Author: admin

God has innumerable ways to communicate with us. He can use angels, dreams, or burning bushes. But one of His preferred methods is through other people. God is not dependent upon people. If He wanted to ensure that we received a pure, undiluted, word straight from His own mouth, He could use a more reliable source.

God works through people because He has created us to be interdependent. He does not intend for us to function independently of others. To fully know God’s will, we must listen to the Body of Christ. Those who isolate themselves or who become defensive when people express concerns to them will miss out on significant opportunities to understand God’s will.

Who have you connected your life with that can relay divine messages to you? Are you listening to what they are saying? Be careful you do not tune out what others are telling you in your desire to hear a word from God. God may be sending His message to you through the mouth of one of your friends.

Some people are uncomfortable slowing down. They are people of action who stay in continuous motion. Yet it is hard to hear from God when we are constantly on the run. That is why God allows circumstances in our lives that force us to stop, and listen.

If our work prevents us from responding to God, He may remove our job. If our money and possessions hinder us, God may relieve us of them. If relationships or commitments stifle God’s activity in our life, God is not adverse to eliminating them from our life. Nothing is more important to us than hearing God’s voice and properly responding to it.

God got Saul’s attention after He took away his sight, and caused him to lose his appetite for food or drink. Humbled and no longer distracted, Saul was in a position to receive the life-transforming message God had for him. It was crucial for him to clearly hear what God was saying, for it would change not only Paul’s life, but also his world.

God always knows the next step we must take. Sometimes we can be at a loss to know what we should do. We may have made a huge mistake and now are bewildered to know how to recover from it. Perhaps we are facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Or, we feel overwhelmed by our responsibilities and inadequate to deal with them. There are numerous circumstances that can knock us off our feet!

Whether God is the One who halted us in our tracks, or it has been our circumstances, He knows what we should do next. God does not often give us all the details at once. Often He will merely reveal the next step we are to take. But, as we heed His voice, we will eventually find ourselves exactly where God wants us to be.

Are you earnestly seeking a word from God? Do you need to know what to do next? Listen carefully for His voice and then quickly take the next step He provides you. He may not tell you much about your future, but He will give you enough to handle tomorrow. Follow Him one step at a time and you will be amazed where that leads you!

It takes a lot to break some people of their pride. We are certain we know what is best. In our relationship with God, we do all of the talking. We are so busy serving that we have no time to ensure we are doing the right things. But God has a way of getting our attention!

God will humble us if He needs to. He will slow us down until we are finally prepared to listen to what He has to say. He will allow us to come to the end of ourselves until we acknowledge our need for His intervention. For some, this will only require a still, small, voice. For others, it will entail a blinding light and a voice emanating from heaven. But God will do what is necessary.

When God gets your attention, it is not so you can suggest what you might be best suited to do for Him. It is not so He can explain Himself to you or to seek your counsel. God will initiate a conversation with you where you can ask that all-important question: “Lord, what do you want me to do?”

If there is one thing that would seem to be self-evident, it is that we cannot fight against God and His will, and win. He will prevail and His purposes will be accomplished. Yet we resist God’s work in numerous ways. Sometimes we adamantly resist His will for our life. We know He wants us to do something and we refuse. We don’t want to be uncomfortable, or we are afraid, or we feel inadequate, so we say ‘no.’

At other times we resist God by not immediately obeying what He tells us. We allow our life to be consumed with cares and commitments until there is no way to follow through with what He told us. We explain that we would obey if only we were able to. We see this as being too busy. God calls it rebellion.

At other times we are willing to obey, but only on our terms and under our conditions. We modify God’s instructions until they become palatable to us. We may be satisfied, but God is not.

God would do so much more if only we would stop resisting Him and wholeheartedly obey Him. God might ask us the same question He asked Saul: “Why do you keep kicking against the goads?”

It is possible to fervently serve Christ without knowing much about Him. We might even call Him “Lord,” yet we have never taken adequate time to understand Him. No one was busier serving God than Saul. Yet to his great consternation, he realized he was unfamiliar with the One he was allegedly serving.

