The Little Big Word

“Supernatural strength is the work of the Holy Spirit, not weight training.”
Robert Whitlow – “Zion vs. Zeus”


The Little Big Word

I am often amazed what one little word can do in the context of Scripture.
There is one particular word that may just be the most powerful word in the Word. That word is the word “if”. This little conjunction can have significant impact to the promises given in the Word. If means: “in the event that”, “granting that”, or “on the condition that.” Let’s apply it to a verse.

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain,
or command locusts to devour the land
or send a plague among my people,
if my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin
and will heal their land.
Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive
to the prayers offered in this place.”
2 Chronicles 7:13-15 NASB (my emphasis red)

If you would allow me the liberty this is how I read this verse.
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain,
or command locusts to devour the land
or send a plague among my people,
if my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves and pray
if they will seek my face
if they will turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin
and will heal their land.
Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive
to the prayers offered in this place.
If they do not
Then I will not forgive their sin
Nor will I heal their land
and my eyes will not be open nor my ears attentive
to the prayers they offer in this place.
2 Chronicles 7:13-15 FCUAV (Fred’s Completely Unauthorized Amplified Version)

Throughout the Scripture there are promises of God
that are made conditional by this little big word “if.”

When Solomon had completed building the Temple and had dedicated it, God appeared to him at Gibeon (which means “thing lifted up.”) This is what God said to Solomon:

3 The LORD said to him:
"I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me;
I have consecrated this temple, which you have built,
by putting my Name there forever.
My eyes and my heart will always be there.
4 "As for you, if you walk before me
in integrity of heart and uprightness,
as David your father did,
and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,
5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever,
as I promised David your father when I said,
'You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'
6 "But if you or your sons turn away from me
and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you
and go off to serve other gods and worship them,
7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them
and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.
Israel will then become a byword
and an object of ridicule among all peoples.
8 And though this temple is now imposing,
all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say,
'Why has the LORD done such a thing
to this land and to this temple?'
9 People will answer,
'Because they have forsaken the LORD their God,
who brought their fathers out of Egypt,
and have embraced other gods,
worshiping and serving them—
that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.' "
1 Kings 9:3-9 NASB

Did you catch the little big word in these verses?

4 "As for you, if you walk before me
in integrity of heart and uprightness,
as David your father did,
and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,

In other words if you walk obediently… then I will…

5 …establish your royal throne over Israel forever,
as I promised David your father when I said,
'You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'
i.e. I will keep you and your descendants on Israel’s throne forever!

On the other hand…

6 "But if you or your sons turn away from me
and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you
and go off to serve other gods and worship them,

If you walk in disobedience or if your sons walk in disobedience,
or if you follow after false gods and worship them…

7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them
and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.
Israel will then become a byword
and an object of ridicule among all peoples.

Acts of disobedience always have a consequence just as acts of obedience always yield a blessing. This is the principle of sowing and reaping in action.

Blessing or consequences are not only conditional but they are generational as well. The blessings of David were passed on to his son Solomon. The sin of David – his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, are seen in the very sin that pulled down Solomon’s heritage. David’s lust for the flesh was passed down to Solomon and resulted in Solomon’s infatuation with foreign women. He married many, all in direct violation of God’s command that the sons of Israel were not to marry men or women from foreign nations.

1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women
besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites,
Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
2 They were from nations about which
the LORD had told the Israelites,
"You must not intermarry with them,
because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods."
Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.
3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth
and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.
1 Kings 11:1-3 NASB

When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land they paused at the Jordan River and memorialized their passage from captivity to freedom. They were instructed by the Lord to take twelve stones from the bed of the Jordan and set up a memorial in the place they camped for the first night in the Promised Land.
1Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying,
2"Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe,
3and command them, saying, 'Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.'"
4So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe;
5and Joshua said to them, "Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel.
6"Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?'
7then you shall say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off ' So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever."
8Thus the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the LORD spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the lodging place and put them down there.
9Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day.
10For the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that the LORD had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed;
11and when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed before the people…

19Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho.
20Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.
21He said to the sons of Israel, "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones?'
22then you shall inform your children, saying, 'Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.'
23"For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed;
24that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that you may fear the LORD your God forever."
Joshua 4: 1-11; 19-24 NASB

The children of Israel were instructed to bring their children back to these memorial stones each year and recount the faithfulness of the Lord in delivering them from bondage and bringing them into the Promised Land. This practice was a practical way that they were to remind generation after generation of the faithfulness of God and the importance of living obediently before Him.
For all of King David’s life he walked reverently before God, (with the notable exception of Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite). Another notable failure of David, however, was his failure as a father to pass on the principles of walking uprightly before the Lord. Had these values been established in his son Solomon, perhaps his life might have ended in a victory shout rather than a whimper.

In the same manner, we as Christians need to leave an Apostolic Legacy for our own children (both biological and spiritual) and for the Generations to Come
A spiritual generation includes every person alive on earth at a given moment.
The Word proclaims that the Holy Spirit is being poured out on all flesh.

28"It will come about after this
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
29"Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Joel 2:28-29 NASB

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Acts 2:1-4 NASB

We are called to be fathers and mothers which means we need to have a relational experience with the children of our generation. It is not enough to simply be teachers of information, but we must mentor those who are being trained up in the things of the Lord.

5Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.
1 Corinthians 14:5 NASB (my emphasis bold)
We must live to pass the baton desiring to leave those who follow is a double portion, making our ceiling their floor.
We are to give ourselves to the making of disciples who themselves can reproduce future disciples.

2The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
2 Timothy 2:2 NASB

Our passion must be to live in the light of the big eternal picture of history
seeking to occupy, not simply existing until the Lord returns.
We are called to invade our culture not evade it.
We must demonstrate and instruct the ways of God’s kingdom to our children again…(both biological and spiritual).

1Listen, O my people, to my instruction;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
3Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
4We will not conceal them from their children,
But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,
7That they should put their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments,
Psalm 78:1-4,7 NASB

1"Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it,
2so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
3"O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
Deuteronomy 6:1-3 NASB

By the grace of God we will finish the race well,
devoted to Jesus for the long haul.
We will honor all, fervently seeking the blessing of the Lord
for all who follow us.

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