CHAPTER 14 CONDITION PRECEDENT
When the jailer asked Paul, "What must I do to be saved?" he was recognizing something which is all to often forgotten by many believers after they have accepted Jesus as their Savior (Acts 16:30). He knew that there was something which he had to do to develop a relationship with God. Even if all that is required is that you reach out and accept that which God freely offers, such as is true in the case of our initial salvation, there is something which we need to do. But that requirement does not cease once we are saved. God commands certain things from us before He is free to act in our lives.
In legal terms, that which must be done by us before He acts is called a "condition precedent." While it is true that salvation is freely given (I Cor.2:12), and we can do nothing to earn it (Eph.2:8-9), it is also true that in regards to salvation of your souls, you must "...confess with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (then) you will be saved." (Ro.10:9 parenthesis added) There can be no question that God loves us (John3:16),and that He has promised to protect us (Ps.91:9). He will also provide for our needs (Matt.6:33), forgive us our sins (I John 1:9) and hear our prayers (I John 5:14), but all to often we ignore the conditions precedent which God has informed us must be complied with if we are to expect those promises to manifest in our lives every time we rely upon them.
At the outset of this study let me assure you that I do not believe God is trying to trick us, or make things difficult for us by insisting upon a certain standard of behavior on our parts. First of all, it must be pointed out that none of the conditions which I will be referring to are hidden. Quite the contrary is In fact true, for they are clearly and obviously stated. However, many times believers simply ignore them by quoting only half a verse. In reality what they are doing is standing on the promise but forgetting the condition which must be met before we can be guaranteed that the particular promise we are standing on will manifest in our lives.
Such actions are merely an indication of that believer's inability to deal with the temptations which would beset him if he received everything that he asked for without first meeting the required condition. You see, those conditions will only be met by someone who is totally seeking God, totally obedient to Him, totally trusting in Him, and totally open to His leading. In short, totally sold out to God. In many instances the conditions which may be viewed by a less mature Christian as a hindrance to his receiving from God, are actually safeguards which God has put in place for his protection. By adding these conditions to that which He has freely given us, conditions which God knows only His mature sons will be able to meet, He is protecting spiritual toddlers from stumbling over the abundance that He has in store in all areas for those of His mature sons who are willing to meet those conditions.
A careful study of the history of Israel in the promised land gives numerous examples of this problem. In Chapters 8 and 10 of The Last Enemy we will discuss in greater detail the concept of progressive spiritual maturity. For now I will simply state that from a spiritual standpoint, when the nation of Israel left Egypt she was likened unto a spiritual toddler. As such, she was in need of a more stern disciplinarian then she had previously been used to dealing with. Just as is true in our own lives, we see the father having more of an influence in a child's rearing once the child moves from the infant stage to that of a young child who is in need of rules to live by. It was at this time that the nature of God known as Yhwh, (Father- Lawgiver), was made known to Israel (Ex.6:2 & Deut.32:5-6). Previously she had known God only as the Creator, Elohiem and by the supplier nature of El Shaddai. The point is, it would be very easy for childish Israel to become ensnared by the temptations which follow on the heels of abundance. Because of this she was warned, "When the Lord your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers ... a land with large flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide ... then when you eat and are satisfied, BE CAREFUL THAT YOU DO NOT FORGET THE LORD (Deut.6:10-12).
There were times, brief as they may have been, that Israel met the conditions of Deut.28:2 which said, "All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God." True to His word, God abundantly protected her (Ezra 8:22-23 & II Chron.20:29), made her powerful (IIChron.27:6) and wealthy (II Chron.1:15 & 31:21). However, she was not yet mature enough to overcome the temptations which came with this abundance. As a result, her prosperity was short lived (II Chron.24:20; 26:16 & 28:22-23) and finally she was sent into exile because of her failure to remain true to the Lord (II Chron.36:14&17). Carefully note that the problem was not the abundance which God provided for His people. Rather, it was the lack of the correspondingly high level of maturity which was needed to cope with the temptation which will come with such abundance.
