Beware of the Amalekites!

by Keith Hazell, Lethbridge, Alberta; Canada

     “Where are you going?” I was often asked as a child in the little village where I lived. Usually I answered with conviction, “Nowhere,” since I had no real direction in my daily meanderings through the paths and woods where I wandered.

     In those days it was pretty safe. There were very few child predators in wartime England. Time spent on our own as children was not a thing that put fear in the hearts of our hard-working parents. Today parents need a clear definition of where their kids are, what they are doing, and how long they will be there.

     Simply put we live in dangerous times! As in the natural, so also in the spiritual this is a dangerous time for us as believers. There has been a tendency for Charismatics to always be on the move. Our churches have been marked by a cafeteria style which means if you can’t find what you want here, you go somewhere else. I have heard amazing stories of believers of 25 years vintage leaving churches because they are not being fed. In the natural a 25-year-old would scoff at being handfed with a spoon! Yet in the spiritual realm their expectation is a lifetime that never requires any spiritual growth or maturity based on seeking after God and reading His Word for themselves.

     In the Scriptures the Amalekites, also called the sons of Amalek, were at odds with God’s chosen people always looking to trap them one way or the other. Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. (Deuteronomy 25:17-18)

     Something was happening here. The people of Israel were on a journey to the land God had prepared for them. They were pursuing their godly call and direction, but a strange thing was happening. Some of the people were losing their place in the marching order. They had started well but were slowly, but surely, losing touch with Moses and the leaders and slipping further and further back in the crowd. They were complaining and making the journey difficult for others as well, with gossip and division marking their regress. As time went on they were losing sight of the direction of the nation, and they were soon enveloped in a cloud of dust where they lost orientation, and suddenly became vulnerable to the Amalekites lurking in the shadows.

We have a similar pattern in our churches today. Peter cautions believers:

     Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Peter 5:8-9)  

We need to be careful in our behavior in the local church, lest we find ourselves willingly surrendering vision, speaking critically, and becoming a liability instead of an asset in the Kingdom. Paul encourages Christians to resist the devil and to stand firm in faith. In another passage Paul encouraged believers to restore out of love the sinner in their church who repents, “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes”.  (2 Corinthians 2:11)

     Just as Satan did with Israel in the Wilderness, today it is definitely a plan of the Enemy to deceive many believers, enticing them to drop out of local churches in a cloud of confusion, and to become neutralized in their effectiveness in the Kingdom. Therefore, great care must be taken by those leaving a local church, to make certain they are not departing without the direction and destiny of God. Above all they need a real attitude check to ensure their departure has the purest of motives, and does not spring from pride, rebellion, or a spirit of independence. Is the person leaving out of frustration, or out of faith?

Abraham is an excellent example of a man who acted by faith after God called him to leave his homeland.           

     By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10)

     There are times in our walk of faith, when like Abraham, God tells someone to set out and leave for an unspecified destination. For Abraham and those with him, this was to be the beginning of a journey of faith leading to a destination that they were unable to define. Many people today are hearing a distinctive call, as Abraham did. They know they have heard, but may seem to be abandoning ship without an adequate explanation. Yet they have heard from the Lord and are stepping out in the same spirit of faith as Abraham.  

Another good example is found in Acts 13 when Paul got a word from the Prophets separating him and Barnabus to a new ministry.

     In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. (Acts 13:1-4)  

     The Antioch church, as well as Paul and Barnabas, were all unaware of where their mission would take them, how they would be supported financially, or when or if they would actually return to Antioch.

     The preceding thoughts are two sides of the same coin. On one side there are those who carelessly drop out of their local churches, because of offence, fickleness or carelessness. These people are not seriously considering the dangers of falling behind into the dust cloud where the spirit of the Amelakites is waiting to destroy them. For them, moving on is not the result of a sense of mission and forward movement in God, but rather one of inertia, indifference and lack of being joined or accountable to anyone for anything.  

     The Amalekites are still with us! Those who are falling back into the dust, often lay claim to being treated badly, but they frequently are the cause of their own troubles. Bad attitudes and spiritual naivety are leading people into isolation and often into spiritual deception. In the present situation of turmoil, church leaders need to take a clearheaded look at people and their true reasons for the present extreme mobility in the Body of Christ.

     On the other side of the coin, there are some who are moving on, but without a clear and obvious situation to step into. They do so, without rancor, bitterness, or their own agenda, seeking the permission of their overseers. Because they are unable to articulate an acceptable explanation, they are often considered, rebellious, and having a bad spirit by their leaders. This misunderstanding can divide personal relationships that would otherwise continue profitably for both parties.

     Those who are leaving in faith need to go, where possible, with a sense of release and blessing from their local church. They need to step out, not drop out. They need to step out in faith to become a catalyst for change, rather than drop out to become a critic for destruction. At the same time, since there are new things happening all around the Body of Christ, local churches need to be willing to expand their umbrella and covering to different expressions of the life of God.

     Fear of innovation and creativity are making some leaders become defensive and threatened in their position in local churches. Some of those who have vision that goes beyond the present scope of their local church need to look for ways of pursuing this vision with patience and the co-operation of their leaders, rather than simply abandoning ship. Both leaders and those leaving need to avoid anger and bitterness since this will impede either party from being able to walk in the blessing of God.

     If you are moving into something new that you see God doing, don’t take your chip or bitterness with you, because you will only infect the very thing you are trying to support or initiate. Sadly, many new things that are being initiated will be destroyed. They contain a kernel of truth, but the truth is overridden by the entrenched bitterness of promoters who have fallen out of relationship with their former spiritual home. Thus the Enemy achieves his goals, and the Amalekites strike again.

     If we really have new or renewed vision from God, the genuine calling from God propelled by the Holy Spirit will supernaturally attract others without the need on our part to denigrate something else. In the natural world we encounter the Butterfly who begins as a caterpillar and then goes into a hibernation stage in a chrysalis. When the caterpillar emerges, it comes out as a beautiful butterfly. While the butterfly can never fit back into the chrysalis without breaking its wings, it must honor and respect the provision of God which kept it through a period of change and transition allowing it to be born to its ultimate destiny.

     A principal in Scripture teaches us that what happens in the natural realm is paralleled in the spiritual realm. The church as the company of believers is going through a time when something new is appearing out of the apparent hibernation and irrelevance of the past. There is a butterfly slowly emerging. The church as the company of believers cannot be confined by its immediate past, but must recognize with thankfulness that it is springing from the chrysalis of the past to new life by the power of the Holy Spirit of God who has the ability to preserve Christ’s Body of believers and to release it in due season.

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New International Version (NIV) 
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