The other morning I didn’t get my newspaper, so I went on-line to the
circulation department and I received back an email auto response telling me
the individual I contacted was out of the office for a week. When I finally
located the redelivery link, it asked for my name, address, phone number, email
address, account number, and password. You would think that just my name and
address would have been enough to identify me as a subscriber, but no, they wanted
more. Spiritually speaking, many of us do the same thing to the Spirit. Like
Gideon, we may hear the Lord talking to us, but we are still uncertain and rather
than immediately responding we ask for verification, take time to prepare an
offering, and then we build an altar. We too can be heard telling the Lord, “If now I have found favor in your eyes,
give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.” (Judges 6:17 NIV)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Jesus said a wicked generation seeks signs. This confused me for years. I thought God would be very interested in verifying all His ideas and concepts. I thought signs ought to be good. After all, did not Jesus perform many signs and wonders? Nor do I doubt the signs and wonders we hear from the mission fields as being given by God. So, why are signs for an evil generation, but God gives signs to those He’s calling?
-----Maybe Jesus gave us a clue when He said that the healthy man is in no need of a doctor. Rather, the sick man is. What’s the doctor going to do? Maintain his patient's state of sickness? No. The doctor comes to heal. The signs Jesus performed were not the healing. They were for recognizing who is the doctor. Then the doctor heals, not the signs. Certainly signs are given to an evil generation, because it is the evil generation which needs to know the doctor. But once the doctor is recognized, His medicine must be taken.
-----The doctor metaphor is good hereon only if we consider what might metaphorically be the doctor’s medicine. Yes, Jesus came to die for our sins and be raised again for our new lives. I’ve met many Christians whose new lives seem to be stuck there. They’ve never attempted to step further into Him than His death and resurrection. But the fact that Jesus came to make His Father known to us is enormous, because His Father is enormous. By understanding and wisdom He stretched out the heavens and made the earth (Prov 3:19) Then He fed His Word into the earth for shedding light and imparting understanding. (Ps 119:130) So He then expects us to live by signs? No. “Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not keep with you.” (Ps 32:9) He tells us to give our attention to His wisdom and incline ourselves towards His understanding in order to use discretion. (Prov 5:1-2)
For it is by understanding that we know His testimonies (Ps 119:125), find the knowledge of God (Prov 2:5), seek knowledge in general (Prov 14:6;15:4), and even for prospering and loving ourselves (Prov 19:8). Those who are wise by fearing the Lord practice understanding (Ps 111:10) and seek it with all their effort (Prov 2:1-5). For it is by understanding that they keep the law with their whole hearts (Ps 119:34), walk right (Prov 15:21), and find pleasure in wise conduct (Prov 10:23). Understanding sets one’s face towards wisdom (Prov 14:33; 17:24) and values rebuke (Prov 17:10), heeding admonition (Prov 15:32), for understanding draws out even the deep purposes of one’s own mind (Prov 20:5).
-----No wonder a fool takes no pleasure in understanding. His own opinions satisfy him (Prov 18:2). It becomes apparent why a man who wanders from understanding will rest with the dead (Prov 21:16). Understanding according to God’s Word (Ps 119:169) is the very fabric of the new life (my conclusion), so the shepherds after God’s own heart whom He promised to give were to feed us with knowledge and understanding (Jer 3:15), not more signs. Signs only reveal, but understanding knows.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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