Prov.8:30 gives us this prayer which directly addresses this problem. "O Lord ... give me neither property nor riches ... otherwise, I may have to much and disown you ... or I may become poor and steal." While some people have used this verse as their proof text to show that God does not want us to prosper, in reality all they are doing is providing a good example of the error one gets into when you build an entire doctrine on a single verse.
It is not my intention here to reexamine the entire topic of prosperity. We did that in Chapter 8 of Needful Things. Allow me simply to state that God does want us prosperous - but only after we are mature enough to withstand the onslaught of temptations which follow such prosperity. As such we should not be seeking after prosperity or abundance. What we should be seeking is a level of maturity which will enable us to be used by God for every good work, including the ability to be used by Him as a funnel through which He can pour out His material blessings on the Church. We know that it is not God's desire for us to have prosperity without first exhibiting the requisite level of maturity needed to deal with that prosperity. That is why Ja.4:3 tells us, "When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives..."
The person who stands on the promise while ignoring the condition precedent is merely displaying the very lack of maturity which would cause him to stumble should he receive everything he asks for. Whereas, the mature believer who spends his time concentrating on the Lord and His desires for us, will find that abundance and protection in all realms will "come on thee and overtake thee." (Deut.28:2 KJV). In regards to the mature believer and the conditions precedent we are going to look at, I would ask that you consider this. Many times we have heard it said that God is looking for those who will willing serve Him. As such, some of these conditions may also serve as a type of selection process, in that only those of God's children in the last generation who are totally willing to forsake all else and follow Him (Lk.14:33), will comply with all the conditions, and thereby receive all the blessings which includes the total protection that God promises to us here on this earth.
Those who fail to walk at that level of maturity may very well physically die even if this is the generation in which Jesus is to return. They will go to heaven, but had they walked in the total love, total trust, total commitment, and total understanding of the nature of God revealed unto us as El Elyon, they may very well not have died. (see Chapter 11 of The Last Enemy for a more detailed discussion of the relationship which exists between being alive and remaining when Jesus returns and the revealed nature of God known as El Elyon).
If this is not the last generation, we are still to live as though it were (Mk.13:37) because we need God's full protection in order to live the 120 years He says is ours (Gen.6:3) so that we can fulfill the task He has set for us (Matt.28:19-20 & Phil.1:23-24). We need God's full material blessings in order that we may abundantly give (II Cor.9:11), supply the needs of those who spend full time spreading the Word (I Cor.9:14; I Tim.15:17 & Ez.44:30), supply the needs of brothers who may be in need (Ro.12:13; Ja.1:29; I John 3:17 & Ja.2:15-16) and give unto the poor (Prov.28:27 & Prov.14:3). We must therefore be mature in order to fully overcome the temptations which come with the full blessings of God. Those believers who meet the conditions precedent are desirous of using the blessings that follow to fulfill the task which Christ laid out for His Church. Our desire should be that we may be instruments of righteousness which God can use for any good work, not just the comparatively few which a low level of maturity restricts us to (II Tim.2:20-21).
Notice carefully what precedes the description of blessings in "good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over" being poured into our laps. Namely that we first "give and it will be given to you..." (Lk.6:38). Similarly we are shown a direct connection between receiving after having first given in Deut.15:10 wherein we read,
"Give generously to him (needy brother) and do so without a grudging heart; (remember God loves a cheerful giver -II Cor.9:7) then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to." (parenthesis and emphasis added).
That makes giving first a clear prerequisite to receiving.
When we ask God we must also remember that we "receive from Him ... because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him (I John 3:2 emphasis added) We receive when we "remain" in Christ (John 15:7), bear lasting fruit (John 15:16), believe we have already received when we ask (Mk.11:24 & Matt.21:22; see also Chapter 4 of Needful Things) and ask according to God's will (I John 5:14). These are all clear conditions precedent to our receiving guaranteed results 100% of the time.
