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 

Joy in the Hill Country in Judah



Artist's depiction of the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth

 Now at  this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! "And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? "For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord." (Luke 1:39-45 NKJV)

    For the period of time just prior to these verses, the lives of Elizabeth and Zacharias had been pretty amazing. Zacharias had a conversation with the angel Gabriel. Because he had failed to believe Gabriel, Zacharias spent five months unable to speak. His wife who was had thought to be barren was now pregnant. Her unborn child had an amazing assignment from God, and she had been filled with the Holy Spirit. That's a pretty good run! Most of us might feel very blessed by events like these. Just as Elizabeth and Mary are cousins, often so are blessed and prideful. Its a small step from being humbled by God's blessing to feeling superior by being called by God.



    Elizabeth (Elisheva in Hebrew) displayed no envy at Mary' arrival. Informed by the Holy Spirit Elisheva said in humility, And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? Elizabeth received her secondary role in God's redemptive plan with grace as would her son, John, years later at the Jordan. Could I have done that? I'm not certain it would have been any easy thing.

    I suppose its coincidental that the words ministry and vanity rhyme. The bible says - For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (1 Cor 4:7 KNJV) Pride is a sledgehammer that demolishes ministry (both corporate ministry and personal ministry). Paul has taught us in 1 Corinthians 12 that the distributed gifts in the church are distinct but of equal value. The same is not necessarily true with ministry. Some ministry is huge and immediately fruitful for the Lord's Kingdom while others struggle to blossom, leaving us to wonder why. Elizabeth didn't waste time wondering. Instead she gave herself over to God's plan. Much time can be wasted struggling to accomplish under the power of self what God would have done effortlessly in the wake of a submitted heart. Pride focuses on human evaluation and recognition while submission focuses only on the Lord's leading and direction.

   Do you walk in an Elisheva Spirit of submission to God's plan for your life? Do you begin each day recognizing in prayer your need for God to accomplish His call on your life, or do you wave Him off each morning with an "I've got this one covered" attitude? In your heart do you believe..... that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her (you) by the Lord." Elizabeth received God’s will for her life as a blessing and His calling on her life as a privilege without comparison to Mary…and more….she rejoiced for her cousin Mary’s superior role as mother of God Incarnate, Jesus.

Today let’s thank God for His call on our lives and recommit to resubmit without regard for what the world (even the Christian world) thinks about it.