REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
CHEROKEE PENTECOSTAL HOLINESS CHURCH
Read Zechariah 4:10.
“God can take the little things, the insignificant ones, and make them bigger in our eyes. Revival Fire and our praise, is in this House, this morning. Healing is here. Trust God. The Deliverer is here. We need to see and hear some things,” Pastor Melton began. “The encounter of Jesus with a Canaanite woman, whose daughter was demon possessed, is found in Matthew 15:21-28.”
“God is seeking for something. The first thing to look at is what kind of seed is being planted for a harvest. After all, the mustard tree seed, the smallest of seeds, grows into a tree in which the birds can build nests. Seeds planted, die in the soil, but still continue to grow roots, then stems, etc. In the natural, a person’s hair and nails will continue to grow even after the person’s body has died. God is seeking to grow us up. He is building up His people with the ‘milk’ of the Word and is needing for us to get where we can eat the ‘meat.’
“In Matthew 15:22, the Word tells us, the Canaanite woman ‘besought Him’. We must never get so ‘familiar’ with Jesus that we cannot see when He is showing us something.
“Notice in the next verses, Jesus said nothing to her until she’d begun worshipping Him, by saying, ‘Lord. Help me.’ Jesus told His disciples, in her hearing, that He had been ‘sent to the lost sheep of Israel.’
“He answered her somewhat harshly with, ‘It is not fitting to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs.’
“Seemingly unoffended, her quick, surprising response was, ‘Truth, but even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from the Master’s table,’ and Jesus was encouraged with the display of her great faith in Him. He rewarded her for it, saying, ‘Great is thy faith. Be it unto thee as thou wilt,’ Her daughter was made whole that same hour.’”
“We need to interact with Jesus with what’s really in our hearts. Every little thing matters to Jesus. He cares so much. We see that we must also keep being good to others. Our first responsibility is to minister first to those in the Church, and then later to others. Jesus knew well who His target for ministry was and that He was to care for them before the others.
“She came and even changed her petition, a key when we are praying. We are to take responses to the next level, she worshipped Him from where she was, and said, ‘Lord, help me!’ By calling Him also, Son of David, she was telling Him she knew, ‘You are the God of Heaven.’ Rev. Melton explained. “He is a God Who works behind the scenes, calling things that be not as if they already were.”
“God’s best work is done while we cannot see Him working. There is to be no doubting, even when His timing is not on our timetable. There is nothing that can stop the Hand of God. He gets things done, Glory! Even after the worship ends. The Canaanite woman ended up getting the answer she was hoping for even after being called “a dog.”
“With a situation I was in a few years back. I heard this instruction, ‘Make your cup bigger. Don’t throw it away.’ There was the vision of a cup that was full of sand. The sand was removed as the cup was turned upside down and emptied out, allowing for much more room to be filled.’ The Canaanite woman’s unexpected answer, shows us He was building her. The truth was she may have been living like a dog, and He was pruning her to grow her up. He often will cut something away to give us a new set of friends, or cut something away to get us out of one job into a newer, better job, bearing much more fruit. He even tells us we are to decrease so He can increase in our lives. He prunes us to get rid of things so He can multiply other things in our lives. And, in this example we also need to understand that she knew the Master takes care of the dogs, too. No one in this world is perfect, yet He still has a purpose for each one of us.
“God does a mighty work here. With Truths, it’s easier to find the faults in others, than to see them in ourselves. He healed her daughter and also gave her the ‘crumbs.’”