But there is even a condition which proceeds all these. That is, we must know we are heard when we pray. II Chron.7:14 says "... (I)f my people ...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 sins and will heal their land" (emphasis added). If we cherish sin in our hearts God will not hear us (John 9:31 & Ps.66:17). "If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins." (I John 1:9). The point is, forgive ness of sins precedes our being heard in other matters. While Jesus most assuredly paid the total price for our sins, we must first reach out and take that forgiveness by confessing our sins before we will be heard (Isaiah 59:2). While on the topic of hindered prayer, I will simply mention that husbands who are not considerate of their wives and who fail to treat them with respect are also not entering into the type of prayer relationship with God which He desires from us (I Pe.3:7).
While we are mindful of the admonition of Ja.4:2 which says "You do not have because you do not ask God," we should pay closer attention to the conditions which must precede the asking as found in Matt.6:33, Deut.28:2 & Heb.1:6. Those verses tells us that we are to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness...", "... obey the Lord your God" and "...earnestly seek Him." (emphasis added). While there can be no doubt that conditions are tied in with the blessings, once these conditions have been met by those who love God (I John 5:3), the blessings automatically follow because, as we have seen in previous studies, God is actually walking along the paths of righteousness "... bestowing wealth on those who love" Him (Prov.8:21).
We must do the seeking (Matt.7:7). While it is true that we have God's promise not to leave us or forsake us as recorded in both the Old and New Testaments (Deut.31:6 & Matt.28:20; see also Heb.13:5), we can forsake Him. II Chron.15:2 clearly states that "the Lord is with you WHEN you are with Him. IF you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. (emphasis added). The Hebrew word for "forsake" used there is azab which includes within its definition the idea of relinquishing or permitting us to go our own way.
If we, as immature children want to go our own way, as did the prodigal son in Lk.15:11-32, He will allow us to do so, for we have free will. The immature believer is likened unto the prodigal when he says to God "... give me my share (vs.12). The mature believer would be likened unto the son who returns having seen that the world's ways don't work. Both the mature believer and newly returned son now say to their father, "... make me like one of your hired men (servants)" (parenthesis added vs.19&21).
I have seen people who cry out to God on Sunday for the latter rains, appear to spend relatively little time the rest of the week actively seeking Him because of the other things in their lives which just have to get done first. Unfortunately however, there is every reason to believe that they may not be here when those rains arrive. Even if they are here, there is little chance of them getting wet as long as they maintain their current system of priorities. Deut.11:13 says "... (I)f you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today - to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul - THEN will I send rain on your land in its season, both autumn (latter) and spring (former) rains." (parenthesis and emphasis added).
Some believers do not feel they personally have to meet these conditions as long as the Church as a whole does. But II Sam.22:26 tells us that God shows Himself faithful "... to the faithful." It is true that God does not play favorites, He accepts men from all nations, as Peter so clearly tells us in Acts 10:34-35, but notice the condition placed upon that acceptance. We are clearly shown that those who are accepted are those "... who fear Him and do what is right."
God will pour out the latter rain upon those of His people who are not only faithful servants, but physically present on the earth as members of that final generation. Merely being a member of that generation does not automatically guarantee physical protection from satan's attacks, because the verses which promise protection clearly indicate conditions which must be met by us if we are claim them. When Israel first thought about entering the promised land God set forth the conditions He expected them to comply with. "If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow - to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to hold fast to Him - then the Lord will drive out all those nations before you..." (emphasis added Deut.11:22). When they did, He did. When they didn't, He didn't.
Victory was assured if they love God, walked in His paths and held fast to Him. Daniel was protected because he held fast and trusted in the Most High God (Dan.6:23 & 4:2). We are promised total protection when we recognize and understand the nature of God known as the Most High (Ps.91:14). We are shown in Ps.38:40 that God "helps" and "delivers" the righteous "... because they take refuge in Him" (emphasis added). That refuge is in the "secret place" (KJV) or "shelter" of the Most High (Ps.91:1) IF you make the Most High your dwelling ... then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent." (Ps.91:9 emphasis added)
If God did not deliver the Israelites when they ignored the conditions precedent which He clearly laid down for them, is it valid for us today to feel that we can ignore the conditions He has set forth for us? Guaranteed protection is associated with the conditions of loving, walking with and holding fast to the Most High God. And you cannot do that only on Sunday morning. Loving God, walking with God and holding fast to Him is a 24 hour a day relationship. While that relationship is progressive in nature, so are His blessings and the conditions precedent to those blessings.
