Friday, February 12, 2010

Studies: February 12, 2010

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My Utmost for His Highest
February 12, 2009
And they said unto Moses, "Speak thou with us and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." Exodus 20:19
We do not consciously disobey God, we simply do not heed Him. God has given us His commands; there they are, but we do not pay any attention to them, not because of wilful disobedience but because we do not love and respect Him. "If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments." When once we realize that we have been "disrespecting" God all the time, we are covered with shame and humiliation because we have not heeded Him.

"Speak thou with us; but let not God speak with us." We show how little we love God by preferring to listen to His servants only. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we do not desire that God Himself should speak to us. Why are we so terrified lest God should speak to us? Because we know that if God does speak, either the thing must be done or we must tell God we will not obey Him. If it is only the servant's voice
we hear, we feel it is not imperative, we can say, "Well, that is simply your own idea, though I don't deny it is probably God's truth."
Am I putting God in the humiliating position of having treated me as a child of His whilst all the time I have been ignoring Him? When I do hear Him, the humiliation I have put on Him comes back on me - "Lord, why was I so dull and so obstinate?" This is always the result when once we do hear God. The real delight of hearing Him is tempered with shame in having been so long in hearing Him.
What a wonderfully appropriate verse! Isn't this just what the church is doing? We have been looking to respected preachers, teachers, and leaders to tell us what God is saying rather than going to the Father, Himself. While these teachers may be worthy mouthpieces of God, as Moses was, the word is always purer, more effective, and pierces more deeply when it comes from God. I love this statement, "we know that if God does speak, either the thing must be done or we must tell God we will not obey Him."

I have been so frustrated in the past because my words, words which I thought were from God, were not valued or heeded by those to whom I was speaking. Now it is very possible that this was due to my own inadequacy as a speaker. But even if the words were blessed by God and delivered perfectly they still would never have the convicting power that God's words have when He speaks directly to our hearts. As a speaker I must allow God speak to hearts and as a listener I must allow Him to speak directly to me instead of relying solely on another human to guide me.

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