If God is God, Then How Long? - The Watch Letter
How long will you have two opinions (beliefs, ways of thinking, standpoints, angles, judgments)?
I came across a note from 7 years ago almost today. From what I read, Chief Apostle HC Gunn was preaching about the "sound of the abundance."
Those words are found in 1 Kings 18.
In this chapter, Elijah told the king that he heard the sound of the abundance of rain. This was important because there was a famine in the land. That meant the famine was about to be over. The Lord wanted him to pronounce this to the king.
But here is what I noticed: Before God had Elijah, his prophet, to speak that word, Elijah had to set some things straight. He had to deal with the people who had forsaken God by their wrong thinking and godless opinions because God won’t bless a cursed thing and we see from the scriptures that he won't bless a situation or a people until what is cursed is removed. {Reference: He sent Jesus to remove the curse of our sin (Galatians 3:13), and before that, he called Joshua to remove the curse in the camp (Joshua 7:12-13).}
“…. But thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table.” (1 Kings 18)
When the people were gathered, Elijah asked them how long will you halt (waver, fumble, stagger) between two opinions. They had an unmade-up mind. They were worshiping God and worshiping Baalim (false opinions, false idols, false teachers, false Gods, and a false you).
“No one can serve (love and listen to) two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24)
Elijah challenged the people: If God is God follow him. But perhaps they were so intent on having things their way that they followed Baal as a supplement to God so that “just in case” he didn’t bless them and lead them how they wanted they had a backup plan.
How many of us are coming to church and operating within the body and in our homes with that mindset? You know, the things, situations, thoughts, feelings, and people we keep going back to or keep to the side, or in our pocket, just in case we don’t agree with God or the word.
The fact that Elijah said they had two opinions reminded me of a two-headed monster, which represents being ruled by two powers. What other power competes in our lives with the Holy Ghost power we are supposed to be being led by when we say we are saved or “Christians?” It’s important to note that the King James Version of the question Elijah asked about their two opinions says how long will you halt between two opinions.
When someone or something is halted they are at a standstill. There is no ability to move. When we have two opinions, two heads, and two Gods we are stuck. So all the growth and movement we think we are doing is us running in place, going nowhere fast.
The famine in the land was a reflection of the people’s double-mindedness. Nothing grows, produces, is prosperous, and bears fruit when you are stuck between two opinions or the soil is unstable. When Elijah asked them to make up their minds the people had no response. So often we are silent about God and what he has done. And the silence of the people when Elijah called them to question is the same silence we hear in church when no one wants to be accountable or back up the preached word. And our pastor, Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn, has taught us that when we speak things out of insincerity or false pretenses it's the same thing as being silent.
Sadly for the people that Elijah gathered, to get them to make up their minds, there had to be a showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal (the devil is the devil no matter what he's presented as). The devil presented himself as a serpent when he introduced Adam and Eve to double-mindedness and it passed down from generation to generation since then. Like Adam and Eve, the Children of Israel (supposed to be God’s people) were pretending to follow God by reciting what he commanded but they took the fruit of a forbidden tree as a "just-in-case God’s way doesn’t work out and they did not want to do what he commanded" plan.
In verses 23-24, Elijah issued a challenge: He would prepare an offering without fire and the prophets of Baal would do the same. "Call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answers by fire, let him be God," he said.
We know how the story ends. The Lord responded to Elijah and sent a consuming fire and Baal, the false God, did nothing because he is not the true, living God. How much time have we wasted serving dead, soulless things?
So, after all that they saw in the demonstration, then the people of Israel finally said the Lord is God, even though God had already shown them who he was when he spared their children, delivered them from slavery, and parted the Red Sea, and so much more. God has shown us who he is time and time again but we choose to not fully believe him because we want to leave room for the error of our opinions.
I’m so grateful that I came across those old notes from January 2017 because earlier this week God was correcting me about areas where I let double-mindedness come into my life over time. And I am striving to be fully delivered. As Chief Apostle Gunn says, we must get clear with God every day. He is trying to break the famine in our lives but we have got to make up our minds.
After the children of Israel bowed to God. God had Elijah kill the false prophets of Baal. So, it’s not enough to just say, "Yes to God", as Apostle Terah Josey reminded us the other Sunday. After that, the work of daily surrender begins and we have to kill the false prophets and false Gods in our lives daily. If we don’t kill them, we will always be double-minded and that two-headed monster will have us tossed to and fro. (It reminds me of a spirit Chief Apostle Gunn told me about called the junk mind spirit - full of wrong and trashy thinking. And like 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, we have to cast down vain imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.)
I had a different blog written some days ago but there was a pause behind it. I thought about it yesterday as I was preparing to finish up the blog, and everything that the blog was discussing was the same thing that was exhorted and preached this past Sunday at the Body of Christ by our leader and Apostle Terah. They make a great team. The Lord spoke and that settles it. We have to take the teaching, so let’s go back to and regard the word.
During some messages this month, Chief Apostle Gunn said: Because we violate God, there are things he wants to tell us/show us through the teaching but we can't get it cause we are still stuck in carnal-mindedness. He said we are still stuck on milk as spiritual babies instead of maturing and eating the meat God is trying to give us.
In a message Chief preached almost exactly 7 years ago, he said: Wheels have to continuously go in the right direction to move. There could be hundreds of things in you that are holding up/holding back the spirit of God. No matter what happened to you or in your background you still have a choice. Go and sin no more. Consider the right things and the right people.
This morning at 7 a.m., for a few minutes, I saw online that the phrase "God is God" was trending on social media, going viral. I have never seen something about God trend on social media like that. It had more posts than about the latest celebrity gossip or sports game. This happened because at the same time, this morning many people were sharing the scripture of the day from Bible.com/Bible App. I am glad to see some people were in tune with God as he was declaring himself and that no other God should be put before him. Chief Apostle Gunn always tells us to make sure we are current with God and what he is saying and doing.
The scripture that went viral said: "Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God (God is God), the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations." (Deuteronomy 7:9)
God is speaking!
Listen to this weekend's FORREAL RADIO BROADCAST by Chief Apostle Gunn: Exhortations PT 1:
Love, Apostle Kanya
Amen, Amen!! 🙏🏽