The natural man is most bound by the fear of death (Hebrews 2:15). There is nothing more feared, even reverenced by many than death whether this is by culture or by religious practice. Some religions weight their sins by the good they do in a given day. But it is clear from the Scriptures that man cannot be saved by his good works because this is considered rags by the Lord.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousness are like filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:4)

Man suffered from death and he died spiritually because of his disobedience. By disobedience of one man, all suffered and were bound to die, but by the obedience of another Man, all were given the chance to live and prove their devotions to the One who came to save and restore us all into the image of God. When death was imminent, even John sent his disciples to inquire about Jesus Christ whether He is the One they are waiting for, proving that he did not fully comprehend the divinity of Christ or His mission on earth. He instructed his disciples with a carefully constructed sentence, “go and ask Him whether He is the One we have been waiting for or shall we wait for another.”

This questioning of John reveals to us his humanity, that even though he was much anointed by God to prepare His Way, he failed to understand that God works mysteriously and that sometimes the deliverance he has been praying for came in an unexpected manner. An imprisoned freeman can fall into great depths of self-pity and self-condemnation because of his dire circumstance. John’s case was no exception and it can be inferred that because of the length of time that he was already imprisoned, he grew steadily impatient over God’s way to deliver him. One can question the deliverance that God wrought that day, that he allowed His servant to be mistreated by a weak and demented king.

A martyr’s life

Yet the request of Herodias and Salome was also the same manner of deliverance that God wants to bring to his servant. He is honoring John to become a martyr of the Truth. Once a martyr, you have lived your life in an extraordinary way wherein God wrought extraordinary measures to confirm His Word in you. The word martyr is derived from the Greek martus which means a witness, a recorder of events seen. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary gives us an added meaning of martyr which is “a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle.” John died for the Principle of life. Because of this sad event, it is understandable that human compassion and sadness overcame many of John’s disciples and they stopped walking with John’s baptism anymore. Nevertheless, because John and Andrew continued to walk with Jesus in spite of the passing away of their former teacher, it can be said that the fruit of the ministry of John were eventually reaped by the succeeding ministry of the Truth Himself. For there to be true understanding that He was truly the Lamb of God, the One Who takes away the sin of the world, one needs to follow Him.

The first time that John the Baptist pointed Jesus as the Lamb of God, both John and Andrew recognized and understood that He is the Son of God. The next day when John again pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, they started to follow and walk with Christ because they understood the purpose of John the Baptist which is to point them to the One who can truly given them life. It is good to follow John the Baptist and sit under his feet, but these two were not satisfied just seeking truth from a mere man, they want to know the Teacher Himself, the Son of God and follow Him for the rest of their lives!

Joshua and Caleb

Like Joshua who lived to be Moses’ servant, it was already a great honor and privilege to be with Moses most of the time, but Joshua was not satisfied just knowing the Lord through another man. He wants to know the Lord for himself and to develop his own relationship with God. This could be the greatest secret of Joshua and why the Lord trusted him to lead the next generation of Israelites into the Promised Land.

It could have been Caleb because both of them had good confession of faith when they were sent as spies in the Promised Land, but the Scriptures did not record another noble achievement of Caleb after that. Men can become prone to dwell on their past victories than to achieve and move forward apart from what is in the past. Lesser victories and good achievements can be the enemy of the best. Learning to recognize the leading of the Lord by drawing close to Him will always result for greater victory from God. It is indeed true that those who are diligent in seeking the Lord also reaps great rewards of success because in “humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life” (Proverbs 22:4). “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

It is not enough to know and be associated with an anointed servant of God. Because many disciples often idolized their masters, they are often conformed to their image more than the image of Christ which shows the debilitating weakness of the current church. Her children are most often conformed to the image of the Bridegroom’s best-friend. For example, most Catholics and Protestants would  love to speak about St. Augustine, St. Columba, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, while the Pentecostals would not lose words to describe the moves of God in their midst whether this happened 50 years ago or the recent past. It is good to honor our fathers and recognize momentous events that happened in our lives and histories because by honoring the past, we could gain a better understanding of the future. But whenever men idolize their fathers or events in the past more than the Father above or what He is presently doing, we become prone to forgetting that God works both ways, He is in the past as well as He is also in the present and even in the future. When we forget to behold and discern the Lord and what He is doing now, we are almost always falling into the error of Israel. They were always pointing back to Moses so that they forgot that One greater than Moses is in their midst even speaking to them the Word of God. He came in the skin of man to identify and seek to restore us back to the highest purpose of creation, which is an intimate relationship with God; yet they could look at Jesus squarely in the eyes and not see Him as the Son of God!

