Making Ourselves Stupider

This is the Truth Network. The title is so interesting, Making Ourselves Stupider. And believe me, I've not escaped good grammar here, which would probably be more stupid.

I'm using a literal expression here, making ourselves stupider. And I'm taking this wording directly from something written by C. S. Lewis. You've heard me say, I am fond of his writings. So thankful for his insight into God's Word, his insight into Christianity, a deep thinker for sure. But just for the sake of time, let me just say that in his depiction of animal creatures as he was using them for symbolism, this book, A Year with Aslan by C. S. Lewis, Aslan, of course, being the lion figure from the Chronicles of Narnia. Let me just read to you so that you can get the full appreciation of a thought that I am adding to our podcast today.

Reading from A Year with Aslan. When the lion had first begun singing long ago, when it was still quite dark, Uncle Andrew had realized that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think or feel. Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion, only a lion, as he said to himself, he tried his hardest to make believe that it wasn't singing that he was hearing and never had been singing, only roaring, as any lion might in any zoo in our own world. Of course, it can't really have been singing, he thought. I must have imagined it.

I've been letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing? And the longer and more beautifully the lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring.

Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan's song. Soon he couldn't have heard anything else even if he had wanted to. And when at last the lion spoke and said, Narnia, awake, he didn't hear any words. He only heard a snarl.

And when the beast spoke in answer, he heard only barkings, growlings, baying, and howlings. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. This is happening in our world. It's happening in the church. And the word speaks specifically here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 11 where we read, For this reason God will send them a strong delusion so that they will believe a lie. Believe the lie. The present application of course is that seeing things in our world unfold, many times people are looking the other way.

They're preferring a response of their own making, something that preserves the status quo. And like Uncle Andrew in this reading from C.S. Lewis about the story of Aslan, the lion was actually singing, but the man could only hear the roar and was unable to ever accommodate the belief that there was a song instead of a roar. And he was diminished ultimately to barkings, growlings, baying, and howlings as the sound, sounds that he could take in.

He couldn't hear the song. It's an excellent point because you see how we seek to preserve the status quo and to preserve what we want to believe. We'll think about that tomorrow so to speak when all around us these signs of this time are not only unfolding before us, in some ways exploding all around us. And my encouragement for us is that we prefer and choose to hear the sound, the word, even if it be a warning spoken by the Lord rather than insisting that we hear the sound we can accommodate, can explain, are familiar with, and will sustain us. In the last days they continued marrying and giving in marriage, buying and selling, on and on. The status quo.

So here's the point. God is dealing with you. He is speaking to you. Prophetically we can say that your destiny is in the balance. Your future is in the balance.

The destiny and future of your family and of the individual members of your family is at stake. And as God is dealing, rather than looking the other way, preferring a response that you can imagine, something that you can manage as well, the point really is that God is dealing with you, with His church, and it is so important for you to open your eyes and see for real that the lion is singing. He can roar, but now the lion is singing.

It is a sound that is not possible for the lion in and of himself. It is a supernatural element. A supernatural release in a supernatural time. And now more than ever, now more importantly than ever, keep your eyes on Israel. Specifically the mountains of Israel.

Judea and Samaria. I love something that Rick Renner has said. It's a principle you've heard more than once, but Rick has said it beautifully and I quote, declaring the Word of God in faith is the highest level of spiritual warfare there is. That's why it's especially important for the believer and leaders who have God's Word planted deeply within the heart to stand and to continue standing at your post without moving an inch.

For those of you who are seasoned warriors, I would say don't even flinch an inch. So as Rick has said it so beautifully, there's a warfare that you experience now because you hear the lion singing and to process the possibility of a lion who can only roar that is now singing to process that from the perspective that God has. Declaring His Word in faith is your highest level of spiritual warfare. And the believer and the leader can rise to process, can rise to stand in that place of holding fast to God's Word which will lead you to, and I'm just telling you, to hearing the lion sing. Because the song of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, you know the voice of the Lord makes the deer calf. It causes the deer to give birth, the voice of the Lord does.

This is a supernatural occurrence which now is becoming more and more natural. We hear more and more the voice of the Lord thundering. We hear the voice of God speaking. And for those who are standing, Luke 21 is clear, verse 15, for I will give you skillful words and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. So as you stand, wherever you stand, in the congregation, within the church, within the family, the business, the government, the classroom, the social structure, as you stand, God inspires you, fills your mouth with skillful words and wisdom which none of your opponents can resist or refute.

