The Covenant of Spiritual Living
You’ve probably heard this statement before, “It was love at first sight” either from a friend, a couple getting married, in a movie, or a book. Or maybe you have experienced it yourself. Some of us may need 10-2000 sights but who’s counting? Even if love was to happen at first sight, a couple would not get married at that very moment. Because it might take a second to fall in love but it will take quite a while before two people decide to enter into the covenant of marriage. Why is this so? Covenants are serious business.
This happens with our God as well. The minute you say yes to God, you begin a beautiful journey with Him. As you fall deeper in love, God begins revealing Himself to you. He will reveal Himself to you as a friend, father, protector, provider, consuming fire, and a just Judge to mention but a few. But some dimensions will be revealed to you only after you get to certain stages. God will reveal Himself to you as a covenant keeper only after you have made the decision to pursue the covenant kind of living.
Walk Before Me and Be Blameless
As we saw last week, a covenant is demanding of sacrifice. Before God made a covenant with Abraham, this is what He told him:
Gen 17:1 (AMP)
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; Walk [habitually] before Me [with integrity, knowing that you are always in My presence], and be blameless and complete [in obedience to Me].
A covenant is binding to both parties. This means that both parties have to do their part, otherwise the covenant will be declared null and void. Since God is faithful in nature, then it leaves us to keep our end of the bargain. But what is the first step for covenant living? Walk before me and be blameless.
Job was so in tune with God, knowing that He was always with him that he had to call a meeting with himself, looking for areas of weakness and making a covenant to walk right before the Lord.
Job and Samson had a similar problem; the eye. Job knew that the lust of the eye would rob him of the beautiful relationship he had with God. Therefore, he knew that he had to make a covenant with his eyes:
Job 31: 1 (NIV)
I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.
On the other hand, Samson made a completely different choice. God had given a command for Israelites not to intermarry with Canaanites. But Samson decided that Canaanite women were his portion, and that marked the beginning of his sorrowful end.
Job understood one thing. The enemy is not even waiting for you to leave the door ajar for him to come in. He is okay with you shutting it. Well, as long as you leave just a tiny space on the door for him to wedge his foot in. Then one day he’ll just blow the entire door open.
Job understood his weakness to be the lust of the eye. Have you identified your areas of weakness? Is it anger issues? Jealousy? Greed? Lies? Immorality?
Remember it is that one tiny thing that you allow to live in you that will cost you everything. As Job did, you need to make a covenant with yourself even before you can get to make one with God.
James 1: 13-15 (NKJV)
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death
Lemme paint a picture for you.
Let’s say you have anger issues. You are so used to it that it has become part of you. When you attend a meeting, you identify yourself with it. “Hello my name is…, and I am short-tempered.”
Since you have embraced anger as part of you, it becomes a seed that you’ve taken in, meaning that you have conceived and some devil’s minions are somewhere celebrating. Congratulations! You are now pregnant with sin. When an opportunity arises (which always does) you will end up expressing that anger. Either your boss will anger you at work and you will decide to tell him exactly what you think of him, or you will let your fist do the talking. The minute you act on that anger, you give birth to sin. That’s not even the worst part of it. The worst part is that sin becomes a seed that you have taken in and if you keep at it, it will become full-grown, giving birth to death.
God told Abraham, “walk before me and be blameless.”
For Abraham, this meant, aligning himself with God and God’s will for his life.
The reason you don’t get married immediately even after falling in love at first sight is because you need time for alignment.
Have you ever noticed how Paul introduced himself in his letters? “Paul, a bondservant of Christ.” Or Paul, a prisoner of faith. Paul understood what it meant to walk with God and be blameless before Him.
This meant aligning himself with God and His commands. It meant willingly choosing to become a prisoner, losing his freedom to do certain things just so that he may gain Christ. This is why he said, “all things are permissible to me, but not all are helpful.” Now this is the kind of a man that God gets into a covenant with.
God made a covenant with the house of Eli (Aaron’s lineage) that they will always serve before him. But because Eli failed to fulfill his part of the covenant. Eli was afraid of rebuking his sons for all the evil they did, afraid of angering them. Unfortunately, by doing so, Eli angered God and God told him:
1 Samuel 2:30 (ESV)
Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
God also made a covenant with David. David, the man after God’s own heart. David was so disturbed by the fact that there was no House for God in Israel that he decided to build one. While God did not allow him to do that, he was so pleased with David that He made this covenant with him:
2 Samuel 7:16 (NIV)
Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.
God kept His word even long after David was gone. Even when there emerged evil kings from David’s lineage, he never completely took the throne from David’s lineage. Imagine you can make a covenant with God today and it will completely change not just your life but that of your family and of the generations to come.
Initiating a covenant
A covenant can be initiated either by God or by you. God would initiate a covenant with you, especially if He can see that you do not have the capacity to handle what is ahead of you. His covenant will be something that will speak for you in such circumstances.
You can also choose to make a covenant with God. You can tell God, “I am making a covenant with you that my children will serve you, and this is what I have to give as a sign of this covenant (you can choose to give something, or you can choose to serve God in your singlehood.”
God is willing to make a covenant with you. To save your family for your sake. Preserve your children (whether they are here or not yet) for your sake. He can choose to save a generation because of a covenant that you made with Him.
For God to enter into this covenant with you, it will have to start with you being found…walking before Him, and being faithful.
Then the Lord will…
He will bless
He will preserve
He will establish
He will exempt
He will show up as the covenant-keeping God.
Allow me to pray for you:
“Heavenly Father, as the reader of this article makes the decision to walk before you and be blameless. I pray that you will give them the grace to lead a surrendered life. And as they do this, Father may you give them a good ending. For the honor and glory of your name, may they walk in abundance and enjoy every good thing. May you preserve them and everyone connected to them. Let them see and know you as the covenant-keeping God. In the name of Jesus, we pray and believe.”
And everybody said ‘Amen!’