Jeremiah 1:5
God knows all and sees all. I’m not so sure that we understand the depth of such a simple statement. Before He formed that zygote, He set you apart. Was that before or after we became sinners? Was that before or after we made the choice to walk after the flesh? Was that before or after we stiffened our necks and focused on self?
John 17:17
We understand what predestinated means according to Romans 8:29, 30 and Psalms 45:7 and Act 2:23 yet we believe that we can fall in love and out of love with Jesus. God sees us for what we are in totality, when judgement ends, or when we rest until His return.
Ezekiel 18:21, 22, 24
When He said that He sanctified us, He did so knowing who we are. Need we be reminded that we see today as today and yesterday as what it was...?
Our minds can’t fathom seeing yesterday, today, and eternity – now. That is Christ. We don’t yet have the mind of Christ, but our desire should be nothing less than having such; Philippians 2:5, and if we have the mind of Christ, we would understand how He sees us for who we ARE, whether that be sinners unto death or righteous unto life, sanctified and a part from this world or servants of the prince of this world.
John 17:17-19
I John 3:2, 8
From the beginning the devil sinned...Somebody please tell us when the beginning was, who was present in the beginning, and when the devil sinned...
Have you ever walked in on a conversation between two people speaking a language foreign to you? Have you ever traveled abroad to a land with a people speaking in their native tongue in which you are not familiar with? Did you hear all that they said? Did their words have meaning to you, or did it sound like clutter, maybe even like thunder? Would it have had more meaning if those individuals screamed the words to you? How do two individuals of separate languages find a way of communicating without an earnest effort to do so? Have you ever witnessed a father look at his son and utter not a word, but all that is intended to be communicated is understood, received, and accepted because of their relationship one with another? How strong is our relationship with Christ?
Walking after the Spirit and not after the flesh, having the mind of Christ, we must dig deeper and reject evil’s attempt to deprive us of eternal life.
Hearing the Lord is not simply having the sound fall on your fleshly ear, it is having the understanding and willingness to be fully convicted by the words that have been spoken. When we falter in our speech, with our actions, in our witness for Christ or lack thereof, we have not had that willingness to hear the words of the Lord which are profitable for the salvation of all men.
The Lord is plain when He defines what it is to hearken unto His voice – it is to observe and to do ALL that He has commanded us to do and His promises to us will be kept. Is that not faith? Deuteronomy 28:1, 2 H8085 shama (shaw-mah) – hearken, hear, and understand
Deuteronomy 30:10 (H8085 – shama (shaw-mah)) Hearken unto the voice of the Lord – to hear intelligently (often with implication and attention, obedience, etc), obey, to understand, give heed. Genesis 3:8 – Adam and Eve heard (H8085) the voice of the Lord and they hid because they knew it was the voice of the Lord. It is not difficult to identify that which you are familiar with. Genesis 11:7 – to understand (H8085) - when God said shama He did not intend for it to mean sounds falling on one’s ear.
Hearing meaning to hearken, to have an action Genesis 16:2, 3 Genesis 21:17-19 (God heard the voice of the Ishmael and spared his life) Revelation 18:1, 4 1 – The earth was imbued with great knowledge. 4 – Another voice is heard by those that reject iniquity and choose life.
When Jesus taps you on the shoulder and says, “It is time to go”, do you question it? Perhaps we would if it were an unfamiliar voice, or if were not used to hearkening to it, or if we did not even recognize the source.
Walking after the Spirit and not after the flesh, having the mind of Christ, we must dig deeper still and reject evil’s attempt to deprive us of eternal life.
Heareth (akouo ak-oo-o) – G191
John 9:31 – God heareth not sinners (to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf, to attend to, consider what is or has been said, to understand, perceive the sense of what is said)
Matthew 5:17-19, 21, 27 – if they heard and understood it, they would have walked in it. This is not the time to play with what is being spoken to this treacherous world. Matthew 7:24 – Is it possible to act on a command if the command is not received? Exodus 5:2
SOP - “The great city” in whose streets the witnesses are slain, and where their dead bodies lie, is “spiritually” Egypt. Of all nations presented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured upon more open and highhanded rebellion against the authority of Heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses, in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered: “Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go.” Exodus 5:2, A.R.V. This is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance. “The great city” is also compared, “spiritually,” to Sodom. The corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was especially manifested in licentiousness. And this sin was also to be a pre-eminent characteristic of the nation that should fulfill the specifications of this scripture. {GC 269.2}
Ezekiel 3:5-7, 2:5-7
SOP- Anciently the Lord declared to one who spoke in His name: “The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto Me.” Nevertheless He said: “Thou shalt speak My words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.” Ezekiel 3:7; 2:7. To the servant of God at this time is the command addressed: “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” {GC 459.2}
When we choose to not hear His words, we as a people cease to be and thus, we come to an end. Forebear – H2308 (Kha-dal, chadal) Proverbs 19:27 – Cease (H2308)
Romans 10:17 I Thessalonians 4:16 – When God shouts, who cannot hear?
John 5:25 – The righteous or the sinners?
There is such a thing as being spiritually deaf and even those individuals entrenched in sin can reject the label of being such. We have all sinned and fallen short of His glory and yet we were all given the opportunity to hearken unto His voice. Matthew 13:13-19
Acts 28:28 Isaiah 6:10
Jeremiah 6:10
留言