Then Samuel said: "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king." 1 Samuel 15:22-23
The only real thing that matters in life is to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in clarity speaking to each person. Failure to hear and heed is voice brings all kinds of troubles. For God’s word is unchanging:
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.' " Hebrews 3:7-11
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. Revelations 3:20
The music God provides to His people is different from the music the earth knows. It is sweet and full of His presence in their very souls. He wants them to cry out to God in their very souls and learn where they have gone wrong. The hardest thing it seems is for God’s people to face is their wrong doings. They can’t face them and would rather go on assured of their position without having His assurance and blessings upon them.
They have set in motion the thing that supports them in the form of a church and congregation members and go on without the Lord. They have ignored the words of God’s true prophets I have sent to them. They have ignored the Lord and refuse to speak the truth in love. They refuse to hear His Voice within them. There is hope for some of them but very few actually want change their ways and serve the Lord and obey His voice only. Just like the children of Israel they prefer to take orders from a pastor rather than the Holy Spirit.
As a result the waywardness of man places him in very precarious positions that leaves him far from the purposes God has called him to. He is destroyed by his own ways. He has forgotten to listen to God’s voice and heed His words and then cries when he receives no answer to his prayers.
His ways lead to death and destruction. He harbors only fair opinions of himself and God yet he does not do what takes courage to do. The Lord has told him in His Word to be of good courage and do His judgments and follow His statutes. But no, he has to ignore the truth and follow after the vain philosophies of men. Rather doing what men think best than what God thinks is best.
It seems that few Christians understand, that it is only by listening to God’s still small voice, daily and hourly, that real spiritual success and victories come. They must consult the Lord on everything, no matter how minute or small and He will guide them down the right path to true life and true success
The natural outpouring of their love and relationship with God should be that in all they have to do in life. It should be done in agreement with God and what He has taught them. His leading is available to them just as their very breath is for breathing life each day. The Lord is like their breath. He is life to them and they cannot breath without Him. They cannot live without Him. They have no peace and profit without Him. For He is their success and exceeding great reward.
If God’s people would recognize this, they would see the value in their fellow men more. They would not allow pride to enter into their relationship with God or man and hold them on a level of understanding that keeps them from advancing in the spiritual realm. For God has much He wants to teach His true Children, yet often He can’t even get through to them because they are so busy with their agendas, programs and lifestyle. Then they will complain in Heaven of their lack of rewards and possible expulsion. But He could have told them they failed to listen to Him and His Voice and put aside their pride and plans.
If their ‘works’ are more important to them than a relationship with the Lord they have failed to ‘see’ the truth. He does not desire sacrifice. He desires their attention. He desires their affection and dedication to God’s Voice and His Words.
All of the floral arrangements and beautiful homes or long business hours or hours spent in sports or teaching sports will not benefit them in Heaven if God has called them to His side and they did not come.
The Lord is he only thing in life more important than anything else. If only people would recognize that they would stop all their good works and beautification programs, they would love each other purely and simply. They would walk by God’s Spirit and not by their worldly opinions. What they think is valuable is usually not of any worth to Him if He was not the originator of it.
As physical exercise profits little in the spiritual realm so do many other activities people find to accomplish in life. Only service done in obedience to God’s Voice will be of any value in the Kingdom of God. How can man be so foolish? How can he be so callused to what God’s is really saying to him? How can they ignore the only One who matters more than life to them? Yet, over and over they seem to do just that.
All they do may be good. It may be pure. It may be profitable. But, if the Lord has not called them to do it, it is useless stubble and hay. The Lord has told them not to forget the assembling themselves together.’ Yet, they make it such a ritual and burden that it is of no more value to God or to them.
He told them to rest on Sunday and find one day of rest and yet they pack in all kinds of programs and activities and find no time to rest and be quiet before God. But He has ordained rest so that they can spend time with Him not all their plans and projects. For He is more important than anyone or anything else in their life yet they can’t even see the significance of this truth. Without God’s approval their efforts are all null and void.
Let all men be liars and God be true. What I have ordained in human lives will last forever. Those who hear God’s Voice and Do what He commands them are His greatest servants. It is not the singer or the preacher or the pastor or the teacher. It is those who do the difficult, the undesirable, the hard, the cold thankless jobs of life that are going to receive the greater part in Heaven.
God brought John the Baptist from his mother’s womb full of the Holy Ghost and fire and set him among men in rough cloths and eating locusts and honey. He did not provide him with the best mansion or the best delicacies for this table. And when it came to die John died in a dungeon and suffered the indignity of having his head cut off.
Yet, you would never have heard John complain. He knew in his heart what God had called him to and he loved it the bitter end. He knew who He was in Lord. He was a great prophet and servant of the living God and what he did, he did gracefully.
But for the so called Christians of today their teachings are half-baked. Their sacrifice non-existent. Their joy artificial. Their desires self-centered. Their giving meager. Their demands are many. Many have become greedy wolves full of themselves and their own projects and plans having little if anything to do with God’s or what He desires. They have closed their ears to God and He has done likewise. They ignored His voice speaking to them telling them:
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Matthew 7:2
http://billyburke.org/PrayerMinistryRoom/JourneyofYourPrayerRequest/tabid/142/Default.aspx
EXTRACT FROM By My Spirit
http://walthope.tripod.com/spirit.htm
http://walthope.wordpress.com
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100302133262254344211/posts
https://www.scribd.com/doc/122879429/
https://books.google.com/books/about/THE_BEST_OF_THE_KAMBULOW.html?id=YS3cAgAAQBAJ
https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_All_Sufficient_Christ.html?id=IzHZ0LtVaDsC
No comments:
Post a Comment