High Places

FYI - I just uploaded a new message on my Podcast called “High Places”. I preached it last Fall for the first and only time so far. I’ve put a small overview of the message below…

You read continually in the Old Testament how many of the kings did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. But for all of the God-pleasing that they did, they neglected to tear down the high places. For 280 years, dozens of kings sat in rule over Israel and Judah, and many of them really did have a heart after God.

BUT - they would not, or could not, tear down the HIGH PLACES. These were altars that were set up by Jeroboam to steal Israel’s loyalty away from the current King of Israel (and TRUE King - Jehovah).

We then can look at our own lives and see where we strive to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord, but we refuse to tear down the high places. The places of compromise. The places of hidden sin. The places of our habits. We spend our lives trying to please God, but it is these high places, these places out of the way, and out of our sight, that work against what God is trying to do in our lives.

It is time we take a look at our high places.

Fast forward to the present day… and us living out our faith walks for Christ.

Many of us work hard to follow in the ways of the LORD. Yet it’s common for the enemy to work just as hard to set up his own high places in our midst. The majority of our lives seem to be under God’s control (just like the kings of Israel) but there is a particular “High Place” that has been in our life for so long - defying God and His plans for us. This “high place” could be represent walls in our marriage, abusive or absent parents, addictions, generational curses, anger, mind games, guilt, fear, a lack of His prosperity, unsaved loved ones, broken relationships, unforgiveness, self doubt, etc.

Whatever it is, we have battled with it for a long time, and we’ve learned to co-exist with it - instead of conquering it. Some of us are convinced we cannot tear them down… and others of us plainly just don’t want to.

Either way… there IS hope.

I read about it in 2 KINGS 23:14-16.

14 Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones. 15 Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin—even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. 16 Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

Josiah had the guts to go after the very thing that no one else had the courage, or the audacity, to tear down. After he read the Book of the Law (God’s Word), he was convicted of the way that they were all living, and decided to cleanse the land of EVERY high place that stood in defiance of God.

Even Jeroboam’s.

NOBODY went after Jeroboam’s.  Except Josiah.

Because of this - it was written of him that neither before, or after him, was there a King who performed such a cleansing of the land as he did.

It is time for us to follow the footsteps of Josiah.

It is time that we see the ‘High Places’ for what they are - idols that set themselves up against the holiness of God in our lives. It is time that we don’t allow these things to take away from the abundant life that God offers us. It is time that we go beyond, and live in a victory that speaks, so that when others are describing our lives, they cannot say of us; ‘they pleased the Lord, but did not remove the high places.’

Hope you enjoy the message…

JJ

~ by jeffjohnston on March 24, 2008.