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111Ki013.mp3
Commentary
1 Kings 13
Who's Report Will You Believe?
When God instructs us to His will, to go in a specific direction, it is often the purpose of the enemy to distort that instruction. Do we know the voice of the Lord? Will we listen to the counsel of the ungodly? Do we know who are of God and who are not? How will we know? God said that we will know them by the fruit they bear. He said that we should test the spirit, to know if it be of good or evil. How do we put this into practical application?
We have determined in our hearts to serve the Lord and to follow His will for us. We are young. We don't have a lot of experience in the way of the Lord. Perhaps we are a "new-born" in spirit, and don't know yet the way, the truth and the life... the voice of God. This is one thing that we all experience when we accept Jesus into our lives. We are tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Some of us know this personally, to be tossed about. Others of us experience this and don't even know it is happening. We have hope.
Remember when you fell in love for the very first time? Maybe you talked on the phone for hours at a time. Maybe you went to great lengths to communicate with your new found love, to share every moment possible with him or her. The first time he or she called you on the phone, you may not have recognized the voice. Maybe you had to ask, "who is this?" Some, but not many, had anticipated the call, and knew, or thought you knew who was calling. Maybe you answered the call by that persons name... "Hello, Jimmy (or Jill)", and it was somebody else. In any case, the voice was not yet familiar to you. As time went on, you came to know this persons voice because you cared so much to be in contact with that person.
We will come to know the voice of God with practice and experience. We don't have to listen to the disguised voices of the stranger. We know the voice of our intimate love so thoroughly that we won't easily be fooled when put to the test. Maybe the voice is identical, but the nature of the message is not characteristic of the one you love. We will come to know the way of the Lord as we come to know His voice. We feel it harmonize or contradict in our hearts.
To be clearer about this, try to remember when your closest friend last called you. There will be some question about who it is if you have not heard from that person in a while, but when that person identifies themself, you recall immediately. Something is amiss this time. It's not like them to say such a thing, so you say, "are you sure? Who is this, anyway?" This is like 'testing the spirit'.
If what a person tells you does not line up with what you know is true of God, then you should always question it. If it seems to contradict all that you know of the Lord, then ask them to identify themselves. If your mother called and you thought it was your girlfriend, surely you would not want to begin an intimate discussion with your mother, thinking it is 'Jill'. Know Gods will for you. Communicate often. You will likely have some error of identity in the very beginning, but in time you will come to know the nature and the voice of God's will and His way.
Monday, November 22, 2010 - 8:30 AM
