When Moses refused to obey and did not sanctify the Lord before the people, and God disqualified him from leading the people, prayer could not help. Pleading with God could not help. Honouring God could not help. The chapter was closed.
Pray that we would understand that the ball will not always be there for us to play.
There comes a time when it’s too late to repent, too late to be useful, too late to be consecrated.
When your warnings are rejected, there comes a time when you close the chapter.
There is a fatal point where a person must not continue in rebellion.
There is a point reached in rebellion against God where he would never be able to come back. There is a point reached in a woman’s rebellion against her husband where she can never come back. There is a point reached in compromise when it is settled forever.
There is a point reached in there, where the heart can never be corrected again. There is a point reached in resisting God, where it’s not possible to go back.
There is the fatal crossing. The Scriptures show many of them:
The apostle Barnabas faced the fatal crossing. When he had to choose between his nephew and the call of God and he chose his nephew, he crashed.
He was a man full of the Holy Spirit,
He was a man who had sold his land and given the money to God.
But at the crossroads of the love of God and love of family, he chose the love of family. He moved out of the will of God and never came back again. He went out of the pages of the New Testament forever. And because the purposes of God cannot be thwarted, prophet Silas was raised and he – Barnabas, forgotten and buried.
At the fatal crossing, there are not three, four or five things for a man to be confused about.
There is just one thing and then an alternative.
There is just one sin to renounce and the possibility to continue in it.
There is just one issue with regard to the love of the world and the possibility to continue in it.
There is just one person to sacrifice.
There is just one habit to abandon.
There is just one project to stop.
There is just one repentance to make and the possibility of holding back.
Abraham faced the fatal crossing when God said, “Sacrifice Isaac.” Abraham did not discuss with his wife; it would have been suicide because she would have brought in feminine sentiments for a son. There is the time when to discuss with the disciple-maker what God has demanded is to cross fatally unto death.
Abraham had three days to come back to himself. If he had been dreaming, if it had been an emotional affair, he had three days to come back to himself.
He chose God rather than spiritual success.
He chose God rather than spiritual progeny.
He chose God rather than the joy of seeing his son rise forth to spiritual greatness.
He got to the place, bound Isaac, put him on the altar, took out the knife, and was getting ready to kill him.
The fatal crossing became the crossing of victory.
The fatal crossing became the crossing of utter might.
The fatal crossing became the place from where he could never be small again.
The fatal crossing became the place from where he could never be tested again.
The fatal crossing became the place of having arrived.
The fatal crossing became the place of ultimate victory and God could not keep quiet. He had to speak from heaven.
Leadership Course Continued, Sunday Morning.
Obili,1 Yaounde, 29thMarch, 1996.
1 A quarter in the city of Yaounde.