Acts 7:54   When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.

The verse comes from the recording of the first martyr of the church. Steven spoke to the Jews who rejected Jesus, telling them they rejected all the prophets and saints as they were told about the gift of grace through Jesus Christ. The more Stephen spoke, the angrier they became until they were in a rage of hate and violence. The bible calls this state “gnashing of teeth.”

Other translations of Acts 7:54:

 NLT The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage.

NASB Now when they heard this, they were infuriated, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

NKJV When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 

The King’s Wedding Feast

Jesus tells about a King who planned a wedding feast. Those invited had excuses and rejected the invitations. The King told his servants to go to the highway and byways and gather all for the wedding feast. They invited all they could, the good and the bad. All of these people were grateful to be given this opportunity and accepted the wedding robes (God’s righteousness through repentance). 

However, there was this one man.   

Matthew 22:11-13 But when the King came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. 13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

This man decided he would attend the wedding feast on his own terms. He rejected God’s offer of righteousness to receive a wedding robe. He dressed the way he wanted. This man liked being around Christian people but rejected the requirements of salvation. When the King (God) came, He noticed the man and asked him why he was here without a wedding robe. “The man was speechless.” God cast him out to a place of darkness and gnashing of teeth. A place of rage. I imagine the man yelling, “I demand to be accepted on my own terms. “, “You bunch of hateful Christians. “, and “I am just as good as you.” “I have a right to be here!”

We are a nation of rage, screaming, and violence when we hear something we don’t like. A nation of gnashing of teeth. We need revival in our hearts, homes, and government.

Don’t let your rage determine your eternity!

The Bible describes hell as a place of torment and gnashing of teeth (rage). Matthew 13:41-42.

Are there parts of the Bible that cause you to rage against it? Be careful about your emotions. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Better to humble yourself before Christ and repent of your anger. Ask Him to forgive you. Accept Jesus as your savior. Tell Him to help you understand and lead you to a good church.  

Proverbs 27:19 As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man.

Let your lightnside burn with the light of Jesus and not rage.

Matthew 6:9-10 Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

As Father’s Day approaches,

I realize God the Father’s effect on His children

and our nation’s desperate to follow Him. 

Our Father in Heaven – rule of authority.  

There is an understanding that we are the children of God. He is our Father and authority. Our world has an order because we live in his established kingdom. There is safety and security when we identify God as our Father and stand under His protection and direction.   

Without recognizing God the Father’s identity, we become self-focused and only see our desires and emotions. We become unstable and do not know how to be at peace. The more we acquire, the less we feel complete. Something is missing. We are designed to belong to a Heavenly Father. We are built to follow God.  

Hallowed be Your Name

Hallowed means greatly revered and honored. The process of honoring God is to thank Him, Praise Him, and learn more about Him. Listen to Him speak to you through the Bible, sermons, and songs. Our God is a leader, healer, peace-maker, warrior, teacher, and even a God of discipline. God loves me, so He watches, blesses, and disciplines me. I honor His name. I feel secure and loved because of His care. His rod and staff comfort me. He restores my soul.

Rejecting the name of God is to reject hope. You become a vessel of unrest and lawlessness. The Bible says, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” To deny this is to be foolish and wandering through life, always seeking but never satisfied. Always longing but never connected.

Thy Kingdom come – Thy will be done.

Oh Lord, we need your kingdom and leadership in today’s world. Through the lawless efforts of media, social media, and political agendas, we are becoming a nation of rowdy immature children who have never learned to be obedient under a father’s love and authority.

You, Lord, established the universe and determined its rules and limitations. You set the oceans and mountains in place. You created all the plants and creatures and placed them into balance. You feed and care for the wild animals. You send hope and care to those who follow you. God, we need your holiness, leadership, structure, and discipline.  

Lord, please send your power to hold back the spirit of lawlessness in our land, our hearts, our families, and our different races. We have become lawless. We have become vessels for the demonic spirit of lawlessness to find homes and begin to fill our minds and mouths with hate, rebellion, and violence.

If…

2 Chron. 7:14  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 I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Lord, I am asking for your forgiveness for my attitudes and actions of lawlessness. I ask You to clean my heart and mind. Please forgive our nation and heal our land. God said, “If My People…” He could also say, “If my children…”  

Matthew 6:13 Father, Deliver us from the Evil One. 

