We May Speak for God (Spurgeon’s Faith’s Checkbook)
We May Speak for God
May 19
Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. (Jeremiah 15:19)
Poor Jeremiah! Yet why do we say so? The weeping prophet was one of the choicest servants of God and honored by Him above many. He was hated for speaking the truth. The word which was so sweet to him was bitter to his hearers, yet he was accepted of his Lord. He was commanded to abide in his faithfulness, and then the Lord would continue to speak through him. He was to deal boldly and truthfully with men and perform the Lord’s winnowing work upon the professors of his day, and then the Lord gave him this word: “Thou shalt be as my mouth.”
What an honor! Should not every preacher, yea, every believer, covet it? For God to speak by us, what a marvel! We shall speak sure, pure truth; and we shall speak it with power. Our word shall not return void; it shall be a blessing to those who receive it, and those who refuse it shall do so at their peril. Our lips shall feed many. We shall arouse the sleeping and call the dead to life.
O dear reader, pray that it may be so with all the sent servants of our Lord.
Grace and peace in Yeshua the Messiah <3
The Sound of a Person
In Hebrew the word voice is Qol; meaning the sound of a person.
I know my husband’s voice. I know his sound. I can tell the difference between his allergy snores and his cold snores. I can tell his many varied grunts, gasps, groans. I can discern his mood or state by his tones. Grant it I still sometimes take one for another; but over all I know the sounds of my husband. That which vibrates the inner-ear and outer. His gaze speaks, his eyes, his face, his countenance, his walk, and all that silence surrounds in his “speaking without his voice box”. I have lived with, wanted to know, listened to his voices for 18 years. Of course it does seem to be a bonus that he comes with the ability to voice a physically detectable voice. Meaning its “attached” to his physical vocal chords and vibrates my physical ear-drums.
The Sound of God…now that is truly amazing! This requires the inner-ear alone. Yes, He often uses another fallible human voice…but if you don’t know His voice; straight from His “lips” to your ears…you will never know it. His speech is like that of the Word, His tone is personal and pitched depending on what He is “saying”, His loudness/softness intimate and sure. Often one may think it “sounds” like one’s own voice. Though the Source could never come from us. That is…the Wisdom, Truth, and Clarity of Absolute Knowledge. It can only “sound” like His Word (the Bible). That is to say…it sounds like Yeshua (Jesus). The “logic” from which He speaks more often than not will fly in the face of what seems familiar to us. It will stand out as white as snow in sunshine and black as pitch against the “logic of the world”. It doesn’t encourage self-esteem, it encourages God-esteem. Example:
Worldly: “You got this. You can do it. Trust your instincts.
Heavenly: “I got this. I can do this. Trust Me and let go of your own understanding. (the I’s and Me’s are God…not the child He made’s I or me)
He wants us to have confidence in Him. Not ourselves. To try and explain the workings or logic of that is impossible by way of human invention or framework. Either His Voice confirms this concept in our spirits or the chances are we don’t hear His Voice.
Example:
Yeshua said, anyone who hates his life shall gain it, loving it he shall lose it.
This passage is still debated in its context and meaning today. It means the above; we decrease, He increases. His life is lived in us, not ours in Him. Its not about us.
The Voice of God is spoken as if in word and form it is tailored specifically for each child He has made. In other words; He knows how to say, with what words, in the exact timing each of us needs and can hear it without denying we were told by Him. To this day, even though God has opened my heart to the Truth in any voice He should send it…His alone I can not deny.
Hearing His Voice takes devotion and specified times of shutting out all else and assuming we know nothing. This is countercultural in this age of “know it all-ism”. Hence we must decide to push against our own natural bend. We come to Him with blank pages…and only He may “ink them”. If we haven’t read how He has spoken in the past, we won’t know the “sound of His Voice” in the present! His Voice alone can teach us what He sounds like.
The Sound of His Person is what we follow. Its the single most important thing in Walking with God. Mistake this…and lost is the sheep.
John 10:27 ~ Yeshua speaking…
My sheep listen to My Voice, I recognize them, they follow Me.
John 12:25 ~ Yeshua speaking…
He who loves his life loses it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it safe right on into eternal life!
John 10:1-5 ~ Yeshua speaking…
Yes, indeed! I tell you, the person who doesn’t enter the sheep-gate through the door, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. But the one who goes in through the gate is the sheep’s own shepherd. This is the one the gate-keeper admits, and the sheep hear His Voice. He calls His own sheep, each one by name, and leads them out. After taking out all that are His own, He goes on ahead of them; and the sheep follow Him because they recognize His Voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him, because stranger’s voices are unfamiliar to them.
They who have ears…let them hear!!
Grace and peace in Yeshua the Messiah <3
New Story ~ Part 11
New Story continued…
Master Shimkee sat in an alcove just outside the rear entry to his abode. Having recalled the Tinder-tale as much as his aged mind could repeat to Evardyne and Sakira. He had sent them on their way for what rest they may find in the awaking world around them. He lingered. It was not the cascading and ever-flowing newness of hues and musical language that kept him here. Though he could have sat feasting both eye and ear for the remainder of the night watches. He, with no understanding to his person felt as though he were waiting…waiting for…something? Mayhap someone? So he sat letting the calypso of eye and ear “food” fall into and over him…waiting.
