Value Systems

Months ago, from today, I woke up early in the morning and I was filled with an unusual feeling of purpose! In place of the usual feeling of rolling the duvet over my head to have a little more sleep I leaped out of bed to prepare for the day. I tried to articulate the feelings into words; appreciating the power behind words. After a few minutes the words 'Value System' bubbled from my spirit; as inspired by a message I heard sometime ago.

So What is Value System? I looked it up and this is what it means: a coherent set of values (what determines your right or wrong) adapted and/or evolved by a person, organisation or society as a standard to guild its behavior in preferences in all situation. This means that our values that we have imbibed over the year has the power to shapen our preference to life. This would inevitable affect how we think, reason and argue hence affect the choices we make. We know that choices have consequences. No wonder Paul, when explaining to the Corinthians how he wages war, said in 2Corinth10:45 (AMP)-: The weapons of our warfare is not physical but mighty before God for the overthrowing and destruction of strongholds (value system independent of God), inasmuch as we refute arguments and theories and reasonings.....

So bringing all this together; your values or value system (which is consciously or unconsciously determined by what you give your senses to) would determine your preference to life......your preference to life or how you see life would determine your interests or proclivities.....your interests would determine your choices....and your choices eventually would determine your destiny.

I don't believe in the common saying of que sera sera whatever would be would be! Even if God is all powerful and all knowing He only predestines the consequences of the choices you make and not your choices itself...in other words..the choice is yours.

Romans8:29-30 (New American Standard) says those He foreknown..He predestined..those He predestined He called...those He called He Justified and those He justified He glorified. Now God has control over the Pre(foreknown and predestined) and Post (Justified and Glorified) but He doesn't over the middle stage...that's your responsibility...in other words when He calls you, do you say 'here I am Lord' or say 'tomorrow lord' because the answers to this would determine your destination.

God's intention wasn't to create robots but to create in His likeness. One of the features of the likeness of God is to have freewill of choice. So the choices you make that determines your destiny, from it consequence, is influenced by your interests. Your interests is determined by your preference to life and your preference by the values you imbibe.

Now lets quickly see the lives of two different people in the bible with two different Value Systems: Esua and Daniel.

ESAU

Esau was the son of Isaac and Rebekah. When he grew up he was a skillful hunter and was loved by his father. His value system was the exact opposite to that of his twin brother; Jacob. Unlike his brother, Esau was a person of impose. He likes to respond immediately to the prompting of the flesh. He gives no thought to the consequence of the choices he makes. He is total consumed by NOW! We can see this when after hunting he was tired and hungry and he actually sold his birthright (every rightful blessing entitled to the first born) to his brother.All for only a pot of stew...(Genesis25:28-34).This immediately shaped Esau's destiny making him subject to Jacob hence confirming the prophesy that was given to their mother Rebecca. When he was wise enough to realize this it was to late. The other subject of study is Jacob.

DANIEL

Now Daniel was a young Hebrew man, probably in his prime, when Jerusalem was besieged by Babylon. God had made king Nebuchadnezzar a great king of that time. God himself delivered Jerusalem to the Babylonians. So Daniel, among his people, was a slave in Babylon. The king ordered the chief of the court to select young men without physical defeat and Daniel was one of them. They were to be trained the ways of the Babylonians (lifestyle) so they would serve before the king. The bible says (Daniel 1:5) that they were assigned a particular amount of food and wine by the king. We should understand that this isn't just about food but a change of lifestyle involving indulging in the desires of the flesh. This can easily be concluded because Daniel determined in his heart not to defile himself (Daniel1:8AMP)...as he described that lifestyle as defilement.

As an Hebrew man there are values or value systems that needs to be adhered to (with regards to type of food, how they should behave, prayer at particular hours etc). He had every reasons to indulge in all of this because he was in a new country and could easily choice to adapt to the Babylonian lifestyle to please the king......But the bible say DANIEL DETERMINED IN HIS HEART NOT TO DEFILE HIMSELF. The choice and other subsequent choices he made resulted him to be blessed with knowledge and skills in all learning and wisdom with understanding in all kinds of vision and dreams (Daniel1:17). God made him lord over the greatest king of that time; because in Daniel2:46-48 king Nebuchadnezzar prostrated before him and placed him in a very high position and made him his personal adviser. He stood on his values so much so that he was regarded as highly esteemed, by an angel, and could stand in gap of the lost (Daniel9)....not to mentioned the miraculous deliverance from the mouth of the lion.

I SAID ALL OF THAT TO SAY THIS: there are some values we have imbibed over the years that has hindered the will of God from fully manifesting in our lives. Whilst God is willing the atmosphere isn't conducive for Him to act. There are higher levels that God has predestined us to be (either in are career, spiritual lives, in our marriage, finances, relationships etc) but the are some values or value systems that has continuously held us back. God ,at all times, wants to take us higher (at His time) but we need to begin to correct some values as the Spirit prompts us.

THE WINDMILL

The windmill is made of there poles pointing in three different directions. The effective and persistent movement of these poles with the combination of the wind produces energy or light. Light or energy can never be generated without the moving pole or where the poles aren't moving well even in the presence of a great wind.

What is God saying? Without the right value system even in the presence of a great wind of revival you wouldn't receive your revival. Even if you do it would slip out of your hand because of poor value system.