Friday, October 3, 2014

When We Seek God

Philippians 4:5-7 King James Version (KJV)
5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.


Verse 6 strikes me in this passage. "be careful for nothing." The reason it does is because, we are not to "be careful" to figure things out with our own minds, but rather to trust Christ and let Him speak through us. When we are "careful" we are operating in the flesh.

The Holy Spirit Speaks Through Us

God has commanded us to warn the unbeliever and even the believer who is not walking as they should. Those who say that we should just let the Holy Spirit convict of sin, do not know their Bibles. We are responsible before God when we do not warn others when the Holy Spirit leads us to do so.

The Holy Spirit lives in us and gives us direction as to when to warn, no other person can tell us when or when not to do it. The results are in God's hands. The response of the person being warned is not a measure of whether or not we did the right thing.

Many will not listen, many will even hate what the Holy Spirit gave us to say or do, but that is between the hearer and God, our responsibility is to obey God no matter what the response.

Titus 3:10 "A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;"

Ezekiel 3: 18-21
"18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
19 Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.
20 Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.
21 However, if you have warned [a]the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”

Ezekiel 3:19-27
"19 If you warn them and they keep on sinning and refuse to repent, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved your life because you did what you were told to do. 20 If good people turn bad and don't listen to my warning, they will die. If you did not warn them of the consequences, then they will die in their sins. Their previous good deeds won't help them, and I will hold you responsible, demanding your blood for theirs. 21 But if you warn them and they repent, they will live, and you will have saved your own life, too." 22 Then the LORD took hold of me, and he said to me, "Go out into the valley, and I will talk to you there." 23 So I got up and went, and there I saw the glory of the LORD, just as I had seen it in my first vision by the Kebar River. And I fell face down in the dust. 24 Then the Spirit came into me and set me on my feet. He talked to me and said, "Go, shut yourself up in your house. 25 There you will be bound with ropes so you cannot go out among the people. 26 And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so you won't be able to pray for them, for they are rebellious. 27 But whenever I give you a message, I will loosen your tongue and let you speak. Then you will say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says!' Some of them will listen, but some will ignore you, for they are rebels."

Notice God tells us to warn, and then says "whenever I give you a message, I will loosen your tongue and let you speak."

Next time someone says we are to let the Holy Spirit tell or convict them, share this passage with them. God gives us what to say and we are to say it, ultimately it is the Holy Spirit Who speaks we are only the messengers.