God has truely been speakme to me recently. Yes, without a doubt. Amazing because it sounds for a man who has been a Christian for 31 years, I am just now learning that God nevertheless speaks to us, if we will simplest concentrate. For years, I don’t assume I absolutely believed this…..That we should surely hear the Lord’s voice. I just thought that God handiest spoke thru the scripture….An mind-set that effects from being raised in “the age of motive” wherein something of the heart is portrayed as naive at excellent and, at worst, a trick of the devil. It by no means dawned on me, till these days, that this mind-set does no longer in shape the God portrayed in the ones very scriptures. A God that clearly states, when selecting David as king, that He appears MOST to the coronary heart, at the same time as guy seems on the externals. A God who endured to talk to and via the disciples even after Christ ascended to His throne.
The query I never requested myself is, “why would He prevent now”? Well, I’m not sure why it took me see you later (I bet I’m a bit sluggish on the uptake) but I’m delighted that God is showing me that He does preserve to talk to us, if we will discover ways to concentrate. I thank God for the writings of men who simply knew Him and walked with Him. Men like Tozer, Lewis, Thomas a Kempis, and others. It is so refreshing to start Come out from among them to simply recognize God….No longer just know approximately God. I can see why God instructed Moses that nobody ought to appearance completely at Him or they could die due to the fact simply going right into a deeper walk with Him and listening to His voice has been nearly overwhelming to me at instances. How exquisite that He is to be had to us!
One of the areas that He has simply been operating with me on is what it certainly method to be free in Christ. As a therapist, I see Christian men and women each day that truly are nonetheless slaves to their anger, their conduct, their vices……To their sins. I have a look at the church in fashionable and I still see such a lot of those who look as though their yokes are in reality heavy, not light as Jesus promised His yoke become. I even examine my personal existence and history and marvel why even my lifestyles has felt like this type of heavy burden over the last few years. If Jesus’ yoke is mild, if we’re to simply revel in freedom in Him, why is it that many Christians seem to lack that freedom?
Well, God is still running on me in information all of this extra absolutely however I’ll inform you what He has shown me up to now…
It is genuinely approximately where our cognizance is. I actually have written previously about my opinion that a whole lot of the church’s teaching specializes in conduct manage, or of how we are able to triumph over sure sins we battle with. I can’t tell you how many messages I actually have heard through the years on “three steps to overcome sexual temptation” or “4 ways to tame the tongue” or “the five practices that enable us to be greater obedient servants to God” or such things as that.
We absolutely point out that Christ wishes a personal relationship with us but even that teaching is intertwined with ensuring we’ve devotions every morning (and all of us understand that God is more gift early in the morning J ) and that we examine a positive amount of scripture each 12 months and other “conduct-orientated” teachings. But what I’m listening to from God is this preoccupation with behavior is why we’re final slaves to sin. It’s the point of interest. The tunnel-vision. I genuinely cannot think of a higher word than, yet again, PREOCCUPATION. When we attention our hearts and our eyes on our behavior, on how we mess up, or maybe on attempting NOT to mess up, this allows Satan to keep us shackled to sin. Even that specialize in NOT sinning keeps us in slavery to it.
Can we deny this, truely? On one hand, if we are focused on our sin due to the fact we’re indulging in it, then we recognize that we’re permitting ourselves to be chained to that conduct. Few might argue with me on that point, I’m positive. We see this in individuals who are caught within the addictive cycle, whether it is to alcohol, capsules, pornography, or sexual affairs. Much of their lives revolve around in which they will get their next “restoration”. It is blatant slavery to that sin. But, my friends, listen to me. When maximum of our attention is on how we will NOT sin, it nonetheless enslaves us. The reality is that we will only forestall sinning via sheer strength of will for goodbye. No count how difficult we strive, we can eventually reduce to rubble. This is why the world wanted Christ, because we have been hopeless in ever seeking to live as much as the standards of the Law.
Yet, what God is showing me is that, just like the Galatian church, we’re nonetheless seeking to do our first-rate to live as much as the “standards” of each the Old Testament Law (the Ten Commandments) and a brand new law we have set up, primarily based on New Testament standards of conduct. So plenty of our awareness, both in and out of the church, is on how we are able to obey the ones commands. Even the sector places this strain on us. For instance, if a high-profile minister is stuck in sin, the sector jumps on his lack of ability to live as much as the very requirements he teaches approximately. But that is the factor!