Let this Father’s Day be a start to call upon our Heavenly Father to forgive. Let us seek His face. Let us honor His name. Let us ask God to search our hearts, and we repent of what He finds.

Heavenly Father, we seek your healing for our nation and our own Lightnside.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Preparing for the future is different from making plans.

 Good preparation and planning may seem Godly, but two distant differences exist between the preparer and the planner. Planning involves human creativity and wisdom. The planner devises a map for the future and uses this to guide future direction. While he still believes in God’s presence, more decisions are made through creative personal ideas. Some ideas may have been a success in other ministries. The planner is limited to their abilities and looks to assets and numbers to decide their steps.

 Preparation focuses on discernment and faith in God’s leading. The preparer first gets his life aligned with God. Time is spent in His presence, listening to His voice and seeking the scripture to hear from the Holy Spirit. The preparer gets ready and then waits for God to reveal the way.

Abram (Abraham) preparer & planner

Abram (Abraham) is an excellent example of a preparer; however, he slips into planning in his travels.

Abram as Preparer Genesis 12:1-3 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Abram followed God’s leading.

Abram as Planner  Genesis 12:10-20  Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels. But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

 John the Baptist was a preparer.

Mark 1:1-8 

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Joshua preparer – heard from God about Jericho.  

Joshua 3:5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

Joshua 6:2-5  Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

Joshua 6:20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 

Are you a planner or a preparer?

Spend time with the Lord to be prepared for His direction in your life and ministry. He will do great things through you beyond your ability to plan. 

Let your lightnside be prepared for God’s work.

Numbers 13:23, 27 They cut off a branch of a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them…”But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”

From Larry Stockstill’s Blog

How do you view impossibilities? 

 Do they intimidate you and stop you dead in your tracks before you ever even attempt to defeat them?  I have found that there are usually 2 different ways to approach an obstacle in your life. The story of Israel’s twelve spies always helps me when I am facing an impossibility.  They focused on the giants but Joshua and Caleb focused on the grapes!  God called this kind of faith a “different spirit”:  “But my servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land he entered and his descendants will take possession of it” (Num. 14: 24)

Everybody feels it when there are giants lurking around.  I have faced situations where my knees literally grew weak.  I have always had to regather my spirit and take my stand of faith. Here Are A Few Of The “Differences” In A Different Spirit.

Peace instead of Panic 

Caleb “quieted the people” (Num 13:30). A leader must move in quiet assurance in the midst of terrifying symptoms and odds.

Jesus told the raging storm, “Peace, be still.” He had an inner calm while the storm was in a full gale.

Opportunity instead of Obstacles 

Caleb called the land full of giants an “exceedingly good land.” His mind recorded the beautiful cities, vineyards, water supplies, and homes instead of the walls, defenses, and giants.

We must see the potential rather than the problems.

Alignment for the Assignment 

Caleb knew that “If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us in….” (Num. 14: 8). He searched his own life by prayer to be sure there was nothing within him that was “out of alignment” [See last four blogs on lightnside.com] with the perfect will of God.

We cannot face giants from without if we have tolerated giants As you face this huge problem ask yourself, “Is there anything in my life that would keep me from standing strong in this battle I am about to enter?”

Submission instead of Rebellion 

“Only do not rebel against the Lord.” To resist and move in the opposite direction from God is dangerous. Numbers 11 was their complaining; Numbers 12 was their criticism; Numbers 13 is their stubborn refusal to follow the direction of spiritual leadership.

When we honor those in spiritual authority, a blessing is released.

Spiritual Warfare instead of Natural Warfare 

“Their protection has been removed from them and the Lord is with us…” (Num. 14: 9). Caleb could see into the spirit world that the enemy’s armor was already removed. Walls and armor were worthless against God’s hornets! We must see our enemies as stripped of their defense against us, stripped of their power when Christ rose from the dead. See your enemy as already defeated by the resurrection of Christ. It has no power to intimidate or defeat you.

Peace, opportunity, alignment, submission, and spiritual warfare should be within you every time you face a giant.  Look for the grapes whenever you see giants coming toward you.

What is the giant you are facing and what do you need to do to prepare to defeat it?

LARRY STOCKSTILL

Let this borrowed and anointed blog bless your Lightnside as it did mine.