It is Written

Transcript

Good morning my dear friends and greetings in Jesus’ name!
Wherever you are, may the mercy of the Lord come searching for you. May the mercy of the Lord, lift you up. May the grace of the Lord be given to you at your point of need. All of us are equally dependent on His mercy and His grace for sustenance in our daily living; whether it is a sin that needs forgiveness or whether it is a discernment or an extra ability that we are waiting on the Lord for, we all need His grace. We all need His mercy. My desire and prayer for you and me is that today, we will experience that grace and mercy in everything we do and every place we go and every transaction that we make.

For today’s scripture portion, let me read Acts 23:5. This is a story of apostle Paul, of how he responded to the High Priest. It says, “Paul replied, ‘Brothers, I did not realize that he was the High Priest. For, it is written, that you should not speak evil about the ruler of your people’ “.
The context of this scripture is that Paul the apostle is put on trial and he is in front of the Sanhedrin. They are all speaking wrong and false things about him. There is this particular person who is specifically targeting him and saying things in such a way that will demean, hurt and torture Paul.
Paul’s natural reaction to it was to retaliate. He defended himself. He spoke evil about the person who was trying to hurt him. And that’s when it was made known to him, that this particular person was the High Priest. He was not ordinary. He was the ruler of the people. Immediately apostle Paul replies and says, “I’m so sorry, I did not realize his identity. I did not realize who he really was”.
Now, what the High Priest did was definitely worth condemnation. But the moment Paul understood who the High Priest was, what his identity, position, his authority was, and how God saw him, the moment he understood that, he had to withdraw all criticism that he had against this person.
This person, the way that he treated apostle Paul was completely unfair. Even though he deserved criticism, apostle Paul says, “ I am going to withdraw my criticism against this person because I did not realize his spiritual significance, his significance in the natural, physical world. I did not realize who this man really is”. In the next statement, he says, “this is what is written. It is written that you cannot speak evil against the ruler of your people”.
So the reason apostle Paul is refraining from criticizing this guy, is not because he didn’t want to. It is because the Scriptures, the Law of God, the protocols of God demanded him to respond differently. In the natural, the person who does wrong deserves criticism. But when you understand the ways of God, the mannerisms of Heaven, you will immediately withdraw pointing fingers at somebody who has authority.

That’s why you would see David, the anointed king of Israel, refusing to hurt the demon-possessed Saul. Even though Saul was doing everything in his power and ability to hurt David, he did not lift a finger against Saul.
That is why God said, “this is a man after my own heart”.
It is because God could find a man, who could keep aside his personal vendetta, hurt, pain, in order to honour, submit and surrender to authority, to a man of God.

I hope that you and I, we can posture ourselves like that today.
I’m sure that some of you are married to a man, who doesn’t understand the ways of God. It can be very hard to submit in that context.
Some of you maybe working in an office where the boss is completely illogical. He doesn’t understand the things that you do. Or he maybe completely neglecting to honour you, promote you or lift you up.
Some of you maybe in a church where your pastor is mistreating you, your leaders are pushing you away or hurting you.

The question is this: are you going to do what everybody else does by backbiting or hurting them even more, or are you going to sit down and tolerate that injustice, and say,“ it is written that I should not hurt or harm the ruler of God’s people”.
Please remember, your justice will still come but it will come from the Lord.
When man refuses to give you justice, God will fight for you and will vindicate you. He will keep your head held high.
Meanwhile, we have to learn to trust the protocol of God. We have to learn to trust the regulations and rules, the Word, His voice that God has given us as a blessing in our lives.
Obedience to the Lord, even though it is hard immediately, is never a waste. There is always a reward, a blessing, a breakthrough, that is attached to your obedience to God’s voice and His Word.
So please, do not lose faith.
Continue to trust in the Lord, in His ways and take a step-back where you need to. Apologize where you need to.
Read the Word and understand how to treat people and make sure that you don’t make the same mistakes that many of our ancestors have done.

Let’s pray:
Father, we thank you for this Word, this grace, this revelation that is given to us today. We know that we will no longer complain about our man of God. Even when some of them may be wrong, we will no longer complain about our rulers. Even when they have been unjust or unfair to us, we will trust your promises and your Word, above our immediate comfort and convenience. We thank you for revealing this principle to us one more time. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.