We must all Cross Over from death to Life – we belong with the Life People in the Life Kingdom.
I have been blogging from Jephthah in Judges and Paul in Acts, not much apparent to connect them, but God has revealed some insights regarding our Destiny.
In Acts we next read the account of Lydia;
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate TO THE RIVER, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. ONE OF THOSE LISTENING (God chooses the ones who are ready to receive) was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord OPENED HER HEART TO RESPOND TO PAUL’S MESSAGE. Acts 16
Lydia’s Heart was opened and God’s Spirit came in and gave her Eternal Life (the first recorded salvation in Europe or the West)! Thank you Lord for saving me/us as you did Lydia so long ago.
The next part of the chapter tells of the slave girl who followed after Paul;
17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.’ 18 She kept this up for many days (Disturbance/Distraction). Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned round and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ I COMMAND YOU TO COME OUT OF HER!’ AT THAT MOMENT the spirit left her. Acts 16
There were two spiritual transactions here, Lydia received the Spirit of God of her own free will. The slave girl was freed from a spirit of divination, by Paul’s authority in Christ. Thank you Lord that You are still setting people free today. There was no doubt in either case that something definite had happened! Lydia had crossed into something new, whereas the slave girl could no longer predict the future.
The Biblical account of Jephthah ends in Judges 12 with a dispute between the now victorious Gileadites and the men of Ephraim. The Ephraimites picked a fight with Jephthah and his men, which they lost.
5 The Gileadites captured the FORDS OF THE JORDAN leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, ‘Let me cross over,’ the men of Gilead asked him, ‘Are you an Ephraimite?’ If he replied, ‘No,’ 6 they said, ‘All right, say “Shibboleth”.’ If he said, ‘Sibboleth’, because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time. Judges 12
The river in Acts became a place of life when the Good News of Jesus’ sacrifice was preached, but in Judges, the Jordan became a place of death. The Ephraimites couldn’t speak the word that would have meant life, just one word! At the end of time, we too will need that one word, ‘Jesus’. No other Name will get us safely across to our true home.
May God bless and keep you today.