YOU CALL IT A TOMB. HE CALLS IT A WOMB.

Posted on Jul 04, 2022 by Shane W. Roessiger | Comments (0)

What does really motivate you? What does really move you? Your dreams, your desires, or God’s desire? What rule are you under? Caesar, Constantine, or God’s? Are you double-minded? What is your problem? Why can’t you hear God? It is because of this place of indecisiveness! What is indecisiveness? Not able to make choices quickly and confidently, not settling something or making something final or certain. An indecisive person is always vacillating, hesitant, and wavering. God told me that he hates that. Read James 1:1-16 and you will see that a wavering person can never ask God something in faith. Because they keep wavering, tossed, driven by the wind. Some people are driven by their own imagination and by the doctrines of demons and are being tossed. A double-minded man is always unstable, is always enticed by his own lust. Blessed is the man that endures temptation. The World is in error already, but Paul is telling us, “Do not err, brother.” Either God said it, or you said it, or someone else said it. Some wheels never stop moving in their mind. They are never in His rest. A kingdom divided cannot stand. A house divided cannot stand. A mind divided cannot stand. A nation divided cannot stand. A people divided cannot stand. God wants to make us unmovable and unshakeable. The key to life is to put GOD FIRST!

Are you running from God? So, you are in rebellion. Read the book of Jonah. Take a look at him. God wanted to show him the heart of the matter: Jonah’s heart. God fulfilled His plan for Jonah, but what a road he took! Jonah wanted to do what he wanted to do. He tried to run from God, but God went after him. It is a serious thing to be in the Truth, but to run from the Truth is still more dangerous. If you hear the Truth, rebellion and pride must die. The fruits of your life will prove to the world if you are a good tree or a bad tree. They will know who is among them by their fruits. If God and Jesus are our maker, we will bear fruit thereof. See, Jonah was all about Jonah. But what happened? He birthed into his destiny the hard way. His tomb was God’s womb. God always uses those places of darkness, loneliness, and separation to bring us to our destiny.

Let’s take a look at the life of Elijah in 1 King 18:13-18. Interesting, God raised a prophet to edify the Body and they called him a troublemaker! Elijah confronted 450 of Baal’s prophets and mocked them. “Is your god on vacation?” What a confrontation. “You liars, you hypocrites, and you call me a trouble maker?” God is repairing the altar right now (verse 30). When His voice goes forth is when the remnant opens his mouth. The Spirit of Elijah is restoring that voice, speaking forth what God is doing in the Spirit, even when we are in the midst of our destiny.

Elijah ran for his life (1 King 19:1-9). He ran under a juniper tree and requested to die. God sent an angel and woke him and fed him. Then an angel came a second time and touched him. Sometimes one or two encounters in our lives will sustain us for a long time – we need to be reminded. Then Elijah ate and drank for 40 days and rested for 40 nights. After that, he crawled into a cave. Fear of man, of people, and of the enemy brought him to his cave. Elijah gave ears to fear. He was a great mighty man of God, and even so, he ran because of fear. Disobedience brought him to a cave. But when God restored him again, He showed him in his cave that he was not the only one! In a vision He showed 7000 who had not bowed their knee to Baal. Even in the midst of awakening and a shaking of a nation, Elijah found himself in a cave.

Now let’s look at another mighty man of God. Everybody knows the story of David. He ran to his cave as well. God brought him to his cave, a place of dying, a place of protection, training, and timing to live to hide and to wait. David waited on Saul to destroy his own self. He waited on God. The kingdom was divided but David waited. Samuel told him clearly about God’s plan. He did not have to have a dream or vision. It was a clear calling to be a king. He had a ceremony in his backyard. He was dripping with oil. He had a mighty prophet of God telling him that he was anointed to be the king. Then he was left alone and even served the one whom he was to replace. Wow. His entire family was convinced that God must have made a mistake. Then the king-to-be was sent to serve the one who would end up wanting to kill him (1 Samuel 16:1-13). Then finally David ran for his life with the very men who saw the anointing on his life. But there were moments when David and his men remained in the cave (1 Samuel 22). His cave was a womb of preparation, testing, and waiting. The difference is that David also knew how to hide himself in the cleft of the rock, in His hiding place, under the shadow of the Most High! Now we have Jesus as our hiding place – the rock of our salvation.

The great fish was Jonah’s tomb. The cave was Elijah’s tomb. And now, there is a cave inside in Jesus, and He wants you to be in there, living in there. Let’s talk about a prime example of going into a cave, a tomb. They took Jesus into that cave. They took Lazarus into his cave. But all was for the Glory of God. That cave became a womb for the glory of God. “Lazarus, come forth…” Where are you? Are you in a cave because of disobedience? Even Joseph had a pit that was like a grave (Genesis 37:24). But this rejection is God’s protection and training.

