We read in I Corinthians 10:22: Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? One thing about God is that He gets away with things that you do not. Many Jewish people say, “He’s entitled.” That means He is worthy of the honor or the privilege He has. This is true of God. He is entitled to be jealous.
Human Jealousy stems from the inability to cope with something you cannot work out: a desire to possess, yet not being able to possess; a desire for something you feel you would like to have. It does not have to be about persons. You can be jealous over another person’s car or house or any such item.
Certain instances in the Scriptures describe jealousy. For example the story of Joseph and his brothers tells how jealous the brothers were because of the position Joseph had with his father Jacob. They wanted to possess that position. In this case it was just a favor of the father that they did not have, but Joseph had it. They wanted it; therefore, they became jealous of him. They sold Joseph as a slave into Egypt to be rid of him. In fact, one of the brothers talked them out of killing him.
We must understand the nature of jealousy. Another clear illustration of the force of jealousy and what it leads people to do is in the story of King Saul in the Old Testament. After the killing of the giant the people sang, “Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. What more does he need than to have the Kingdom?” The people saw the favor of the Lord upon David and how the Lord had departed from Saul. So Saul became keenly jealous. Time and time again he tried to pin David to the wall with his spear in an attempt to kill him. He sought his life with a spear, but it came back to him and he died on his own sword (I Samuel 18:11; 31:4). Jealousy has a way of bringing back the exact thing intended for someone else. It is the spiritual law of the Boomerang.
Another example of this is in the story of Esther in the Old Testament when Haman built the gallows for Mordecai. Mordecai, her uncle, watched the gallows being built, but when the time finally came, Haman and all of his sons were hung on his own gallows (Esther 9:25). Hatred does not seem to be so complicated, but that which is sent out in the viciousness of jealousy has a certain force which goes forth and comes back upon the head of the one who sent it.
We have been speaking of human jealousy. I do not know whether we would excuse it and say it is a virtue or whether we would say it is evil, but to some extent in the Scriptures, there is a jealousy which is very much vindicated. For example, the sixth chapter of Proverbs speaks of the rage of jealousy in a husband when someone has committed adultery with his wife. It says he will not be satisfied with many gifts, nor will there be any way to appease him until the jealousy that rages has taken its course (Proverbs 6:35). It speaks about the simpleton involved in such a trespass.
Jealousy appears so many times in the Scriptures and almost seems to be justified. Then again it comes forth in places, for instance, where Saul was jealous of David, because the anointing of the Lord was upon David and it was not upon him any longer. That kind of jealousy is defiled. It is something Satan has usurped and is using for a destructive purpose.
God’s jealousy is something else. God has taken many names upon Himself. We read in Exodus 34:12–17, Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherahs—for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, who name is Jealous (one of the names of God), is a jealous God (He calls Himself that because it is true; He is a jealous God)—lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invite you to eat of his sacrifice; and you take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods, and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. You shall make for yourself no molten gods.
This same idea is repeated in Exodus 20:1–6. It is the chapter which also contains the giving of the Ten Commandments. Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord Your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me (the escape does not seem to come for three or four generations), but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” The Lord here is describing the jealousy of His own nature. Almost invariably the references to jealousy speak of the Lord having a rival in the worship or service to Him. They speak of this rivalry: “No other gods before Me—My name is Jealous. You can have no other gods before Me—none whatsoever; no image—nothing.”
Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we? You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons (we are to partake of the table of the Lord). I Corinthians 10:22, 21. The next chapter describes the classic presentation of the Holy Communion which we partake of, but this Scripture is trying to bring out the fact that you cannot drink of two cups because God is jealous. You cannot drink the cup of demons and the cup of the Lord.
What would it mean to drink of the cup of demons? Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing of the blood of Christ? We share in the blood of Christ. Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? It is the sharing in it. Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. I Corinthians 10:16–17. The bread this is speaking of is the Body of Jesus Christ; you are the Body of Jesus Christ. It is true that this verse is referring to the body that was given as sacrifice, but He gave His body in order to purchase us as the Body. The first Adam had his side opened up, and a rib was taken out of him. Out of his rib was made a woman, and she was presented to the man. In a true sense, that woman was an extension of the man’s body, because the rib was taken out of his side. The Body of Jesus Christ, the Bride of Christ, came out of His side where the blood and water flowed from the Roman spear. This verse contains a mystical meaning. We partake of Him, but we all become one Bread too.
Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No; but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? I Corinthians 10:17–22.
