Previous knowledge

P 3128 We need a sure measuring tape.

/ DVH

Imagine that you want to measure out the parameters of a house. You could use a dressmaker’s measuring tape, but it has limitations – to start with it isn’t big enough! It would be an arduous task that required strict concentration and somebody to help you hold that waxed cloth tape tightly at the other end. A dressmaker’s tape does not have enough substance to it to be really useful. You need special equipment, and at the very least a builder’s stiff zippy metal measuring tape. 

Reading God’s word using only your mind, or emotions is a little like that inadequate measuring tool. You may arrive at some form of understanding, but it will lack pin point accuracy. I cannot successfully and accurately hit a nail in by bashing at with a fork! I will need a hammer to complete the task. (The truth is I can’t bash a nail in with a hammer either, but that’s another revelation for another day!) You will do so much better as you walk with Him, if you ask the Holy Spirit to help you to read His book – and then wait for Him to speak to you. 

Expect Him to answer. Not necessarily out loud! We have been taught to pray by the Lord’s prayer, “give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus is talking about the food that God provides for us every single morning. It’s like His mercy, that is also new every morning! I don’t care what bone-head thing you did yesterday, today, when you woke up – God’s mercy was brand new toward you. Mercy doesn’t just give us a fresh start, it also helps us to deal with yesterday’s junk today! I urge you to quit carrying a load that doesn’t belong to you anymore – repent, repair and move on!

I know, I have mentioned this topic before, but without God’s Word dividing what is good,  right and pure, from what is pizza, bad temper, and our imagination – we will go precisely nowhere.  Instead of skipping over the harder bits, I’ve learnt to dig my heels in and ask Him to explain it to me. It is FAR more important to hear from Him than it is to add to my own personal knowledge, or fill up my daily bible quota. I could care less if He highlights something ten pages later, or it happens on the first line – I’m looking for“every word that proceeds out of His mouth.” Not just clarification or human understanding. I covet His Word to ME … God’s Word has power in it. The Word that comes out of His mouth has the power in it to accomplish whatever HE wants.

We are told to live by that kind of daily bread. And every single day, we deliberately go to Him, and ask for fresh bread. Otherwise we can end up with excuses, logic, or digging up previous knowledge – or someone else’s findings – and that stuff really IS stale bread. It can get maggots in it just like it did for the Israelites when they were chasing butterflies around in a desert that should have taken them just a few days to cross! Pretty soon a whole lotta doubt will start banging on our door, because we just went off the reservation chasing tumbleweed! 

We need God’s measuring stick. His Word, in us and on us. Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” We can sing, shout and quote psalms fit to beat the band, but if it does not come inside us and do us good then we are just spouting HOT AIR. Did you get the very first word in verse 16: LET!  Allow God’s word to be a part of you. Don’t just jump head first into teaching or leading worship or quoting Psalms – let God’s Word do what only IT can do! His word will change us, and others as we obey it.

“Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls.” James 1:21. Good old James, he let the word of God dwell richly within him! And he didn’t mince words either. If’n ya didn’t like what this disciple said – bad luck! WEEDING is part of soul and spirit care. Let’s do it. We need to stop and look at that nasty stuff growing in sneaky places in our hearts, and identify the bits that are choking out the good seed, and then pull those weeds out. After that we replace all of it with what God says.

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);..” Romans 10:8. The Word of God is not just meant to be inactive in the pages of an old book – it is meant to be alive and well, and inside us. No matter what version you or I read, the primary task and motivation of His book is for it to be written on our hearts, minds, and spirits – so that other people can see His Word in action. We can’t just proclaim it, we must live it out. The bible is full of verbs!! A very old friend of mine used to call it the Manufacturer’s hand book – the thing you use to keep your life on track and help walk with the Lord.

“And in keeping with what is written, “I believed, therefore I have spoken,” we who have the same spirit of faith also believe and therefore speak, …” 2 Corinthians 4:13.  The bible increases our faith and enables us to speak. What I think isn’t worth anything, sadly what I think often depends on what happens to me on the day! I need a secure, specific, tried and tested measuring tape, that will go to any length to give me an accurate report and measurement. Something that is strong, durable, and in my heart while I go about whatever I want to do. The bible meets that need. Bye. 👋

P 2837 What we do with what God tells us daily, matters.

/ DVH

I know that many people, past and present, have had a great deal to say about this parable, I personally love the clarification the Lord Himself gave, which comes directly after it in Matthew 13:1-9:

“He (Jesus) taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Almighty God gives us seed to sow from His Word – hopefully… daily!! His book is a fantastic source of life-giving seeds. We need to take those seeds He has personally given to us, and share them with others. That seed that His Spirit kisses, especially for us, has His life in it. Its power lies in the fact that God revealed His truth to us.

It may have been something someone said when they were preaching, and it struck us in the heart like an arrow finds the target. Or it may have been something that stood out as we were reading the bible. It could even be when we were talking to the Lord and suddenly a scripture fell down from our thinking and meditating —- where we had hidden it while we were renewing our minds – and it sank down deep inside us, into our heart where growth can begin. Wherever or however it happened, that fresh seed is now ripe for planting. It can produce a crop.

The seeds of His Word that we sow into our lives – as we daily read the bible and act on it — can behave exactly like this parable describes. Sadly some seed doesn’t even make it past 2 seconds of thought, because it has fallen upon a well worn pathway of previous knowledge, and so it is whisked away by the birds of the air … those thoughts and words that are constantly flying past us, because of everything we are exposed to in a single day. It is so easy to think: “I know that already.” Now we have a seed immediately stolen by pride.

Also in our daily bible readings, if we take the time to treasure His voice, we can sometimes discover “rocky places” in our hearts. They are not like the well-worn pathways that we barely notice, these are hard places that we try to skim over and ignore with thoughts like this: ‘The truth is, I don’t think I have to change, I think the other person should.’ The scorching heat of that bad attitude kills off the power of His precious seed, and it is killed off by negligence. Always remember that true forgiveness doesn’t keep accounts, be-ca-use … hallelujah!!… fortunately for us, Jesus doesn’t keep them either.

“The thorny ground” seeds are the places in our hearts we haven’t bothered to weed and keep watch over our wrong thinking. ‘Weeds of unbelief, or discontent or disappointment’ have flourished there. What we haven’t realised is that, spiritually speaking, any one rotten attitude can take over our thinking. So the possibility of a harvest from any seeds that are sown into the weed-filled patch, is negated. These spiritual seeds won’t receive their share of nourishment from any water and good soil, because the weeds of our wrong thinking are crowding them out, and soon the whole plant of His word, becomes sterile and unproductive.

Now let’s look at “good soil,” the stuff we are to cultivate and watch over in our hearts. Good soil not only gladly receives the seed of God’s Word;  as we act on it, that seed begins to flourish, and grow into a healthy plant. The increase in our seed production, is always up to the Lord, our part is to cultivate the soil of our hearts with humility and love. And take the time to prayerfully water and feed these His seeds with tears of repentance, and acts of sacrifice as the healthy plants begin to grow. Now we have seeds that will bear fruit and can be harvested.

As you can see, there are four different results from exactly the same seed. The seed does not change, but how it is received does. Even if we sometimes feel unsure about what we think the Lord is saying – it is our responsibility to watch over His seed and act on it accordingly. What we do with what God tells us daily, matters. How we receive it matters. Preparing our hearts to be open to change and transformation matters. A huge harvest can come from our dedication and our willingness to yield to His Ways, even to the death. Bye.  👋“They triumphed over him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Revelation 12:11.