Post by Cindy on Sept 20, 2015 11:58:58 GMT -5
“At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.” (Matthew 11:25–26)
In spiritual relationships we do not grow step by step, we are either there or we are not. God does not cleanse us more and more from sin, but when we are in the light, walking in the light, we are cleansed from all sin. It is a question of obedience, and instantly the relationship is perfected. Turn away for one second out of obedience, and darkness and death are at work at once.
All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God’s truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. We read tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. ‘I suppose I shall understand these things some day!’ You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming “wise and prudent.” My utmost for his highest
I was surprised when I read this. Not because it's not true, but because it is true and is something I learned through experience with the Lord. So to see it in writing from a man we know to be a good, godly teacher was great confirmation for me.
Sometimes the person who hasn't obeyed what they've already been shown in His Word, is one who thinks the Bible is hard to understand. The problem isn't that it's hard to understand though. The difficulty is their refusal to submit to it. Of course many problems can come about through lack of obedience, but one that most don't seem to realize is that if you don't obey what you've already been shown, then He's not going to show you anymore. Once you begin to obey that though, He will continue to teach you. This is because the Lord doesn't want us to just know His Word, He wants us to live it. And of course He will enable us to do that as well, but we must take the first step ourselves.
God tells us in His Word that the Holy Spirit, who dwells in each of us from the moment we are saved, will teach us and guide us to understand His Word. The problem is that we tend to not believe Him. Instead we think we need pastors or teachers or just about anyone except God to teach us. It can be down right scary at first, to realize that the God who created the whole universe is the very one teaching you the meaning of His Word! (not to mention feeling a little "weird" too!) Generally, we prefer not to think about it, and or, just like little children, we want to "do it ourselves". But this is something we can't do for ourselves, we have to have the Lord teaching us or we won't understand what it's really saying. Assuming the person begins to study the Bible right after they're saved, it's really our first lesson in relying on the Lord and trusting Him. During those first lessons, (I don't mean during the first days, but rather one of the first general lessons learned over a long period of time) the Lord often also begins to teach us to recognize His Voice, and to see His Hand in everything throughout our day to day lives. Sadly though, people often reject the Lord as their teacher and try to do it without Him; or else they figure they don't need to ask Him to teach them and don't need to talk to Him about what they're reading because His teaching will just come "automatically" without any effort on their part. In fact, I've known some who think that they don't even need to read their Bible because He will just automatically tell them anything they need to know! I certainly hope I don't have to tell you that those things are wrong and are the very opposite of what His Word says! We do need to ask Him and we do need to talk to Him about what we're reading. The more we do, the more He will share with us.
Having said that however, I'm not saying that we should not listen to pastors or human teachers. God has given us the privilege of having His Word, and He has also given us pastors and teachers to help us. What we need to remember though is that God is our main teacher and His Word is our text book. Pastors and teachers are "extra" tools to aid us and should not be used as the sole means of knowing or understanding His Word. One good reason for this is because they are human and subject to error, whereas the Lord is not. So it's always best to get our teaching straight from Him. It's like a human relationship. If you want to know something about me, the best way to find out is to ask me. You can ask my husband or children and they may know, but then again, they could be wrong.... so even if my husband tells you something about me, you should check with me before accepting it as 100% true if you want to be sure about it. And when it comes to God's Word, as important as it is, we should always want to be sure about it!
There simply is no better teacher then the Lord Himself!
In spiritual relationships we do not grow step by step, we are either there or we are not. God does not cleanse us more and more from sin, but when we are in the light, walking in the light, we are cleansed from all sin. It is a question of obedience, and instantly the relationship is perfected. Turn away for one second out of obedience, and darkness and death are at work at once.
All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God’s truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. We read tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. ‘I suppose I shall understand these things some day!’ You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming “wise and prudent.” My utmost for his highest
I was surprised when I read this. Not because it's not true, but because it is true and is something I learned through experience with the Lord. So to see it in writing from a man we know to be a good, godly teacher was great confirmation for me.
Sometimes the person who hasn't obeyed what they've already been shown in His Word, is one who thinks the Bible is hard to understand. The problem isn't that it's hard to understand though. The difficulty is their refusal to submit to it. Of course many problems can come about through lack of obedience, but one that most don't seem to realize is that if you don't obey what you've already been shown, then He's not going to show you anymore. Once you begin to obey that though, He will continue to teach you. This is because the Lord doesn't want us to just know His Word, He wants us to live it. And of course He will enable us to do that as well, but we must take the first step ourselves.
God tells us in His Word that the Holy Spirit, who dwells in each of us from the moment we are saved, will teach us and guide us to understand His Word. The problem is that we tend to not believe Him. Instead we think we need pastors or teachers or just about anyone except God to teach us. It can be down right scary at first, to realize that the God who created the whole universe is the very one teaching you the meaning of His Word! (not to mention feeling a little "weird" too!) Generally, we prefer not to think about it, and or, just like little children, we want to "do it ourselves". But this is something we can't do for ourselves, we have to have the Lord teaching us or we won't understand what it's really saying. Assuming the person begins to study the Bible right after they're saved, it's really our first lesson in relying on the Lord and trusting Him. During those first lessons, (I don't mean during the first days, but rather one of the first general lessons learned over a long period of time) the Lord often also begins to teach us to recognize His Voice, and to see His Hand in everything throughout our day to day lives. Sadly though, people often reject the Lord as their teacher and try to do it without Him; or else they figure they don't need to ask Him to teach them and don't need to talk to Him about what they're reading because His teaching will just come "automatically" without any effort on their part. In fact, I've known some who think that they don't even need to read their Bible because He will just automatically tell them anything they need to know! I certainly hope I don't have to tell you that those things are wrong and are the very opposite of what His Word says! We do need to ask Him and we do need to talk to Him about what we're reading. The more we do, the more He will share with us.
Having said that however, I'm not saying that we should not listen to pastors or human teachers. God has given us the privilege of having His Word, and He has also given us pastors and teachers to help us. What we need to remember though is that God is our main teacher and His Word is our text book. Pastors and teachers are "extra" tools to aid us and should not be used as the sole means of knowing or understanding His Word. One good reason for this is because they are human and subject to error, whereas the Lord is not. So it's always best to get our teaching straight from Him. It's like a human relationship. If you want to know something about me, the best way to find out is to ask me. You can ask my husband or children and they may know, but then again, they could be wrong.... so even if my husband tells you something about me, you should check with me before accepting it as 100% true if you want to be sure about it. And when it comes to God's Word, as important as it is, we should always want to be sure about it!
There simply is no better teacher then the Lord Himself!
!!