The moon shimmered and threw down her light with the songs of the stars to accompany her. Not one cloud to be seen in the vast Up-Everlasting. He tried to recall if he had ever seen such an absence of clouds through the halls of his memory. No – this too, was a first. Such an unveiled view of all that was beyond reach struck him anew with awe. He could not even remember if it had occurred to him to wonder at such a sight; so familiar had the obscuring canopy of clouds become to his understanding of all that encompassed everything UP!
A silence descended, each color laying down in stillness all around him. The very air waited, as Shimkee, in a prophesied hush. Shimkee’s countenance entered the invitation and antisipation pulled his watchful gaze to the fringes of the garden entry. He rose, and his feet obeyed an unheard summons, walking towards the garden. Rounding the corner towards the root-garden’s row a butterfly flew up and its wings brushed the air like kisses on his face. He gasped in wonder, and delight fed the winged beauty illiminating its colorful chaos of pattern left by its flight. He followed almost enspelled. The butterfly landed on what seemed a mound of dirt, folding its wings back on itself – appearing to vanish. He could not recall this mound before. Curiosity drove him towards it. As he reached out, thousands of butterflies flew up, up to the moon and her glory.
Shimkee laughed and with his whole being longed to join them. Was it moments or hours he stood watching the winged procession; he knew not, but movement drew his awareness back down to the “mound”. But it was not dirt that formed it…it was a boy-lad!! Sitting there watching Shimkee like a statue. The “statue” moved to his feet…the face smiled…a hand reached out towards him…the voice – child-like – yet hundreds of years bathed…spoke.
“Hello Master Shimkee. Such delight colors your face! Those creatures have a way of painting everything around them with it. Yes?” The boy-lad King said.
Master Shimkee stood, staring mouth open, full of multiple thoughts at once; unable to take their leave.
The boy-lad laughed and night became day all around them.
“How long has it been since you’ve seen a boy-lad such as myself, Master Shimkee? Are there only girl-lads about this place?” The boy-lad asked in a chuckle.
Shimkee smiled without permission from his brain.
“Father-All be held!! Its…its you…is it not?” Shimkee breathed rather than spoke the words.
“Of course its me, who else could be me…but me?” The boy-lad said.
Shimkee shook his head indicating both his shock and lack of satisfaction to the tinder-lads answer. He checked his senses and evaluated the vision before him.
…a crown…a robe of light…and a very very ordinary looking boy-lad. But no ordinary boy-lad was this! No – this was the boy-lad King!! Here, in Shimkee’s garden, speaking his name in such familiarity it shook Shimkee to his bones.
“Ahh…you did not expect me.” Said the King-lad. “Why?”
The question dropped like a single drop of water in a vast sea. The ripples resulted in a stream of clarity in Shimkee’s heart.
I suppose I thought it a tale for good dreams too. The honest drip calmed in his mind.
“I’m a’feared there is no new color of reason to be found to answer. My minds a’fumbled!” Shimkee blurted.
They stood staring at the words Shimkee uttered; and then, both boy-lad and elder began to laugh with un-withheld joy.
God willing Part 12, next week 
For those just joining. Click the link below, scroll to the bottom and hit ‘next page’, begin at Part 1… enjoy!
http://hisimagenme.wordpress.com/category/all-imagination-is-divine/
Grace and peace in Yeshua the Messiah <3
Traffic Signals ~ Set Apart
Romans 13:1-3
Everyone is to obey the governing authorities. For there is no authority that is not from God, and the existing authorities have been placed where they are by God. Therefore, whoever resist the authorities is resisting what God has instituted; and those who resist will bring judgement on themselves. For rulers are no terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you like to be unafraid of the person in authority? Then simply do what is good, and you will win his approval.
(Again it is wisdom to capitalize the P & A in Person in Authority, and the H in His)
It must have been about 10 years or so ago, when I read the above scripture for the zillionth time…and sent up a prayer for God to show me what it really meant. The “education” continues . Yet I am hoping to share how it has grown and progressed over that time.
Verse 3 was particularly challenging for me.
For rulers are no terror to good conduct, but to bad…
The “times” this verse was written in and the authorities at that time made me wonder if Paul was a bit delusional. Perhaps suffering from malnutrition or something. The rulers of his day were terrors, and “doing good” hardly won their approval. So what was I missing?…I asked.
The first thing the Spirit made clear was that I was to apply this to me and my “times”. The understanding from Paul’s perspective came much later. So…is/was my government a terror? Hmmm…well yes and no…but still I was directed away from this particular verse…
Back up….start at the beginning.
The Spirit seemed to say. So…slowly…I did.
