The Blessing of Nothing

Deut. 10:1-5,8-9
    At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. [2] And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. [3] And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. [4] And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. [5] And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.  At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day. [9] Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him.

In America, this is an oxymoron.  Many sermons and ministries have preached and taught that Jesus came to make us rich, that we are to prosper above the world.  Our mindset becomes like Jabel and Solomon, where we are to enlarge our borders, enrich our bank accounts in a show that God is blessing us.  Many are partaking in the belief that if we are prosperous, then God is doing that work for us.  From my standpoint, then Bill Gates is the godliest man on the planet and the Apostle Paul is in hell.  The Word says we would prosper as our soul prospers.  The questions remains - how was Paul "prospering" in prison while others who seem to have everything are not prospering at all?

I ordered a ebook on Amazon which I stumbled upon by accident (as I think about it, I don't believe this to be the case now) while researching other books.  Lately, I have been going to the archives in the churches to find sermons and books from the old time preachers.  Two nights ago, I came across "The Pursuit of God" by A. W. Tozer, and the forward was dated June 16, 1948, which is a generation before my time.  I scanned the book last night and came across a chapter called Blessing From Nothing, which deeply intrigued my thinking to the point where I fell asleep and, every time I awoke (I currently have frozen shoulder, so it happens quite frequently) I pondered about this new revelation. 

This came onto me in a few different directions.  Anyone who has heard my testimony knows that I was living in homeless shelters for over five years.  At one point, I had only three days worth of close, and old pair of shoes, and two cassette tapes to my name.  Everything else was gone.  I came to hear of Jesus through mandatory Bible studies held at the shelter, but at the time was not known of the Holy Spirit.  I had nowhere to go, nowhere to turn, what I saw in the men who were there held no value except to their own selfishness, but I wanted more.  There on a bed at night sometime in March, 1993, I cried out to Jesus and began to read the Bible.

Throughout my life, I never held much of anything.  While in the Navy, people would steal from you if the chance was available.  I have lost money, clothing, anything that they wanted, they would take.  Even in the shelter, my cassette tapes were taken, even in the middle of winter, someone stole a pair of bowling shoes from me.  I don't know why, because bowling shoes have no treads and make terrible walking on snow, nut it happened.  Desperate people will do desperate things, but what they want determines their motive.

In the book, all I scanned in the chapter was about Levi and his sons inheritance in relation to his brothers.  What was interesting was the sons of Levi were given no land at all, the other eleven were given a portion of land.  Their job was to minister to the LORD.  Through the annual sacrifices, God provided their food and living, there was no tilling of the land, no guarding of the sheep, just being at the tabernacle. 

God separated the sons of Levi to minister for the people in His presence.  They were to be prepared to be in His presence every day, and they were the only tribe that God allowed to carry the ark of the covenant.  This is significant to me, is that they had nothing compared to the other tribes in materials, but they had everything when it came to being near God.  They had the privilege to bring His presence into battle, they had the right to "intercede" for the people, they were able to walk in the Holy of Holies, if their heart was fully prepared with the sacrifice of those who came.  In today's vernacular, they had NOTHING but they had EVERYTHING.


I understand as Christians, we are to be living under grace, not the law, and the Levite priests were constituted under the law.  If there was any precedence for today, then this should not have been written in the Word for us.  Being in prison, Paul was still joyful that God was with him, though he had nothing.  In Acts, people were selling materials and throwing the money at the apostles feet.  Do we do that today?   And I will readily admit, with the struggles I go through, tithing is hard with the little I have.  With the reading of those Scriptures above, my philosophy has changed.

Think about this in another direction.  If you had a glass and you began to fill it up with stuff you wanted, than ask for God for His presence, how much room would there be left in the glass?  Some maybe would dump it out and buy a bigger glass, but then get MORE stuff in hopes of saying we are walking with God.  Others may attempt to empty the glass before Sunday, get "His fill" of God, then leave church and place materials and idols back in the glass until next Sunday.

Please note the reason I am saying this is I am just as guilty.  I began filling my chalice with idol worship and self-centeredness and wondered why God wasn't in my life.  I know why, I left no room for Him to come in anymore.  Getting a bigger glass will only allow you to get more and more.  Now I see how Paul could count it all joy about tribulation.  Sounds like Paul had a Levi thought, the LORD is my inheritance.

Now I know why Paul asked the Corinthians to rid themselves of all filth (2 Corinthians 7:1), why he said not to be yoked with unbelievers and those who have no resolve for the truth (2 Corinthians 6:14-17), and why we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5), it is for us to make complete room for the Holy Spirit to fill us more and more.  I know there are things we need to do and have, we are to work, provide for our families, pay bills, even have fun and rest, but we need to make time and prioritize what is utmost importance.  Do we want to carry the presence of God as the Levites or just bring our sacrifices to church, and let someone else come in to His presence?  We all have the right to come in His presence, for the veil has being torn.

As far as me and my house, we will SERVE the LORD.  There will come a time, and I believe it will be soon and in my lifetime, where you will need to carry His presence to stand against the world that despises His Son.   How much of His presence your chalice will hold will determine the atmosphere. 

Lastly, I remember reading about a pastor asked to join Smith Wigglesworth for a time of communion with the LORD.  After ten minutes, the atmosphere became so thick and heavy the pastor had to crawl outside.  Imagine that experience of His presence, and maybe it will happen to me, but I am still learning to empty my chalice.  What if we could bring that type of atmosphere to the churches, then to the outside?  Why haven't we?

We need to have the Levites walk.  Enoch did.  All he wanted was Him, and God couldn't take it any more, and He translated Enoch.  Can we prepare ourselves every day to be with Him in our prayer closet?  How much will your cup hold?  How far as we willing to walk into His presence?  Once you become satisfied, you may have another item in your cup that needs to be removed.  I hope one day soon my cup will be empty, to have nothing, so I can have everything, which is Jesus.  I need all of Him.

Blessings,

Michael
Joel 3:9