Why A Simple Response Will Change Everything

 

Is God moving you to go somewhere or do something? It’s best to obey it. Even if it makes no sense.

A couple came to a wise man. “How do we find the kingdom of God?” they asked. 

“Look under that rock,” the wise man said, pointing ahead of him.

They laughed and didn’t move. It had to be some kind of joke, right? The kingdom of God, under a rock? That’s ridiculous.

“You missed it,” the wise man said.

“Being able to respond immediately is how you find the kingdom of God.”

I was needing fresh inspiration to write the other day. For a fresh anointing. I kept praying about it.

“God, what do I need here? How do I find you in the busy-ness of the day? I want a fresh testimony of You.”

I even stayed up almost all night, seeking for Him. Yet it wasn’t coming right away. Then God moved me to fast the other day. I obeyed. That day, God kept speaking: “Be quiet and wait on Me. Just draw close to Me.”

I prayed, read the Bible and other books that spoke to my heart. But at the end of the day, I just felt worn out.

I’m not proud of it, but I looked at it with my natural eyes. “I’m not sure this whole fasting thing works as advertised,” I told someone. “How is this helping me?”

Yet the Bible says the things of the spirit are “spiritually discerned”.

Looking at it with the natural eyes is an easy to completely miss God.

Naaman, the Syrian general, had leprosy when he consulted the prophet in Israel on how to get healed. Naaman was expecting a grand reception. Instead, the prophet gave his instructions to his servant.

“Go dip in the river Jordan seven times,” the servant instructed the general.

“The muddy Jordan?” the general scoffed. “I have better rivers back home!”

But Naaman’s servant spoke up.

“Naaman? Sir?” He asked. “Look, I know I’m not some big general like you, but…”

“But what?” the general asked. “Spit it out, man!”

“Well, bathing in the Jordan River is actually not that complicated. It’s right over there. Why not give it a shot?”

“Why don’t I give you a shot?” the general growled.

But he responded. 

And in his response, God responded. The Syrian was completely healed!

God isn’t looking for anything big or fancy from us. No theology degree required. He’s looking for a heart that responds.

In that same way, God was moving in my life last week. I didn’t see it with my natural human eyes. Obviously, I was thinking it was all for nothing, but it absolutely wasn’t. I should have known better. 

The next day, I could tell something had changed in my heart. A fresh anointing existed where it hadn’t a few days ago.

I thought: “Well, this is new! This is what I was asking for!”

It fired me up so much. God was speaking to me:

“Don’t go by feelings. Go by faith.”

Acting on what God said, even if you have evidence to the contrary, is how you experience God.

When I was younger, I had a very demonic notion that no matter what I did, it wouldn’t matter. God would show up in His timing. I just had to live my life–nothing I could do about it.

This is a prevalent idea in today’s world! “Live your own truth”, people say. “Make your own kind of music”.

But there is a way the world works. What a man sows, the same shall he reap. And the Bible says, “those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled”.

And righteousness is kind of a funny word.

Someone asked once: “What’s righteousness?”

Growing up, I thought being righteous was refraining from drinking and partying and wearing my baseball cap backwards. (True story!)

Nope, those aren’t it.

Arguing with a coworker over something petty, I got so frustrated, I turned away to take a breather.

I knew I was right. I knew it.

Why couldn’t she hear me?! I thought. She never listens. Never!

In the middle of this inner storm, I heard a familiar still, small Voice.

“John, doesn’t the Bible say, ‘You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make free’? Are you free?”

I felt like there was a knot right around my rib cages.

“No, I’m not,” I realized.

“Then it must not be the Truth,” the still, small Voice replied.

Then I saw it super clearly.

As right as I felt I was, if I didn’t have the right spirit, I was dead wrong.

If I wasn’t hearing the Spirit of the Lord in the situation, which was the Spirit of Truth–-THE Truth–-then everything was wrong.

I was right in myself, sure. I was self-right. “Self-righteous.” But not righteous in the Lord.

There was a difference.

I saw that that afternoon, in the heat of the moment. God set me free! I didn’t have to defend myself any longer

I didn’t have to prove my point. I could just shut up and walk away. I could simply hear what God wanted to say in the situation.

That truly was all that mattered!

So: righteousness is simply drawing close to the Lord and operating on what He says. Having the Spirit of the Lord. That’s true righteousness.

“...it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8

But, as I was saying, if there is a way the world works.

If we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we shall be filled.

God is truly moved by our response to His word.

“We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses….” Hebrews 4:15

There’s a lot of hope in that promise!

