Messianic Perspectives

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Stay tuned as we talk about Jehovah, God of the valleys, today right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Aiello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Aiello.

Today, Dr. Gary Hedrick will be talking about how we can trust the Lord not only when we're enjoying those mountain experiences, but also when we're trying to find our way through the valleys of life. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Welcome, listening friend. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies on Jehovah: God of the Valleys. The title of this series comes from that episode in 1 Kings Chapter 20, where the Syrians thought that Jehovah was the God of the mountains, but not the God of the valleys.

They thought that if they attacked Israel down in the Valley of Jezreel, Jehovah wouldn't be able to help them. But the Syrians were wrong, weren't they? They came against Israel at Aphek, and 127,000 Syrian soldiers died in one day because Jehovah is not only God of the mountains and the hills, but He is also God of the valleys.

What we're doing in this series of studies is looking at the seven valleys that are mentioned in Scripture, because each of those seven valleys symbolizes some unique aspect of God's plan for His people. When we ran out of time on the last program, we were looking at the first of these seven biblical valleys: the Valley of Eshcol, which was near Hebron.

It's found in Deuteronomy Chapter 1, where Moses is getting the Israelites ready to go in and conquer Canaan. He's reminding the children of Israel about how 40 years before, they had come to Kadesh Barnea and they had to make a choice. The choice was whether or not to go in and possess the Promised Land. So they sent out 12 spies.

Deuteronomy 1:24 says, "They turned and went up into the mountain and came unto the Valley of Eshcol and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down unto us and brought us word again and said, 'It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us.'" God had promised them this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of beauty and abundance and blessing.

It was one of the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant going all the way back to the book of Genesis, where God promised to give all the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as an everlasting possession. The Valley of Eshcol is a beautiful type of the abundant, spirit-filled Christian life.

Jesus said that He came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. That means there's a Valley of Eshcol for each of us, if we're willing to possess it by faith. It's a place of plenty, a place of abundance, a place of blessing. Some people think the Christian life is a matter of first receiving Christ and then just hanging on by the skin of your teeth until you either die or Jesus comes back.

Some of us have been living in defeat and fear and bondage and guilt for so long, we think it's normal. But it's not normal. It's subnormal. The normal Christian life is characterized by the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Anything less than that is subnormal.

The Valley of Eshcol can be mine if only I'm willing to possess it by faith, if only I'm willing to go beyond the promise stage of faith and go on to the possession stage. It's not enough merely to believe that Jesus died for me. It's not enough for me merely to believe that God has forgiven me of my sins. It's not enough merely to believe that the Holy Spirit has taken up residency in my life.

As important as those things are, they're only a beginning because at some point we've got to move from theory into reality. We've got to go in and possess the land. It's like the pilot of an airplane. He taxis up and down the runways and tells the guys up in the control tower he's going to take off. He believes his tank is full of fuel.

He believes the engines are in good working order. He believes in the principles of aerodynamics that will lift the plane off the ground. He believes all of his instruments are working. But as important as it is to believe all of those things, it's pretty meaningless if all he does is taxi up and down the runways. Sooner or later he's got to rev up the engines and take off and fly.

The sad thing is that our churches today are filled with Christians who've been taxiing up and down the spiritual runway for years. We believe we're saved. We believe our sins have been forgiven. We believe the Holy Spirit is within us. We believe in the power of God. But it has never become a reality in our lives.

We've got our doctrinal statements down pat with all of our i's dotted and all of our t's crossed, but we've never left the runway. Our lives are dead and dry and devoid of the power of Almighty God. No power, no reality. I know people who can tell you what the third toe of the left foot represents on Nebuchadnezzar's image in Daniel Chapter 2.

They know Hebrew and Greek and hermeneutics and eschatology and the whole nine yards, but spiritually, they're as dead and dry as a tumbleweed out on the plains of New Mexico. They've never taken possession of the abundant life, the Valley of Eshcol, the place of plenty. The theological term is appropriation. To appropriate something means I take it for my own use. I act like it's mine.

In Congress, an appropriation bill is where they act like our money is their money. Through the power of taxation, the politicians take our money and they use it to fund all of those important and necessary programs like the National Endowment for the Arts and things like that. I'm speaking tongue-in-cheek, of course, but that's what it means to appropriate something.

It's taking possession of something. The Bible is like an inventory of all of God's resources and all of God's riches, and they're all at our disposal. There's a wonderful passage of scripture in Ephesians Chapter 1 that talks about the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe.

That's the appropriation—to usward who believe. We believe it according to the working of His mighty power, verse 20, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come.

Verse 22, "And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church." Now did you catch what He said there? God has exalted His Son and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and has put all things under His feet and gave Him to the church to be head over all things.

God has given His Son to me. He is mine. He is yours. His riches are my riches. His power is my power. His resources are my resources. His life is my life, if I appropriate those things by faith. Have you ever read the book, *George Müller of Bristol*, by A.T. Pierson, published by Revell? It's about the life of George Müller.

He was a Brethren preacher in England who started out training to be a missionary to the Jews. He loved the Jewish people and wanted to share the gospel with them. But a little later in his ministry, God called him to Bristol, England, where he pastored a church. And there in Bristol at Ashley Downs, he built several orphanages where he eventually housed and schooled over 2,000 homeless boys and girls.

The money for every building, the food for every meal, the supplies for all the workers, the clothing for every child—everything came in answer to prayer. He never asked anyone for a penny, never made an appeal for funds. All he did was pray. On one occasion, the children in the orphanage had no milk for their breakfast.

So George Müller had them set the table and take their seats. He said, "Now let's ask the Lord to provide the milk." Before they were finished praying, there was a knock at the door. The horse-drawn milk wagon had broken down in front of the orphanage. The driver wanted to know if they could use some milk because it would spoil before they could make repairs.

And so the children had their milk that day. And that's just one example of many from the life of George Müller. Altogether, up until the time of his death in 1898, George Müller raised an estimated $7 million to support his orphanages and schools. And it was all the result of prayer.

That's one of the more practical applications of the principle of appropriation—tapping into the resources of Almighty God, trusting in the promises of God. That's when faith stops being a theory and becomes a reality. So that's the first of these biblical valleys: the Valley of Eshcol, a place of plenty. Well, that's all of our time for today. We'll see you back here next time as we continue our series on Jehovah: God of the Valleys. You take care. Bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. You've been listening to Messianic Perspectives, the Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Gary Hedrick and CJF Ministries. If you enjoyed today's study, you'll be glad to know that our special offer this week is the CD of this current series of studies on Jehovah: God of the Valleys by our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick.

It's available for a suggested contribution of just $6 or more. The series is also available in booklet form. The title is *Jehovah: God of the Valleys* by our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick. It's available for your gift of just $7 or more to help us keep this program here on your station. Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order.

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If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on Jehovah: God of the Valleys, right here on Messianic Perspectives.