This blindness can get in the way for most of us when our mindset is decidedly committed to do our thing more than the things and purposes of God. Because God’s ways can at times be perplexing and needing us to stop, look and listen, we often resort to formulas and invent our ways than to spend time and hear Him speak on the matters we are most concerned.  But to the man whom God blesses, this is the word of the Lord, “I have seen a wicked, violent man  spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil. Then he passed away, and lo, he was no more; I sought for him, but he could not be found. Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; For the man of peace will have a posterity. But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; The posterity of the wicked will be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD;  He is their strength in time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him” (Psalms 37:35-40).

Our salvation is from the Lord, whether you fear for your life or for your properties and investments, the promise in this Psalm is that the righteous will be delivered, they will enjoy the abundance of the land, they will prosper and see its fruit. “For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity”(Psalms 37:9-11).

The death of His saints is precious

I do not mean to mislead anybody about death. Nor do I glorify and romanticize the meaning of death here. Simply, when the Lord said in His Word that “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalms 116:15 NKJV), He was not glamorizing death as many Muslims do to zealots who die without wisdom or true reason. In fact what He was pointing is that those who die in the Lord are simply passing by into the dimension of real life. They are truly becoming added members into the eternal Body of Christ in heaven. Those who graduate in this life whether they have prepared their lives well, gathered oil and burned bright or simply used a few of what they have, are actually being added into the eternal members of His Body. Because the Lord saved all men, those who died in the Lord shall also rise up again with the Lord. That is why He said to the thief on the cross “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus is referring to the new life that the thief received right then and there while dying on the cross. He received this new life and though he died physically, yet he is alive and well in Paradise with the Lord. Remembering this instance, Paul wrote that those who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved!

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:7-13).

God’s plans prevail

The human tendency to flee from the circumstance that God has allowed us to experience is most often the resort of those who are intransigent. There are indeed circumstances that God allows us to experience for the sake of freeing us from the tyranny of bondage to the urgent. Impatience is not faith. It is faith and patience that inherits the promises of God! The lack of patience on our part has borne the greatest affliction for us, for when the time for deliverance was about to come, we suddenly backed out!  When Moses was about to come down with the tablets of engraving, the Israelites looked for the calf of gold! This impatience does not bear any semblance of the Kingdom of God, patient suffering when it is borne out of love and true sacrifice is precious in the sight of God.

We are wowed by instant miracles because we want immediate gratification of our desires and plans but have you considered the point of God in delaying His answers? God’s delays are not God’s denials. There are instances that fit delays because in the perspective of heaven, God is not working in the framework of man’s time just as beforehand He did not consider Abraham’s age, God does not work on man’s time. He works under His own timetable. This is also the main reason why Jesus Christ did not preach the Word immediately, though He could have done it also. God’s timing is always perfect and His delays are not His refusal for the answers that we seek.

We have to learn to wait on God. We have to be persistent to the point of waiting for the answers until they manifest. This is why we are exhorted to “watch and pray” because we have to also see how His answers are coming. Again there are many books that were written about prayer, and how we might discern the answers of God. But experience wise, we have to learn to wait for the answers that we seek, to hear from the Lord if this is the answer already. For instance, on our part as husband and wife, I sought the Lord that our first baby would be a male child. We have talked about this even before we were married. But God did not give that to me. We prayed for many months. We also told the Lord that His will be done, because we recognize that our perspective is quite general and though we might have our own plans for our children as long as 10 or 20 years, yet His Wisdom is better than ours.

So when my wife conceived of our first baby and the doctor told us that it was a baby girl, I was not disappointed though I was seeking a baby boy. My wife was sad at first because she would have been happier that my wish of a baby boy was granted. But because we also recognized the hand of the Lord, we knew that it was for a reason that He gave us a baby girl instead. Again, when it was the time for us to have our next baby, I sought the Lord fervently to give us a baby boy. He did not disappoint us. We got our baby boy.

God answers prayers but we have to also recognize the form that they come. Just knowing that He will answer my prayers does not satisfy me. But understanding and knowing the form they come when He had answered them does satisfy. As Solomon wisely discerned, the plans in a man’s heart maybe many but the plans of the Lord will prevail. Prayer prepares us to accept and receive what God has in mind for us. The following Scriptures can serve to guide and encourage us to be patient and watchful in prayer.

“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.”

(Proverbs 16:1)

“Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be established.” (Proverbs 16:3)

“The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

“Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the LORD will stand.” (Proverbs 19:21)

“The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation.” (Psalm 33:11)

“For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?” (Isaiah 14:27)

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11)

“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:19-20)

“And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:22)

“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray  and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” (Mark 11:23-24)

“But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.” (Luke 5:16)

“and said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” (Luke22:46)

“In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” (John 16:23-24)

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Epehesian 3:20-21)

“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-6)

“This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” (1 John 5:14)