Author: missionspaul

The reason for renewal is in essence a return to the worship of God and making our hearts the altar for God.

“Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning… Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD is not pleased with them. Now he will remember their wickedness and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.” (Hosea 8 v 11, 13)

Renewal leads to the altar. Ritual becomes relationship and duty becomes devotion. The altars are not shared with other idols of our life. Renewal is pure worship. Our eyes are not on the benefits of worship (ie the meat) but the benefactor of our lives, God.

Renewal does not point to what we do for Him and the sacrifices that we make but rather it points to Him. Not everyone who gathers at the altar does so with a renewed heart. 

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

Hosea 8 serves as a reminder that we need renewal but also the blessings of renewal.

Within renewal there comes the realisation that God gives the increase and He is the enlarger of our influence.

“Although they have sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them together.
They will begin to waste away under the oppression of the mighty king.” (Hosea 8 v 10)

Although they have sold themselves among the nations

God does not want you to reach out for things or search for people to give you what only He can ultimately give. . He came to give you a thriving life, an abundant life.

In renewal we make room for Him.

In renewal we begin to prepare for the growth God is giving.

Can you begin to desire that what you think is unchangeable about you is changed?

God isn’t at work producing the circumstances you want; God is at work in bad circumstances producing the YOU HE wants!

You may have changed your plans for God but His plans are still the same and He is waiting. His plans contain promises. Promises not for your disaster but for your abundance. Plans and promises that bring a future and a hope.

They will begin to waste away under the oppression of the mighty king.

In renewal you realise that you have not been called to diminish.
God is an Enlarger, an Increaser, the Giver of life. With God we should expect more.

God is bigger than our imaginations. His plans are big plans. Right now across the world God is moving in great measures.

We hear of so much suffering and persecution and it is real and we need to pray and stand for justice but listen to this:

The number of Christians in Indonesia has grown from 1.3M forty years ago to over 20M today.  (Operation World).

The Jesus Film has been translated into nearly 1000 languages, 6 billion viewings and over 200 million people have indicated decisions for Christ as a result of the film (Campus Crusade).

No Christian was officially allowed to live in Nepal until 1960.  Now there is a church in every one of the 75 districts of Nepal with estimates of over half a million believers (Operation World).

Why even contemplate forsaking God who is our true source of blessing. Why reach for another? God’s people reached for Assyria and it would be that nation that caused them to waste away and they exiled God’s people in 722 BC.

Choose renewal today!

I was told yesterday of a Church member who attended an evangelistic training course. She was so greatly impacted that the next day she went to work and began speaking with a colleague who she had found it particularly hard to relate to over the years. The conversation resulted in her leading her colleague to Jesus.

Isn’t that amazing?! 

And it is happening in many places. God is using His people as vessels in His hand. He has called us to Himself and then sent us out into the world in partnership with His Spirit.

In every renewal the result is a release in mission to everyone in the world. 

God uses us. And it is wonderful.

“Israel is swallowed up; now she is among the nations like something no-one wants. For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.” Hosea 8:8-9

Read it again slowly.

When you are impacted by a renewal of the spirit:-

• You become opposite to people who are not wanted. You know God wants you! “now she is among the nations like something no-one wants”
• You have no need to go to any other place or person other than God. “For they have gone up to Assyria”
• You don’t wander because Gods gives you purpose. “like a wild donkey wandering”
• You are not alone for He is always here. “wandering alone”
• You live a separate life not following the cultures of those who are not walking with God. “Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.”

Those who read their Bibles long enough soon find out that there is a formula running throughout: what we sow we reap. It works for walking righteously and also for walking away from God.

Israel will not get away with their idolatry. They will get their results from it.

“They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up.” (Hosea 8 v 7)

Quite simply when we turn away from God then the results are opposite to when we turn towards God. Blessings flow from relationship with Him. The kind of results that you get is determined by your walk with Him. That’s not legalistic and work-based. It is just how it is and it makes sense as we partner with the Holy Spirit. Any farmer knows this. Bad sowing produces bad reaping.

The Churches that see the good results from their mission activities are those who are pursuing Him and are walking with Him. The Churches that have “Emptied-out belief lead to empty pews” https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/29-september/comment/columnists/angela-tilby-emptied-out-belief-leads-to-empty-pews

God’s people had false expectations in their idolatry. They truly thought it would bring results. The sad thing is that it is still happening today. We reach out for successes, money, positions of power, anything other than Him and we have the stupidity to think we will get great results. And it leads to nothing.

