Get off your High Horse

 

Get off your High Horse

In the Bible; the book of Genesis, Cain and Abel were the first two sons of Adam and Eve, Cain, the firstborn, was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. The brothers made sacrifices to God, each of his own produce, but God favored Abel's sacrifice instead of Cain's. Cain was jealous and envious of his brother and decided to murder Abel.

Now it so happened that God was still having face to face meetings and he came to Cain asking where is your brother? Of course God knew all about it, but he was looking for repentance and sorrow, but instead he was faced with a rebellious and Smart Alec remark; “Am I my brother's keeper?”

God replied, your brother's blood cries out from the ground and you are to be banished from your family and sent far away.

I wondered about this, if God had of showed up the day before perhaps the murder could have been prevented and the two brother's reconciled. However the truth is that at times even with forgiveness, there is no hope for continued close relationships.

This is a true story: Many years ago, my husband and I moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma where we attended Rhema Bible College for a year. We volunteered to work in the prayer room, and met two other couples and we became friends and often met to pray together. It was near the time of graduation, and one of the older students, a woman named Jane, (not her real name,) was also a good friend. Her beautiful single daughter lived with Jane and had been a student at the school the year before. Jane was concerned that her daughter find a good husband; So she invited a couple of the eligible young men for lunch to meet her daughter. One day my husband and I and our two other couples were invited to Jane's home to bless a new engagement and we were happy to visit. As we sat there, the Lord told me that this was not a good idea and the couple should not marry.

Now I had a problem. Should I tell them not to marry or mind my own business? I decided to be quiet. Afterwards as we left and were out in front of the home, one of our friends asked me, how did you feel about all this? I told my friends, this is a mistake and they should not marry. “Exactly what the Lord told me,” our friend said. We decided they probably would not accept our word and they would be offended, so we left well enough alone.

The sad fact is they married, but soon afterwards they were divorced as the girl found someone else where she worked in a ministry.  If we had spoken up, it would no doubt - NOT have made a difference, and we would have lost a good friend in Jane.

Human nature as it is; usually those older, but not mature in the Lord; do not like correction, or to be told certain things are not becoming to a Christian. “So what? I see no harm,” Many will say back to you.

Moses was rescued as a baby by the princess and raised in the Pharaoh's palace. One day he viewed an argument between an Israelite and an Egyptian, and Moses offering help, stepped in and killed the Egyptian. 

a few days later, Moses came upon two Israelite men arguing, and he tried to settle their spat.  The men said to Moses, "Are you going to kill one of us, like you did the Egyptian?  Here Moses was trying to help, but instead, he was misunderstood and blamed for getting involved.   May I ask, "Has that ever happened to you?

Moses realized if one person knew about this, it could mean death to him, so he fled into the desert to save his life and was there 40 years until God reminded that he still had a call on his life and God needed him to deliver the children of Israel.

Things happen, and we may run and hide, but if we would consider that spiritual influences are at work preventing God's plan – and decide to get off our high horse and admit that we just might be wrong; we might save ourselves a lot of desert dwelling.

The spirit of offense is alive and well, visiting many even in our day.   It would behoove us all to learn not to take offense when it is offered to us.

The Spirit of Offense is a form of Self Righteousness;  “I’m right and you are wrong…”  How many times have we felt that way?  (People get their feelings hurt and they are angry, because they believe they are right and you are wrong.)

The Pharisees and Sadducee's of Jesus’s day were extremely self-righteous and they were offended by Jesus  - left and right. (Matthew 15:12)

My dad used to say, it is so easy to get on your “High Horse,” when you are offended. What does that term mean:  

If someone gets on their high horse about a situation, they get angry about it and behave as if they know more than other people or as if they are better than other people and superior to others.

So lets get off our high horse! – how can we do that? It is simple:

"To get off your high horse;  humble yourself and admit you are wrong." Change your attitude, mental attitude – perhaps change some of your beliefs and feelings and dispositions to act in certain ways; and decide now to make quality decisions.

As we go to prayer over our cities, our States and our Nation, may we realize that many of our citizens are on their “High Horse.” They need assistance from the Holy Spirit to change their attitudes about receiving Jesus and to realize that Jesus is the answer to all of life's problems.

The simple Gospel tells us to repent and turn from our former ways and to change direction by following Jesus and accept His plans. God is willing to release the bondage of high horse attitudes and to give those who come to Him a new mind set that is one of freedom and security in Christ.

Let us pray asking God to bind the spirits of offense and to loose the spirit of submission to God's will. In addition, may each of us make that decision today as a personal choice.