At first sight, this article might seem to contradict what I said in my latest post where I mentioned that the first impression we sense in our heart and mind was the voice of God, i.e., the voice of the One we love. However, today I want to be more precise on what loving God really means. Although I want to affirm that God who created man offers His continued help to every human being by making them feel uneasy about wrong decisions and restful about the proper decisions in His view, those who have come to know and love their God also know that His voice is the one they fear the most. I am not speaking of a slavish fear that helplessly makes us react in order to not be punished for our wrong decisions. Instead, I refer to the fear of God that makes our soul tremble when we perceive His warnings all of a sudden in our mind and heart. If we really love Him, we want to please Him, and we will eventually obey out of that love God has poured into our very hearts beforehand. The apostle Paul told us,
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Rom 8:14-17 ESV)
If we know the love of God for all of His children, we might also know that He only appeals in an urgent manner to us when there is great danger ahead. He is a loving Father who wants to prevent His children from falling into temptation and wants to keep them from being ensnared by the devil in any way. However, He never forces us to do something. Our own free will remains ours. But, if we indeed have had the experience of God’s insisting voice inside us and we ignored it again and again (which is very difficult!), then we should not wonder if He lets the devil deceive us for a certain time until we wake up and realize what went wrong.
A clear sign of having been deceived is that we feel secure in everything we do, say or write. Actually, there seems to be no need to ask God about anything anymore. We think we can do it all on our own now. Oh my, what a big deception this can be… It appears to be the opposite of what Jesus told us here,
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (Jn 15:4-7 ESV)
We see in the last verse that our closeness to God is closely related to the number of our prayers He hears. “WHATEVER you wish…it will be done for you.” This is, of course, only possible if we are finally of one heart and mind with God Himself.
May it be so for all of us. Amen.
Entering the Promised Land 
Running around on my own I do seem to keep getting things wrong. I get confused easy and keep saying to and fro.
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No need to worry, Fred. I do get things wrong too and getting confused, well, that is what Satan has done to me very often. But I always keep praying until God sets me free from confusion and gives me His clarity instead. Those people I spoke of who do all things on their own are convinced to do the right thing whatever they do because they think God is with them in their (old) self-willed decisions.
It is a very long process to get used to God’s voice and, honestly, if He does not remind me of His presence and nudges me to ask Him more and more often about several things, I forget asking God, too. So, from my own experience I would say that it is not exclusively our doing if we finally listen to God’s still small voice more than to any other; it is the result of having been pruned in a long sanctification process where our old self with its old thought habits has died.
Eventually, only the new self, the new creation that has been born from above wants to do what God wants and does what it sees God doing – just like Jesus.
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hehe. I did get clarity on the sabbath today. I was so confused by that from things I was reading that I had to find out the truth. I know Stacy and others tried to help and they were helpful but was still a bit confused. Earlier today I got all the clarity I needed. It confirmed something Stacy was saying.
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I am happy to hear that confusion made way for clarity, Fred! 🙂
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Thank you, Susanne, for continuing to write from your own poverty as you follow the Spirit. I say YOUR own poverty, for I know how He says to you, “Susanne, I want you to write a blog.” So you sit down at the keyboard searching your mind as to what to write and sometimes start off with a thought and then HIS mind comes alive in you and you end up writing about something altogether different than you thought that was really what He had in mind all along. Thus you write from your own poverty of mind (blank mind) that He might make your words rich in the Spirit. You have given to me scope to what Paul meant when he said, “I am determined to know NOTHING except Jesus Christ…” He relied not on his mind, but on the mind of Christ in Him. There is a lesson here that many Christian authors need to grow up into in this hour when almost everyone is a “writer” on the net.
