NOT?
This is why it is of the highest priority that we position ourselves to hear truth with a heart that deeply longs to obey what we hear. Have you ever told someone you wanted their help and needed their advice, yet the advice you were looking for was only affirmation of your actions and not the answer to your problem? Have you ever been asked to supply your input about a circumstance, yet you knew from the beginning that they would not act on what you shared?
We rarely want solutions in areas of our lives that we feel that we have figured out. What we normally do is seek affirmation from others to confirm our thoughts not confront us in life. How many times have we come before the Lord and said, “Just tell me Lord Your will and I’ll do it”? Yet we knew that we only wanted justification for what we were already doing. We have to come to the Lord as His subject not as His advisor or counselor. It is important for us, as His subjects, to come under His authority and the sound of His voice to listen with an expectation to conform to what we hear from Him. We can not approach the Lord as an advisor seeking to make Him conform to our desire. This is what prescription drug addicts do when they seek a doctor that they can manipulate into conforming to their advice. They go to a physician to get what they want, not subject themselves to his professional influence and instruction that they may be cured but to deepen their sickness.
Most people go to a doctor because they need his counsel. They are sick or have a problem that they can’t handle so they seek a doctor’s instruction, influence and involvement in their personal life. I haven’t been to a doctor in over eight years now. Why? To my knowledge I haven’t needed a doctor’s experience and influence. I haven’t been sick therefore I haven’t sought the instruction of, or the involvement of a doctor in my life. Jesus used the same analogy when teaching His disciples about the reason He came. “And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).
Don’t miss this point. If you fail to grasp this principle you’ll let everything needful slip right out of your hands. (Pr. 17:16) The religious establishment in Jesus day missed it. They complained about the fact that He called sinners and tax collectors to follow Him. Jesus responded to the Pharisees by manifesting to them that these people know that they are sin sick. Jesus knew that His Father had supernaturally revealed to these sin sick souls that He could cure them and therefore He invited them to follow Him. They, through divine help, followed Jesus in order to come under His influence and instruction. They needed and sought after His involvement in their life.
If anyone follows Christ it is because they want to know what He knows. They subject themselves under His influence to hear His instruction because they want to follow the Great Physician’s orders. He has the answer to their sickness, and the very well-being they so desperately need. “And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9). The word obey means to come under to listen to His instruction with every intent to conform to His ways. They live to follow the One who has the greatest influence over their life, Jesus. Why do they subject themselves to Him? They have been persuaded that He is their life and livelihood.
On the other hand we see from other passages that the opposite is the reality for those who are not persuaded. They, not being persuaded that Jesus is their life source, can’t be characteristically described as being obedient. This very same group will be dealt with when Jesus returns to bring vengeance on those who do not know His Father and have not been persuaded by the gospel to obey Jesus. “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thes. 1:8-9). It is quite clear that those who do not live to follow the influence and instruction of the Lord are lost and perishing in their sin.
Have you personally answered the call of God to follow His Son? Sin sick people seek a Doctor for His advice and not to advise Him. How about you? What truth are you obeying?
This is why it is of the highest priority that we position ourselves to hear truth with a heart that deeply longs to obey what we hear. Have you ever told someone you wanted their help and needed their advice, yet the advice you were looking for was only affirmation of your actions and not the answer to your problem? Have you ever been asked to supply your input about a circumstance, yet you knew from the beginning that they would not act on what you shared?
We rarely want solutions in areas of our lives that we feel that we have figured out. What we normally do is seek affirmation from others to confirm our thoughts not confront us in life. How many times have we come before the Lord and said, “Just tell me Lord Your will and I’ll do it”? Yet we knew that we only wanted justification for what we were already doing. We have to come to the Lord as His subject not as His advisor or counselor. It is important for us, as His subjects, to come under His authority and the sound of His voice to listen with an expectation to conform to what we hear from Him. We can not approach the Lord as an advisor seeking to make Him conform to our desire. This is what prescription drug addicts do when they seek a doctor that they can manipulate into conforming to their advice. They go to a physician to get what they want, not subject themselves to his professional influence and instruction that they may be cured but to deepen their sickness.
Most people go to a doctor because they need his counsel. They are sick or have a problem that they can’t handle so they seek a doctor’s instruction, influence and involvement in their personal life. I haven’t been to a doctor in over eight years now. Why? To my knowledge I haven’t needed a doctor’s experience and influence. I haven’t been sick therefore I haven’t sought the instruction of, or the involvement of a doctor in my life. Jesus used the same analogy when teaching His disciples about the reason He came. “And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).
Don’t miss this point. If you fail to grasp this principle you’ll let everything needful slip right out of your hands. (Pr. 17:16) The religious establishment in Jesus day missed it. They complained about the fact that He called sinners and tax collectors to follow Him. Jesus responded to the Pharisees by manifesting to them that these people know that they are sin sick. Jesus knew that His Father had supernaturally revealed to these sin sick souls that He could cure them and therefore He invited them to follow Him. They, through divine help, followed Jesus in order to come under His influence and instruction. They needed and sought after His involvement in their life.
If anyone follows Christ it is because they want to know what He knows. They subject themselves under His influence to hear His instruction because they want to follow the Great Physician’s orders. He has the answer to their sickness, and the very well-being they so desperately need. “And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9). The word obey means to come under to listen to His instruction with every intent to conform to His ways. They live to follow the One who has the greatest influence over their life, Jesus. Why do they subject themselves to Him? They have been persuaded that He is their life and livelihood.
On the other hand we see from other passages that the opposite is the reality for those who are not persuaded. They, not being persuaded that Jesus is their life source, can’t be characteristically described as being obedient. This very same group will be dealt with when Jesus returns to bring vengeance on those who do not know His Father and have not been persuaded by the gospel to obey Jesus. “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thes. 1:8-9). It is quite clear that those who do not live to follow the influence and instruction of the Lord are lost and perishing in their sin.
Have you personally answered the call of God to follow His Son? Sin sick people seek a Doctor for His advice and not to advise Him. How about you? What truth are you obeying?
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