The Lord Adonai – Who is your lord?

Today I am inspired to touch on the topic of the Lord Adonai (for those of you that do not know Adonai is a Hebrew work for God, specifically the lordship aspect of God). The Hebrew people have many names for God, with each name helping highlight a characteristic of God, it is a behaviour or action that helps them keep God in the correct position in their heart, lives and actions. I believe one aspect which many Christians will understand is God the Father, that He is a loving Father, who through Jesus will answer our prayers and provide our needs. I would hasten to say that this is one of the most widely preached aspects of God and most probably one reason which many people will decide to give their lives to God; that by accepting Jesus suddenly there is an endless stream of grace from heaven to make ones life easier and better on earth (if this is your belief my top tip, go read the Bible as a whole book and take notes on what is about to be shared) . God is referred to as our Father a total of 204 times (King James Version), do you want to hasten a guess as to the number of times God is referred to as our Lord? According to the KJV it is a total number of 2340…… Thats more than 10 times compared to Father. Now before you start bashing I am NOT saying God is not our Father, I am challenging you to look at understanding the Lordship aspect of God over our lives. Let us start with the definition of the word lord:
“- a person who has authority, control, or power over others; a master, chief, or ruler.
– a person who exercises authority from property rights; an owner of land, houses, etc.
– a person who is a leader or has great influence in a chosen profession: the great lords of banking.a feudal superior; the proprietor of a manor.
– a titled nobleman or peer; a person whose ordinary appellation contains by courtesy the title Lord or some higher title.” definition according to dictionary.com

I hear you saying but it is different with Jesus, he is our saviour, well in the KJV he is referred to as our saviour a total of 13 times. As our Lord…… a total of 203 times. So there is something here for us to talk about, sit on and pray to God to help change within us. When we consider that God is Holy and He is our Lord, do we as Christians demonstrate the fact that we are under the Lordship of such a Holy God? A God so Holy that the Hebrew people declared they could not be in the presence of God and instead sent Moses (book of Exodus) because of Holiness and His Righteousness? Does God have all authority and control and power of our lives? Would the “gentiles” who walk along side us in life see a demonstration of Jesus’s Lordship over our lives? What does the world see when they look at us as Christians? If this is what the world see’s, what does Jesus see who looks deep into your heart and knows every secret and thought and action?

Back to the point of lordship, if we are to grasp that Jesus is the Lord over us, what does this actually mean? This means that our role as His servants is to build up His kingdom and His glory. We are to trust in His ways, because He is Lord and only He knows the plan over His whole estate. We are one piece in His entire empire and only He knows every piece within it and the plans He has over everything. When we look at todays world, we can say that we are going further and further away from Gods kingdom. It is a time where corruption is common, prostitution is normal in society, sexual immorality is corrupting children at a never before seen rate, gender corruption is considered normal, divorce is considered normal, materialism is at the centre of society (people wait eagerly in the freezing cold for the latest iPhone, but when was the last time you saw a rush of people for salvation?), individualism is at the core of fundamental beliefs (you are most important, your survival, its you or them mentality), what I am trying to highlight is that the world truly is walking further and further away from the way of life God calls us to. So the question comes to mind that if God was truly the Lord of our lives, why is the world going backwards? Why are churches corrupt? Why is sexual immorality rife in the church? Why is divorce common in churches? Why do people hold on to money like it is theirs? If God was truly Lord of our lives we would see Godly behaviours demonstrated around us and this would therefore effect the world.

I believe I’ve brought the point to light, so let us look to the Bible. I am going to direct us towards the prophet Hosea. In my opinion he demonstrated the concept of Lordship and life sold out to God wonderfully. His book is not a long book and I will direct for you to read. But I will summarise the two main points of relevance towards Lordship. Hosea was directed by God to marry a prostitute, this was to demonstrate to the people of Israel the relationship between God and His chosen people. Secondly Hosea was told to chase after his wife who had run away back to her old life of prostitution, not only chase after her, purchase her again and then continue in a marital relationship with her, this was to demonstrate the forgiveness available from God. I believe we can without argument say that God was Lord of his life without any questions. He obeyed without question even though it most likely was not the actions his flesh desired. He was an example of a life laid down for God no matter what. In fact if you go through all of the previous prophets they all have examples of living a life sold out for God. Moses did not want to be Gods spokesperson, Ezekiel eating bread cooked over dung, Jonah going to Ninevah etc etc. This is a theme that continues into the New Testament with Jesus ultimately putting His life on the cross to pay for our sins to reunite us back to God and release grace and forgiveness of our sins. We then see this walked out by the apostles and through the book of Acts. The theme of lordship is throughout the whole Bible.

What does Lordship to God then look like in todays modern world? Have we started with the basic steps of Lordship and do we wear proudly the banner of our Holy God? Do we differ from the nations around us? The Hebrew people were instructed by God to clean the promised land from all idols and pagan practice, so that they would be different from the surrounding nations. Is your house different to the surrounding homes? What is at the centre point of your home? Is praise and worship to God (Daniel got up in his room in his house and prayed to God facing Jerusalem just before he was thrown into the lions den) at the centre of your home or are other idols such as Netflix and gaming or materialistic collections at the centre? Where does the Word of God sit in your home? Is it tucked away for those rainy days or is it readily available front and centre so that it is always on your mind? How about your life lived? Does your life lived look different to the gentile nations around you? Do they see sexual immorality as the normal in your life or do they see purity and covenant? Do they see greed over finances or do they see generosity to help those without? Do see a life filled with gossip over the latest scandal or do they see a life filled with uplifting the good in people? Do they see a life dedicated towards God and doing what is righteous and holy or do they see a life filled with irony? My challenge to you today is; if you are proclaiming God as your Father and Jesus as your saviour the Bible says more than 10 times over that God is your Lord and almost 20 times over that Jesus is your Lord, what is your Lord challenging you to do for His glory?

In the end of the day our lives should demonstrate the resurrection of Christ Jesus, in order for this to happen we must yield everything we have to Him. As a result of this our lives will be lived different to the world and we should showcase the fact that the Living God is amongst us, He is in us and He is our Lord. May we all walk towards a deeper relationship with God, filled with yielding to His will, so much so that we truly become a nations of people that are mini Christs.