In the real sense of the this story of the “rich young ruler,” we have a Christ who demands that we be emptied out of all that we have on a daily basis so that HE can fill us up fresh with new heavenly manna. Like Jesus said, we do not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS from the mouth of God. The nature of bread is that it is made ahead of time and preserved so it does not dry out or get moldy and can be even eaten a week after it was baked, but not so with every word that PROCEEDS from the mouth of God, our manna from heaven, Jesus Christ. Jesus said to that rich man, “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”
When we hang onto yesterdays spiritual riches He has given us or to another our hands (minds) are full, but we cannot receive today’s treasures from and in heaven and we miss the blessing of His NEW and life changing revelation He has for us because we are too “rich.” This is the very problem of today’s Laodicean church which sits on 19 centuries of Christian writings besides its worldly opulence and says to Jesus, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,” while it dwells in spiritual poverty and nakedness in the eyes of God.
“He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says [IS SAYING] to the churches [called out ones].” (Revelation 3:13 BBE)
Bless you my dear sister, for those things you share have been such a blessing and a wake-up call IN Christ to many of us.
Michael 🐻
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Thank you very much, Michael. In fact, as for writing blogs, I am as poor as can be. 😉
Just today I only KNEW that God made me want to write a new post, but at first I had to do other things. And as I finally sat down, I was completely clueless as to WHAT to write about. After having read two devotionals from Oswald Chambers which were very good, I still felt no nudge to write about these, either. Suddenly I sensed God saying, “These devotionals were only for YOU.” That made me smile and I thought I should give up on writing today.
Actually, I even forgot how I came across this third devotional which I shared in this article (it belongs to August 2016! 😛 ). I cannot even remember… 🙄 The only thing I still have in mind is that I was sitting in front of the computer and felt nudged to jot down one sentence, two sentences, and after three sentences I asked God, “What will THIS turn out to be??” I had NO idea. And therefore, as all was done, I knew God had been leading me all the time. 😀
Your comment is a great exposition on these verses in Revelation and about how God wants us to really listen to His voice, Michael. Excellent!! ⭐
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Thank you so much, dear friend and daughter of God! Like Jay Ferris said on his blog, “We do our best work stupid.” 🙂 🐻
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Hahahaha… 😀
That is so true, Michael. And isn’t God’s truth and wisdom exactly the opposite of this world’s “wisdom”?
Susanne 🐱
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Yup!!! And He chooses the foolish and weak to confound the wise and the mighty. What a hoot! 🙂
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Hoot hoot
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Thank you for emailing me the writings on “Entering the Promised Land”. The writings are usually alive to me. Much of it is spiritual food, and I am hungry, and eating the bread.
Love,
Pat Orr
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Thank you very much for your encouraging message, dear Pat, and for letting me know that you find spiritual food in my writings. Praise the Lord who lets us share in His divine wisdom!
Love,
Susanne
PS
I am glad you get the notifications about my new posts in your email inbox. As far as I know this is an automatic service offered by WordPress because you have subscribed to my blog via email.
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All I can say to all this is YES AND AMEN! I really have no words. More than anything I want poverty for therein is a new kind of riches. In Him. In Him. In Him. Thank you Jesus.
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Sorry for delay in moderating and responding to your comment, Skylla. I have been sick since Jan 6 (fever too 😛 ).
I am glad you found the article helpful, dear sister. ❤
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I am praying for you to get completely well soon, Susanne. God bless and keep you in His arms. 🐻
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Thank you so much for your prayers, my brother. I really covet them, Michael! 🐱
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oh dear sister. Hope you are feeling better now!
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Thank you, dear Skylla! ❤ Indeed, I am already feeling better now.
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Oh yea we do have a will but how free it is-well that is questionable-My experience with Father has been that I ask Him how to respond and He tells me–then I will say no I don’t want to–then He will repeat it to me–then I know that I really don’t have any choice but to do what He says–then I do it and I get peace.
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Sorry for delay in moderating and responding to your comment, Ken. As I wrote to Skylla above, I have been sick since Jan 6.
I love your description of how your dialogues with Daddy take place. And since you get peace in the end, you know you did the right thing.
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Ken, God is like that when HE knows what is best for all concerned. I love His conversation with Jonah, “Jonah, you can go to Nineveh my way or you can go there your way… BUT either way you are going to Nineveh!” Time and experience makes me want HIS way over mine. 🙂
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