Isaiah 11:1-10 Out of the stump of David’s family[a] will grow a shoot— yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. 2 And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.3 He will delight in obeying the LORD. He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay.4 He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked. 5 He will wear righteousness like a belt and truth like an undergarment.
6 In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.7 The cow will graze near the bear. The cub and the calf will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like a cow.8 The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest
of deadly snakes without harm.9 Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the LORD. 10 In that day the heir to David’s throne[b] will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to him, and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.
We learn in verse 2 that God declares his Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom & understanding, the Spirit of council & might, the Spirit of knowledge & the reverential & obedient fear of the Lord. How have you experienced the Holy Spirit’s ministry in each of these ways? If you have not, ask God to give you such experiences with His Spirit.
In verses 3 & 4 we see that Jesus did not make decisions by the sight of His eyes or the hearing of His ears, yet He was of quick understanding. If we follow His example, not relying on what we see or hear with our natural senses, but watching & listening for the Holy Spirit to lead our hearts, we will also understand quickly what we would otherwise not learn in a lifetime.
Moses was head strong in his zeal for his own people, & it resulted in his killing a man (Exodus 2:11-12). His heart was right in his desire to correct things, but he was always frail. Moses had a mighty passion, & that is one of the best things in the world when God has control & it becomes a passion for souls to be born again. But apart from God it is one of the worst things.
Paul was tremendously zealous, &, breathing out threats, he was sending men & women to prison. (Acts 8:3). But God changed him, & later said he could wish himself accursed from Christ for the sake of his fellowmen, his kindness according to the flesh Romans 9:3-4. for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.[a] I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would
save them. 4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children.[b] God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law.
He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.
Paul does not actually wish that he was cut off from Christ so that other Jews would be saved, but his grief for them was so deep that it brought him virtually to that very point.
God took the headstrong Moses & moulded into the meekest of men. He took the fiery Saul of Tarsus & made him the foremost exponent of grace. God transform each & every one of us in the same manner, & plants in us a divine meekness & every other thing that we lack.
Smith Wigglesworth tells of a boy in the Sunday school he went to, of a boy with hair so red as his temper. He was a trail. He kicked his teachers& the superintendent. He was simply uncontrollable. The teachers had a meeting where they discussed the matter of expelling him. But they thought that God might somehow work in that boy, & so they decided to give him another chance. One day he had to be kicked out & he broke all the windows of the church. He was worse outside than in. Sometime later, they had a ten day revival meeting. There was nothing much going on in the meeting, & people thought it was a waste of time, but there was one result the redheaded lad was saved.
After he was saved, the difficulty was to get rid of him at their house. He would be there until midnight, crying to God to make him pliable & use him for his glory. God delivered the lad from his temper & made him one of the meekest, most beautiful boys you ever saw. For many, many years he has been a mighty missionary in China.
Smith continues to say that he can remember the time when he used to go white with rage & shake all over with temper. He could hardly hold himself together. But the time he waited on God for a period of ten days; in those ten days he was being emptied out, & the life of the Lord Jesus was being worked in him. His wife testified to the transformation that took place in his life. She said she never saw such a change. She could never cook anything from that time that has not pleased him. Nothing is too hot or too cold; everything is just right.
God must come reign supreme in your life. Will you let Him do it? He can do it & He will if you let Him.
It is no use trying to tame the old man (Eph 4:22). But God can deal with him. The carnal mind will never be subjected to God but God will bring it to the cross where it belongs & will
be put in its place. With God’s transforming power, we can become pure & holy, having the meek mind of the Master. God takes us just as we are & transforms us by His power.
Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the [a]earth.
Meek does not mean weakness but rather controlled strength. The word comes from the idea of humility & self discipline.
Psalm 42 As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? 3 Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying “Where is this God of yours?”
4 My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God singing for joy and giving thank house of God singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!
5 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Saviour and 6 my God!
Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you—even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar.7 I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.8 But each day the LORD pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.9 “O God my rock,” I cry, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?”10 Their taunts break my bones. They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?”11 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Saviour and my God!
In verse five of this Psalm we see the sons of Korah struggling with depression, I would like for us to exam in how they handled their situation, because it shows us what to do when we feel depressed. As we dissect this verse, we find three distinct responses the sons of Korah give to their depressed feelings, First, they put a question to their souls & ask themselves “Why am I so discouraged? "Then they give an instruction to their souls “Put your trust in God. " Finally they declare “I will praise My Saviour & My God." We might say the sons of Korah had a chat with themselves. We must follow this basic pattern of action as we come out of them & into victory.
We learn that the Psalmist is discouraged. Discouragement destroys hope, so naturally the devil always tries to discourage us. Without hope we give up, which is exactly what the devil wants us to do.
