When Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples . . . He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities —Matthew 11:1
He comes where He commands us to leave. If you stayed home when God told you to go because you were so concerned about your own people there, then you actually robbed them of the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself. When you obeyed and left all the consequences to God, the Lord went into your city to teach, but as long as you were disobedient, you blocked His way. Watch where you begin to debate with Him and put what you call your duty into competition with His commands. If you say, “I know that He told me to go, but my duty is here,” it simply means that you do not believe that Jesus means what He says.
He teaches where He instructs us not to teach. “Master . . . let us make three tabernacles . . .” (Luke 9:33).
Are we playing the part of an amateur providence, trying to play God’s role in the lives of others? Are we so noisy in our instruction of other people that God cannot get near them? We must learn to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct us regarding His Son, and He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration. When we become certain that God is going to work in a particular way, He will never work in that way again.
He works where He sends us to wait. “. . . tarry . . . until . . .” (Luke 24:49). “Wait on the Lord” and He will work (Psalm 37:34). But don’t wait sulking spiritually and feeling sorry for yourself, just because you can’t see one inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our own spiritual fits of emotion to “wait patiently for Him”? (Psalm 37:7). Waiting is not sitting with folded hands doing nothing, but it is learning to do what we are told.
These are some of the facets of His ways that we rarely recognize.
Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
It really is true, that whenever we start thinking that you always do a thing in a particular way … that’s when you refuse to show up in that way. “Your mercies are new every morning” and you seem to want us in a mode of discovering them new, each day. One exception that may be in a different category is this CO2 time I spend with my brother. We’ve been doing it for about 4 years now and it doesn’t get old and you dont seem to disappear. We are even using the same Oswald Chambers devo to start the conversation each day … we’ve talked about changing, but wont until this seems to get repetitive … and so far, it hasn’t.
Actually, it leads to new ways of hearing the same message: That the important thing is to stay connected with you, stay curious and expectant and letting you lead in our lives. We’ve got a long way to go …. but we’ve come a long way. Thanks for that.
Click Image for John White's Original Vision For CO2's
