The Kingdom of God!

 

Chapter 116

 

One of the hardest things you will ever do is to learn to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit! Because your mind has been programed over the years to believe what you are being taught over and over again as truth. When the Holy Spirit reveals to you that what you have been taught is not the truth, you have a decision to make! Are you going to receive that truth and seek the Lord for more revelation or are you going to stay where you are in your thinking and reject the leadership of the Holy Spirit?

 

When this happens, you have come to a crossroad, and you must be willing to accept the revelation of truth or reject it. Believe me, your mind will fight you and tell you that you must be careful lest you be led astray from what you have been taught. All of the teachings that you have been taught over the years will fight against what the Lord is revealing to you. You will search the scriptures to prove that you are right and what you have been taught is right.

 

The Lord told Israel in Deut. 30:19-20,

 

"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

 

If you were to take a survey of every congregation of the Lord's people, you would find that most of them do not believe everything they are being taught. If you are a seeker of truth and have an open mind, you can worship the Lord no matter what church you attend. As a seeker of truth, when the Lord reveals certain truths to you, you will have a decision to make. If you have learned to follow the Lord's leading, He will open doors for you to walk through.

 

It is very difficult to leave your church and your friends behind and follow the Lord.

I encourage you to follow the Lord's leadership because He has a plan and purpose for your life, and He will never lead you in the wrong direction and you will find yourself doing things for the Lord that you have never thought you would be doing.

 

I could write a book on how the Lord has led me throughout my life. When I was leaving my teenage years, I made a resolute decision to follow the leading of the Lord and He began to open doors for me to walk through. He taught me to walk by faith and not by sight. Many times, I didn't realize that the Lord was leading me. Paul said in 1Thess. 5:18-20,

 

"In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil!"

 

The Lord said in Isaiah 28:9-13,

 

"Whom shall he teach knowledge?" and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

 

There are so many churches today that deny the power of the Holy Spirit because they don't want to speak in tongues. And yet, the Lord said that this is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest and this is the refreshing! Paul said to not despise prophesying and yet, so many churches do just that.

 

The Lord said, "To whom shall I teach knowledge?" His answer was that He would teach them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little! Just as the sun doesn't come up at once but comes up gradually, so is the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

 

It is not easy to be weaned from the milk in churches that you are being taught and to commit yourself to be led by the Holy Spirit because it is so comfortable to just stay where you are being fed the milk of the word which requires very little faith. It is very hard to leave your family and friends and walk with the Lord when your family and friends don't understand the things that the Lord is revealing to you. Paul talked about this in Heb. 5:11-14,

 

"Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

 

I had no intention of leaving the church that I was brought up in because I had a lot of friends and they were all good people but they had done what Moab did in the Old Testament. He had settled on his lees or dregs. Jeremiah 48:11-12, (NIV)

 

"Moab has been at rest from youth, like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another, she has not gone into exile. So she tastes as she did, and her aroma is unchanged. But days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will send men who pour from pitchers, and they will pour her out; they will empty her pitchers and smash her jars."

 

This is an analogy drawn from the making of wine which those at that time would have known what He was talking about. Wine was made by smashing grapes in a large vat and the juice from the grapes would flow into large jars. The juice would be allowed to stay in the jar for a set period of time and then be poured into another jar

 

The Lord was using this illustration to tell the people that they were content with where they were and were not willing go through the process to be purified. Another illustration of this is when Jesus turned the water into wine. When they drew from the water pots of stone the wine was 100 per cent pure and undefiled. (John 2:3-11)

 

He said about Moab, "So, she tastes as she did, and her aroma is unchanged." This is what happens when you think that you have the whole truth, and you are satisfied with worshipping the Lord the same every time you meet!

I am not saying to you that you need to leave the church where you attend. Only the Lord can tell you that and if you are truly a seeker of truth, you will want to go where you will be fed the deeper things of the Kingdom of God. You will want to go where the power of the Holy Spirit is present.