“Never say never.” I wonder if young pop singer Justin Bieber knew the power in what that cliche represents? Taylor Swift also uses the same phrase in one of her songs. How do I know? I have teenage daughters!
Of course the phrase is an oxymoron which defeats itself with it’s own logic.
Bieber says,
I will never say never! (I will fight)I will fight till forever! (make it right)Whenever you knock me downI will not stay on the ground.
The song was on his 2011 album. Since then young Justin has had implosion after implosion. He has been on the ground, he has been knocked down, he has been covered in shame at times and now it seems he is back up and walking in some sort of higher place than before. May the Lord Jesus bless and protect him!
But I point to his lyrics here as an example of a vow or an oath that we have probably all made in the zeal and strength of our youth. Justin set his will firmly and declared:
I WILL NEVER….!
That’s great Justin, but then you must find out that will power alone is not enough. We need God’s strength. To get God’s strength our own strength must be brought down in until we are broken and cease to lean on and rely upon ourselves to fight the battles. Anyone who has seen any Celeb magazine covers in the supermarket knows that young gun Bieber has experienced this.
I say all this not to mock Justin, for I consider him a brother in Christ and do not judge him. But his lyrics bring out the way our flesh is in league with the same entity who said:
Isa 14:13 For you have said in your heart:’I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;
Even Lucifer who is the Adversary(satan in Hebrew) has been humbled so that he would know that exalting his own will, which God gave him, will get him in trouble! God says ‘Go ahead and try if you like.’
Jas 4:6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.
Jas 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Pride is the very nature of Satan and God’s answer is to submit to God, to resist the devil and he will flee from you. When we exalt our will and declare verbally I will never do such and such…or I will never go to such and such a city…we are exalting our own will above that of God. It is Pride which is born out of fear.
Instead of doing this God says submit your whole life to Me. Trust in Me. Fear not for I am with you. In this understanding and reality there is no need to say I will never do this or that.
God continually resists Satan, therefore he does not receive any help from the Lord. In his twistedness instead of repenting and humbling himself he hardens his heart and tries ever harder to thwart God’s will and to rise up to a higher position through his own means. Pride attracts pride. Fear attracts fear. Humility attracts God! Humility repels pride and fear and the Devil.
God’s will is the Highest will and what He wills will be done. When God makes a vow His will is involved. God is the only one who can make a promise or an oath and ensure that it comes to pass. He has the power and the ability to enforce His will whereas we do not. So when we say for instance, “I will never forgive you”, we are backing that statement up with the power of our will at that moment.
But we are not eternal, we are weak and subject to time. Our unforgiveness sees us handed over to the torturers until we come face to face with our ugliness. Our initial resolve to never forgive begins to weaken as we are made to see that God forgave us our debts so who are we to not forgive others their debts owed to us.
Lev 5:4 ‘Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters. Lev 5:5 ‘And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing;
When we vow, “I will never do this or never go there..or never eat that or never forgive etc…we are setting up our will against the will of God Almighty…in fact we put our will up over God’s will.
We are trusting in our will, thinking that we have the strength to fulfil our words.
Only God has this sort of will and power. We need to humble ourselves and repent, asking God to forgive us for every time we have set up our will as a god. We need to break off those words in prayer and ask God to do it.
Vows disqualify us
When Isaiah saw the glory of God he was totally humbled and undone. The seraphim cried and said “the whole earth is full of His glory”
Isa 6:5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.”
Isaiah heard the truth declared that the whole earth is filled with God’s glory and he admits that his words are unclean–unclean defiled words. When we speak about our will with no regard to God’s will, our words are unclean.
Jas 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;
Jas 4:14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
Jas 4:15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
Jas 4:16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
James is referring to this deifying of our puny weak will that we love to exalt over God’s will. This is an EVIL thing to do!
But God, having brought us to the place of repentance cleanses our lips with a coal from the altar
Isa 6:6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.
Isa 6:7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”
Isa 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
The altar speaks of sacrifice, of laying everything of self down at God’s feet in total surrender. No more talking of , “I will never!”…or on the positive side, “I will do this God, I will do that for you..”
Once we are on the cross and surrendered, and our pride is brought low, we are simply His to do with as we both will.
When God looks for a person to send to a dark place can He move you to go? Or have you said in your heart because of some hurt that happened
“I will never live in that city!? Or I will never go to Europe it is a dark place! I will never live south of the river. I will never live in that suburb!”
Or we may have judged certain kinds of people in some way which leads us to vow not to go near them. Bikies, dark skinned people, whites, Asians, British, Americans, Indigenous people, Japanese, Russians, Lesbians, Homosexuals, Freemasons, Politicians, tax collectors and lawyers!!
In judging these ones through fear or in agreement with the people of unclean lips that we dwell amongst like Isaiah says, we disqualify ourselves from being used by God to love them.
God asks today, “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?” He asks this in the context of spreading His glory across the earth to fulfil His will that, “to Me every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
We need to repent of the vows we have made and the judgements against other men. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son. Thank God Jesus had not our attitude! He came not to do His own will, but the will of the One who sent Him.
The disciples wanted to call down fire upon the ones who rejected Jesus and He told them you do not know what manner of spirit you are of. Jesus came to save men’s lives not to destroy them. The judgements we make come straight out of the heart of Satan.
God calls all men clean and told Peter, who was infected with the poison of his Jewish culture. Do not call unclean what I have cleansed. The result was that Peter was the one God could send to Cornelius’ house.
Never say never my brothers and sisters, it will disqualify you from service and deprive you of much joy and life. All the places and people you could have enjoyed but could not because of these inner judgements.
Repent, ask forgiveness and break off those words. Ask God to touch your heart with the power of the blood of Jesus.