At this point in Saul’s life, he was not yet a Christian. He had heard about Jesus, but until this day, he had never met Him. But what about you? Do you need to also ask, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ Would His answer surprise or disturb you? Have you been assuming things about Christ that are incorrect? Have you taken for granted that you know Christ when in fact you are virtually strangers?

Saul was a task oriented, Type-A personality. Yet once he truly came to know Christ, he discovered that everything else was garbage in comparison. He spent the remainder of his life avidly pursuing a deeper and more intimate knowledge of Christ. Has that been your life’s aim as well? Or, do you need to take time to ask, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

What a shock it is when we discover that what we were doing for the cause of Christ has actually been more harmful than helpful. At times in our zeal to get something done, or to gain momentum, or to achieve a small win, we can jump to conclusions about God’s work. We assume that because something makes sense to us, it must be pleasing to God. We charge ahead with the best of intentions only to be disappointed at the result.

The reality is that when we do anything in our strength and wisdom, it falls miserably short of what God cold have accomplished. Imagine Saul’s surprise. He thought he was the most devout man in his society. No one went to greater lengths to please God and to live righteously than he did. Yet rather than be grateful for Saul’s efforts on His behalf, God viewed him as His enemy. Rather than extending God’s kingdom, Saul’s efforts were harming it.

Saul desperately needed to radically reorient his life to Christ. He needed to start listening rather than always doing. He needed humility rather than more zeal. He needed to begin doing things God’s way. Only then would he achieve God-sized results.

One of the realities we don’t like to talk about much is that there are people who are adamantly, vehemently, even violently, opposed to Christ. Such people are driven by more than a difference of opinion. For them it is not merely theological hairsplitting. They hate Christianity and those who practice it. Perhaps you are dealing with someone like that right now.

At times you can wonder why your colleague or boss, or neighbor is so antagonistic toward you. They may be excessively critical. They may seem angry for no apparent reason. They may even go out of their way to make your life miserable. Despite all of your efforts to be at peace, these people may continue waging relentless war.

Christ does not allow people to remain neutral. He said people were either for Him or against Him. There are many reasons why people can be adamantly opposed to Christ. Perhaps they have drifted from Him and now feel compelled to find an excuse for their apostasy. Some may have been disillusioned by an encounter with a hypocrite. Others may have been disappointed when God did not grant their request. Still others may deeply resent anyone telling them what to do, even if He is God. Finally, some people, like Saul, are misguided, but actually closer to salvation than people would think. Be aware: If you are serving Christ, you will have enemies.

Saul of Tarsus was a natural leader. He was outspoken, ambitious, and supremely confident. Such natural abilities were disastrous for the church. While the world was impressed with Saul and granted him additional responsibilities and privileges, God was opposed to him. The world admires decisive people of action. It applauds people who “get things done.” The problem is that our natural tendencies dishonor God.

Our innate attitudes and values exalt us, rather than God. They achieve worldly goals, not God’s purposes. They harm people rather than saving them. They spread darkness, rather than light. We can have the best of intentions, as did Saul, but find ourselves with God as our adversary.

That is why we must lead with more than our natural ability. We must have goals that originate from God rather than our best thinking. We can fool ourselves into assuming our actions glorify God when they do not. Better to wholly surrender your plans, goals, and methods to Christ and be sure you are furthering His kingdom rather than your own.

It ought to be our goal to find favor with God, and, if possible, with people. The early Christians did not always enjoy favor with people (which was apparent when they were being thrown to the lions), but they did experience God’s approval.

When our focus is properly on God, the world around us will often be attracted to Him too. When people see our genuine devotion to Christ and they observe the positive difference He makes in our lives, they will inevitably want to know our God also.

Sometimes our worship can be self-centered. It becomes all about us and what we like or what makes us comfortable. The songs we sing are about what God does for us and how happy He makes us feel. At other times our worship can become about others. That is, we become more concerned with the comfort of the unbelievers who are attending our services rather than being focused on pleasing God through our worship.

Worship is fundamentally about God and who He is and what He was done. When we focus on Christ and praise Him with all of our heart, God will inevitably add people to our fellowship. Just because we like our worship services does not mean that God does. Just because visitors enjoy our worship does not mean God does. One of the ways to determine if God is pleased with the manner in which we are relating to Him is by looking to see if God is adding people to our number.