Make Ready the Day of the Lord

Everyone’s getting ready for something. Some people are getting ready for college. Others are getting ready to get married. Still others are just getting ready to get out of bed.

What are you getting ready for?

God desires we ready our hearts for Him. No matter how glorious His plans are, no matter how powerful God is, He always makes things ready.

If you planted a garden this spring, you’ll know how important it was to ready the soil. I was roto-tilling a greenhouse earlier, chewing up the fecal matter on top and breaking up the dirt to make it easier to receive new life. If I hadn’t have done that, the seeds wouldn’t have had the chance to take off. They would’ve just died.

Even Jesus, before He came to earth, had to make the earth ready for Him. He sent John the Baptist, who went and told everyone:

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.”

If you aren’t getting ready for the Lord, you’ll miss it when His Spirit comes.

He comes like a thief in the night. Most people think that’s on some Judgement Day in a million years. No, it’s right now.

We get so limited in our thinking, that we forget how big God is. We forget: this is a NOW God. A NOW kingdom of Heaven.

God has had this day a million years in the making.

This, today, is the day of the Lord. This is the day to receive Him. In this moment, reading these words, God is wanting to change your life.

But are you ready for Him?

It doesn’t matter how glorious His gifts are. It doesn’t matter how glorious His plans are. If you aren’t ready for it, it won’t matter a bit.

God’s Spirit is constantly moving. He’s working to get our hearts ready to receive Him. This is why you have trials and rebuke in your life.

If you want to find more of God in your life, run to the fire.

Most people think that’s crazy. More torment? More abuse? No thanks!

But it’s not torment. You have to realize the Man behind the curtain. He’s already set things in motion to deal with those thistles and weeds in our lives. To break up the rocky soil to receive Him.

Do you feel God’s chastening?

I did something really stupid. I was planning a bachelor party. We were going to go camping and grill steaks and… guy stuff. You know. 

Well, I was helping plan it. I got into a bit of a tiff. I got uptight with one of the guys, and I embarrassed myself. Others heard about it. Pretty soon I was hearing about what a jerk I was from others.

Thing was, they were right. I was being a jerk. I wanted to stick my head in the sand for awhile. I had already acknowledged my fault. “God, what else do I do here?” I asked.

“Praise Me,” God said.

I immediately knew why.

I was being chastened. No, it did not feel good. At all. But it wasn’t just people dealing with me–God was. God wanted to use the situation to keep me from going back there again.

Hebrews 12:6 says: “...For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”

I latched onto that when I was a teenager. I felt God’s rebuke and correction in my life, and I felt almost in awe. “God loves me,” I realized. I didn’t think: “Oh man, this sucks.”

I mean, it didn’t feel good. (I was kind of a crazy kid.)

But all I could think was:

“God loves me. What an honor. God considers me a son! Whoa!”

God has to keep correcting us. That’s because His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways His ways.

So what’s God to do?

He corrects so we can get in line with His thoughts and His ways.

That’s why God told me to thank Him when I felt like running and hiding.

God was making me ready. God is making you ready.

Thank God!!!!

If you do not get ready, you will not be ready to go with Him. That is a terrible day, if you aren’t ready.

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!” (Jeremiah 8:20)

Jesus told a story about ten virgins who were getting ready for a glorious wedding.

In Jewish weddings around that time, the groom would typically lead a torch-lit procession to a big wedding feast. The procession always took place after dark, so the bridesmaids were always required to carry torches or oil lamps. If you didn’t have a lit lamp, you could be mistaken for a wedding crasher or outsiders.

In this story about ten virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them had extra oil for a long night, but five didn’t.

The groom took way longer than usual. When he finally showed up, the five virgins who had come prepared were ready for him. The other five weren’t.

“Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out,” the five virgins begged.

“No way. We won’t have enough for ours,” the other five replied.

The groom came through and proceeded to the wedding feast.

But the five virgins with the extinguished lamps chased after them, telling them, “hey, let us in!”

“I’m sure I don’t know you,” the groom said. “Go crash some other wedding.”

They weren’t ready.

I’ve heard about people who WERE ready. Catastrophe came. Their child was lying on the brink of death in a hospital bed.

But they were ready. They spoke the truth, and life stole the child from the jaws of death.

Keep your hearts and mind stayed on the Truth.

Keep your spirit charged with God’s word.

Keep your oil full. When personal tragedy strikes, when oppression comes knocking, when the unexpected comes calling, you won’t be moved then.

You’ll know the day of the Lord and the glory of His coming.

And that day, the day of the Lord, is now.