PURPOSES AND OUR RESPONSE TO SHAKINGS
Shakings will Happen
The frequency of earthquakes is said to have increased in our time. And this is something the Scriptures have already foretold. The Bible tells us that shakings will come.
From the verses in Haggai and Hebrews one thing is made clear. God ordains shakings. This is our hope because when God brings forth shakings, we have to see them in the light of His goodness.
For one, because God is good, the shakings that come our way are actually meant by God for a purpose and that purpose is good even if we do not see it yet. It is so important that we do not judge our situation as wrong simply because at present it is not enjoyable. When a woman is about to give birth she goes through labor pains. It can be a very difficult experience. Without medication, labor can be very painful and the nature of labor is to sharply increase in intensity when one gets closer to the delivery. A woman in labor may not like what she is going through but all that pain will soon be forgotten when her child appears. I used to ask - if child birth was so painful, why do people still get the courage to have more than one child then? As it turns out, the joy of seeing your child come out washes away the memories of the pain. The same is true in God-ordained shakings. The process may not be easy but the end-product of the shakings always turns out to be worth it.
Second, because God is good, He will not give us a shaking beyond what is needed to accomplish His work. Our God is perfectly reasonable in all His ways. He does not allow us to be tried unnecessarily. This should give us comfort, to know that whatever ordeal we may be going through and will go through their intensity and frequency are measured and controlled by the Lord. He gives us only what we can bear by His grace.
Purposes of Shakings
When a woman is in labor, she feels contractions in her womb that signal that her child is about to be born. These contractions open up the passageway for the child to leave his mother’s body. And the same is true with our time. The troubles and trials are labor pains that will facilitate the coming of our Lord. When a woman is in labor it is a signal to her to go to a hospital and be prepared to give birth. The shakings also have the same effect. They call us to prepare. Without labor, there is no signal for the woman that she is about to give birth and this can put her child in danger because she is not prepared. Thus, painful as it is, labor or birthpangs are actually helpful as they are a signal to get medical attention and prepare for the coming delivery. The shakings like birthpangs are therefore for the good of man because they give us a sense of urgency to prepare. Without these shakings, it is easy for man to grow complacent and to neglect the preparations for the coming of our Lord.
Hebrews 12 also tells of another purpose to the shakings.
Another purpose of shakings according to Haggai 2 which is related to Hebrews 12 is this:
Our Response
When the ground is shaking due to an earthquake, the ground becomes unstable and it is hard for us to keep our balance. In the spiritual, when shakings come into our lives, our stability is also tested. When the things around are shaky, do we become wobbly in our walk with God or do we stride in strength and grace. Stability is a mark of a true mature saint and it is manifested in how we respond to the shakings that happen in our lives. How then must we respond to the shakings? How can stability be built in us?
1. We must keep a heart of praise.
In Acts 16:16-40, the Apostle Paul and Silas were led by the Spirit of God to the city of Philippi in Macedonia. There they ministered to the people. However, there was a girl who had a spirit of divination who followed them around. The Apostle Paul commanded the spirit to depart from the girl and this angered her masters who used her for fortune-telling.
They brought Paul and Silas to the magistrates and they were beaten and imprisoned. The Scripture tells us that they laid many stripes on them. If one considers what took place, it was definitely a very trying situation that Paul and Silas were subjected to. They were dragged into the market place, wrongly accused, stripped, physically bruised, and jailed. It was not as if they were guilty of any wrongdoing. They were in Apostle Paul’s words uncondemned Romans. So what they actually suffered was a real injustice.
Further, they suffered after heeding the Spirit and doing what was right. That must have been a real shaking! We can certainly be in the center of the perfect will of God and still go through a shaking. What was the Apostle Paul and Silas’ response to all the hurt they were going through? Did they sulk in despair for the hardship? Did they complain to God? Did they get depressed? Did they get bitter? Acts 16 gives us an account of their beautiful response. In the midst of the shakings, Acts 16:25 tells us:
Going back to Acts 16, a fascinating detail included there is that while Paul and Silas were praising and praying, the other prisoners were said to be listening. People do observe how we deal with our shakings and those who choose to offer the sacrifice of praise attract listening ears. In their time of difficulty they even became a blessing to those who were going through hardships as well.
And during this time, a great earthquake shook the prison. It was so strong that the foundations of the prison were shaken and everyone’s chains were loosed. But it is interesting that no matter how strong the shaking was, the prisoners were unharmed and only their chains were broken. Spiritual shaking could not shake Paul’s faith nor did the natural. And as Hebrews 12 says, only that which can be shaken was shaken off, their chains. Paul’s attitude of praise and thanksgiving gave him such inner strength. And to those who know how to offer God a sacrifice of praise, in times of shakings only their chains fall off, only the things that hold back a man from following God are shaken off!
