May 2005

“ONE VOICE”

Part Five

            The Holy Spirit is now beginning to send people to the Manchild Company who are in need of His intercession. But those being sent to us do not need human wisdom, rather they need the “Spirit of God Who helps our infirmities; and since we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Holy Spirit, Himself, intercedes for us with unutterable *groanings. He searches the heart and knows the Mind of Spirit! He intercedes for the saints according to God’s Will!” (Ro 8:26-27) While we cannot yet see the inner needs of people, God can; so He makes intercession through us as we yield ourselves to Him. Christ knows whether people need a word, or a touch, or a prayer, or simply a smile of encouragement.

Gk 4726 defines groaning: “A sigh; to murmur, pray inaudibly with grief;
to be in straits, be narrowed (by obstacles standing about).” This is the
root for our prefix “steno” as in such words as stenosis which is defined:
“The narrowing or constricting of the diameter of any bodily passage or
orifice” [like a woman’s womb during childbearing.] This root also is the
prefix for stenography which is “The art of writing in constricted script.”

The word, groaning,, appears one other time in Acts 7:29-34:

“Moses fled...and as a stranger in the land of Madian, he begat two sons.

When 40 years had expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of
Mount Sinai an Angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. As Moses
saw this, he wondered at the spectacle: and drew near to behold it. The
Voice of the Lord then came to him, saying, I am the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then
Moses trembled, and dared not look. Then the Lord said, Take off your
shoes from your feet: for where you are standing is holy ground. I have
seen, yes, I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt,. I have heard
their groaning, and I am come down to deliver them. And now come,
I WILL SEND Y-O-U INTO EGYPT!!”

            God chose Moses as His emissary of intercession at the hour of his birth, but now he was ready to be raised up! The fires that had tried Moses- in Egypt and in Midian- now led him to the Source of Fire- that all-consuming One- Who would now reveal Himself as the great Deliverer of His people after they fulfilled their 400 years of bondage and suffering. But Moses’ great calling was kept hid from him for the first 80 years of his life! It served God’s purpose to seal and conceal his high calling till its hour of enactment! Only God knows why He reveals one person’s call at the moment of actuation- as Samuel anointed as Saul king of Israel; but reveals another call in advance- as Samuel anointed young David as Israel’s future king!
             If our calling is hid for now, we may take heart that God will reveal it in due time. Consider the two dutch matrons, Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom, who had no idea they would find themselves in a Nazi prison camp teaching salvation to its hapless inmates. By rights, they should have faced a fery furnace like the Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; but unlike them, it was revealed in a dream that these sisters would be freed! And indeed, Betsie was called home to glory, and Corrie left prison through a fluke of mistaken identity, to be launched in a worldwide ministry that is still transforming lives long after her graduation to glory!

Mt 7:13-21 uses these synonyms for groaning,

“Enter (God’s Kingdom) at the strait gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that lead to destruction, yet many enter there! But strait is the gate and narrow the way that lead to Eternal Life, and few find it. So beware of those false prophets that come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You will know them by their fruits. For do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? So every good tree yields good fruit; as every corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. No good tree brings forth evil fruit, just as no corrupt tree can bear good fruit. And every tree that does not yield good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire! Thus you shall know them by their fruits!! Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; only he that does the Will of My heavenly Father!” And Jesus says, “All who do the Will of My heavenly Father are My brother, and My sister, and My mother!” (Mt 12:50)

[TO BE CONTINUED]