Hearing the Voice of God....

 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever— the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you. (John 14:16-17 Amp) 

   

    I know many people who have for various reasons decided to seek professional counseling to help them work through life difficulties they have experienced. Some were restored by counseling but for others it seemed to have little effect. I've noticed that those who readily accepted the credentials and abilities of their counselors fared far better than those who questioned or in some cases openly mocked the individual who was trained to and trying to help them. 

     It is similar for those of us who have invited Christ into our hearts. 

  Jesus asked our heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit to indwell the hearts of all Christians. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby)... He did not come because He needed anything from us, but rather to be a companion Witness in our lives. He does not live in everyone ...the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive..., but instead indwells the hearts of born again Christians. Those outside of Christ, the world, cannot receive Him ..because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him... He exists in their presence and is very active in their world, but their lack of acknowledgement of Christ shields Him from their view. It is as if they were standing in a hospital Emergency Room bleeding to death, unable to see the help that surrounds them. 

 Through Christ, the eyes of our Christian hearts have been opened and we  ...know and recognize Him. He is ever and forever present and active in our lives ...for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you. When He arrives, He comes as an X-factor, subtle and unknown. We don't yet know His voice or leading. We may fear His power and are reluctant to cede control to Him. But over time a relationship is birthed and we come to know, trust and love Him. 

    And yet, repeatedly, I close my heart to His goading and guidance and spend frustrated hours wrestling with life's difficulties by myself. What must Holy Spirit be thinking as He watches me ignore His input? He never shouts louder, but the problem isn't the volume of His voice. The problem is that I am listening less, or worse, I turn my back on Him. 

    C. W. Studd put it like this long ago -- How little chance the Holy Ghost has nowadays. The churches and missionary societies have so bound Him in red tape that they practically ask Him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves.

   Paul said it like this -- For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8 5-8)

   My prayer this morning is simple. Lord, let the Spirit dominate and my flesh submit. 

   Have you listened to your Counselor (Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby)  lately? The power, wisdom and counsel of our loving Father has been placed within us. All we have to do to receive it is ask and listen. 

    Copyright 2014 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be reproduced in whole or in part if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com 

     

   

   If the world hates you, you know it hated Me before it hated you.  (John 15:18 NKJV)

   Everybody wants to be loved. Nobody wants to be hated. Fear of ridicule has a name, catagelophobia. While this word describes the most severe form or phobia of fear and ridicule, most of us have experienced and reacted to ordinary uncomfortable and unwarranted criticism. In the verse above, the Lord of the universe, Jesus, promises us hatred by the elements of the world which have rejected Him, or have not heard of Him, and He reassures us that the world hates Him too. 

    In my life, this Christian focused ridicule has usually been subtle. As I began to grow in Christ years ago, many non Christian friends just quietly withdrew their contact. This often happened with good reason, I was no loner interested in the things or behaviors that they preferred. The Apostle Paul said it best- The new has come, the old is gone.  

   I did have a few very vocal critics of my new life in Christ. I was confronted by some with being "too religious". Others seemed to think that constant reminder of past sins would draw me back to them. And a few goaded me me with the most vile expressions and condemnations of the Lord they could utter. 

    I in no way enjoyed these criticisms, and in a way, they had the opposite of the intended

effect -- they encouraged me. I remember thinking a few years after the Lord saved me, Have I really changed enough to irritate them? 

   Some of the most difficult criticism for me to sort out came from people in the church. One mean spirited church lady I knew justified it, calling it holy gossip. It took a while for me to realize that many of them attended church with religious fervor, sought to hold positions of authority, but did it all without spiritual rebirth. They had staked out positions, powers, and principalities, and found it abundantly annoying if the Lord promoted anyone past them. My testimony made them very uncomfortable, and when I actually read and loved the Word and was transformed by it, it was more than they could bear. Jesus said -- But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,[h] 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; (Matthew 5:44 NKJV)

   But while their voices were loud and harsh (and rarely constructive), over the years there have been many more who noticed the changes that the Lord brought in me and approached with open hearts, curious and willing to listen. The Lord has taken a harvest from among them and brought a harvest from their testimonies too. 

   So, take heart hated Christians, dreaded followers of Jesus. What the world hates, the Lord loves. Find joy in snide remarks and always be quick to share humbly the Gospel that snatched you from the fire. Don't fall in to deep catagelophobia. Instead, simply shake off the criticism they lob at you and remain of Jesus' narrow path. 

    Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 




Copyright 2014 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. may be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com  

Erasing Error Instead of Correcting It.....

And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away. (Mark 12:12) 

    What do you do when you find the Word of God pressing against you?  This is an important question, because as the Holy Spirit leads us through the ongoing process of sanctification, many times the Word will instruct us and the Holy Spirit convict us. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness... (1 Tim 3:16) If humility and submission to the authority of the Word reign in your heart, you'll submit, repent, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide a course correction in your life. But humility's nemesis, pride, often has a different plan, suggesting that we simply ignore or erase our error instead of correcting it.

   When Jesus walked the earth in flesh, the rulers of God's Temple in Jerusalem had allowed spiritual elitism to infect their minds. They liked being the ones who had all the answers, and when Jesus arrived with better answers, and the Word (in the flesh) pressed against them, they let pride driven envy infect their thoughts and block a corrective teaching about their leadership. Members of the Sanhedrin felt they had paid their dues through service to attain the positions they held in the Temple hierarchy. Still others, the priests of God, had inherited their jobs by right of birth as descendants of Aaron, and they felt prideful entitlement. Both groups had enjoyed a long season where their authority was never questioned, so instead of looking to the final Arbiter for answers, they had become their own arbiters. They had barked human inspired orders and the multitudes had obeyed them. Now, a Servant Lord had arrived with Truth on His tongue and it infuriated them. The Psalmist wrote --  When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely every man is vapor.... John Wesley expressed their situation like this -- How wonderful is the providence of God, using all things for the good of His children! Generally the multitude is restrained from tearing them in pieces only by the fear of their rulers. And here the rulers themselves are restrained, through fear of the multitude! 

    What do you do when you find the Word of God leaned against you? What do you do when you realize you are wrong, sideways with the Lord, caught in sin? We've all had the experience of abrupt conviction by the simple hearing of God's word. Those moments test our claims of submission. I'd be less than truthful if I didn't admit to you that I have myself applied the Pharisaic solution, and plotted against the word. I've experienced conviction and instead of submitting to it's instruction, searched the scriptures for a loophole that would excuse me.  I've even resorted to reconsidering contradictory doctrinal positions that I thought might excuse me where God had accused me. I've worn a scriptural hearing aid that would allow some thoughts in but protect me from the menacing truth of my sin. I've wasted a lot of time and effort and taken many winding paths only to find myself standing back at the foot of the Word, with my heart fully convicted. Prideful resistance of God was a forty seven year habit for me before He, by Grace through faith, saved me. That's when I first experienced the blessing of Divine correction. Still, well rooted old habits and favored sins like to try to push up new shoots every now and then. 

   The writer of Hebrews reminds us -- Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)  If we I want to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness, we have to yield to the Vine-dresser's pruning Spirit.

   Where in your life is the word of God leaned against you? Where are you pushing back instead of submitting? Where are you listening to everything or anything on your spiritual iPod except what Holy Spirit and the Word of God are instructing?

    For whom the LORD loves He chastens...

Copyright 2014 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com