Choosing the Higher Ways of God

Acts 28:25-27

^24-27 “Some of them were persuaded by what he said, but others refused to believe a word of it. When the unbelievers got cantankerous and started bickering with each other, Paul interrupted: “I have just one more thing to say to you. The Holy Spirit sure knew what he was talking about when he addressed our ancestors through Isaiah the prophet:

Go to this people and tell them this:
“You’re going to listen with your ears,
    but you won’t hear a word;
You’re going to stare with your eyes,
    but you won’t see a thing.
These people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
    so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
    so they won’t have to look,
    so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
    and let me heal them.” MSG

Many in the Church have asked themselves what this passage means. I know I have asked myself this question many times whenever I came across it. But then, I saw something! In this passage, we see that some people had heard a message from the apostle Paul but it must’ve gone over their heads, literally. 

Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” NKJV

The Message version puts it this way, “’I don’t think the way you think.
    The way you work isn’t the way I work.’
        God’s Decree.
‘For as the sky soars high above earth,
    so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
    and the way I think is beyond the way you think.’” MSG

This statement explains clearly why some people saw and others didn’t. The ones who saw higher are those who concern themselves with knowing God and the ways of His Kingdom on His terms and not theirs. The others found a reason to argue because they had low-level thinking and believed that was all there was. When a person is in a pit, they cannot see what is high above on ground level and all they can hear is the noise from the nothing in that pit. That is why the Bible tells us to seek to soar high like eagles because only when we choose to see the higher ways of God, then we get to see, understand and perceive the wisdom of God that is not the same as the wisdom of the world.

Many, especially in the western Church have proudly adopted the ways of the world and function in that way in the name of God. The system of this world is based on fear, control, and manipulation out of our circumstances with little concern for what God wants us to learn from the trial He allows in our lives and that way they seek the way out of it without realizing that they needed the trial to obtain greater and higher levels of wisdom, power, and authority needed when they reach their destiny. Without those higher levels of wisdom, power, and authority and added to that favor with God and man, they run the risk of not being able to sustain themselves if they ever make it to their destiny. 

You see, the glory of God has these things as well as love for those around us, but this love says that we first must learn to give it reverently to our Creator and Lord, our Maker and Sovereign God who has ways that many times are beyond finding out (Job 9:10) unless we allow Him to work in us to do and to will His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13) as we journey through the path He laid before us ahead of time (Ephesians 1:11).

So when people have eyes but do not see and ears but do not hear, this is saying that unless they choose to accept God’s invitation to see Him face-to-face (to know Him in ways they have not known before- Isaiah 45:5-6) and not just seek His hand (His blessings) and what He can do for them, they will never be able to obtain the higher ways that will also help them be entrusted with more of the riches in glory of His Kingdom. The reason is that for these higher ways, we must pay the price.

Isaiah 55:2 says,

² “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness [the profuseness of spiritual joy].

³ Incline your ear [submit and consent to the divine will] and come to Me; hear, and your soul will revive; and I will make an everlasting covenant or league with you, even the sure mercy (kindness, goodwill, and compassion) promised to David.” AMPC

Revelation 3:18-20 also sends this invitation by saying,

“¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. ¹⁹ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” NKJV

Here we see a conditional promise that is only for those who accept God’s invitation to pay the price to obtain the higher ways and thoughts of God. He is constantly sending out this invitation to us, but unfortunately, not everyone wants to leave behind their traditions and low level (average) mindsets in order to live a life that not only has great eternal rewards in heaven but also will matter in the earth and will make a way for the generations after them to reach even greater and higher grounds with God on their side. Here’s the difference between those who have eyes that see and ears that hear and those who do not.

This happened to the people of Israel who gave into the influence of the Antichrist spirit to crucify our Lord. They did not know that God had a higher way of demonstrating His love for them through the price that was paid by His Son for their salvation and redemption. That price was the taking up of His cross and the shedding of His blood. This is also the way God chose to give us access to the blessings of grace and mercy from the Father as well as the way He chose for the enemy of the Cross to be hung on the gallows He had built for God’s people.

The book of Esther mentions how Haman, a representation of the Antichrist spirit, had built a gallows to hang Mordecai, a representation of the Holy Spirit, which is our greatest help to obtain the higher ways of God and His Kingdom. Mordecai was Esther’s uncle who had raised her as a daughter and showed her how to be favored and chosen as queen to replace Vashti. While the other women were preoccupied with how much they could take with themselves to impress the king with adornments, Esther sought and obeyed the higher ways given to her by one of the king’s eunuchs who knew what would truly impress the king: being mindful of the welfare of the people and learning to co-labor and co-rule with him and not show mere outward adornments. This is what Esther preoccupied herself with learning and it also is what granted her favor to become the queen. We can see in this in Esther 2:13-15,

¹³ “Thus prepared, each young woman went to the king, and she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the women’s quarters to the king’s palace. ¹⁴ In the evening she went, and in the morning she returned to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who kept the concubines. She would not go in to the king again unless the king delighted in her and called for her by name. ¹⁵ Now when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. 16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. ¹⁷ The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. ” NK JV

We must understand that we need to learn to allow God to work in us how He chooses to lavish His love and favor on us which increases in measure as we journey to our destinies. That is why we do not need to control and manipulate our way out of our trials because He knows how He wants to deliver us, fight for us and defend us when we encounter situations that are unjust. 

Therefore, when Jesus died on the Cross, he took our place so we would not have to suffer in the same way He did for our sins inherited from Adam. Instead, He chose to allow God to manifest His higher ways and thoughts about us through Him so the enemy of our lives and destinies could be hung on the same gallows he built for us and from which Jesus saved us.

Galatians 3:13-14 establish,

¹³ “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), ¹⁴ that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” NKJV

What this Scripture is highlighting is that Jesus took the place of the Antichrist spirit that influenced Adam and also influenced the people who shouted for Him to be crucified. He did it so their freedom from captivity to this spirit and ours could be bought by the price He paid with His blood which, as mentioned, is the higher way chosen by the Father for Him. This way, on the third day, when Jesus rose again, that Antichrist spirit could be hung on his own gallows all over again as he was in the book of Esther, but this time it was done by another generation of curse breakers represented by Jesus, who always sought the higher ways of the Father while He was on earth to demonstrate to us how He sought to obtain every victory and miracle the Father wanted to give to Him and work through Him on behalf of mankind, even when the Cross was painful and long enduring. To Him alone be all the Glory.▪

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