Amalekites

 "The Lord will be at war with Amalek from generation to generation." Exodus 17:16

The Amalekites were a people who steadfastly resisted the nation of Israel. They sought to prevent their entering of the Promised Land of God. Once the people took possession of the land, it was Amalekites, allied with the Midianites, who mercilessly raided and plundered the Israelites. They were always found opposing the purposes of God in and through His people, seeking to keep them from His blessings. This led to God swearing to be their enemy throughout eternity.

Here, thousands of years later, would you be surprised to learn that the Amalekites are still very much with us? The nation itself may have disappeared, but their successors are many, and many of them persist in their opposition to His purposes in our lives. Who are our "Amalekites?" Who are yours?

Amalekites are those who seek to distract and defeat us in our journey of faith. They come in all manner of ways. Relationships, goals, desires, even ministry. Some can be openly evil, but others, very likely most others, can be benign, and even seem very good on the surface. Yet through them, the devil has this one purpose, to distract us from, keep us from all that the Father has for us. They mean to keep us from the Father Himself.

John Wesley said that anything that keeps us from His purpose, that keeps us from the beauty of deep relationship with Him, that diminishes the joy of relationship with Him, that this thing is sin to us. Those are strong words, but I want to tell you that I have found it to be completely true in my life, and with things that on the surface would be called "good." It has been in the area of relationships, and yes, in my ministry.

There was a period in my life where I actively sought a loving relationship that would lead to marriage. This in itself is not bad, but the fruits of that were. There were several that seemed they would lead to exactly what I desired, but all of them, in varying degrees, resulted in distracting me from Him, leading me to make an "idol" out of the relationship, and wounding me both spiritually and emotionally. I know that I'm not alone in having this result. This doesn't mean that the desire for good, healthy relationships is wrong, but that we can be led astray by that very desire and suffer great harm in our pursuit of it. It can easily become an Amalekite that leads to our spiritual defeat. We need to be very much aware of this.

My other Amalekite has been the very ministry God called me into. In the west, we have taken hold of a very twisted idea of what ministry success is, and I, along with so many brethren, fell victim to that. My desire to have a robust, ever larger fellowship led me into focusing so much energy into the pursuit that it became more of a "god" to me than my true God, my Father in heaven. I followed after ministry success more than I followed my Lord Jesus Christ. Ministry had become an Amalekite. Seeking His blessing had taken the place of seeking Him. Serving Him had taken the place of loving Him.

These have been two of mine. What are yours? Comfort? Financial security? Professional achievement? There can be no end to the number of Amalekites that come against us. God stands against all of them. He calls them His enemy, and He will ruthlessly oppose them. Yes, even the ones we think of as good. If they are drawing us away from Him, they are His enemy, and they are ours as well. We can make no truce with Amalekites for they will never make one with us. Our destruction is their goal.

Amalekites can come to us as "friends." This is why we need to walk in the wisdom and discernment of the Holy Spirit. With them, we can see the difference between what is good, or seems good, and what is His best...Himself. Through them, He will send us checks in the Spirit as warnings of where our hearts are veering off from His in our journey. Amalekites will always be around this side of eternity, and their danger is real. He is more real. If we stay tuned to His heartbeat, they will not succeed in stopping what He's doing in our lives.

God is not against us having any of the things or people mentioned above. He stands against any and all who would seduce our hearts away from Him, intentionally or not. Whenever Israel gave way to the lure of the various "Amalekites" that appeared, they suffered. So will we. Beware the Amalekites!

Blessings,

Pastor O