Who are You, Lord? —Acts
26:15
{CHAMBERS} ““The Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand…” (Isaiah
8:11). There is no escape when our Lord speaks. He always comes using His
authority and taking hold of our understanding. Has the voice of God come to
you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which
it has spoken to you. God speaks in the language you know best— not through
your ears, but through your circumstances. God has to destroy our determined
confidence in our own convictions. We say, “I know that this is what I should
do” — and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by
revealing the depths of our ignorance. […] My way will not be to foster a meek
and quiet spirit, only the spirit of self-satisfaction. We presume that
whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our
Lord— “I delight to do Your will, O my God…” (Psalm 40:8).”
{ELGIN} Knowing what the
right thing … the God-thing … to do is and doing it are two entirely different
things. Knowing you should not cross the
tracks when a train is coming and deciding to wait for the train to pass are
two different things. When you approach
the tracks a thought comes to mind … “I think I can beat the train to the crossing.” Sometimes you are right and other times ..
you are dead-wrong. That is the way it
is with believing and obeying God. God
offers His best, and even if you beat the train to the crossing, you have
settled for less than God’s best for you.
It may bring satisfaction for a moment, but God deals in the eternal ..
not the temporal. The heavenly not the
earthly. I have shared this before, Dr.
Henry Blackaby, in Experiencing God, said that God speaks to us in four ways –
by His Spirit (the still small voice saying “This is the way”) – through prayer – by His Word (the
sword of Truth, a light and lamp for us to see the way) – through other Believers
– and, as Chambers suggest – through circumstances. Dr. Blackaby went on to say that our problem
is not in knowing what God said to us – the problem is obeying what God
said. The Scripture is replete with
examples of disobedience. Hearing God
and doing something else because they thought they knew better.
Hearing God requires two
things to be true. First, our heart must
be right … unconfessed sin will hinder your hearing. Second is the practice of spiritual
discipline in our lives .. if you don’t pray .. if you don’t read the Word … if
you don’t associate with other Christians who are doing those things … if your
focus is on yourself and not God as you live life, then don’t expect anything
more than the conviction of the Spirit.
All too often we want to be our own god and decide what is best for
us. We won’t accept any advice that is
not consistent with what we have decided is the best for us. “I am going to beat that train and you are
bad if you don’t agree with me!” We ignore our sins .. having decided they are
really not that bad, they are acceptable as far as we are concerned. We pray asking only for things that support
our plan for peace and fulfillment. We
avoid other Christians who will not agree with us. The fact is that we are practicing vain
religion. We have a form of godliness
but deny the power of God in favor of our own devices. In short we are carnal but are convinced we
are spiritual. My best and only advice
to a Christian who is living like this is repent – you need more Jesus and less
you. You have accepted a life that falls
short of God’s plan for you .. and one
day … you won’t beat the train.
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