Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Ps 46:10 KJV
The overarching desire of all men is to be accepted, to belong, to be immersed as a crucial part of something greater than themselves. This heartfelt need beats in the soul of every man. This is why men freely associate themselves, why they sacrifice themselves to a part of something that is worthy of their sacrifice. Jesus came to meet that great need. He calls men to the greatest acceptance possible – His righteousness, to the greatest association imaginable – His family, and the greatest cause worthy of their sacrifice of life and even of death – the salvation of the souls of men. Jesus was rejected so that we could belong, was abandoned alone so that we could be a family, and died and rose so that possibly all men could rise to eternal life, to accept His invitation to a life with no end!
My old bible teacher said that the greatest cargoes of life come in over quiet seas. In the old days, before high tech sonar mapped the underwater harbors, and scientific analysis patterned the currents and eddys of the tides, the great ships would wait until a pilot, someone who intimately knew the harbor, was brought to them from the harbormaster to guide their ship into its appointed place. The harbormaster wouldn’t send the pilot out in a storm because it would be too dangerous for the incoming ship to enter. So, they would wait until the storm passed. When it was still and safe, the ships with their great cargoes led by the pilot would enter the harbor. So it is with the revelations of God…
What keeps people from receiving revelation consistently and clearly? Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice. If He is truly our Lord, then in a sense He becomes our boss, the one we answer to daily, because we in a very real sense work for Him. How could a boss run his company if he didn’t daily communicate with his workers? How could his workers receive their benefits, their pay and privileges if they could not communicate with the boss, and he with them? This is a simple analogy, but it fits very well with our walk in Him. We must learn to hear from the Boss!
You have three voices that are speaking to you consistently: the Spirit of God, the enemy and your spirit. Let’s talk about your spirit for a second. When you ask the Lord about something, and you hear inside “Trust Me!” that is NOT the spirit of God. That is the voice of your soul, the spirit of man. You don’t see one revelation in the Word where the Lord says ‘trust Me’ in response to a direct question to the Lord. What is happening? Because we haven’t learned to discern the different voices inside us, the spirit of man can sound like the spirit of the Lord. The spirit of man has been taught that it is right to trust the Lord, so immediately it pops up the answer to your question, which is really a non-answer. Consider, for example, how the Lord responded to Ananias.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
Ananias is saying, in effect, “Lord, are You crazy? You should be striking this guy down with the fire of God like Elijah did!” Good friends can get away with calling each other CRAZY at least in American culture. The Lord doesn’t get offended. He answers the question, with a response that releases faith, not some religious non-answer like ‘trust Me.’
15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake. And Ananias went his way…Acts 9: 13-17KJV
Ananias got his answer which filled him with faith, and he went to minister to Paul. The spirit of man is a good thing. It is the voice of your conscience. Many times, if you follow the true precepts of the Word that you have read and are in your spirit you will do the right thing, and the Lord will be blessed. You see the voice of the spirit of man in a lot of religious services. The leader asks the Lord how to run the meeting, and the spirit of man immediately pops up and says, ‘do it the same way you’ve done it forever, because that is what the people expect.’ So, thinking that you’ve heard from God, you please men but miss God. The spirit of man has a place and a purpose but it is NOT the spirit of the Lord that releases faith. You must prevail in His presence until you hear the spirit of the Lord. You must reject the easy, trite answer and wait until you have a real answer. Do you understand?
Now, what about the voice of the enemy?
Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.James 3:13-16 KJV
If the devil sounded like the devil you would reject him every time. What the enemy seeks to do is to degrade the standards of what we accept, knowing that we live, not at the level we desire, but at the level we accept. He seeks to degrade us in our personal standards and degrade our perception of God’s Word, so that five minutes of prayer a day replaces ‘pray without ceasing’ and John 14:12 and Noah and the flood become the realm of fools and hypocrites. “Did God REALLY say that you should not eat of the fruit of the garden? Did He REALLY say that? John 14:12 – YOU? Just like Jesus, REALLY!?!” So, there is a voice that says to you in the first person, “Yes, I must be transgender!” or “I am scared of this sickness and I will die of this disease!” You think that you are saying that because the thought is in the first person, but it is the voice of the enemy planting thoughts in you, through many different means. Insidious, devious, clever and cold to the wicked heart of coldness, implacable, merciless toward all – that’s the voice of the enemy.
Finally, what about the voice of the Lord?
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. James 3:17-18 KJV
What does the Lord seek? In eastern culture, the master was known by the quality with which his bondslaves lived. Their quality of life reflected the master’s concern, prestige and wealth.
And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built, And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her. 1 Kings 10:4-5 KJV
This is true also today of the servants of the Lord. But there is a reality that we are more than servants, we are sons and daughters of the King of the universe. As such we have privileges and promises that Holy Spirit seeks to help us access. He is always present, perfectly intimately knowledgeable of everything that concerns us, and willing and able to speak into everything in our lives. So, the voice of the Lord comes as a Father and a Friend. Recently He showed me how to fix a door. I thought, surely the door must be replaced! But here came HS who said, ‘Do this’…and He described for me exactly what to do, and by golly, the door was fixed.
But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it. 2 Kings 6:5-7 KJV
Condemnation, rejection and our cultural perception of worship keeps us from intimate communion with Him. Our cultural perception of worship is such that the ‘star’ on the stage is set apart from us, the masses, and becomes the object of our veneration. The images of our stars on TV, on social media, in magazines and advertisements are so perfect that they say ‘worship me.’ And so we do, with our attention and our shekels and our time. Social media icons are the gods of our time, and are the objects of our worship, our attention and our jealousy. They are apart from us, they have no communion with us, and their love for us only extends to a profit and loss statement. In our hearts we perceive that reality, and then we project that coldness to Him in our worship of Him, when the truth is just the opposite. So how does true worship lead to intimate communion, warm fellowship and consistent, precise revelation?
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. John 1:18 KJV
Jesus is not on stage, performing for us and receiving our veneration. The tabernacle of God dwells in us. By the spirit we worship in His presence all day long. Don’t you just want to speak in tongues right now? True worship leads us into the bosom of the Father where we find rest and comfort, wisdom and inspiration, courage and confidence. In the bosom of the Father we shed rejection and find something far beyond mere acceptance; we find true completeness. In the bosom of the Father we find the peace that passes understanding, and we experience the command to be still and know that I am God. Why not go there right now, and let Him show you how to fix your doors, and make your iron swim? Amen? Love you!
Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…