Pride and power struggles are signs that we need a new season of renewal in our lives. The last verse of chapter 8 tells us clearly the problem, “For Israel has forgotten his Maker” and this is why we need renewal.

It’s not that He is not there in our minds; our Bible sits there; we pray our prayers and sing our songs; but we have forgotten Him.

Pride is there; Power-struggles are there and also idolatry.

“With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction. Samaria, throw out your calf-idol! My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity? They are from Israel! This calf—a metalworker has made it; it is not God. It will be broken in pieces, that calf of Samaria.” (Hosea 8 v 4-6)

It seems one man’s idolatry is stupidity to another. Especially thousands of years previously. Under the leadership of Jeroboam the worship of silver/gold crafted calves was common place. Its origins of course was when in Exodus 32, thinking that their leader, Moses, had forgotten them when he went up Mt. Sini to receive the law of God. With nowhere to be seen the people made a golden calf to worship. They did it because they felt a distancing between God and Moses and themselves. 

Today we may not be smelting down our gold jewellery to make idols but there is a temptation to make God fit our expectations and what we think we need when He is nowhere to be seen; we reach out for money and positions of power; anything other than our search for the Living God becomes a calf of worship.

Thinking that these things will make us greater than we are only leads us into further idolatry where there are no depths of sin that a man/woman of God can fall into in the search for fulfilment.

God asks the question: How long will this go on for? He promises that our attempts will come to nothing. He will break them to pieces. Why? Man-made attempts are not God.

There are so many man-attempts that do not look sinful and that we applaud. Our work and what we have achieved whether a Church ministry or becoming the star employee or building the award-winning business; or doing all the above through our children; can become idolatrous if it becomes more important than God.

Renewal will remove the calf-idols of Samaria so that God becomes everything to our lives.

We need a new season of renewal.

As we move into chapter 8 look at the last verse, ““For Israel has forgotten his Maker” and that is why we need renewal.

It’s not that He is not there in our minds; our Bible sits there; we pray our prayers and sing our songs; but we have forgotten Him.

“They set up kings, but not by Me; They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.” (Hosea 8:4)

We need renewal because there are so many power struggles.

• Power: We have already seen in the previous chapter that many of the kings came to power through bloodshed.

There was a day when the kings were appointed through the prophets.

There was a day when Church leaders were called into position by a conviction of the Spirit of God.

There was a day when the kings were the first to call upon God in the day of battle.

There was a day when Church leaders spent the majority of their time on their knees and faces.

There was a day when the kings would use their authority to keep the people in obedience to the law of God.

There was a day when Church leaders would teach the Bible without the reinterpretation of it.

And before we start enjoying pointing the finger is there anyone not guilty of choosing to be so self-governing? 

There was a day: renew us in that day O Lord!

As we move into chapter 8 look at the last verse, ““For Israel has forgotten his Maker” and that is why we need renewal.

It’s not that He is not there in our minds; our Bible sits there; we pray our prayers and sing our songs; but we have forgotten Him.

“Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. Israel will cry to me, ‘My God, we know You!’ Israel has rejected the good; the enemy will pursue him” (Hosea 8 v 1-3)

We need renewal because:

• There is little humility
  • God’s people had virtually abandoned God’s covenantal law and yet they boasted they knew Him. 

Prayer: 

Let the Church wake up to your trumpet call and battle cry. Sound the alarm! Forgive us O Lord.

We have boasted of many things but the worst boast is to pretend to others and ourselves that we know you when we do not walk with you. 

We have removed the word sin from our vocabulary and everyone is free to be who they are and do what they want to do with no regards to what you have commanded. 

We have deceived ourselves. 

We have reinterpreted the Scriptures to fit what we want them to say. 

We have no self-awareness and there is no accountability for there is no authority in our lives, we are our own authority. 

We do not comply, we do not obey, we do not want to be corrected, we are so full of pride that we notice other people’s sin but not our own. 

Spirit lead us to the cross of Christ again where this arrogance can be broken and where we can be forgiven.

Spirit lead us to grace where we can begin again.

Spirit cleanse our lives with the blood of the Son.

Spirit align us to the Father’s authority so that we can proclaim ‘ABBA Father’ 

Spirit renew your Church today and start the work in me.

