People, especially men, feel that they must always have an answer, and if they can’t figure it out, they’ll often make up an answer or say no one really knows. There would be far less false teachings in the world if people would just admit they do not know. Instead, they speak from presumption and conjecture offering the sacrifice of fools.
“1Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil. 2Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 NKJV)
Sometimes it can be a little disheartening to hear Christians explain away the promises of GOD with conjecture and carnal reasoning to cover their lack of faith and love of pleasure. Rather than admit the reason they are lacking the fruit of the spirit in their life is due to them not giving GOD their all, they instead claim it is simply not possible for any of us. The scripture is very clear on the harvest we receive from sowing spiritual seed however instead of questioning how they are living, the seeds they are sowing, they attempt to redefine the entire process which GOD has instituted.
“The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.” (Proverbs 26:16 NKJV)
Rather than doing the work and enduring the hardship that is required in sowing spiritual seed, people find justifications for their poor harvest. I have listened to people twist and distort scriptures so far beyond the original context, in an effort to justify a position they hold, until I wondered if they actually believed what they were saying themselves. For instance, I had a misogynist (in denial) trying to explain to me the inherent evil and deceptive nature of women using the bible. He went on to tell me that Adam’s wife Eve was so called because she was EVIL, and her daughters have populated the earth with the same conniving ways. This was his justification for marginalizing women and treating them in a way less than how he himself would want to be treated. That belief served a purpose for him, so he wasn’t interested in embracing the fact that the name Eve is from a Hebrew word which transliterates to “Chavvah” which means life giver.
Many Christians today, like the Israelites of Moses’s day, look at the path to the promise land with contempt. For the Israelites, the contention was with GOD for deciding on such a harsh pathway to the promise land. Christians today don’t contend with GOD, instead they have just replaced Him with a golden calf which doesn’t require actual suffering in the flesh or battling with defiant enemies. Their golden calf just does everything for them and then whisk them away to the promise land where they are labeled good children though they have never learned obedience. They have ascribed to an accommodating fiction written by the father of lies.
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44 NKJV)
We must trust in the Good Shepherd and follow Him on whatever path He leads. Along the way Christ has promised to fill every hunger and thirst abundantly, even unto running over.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6 KJV)
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14 NKJV)
“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35 KJV)
So, we have Christ proclaiming this abundant provision available in Him and it is impossible for Him to lie, yet I still hear people who say they believe the gospel of Christ professing so much unfulfillment and lack in their lives. I hear men saying they have been walking with GOD for decades however they still don’t really know Him or His ways. I have heard men say they love Christ, but they still struggle to follow Him and abide in Him. What is the source of this disconnect between what GOD has said and what men end up believing and living? Self-reliance.
Walking with GOD requires that you abandon self-reliance. Think about it, to be born again means being born of the will of GOD.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13 NKJV)
When you understand born again in the correct biblical sense, then you understand why the cross is the pivotal point in the Christian’s life. This is when you turn from self-reliance to looking to GOD for the answers and the means to sustain you. You must have the spiritual vision which is powered by faith to be still and to patiently wait on GOD’s solution. This is when you enter the blessed rest of salvation and cease from your own works. I have found that many people mentally ascend to the notion of being born again without really understanding the true meaning which requires faith. You have to believe you can become something you have never seen before or even thought possible. You must believe you can achieve things you don’t have the strength to accomplish. You must believe that all the things you painfully put to death and bury will come back in a glorified and divine form. You must believe you can become like GOD. Preposterous right? The very idea and nerve. However, that is the exact proposition being made through the cross of Christ. That is parsecs from just being a sinner saved by grace, which is where most confessing Christians have set up camp. That means you will be in the company of just a chosen few, so you can’t look for security or acceptance in the majority. To become the sanctified of GOD you must be willing to become the outcast of the world.
29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.( Mark 10:29-30 NKJV)
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