Stand still and see

STAND STILL AND SEE THE SALVATION OF YOUR GOD.

These words were spoken by Moses at the Red Sea as Israel marched forward to a new beginning. It was a new beginning of seeing God supernaturally at work in their lives. Every life can have this new beginning of seeing God at work in their lives. It is the life of faith.

Exodus 14:13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of your God, which He will accomplish for you today.
This the story of Israel crossing the red sea after escaping out of Egypt, and with the Egyptian army chariots in pursuit. The people of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, two million of them, with no concept of God. They had been without prophets, except for their new leader Moses, and there was yet no priesthood or Commandments or tabernacle. They were glad to be out of there but then they were horribly disappointed and disillusioned by the fact that there was an impassable Red Sea in front of them and they believed that they had been brought out of slavery only to be killed by their pursuers..
This was a first for Israel – They had not had to have faith before, and now their faith was a matter of standing still and watching what God would do to save them. This was confusing for them because this is a difficult lesson for anyone to learn. We think we must do something in order to make something happen. But it is always about what God is doing – and then there is always something for us to do in response.

Its just a matter of when and how we do what is required of us. The first thing Israel had to do was to stand still and see – then Moses held out the rod over the waters and the waters opened up – they saw the work of God - then Israel had to get moving and cross over. The sea divided with a high wall of water on both sides and a passageway between the walls of water for them to walk through. Moses had to be obedient to what God told him to do, then Israel had to be obedient to what Moses told them to do, and two million people had a head-start and crossed on dry land. When the Egyptians got to the passageway between the walls of water God miraculously removed the wheels off the Egyptian chariots and they became stuck in the sand. Then when Israel were safely across Moses held the rod above the waters again and the sea closed in on the Egyptians. It is a detailed story in the book of Exodus but Paul writes simply in the book of Hebrews;
Hebrews 11:29 By faith Israel crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

Another ‘Stand still and see’ from God’s word to King Jehoshaphat came through Jahaziel the prophet.

We now look at God’s Word to Jehoshaphat;
2Chronicles 20:17. You will not need to fight in this battle for the battle is not yours, but God's. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you.”
In that battle of Jehoshaphat, the enemy armies of Ammon and Moab and Mt.Seir were about to attack Israel. Israel were told not to attack these three nations when they first came out of Egypt, but now these three nations were about to dispossess Israel from their inheritance. They were mighty armies and the people were in fear and terror. Jehoshaphat cried out to God ‘O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
The Bible goes on to say ‘And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were destroyed. For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, and destroyed them first, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another.’
So they all began to ambush one another and by the time Israel appeared on the scene ready for battle there were dead bodies everywhere and the fight was all over, and it took Israel three days to gather up all the spoil from the treasuries of the opposing armies.

These two accounts of God’s salvation apply to the nation of Israel, God’s Old Covenant people. But these are examples that apply to us today as God’s people, us as his family in the world, and us as his army. We can learn from these examples that we can be here for God, and for each other, and for our own spiritual edification and growth. We are here to honour God by responding to his love for us through our faith in him, trusting in his goodness to us. We are here together carrying one another’s burdens, praying and blessing one another and receiving blessing and prayer from one another. We are here together for this world, sharing in our prayers together for this world and for those in authority in this world that they will be equipped and blessed by God to serve in a Godly way in our nation. And we can also take these truths of God’s Word and apply them to our personal walk with God, for our own encouragement and spiritual growth and comfort as we make him Lord of our lives.

Those stories were about seeing the salvation of God in the Old Covenant way because they saw God win the battle for them in the physical realm. Today we see the salvation of God through the eyes of faith of the new Covenant. Jesus has become our salvation. When Jesus died for us and rose again from the dead he overcame all the powers of darkness on our behalf, and then sent the Holy Spirit to join the life of Jesus to us so that we could experience this salvation and this life of victory over darkness.
They did physical warfare – we do spiritual warfare. We can receive peace from God, knowing that he alone can work upon and change the nature of things and the hearts people, and that he is the creator God who alone can brings order out of chaos, and who speaks light into darkness. Our battle is against darkness and disorder. They had their armour on and their weapons ready in the physical realm, and so do we in the spiritual realm. This requires faith - real faith.

