Being a music teacher has its moments! There are moments during lessons when something will happen and a light goes off in my spirit! God is showing me something of His Truth and He is using my students and my teaching to bring it into sharp focus that I might also understand!

The other day I was switching between the G chord and the D chord on the guitar, showing my husband how to switch back and forth between chords as he played them on his guitar. He was holding his wrist in a wrong position so the chord was stifled as he was touching too many strings with his fingers. When I told him he had his wrist in the wrong position he said to me, “I know I am doing this wrong! Show me the RIGHT WAY!” So I did. He is practicing it now.

As I thought about his plea “ Show me the RIGHT WAY!”…I began to realize that in my prayer life, THIS has been MY OWN PLEA to GOD. I know how to do things in the wrong way. It’s easy. But….HOW do I do it RIGHT?

Sometimes we ask God to answer our prayers and in reality, He is desiring to SHOW US how to do something IN ORDER that He MIGHT answer our prayers.

Yes, our prayers can actually be hindered.

Yes, God’s own will and desire for our very lives can actually be hindered by the very ones He desires to bless!!

How can this be? We can readily see through the darkness as we look at a lesson from Moses found in Numbers chapter 20. Let’s look at the text from the King James version of God’s Word:

Numbers 20: 2-13: “And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together unto Moses and against Aaron. And the people strove with Moses and spake saying”Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord …And WHY have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should die there? And WHEREFORE have you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us to this place of evil? It is no place of seed, or of figs or of vines, or of pomegranates, nor is there any WATER to drink!!!

And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them.” (Vss.2-6)

I want to interject here in the midst of the scripture.

Moses was having a hard time. The people that he had led out of Egypt were very angry with him and with God. They were striving with him, contending with him. This means they were arguing with him and harassing him!

I don’t know about you but I don’t like to be harassed. I don’t like it when people argue with me and contend with me about certain things that I know in my heart are true. I don’t enjoy it and I know Moses didn’t either. Moses had a Clear Call from God. You can’t get much clearer than the sign of the Burning Bush. Moses was waiting on God. He did not know everything either and he was being pressed on all sides by the people. The people were upset because they did not have the water they needed. They were angry because they felt they were WORSE OFF than when they were enslaved back in Egypt. Moses was hard pressed between the people he was leading and God.

Then came a time of visitation by God Himself. It says that Moses and Aaron withdrew themselves and went from the presence of the people and “FELL UPON THEIR FACES AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD APPEARED UNTO THEM.”

What an awesome deal!

They walk away from the griping and complaining people and all the harassment RIGHT INTO THE VERY GLORY AND MIDST OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD!! You can’t ask for more help than that! You can’t argue with the kind of intervention God was giving to Moses and Aaron in their time of trouble!! It was REAL. It was GOD. It was TRUTH and COUNSEL at their very fingertips as they lay prostrate on their faces before God! He was there for them to help them and to direct them in EVERY WAY. God answered Moses’ prayer almost IMMEDIATELY!…as SOON as they LEFT the congregation of the people! Let’s continue with the scripture:

“And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying, ‘Take the rod and gather the assembly together , you and your brother Aaron and speak unto the rock before their eyes and it shall give forth the water and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock : so you shall give the congregation and their beasts drink.

And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him.

And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and he said to them. ‘Hear now you rebels! Must we fetch you water out this rock?’

And Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

And the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you BELIEVED ME NOT TO SANCTIFY ME IN THE EYES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, you shall not bring these people (congregation) into the land which I have given to you.’ This is the water of Meribah (place of striving and contention) because the children of Israel contended with the Lord and he was sanctified in them.’ (vss. 7-13)

The significant meaning of the word “sanctify” is this: Moses and Aaron failed to PROCLAIM AND TO HALLOW (hold as Holy and sovereign) the WILL of GOD in this situation. It was God’s desire to be held in ESTEEM before the children of Israel and to prove to them that He truly WOULD meet their needs. His will was TO BE SANCTIFIED in them, to be held in reverence and to be viewed as LORD over every situation.

Moses was told to “speak” to the “Rock” or stone, not to hit it. He was not told to yell at the people. It was Moses himself who CHOSE to do these things because his heart was in unbelief and doubt of God’s willingness to bring the provision in the manner He had stated. Maybe it seemed too easy to Moses. Perhaps Moses was fed up with the complaints of the people and wanted to lash out at them verbally (which he did).

There fell a judgment upon Moses and Aaron because of Moses’ disobedience to the Word of the Lord. He was specifically told even through a cloud of glory EXACTLY what to do. But because of his own unbelief at the word of the Lord, because he allowed the striving of the people to stir him up emotionally and he became angry, he opened a door to a willful disobedience to the word and the will of God, for which a chastisement proceeded.

