Coworkers with God…

 

The strategy of God and my experience in trying to reach people for Christ lead to one conclusion: God prepares and persuades and my efforts are part of that — or not. Unless He awakens sinners, opens their hearts, draws them, empowers the gospel, and calls the lost, my efforts could be in vain. I need to rely on His leading to be part of His plan. These and other verses are clear:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44) 
We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:23–24)
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:9)

God can use Gospel preaching as He did in Acts, and in the work of people like Billy Graham, and many pastors and ordinary Christians. One NT example of how to reach others is Philip who was told to speak to a Ethiopian man who was reading Isaiah and wanted to know the meaning. After Philip pointed him to Jesus, he believed and wanted to be baptized, then continued his journey. (Acts 8:26-39)

It was Paul’s practice to preach first in the synagogues and hoping to reach receptive Jews. He also relied on the Holy Spirit’s leading:

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:6–10)
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” (Acts 16:13–15)
On other occasions, Paul reasoned in the synagogue with Jews and devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some heard of the resurrection of the dead, and some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” He left, but some men and women joined him and believed. (Acts 17:17–34)

Today’s devotional reading ends with a reminder that I am a partner with the Holy Spirit and  should be alert to those who are beginning to be awakened by His grace. This means seeking those who are looking for Him and put my efforts in drawing them closer to Him. This is a challenge because many people are quiet in their search.

PRAY: Jesus, You have gifted some in evangelism yet call all of us to cooperate with Your work in drawing people to Yourself. It is my challenge to not only pay attention, but to obey whatever You tell me to do or say, not always aware of how You will use it, but trusting You with the results. I can plant seeds, but You alone can make them grow.

Hearing His Voice

 

One television show has a character who speaks with enthusiasm but his voice is so garbled that most viewers cannot understand a word. The show’s main characters do, and oddly enough, close captioning gets most of it, but even without knowing what he is saying, his gestures and emotions Sometimes give clues.

I’m glad Jesus is not like that. He says,

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live….Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice…. (John 5:25-28)

…. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.… My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:3-27)

Do we need to learn it? Or do we just know it? Today’s reading says that we learn to hear it through Scripture, providential circumstances, and through a divine inner conviction, and the more we obey, the clearer His voice becomes.

Jesus did not say that. He says we just know it. In my experience, the problem is not lack of knowing but lack of listening. I can think of countless examples of ‘just knowing’ I was supposed to do something. Sadly, I also have many examples of ‘just knowing’ but not listening, either because I didn’t want to do it or I wanted something other than what Jesus was telling me. My lack of obedience did not dull my hearing, but it did and still does hinder my spiritual growth.

The voice of a stranger could refer to Satan with his lies or to false teachers with their persuasions. It could also refer to my flesh or old nature with its I-wants and pride that assumes I have a better plan. I’ve also had times when that voice was a whisper and my way simply shouted so loud that I didn’t want to hear God. Those are the times that I learned lessons the hard way — by making foolish decisions and doing the wrong thing, only to realize later that God knows best.

A good point from the reading is to make sure His voice is His voice before I move ahead. Sometimes my thoughts sound good but they are not His thoughts. He says:

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)

This is why Bible reading and careful study are so important. Not only do Christians make errors by not reading, but by assumptions. For instance, no verses say there were three wise men, not a big deal yet a mistake due to lack of research.

PRAY: Lord, I’m glad that You speak into my life. Today, I have clear direction from You regarding today’s to-do items and the importance of diligence in them. I also hear You when talking with friends about their prayer requests and later as You remind me to pray. I’m prone to make lists of things so I will not forget, yet Your voice reminds me and keeps me on track because I am prone to forgetting to look at my lists! Not only that, You often surprise me with Your words of peace and comfort when I get in a dither or am over-tired. Thank You so much for talking to me and with me, for making Your thoughts known, and for directing my words and actions too.

Pay attention

 

READ Jeremiah 22–26

When I read this prophet, I’d like to apply some of the passages to the nations of the world that are oppressing others, killing the innocent and have no regard for human life. However, Jeremiah is talking to God’s people, those He made a covenant with that they would live to glorify Him. They failed and He told Jeremiah:

“Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. (22:1–5)

If His people would not repent, He would “make you a desert, an uninhabited city . . . prepare destroyers against you . . . cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire . . . and every man will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?’ And they will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.’ ” (22:6–9)

Yet in the middle of this, He promised hope by pointing to the Messiah: “Behold, the days are coming when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ ” (23:5–6)

They still did not listen. Both prophets and priests were ungodly, filling the people with vain hope of visions from their own minds, not from the Lord. None listened to Him, yet had they spoken for Him, the people would have turned away from evil. The Lord was against them for their lies and lack of consideration for the danger of disobedience and how their perversion of His words would harm His people. (23:31–36)

Not everyone was rotten. Some He would bring home from exile, build them up and “give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” (24:5–7)

Those who refused to listen He would “make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.” (24:8–10)

God is opposed to those who will not listen, who refuse to give up their sin, who worship idols. In those days, He sent an enemy to their “land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” (25:8–11)

This was not an isolated uproar. It would “resound to the ends of the earth” because the Lord will “enter into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword . . . with disaster is going forth from nation to nation . . . from the farthest parts of the earth!” (25:31–32)

The result? The priests, prophets and all the people wanted to kill Jeremiah! He responded by repeating what God told him to say; to mend their ways and obey Him. He added, “Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.” (26:12–15)

Eventually, the officials and all the people decided this prophet did not deserve the sentence of death because “he spoke in the name of the Lord our God” and they were in danger of bringing great disaster upon themselves.

Practical application: listen to God’s truth and do what He says. The great changes needed in this world begin with revival in the lives of God’s people — that means me. Yet test the many voices out there that speak for God. Not all of them do.