For he is our God, and we are the people in his pasture, the sheep in his care. If only today you would listen to his voice: Psalms 95:7
Here is that word again, “IF” which is the one word most men teachers ignore. And it is the shortest yet biggest word God puts in my mind all the time. Everything with God comes with an “IF.” You cannot claim his blessings without being right with him. You cannot expect salvation without being right with him. Being righteous as he is righteous.
God then responded and said “Don’t harden your hearts, as you did at M’rivah, as you did on that day at Massah in the desert, when your fathers put me to the test; they challenged me, even though they saw my work. For forty years I loathed that generation; I said, ‘This is a people whose hearts go astray, they don’t understand how I do things.’ Therefore I swore in my anger that they would not enter my rest.”
It is one thing to hear the voice of God, which most people do not, and another to do as he tells you to do in every single point he tells you. To anyone who tells God (or me) that no one can be perfect and without sin, that man is a liar and lazy. Their problem is they do NOT listen to his voice and do as he says. They might hear some things God says and do those, but they ignore him on other points. Many times because in their minds it is off limits. And most of the time in their minds they are right in that area so they do not need any advice.
One of the biggest points is with family relationships. I see more dysfunction, and lived with the most dysfunction in my life, because of my family. I am divorced because of that dysfunction and my older kids still do not speak to me because of that dysfunction. Having been through that and not keeping it a secret, many people have told me the same, how some or all of their kids do not speak to them.
On the other hand here in Mexico family is it, nothing more important. My wife cannot imagine how I can live without my older daughters talking with me. And I watch the dysfunction in her family’s lives because of the mother (my mother in law) who allows things that to me are beyond acceptable just because it is family, her sons. I also know that because of my wife’s older son and her “love” for him, she has not let Yeshua show her things about how she is acting or her works regarding him, which keeps her from understanding what she needs to understand.
I do not know everything there is to know about that, but I do know that is the main thing or maybe only thing keeping her from the peace in God. To stop loving her family in her way and start loving them in the way God shows her to.
God said it clearly “Don’t harden your hearts.” Do not ignore his voice and wisdom. It goes against our man made wisdom and we think if we did that we would lose our family and be miserable so it is better to ignore the problems and pretend it is all good. But the thing is it is not all good, and you pay a price for not obeying.
It is that one thing that keeps you from receiving the true wisdom of God, each time we hear and obey he gives more wisdom. More truth and strength to overcome. Each time we ignore him on a point it keeps us from that power and wisdom.
I look at my lack of relationship with my daughters as a blessing in many ways. Yes I wish they would come around and start to see me again. BUT, if I would have done what they wanted, I still would be with their mother and living in sin, because I would not have received the wisdom of God. Nor would I be living in Mexico, retired at 61 and with 3 younger kids I adore. Not to mention a good wife. I also have the wisdom of how to handle this family better, the wisdom of God given to me because I obeyed him, left it all behind and moved to Mexico.
I cannot explain it in words, the joy I have from what God has done in my life. From where I live to what we have (especially when I see so many people struggling to pay bills and put food on the table these days). I do not have the same problems as the majority of the people. No health issues, no wealth issues, no family issues (nothing major anyways). And I know as long as I remain the course, my salvation and relationship with God is perfected and in tack. Moving in the right direction.
I also know I can go back the way I came and end up losing my salvation, we all can. Well actually most of you never had salvation to lose, you practice your religious beliefs which do NOT give you salvation. Again you seek things for yourself but you do not want to hear God and obey him.
Which brings me back to the main point God made today. “IF” you are still sinning, it is because you do not want to know me. Because “IF” you heard my voice, and did as I said, I would bless you and heal you. But because you harden your hearts, just like the Hebrews did, I am bringing the same plagues (problems) on you as the others.
This is why you have the same obesity rate, same health problems, same financial problems, same family problems… As everyone else. It is because you also ignore the voice of God in favor of your man teachers and bibles and religious ceremonies. Instead of hearing and obeying the Lord.
The reason I have peace and joy in God instead of those problems, is because I do hear and obey his voice. And in his truth it protects me from these things. But it requires obedience to the truth. For example, we eat very different than other people and why we are not fat and unhealthy. We made many sacrifices, and still do to accumulate wealth. We did not spend it on fancy expensive cars and watches and sunglasses. We do not visit coffee shops daily, or go out to eat all the time… We spend time with our kids and teach them the things of God and his righteousness, which goes in one ear and out the other most of the time. But they are hearing the truth, and as it says in Proverbs, “teach a child in the way they should go, and in their older years they will come back to it.”
When you do things the way God tells you to do them, it is very different than the way other people do it. And the results are different, and perfect, because God’s way is perfect. And in this perfect way is NO SIN. You sin because you refuse to do it his way, you do not listen and obey. And that is your judgment for eternity and salvation or no salvation. Do you hear and obey so he can lead you into all righteousness?