He That Judges is the Lord

1 Corinthians 4:1-2

1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

In this life, we are charged as stewards and governors of God’s Word. A steward is defined as someone who is given charge, management over; head or superintendent, an overseer. A steward is someone who takes care of the things given to him or her. In this scripture, Paul describes us, the sons of God, as “managers” of the mysteries of God. It has now become our job or profession to guard the Word of God with our lives. But just as with a natural job, there are certain standards that must be met in order to be found suitable to keep our positions. The same rule applies with our positions in God. As sons, our faithfulness is not measured by man’s standards, but our faithfulness is measured by the Lord. If we keep that in mind, we will always look inward to ensure that if God was to require our lives today, we would be found faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:3

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.

It is easy for us to project ourselves to other people as such good people and get away with it, even if that is not who we really are. It is so easy for us to get by people because we only have to see them for an allotted time in each week. But God is with us all day everyday and He is judging everything that we say, do or think. He is judging what we allow in our subconscious. He is judging those things that we may not address, but that we think about. God takes everything into consideration. Who then do you think has the more important judgment? God or man?

1 Corinthians 4:4

For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.

We have to come to believe as the scripture has said. We must believe that we know nothing by ourselves. No matter how long we have been saved or in ministry, if we don’t realize that we are nothing without God, we can get into situations and really “mess” things up. We are a people that need God. In everything we say and do we must allow the Spirit to lead. It is time to lean on God. If we realize that what we have tried to do is not working, then we have no other choice but to trust God. Something as simple as love still has to be inspired by God. Not everyone can be treated and dealt with the same. Each person needs their own kind of love, but we would not know how to deal unless we are taught by God. He will lead and guide us how to entreat one person different from the next. If we try to only deal with people one set way, then we will only deal with those people that “fit” into the way we deal. In that case we tend to treat people out of where we think they should be instead of meeting them where they are.

Counseling Others

We have to come to rely on the counsel of the Holy Ghost. We have for so long relied on our experiences and what we think life should be, as a means to minister to others. But have we lost sight of the fact that God knows all and sees all and would be able to give the best counsel in each situation? When we use our limited minds to try and deal in situations, we can turn people off from even seeking counsel. We must not allow our counsel to others to cause our hearts to move, because the person seeking counsel is coming expecting to hear from God. So many times we have leaned to our own understanding in counsel and have offended people. If a person is offended, it should be because of the Word, not because we counseled out of our own knowledge. So, as people come to us for answers, we must in turn go to God for the answer so that He can be glorified in the lives of those needing counsel.

Judge Nothing Before The Time

1 Corinthians 4:5

Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

This is an absolute truth about God. He has an appointed time that He will judge every situation. When this happens, God himself will reveal the truth and what He has counseled the heart in. Have you ever known a person that seemed to be such a nice person on the outside, but their true personality was not what they portrayed? Well, they may think that they can get around people by the way they deal and what they say, but God is faithful to bring a situation where the true heart is seen. Judge nothing before the time. We often hear people say, “When I get in a bad way, my friends abandoned me” but this cannot be true. Friends don’t abandon each other in hard times. Only the people that you thought were your friends leave. This only shows who your real friends are. The same principle is found in ministry. We have to stop placing people on pedestals in our hearts. Know this: Just because a person may have an understanding of the Word, does not mean that they are spiritual. Anyone who sits under this Word long enough, will be able to rehearse it. The situations of life is what will reveal a man’s true disposition, not their ability to regurgitate the Word.

The Revealing

God has a way of bringing to light to those hidden things of dishonesty. He will pull “the cover” off of our lives and will show all our faults. When God reveals, nothing can hide. And no matter what we might try to say or do to look “spiritual”, God has already revealed the true counsel of our hearts. Some may say “as long as God reveals my faults to me and me alone, I can handle it”. But what happens when He uses others to reveal it? What if God allows people to know our true heart; our intentions and thoughts, our motives and what we have planned? Would we be offended? Suddenly, would everyone be seeing us “after the flesh”? Does everyone now have a problem with you? God is the one who reveals, He is only revealing through someone else. He is the one who decided not to give you a “private counsel from heaven”. If we are the ones God is sending to someone, we have to ensure that we were sent by God. We have to make sure we hear His counsel to us FIRST before we counsel. If we are truly led by God into a situation, we can trust that God has already counseled the person’s heart about what He revealed to you. We can trust that no matter how the individual may react, as long as the words are from God, that the truth goes with them. So the question is, does God want to reveal what we are going through, to someone else? Is it that God takes pleasure in embarrassing us, or is He so bored with nothing else to do that He wants to humiliate us every chance He gets? I think not. If God has to humiliate us, it is only to save our souls. God is only concerned about one thing, our souls. Many times we walk in disobedience for so long, that we lose sight of Hell. It is a very real place for those who disobey God. God counsels our hearts all the time about the sin that we are in. Our conscience is the voice of God and it tells us when we are off course. But often times we override the voice of our conscience. God reaches out to us time and time again, but we still turn away. It is then that God must now speak through someone else to remind us that He sees where we are. Sometimes hearing it from someone else, motivates us to get back on course. God showing where we are through others is just Him proving that we cannot get by Him. It is just His warning to us before He implements judgment.

