God Speaks To Us Through Scripture
God speaks to us through scripture, through dreams, through thoughts brought directly to our minds by the Holy Spirit, through words of God carried by other people, through angels.
We have many examples in the Bible of the word of God being sent by God to us through these sources.
Jesus said: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Mt. 4:4
We must learn to be sensitive to “every Word” from God regardless of how that Word comes to us. The Word of God is the Word of God. It doesn’t matter what the delivery vehicle is.
If we are to build our house on the Word of God, we must hear that Word from God no matter which source God chooses to use to deliver that word to us.
Scripture:
Jesus said … Mt. 7… 24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of MINE, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of MINE, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Let’s start with the following instruction of Jesus and see if we are really doing this … or do we need to learn to do this instruction, starting immediately.
Mt. 6 … Jesus says …
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow:
for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Jesus says we cannot serve both God and riches. We cannot seek worldly possessions and God. We will love the one and hate the other.
When we are born again, we die to the old sins, to the old flesh, and are resurrected a new creature, made in the image of Christ. We grow into that image day by day as we read the Bible and chose the way of God over the former way of our flesh.
This is the first “death” … The “old man” we once were is now dead. Though we have to enter in to the life as the new creation which no longer has the goals of the old man who has died with Christ.
Romans 6 … How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with HIM by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of HIS death, we shall be also in the likeness of HIS resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with HIM, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with HIM:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over HIM. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
When we are born again, given the Spirit of God to dwell in us, we no longer find ourselves bound to our own flesh. We now have power through God to live another way.
Romans 8 … 11 But if the Spirit of HIM that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, HE that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (make alive) your mortal bodies by HIS Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Jesus said:
Take no thought for the morrow … Mt. 6:34
This will sound like foolishness to the world. And even some who are the church will fail to enter into this “way of life.” We “labor” to enter into HIS rest. And this is a great rest. How do we do this?
The first thing is to believe … to believe what is written in the Bible … to really believe Jesus is speaking this to us …
We need to keep this scripture before us day and night, thinking on it day and night until we can actually believe this scripture and do it.
If we believe, we will do what HE says …
How can I not think of tomorrow?
Each time thoughts of something of “tomorrow” comes to me I need to STOP and pray, taking that subject to God in prayer in an appropriate way.
We need to learn to live in today. Taking care of everything we see to do at the present moment.
You will be surprised at how much “rest” you enter into when you learn to take care of tomorrow with prayer and to deal with today by action, but also with prayer before the action, for there are many things we think we need to do that are unimportant and can even be harmful to us.
Prayer is the key … before action.
Almost each morning, before I get out of bed, I find I am asking God to show me what I need to do this day.
Proverbs 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge HIM,
and HE shall direct thy paths.
To build our life on the Word of God, we are going to start daily seeking the will of God for us today.
We are going to refuse to think about tomorrow other than to pray about concerns over tomorrow … We must learn to pray over tomorrow each time something of tomorrow comes to mind. When we do this a very heavy burden will lift from our shoulders.
We begin today by seeking that which is right in the sight of God … We take every plan for today to God in prayer, seeking what is right in the sight of God. We learn to live that way daily, praying, seeking what is right in the sight of God.
We see the following come to pass in our lives when we do this:
Mt. 6:33 … Jesus says … But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and HIS righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
It is amazing. I look about me and “things” are everywhere around me. How did all these things get here? I don’t recall seeking things. But I do know I tried to think on the Word of God and find out what God wanted me to do concerning the various problems that arose. And I tried to beware of that which God spoke to me and when I heard something I tried to stop and consider that Word and do it in an appropriate way, thinking of what God was saying to me, doing things HIS way rather than by my plans. Neither was I considering what other humans thought but rather I tried to keep my focus on what God wanted, what God said either by scripture or by the Holy Spirit or by dreams or by words carried by the Holy Spirit or by angels.
This is a lifetime work …
And it certainly works for us when we actually do this.
Another critical scripture:
James 1:5 … 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
When being tempted, James said it is especially important to ask God for HIS wisdom in the midst of the temptation.
James says “and it shall be given him” … God will show you how to escape the temptation.
You might try of your own thinking to escape and your own ideas might fail.
God’s idea will not fail.
When you pray for wisdom, God will give you HIS wisdom on the issue and God’s idea will not fail if you do that in faith.
Also there can be so much pride when we do something. But if we ask God for HIS wisdom before we do that thing, and we hear from God, how can we have pride in ourselves when it was God who told us what to do? It is a great way to fight pride of our flesh.
And each of us should know by now that some ideas that seem good to us and even seem “wise” to us end up being the wrong way for us to go.
Proverbs 16:25 … There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Certainly there are many more scriptures we could discuss here. I certainly believe all scripture is inspired by God and we who handle that scripture in a correct way by making appropriate adjustment to our life by faith and by the instruction of the Holy Spirit are greatly blessed in this life and in the next life.
Isaiah 54:17 … A promise from God to HIS people …
17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of ME, saith the Lord.
As a new Christian, in 1975, I saw Isaiah 54:17 and I believed it and it caused me to make a very strategic decision.
At that time, I owned a small business in Dallas. God has shown me to get out of debt and to stay out of debt. I had gotten out of debt. Then a man filed a law suit against me. I hired an attorney to represent me. The legal fees were taking most of my profit from the business and I knew at the rate I was going I would end up back in debt.
In Isaiah 54:17 it says “no weapon that is formed against me will prosper.” I am now born again, a servant of the Lord. So the promise from God in the Bible is this lawsuit against me (a weapon) will not prosper.
Based on that, I decided to dismiss my lawyer and to go to court without any human legal counsel.
I told my lawyer.
Gordon was shocked and surprised and replied: “Joan … you can’t do this. You don’t realize how evil these courts are … We’re (the law firm) willing to work with you. It will only cost about $10,000 more to try this case.”
Now I am shocked!
“$10,000 more … Gordon STOP … don’t do another thing …
I dismissed the attorney …
A week later, Gordon came back into my shop. He said, “We have decided to try your case without any further charge to you …”
What is going on here? One week it is going to cost me $10,000 more and now the legal service is going to be free?
So I asked God what HE wanted me to do.
I was reminded by the Holy Spirit of the following scripture to show me what to do …
Genesis 14 … And the king of Sodom went out to meet him (Abram) after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine:and he was the priest of the most high God.
19 And he blessed him (Abram), and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he (Abram) gave him tithes of all.
21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, 23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:
I knew God was telling me: Don’t take that free legal service.
And also at that time, and now too, I want all my blessings to come from God and not from anyone else nor from anywhere else.
This was a very big decision in my life.
But I was really terrified as I went forward. God gave me several other scriptures at that time. I recorded all scripture on both sides of a cassette tape. When I went to bed I started the tape. I would fall asleep hearing those scriptures I had recorded. Each time I awoke in the night, I would turn the tape over and fall asleep again hearing those recorded scriptures.
Several weeks past. The trial date approached. Six days before we were to go to trial, the man dropped all charges. I was free. And just as it says in Isaiah, No weapon that was formed against me would prosper.
A few days later, my former lawyer came into my shop. He said they had discussed my case for several days after those charges were dropped by the man suing me. Gordon said, “We believe that what you said would happen, happened.”
I wasn’t trying to be a witness to Gordon nor to anyone else. I was just trying to do things God’s way. But when you do things God’s way you end up as a witness to God even when you aren’t trying to be a witness to God … you are a witness.
II Timothy 3 … All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
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