Times of Shaking

In Hebrews 12:26, God says 'Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.' Pastor Prince preached on times of shaking during last Sunday sermon. I remember the last time I heard this message on shaking was in Nov 2008 when we first stepped into New Creation Church. At that time Pastor Prince was talking about shaking in the financial world, prior to the fall of Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis that followed in early 2009. Now he is talking about shaking again but not just in the financial world but this shaking is everywhere.

'The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,' says the Lord of hosts, in Malachi 2:9. Pastor Prince said that this shaking is good because those things that are man made are falling apart. Only those things that God made can endure (Hebrews 12:27). God is revealing those false securities and wrong foundations in our lives. If there is no shaking, we would not even know that these false securities exist. If we don't know we are leaning on the wrong foundation, how then can we run to Christ, our firm foundation?

He quoted an example of a wrong foundation in marriage. Some people get married because they said people around them are telling them they should get married since it's been a long time they dated. But after these people are gone, what holds the marriage together? In this case, the shaking in the marriage is to expose the wrong foundation and to let the couple truly discover why they should stay married. For me, I believe that Jesus is the One who holds my marriage together. He causes our marriage to be like sweet wine after 11 years. The reason we are married is also because God desires godly offsprings (Malachi 2:15).

This shaking is a warning from God. Yes, the shaking may be uncomfortable and we may even blame God for allowing these things to happen to us. Yet the shaking is truly for our good because it wakes us up to the question of whether we are trusting in something that is not based on the finished work of Jesus. When there is a shaking, there is always a fight involved. And when there is a fight, there will always be battle spoils.

For me, God has caused a shaking in many areas of my life like my previous wrong beliefs, my church life, my workplace, my parenting concerns, our health etc. I have been trained to look at all things from the lens of Christ's finished work. The result of this shaking, though tough at times, is very good. Now these areas of my life are built on Christ's firm foundation and cannot be shaken.

Many a times I am so tempted to rely on human efforts, thinking that I got to solve the problem myself. Yet God kept me from doing anything. Instead He asked me if I could believe that this problem could be solved by Christ's finished work on the cross and not through any human efforts. Of course to God, this problem is already solved for long before the need arises, the supply and the provision is already there. It's just that I don't see the solution & the supply yet. Only when we have eyes of faith, then we can see the solution from God's perspective.

Hebrews 12:22 says 'But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels'. Those who are on Mount Zion (grace grounds) are established in the righteousness of God in Christ. They cannot be shaken. On the contrary, those who are on Mount Sinai (law grounds) will be shaken. It is the Voice of grace that is causing the shaking so that we will all turn to the unshakeable grounds of grace, the kingdom that cannot be shaken.