I had never been much of a “law breaker”. I “fudged”. The picture at the top was me. (Not literally). I knew the cops gave a 4 mile an hour “lee-way” so my cruise was usually set some where between the max and the grace. This was my way of abiding by the “law”. It took a few years for God to show me I not only did this with the speed limit, but every aspect of my life. Ugh! God’s got the “patent” on humility, and no one has ever stole it or been able to copy write it out from underneath Him. Little by little He taught me. Today my cruise is always set at the speed limit, to the glory of God, not me. It wasn’t until I began to be obedient to God alone in this that lesson after lesson began pouring out like that River of Life Yeshua (Jesus) spoke of.
First of all, especially on a busy in-city Hi-way one gets an “in your face” view of what it means to serve The Authority in this world. Set your cruise to the speed limit and follow me for a few…
We’ve just exited the on-ramp. We are merging, signaling and converging with “everyone” else. Ignore the speed limit and just go with the flow for a minute. Then we gaze at the speedometer. We are going 63 in a posted 55. Not a cop in sight, oh how easy it will be to just “go with the flow”. The Spirit taps…
“Whose flow do ya want to go with??”
Reluctant but wanting to obey we dial back to 55, cruise is “set”. The first thing we see is…we are “falling behind”, everyone is passing us like we are standing still. Secondly, the guy behind us is now “riding our bumper” as we like to say. We think about tapping our brakes…you know just to explain the distance to them. Tap…
“Why can’t you let others be impatient? You aren’t supposed to be focusing on your tush right now, ya know?”
Thought comes, gets placed in “captivity” and the brake goes untapped, we obey. Now…it really starts to hit us just exactly how many people honestly just blow off the speed limit! It even shocks! Hmmm. That used to be us too. Guess we weren’t as “set apart” as we thought.
“Okay, Lord, I get it! Forgive me?”
We say a little prayer…
Thirdly, traffic starts to jam. We have just “caught up” but now everyone is crawling. We are gonna be late if this last long. 15 minutes of creeping and braking go by. Then the flow begins to resume. Okay, maybe the Lord won’t mind if I set the cruise back to four over?? We can’t be late, that’s irresponsible! We begin our “fudge-making”. Tap tap
“Please don’t…just one mile per hour over says you don’t trust Me.”
Inwardly we groan. Its true. Trust His timing? Trust His ways? Is He the God who makes all things go as He wants or not? Time to prove what we believe. It just you and the Lord, no one else has a clue what’s going on here. Set apart or go with the flow? Obey or don’t. No, disobedience may not produce any negative outward appearance. But where is it He lives? Oh, yeah…inside us. The cruise control stays at 55. Our exit looms…almost there. What time is it? Plenty of time…whew!
This is parabolic to every single situation in life. Its just more defined and visible on the Hi-way. Our Father is so Faithful! He has made it unmistakable to see. If…if we are willing. This was a battle. Hard. Humbling. Yet, this fulfills every word of scripture…every command. First – Love the Lord your God with everything! Everything within, everything without. Second – love your neighbor. Is it not love to obey those prompts? Give the “speed” to someone else? Resist the temptation to “let your neighbor know he’s tailing” by possibly causing an accident? Be the one who obeys the governing authorities…slow pokin’ as it may feel. I don’t know about you…but everytime I get behind someone who “slows me down”; I actually look at my speedometer. Bet you do too. Is it not love, to give someone a chance to listen to a “tap” and maybe they too…will slow down? 90% of stress is that people are in such a hurry. Check the stats for yourself…its true. Hurrying about things that will happen irreguardless of our timing or not. Like the car that zooms by you to get to a stop light before you do?? Hurry up and wait. Or…go with another flow…and let God take care of all the details just like He promised. Most of His promises we don’t know He keeps because we won’t let Him.
Its always the “little” things we take into our own hands. Its always starts “small”, but God isn’t the God of “big” stuff only. Look around…God’s in the details“!! And one more thing…
Even if the governing authorities seem to be asking you to do what’s unfair to you, if you obey…He honors it. I have to admit many many things God, the Authority asks me to do, often makes no sense and even seems unfair to me. Yet He asks me to obey and trust Him. When we are asked to obey our governing authorities it is a representation of us with Him. (This does not include obeying a government that would ask you to deny Yeshua, or murder…) As we can see clearly, Yeshua (Jesus) Himself, obeyed the Roman authorities with one exception…He obeyed the Father first. Yet He submitted to their captivity, took their abuse, did not “talk back”, complain, or bite back. He didn’t even show His authority over them…He just obeyed, trusted, listened, obeyed His Father. As did Paul, Peter, Matthew, James, John…and the list goes on. They didn’t deny their God, but did obey the “law”. Are you on the Set Apart List? Or do ya fudge? Perhaps you flat out rebel against every authority you’ve ever known. From Parents to Teachers to Government. If so…its never too late to start with Yeshua. He always starts “small” . Let Him guide ya on the road…and He’ll take ya all the Way Home!!
Grace and peace in Yeshua the Messiah <3
Unfolding My Wings One Day at a Time
buttrflygrl14