Here we come back to jealousy. What is God trying to teach us out of this passage? This should frighten you. You may think it is all right to go into the world and partake of some of the things of the world. But you will find various spirits there that rule over everything. When you become involved with something in the world and with its lusts, you also begin to partake of the spirit behind it. It is easy for the young people to say that certain things of the world do not mean anything: “Just a little of the occult, just a little fortune-telling, just a little pot is all right; they do not matter much—a little of this or that—just for the lusts of the flesh.” Wait a minute! You are partaking of the table of demons. It is not the thing itself, but it is the rivalry to the Lord. It is what you turn loose. What you turn loose goes almost beyond what you can control. After you minister in this Walk a certain amount of time, you find that the old order, the fundamentalist world, was missing it completely. They would say, “Come and accept Jesus, and now your sins are all forgiven.” But who is going to deal with the spirit of what they picked up—that table of demons of which they became partakers? The demonic harassment that is going to come against Christians who try to straddle a walk with God and the world is going to be disastrous. I am not trying to establish old-order holiness standards, but I have watched the spirit that comes upon people, and I am convinced of the jealousy of God and the way He deals with people. Some of you people sometimes wonder if you are being oppressed. You are trying to have two lovers: you are trying to serve God and Mammon. No man can serve two masters. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. Matthew 4:10. Whenever something enters into your spirit, then He has rivals.
What is your motivation behind the prayers in your intercession? Are you praying for the Lord to do something, because in a selfish sense you are going to benefit from it? Do you want God to work something out for only one reason—so that you can be free of obligations and responsibilities? Are you believing God to break the dominion of Mammon over money so that the Kingdom of God will be free, or because you want some money selfishly for a personal reason? The ultimate motivation, the motivation deep in your heart, may not be honest. You may have set something else in your heart that you really desire, and the Lord has a serious rival. You should search your heart in this.
Why do we want divine order? Are we out to build a movement? Let’s be sure we are not. It would be disastrous for this Walk with God to grow too fast. I do not want the pure spirit of this to be lost. A flood of people would dilute the beautiful, pure spirit that is found in it. We do not want to stay small, but we want to stay pure in our motivation.
We have to become partakers of the jealousy of the Lord, and present the incoming harvest of new believers unto the Lord, and watch over them to keep them pure.
God has to constantly ask you if He has any other rivals. Do you love anything tangible or intangible more than you love the Lord? Is there anything that could make you flip out and not serve God? What is your price? What is your consecration level? If you had a disappointment, a disillusionment in this life (think of what could disillusion you—some expectation you would find shattered), would you go on serving the Lord? Would you want anything so much that not having it would automatically cause you to rebel and turn back from the Lord? I have watched people whom I thought had more from God than to do that. Over some disappointment they drop out from walking with the Lord. You might think, “Well, the devil sure got his licks in.” No, God got His licks in: “Let’s see the ground on which you stand,” and He pulled the rug out from under them. Because they were not standing with Him as Lord, it had to be revealed to their own hearts, for He is a jealous God.
Many people go through heartbreaking experiences for only one reason—they have not put the Lord first. They have had other gods—other rivals. Suppose you say, “That backslider went down to the depths of sin. What an awful thing!” Yes, what an awful thing. But I think it would be even worse for that individual to keep on fooling himself into thinking that he has something of a walk when he has a motivation that is not completely the Lord. He wants what he is after. If he does not get that, then that is it!
I do not think we can be that deceitful with the Lord. Sometimes a boy has a call of God on his life, and a girl who wants him can be so pious, so religious, so spiritual, right in there pitching until she gets him. Then she drags: she is always late for services; nothing is going right; she isn’t with it anymore. Why? She got what she was after. God should smite down something like that. To try to walk in deception like that is the worse kind of hypocrisy. Now with prophets who have real revelation, not much of that occurs anymore. But even when God is in a marriage, they can still back off from walking with Him and say, “Well, I have responsibilities.” They get what they want, but it is not a walk with God.
He is a jealous God; He wants you to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength (Luke 10:27). You will have no other gods before Him. There is going to be nothing that you want more than walking with God. No matter what anyone else takes away from you, your walk with God remains intact because you are not serving Him for other reasons.
What does the Lord do when people want to serve Him for other reasons? He has compassion on them, He blesses them, and He gives them everything that He can. And if they are in the wilderness He seats them in tiers of fifty and feeds them with just a handful of biscuits and fish, and they have twelve baskets left over. But when they seek Him out and say, “Oh boy, bread and fish every Tuesday, this is a good platform for Him; let’s make Him king,” He goes the other direction, saying, “You did not seek me for the true bread that comes down from heaven. You are after something else. You are after filling your belly, not for doing the will of God. Do not labor for the meat that perishes” (John 6:26–36).
Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you” (John 6:53). That horrified the Jews. The idea of drinking blood was completely abhorrent in the Law of Moses, so they all left Him. He turned to the twelve and said, “Are you going, too?” Why did He have to eliminate those people? Why did He have to bring something so insulting, something so disastrous to their own prejudices? Why did He thrust it on them knowing what they would do? He did that because they did not have the right motivation; they were not there for the right reason.
Sometimes people come into a walk with God, receive ministry, and suddenly they flip and are gone. Do not worry about it.
God is bringing in the ones He wants, and He is kicking out those He does not want. This Walk with God will be kept pure, not because we have had any standards of membership, or any regulation over people’s lives, or conformity to some pattern of behavior; this Walk is staying pure because of what God is doing. He is saying it is all going to be the Lord. You are going to serve Him. He is a jealous God. And if you do not put Him first, He has a way of getting down to the source, and when He hits that nerve, you start running. You had better run because God will get you out where He can deal with you. When He is through stripping you down, you will want nothing but His will. Then you will begin to rejoice in doing the will of the Lord.
This does not mean that everything that happens to you is God’s dealing. That would be over-simplifying the whole matter. I am only talking about the jealousy of God being provoked. Do you want to provoke that jealousy? In this cup of blessing that we share, in this that God does for us, He will have to be first. The Lord told me that behind every relationship that comes forth in the Body—behind the relationship that exists between the Body and its elders, deacons, pastors, foundational ministries, and the interrelationship of ministries—God is looking at every single thing. There is no lighthearted adhesion to one another. There are no simple rules of membership. We have to have the same care, one for another. There is to be no personal striving. There are to be no individual ambitions and no ulterior motives. Those have to be out. God is demanding that we be pure in our relationships to each other.
The same thing will happen in the homes between husbands and wives, parents and children. They will have to seek and find the will of God together. They must want it above everything else. If you have already prescribed the boundaries of your dedication, the Lord will kick your fence down and say, “Come and follow Me,” and you will come and follow Him. There will be days in which, if you can be rocked out of the boat, you will be rocked out of the boat. If this is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ over your life, that is what the Walk is all about. It is a walk with the Lord. You must sense He is the Lord of your life, until nothing can rival it. He is a jealous God.
We pray so often: “Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever” (Matthew 6:13). Be sure you do not build yourself a kingdom, because He is a jealous God. The denominations are kingdoms, all Babylon. and they will have to come down.
“What is wrong with Babylon? Why does Babylon have to come down?”
Babylon has to come down for the same reason that every kingdom you build has to come down.
“Well, aren’t they doing a good work?”
Wood, hay, and stubble, but it can look pretty good.
“Aren’t all the good works that they do fine? They are getting this job done and that job done.”
Yes, they are building a kingdom, but not His Kingdom. That is the only reason. You cannot look at it and say, “They’re doing a better job than we are.” Very likely they have more in Sunday school than we have in Church at Study. We are still struggling. But only one thing is different—Program, promotion, loyalty Sunday, the founding fathers—they build it all up. What do we have? We do not have that, of course, but we have a constant seeking of Him to be Lord over our lives. For the Kingdom is His Kingdom.
I know that God has a divine order, and He is restoring His authority, but I do not want a kingdom. This walk with God may become a very great movement of the remnant fulfilling God’s will in the earth.
But I have already predetermined my action. I have prayed about it and fasted over it. If this has the tendency to become a kingdom, and the people tend to exalt me until it takes on the resemblance of one man’s kingdom, that day I will resign from all of it and walk away.
You would be better off without me. I will not allow the jealousy of God to be raised against you. That is my dedication.
You may say, “What a terrible thing to do.” No, it is the only thing to do. If this Walk is not going to be what God wants it to be, God will judge it. And if a simple action like my walking away could determine that it would go on with God, that is what I would do. That is in my spirit.
We cannot build another kingdom. There is no time to see those things come up anymore. This walk with God cannot revolve around little kingdoms here and there. The rotation of pastors and elders in the different churches, and shifting people around, is good. It is not good for anyone to be too deeply entrenched in something.
Everyone starts looking to the Pastor and gravitating around him. People force leaders into an unhealthy position. We have to fight that, because He is a jealous God.
There is no place for a pope or an archbishop. There is no place for a general superintendent; there is no place for these things in this Walk with God. It must be brethren and sisters that are led by the Lord.
We must come together for a great deal of prayer during these days. We must have a new awareness that the people are not coming out to hear what certain brothers or sisters have to say, but all are coming out as a family to seek the mind of God, to hear what Jesus has to say. He is Lord over His Church, and He is still capable of revealing His will. He is capable of revealing what He wants: the policies He wants; the principles He wants. And those who have the voice of God must speak it and speak it humbly. Either He becomes the exalted Lord over this whole Walk, or He will be nothing at all to it.