Here is Jesus brought to His own destiny. He came from heaven to the womb of Mary and was birthed into the Earth, and into the tomb, and back to the womb. A birthing place. A place of dying. A tomb and a womb look the same on the inside: dark, gloomy, quiet, and isolated. There are some places of desperation and loneliness where everything around you presses you to wait on the Lord. The more Lazarus had to wait, the more Glory was manifested. Glory will come out of it! Roll that rock away and you will see that what they call a tomb, God calls a womb! Where are you? In a cave or in a womb? We see Jesus – a sinless man – taken to a cave and that cave was turned into the tomb that was actually a womb of heaven! Everything concerning Jesus’ resurrection started in a tomb but ended in a womb…birthing the first fruit of many seeds (1 Corinthians 15:20). That seed – Jesus Christ – must fall into the ground to produce life in us all (John 12:24)! The tomb is a place of dying. The womb is a place of birthing.

Your cave can become a birthing place as well. This place of death can become a place of life, just as it happened to Jesus. Roll the stone away! Jesus came out of the tomb and His Spirit is here, just as it was in Jesus Christ. Everybody thought it was over. They really thought it was finished. But no. What He meant was that His part is done; now it is our turn to take authority. Some of us have some strongholds in our minds but we can’t stay in the cave forever. We always are tempted to come out before resurrection time. But I tell you, “If God is for you, nobody can be against you” (Psalms 118:6).

All of these people fulfilled their purposes one way or another. God is showing me people’s hearts lately. Some hearts failing them for fear. Some failing for disobedience. Some failing for selfish ambitions. Some just failing because they just don’t care. Is your heart failing you or is it steady, unmovable? I dare you to go through the Bible and find everyone who got in God’s way. Here are a few right off the cuff: Saul fell on his sword - forced murder, Miriam had leprosy, Ananias and Saphira were executed by God, Jezebel eaten by dogs, Herod eaten by worms, Judas hung himself, Daniel’s accusers eaten by lions, the 3 Jewish boys whose accusers burned in the furnace. Pharaoh’s child was murdered by God. The guy interfering with Paul’s ministry got blinded. What can man do against you? Who can get in your way? But can you get in God’s way? Get out of His way. Submit to Him and resist the devil. Is the Bible for real? We serve a God who is alive. Is He really who He says He is? That is the question for you. Don’t mess with God! It is amazing to hear God’s voice. This is not another preaching. This is God speaking! God had to bring confusion to Babylon. Is God speaking or not? If He is not, kill the prophet that is speaking in His name when God is not speaking. God is the same that He was yesterday, He is the same today and will be forever. God is saying, “I do not change. What I say, I do. What I have said, will be done.”

When our focus gets off God’s kingdom, our focus gets on our own kingdom. Your eyes must be single. What He is saying is, “When your eyes are on Me only, I will align everything else.” He needs to be first. God first, us second. Cross first, resurrection power following. The closer you get to God, the closer you get to Truth. God is bringing us low to take us to the tomb and then we experience the womb, the place of life! We want the kingdom, but it is impossible to have it without listening to the King. The King is the ruler. He is a holy dictator. He is the only one, He is forevermore. We can’t take Him off His throne. If He was willing to be falsely accused for our sake, how can we not obey His way all the way? If we don’t, we will be blaming it on the devil and all the time living in the cave when God wants us to be seated with Him in heavenly places. He wants you crucified with Christ. God is not going to stop until He accomplishes everything He wants to. Eventually, He is coming back, and hopefully, you will be in obedience when He returns. It is all about the heart. We need a right heart. What is your motive? Is your cave a place of resurrection or a place of disobedience? If it is a place of resurrection, embrace it, and you will see His glory manifesting.

“Lord Jesus, we need your help. We thank you, Lord. We embrace the cave you bring us to because we want to trust you, Father. We know that in that place you are working in us and through us for your glory! Father, take from us all complaining, all bickering, all murmuring, everything that we go through from time and time again, every time you want to birth something in us and we complain about it.”

On a good day, we say “yes” to Him all the time because we want to have the true riches, but God is saying if you are not faithful in the little, in the manna that He gives to you, how can He give you the true riches from heaven? If you want it, you can have it. We all have purpose. Find your purpose. Stay in a long-term relationship with Him. It is all about all you went through with God, the suffering, the persecution. Find your satisfaction in the cave. Find your resurrection in the cave. Why go through that path of disobedience and complaining, Jonah? “Father, we seal this Word, by You. It is us and You, God. Whatever you have us to do, we will do with joy. In a tomb or in a womb, we will find joy and obedience. Amen.”

YOU CALL IT A TOMB. HE CALLS IT A WOMB.

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