"Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. 'The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 'and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.'
"Yet, for all that, you did not believe the LORD your God, "who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.
"And the LORD heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying, 'Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, 'except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the LORD.' Deuteronomy 1:29-36
The promises of God are true for those who believe God and obey His voice and not for unbelievers, even if they are God’s people. Out of all those who were miraculously delivered from Egypt over the age of twenty only Joshua and Caleb, who wholly followed the LORD, saw the good land that the LORD had promised to give to the children of Israel. The rest, including Moses, did not go into the Promised Land but wandered in the wilderness until they died.
Men can say and believe whatever they want but God is not fooled by them. He knows those who truly believe Him and those who do not. As a result He rewards each man accordingly and many will find themselves in places they never expected to be. Just as Jesus promised some servants will be cut in two and their portion appointed with the unbelievers. For God’s word is unchanging:
"Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. "And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
"But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
Then Peter said to Him, "Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?"
And the Lord said, "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? "Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. "Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has.
"But if that servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, "the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
"And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. "But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. Luke 12:37-48
Where is man going that he can do it himself. He walks ever so proudly in his great accomplishments and understanding. He is certain he is doing the Lord's perfect will for his life but his life is based on his own bias and inhibitions. This is the dilemma. Can man truly please God? Can he surrender so totally that he can be perfect before him? Was Joseph perfect? It says he was tested and then placed in Pharaoh's employ above everyone else in the land because he was faithful to the Lord and did what was right. It does not say he ever murmured or complained. He walked faithfully until the Lord promoted him.
We walk in the light we are given. If our teachers taught us many half-truths we walk in those half-truths and they have become apart of our life. We believe they are totally true and praise our teachers for a job well done. Yet,if we look at the facts. Our teachers have really failed us because the fruit of what they have taught us speaks louder than the words we have heard.
Teaching is something that must bring us to the real person of Jesus. We must be lead and released into the Power of the Lord in our lives through the Presence of the Holy Spirit. We must ultimately end up being independent Christians able to hear the Voice of our God and be individually directed by Him in our lives. Our relationship with Jesus must be fluid and based on the truths in the Bible. We must have our integrity and common sense in tack plus our spiritual radar fully functional. Then we may actually become useful to the Master, but this only happens as we are properly taught, adequately feed and remain open to the instructions of the Holy Spirit within us. We must learn both our collective responsibly to the entire body of Christ and our responsibility to ourselves to mature and grow that we may be useful to our Lord and the community at large. We must not give up our intelligence to our leaders or teachers. If they are allowed to control us they have become our master and not the Lord. We must be wise in recognizing when we are being manipulated and held captive by those who are our mentors. They may lead us to the Lord but they may not live our lives for us. Only we can do that before Him. Anything else leads to worship of the wrong source.
The primary Source of our lives, goes without saying, is the Lord Himself and His Holy Spirit within us. He gave us the Comforter when He was resurrected by the Heavenly Father. He left apart of Himself on the earth in the Holy Spirit. With this new spiritual development, had come our responsibility to walk faithfully before the Lord, informed of the real truth, and full of His Power through the indwelling Presence of Himself in us.
The short of it is, we are responsible for what we learn and the direction our lives takes because we have the Holy Spirit of promise living in us. His powerful presence in our lives means we don't have to be deceived by what the world is teaching, by what our Christians leaders and evangelists are teaching or by what our minds are saying. We have a source of truth within us. We have direct contact with the Lord of Heaven in us. It is up to us to establish communication with the Holy Spirit on a regular basis in daily living in order to maintain our spiritual integrity and walk with the Lord of Hosts. If we allow our minds to stray too far or our bodies to do things outside of Biblical truths we have no one to blame but ourselves. If we cover our sin or do it in secret and think God won't expose us we are much mistaken.
God is the inventor of integrity and He exposes every secret evil. Everything will be exposed and judged. It may be surprising to note that the consequences may very well happen on earth during our lifetime. God is not blind and He loves justice and integrity. He will not stand for evil having the upper hand. There is a day of reckoning.
One of the false teachings is that God will judge only in the hereafter. This is not true. God also judges in the current time of life. He will expose evil. He will expose false teachings. He will do justice right now. He hates certain evil people. This is another false teaching that is floating around. That God loves evil people. God created and loves His creation but if they do evil continually He does not necessarily continue to love them. The Bible says Jacob He loved and Esau He hated. Does that sound He is always loving? I don't think so.
Therefore, we must be discerning. We must be wise. We must be full of Heavenly understanding. We must be discreet. We must be full of the Holy Spirit to discern where God really stands on an issue or a circumstance. We must not assume anything about God. He is very fluid in all of His judgment calls and decisions. He cannot be held to any hard fast rules of judgment. We are not in the position to say when He will judge, or how severely He will judge it and so on.
This is strictly His decision but it is based on the person's reaction when they are exposed. If they react that they have done nothing wrong and refuse to change, then they are probably headed for severe exposure and judgment. If they are pliable and teachable when rebuked they will probably receive the degree of judgment or mercy based on the degree of their repentance. If they totally turn from their evil, make restitution, and return to their God then they will probably be forgiven.
As you can imagine, men's lives are very complicated and God's decisions towards men are equally complicated. Therefore, no hard fast rule of judgment or decision making on God's part can be applied to every circumstance of man. He judges us as individuals and based on the condition of our heart before Him. If we are truly evil He will treat us as such. If we are His but have fallen into sin He will treat us based on our repentance and behavior after we have repented. He is not fooled even though we may choose to deceive ourselves.
King Saul, was chosen by God to serve as leader for the Israelites at that time. Yet, when God relied on Him to follow His orders concerning other nations or division of labor, Saul fell down miserable. So much so, that God repented of making Him king and appointed someone else, namely David. How is it that God could not forgive Saul of his sin? Saul thought sure he was pleasing God. So first, he was self-deceived into believing he was doing God's will but he did not do it totally and he felt this was still acceptable to God. But, God did not think so. He wanted total obedience from Saul because God does nothing without a purpose behind it and He knew the importance of Saul's total obedience to Him. So God gave Saul a chance to be king but Saul fell down miserably and peppered God's commands to him with his own logic. This simply doesn't work with God.
God doesn't want our logic mixed up in His commands to us. If He has commanded it, it is because there is a real danger awaiting us on the other side if we don't obey. So, He knows what awaits us if we disobey Him. Yet, somehow, in our logic, we think we can out think God. We know better than He does. This is self-deceivment. We deceive ourselves that our logic can produce good. It cannot. Only our utter obedience to God's voice and commandments will bring about good in our lives and in those around us.
Can we learn from Saul? Can we walk in the wisdom of the Lord and the direction of the Holy Spirit? If it were not possible than why does God expect it of us? It is because it is very possible that we are called into His service in obedience and love. We fall short because of our disobedience. But God is faithful, He provide a means to get up and go on. He wants us to repent of our sin and return to Him confident of His forgiveness and mercy. He is willing to overlook our sin if we return to doing exactly what He says and not what we think He is saying. Not everyone who calls Jesus Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom, but they who do the Father's will! Let the Lord be your guide into all truth and submit every thought and every teaching to His scrutiny. He will expose all the impurities in your life and make you one with Him.
http://billyburke.org/PrayerMinistryRoom/JourneyofYourPrayerRequest/tabid/142/Default.aspx
EXTRACT FROM Be Filled
http://walthope.tripod.com/befilled.htm
http://walthope.wordpress.com
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100302133262254344211/posts
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