Amen.

This chapter reads negatively in one way because God’s people were just not walking with Him. They were mixing their faith of Him with their practice of idolatry.

However, what God says to them gives us the keys to see the restoring hand of God which is available to us all. And how we need that restoration work!

“I trained them and strengthened their arms, but they plot evil against me. They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.”

Hosea 7:15-16  

A Pastor told me recently how for the first time in 10 years they were holding a baptismal service; another told me they had seen over 70 decisions for Christ in their week of evangelism; another that their church had broken the 50 Sunday attendance mark which they had been praying for such a long time; the stories continue and I see the restoring hand of God. Restoration is happening. 

Look at the verses again and turn them upside down and you will see the heart of God and what could have been for these people.

• God is empowering His people and they are an army trained for the battle of winning the lost.
• God is nearing His people as they call upon Him for help.
• God is giving His people success and making sure their efforts are accurate and hit the mark.
• God is protecting His people so that even though it may look like they will fall they don’t.
• God will not allow His people to suffer shame. 

May Restoration continue!

Within the judgment prophecies of Hosea are clear lessons and pathways to show that whatever is broken, even if it is us, there is hope, anyone can be restored.

In God’s appointed time there will be restoration. Those who are His are never forgotten.

But what is the process for that restoration? What are the signs that God is working towards this season of restoration?

1. It is to uncover the sin. God brought to the surface their wicked treatment of one another, 7 v 1-2)
2. He breaks up the party, calling His people out from the world, to be different, 7v3.
3. He exposes ambitious and competitive fire for what it is, v4-7.
4. He brings self-awareness, v8-10.
5. He becomes the sole Person we call out to, v 11-15
6. We begin to understand His heart, v13.

“I long to redeem them …” (Hosea 7 v 13)

Posted on a lamp post was a lost dog sign. There was a big cash reward for whoever found the lost dog, and a description of the dog. It said: “He’s only got three legs, he’s blind in the left eye, he’s missing a right ear, his tail has been broken off, he was neutered accidentally by a fence, he’s almost deaf, and he answers by the name ‘Lucky.'”

That dog isn’t lucky, he’s a walking disaster dog, one thing after another, bumps and scrapes, accidents and attacks. The dog isn’t lucky but it is loved for there is an owner who wants him back.

You’ve been through some scrapes, battered, bruised, messed up a bit. You are a product of your past. Sinner and sinned against. But Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so!

He wants you back. He loves you and He loves to redeem.

There is no one too lost. There is no sin too wrong. There is no position too far away. Wherever a person finds themselves they can return home. Redemption awaits. Forgiveness is there. Healing is there. Amazing grace is there.

When you truly understand this then you are on the pathway to His restoration.

Within the judgment prophecies of Hosea are clear lessons and pathways to show that whatever is broken, even if it is us, there is hope, anyone can be restored.

In God’s appointed time there will be restoration. Those who are His are never forgotten.

But what is the process for that restoration? What are the signs that God is working towards this season of restoration?

1. It is to uncover the sin. God brought to the surface their wicked treatment of one another, 7 v 1-2)
2. He breaks up the party, calling His people out from the world, to be different, 7v3.
3. He exposes ambitious and competitive fire for what it is, v4-7.
4. He brings self-awareness, v8-10.
5. He becomes the sole Person we call out to, v 11-15

“Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless—now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria. When they go, I will throw my net over them; I will pull them down like the birds in the sky. When I hear them flocking together, I will catch them. Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak about me falsely. They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail on their beds. They slash themselves appealing to their gods for grain and new wine, but they turn away from me. I trained them and strengthened their arms, but they plot evil against me.” (Hosea 7 v 11-15)

God’s people are portrayed as a silly dove flying from one nation to the other nation seeking help.

When all along they knew that they had the God of the whole Universe they could turn to.

So what will happen is one of those nations, Assyria, will be used to catch them and bring them into exile and servitude.

Who or what you trust eventually becomes your lord.

Who is that?

Who is your Assyria and your Egypt?

Reject them and put your trust in God who is your provider, empowerment and protector.

If you are crying on your ‘beds’ don’t just wail, turn to God. Do what the Psalmist encourages: “… when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Offer the sacrifices of the righteous and trust in the Lord.” (4:4-5)

Acknowledge the reality of your heart.

Pray.

Trust.

This is the pathway to restoration.