Proverbs 3:5-6 ... Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not
unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He
shall direct thy paths.
Exhortation: Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
In times when our faith is weak, it can help a lot to keep Prov. 3:5-6 before us day and night to build faith in God... and then when your faith is strong, pray.
Prov. 3:5-6 is instruction and it is also a promise of God ... When we pray, "HE shall direct" our paths.
When we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, as we will all do (II Cor. 5:10), how will we plead our case for ourselves?
The only thing I feel secure in is that which God has done in my life, not what I have done.
It would be a terrible thing to see the bad things vs. the good things and see the justice scale, one side loaded with the bad and the other with the good.
Recently a woman told me she didn't remarry (considering this to be to her credit). She also told me she had an abortion.
If the scale had not remarrying on one end and having abortion on the other end, which would weigh heaviest in judgment.
None of us want to be judged this way. We would end up losing.
But to focus on examples of the Holy Spirit in our lives would win out for us. For only God can give the Holy Spirit.
At the judgment seat of Christ, if I am to speak on behalf of myself I would want to say, "God chose me and gave me HIS Spirit ...and I simply followed that which God showed me."
I would want to focus on God and not on my works.
If I said, "I wrote more than 1000 exhortations for the church on our blog," I feel I would fail at the judgment seat of Christ.
But if I said, "God gave me a dream showing me to start a blog on Internet for purpose of exhorting the church with the gift of exhortation given me by God," I would feel secure for everything was authored by God and not by my thinking. I was just following instructions from God. Thereby in doing such I would be exalting God and not exalting myself. We exalt God each time we hear from HIM and do according to the instruction given us by God.
Jesus said many will come telling of all their works and be turned away at the judgment seat of Christ ...
Mt. 7 ... Jesus said ... Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
What will work is to exalt what God has done in our lives ... God gave me HIS Spirit ... God sealed me with HIS Spirit ... By God's Spirit I am shown what to do ... God chose me and set me into the body of Christ and gave me gifts of the Holy Spirit to use in the church.
Therefore we must be sure that we are trusting in God rather than trusting in what we have done. We must be sure we are trusting in God rather than trusting in what others have done. (can't trust in a preacher or parent or religious relative) Your faith must be in God and your relationship must be with God. In everything we set about to please God and to do things HIS way. It all begins with: Do we have the Spirit of God in us. For without the Spirit of God we cannot know the will of God and we cannot please God.
Romans 8 ... Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.