It is very dangerous to move beyond the word of the Lord.

It is a serious matter to take things into our own hands and do it just the way we might feel like doing it.

I am so thankful for the Grace and Mercy of God in this time in which we live! We all make mistakes in this fast paced world we live in. Even so, to willfully disobey God for whatever reason is a fearful consideration.

It is one matter entirely to disobey God out of ignorance, although this can be deadly as well. But when the motivation is WILLFUL, and someone UNDERSTANDS the WILL of GOD and CHOOSES not to obey, it is consequential.

So…how do we do it RIGHT?
Where do we get the STRENGTH?
How can we find the GRACE?
What do we do when we are facing a ROCK?

In Mark chapter 4, Jesus’ own words speak the truth that is able to set us free IF we come to the acknowledgement of it.

Jesus is speaking to us concerning the very Word of God, and the ways in which the enemy of our souls works against us in understanding and retaining the Word.

Moses fell prey to one of these ways and the Word of the Lord was removed in the fullness of its promise.

Mark 4:14-17 is as follows: “The sower sows the Word. And these are they by the wayside where the word is sown, but when they have heard, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word , immediately they receive it with gladness, and have no root in themselves and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended…(caused to stumble).”

There is a ROCK or STONE of OFFENSE that can ROOT itself in our very HEARTS! We can be believers in Jesus Christ and yet have “stones” in our hearts ….little hard places where we have been offended by someone’s actions or even offended by the way in which GOD has chosen to do a thing!

If these hard stoney places are not softened and dug out, they can literally prevent us from reaching our promised land because they become “stumbling blocks” in our journey and rob us not only of our joy, but of our very destinies in Christ Jesus!

In the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, there was a stone of offense that attempted to take root in the hearts of Mary and Martha as each of them proclaimed to Jesus at separate moments: “If you had only been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21, John 11:32)

Offense taken. After the second of these statements concerning Jesus’ absence during the illness of Lazarus, it said that “Jesus groaned in the spirit and was troubled.”

The meaning of the statement above “groaned in the spirit and was troubled” is that there was a literal “sigh of indignation”…and acknowledgement of the “pointing finger” of the tone of accusation that was coming from Mary. This grieved Jesus deeply because He loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus and was being obedient to His Father in all he did.

Then, Mary led Jesus to another rock….the very stone that was laid upon the tomb of her brother, Lazarus. And scripture says next that Jesus wept.

He was deeply grieved also that Mary and Martha were beginning to be filled with unbelief, just as Moses had been! Jesus was sickened and troubled deep within that these dear ones that He had dined with and fellowshipped with could be experiencing the doubt, unbelief and offense against Him that they were experiencing! Scripture says that Jesus “groaned within himself as he came to the grave.”

Then he commanded this stone to be removed!!!

To remove this stone, I believe, was actually to PHYSICALLY TOUCH THE VERY SPOT OF OFFENSE…THE OFFENSE OF LAZARUS’ DEATH!

When that stone of offense was rolled away, that is when Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb!

How true it is that IF THE STONE HAD NOT BEEN ROLLED AWAY, Lazarus would have REMAINED in the tomb.

How true it is that we can become offended by a word, by someone’s actions, and even by the way in which GOD decides to do a thing and we can create a hard stoney place within our hearts that resists the very will of God until IT IS REMOVED!

We hear from Moses, his lesson: OBEY GOD AND LIVE!
We hear from Mary and Martha: TRUST HIM IN HIS TIMING!
We hear from Jesus Himself: SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU. (Matthew 6:33).

God is God and we are not.
Like the old song says, “When will we ever learn?”

It is time now to learn. It is time to heal. It is time to listen and to obey. It is time to posture our hearts at the feet of Jesus…..to position our selves as He would have us to be positioned and not as we ourselves might desire that we be positioned. It is time to understand, to make clear, to be direct and to serve the Lord in whatever capacity, place and positioning He has called us to. It is time to forgive . It is time to dig out “stones of offense” from our hearts and destroy them utterly. It is time to truly love God and one another.

PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, we admit today that we have need to forgive, not only others who have hurt us, but even our selves. We realize that even as others who knew you face to face had a difficult time with submitting to your divine will, we also have had difficulty in these days doing the same thing. We desire to position ourselves this very hour at your feet, Jesus, and to commit our hearts to trust you in deeper ways than we ever have before. Help us, Lord, in our journey toward peace and fulfillment of your word in our lives. Give us strength and understanding of your love for us and help us to guard our hearts which hold all the issues of life. Help us, Lord, to roll away the stones of offense, unbelief and rebellion that stop the flow of God’s presence and God’s will in our lives. We give you thanks and praise for your grace toward us also in our time of deep need, in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.