If you know these
things, blessed are you if you do them. —John 13:17
Be determined to know
more than others. If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the
dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea.
Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great
swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened. If you believe in
Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the
harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the
harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself—
begin to have spiritual discernment.
When you know that you
should do something and you do it, immediately you know more. Examine where you
have become sluggish, where you began losing interest spiritually, and you will
find that it goes back to a point where you did not do something you knew you
should do. You did not do it because there seemed to be no immediate call to do
it. But now you have no insight or discernment, and at a time of crisis you are
spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-controlled. It is a
dangerous thing to refuse to continue learning and knowing more.
The counterfeit of
obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own opportunities to
sacrifice yourself, and your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken for discernment.
It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny,
which is stated in
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in
view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform
any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his
good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2
It is much better to
fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than it is to
perform great acts of self-sacrifice. “Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice…” (1 Samuel 15:22). Beware of paying attention or going back to what
you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been. “If
anyone wills to do His will, he shall know…” (John 7:17).
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