The Bible repeatedly tells us not to be discouraged or dismayed. God knows that we will not be victorious if we get discouraged, so He always encourages us as we start on a project by saying to us, “Do not be discouraged.”
God wants us to be encouraged not discouraged.
When discouragement or condemnation tries to overtake us, the first thing we need to do is to examine our thoughts. What kind of thoughts have you been thinking? Have they sounded something like this? “ I’m not going to make it; This is too hard, I always fail; It has always been the same. Nothing ever changes. I am sure other folk do not have this much trouble getting their minds renewed. I may as well give up. I’m tired of trying. I pray, but it seems God doesn’t hear. He probably doesn’t answer my prayers because He is disappointed in me”.
If these examples represent your thought life, then no wonder you get discouraged or feel commended! Remember, you become what you think. Think discouraging thoughts, you will become discouraged. Think condemning thoughts & you will come under condemnation. Change your thinking & be set free.
Instead of thinking negatively, think more like this: Well, things are going a little slowly, but praise God, I am making some progress, I am glad I’m on the right path that will lead me to freedom; I had a rough day yesterday. I chose wrong thinking all day long. Father forgive me, & help me to keep on keeping on. I made a mistake, but at least that is one mistake I won’t have to make again. This is a new day. You love me, Lord. Your Mercy is new every morning. I refuse to be discouraged. I refused to be condemned. Father, Your Word says that you do not condemn me. You sent Jesus to die for me. I will be fine-today it will be a great day I ask you to help me choose right thoughts today.
I am sure you can feel the victory already with this type of cheerful, positive, God-like thinking. Practice this type of thinking today.
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
Meet the conditions, & God will fulfil His Word to you. Note this verse says “Shall be filled.” The Spirit of God is crying out “Listen! Every one who is thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. The words have no money mean that God’s abundant life is free. The Spirit of God will take the things of Christ & show them to you so that you may have a longing for Christ in His fullness, & when there is that longing, God will not fail to fill you.
See the crowd of worshippers who have come to feast. They are going away utterly dissatisfied, but on the last day, that great day of the feast Jesus will stand & cry out, saying, 37 Now on the final and most important day of the Feast, Jesus stood, and He cried in a loud voice, If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!
38 He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being [continuously] springs and rivers of living water. (John 7:37-38 AMP).
Jesus knew that they were going away without living water, & so He directed them to the true source of supply. Are you thirsty today? The living Christ still invites you to Himself, &I want to testify that He still satisfies the thirsty soul & fills the hungry with good things.
Notice that Jesus didn’t say will flow once in a while from those who believe in Him. He said these rivers of living water will flow continuously. That living water is the Holy Spirit.
In this passage, Jesus talks about the out pouring of the Holy Spirit, which we have received if we have accepted Jesus as Lord & Saviour-the Person & the power of the Holy Spirit in us.
The river of living water flows within you & me. It is not supposed to be stopped but it is to bubble up within us. & we can release the power of that living water in an even greater measure by receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to fill you today & everyday.
When Smith Wigglesworth was in Switzerland he learnt of a man who met with a particular congregation. He attended their various meetings, & one morning at their communion service, he arose & said, “Brothers, we have the Word, & I feel that we are living very much in the letter of it, but there is a hunger & thirst in my soul for something deeper, something more real than we have, & I cannot rest until I enter in to it.” The next Sunday this man rose again & said, “We are all poor here, there is no life in this assembly, & my heart is hungry for reality.” He did this for several weeks until it got on the nerves of these people, & they protested, “Sands, you are making us all miserable; you are spoiling our meetings. There is only one thing for you to do, & that is to clear out.”
He went out of the meeting in a very sad condition. As he stood outside, one of his children asked what was the matter, & he said that they should turn me out from their midst for being hungry & thirsty for more of God! Smith did not know anything more of this situation until later.
Days later someone rushed up to Sands & said. “There is a man over hear from England, & he is speaking about tongues & healing.” Sands said that he would fix him, he went to the meeting & sat near the front & would challenge him with Scripture. He said that he would dare him to preach these things in Switzerland; & that he would publicly denounce him. So he went to the meetings. There he sat. He was so hungry & thirsty that he drank in every word that was said. His opposition soon petered out. The first morning he said to a friend, “This is what I want.” He drank & drank of the Spirit. After three weeks he said, “God will have to do something new or I’ll burst.” He breathed in God, & the Lord filled him to such an extent that he spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave him utterance. Sands is now preaching & is in charge of a new Pentecostal assembly.
God is making people hungry & thirsty after His best. & everywhere He is filling the hungry & giving them what the disciples received at the very beginning. Are you hungry? If you are God promises that you will be filled. If you ever see a “shall” in the Bible, make it yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment