Found wanting – Coming face to face with the Father’s Will

?No ear tickling today – trust me, I am still feeling the bruises of conviction in this one.  I don’t know why the Lord keeps laying these hard to receive messages on my heart lately.  The only thing I can imagine is that I have had this unfeigned delusional thinking of what holiness actually is and was so absorbed with being holy I was overlooking the only One Who is Holy to a point I was deceiving myself.

No matter who we are, where we have come from or where we are headed, the simple truth remains at some point in time we have been found “Wanting…”  We have been fearfully and wonderfully made and a piece to that design has been missing, hidden and left vacant for a very special purpose.

All our lives we have had situations that have come up that we never would have chosen or even some that we actually did chose that ended up being bad for us.  I often say I have – “Looked for love in all the wrong places.”  And if honest, many of you can relate.  Did you know that others can touch your heart, but only God can fill it?  With that being said – We have a void only HE can fill and that too is very purposed.

The truth is none of us are totally complete yet, although we are in a process to wholeness, we are not whole – not yet, but that time is surely right around the corner.  Which is nice and all… But what about today?  We know hope deferred makes the heart sick… And we look forward to THAT DAY, but in all reality we have to live IN TODAY, not the promises of tomorrow.  Actually, tomorrow is not promised to anyone.

I share with you all in the fact I have had one dream after another not filled, promises broken time and again, leaving my heart shattered into a million pieces.  There were actually times not so long ago that my heart actually hurt physically due to the actions of another.  Physically in pain – not sure if any of you have experienced that sort of pain or not, but if you haven’t… I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

Jesus does bind up the wounds of the broken hearted.  But are wounds purposed?  I say yes and I also will share why I say yes to that question.  It seemed like every single time I was in heart break pain and reached out to someone quite often all they did is rebuke the pain or seeping of the issue – never addressing or edifying the pain I was actually going through.  And this is true for pain inflicted upon us by another or our own selves – I have been in pain from both.   We often have such deep seated pain we will go to extremes to self-comfort and “Feel” better.   I, myself, have been there done this – have the t-shirt to prove it!  In coming full circle now I am beginning to realize all those times I actually was undergoing being, “Weighed in the balance, only to be found wanting…”  But wanting what?  Who?  Why did this happen to me?  And so on as the question flood me like a river in a sea of regret…

If, what the Lord says is true and I beyond a shadow of a doubt believe His word… Then I know in truth He shall supply all our needs – mine and yours – according to His riches in Glory.  Who’s glory?  His!  The healing often [emotional or physical] does not come or is released but not received due to our Faith.  This is not to say we do not have Faith to believe Jesus is Lord and Savior, but oftentimes do not feel worthy to receive of Him fully in a particular area to be made whole and complete.

So just who is the block to the healing is it me or is it not granted?  I am seeing wholeness not received is on my end and not the Lord’s.

But back to these wounds.  I do not like to talk about them because the wounds may be gone now but how many in the Church treated me as unclean for even having them in the first place has a residue which keeps me guarded.  I often wondered why they assumed they had FAITH to be healed themselves and yet I could see their wounds, but they could only see mine and not their own.  I really never shared what I saw, but I did pull away and closed up to them because I do have Faith in my Lord – just like you all do.  To assume someone does not have Faith can be very hurtful and push others away, a lesson I learned long ago.

When our Lord does something it is TOTAL AND PERMANENT.  I wasn’t ready to only give Him glory yet, is a piece of why man’s ways or my own did not work, plus many other variables in which I won’t share them all right here and right now.  But if we are honest, we may be CONVINCED the healing took place and even brag about it, but deep inside we know all that was for show… Because there were those two missing elements:  TOTAL and PERMANENT.  I often wonder why no one comes back to say… I guess I wasn’t healed after all, pride I suppose plays a major part in us not admitting when we were wrong.  Just like repent means to never do again – When God heals, that ailment never comes again.  Can you see now how often we have glorified self in the healing rather than Him?

Wounds turn into scars when healed and scars do not hurt, they are simply a reminder of what He did for us with His saving grace.  Jesus kept His scars as a demonstration of death defeated and will even show them to others one day saying, “My friends did this to Me.”  In a similar way we can relate – we have scars from wounds that Jesus healed and our friends did them to us, but in turn HE FILLED us with His love removing the pain done by another.  In such a fashion our scars become the very testimony of HIM, just as His scars testify to the Father…. So very beautiful, indeed.

Anyway…  My purpose is not to even share that much about healing today, just feeling lead to expose a piece that is missing within even me, that is purposed and planned out already.?

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were in the fire and I love how they proclaimed – EVEN IF… EVEN IF they were not delivered, they would not bow down to another God.  EVEN IF…  Can you imagine?  The Lord showed me how it took them more faith to get into a fire NOT KNOWING if their deliverance would come than it would have if they got right in, knowing they would not get burned.  Let that sink in a minute…  In many ways, this resembles us.  We are in the fire right now in various areas of our lives – but listen to me – Your faith is mighty, because when others would have turned from Him a long time ago or avoided being purified all together – YOU didn’t.  Every day you are saying…. EVEN IF… You will not turn away from Him.  Some of you have heard me say how sometimes, the Lord delivers you from the fire and sometimes it is THROUGH the fire you are delivered.  Even if… Takes a stronger Faith and grows intimacy with Him.  His children never resist the fire, knowing intimacy and trust is gained through fire.

Daniel 5:27 says… You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

• WANTING in Hebrew means:  Deficient, lacking, to be without, to come up short
• BALANCE in Hebrew means:  To be obedient, to hear the Lord in prayer, to perceive

As I began to study and seek the Lord on this Scripture He lead me to… I was so in awe at how perfect His plan is and began to gain understanding of why it is such a timely word for us today.

Our Nation is WANTING, the Church Body is WANTING and even you and I are WANTING.  But WANTING WHAT?  Do we even know?  Is it just that next fix that we desire and want, just to get by and make it another day?  Or are we WANTING something greater, more permanent, totally fulfilling and complete?  Unless we lay down all those “False comforts” that are not everlasting or sometimes He Himself strips them away… We will not stop seeking outside sources to fulfill only what ONE can – that being, the Lord.

By now I believe we can all admit we are lacking in some area of our lives and we have been to:  Doctors, Preachers, Brothers/Sisters in the Lord, watched every Youtube we could get our eyes on, listened to every sermon out there pertaining to this ache in our hearts, sent emails and responded to emails, prayed alone, prayed with another and prayed in a group.  If awards were given out for “Seeking”… we would have a gold medal!

Do you all know why prayers are hindered?  Like with all things – let’s go to the Word and find out.

In 1 Peter 3:7-12 it tells us why many prayers are hindered:

⁷ Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

⁸ Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

⁹ Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

¹⁰ For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:

¹¹ Let him eschew (refrain from) evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

¹² For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

Psalm 34 basically says the same thing:

 ¹³ Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

¹⁴ Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

¹⁶ The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

¹⁷ The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

¹⁸ The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.

²⁰ He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

²¹ Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.

²² The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

So we find here in these passages, once again, that before we go to the Father and request anything, which is basically what a prayer is…  We must first make sure our hearts are pure, by really seeking to see if our intentions are righteous before Him.  Vengeance, shame, anger, ego, frustration, unconfessed sin and the like will hinder our prayers.

Today we are going to the Book of Daniel where the Word gives account to what happens when one is weighed in the balance only to be found wanting.

The story unfolds in Daniel Chapter 5 where King Belshazzar was throwing a huge feast/party but the exact verse we are referencing today is verse 27:  Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.

What happened that night was a party not like any other, because a large hand appeared for every eye to see that delivered a most personal message to King Belshazzar – it was a sure word, a command really encased around a rebuke – it is practically one of the sternest demonstrations of sowing and reaping in the Bible and what happens when one stays in rebellion regardless of their assumed position, with the Lord on High.  The days of his kingdom had been numbered, all which he treasured above the Lord would be taken from him, a prophecy was given and that night he died – at the command of the Father.

Just as he was weighed in the balances, we too will be weighed in the eternal balances of God.  So today as we go over why this king was found wanting, I pray we will check our own hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to show us in ways we also sit in a place of wanting and in lack, should we too be weighed in the balance today.  This is an opportunity to be humbly repentant and fully delivered and healed and most importantly FILLED BY HIM.

This King had three charges against him by the Lord.

First – He dishonored God’s vessels (vs. 2) He did this by exalting himself and dishonoring God by dishonoring His chosen vessels.  So if we do not honor the vessels the Lord has sent to us we too would be found wanting.  God’s people are His vessels and what we do unto them we actually do unto Him.  If we do not put other people’s interests before our own, when our actions are motivated by what is best for us rather than another.  Some other ways in which we may dishonor the brethren would be by not imparting grace with our words, actions or forgiveness.  We are told this actually grieves the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 4:30.  Husbands dishonor the Lord when they do not treat their wives with an understanding heart and in a delicate way that honors them.  This is not to say you have to understand your wife, but rather you gently entreat them with kindness out of your heart.  The same is true for all the brethren, one to another as we have been qualified to love others more than ourselves.

So if we were to stand before our Maker today and be weighed in the balance – we must ask ourselves…  Would we be found wanting in this area by dishonoring any of His vessels?  If so, we must humble ourselves quickly and HONOR GOD by honoring one another in brotherly love.  Every word we speak and every action we take it is good to ask ourselves – How would I feel if so and so was doing or saying that to me or about me?  Those with empathy and compassion consider such things regularly and naturally in every interaction with others.

Second – After that, this King was drunk and set up a standard for others to be in drunkenness and not only that – he also praised other gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone – praising and giving place to things that had no power over God’s power – representing them as if they did.  In doing so he discounted the Sovereignty of the Father as being the only one who saves, sustains life and controls everyone’s steps.  Before we quickly brush this off as if we would not also be found wanting in this area let’s consider a few examples.  Although, we may not put up a graven image in the natural – do we participate in such abominations in our hearts?  Paul tells us in Colossians 3:5 that we are to put to death anything fleshly like sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness – calling them all idols.  When we have a deep yearning to possess something or make it ours, it permeates our minds and becomes an idol in nature.  This is also true when we want something another person already has… This could be a job, a placement, a partner, things or even a ministry.  This OBJECT will in turn become our main focus and becomes an idol because God is the One Who should permeate our minds, not anyone or anything else.  If there is something in our lives and we just can’t seem to be content without it – it is an idol.  The Lord Alone should be our joy, peace and happiness.  Just like this king – and like we have discussed recently anything that is an idol creates us to no longer remain sober – we become drunk or rather overtaken/obsessed with whatever that thing is for pleasure in unrighteousness.  Like I said the other day – that thing itself may not be unholy but if it replaces the Lord in our lives – we become unholy in our intentions towards it.  Be sober, now is certainly the wrong time to be in drunkenness of any sort. On another note – how often do we undermine the sovereignty of our Father with evil reports of what man or the enemy is doing here on Earth?  The Father is on His Throne COMMANDING all things, both good and evil, nothing gets by Him – He never sleeps or is shutout from what is going on – He sees all things, knows all things and is attentive continually.

Third – The next wanting King Belshazzar had in his life was he was worshipping the god of self.  He had set himself up as his own god – to the point he was delusional thinking he could do it all on his own.  When this happens we begin to serve self, feeding our own appetites rather than serve God.  Just as 2 Timothy 3:4 states, we become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.  As a result, this King was feasting when he should have been watching, which placed him a most dangerous position with the Lord.  When we are so focused on anything above the Lord – no matter what it is – we are in disobedience only to be easily snared into thinking we are doing God’s service.  Pride always comes before a fall and in this case it certainly did, to the point of death.  I pray that not be the case for any of us.  Even Peter fell into this holier than thou temptation when he boasted how he would die with Jesus… Jesus replied to him with a warning, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”  We all know how that ended… He actually denied Jesus three times.  I cringe sometimes when I hear others repeating in Peter’s footsteps, knowing what may fall upon them due to religious pride.  Actually, the Lord reminded me of that very thing because I used to do a lot – a whole lot.  What was I thinking?  To boldly declare my faith like I am so great thing He created that could never ever be lead astray?  Lord have mercy, I am thinking of how I used to be and so grateful for the Father’s discipline because He loves me.  Anyway – We should only boast on the Lord. Period.  You all know this already, to go against this command is a choice and comes with it consequences which I am very much aware of first hand or I wouldn’t dare speak about it.  Let’s just leave it with – if we are watching self or others we cannot be watching for the Lord Jesus, Who is soon to return and no one knows the day or hour.  And on a side note – remember it was Peter who cut the ear off of the soldier who the Lord appointed to arrest Jesus then Jesus Himself put it back on.  Again, out of trying to do the right thing – Peter was in willful disobedience and pride to the point of standing in the way of what was surely ordained by the Father to come to pass.

To finish up the rest of our study we will go right into the Scriptures starting in Daniel 5 vs 17 which is Daniel’s interpretation to what the hand wrote on the wall for all to see.

¹⁷ Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

¹⁸ O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:

            God granted Belshazzar’s Father this kingdom he now was ruling over

¹⁹ And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.

²⁰ But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:

            Because of pride he lost it all

²¹ And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

            He was removed from his place UNTIL he was humbled in knowing the MOST HIGH RULED in all Kingdoms of men and HE ALONE PUTS RULERS IN NATIONS AND REMOVES THEM.

²² And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

            Belshazzar should have learned from his father’s mistakes

²³ But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:

            Lifting ourselves up above the Lord for any reason at all is a very serious offense.

²⁴ Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.

²⁵ And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.

²⁶ This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.

²⁷ Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

²⁸ Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

            Pride will cause a fall, of a person and anything that is under his/her care as the Lord wills.  The Lord first will divide it and then give it over to someone else.

²⁹ Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

            Before Belshazzar was even slain the Lord laid the charge upon him to proclaim Daniel to be the third ruler in the kingdom.

³⁰ In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.

Does the one created have anything to say to the One Who created it?  I am beginning to think nothing but praise and adoration should come out of my mouth.  How about you?

Romans 9

¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

¹⁵ For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

¹⁶ So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

¹⁷ For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

¹⁸ Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

¹⁹ Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

²⁰ Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

²¹ Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

²² What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

²³ And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

²⁴ Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

²⁵ As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

²⁶ And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

²⁷ Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

²⁸ For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

²⁹ And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

³⁰ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

³¹ But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

³² Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

³³ As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

So who are really to comment on anything really regarding another soul?  Do we really have anything to say or that we should say?  To me it is becoming ever so obvious it is a matter of the heart, not deeds, not words, teachings or preaching.

And we know there is only One Who truly knows the intentions of another’s heart… It is our Lord.

Many are being weighed in this balance each and every moment of everyday…  But what is being weighed?  The flesh (sin nature) or the heart?  Just as David was a man after God’s own heart, so should we be.  A heart filled with the love of God can and does overcome a multitude of sins – their own mainly, but other’s as well. When we truly have the full understanding that all are left wanting, to some degree we no longer do the measuring or judge before the time, as all fall short; But rather let Him do what He is purposed to do – measure and fill each vessel according to His purpose and will.

Throughout this heart convicting study I found a few life altering truths –

• Oftentimes my will does not align with the Father’s will, as I cannot see in fullness as He does. In times of desperation my flesh gets in the way and I really cannot see.  Therefore, there is no better time than when I am feeling lost, desperate or even hopeless to just be still and know that He is God and to fight the urge to do anything really.
• We all are created WANTING – which is purposed. The key is to discover the Lord, Who is the only One who can complete us and make us whole in Him.  Until we fully grasp this truth, we may run to and fro, sometimes our whole lives search to fill the void within that only He can fill.
• All of His creation has this void and He uses it to draw the lost unto Him – to gather them together under His wing.
• To dishonor God’s vessels is to dishonor Him
• The Father is not in lack, although we are in many ways. He is not limited on His provision and supply for us.
• The Father is Sovereign. He is Master over the Heaven and the Earth, nothing gets by Him and anytime we are frantic, worried or in turmoil – we are not resting in His peace.

I pray this study has blessed you, like it did me as it helped me to correct my thoughts, settling many heartaches with acceptance that they too are purposed.

Every single loss drives us directly into His arms.  How amazing is that?

He is working everything out for our good, His promises endure forever and He truly will not lose one of His own…. Not you and not even a mess like me.?

May the Lord Bless You in His Love,

?Angela~Marked By Heaven