That brings us back to what He is trying to say to you. His name is “Jealous” for He is a jealous God. He is not even going to share the throne with you. Think about the old self sitting on the throne. It is the antichrist “whom the Lord will slay with the brightness of His presence” (II Thessalonians 2:8). “Slay him Lord.”
More and more you will find a conscience about the Lord Jesus. “But Lord, if you will just work this out for me, then I’ll do such and such for you,” Wait a minute. The days of Jacob are over. No bargaining now. “Lord, I’ll tithe, if You’ll do such and so.” I have noticed what God demands now. He is demanding to be Lord over your money, and you are going to tithe whether He ever blesses you or not. You are going to do it because of His Lordship over you. You are not bargaining with God. Nevertheless, see if He will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. He will be faithful to His Word, but He is not going to be faithful to make a deal. No bargaining. Only one thing: who is the Lord?
“You are, Lord.”
Any other contenders?
“No, no one else, Lord. You are the only One on the ballot” (not that He needs to get elected; He is going to be Lord whether you vote for Him or not). Every knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess. He is going to come out all right; it is you we are worried about. You do not want to be kneeling because He broke your legs; you want to worship Him because it is in your heart that He be absolutely first.
What happens when a home observes that? No matter how much two people love each other, when the motivation is on a selfish, human plane, even though they are believers in the Walk, that marriage is a rival and a challenge to God when it is an end in itself. But when a marriage and family are a dedicated unit, aware of their function and purpose to serve the Lord, they are living for something bigger than their own self-interests. Families in such a situation are those whom God blesses because they are little segments or cell-blocks of His Kingdom. He is the Lord. He is the King. And every church, every home, every individual is to serve Him.
We should have pre-marriage counseling to deal with one thing: “Why do you want to get married?”
“Well, we want to live together. People need to get married. We’re in love and we are male and female and we might want children. It is a good idea, and this is the way it is done.” That is an obvious answer, I suppose. But there should be a more important answer than that. If all you want to get married for is just your own happiness, ask the first thousand married couples you find, “Are you happy?” The odds may be about five to one of those are not happy. Why? Because they have nothing bigger than themselves to live for. They say, “We’re getting married for our own desire for each other, for our own self-interest. We will shut the world out and walk on together, hand in hand, into the sunset.” That is not life.
However, God will bless the couple that says, “No, we won’t get married, as much as we love each other, unless we can be dedicated to really do the will of God. We are going to live for something bigger.” The woman must say, “Never will I stand in the way of what my husband wants to do for God. I will give my life to see that he accomplishes what God wants him to accomplish, that he becomes what God wants him to be, that he serves the Lord with all his heart.” And the husband says the same: “As Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, unselfishly will I give of myself to see her brought into a perfect walk with God.” This is the answer, for His name is Jealous. He is a jealous God.
Watch the nations, the things that come and go, the businesses that make money, the people who get the money: what do they do? Stop and think—there is a futility because people are living without a great enough purpose. For awhile in this generation we have watched some dedicated people who are called comrades, Communists, and fellow travelers. It is rather strange to look in a satanic world—largely atheistic—and find people who will say, “Our situation isn’t much, but we’re dedicated to something greater. We’ll go out and lie, cheat, and cause revolutions. We’ll shoot, assassinate, spread propaganda, and give our lives for it.” What made it seemingly work? Because they were living for something they thought was more important than they themselves were. The individual could riot be as important as the cause. That is Satan’s world.
Let’s talk about God’s world. What happens when people stop using God—planting Him on the dashboard hoping He will prevent an accident, mumbling over the food, hoping they won’t get ptomaine poisoning, crossing themselves before they go for a swim so they won’t drown—“O Lord, we need you; we need Your help”? As much as you can be blessed with the idea that you need God, you will be blessed more by the idea that He owns you. He possesses you. You are His. “To be a Christian as I understand Christ means the absolute acceptance of the authority of Jesus in all my life. It means that I am no more my own man but Christ’s man.” And His name is jealous.
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.
Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved. And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able; but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No; but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we? I Corinthians 10:1–22.
Can people become a sharer with demons? You ask, “You mean I could become demon possessed?” Yes. What happens when Christians violate their walk with God, and the next time they come for ministry or help they have a demonic oppression upon their lives? What causes that? It is because they have partaken of the table of demons.
If you partake of the Communion Table, you are going to be a partaker of Christ. If you partake of the things of the world: sin, rebellion, and wickedness, you will be a partaker of demons.