just as easily slid behind me if he had to get in my lane.  When I found myself driving five miles an hour slower because of the guy who had pulled in front of me, I began to stew over it until it became an obsessing thought.  Why did that guy have to be in front?  Was it an “alpha dog” thing?  I felt like my manhood had been stolen from me by this one simple act of this guy getting ahead of me on the freeway.  Of course my thinking about this was irrational and of course I was being immature but in a flash, I shifted lanes, punched the gas and broke into the lead, jumping in front of the guy who had cut in front of me.  Did I feel happy about what I did?  For a moment…for a moment I was quite puffed up and filled with pride…and then I just felt stupid and embarrassed and was compelled to ask God to forgive me!

Each of us has a disposition that is rooted in Sin.  Sin impacts our personality in a wide range of ways and for some of us it means we are prone to selfishness, for others greed, of using people for selfish ends or being easily insulted or angered.  Sin can lead to us being cold and indifferent to the suffering we see, make lust our dominant thought process, strip us of our compassion and honesty.  Sin wrecks our true sense of self; many despise themselves because of how Sin has affected them, others feel inadequate and generally depressed. Sin isolates us from God and from each other and makes our disposition self-absorbed and cuts us off from the spiritual realm.  By far, the most damaging effect of Sin upon our disposition is it makes us unconcerned about sin’s impact and makes us true rebels against God’s Kingdom.

There is an under-appreciated work the Holy Spirit does in us and that is He makes us aware of where we have gone wrong…how we have veered off-course.  Jesus hinted at this in the Sermon on the Mount.  "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24 NIV)  The Holy Spirit checks us…causes us to pause and think about some way that we have been wrong.  In this case it is with regard to disappointing and angering those close to us.  We see in the New Testament numerous examples of how the Spirit of God changes the disposition of His people by checking their behavior.

The Apostle Paul early in his life had the dangerous linking of a violent temper, self-righteousness and the authority to wield them as he wished.  Many have bad tempers and quite a few are self-righteous but the combination of the law and social constraints keep them both in check usually.  Paul was not encumbered by either and so he was free to unleash his self-righteous fury at will.  Paul’s wrath was directed at Christians and like Stalin and Hitler and Saddam Hussein after him, he was able to let his anger determine his actions; he was given authority to beat, imprison and kill anyone he wished.  After Paul was born again and God began working throughout his personality, his temper and self-righteousness continued to plague him.  In Acts 15:37-39 we see their lingering power over Paul.  Paul was mad at a colleague who deserted him and Barnabas on their previous mission trip and he refused to forgive his actions.  Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.  They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. (NIV)

Not much later, that temper flashed again and many would say justifiably so when Paul was being questioned by the members of the Sanhedrin when the Roman commander asked the Jewish leaders to prove the rightfulness of their charges against him. In the midst of the proceedings, the Jewish High priest, who was not known to Paul, became angry with something Paul said and ordered Paul be punched in the mouth.  Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day."  At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. (Acts 23:1-2 NIV)  Instantly, Paul responded.  Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"  (Acts 23:3 NIV)  When Paul was told that he had just insulted the Jewish High Priest, Paul backed off from his angry indignation.   Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'" (Acts 23:5 NIV) 

Now a critic of Paul might argue that the Apostle would have acted upon his anger if he had the power to do so.  What checked his temper was the force behind the Sanhedrin.  Yet, Paul was not thinking of attacking the High Priest physically, his temper only took him as far as the insult, a similar one to what Jesus used when confronting the Pharisees.  When Paul realized that he was angry with the High Priest, the Holy Spirit through the scripture checked him and he immediately backed off his temper. There is a moment when a window opens and God’s light can either come into us and fill us with His presence or we let the window close and nothing of God touches us. It is when the check of God reaches our mind and we choose to heed it or ignore it that we stand on the edge of receiving a deeper work of the Holy Spirit in us or lose that instant of intimacy with God.

The Bible often points back to the critical moment when the people of God had to decide if they were going to trust God with their lives and enter the Promised Land or close the door to Him and silence God’s voice in them.  They decided to go it on their own without God.  Of course they never would have said they were closing themselves off to God.  The Hebrews were much too religious for that.  As far as they were concerned, they were wisely not putting themselves or their families at risk.  They were still open to the Lord working with them.  He could talk to them later if He wished…that was acceptable to them.  But God doesn’t work that way something serious and terrible happened when they refused to let the check of God have its way with them.  So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.  That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.'  So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" (Hebrews 3:7-11 NIV)

The check of God is the door that opens the way for us to enter our Lord’s rest.  “Rest” in Scripture is not some sort of spiritual or even physical “lying around”.  It is reaching the sweet spot with Christ where we are secure in Him and despite all the chaos around us, we are at peace because we have obeyed the check of God.  Let’s examine a very practical example of this.  In Acts 16 we are told that Paul and his fellow missionaries did not go into the province of Asia because the Holy Spirit checked them.  It is not that they didn’t really want to go and preach in Asia, but the Holy Spirit somehow made it clear to them not to go into the Roman province of Asia.  Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.  (Acts 16:6 NIV)  Later, Paul did go into Asia when the Holy Spirit was no longer checking him.  He (Paul) sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer. (Acts 19:22 NIV)  In both situations God’s peace was with Paul and his companions because they were aligned with God.

Let’s now look at the Holy Spirit check from a different angle. The Spirit can also check us to do something.  "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.  I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.  (Acts 20:22-23 NIV)  So Paul was directed somehow, and we do not know how, but somehow by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem.  In this check of the Holy Spirit, he also was cautioned about what he would encounter there.  Later, a prophet from Judea traveled up to meet Paul in Caesarea and confirmed what the Spirit had already told Paul.  After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.  Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"  (Acts 21:10-11 NIV)  When the people of the church heard this warning they literally wept and begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem; they loved him so much.  But Paul was as calm and peaceful as a daisy in the springtime sun.  That is how it is when we let the check of the Holy Spirit have its way with us.  No matter what He might tell us, we are settled and unperturbed when in faith we obediently let the check of the Holy Spirit have its way in us.

It cannot be said how the check of God will come to you.  It may be through a dream, or a conversation, a moment of reflection while driving in the car or most likely a quiet moment while reading the Bible but the Holy Spirit will make known to you something that aligns perfectly with Scripture and it is going to be totally up to you how you respond to the check and then what happens next is in God’s hand.  You will have His rest like Israel could have had if you let the check of the Holy Spirit have its way with you…or you could be brought into turmoil by turning away.  No one is more peaceful and content than the Christian who is letting the Holy Spirit have His way in his or her life but the converse is also true.  No one is more miserable than the Christian fighting the prompt of God and turning aside when the Holy Spirit has made something clear.  Our Lord’s promise to you could not be any clearer.  You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3 NIV)  It is in your hands whether you have our Lord’s perfect peace at any moment.  With steely resolve, decide you will do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do and God’s peace will carry you through every twist and turn of your day.