We can trust that God has indeed died for our sins and has given us eternal life. We can trust and delight in God and receive the desires of our heart. However, we can also trust, delight and commit our ways to Him and He will "make your righteousness shine like the dawn" (Ps.37:3-6). God's mature children (Greek - huios) will shine like the dawn when Jesus appears, for then we "...shall be like Him." (I John 3:2) To be a transformed son (Ro.12:2) who has a redeemed physical body (Ro.8:23) that has not tasted of physical decay in death (I Cor.15:26 & Acts 2:31), we will have to meet the conditions precedent for this physical redemption (salvation), just as we have to meet the condition precedent for the initial salvation of our souls.
As it true with the salvation of our soul, it is nothing we do on our own. But as is also true with our initial salvation experience, it does require that we reach out for that which God has made available to us. It merely requires that we reach for more of God than many of us have been taught or believed is possible. But the Spirit of God is here to reveal things which we, using our old ways of thinking, could never even imagine were waiting for those who love God (I Cor.2:9-10).
While He was on this earth Jesus used only that power which is available to all believers through the Holy Spirit (Heb.2:7 & Phil.2:7). That is why He said that the Church would do even greater things than He did (John 14:12). The Holy Spirit is here to give us the power of God in order to complete the task (Acts 1:8). But we need to be alive to do that. Satan is the killer of Christians, not God (John 10:10). Jesus was not killed, he laid his own life down (John 10:18), and we are to walk in the power and authority of Jesus (John 17:11). Indeed, we are to walk as Jesus walked (I John 2:6) if we are to remain in Him. Which as you will recall is one of the conditions precedent to our receiving 100% of the protection the Father has promised us in Psalm 91.
John 10:31 tells us that the Jews picked up stones to stone Jesus because of His statements which they considered blasphemous. But vs. 39 says "... they tried to seize Him, but He escaped their grasp." At this point we are faced with one of two choices. Either there was a wrestling match and Jesus won, or He simply walked away from them. I submit to you that it was not the first, but the second, for that same type of deliverance is recorded in at least two other places in Scripture. They COULD NOT KILL HIM, and we are his brothers (Heb.2:11) who are to be walking in the same level of authority, love and power that He walked in AFTER WE ALSO HAVE MET THE CONDITIONS PRECEDENT. No man is to have the power to kill us unless we willingly lay down our lives for another.
Lk.4:28-30 begins to show us the relationship between Psalm 91 and the type or protection He has instore for those who will truly walk as Jesus walked. Therein we read,
"All the people of the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove Him (Jesus) out of the town, and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw Him down the cliff. BUT HE WALKED RIGHT THROUGH THE CROWD AND WENT ON HIS WAY." (parenthesis and emphasis added)
Turn to John 8:59 (NEB) for another example of the same thing. "They picked up stones to throw at Him, BUT JESUS WAS NOT TO BE SEEN; and He left the temple." (emphasis added) Where was He? He was in the secret place of the Most High, for as we are clearly told in Lk.1:32, Jesus was called Son of the Most High.
Ex.12:23 tells us that God physically protected the Israelites in Egypt when the destroyer killed the firstborn of the Egyptians. They were to remain in their houses where the blood of the lamb had been placed on their door posts. Isaiah 26:20 prophesies the protection which is to come. "Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the door behind; hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed by." Our house is not a physical building. It is the secret place of the Most High which will protect us even in the midst of a crowd of modern Pharisees who would try to kill us. I believe that God is restoring the vision to His Church that Paul lost when he went back to mixing law and grace during his visit to Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 21:1-26. That vision concerns being physically alive and remaining when Jesus returns without first having succumbed to physical death. The reality of that vision is dependent upon God's timing and our meeting the conditions which He has set for His mature sons.