2. We are called to be strong, work, and not fear.
When the Israelites were called to work on the temple they were not in good shape. Those were hard times economically. They were being shaken off their neglect of the house of God. God told them, this is now the time to work on His temple. In times you are expecting a shaking or you are in the midst of one, you must continue to plod on. When times of shaking come, people can be struck with fear and despair they stop becoming productive and fruitful. The true faithful servants of God are tested in such times. A faithful man will continue to build God’s kingdom regardless of the presence of shakings. The Lord tells us through Haggai that even in the midst of difficulty we are to work because He is with us. We are to keep our eyes on the building of God’s kingdom because a time is coming when God will shake heaven and earth that will draw the nations to the Lord. The church must be ready for the great harvest that will come from this shaking. As the world is shaken, the prepared church will shine the glory of God and people will run to it seeking peace and refuge. Let us hold on to the promise of God that He will cause the glory of the latter house to be greater than the former. Our efforts may seem to be so little and producing very little today but we are to focus our eyes on the God who is the source of glory. He will bestow His glory on the church prepared for the shakings to come.
3. We are to hear and obey the Lord.
In Hebrew 12, the Lord says He will shake heaven and earth once more. But this statement was preceded by v. 25:
There is a coming shaking on the world today. But this is not a time for us to fear. It is a time for us to grow a thankful and praising heart. It is a time for us to be strong, work and not fear. It is a time for us to live in obedience and faith in Him. And it is a time for the glory of God to rise on His Church!
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The frequency of earthquakes is said to have increased in our time. And this is something the Scriptures have already foretold. The Bible tells us that shakings will come.
Haggai 2:6-7
“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.
Hebrews 12:26And these shakings indicate the days we are living in. We live in the last days. It is one of the signs of the end of the age.
Whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”
Matthew 24:3-8The shakings that will take place are both natural and spiritual. As already mentioned earthquakes are already increasing but so will the trials and adversities of man. The Lord likens these to birth pangs.
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Romans 8:22-23God-Ordained Shakings
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
From the verses in Haggai and Hebrews one thing is made clear. God ordains shakings. This is our hope because when God brings forth shakings, we have to see them in the light of His goodness.
For one, because God is good, the shakings that come our way are actually meant by God for a purpose and that purpose is good even if we do not see it yet. It is so important that we do not judge our situation as wrong simply because at present it is not enjoyable. When a woman is about to give birth she goes through labor pains. It can be a very difficult experience. Without medication, labor can be very painful and the nature of labor is to sharply increase in intensity when one gets closer to the delivery. A woman in labor may not like what she is going through but all that pain will soon be forgotten when her child appears. I used to ask - if child birth was so painful, why do people still get the courage to have more than one child then? As it turns out, the joy of seeing your child come out washes away the memories of the pain. The same is true in God-ordained shakings. The process may not be easy but the end-product of the shakings always turns out to be worth it.
Second, because God is good, He will not give us a shaking beyond what is needed to accomplish His work. Our God is perfectly reasonable in all His ways. He does not allow us to be tried unnecessarily. This should give us comfort, to know that whatever ordeal we may be going through and will go through their intensity and frequency are measured and controlled by the Lord. He gives us only what we can bear by His grace.
Purposes of Shakings
When a woman is in labor, she feels contractions in her womb that signal that her child is about to be born. These contractions open up the passageway for the child to leave his mother’s body. And the same is true with our time. The troubles and trials are labor pains that will facilitate the coming of our Lord. When a woman is in labor it is a signal to her to go to a hospital and be prepared to give birth. The shakings also have the same effect. They call us to prepare. Without labor, there is no signal for the woman that she is about to give birth and this can put her child in danger because she is not prepared. Thus, painful as it is, labor or birthpangs are actually helpful as they are a signal to get medical attention and prepare for the coming delivery. The shakings like birthpangs are therefore for the good of man because they give us a sense of urgency to prepare. Without these shakings, it is easy for man to grow complacent and to neglect the preparations for the coming of our Lord.
Hebrews 12 also tells of another purpose to the shakings.
Hebrews 12:27God brings forth shakings to remove the things that can be shaken. What are the things that can be shaken? These are the temporal things in life. Human strength and effort as well as earthly desires and riches. Someone who was going through a terrible sickness once said that with his condition he could not care about earthly riches. Difficulties in life open our eyes to what really matters - God, character, and relationships. So shakings come to remove the non-essentials that people are clinging to as well as to shake off whatever self-confidence or sufficiency a person may have.
Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Another purpose of shakings according to Haggai 2 which is related to Hebrews 12 is this:
Haggai 2:6-7It is to draw the nations unto the Lord. The world has been filled with so much distraction, idolatry and pride that is making people shun away from God. Thus, all nations will be subjected to shakings that they may turn their hearts towards the Lord, the Desire of All Nations.
“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.
Our Response
When the ground is shaking due to an earthquake, the ground becomes unstable and it is hard for us to keep our balance. In the spiritual, when shakings come into our lives, our stability is also tested. When the things around are shaky, do we become wobbly in our walk with God or do we stride in strength and grace. Stability is a mark of a true mature saint and it is manifested in how we respond to the shakings that happen in our lives. How then must we respond to the shakings? How can stability be built in us?
1. We must keep a heart of praise.
In Acts 16:16-40, the Apostle Paul and Silas were led by the Spirit of God to the city of Philippi in Macedonia. There they ministered to the people. However, there was a girl who had a spirit of divination who followed them around. The Apostle Paul commanded the spirit to depart from the girl and this angered her masters who used her for fortune-telling.
