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THE SPOILS OF TROUBLES

Kelly Wilson

© 2004 Kelly Wilson

All Rights Reserved



Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.

-- 1 Chronicles 22:14

 

What we are is determined by our troubles.

What we become will also be determined by our troubles.

Every trial should produce some kind of spoils when it is over. We should be able to walk away with a greater understanding of God, as well as with life.  The Lord will never allow us to fight in the battle and not walk away with the spoils of our trouble's defeat. This is why I am convinced that our troubles won't last -- we will come out walking taller and with greater joy than we have ever had before.

There is meaning to what we call madness.  The Spirit of the Lord is not just leading us through the waters and fires of life just to leave us scarred and bruised and wounded. Whenever we face hard trials, we need to remind ourselves that the spoils of these trials are great. God is going to pay us for our troubles, and we are going to walk away richer and wiser than before.

Remember Israel was under the taskmaster's hand for over 400 years, and that is a long time to wake up day in and day out under the same conditions only to watch things get worse. But, when they were just about ready to leave Egypt, the Lord instructed them to go and borrow all the riches they could borrow from the enemy and prepare to leave their troubles behind. No wonder, when we get on the other side of our troubles, we feel like rejoicing with great joy. It is because we know the Lord has paid us for what we have been going through.  We definitely need to understand that we are not just living a life of mundane existence, but we are building a habitation for the Lord, and His house is not cheap. This is neither a lean-to nor a pup tent.  We are being made a mansion for the Lord -- a place of His abode. And it is not enough for us just to get the House built, but we must have enough spoils to keep it maintained. The Bible says,

1 Chronicles 26:27

(27) Out of the spoils won in battles did they dedicate to maintain the house of the LORD.

We should never ever count what we have been through as being nothing, but take it and use it to maintain our house. The Bible also says,

Isaiah 45:3

(3) And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

Some of us all are rich and don't even know it. We are sitting on a gold mine. This is not the time to sell out cheap. We must fight the good fight of faith and possess our treasures to build and maintain our house. "Know ye not that your body is the TEMPLE of the Holy Ghost...."

One of the chief components used in the building of the house is GOLD! No wonder the Bible admonishes us not to "think it strange though some strange thing has happen unto you" when your faith is being tried by the fire. This is how we get the pure GOLD that overlays all the ugliness of our humanity. Troubles should be met with a desire from us to give the Lord our very best because it is from the troubles we have that God is going to give us His very best.

1 Peter 5:10

(10) But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

We don't dare complain or belly-ache about the things that we are going through knowing that the trying of our faith is more precious than GOLD!

No wonder the Lord says that He has chosen us in the furnace of afflictions -- the hotbed of troubles, because just as the Hebrew boys went into the furnace all bound up with the ropes of Babylon, they came out freer than when they went into the furnace.

I don't believe that they went there complaining....

They didn't have an attitude problem because of the heat....

Their attitude brought the presence of the Lord into the midst of their most difficult trial, and the Lord walked with them through it.

He didn't wait until they got out of the fire -- He met them in the fire!  Some of us can get out of our trial right now, if we would just get up and start walking instead of complaining and murmuring.

It is not uncommon to go into a fiery trial and be so bound that we don't even know what to do, but the fire will act as a liberator --

                It will free our hands....

                It will free our feet....

                It will free our mind....

                And most definitely it will free our faith....

The second most important spoil to be used in the house of God was silver which had a lot to do with things that pertains to redemption. The root word for "silver" had to do with "desiring after."  So often troubles cause us to have a desire for help, but it doesn't give us a desire for the Lord. We can readily see this by gauging our own seeking when we are in the midst of troubles. Do we seek for help, or do we seek for the Lord?

The Lord is a present help in the time of trouble!

One of the shrewdest tricks of our adversary is to get us into trouble without us knowing that we are in trouble. The book of Joel says,

Joel 1:9

(9) The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn.

The trouble there in the Land was the trouble that we now call the "spirit of indifference." This is a thieving spirit that is literally stealing everything from the Church. It has sapped our enthusiasm! It has taken away our pleasures of giving our time and worship to the Lord! It has taken away our joy! It has defiled our faithfulness and has deliberately sidetracked our mind so that we will always show up late for service. It has armed us with excuses so that we won't show up for prayer meetings and Bible studies. It has created in us a lack of interest, or concern, or responsibility toward the things of the Lord. But even this devil can be defeated! We can still walk away from this trouble with spoils. Hear the words of the Lord:

Joel 2:12-13

(12) Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: (13) And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

Joel 2:17, 19

(17) Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

(19) Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:

Joel 2:24-25

(24) And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. (25) And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

1 Chronicles 22:14

(14) Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.

Even after David had gathered all the materials to build the House of the Lord, he was not allowed to build it. Everything was passed on down to his son Solomon to build the House of God. What are we leaving the next generation to build upon? Will they have enough gold in their house to cover the ugliness of their humanity? 


This article used by permission of Pastor Kelly Wilson of the Christ Tabernacle Church, Decatur, Illinois.
    

RDTW


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