Paul explains spiritual warfare to us in 2Corinthians 10, saying that ‘the weapons of our warfare are not carnal’. That word carnal means of a natural human order, as opposed to a supernatural spiritual order. He tells us that these spiritual weapons were mighty in God, able to destroy the potential strongholds that darkness would hope to occupy in our minds and in our hearts. Darkness seeks to occupy territory that we have given to God to occupy, as we partake of the life of his Spirit within us, and welcome the residence of Jesus and the Father in our hearts (John 14:23). And Paul knew how put his armour on, which means being protected in his mind and heart by that armour. He says in Ephesians 6:10 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the times of evil, and having done all, to stand.
In the same passage of Scripture Paul talks about our spiritual armour and that we wrestle not against people but against dark spirits that influence principalities, which are social demographic regions where the culture of states and cities is expressed. He tells us that we also wrestle against powers that buffet our personal souls. He tells us that we wrestle against the rulers of the darkness of this age, that means the darkness that is influencing the collective mindsets and ideologies and attitudes of the global atmosphere that exists in this time of worldwide crisis. By the way, that word wrestle in the original language in Scripture is telling us that we ‘overthrow’, not just struggle, so it is an assertive statement, not a timid one. And we are also told that ‘greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.’

Paul mentions some strategic spiritual defensive pieces of armour such as a helmet protecting the mind and thoughts, and he talks about a spiritual breastplate over the heart that protects us from fear. The head and the heart are the two most vulnerable parts of the body in warfare. In spiritual terms the mind is the stronghold to where darkness directs his primary attack. We are directed in the Scripture that I referred to above to overthrow the imaginations of our minds that would block us off from getting our minds on God and his power and his love. These imaginations are the negative emotionally driven regrets or disappointments of the past, or the anxious menace of an uncertain future that we can so easily attach our thoughts to. We are directed to bring our thoughts captive to the present moment that contains the ever present presence of God with us through the indwelling Holy Spirit who reveals the reality of the power of Jesus to reorder our lives.
This is being renewed in the spirit of our minds. We magnify the reality of God’s supernatural activity above the unreality of our anxious imaginations about everything that might go wrong.

The other vulnerable area of our body that comes under attack is our heart. That is where either fear or faith can dwell. The Bible says that ‘with the heart man believes’. Darkness fires darts of doubt and fear into this stronghold of our relationship with God, and we are given a shield of faith to protect ourselves from this kind of attack.
Paul also mentions spiritual weapons, like the sword, which speaks of the word of God, and the bible also says that faith comes by hearing the living Word of Jesus not just in our mind, but in our heart. In the same

The people under Jehoshaphat were told to ‘Position yourselves, stand still, and see, and to fear not....’
We Position ourselves – Our position is as partners together with God. We are partakers of his nature - Joint Heirs together with Jesus. We do not earn this position – it is a gift of God’s grace. But we dare not neglect it.

We stand still – We come into a place of readiness and alertness in our spirit, not passively but actively -mindful of the now moment of God’s ever present presence with us.
We See - That is seeing by faith as opposed to seeing things happen the way Israel did at the red sea and the ambushing of the enemies in Jehoshaphat’s battle. We become conscious of the fact that God is at work in the world of the unseen – the outward ‘seen’ will come if you have been ‘seeing’.

The seeing by faith is the believing. That is faith and trust and the expectation of God to act and produce his result for us to wonder at and give thanks for. That expectation is our hope - a buoyancy that lifts us into a present moment assurance of the greatness and goodness of God.

We then ‘fear not and neither be dismayed’
That means we magnify God’s greatness above our own weakness – ‘For The Lord your God is with you’.
And with that – all I have left to say is ‘The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.’