When God says 'No'...

The devil is still using the oldest trick in the book to turn the hearts of men and women away from God today- ‘’Did God say...?’’

Many times, God just says, ‘Don’t!’ When we hear that, we want to find out ‘Why not’? Especially, if it’s something we really want to do.

Well, in my experience, each time I went to find out ‘why not’, I wish I hadn’t. The worst hells of my life have been discovered while trying to see why God said,’ Dont.’ ‘’What could be wrong with it?’’, I’d wonder. When I found out each time, I wish I hadn’t!

Then there’s the grace he has given me to understand things several steps ahead of many of my contemporaries. I’d see it and I’d understand.  There could be anyone of a million and one reasons why God said ‘No’. Invariably though, the theme of His response is always the same. He wants to protect us. When He says, ‘’Do this’’ or ‘’don’t do that’’, He is actually shielding us from things He knows we cannot see.

When satan gave Adam and Eve the ‘impetus’ they needed to disobey God and eat the fruit that opened their eyes to good and evil, he did not give them any safety net to catch them when they opted for the evil. He did not care that their eyes being open to doing evil will also require that they be protected from such evil. But God does care.

Now, we have found out that when God said ‘forgive’, He was asking you to do that for your good as well as for the good of the person being forgiven. Imagine how many souls, how many lives have been lost over the past centuries just because they refused to forgive. Now this generation finds out they have something to gain from forgiving and they are rushing to forgive but countless lives have most likely been lost simply because they did not catch this same revelation and would not take God’s word for it.

We also know from scripture that Adam and Eve’s decision not to take God’s Word as settled has Mankind at this slippery spot where every man has to work out his own salvation through faith in Christ. If they had just taken God’s word for it and commanded the devil back where he came from, we would be having ease and sweet now, I daresay. Unfortunately, those first couple had to ask, ‘What if God is wrong?’... And here we all are today.

Well, many are still asking that same question today- ‘’what if God is wrong? What if God is holding out on me? What if He’s preventing me from doing that because He’s a tyrant who gets His kicks from suppressing innocent humans and depriving them of fun? Won’t I have to ‘sort’ myself? Arrange myself? Look out for myself?’’

Well, you are exactly where the devil wants you. As soon as he can get you to think God is holding out on you, ‘cheating’ you and you need to satisfy yourself, or get you to think only you can satisfy yourself and help yourself and look out for yourself(with which eyes!), then he can bring you all the things you think you want that God said ‘No’ to....

.... And you are right back where humanity as we now know it started from- the fall and its attendant horrors! Urrrggghhh!!!

 

Pray this simple prayer if you are a believer:

Lord, Give me the Grace to love You, to trust You and to know that I could  never possibly want better for myself than You do for me. Amen.

 

If you have not given your life to Christ pray this first:

Lord God, I admit that I am a sinner. I also believe that You sent Your Son Jesus Christ to die for my sins. Wash me clean Lord, by Your precious blood shed for my sins and accept me into Your Eternal Plan in Jesus precious Name I pray. Amen.

 

Spiritual vs Common Sense

Growing up I always wondered what people talked about in hushed tones when they said things like ‘jazz’, ‘fetish’, ‘strange’ and the like. I would wonder what they spoke about so excitedly while at the same time maintaining a rather calm, sober, usually disappointed, sometimes fearful mien trying not to look so excited. It was rather like they did not want to talk about it, yet they wanted to. Like they were not happy about it yet, they were happy to talk about it. Maybe even like they were happy to talk about it but would rather look like they did not! Hmn! The subterfuges of the human mind....

As it turned out, having had personal spiritual encounters earlier in life, I grew up quietly nursing those encounters. When I did speak about them it was with the hope and general longing that I would not be mistaken for a nut case.

Now, I know that there is nothing more obvious, more in your face and more generally accepted than the spiritual. Everyone’s talking about it and everyone’s not having qualms about talking about it to one person or the other. In fact the only reason it seemed it was hushed back then was because I was a kid and no one thought they should discuss such stuff in front of kids.

Not so anymore. If you are above twenty five and you claim ignorance of the spiritual you are truly ignorant and you would pay the price.

First there is an Omniscient God. Then, there is an ‘opposition party’- headed by the devil. Of course, the opposition is grossly outnumbered and pathetically disadvantaged but human beings are still roughly divided between God and it. If you are claiming ignorance of either you are in some pretty steep trouble because the playing field against you isn’t level. Everyone’s getting help somewhere and you’re not. Poor you!

Well, I have since learnt of the battle for my life- the plans that God has for me and how close I would get to taking that and the devil would bring along a distraction. I have since learnt of times I failed God in this already won non- battle for Supremacy and I marvel at the ease with which it was easier for me to glide into the devil’s agenda than believe God. I mean, face the devil in the realm of the flesh, emotions and logic and he would whip you every time! I have thrived on things making sense and when my spirit receives from God I have had the tendency to take brain over non-matter, every time.

Finally, though I’m seeing there’s nothing to what we see. Each thing I gave up for common sense was always a setup. Rather like to tell me, ‘Where’s the common sense now?’ or ‘Where’s the common sense in that?’ If I have to give up something for common sense and find in the end that there was no sense in what looked so sensible then common sense has failed.

And when I follow my knowing- that spiritual state that does not appeal to the senses; that pointedly defies all logic, everything falls into place. Life decisions and changes have been made on this; in this realm, and nothing has fallen apart even when they looked like they will. Tell me now, where isn’t the common sense in that? Now, between the common sense that fails and the spiritual that beats all logic but delivers and never fails, which is the common sense?

I bet the answer is pretty obvious... to everyone with a bit of common sense.