The Call
Everything on The Consider Podcast and website has to do with the call for all men and women to repent. Such is an offer of mercy for those willing to follow Jesus by hating their life and picking up their cross. After all, even the demons believe in God, but they are terrified. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder. James 2:19
God’s Paths, Commands, Precepts, Ways and Laws
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Text God’s Paths, Commands, Precepts, Ways and Laws
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Romans 11:33)
If God’s paths are unsearchable, why do we foolishly think we can understand and apply the Bible? The ways of God are just not simple. One time, the Spirit of the Lord may have you offend someone, then the next time commend the same person. He may have you hide, then go out in the open, rebuke, or be gentle.1 Simply put, we cannot predict the mind of the Lord. A Spirit-Filled Christian is called to follow the wind—an impossible thing to do. Indeed, those that are led of the Spirit, born of the Spirit, are like the wind, Jesus said.
Only a fool thinks he can hear the voice of the Lord after reading the Bible or simply asking Jesus into their heart. Only a fool thinks He can understand the voice of the Lord after graduating from Bible college. The ways of God are unsearchable and we must learn to listen for God’s voice before we take each new step. In Proverbs 6:9 it declares, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Walking with God means we plan a course of righteousness, but we listen for His voice to direct our steps. Those who do not listen for God’s voice, allowing the cross to direct their steps, become classic Pharisees. Religious zealots, but having no relationship with God. They are dead in their sins.
We must allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and purify our motives. We must allow the cross to crucify and deny self with great fear and trembling if we want to leave our simple ways behind and truly hear the voice of the Lord. Many rejoice in mocking the Word of God, but few actually hear the voice of the living God. Most are happy to mock the voice of God and go about their merry little Christian life.
“How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? (Proverbs 1:22)
Someone entering first grade is not prepared to go to work the next day. Anyone seeking to become a doctor cannot, after a week of medical school, open an office to heal the sick. In fact, it takes years before a medical student ever seeks real patients. In the same way, if we want to have ears to hear, we must first enter the school of the Lord and be taught by God.
It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. (John 6:45)
Sadly, churches and ministries seldom teach new believers that they must enter the school of the Lord. Oh, we cart them off to Bible college and put them through a Bible study program. But the way of the cross, where God teaches each man or woman, is seldom understood and even less lived. School is not for action but for learning. It is a time of quietness, tests, and listening to the teacher. The noisier the classroom, the less the class can hear the teacher and learn the material presented. Few people like school because it’s a laborious process where slowly, but surely one gains knowledge. Often, a student will ask, “How will this fact help me? How does this apply to the real world?” Later, if the students learn the lessons well, they come to understand the importance of studying facts that don’t seem to apply to daily life. So it is with us who want to hear God’s voice. We must store the Word in our hearts. We must store things about God’s Word we do not understand at the time, but will greatly matter to our salvation later down the road. We hid and God teaches us from what we have hidden in our hearts.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees. (Psalms 119:11–12)
We have much to learn. There is not just the law of God but also the ways, paths, truths, and wisdom of God. All with distinct characteristics and power of their own. We must hide in our hearts His word in all of its varied forms. A young Christian should sit alone, quietly putting the Word in his heart like seeds planted in the soil. Not reading and storing the Word with commentary, opinion, and ideas, but letting the seed fall into soft soil. Being content to let God be God. Let God provide the definitions and applications to His Word. The Word will produce the plant it desires and there is no need for you to apply your thoughts and efforts to try and make it grow. Not only will it damage the plant, but there is the very real danger you will kill the plant. God will send the rain and the snow upon the seed of His Word. He will ensure that it accomplishes what He wills and wants if the soil of our heart is soft.5
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10–11)
In short, let God teach you what His Word, truths, paths, and commands mean for you personally. Let God apply the Word in your life and let Him crucify your church’s doctrine and way of doing things so that you can gain ears that hear.
The first place to start learning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit is through the Bible. I do not mean that you read the Bible and listen to your own voice, but that as you read the Scripture, you let the Holy Spirit teach you what the Word says and means. Let me remind the reader that this can only be done in truth if the offensive and painful cross of Christ is alive and working its death to self.
As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. (1 John 2:27)
Let the anointing of God teach you what the Bible means and how it should be applied in your life. And when God does not give illumination on a Scripture, remain content and wait for the Lord to reveal the truth to you at the proper time.6 There are many Scriptures I do not understand even after over twenty years of being a disciple of Jesus. There are certain things that the Holy Spirit will not let me explore. So I rest, like a weaned child at a mother’s breast, unconcerned about feeding my flesh or having to understand everything.7 I store them in my heart so that at the proper time God may teach me what it means and show me how His Word should be lived. This is worshipping in spirit and truth.8 The difference between a Pharisee and a true child of God is that the child of God has been taught directly by the voice of the Lord.
I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. Psalms (119:102)
The Psalmist did not disobey the Bible because he was willing to be taught directly and personally by God. Until a man can say that the Lord Himself has taught him, he cannot say he is a disciple of Jesus. But to be taught by God means that a man is often rebuked and corrected by God Himself. While that correction may come through a man, the true disciple will sense the voice of the Lord in it. The Word of God made alive by the Holy Spirit becomes a lamp that shines on our faults, sins, and failures. And when we hear that voice we have a choice to either ignore those sins or to heed the correction that leads to life. How sad, but most people love the whitewash that churches offer and few allow the cross to expose and crucify their sins.
For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life (Proverbs 6:23)
If you desire ears that can hear, then you must let God show you His paths, His truth, His laws, and His commands by way of the cross and His Holy Spirit. You must let God personally teach you, and as a result, God will be your Savior and your hope “all day long.” Without this, you will never gain ears that can hear.
Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalms 25:4–5)
God must guide us in unsearchable ways so we only have need to, as Peter writes, “pre- pare your minds for action.”10 Set our minds on things above11 and ears to hear will be given us.
Chapter 9: God’s paths, commands, precepts, ways and laws
- Why is it foolish to think we understand God’s ways by simply reading the Bible?
- What keeps a man from departing from the Scriptures?
- Why is it important to hear from the Holy Spirit when interpreting Scripture?
- What Scriptures would you like to understand more fully?
- Take some time to examine your heart to see what keeps you from enlightenment. Ask the Holy Spirit to crucify your own opinions in these areas.
Ears to Hear: Chapter 10 | [Continue to Next Chapter →]
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