When I became “born again,” a Bible passage that I have quoted over and over made more meaning to me, and it developed into a deeper hunger for another depth of God through relationship.
Romans 8:14 says, “For those who are LED by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (NIV)
The Greek translation of the word translated “led” as used there, means to guide, drive, lead, pilot, instruct, conduct.
Then, it became more apparent to me that one mark of being a child of God is that God is the one leading, guiding, driving, piloting, instructing, and conducting the affairs of my life. I know that could be your experience too when you became born again. It’s a serious thing.
How then do I know if it is God that is leading me? This became another knot that needs to be loosened. Then, I knew I needed to know how to hear from God, for I thought, “if I cannot hear Him, how would I be able to discern His voice when He’s leading me?”
I was taught that God’s word is the primary means through which He speaks to His children. And that, other means, such as dream, trance and so forth should be subjected to the standard of the Bible; because the Bible represents the whole counsel of God.
I read portions daily during quiet times. At another time, I attempted to read the Bible through from cover to cover. I still read till today to the glory of God.
From the pages of the scriptures, I found God’s blessings, injunctions and instructions, duties and responsibilities, expectations and commitments. Especially from the teachings of Jesus on the mountain, there are some hard sayings which require simple obedient but difficult one. Difficult, but not impossible.
Just to know God’s mind over some specific areas of life, many Christians have embarked on unconventional kinds of fasting — short and long term, dry, wet, fruit, juice, and all manners of fast that people do today. As tedious as fasting could be, people don't mind doing it just to hear God say something. I am not against this, because I fast too by God’s grace.
God speaks to people who seek to know His mind. No doubt! God answers prayers, He has been answering mine too, and He will continue to.
After spending so many hours, days, months, and years to seek the face of God, not adhering to instructions from Him can jeopardize all the efforts. Suffice to say that fasting and praying to hear God speak, and the time taken to study the Bible is no big work compared to the work of obedience.
Moses spent 40 days only to know God’s mind for the Israelite, but a moment of anger spoilt the effort.
Majority of what the world face as problems today is what obedience to God’s word would do. “Do not steal”; “Do not commit adultery”; “be contented”; “do not murder”; “give to the poor”; “meditate on My Word”; and so forth. If only we can obey by doing these things, the world, our world would be peaceful and please God.
Don’t seek too many of God’s revelation and knowledge if you will not do them. If you don’t do what you have known about God, you are not different from them that do not know at all.
However, seek to have a massive knowledge of God, for you cannot do what you don’t know. Yet, you can know without doing. Strife to do what God says in all things, even when it is difficult for you to do. There are blessings in hearing little and doing it, compared to hearing so many without doing them. However, hear as many as you can; yet work at obeying as much as possible.
Know that you are not a child of God because you speak in tongues, prophesy and manifest all kinds of spiritual gifts. It is by “being led.”
For me, I want to continue to know more about God and be completely obedient to Him. So help me, God.
© Joshua Adesina
@pjoshb
June 2020
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