So it is written:
“Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground… And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.”
But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”
So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 8See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door. 10But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.
Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace”.
Perhaps the eruption that happened with Vesuvius was just what fell then out of heavens? When the brimstone, the fire stones were falling from heaven and burning out… Perhaps our mantle can smell this?
“And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.”- God remembers and sends out. Even before Lot got separated from Abraham, the Lord spoke to Abraham:
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord.”
Then in the Old Testament He destroyed Sodom. But today almost every city is becoming a Sodom. In every megapolis there are huge areas of Sodom. This is very strange when we choose our own small world for ourselves, in which we don’t even know life. We have no idea of how the world functions, what it looks like, not because we don’t travel to other places or resorts, but when we don’t press further to God and He gives us not to see.
To Abraham he said to walk out and go into the land “I would show to you”. Abraham was to keep on walking.
But what do we do with our own world?
There are a few things here. First thing is that God is calling you. I knew people to whom the Lord spoke through their own lips, He would take their lips and anoint and speak through them – this is an amazing experience. The voice of the Lord keeps sounding for you – “Who will go for Us?” God is calling, and He is initiating the relationship of the covenant. He is the Strong One giving to the weak one. We are weak and fearful, stupid – how can we enter into the covenant with God? When God’s presence comes and you pray to God, you realize it and say, “Lord, forgive, I am so stupid!” You can’t lift up your eyes or open your mouth – how can you enter into covenant; how can you make God respond to your foolish things?
Therefore, God initiates, He is the Strong One, He calls so that you may respond, and He walks towards you. He is first to call. All we can do is just respond to His call, because He once called you.
This why the Lord says, “he who has ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying”. Open your ear and your heart, because the ear frows not in one’s head, but in one’s heart. If the heart is hardened or defiled it can’t hear. God, the Strong One gives to the poor.
The next thing is that God gives help to man. God joins us in the covenant. Relationship from a distance don’t imply oneness. You can’t claim to have help from someone else’s child or spouse. So it is with God: if you have no covenant relationship, He doesn’t imply He would deal with you closely. First thing He builds is the covenant relationship. In order to have divine understanding and accomplish God’s works, you have to enter the condition of the covenant first. And God helps man to enter into covenant, He joins us in covenant with Himself. Therefore, relationship with God starts with the covenant.
I think Abraham knew little about God until He made a covenant with him. After the Lord had made a covenant with Abraham, He began to reveal Himself to him, reveal His name, reveal His will.
Many people do not get baptized – I feel sorry for you, because you are not in the covenant. If you are not in the covenant, you will never know God, because He will not reveal Himself to you. A person can’t reveal himself to another person if they are not spouse to each other. They can’t reveal even a body part to a strange person, because this is illegal. Only after the covenant intimate relationship begins. Therefore, covenant is number one thing.
Further on God begins to give man promises – I am telling you how God appears to man, I am telling you how God comes to man. It’s not so that He comes to make you happy with His revelation, no! God comes this way – He calls, and He appears. First He calls the name, then He comes. Remember he called Samuel several times until he responded, “Here is Your servant listening”. Then God spoke His will.
So God begins to speak, and in case of obedience and diligence He releases His promises, both corporate and personal.
And further on God gives commands. God brings you into the covenant, you receive His promises, and God starts to command. And here are two major commands to man, remember it: present yourself worthy of God. You can’t do something else instead of this and this will do. You can’t come dirty, unrighteous, but with works. That man came to David with the news that he had killed Saul, and David ordered to kill him – you can’t be unrighteous and come to God with your works. First command of God to man is to present yourself.
And the second command of God to man is to present God, where you live and dwell you present God.
And the Last thing – God reveals His faithfulness to His faithful one. He reveals His faithfulness in force. God shows His faithfulness to those who keep the covenant. He is faithful – this is true, this isn’t any psychology.
Therefore, the mantle of the sower remains in force. God expands His Kingdom. The Kingdom has to expand and reap the creation. Today we are released to carry the harvest, carry the reaping of the creation, give it to God, presenting ourselves and presenting God.
I was travelling through this country, and last night I walked out, 3 am! There was all this rattling around so that the water is shaking in your hotel room. And I am walking there, and people turn there faces, hide their faces, and I realize there are no limits for God’s people – in any place of the world, amidst the darkest spots of the powers of the devil and hell you walk with God, if you are faithful. And even the language doesn’t matter. They see you, rush to you, and then turn away and hide their faces. Some were cast aside, they shuttered away, because the warrior angel walked forth. Before I went I said, “Lord, make me Your warrior angel now, I walk forth as an angel of war, and I have to walk in their midst, in their midst, to present God”.
Common, folks, God keeps calling, He is calling us out of our small worlds and calls into His Kingdom. Look wider at your life, look deeper at your life. The world shall pass with its lust, but he who fulfills God’s will abides forever!