God’s Judgment

We are now in a time where the judgment of the Lord is severe. At one time only the leaders were able to discern the judgment of God on the lives of others. But we are living in days where all will be able to clearly see the hand of God when things happen. People are turning away from God and are testing Him openly. God’s judgment only takes a moment to be passed in our lives. When He tries to warn us, it is His mercy and grace trying to save us from His wrath. Only a fool doesn’t fear God. We may think that we can handle the things that will come in our lives, but we never really know what is coming. We could be walking down the street minding our own business and a stray bullet could paralyze us or take our lives. We have no idea what will happen to us in the course of a given day. It only takes God one moment to seal our fate. We cannot anticipate God. We have to realize that His judgment is not like man’s. God’s judgment is the only one with real consequences. It is His way of making Himself known in the earth. We can preach and teach of a God that is capable of striking fear into the hearts of His enemies, but then we act surprised when He actually does it. He who judges us is the Lord. A person can be doing fine one day, and the next they are out of their natural minds living on the streets. Friends, it only takes one moment for the judgment of God to be revealed. We have to live our lives like we recognize that God is the one who judges.

1 Corinthians 4:5

…and then shall every man have praise of God.

After God is finished counseling and chastening, all man will be able to see and praise God.

Psalm 119:67

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

God has a way to “spank us” into righteousness. God is only concerned that He can save our souls. He wants to correct us now so that He has a reason so be proud of us later. We have to stay in situations long enough for God to make us into something that would be praise worthy later. It is God that puts us in situations that chasten us, but even His chastening is for our making. He is not the kind of father that chastens solely out of emotion, but all that He does is used to save our souls. God wants to be able to look at us and be proud to call us sons. He wants to be able to use us when we are needed, but if we never allow Him to perfect us through trials and test, when a son is needed to deliver someone, God will pass us by. God never “makes” us do anything. We have to choose to stay in the situations that God brings us to, or we can just choose to go to Hell. There is no other choice. We can either choose to be made by God, or we can decide to “backslide” totally and accept our fate in Hell. But it’s too late to repent once God has judged. His mercy and grace came to us through his warnings and chastening.

God’s Grace Through Trials

Being in a trial may be hard, but within the boundaries of that trial is life. God dictates the boundaries of our trial as long as we stay and allow Him to make us. Everything outside of that trial is death. As long as we choose to stay with we can have the testimony that Paul had in Galatians 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. It is better for us to be crucified and chastened, and still have life though God, than to be living in the world, but actually be dead and on our way to Hell. Living in the world, we once again become servant to a god that does not concern himself with our souls. His only purpose is to see us humiliated, used and abused. It may be rough sometimes in Christ, but even the roughest of days in God are better than any day living in the world. God has delivered us from so much in the world. We should never want to return, to what we once were. We can no longer look at our lives and hate what we are, always looking for something more. We have to praise God for the present day, because we could be dead in sin and lost to this world. Praise God now while He is speaking to us and drawing us to Himself. We could be crying out to a God that will not and cannot answer us.

Proverbs 1:23-31

23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices

Remaining in Fellowship with God

We have to obey God just so we can keep a line of communication open with Him. It may get hard sometimes, but we must obey because he that judges us is the Lord. God’s judgment is the one that matters, and in order to be heard by God, we have to obey him and live according to his standards, not to the standards of men. Until we begin to experience God through our obedience, we will never truly know that He can be all the things that He says He is. Until we go through a trial in our lives, we will never know that He can be a comforter. If we never walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will never know that He can lead us, and keep us safe. We will never believe that this life is a better life until we start living it. Once we experience God in His fullness, even though we have the ability to go out and live a riotous lifestyle, we will choose not to. The fellowship that we experience with God will keep us loving Him and living for Him. Once we disobey God, fellowship is broken. Now the enemy has free course in our lives, and we become everything that we once were. Now that we know God, we can no longer be deceived. Once we have experienced God, life outside of Him is nothing. No matter what the enemy may try to portray to us of what the world has to offer; we can stand and say that our lives in God are good. The devil will always try to downplay what God has done in our lives by pointing out all that God “didn’t do” but as long as we are alive and have the use of our limbs and our right minds, we have so much to be thankful for. Be encouraged. Let us not get weary in our well doing. When things get hard and things start to hurt, look at all the things that God has already done for us and praise Him for that. As long as we obey the Lord we don’t have to worry about who approves us or not. Our fellowship with God is what is most important in our lives. As long as we follow the leading of God, and stay in fellowship with Him, He will lead us even in the simplest of things. We will stay within the boundaries of life as long as we keep following Christ. Let us judge nothing before the time. Let us hold on to see what the end is going to be in our lives. Be encouraged to go in Christ. Keep Him in the forefront of all that we do, and remember that he that judges us is the LORD.

Love you, Apostle Mike