They brought Paul and Silas to the magistrates and they were beaten and imprisoned. The Scripture tells us that they laid many stripes on them. If one considers what took place, it was definitely a very trying situation that Paul and Silas were subjected to. They were dragged into the market place, wrongly accused, stripped, physically bruised, and jailed. It was not as if they were guilty of any wrongdoing. They were in Apostle Paul’s words uncondemned Romans. So what they actually suffered was a real injustice.
Further, they suffered after heeding the Spirit and doing what was right. That must have been a real shaking! We can certainly be in the center of the perfect will of God and still go through a shaking. What was the Apostle Paul and Silas’ response to all the hurt they were going through? Did they sulk in despair for the hardship? Did they complain to God? Did they get depressed? Did they get bitter? Acts 16 gives us an account of their beautiful response. In the midst of the shakings, Acts 16:25 tells us:
Acts 16:25Here are two prisoners who did not deserve their suffering but instead of griping about it they offered God the sacrifices of praise. In their time of shaking, the Lord found the Apostle Paul and Silas believing and praising Him. How precious that must have been to the Lord! Here are two severely bruised men unjustly imprisoned for following Christ at midnight still praying and praising God! They may not have known why God could allow such an ordeal to take place in their lives but rather than sulking over these things, these men chose to praise God! We can surely praise God even when we do not understand what we are going through! Rather than their spirits being ruled by their emotions, their emotions were ruled by their spirits. That must have been really beautiful in the sight of God.
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
Hebrews 13:15Hebrews 13 speaks of how we must continually offer the sacrifice of praise. We are called to offer God our thanksgiving always whether in the good or bad times. The verse also tells us how. It says by Him. It is truly by God that we can praise Him even under trying circumstances.
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Going back to Acts 16, a fascinating detail included there is that while Paul and Silas were praising and praying, the other prisoners were said to be listening. People do observe how we deal with our shakings and those who choose to offer the sacrifice of praise attract listening ears. In their time of difficulty they even became a blessing to those who were going through hardships as well.
And during this time, a great earthquake shook the prison. It was so strong that the foundations of the prison were shaken and everyone’s chains were loosed. But it is interesting that no matter how strong the shaking was, the prisoners were unharmed and only their chains were broken. Spiritual shaking could not shake Paul’s faith nor did the natural. And as Hebrews 12 says, only that which can be shaken was shaken off, their chains. Paul’s attitude of praise and thanksgiving gave him such inner strength. And to those who know how to offer God a sacrifice of praise, in times of shakings only their chains fall off, only the things that hold back a man from following God are shaken off!
2. We are called to be strong, work, and not fear.
Haggai 2:1-9During the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem in the time of Zerubbabel, the Word of the Lord came to the Prophet Haggai. He said that the temple of Solomon far exceeded the temple they were building. But nonetheless, they were to continue working because God was with them. Then the Lord says, that a shaking was going to come. God was going to shake heaven and earth so that nations will turn to Him. This speaks of our days. The church today pales in glory compared to the church before. The Church is not in very good shape. But what God is telling us today is to continue the work because He will grant us His glory.
In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying: “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying: ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’
“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
When the Israelites were called to work on the temple they were not in good shape. Those were hard times economically. They were being shaken off their neglect of the house of God. God told them, this is now the time to work on His temple. In times you are expecting a shaking or you are in the midst of one, you must continue to plod on. When times of shaking come, people can be struck with fear and despair they stop becoming productive and fruitful. The true faithful servants of God are tested in such times. A faithful man will continue to build God’s kingdom regardless of the presence of shakings. The Lord tells us through Haggai that even in the midst of difficulty we are to work because He is with us. We are to keep our eyes on the building of God’s kingdom because a time is coming when God will shake heaven and earth that will draw the nations to the Lord. The church must be ready for the great harvest that will come from this shaking. As the world is shaken, the prepared church will shine the glory of God and people will run to it seeking peace and refuge. Let us hold on to the promise of God that He will cause the glory of the latter house to be greater than the former. Our efforts may seem to be so little and producing very little today but we are to focus our eyes on the God who is the source of glory. He will bestow His glory on the church prepared for the shakings to come.
3. We are to hear and obey the Lord.
In Hebrew 12, the Lord says He will shake heaven and earth once more. But this statement was preceded by v. 25:
Hebrews 12:25-29It says not to refuse Him who speaks. We can take what this means from the context the Lord provides. Hebrews 12 mentions those who refused him and did not escape. It refers to the Israelites who were in the wilderness who turned away from the Lord. They were plagued with idolatry, disobedience and unbelief. They refused the God who spoke so clearly to them. In times of shaking, all the more must we cling to God, turn to God, and obey God.
See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
There is a coming shaking on the world today. But this is not a time for us to fear. It is a time for us to grow a thankful and praising heart. It is a time for us to be strong, work and not fear. It is a time for us to live in obedience and faith in Him. And it is a time for the glory of God to rise on His Church!
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