Greetings,
Spiritual forces affect the beliefs of the hearts of men. Those beliefs determine how people act and that creates the reality of the imaginations of their mind. What they think about inspires the influence of their lives. This is the way of human beings. All human beings live their lives based upon what they believe. Those beliefs determine how they act. How they act determines what they think about all the time. What they think about determines how they influence the world around them. We cannot change the world by attacking influence with influence. We have to change beliefs. We have to destroy the high places of beliefs. We have to destroy the hosts of wickedness in high places – heavenly places in the heart. In the mountain of the Lord, God changes our beliefs. This inspires changed actions and changes in what we think about all the time, which changes our influence in the world.
Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”
The gospel, the good news, that God preached to Abraham was not the good news that when we die we can go to heaven. The gospel that was preached to Abraham, the good news preached to Abraham, was good news that would change the beliefs, actions, imaginations and the influences of people.
Genesis 22:15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
When we know we are a blessing, we live to be a blessing and God causes us to be a blessing. Because we believe we are a blessing, we live to give greater value to then next generation. We act as those who give blessings instead of those who live to take from others. Instead of adding to our lives we will multiply. Instead of being a needy person, we will be need meeting people. In multiplying God will multiply us. He won’t make us the big man or woman, He will cause us to be men and women who make others big. Our descendants will possess the gates of their enemies. They will change what is not changed right now. Our children’s children will be greater than us. In our seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is the gospel of the kingdom of God. It is the only thing that destroys principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and hosts of wickedness in high places. it is the only means of destroying selfish beliefs, actions, imaginations and influences.
There is a great story in the Scripture where Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream (Dan. 2:31-45). The dream troubled him and he gave an order for his counselors and wise men to tell him his dream and its interpretation. God blessed Daniel and his friends with the dream and its interpretation. In the dream King Nebuchadnezzar saw a great statue of extraordinary splendor. It had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, waist and thighs of brass, and legs of iron with feet of iron and clay. Then a stone not cut with human hands struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. The crushing of the feet of the statue caused the entire substance of the statue to be crushed and become like chaff from the summer threshing floor and the wind carried them away so there was no trace left of the statue. The stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. The interpretation of the dream revealed that Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon was the head of gold, King Cyrus and the Mede Persian kingdom was the chest and arms of silver, Alexander the great and the kingdom of Greece was the waist and thighs of brass, and the legs of iron with feet of iron and clay was indicative of the kingdom of Rome and its carnal ruler Nero. In the time of Rome the rock of Christ would destroy the kingdoms of self by crushing the selfish beliefs of men through the selfless sacrifice of Jesus and His God willed resurrection as Christ the head and body to change the world.
I believe this image was not limited to the four nations represented in it, but that the four nations represented in it were a testimony of the image of man throughout all time. What should have been the image of the heavenly Father had become the glory of self. It revealed humanity in a self-righteous condition without dependence upon God. It took a human being, the Seed of Abraham, to crush the image of self by the testimony of the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person in flesh (Heb. 1:3). That human being was the man Jesus Christ.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