I love one translation, I believe it's the King James, cannot gainsay the word of the Lord. Cannot gainsay. In other words, has nothing to say.

Can't come up with anything to say in response. Cannot gainsay what God gives to you. Matthew 24, 45 through 48, of course the parable of the talents, the three servants, who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant whom his master will find doing when he comes, providing food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant when the master comes, the master of course is Jesus, when he appears and then truly I say to you, Matthew 24, 47, I will set him over all.

I will set him over all of his possessions. Verse 48 by comparison, but if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed, therefore I will do this and I will do this and this and this and this. In other words, I will make myself stupider. I will choose instead of God's wisdom my own natural wisdom. C. S. Lewis again, the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider, stupider, than you really are, is that you very often succeed.

So again, the application, seeing things in our world unfold, don't look the other way. Don't prefer a practical response, one that preserves the status quo like 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 3 through 5. Know without any doubt that mockers will come in the last days, following after their own human desires, saying, where is the promise of his coming?

Nothing has changed. He's always said he was coming. He hasn't.

He isn't. Verse 5, because they willingly forget the Word of God. They forget the creation. They forget the formation of the heavens. They forget who did that and whose Word accomplished those things and now the Word of God is accomplishing end time, supernatural, unusual, even cataclysmic events that cause men and women, even leaders, even the church, to trust in their own wisdom and to refuse to hear the lion sing.

Like Matthew 25, the three parables we read in Matthew 25, that of the ten virgins, the parable of the talents, the master's three servants, the parable of the nations being divided into sheep and goat nations. This is where we are. It is critical, critically important, and such an eternal point that we've arrived now that what you need for things, what you need is for things to realize the time, what time it is. Remember I said watch Israel. Keep your eyes on Israel and the prophetic scriptures out of Daniel and Revelation.

Realize the time. Secondly, be accountable. Be in fellowship, in vital fellowship, realistic fellowship where you are in a structure of accountability. Thirdly, contribute your part.

Supply your joint. Don't withhold. Please don't withhold what you have from God. And fourthly, actually the number one, but let me leave you with this, repentance. Repentance because there is a purging and cleansing. Jesus said he would return for a spotless bride.

That means I want to be his bride, therefore I am to be spotless. Not the fellowship I belong to or the church or the congregation, not even the family. I am the church. I am the one whose repentance the Lord is waiting to hear and that repentance determines if I am the bride that he returns for. And let me just interject right here how important it is for you to know the value of repentance. There was a time in the church's history, repentance was a frequent, often brought message because the wise shepherd, wise pastor understood this principle of the coming again of the Lord to receive his church, called up to meet them in the air, that this element of being spotless and without blemish is part of my inheritance. It's the way that I meet him in the air and yet if I am starved and prohibited from hearing that message then will I be qualified?

It's an important question. Ask yourself, examine yourself, the word is clear. We are to examine ourselves.

Repentance is the message God's people need to hear and from there outward from us it is the message that is to be preached to the whole world. Yet it must begin with you. It must begin with you.

Me. Let's pray into that. Father, this time is like no other in history. Certainly your word has richly provided that which we need to know to align with you, to walk humbly before our God, do justly love mercy. Father, as never before we pray that the stupidity of refusing to hear your voice, refusing to see the signs around us, that God you will forgive our stupidity and revive us and rescue us so that we will not succeed in going our own way, doing our own thing, speaking our own wisdom. That's our prayer. We need your help, Holy Spirit. We need your anointing, Father. Lord Jesus, we apply the blood of the covenant now to the spirit of our mind, will and emotions that we choose to leave the carnal, practical, worldly view and receive to implement and apply your wisdom which you supply richly to the believer, to the leader, to the spotless bride that you're returning for.

We pray this, Father, we pray this fervent prayer in the name of your Son, Yeshua, our Lord Jesus, our Messiah. Amen. God bless you today as you hear this message and determine and refuse to be stupid.

You know, don't be stupid. Be wise. You have the mind of Christ. That means you think like Him. You have the mind of Christ.

You have His wisdom for this hour in this day. You have the mind of Jesus. You have the mind of Jesus. You have the mind of Jesus. You have the mind of Jesus.