The Counsel of the Lord is our safeguard and our security. His Will is for our eternal good.
“You shall guide me by Your counsel;
and afterward, You will take me to glory.”
Psalm 73:24 (LITV)
Sensitivity to the counsel of God is a determining factor for seeing His glory. The good news of the Gospel is that He is ever seeking to lead and guide us. His purpose is to make us instruments of glory unto the Father. He has come and IS come that we may be instructed in the way of life.
His glory is to be our glory (2 Thessalonians 2:14). As we grow in His ways, we become enveloped in a deeper sense of opportunities to be pliable in His Will. Our sensitivity can only be developed through life experience. Understanding comes from discerning His way in our lives.
“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
Hebrews 5:14
If we fail to heed His counsel, we are unable to grow into the “strong meat” of His Word. It is an indictment that “strong meat” has come to mean a deep teaching or understanding of a doctrine that others may or may not believe. In the life of Jesus, His “meat” was to do the Will of His Father.
“My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me,
and to finish His work.”
John 4:34
Many in our day love to hear revelatory things. They stretch their ears to hear new things but remain insensitive to the doing of His Will. In the economy of God, it is by doing that we grow in our knowing.
“If any man will do his will, he shall know…”
John 7:17
There is a deception that settles in the hearts of His own who hear and fail to do.
“But become doers of the Word,
and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James 1:22
James goes on to declare that those who hear and fail to do are like people who behold themselves in a mirror and then turn away; they forget or lose their spiritual identity. This is a great issue in the church today: a lack of spiritual identity. A vast number of His children do not know their calling because they have not matured in His spiritual gifts and experienced His will for them personally.
“Because if anyone is a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, this one is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror; for he studied himself, and has gone away, and immediately he forgot of what kind he was.”
James 1:23-24
It is through our actions that our spiritual identity is developed. To know and not do is the critical issue of this hour. Jesus warned us in the parable of the wise and foolish builder:
“Then everyone who hears these Words from Me, and does them, I will compare him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
Matthew 7:24
By contrast:
“And everyone who hears these Words of Mine, and who does not do them, he shall be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand.”
Matthew 7:25
To the untrained eye, both houses looked good until the flood came. There is a flood coming, and in many places of the world, the persecution is already upon them. Opposition is rising in bitter hatred and animosity. God seeks to warn us of the hour coming to our land. Our salvation will NOT be in what we know, but in being found in the doing of His Will, humble and obedient to His counsel within the secret places of our lives.
Jesus told us that His return would be as it were in the “days of Noah,” who was warned by God concerning things to come which were “not yet seen.” The Word declares:
“By faith Noah, being warned of God
of things not seen as yet, moved with fear…”
Hebrews 11:7
God’s warning moved Noah to the building of the Ark. His faith moved him to obedience. He was not comforted because he knew God’s truth for the hour; his faith “moved him with fear.” Without a proper understanding of the “fear of the Lord,” men and women glory in what they know, failing to realize that it is the nature of faith to bring us to obedience.
“But has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith.”
Romans 16:26 (ESV)
May God impress upon us that in His gracious dealings with us, in giving us understanding in the “prophetic writings” of the scriptures, He intends to bring us to “the obedience of faith!”
It is grievous to hear so much speculative and even nonsensical talk about the end times with no comprehension that His warnings are to bring us to obedience. It is by obedience that we build our house on the fear of the Lord so that it will stand in the perilous day ahead.
His Counsel is full of mercy,
His truth is full of grace,
to strengthen us with favour,
to run with endurance the race.
The truth is that those who know of His coming and do not prepare themselves will receive a greater judgment than those who knew not of His return!
Luke 12:42-48
“And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise steward whom the Lord will set over His house servants, to give the portion of food in season? Blessed is that slave when his Lord comes and will find him so doing. Truly I say to you, He will set him over all His possessions. But if that slave should say in his heart, My Lord delays to come, and should begin to beat the men servants and the female servants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk, the Lord of that slave will come in the day in which he does not expect, and in an hour which he does not know. And He will cut him apart and will put his portion with the unbelievers.”
Luke 42-46 (LITV)
“But that slave knowing the will of his Lord, and not preparing, nor doing according to His will, will be beaten with many stripes.”
Luk 12:47 (LITV)
“But he not knowing, and doing things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few. And everyone given much, much will be demanded from him. And to whom much was deposited, more exceedingly they will ask of him.”
Luk 12:48 (LITV)
We must understand that with every gift given to us by Him, there is a responsibility to be faithful and obedient to it.
Knowledge without obedience
is the highest form of deception.
“For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.”
2 Peter 2:21
The counsel of the Lord is given in love, and by His favour we find the grace to comply.
Related Post: Christ Our Refuge
“Renew my will from day to day,
Blend it with Thine, and take away
All that now makes it hard to say,
‘Thy will be done.”
— Charlotte Elliott.
The hour is much later than we know – I feel the press of His Spirit calling us to Himself. Unity and fellowship with one another are the indicators of our relationship with Him—they who feel the urgency seek out their brothers and sisters for the mutual benefit of Spirit-led interaction. If our walk is truly in the Light, it must culminate in the binding together of our hearts.
“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another…”
1 John 1:7
Brian Troxel
Reminds me of Bob Goff’s book, Love Does. In it he speaks of being tired of “Bible Studies,” and wants instead to do “Bible Doings.”😉
Yes, amen. I think he has the mind of the Lord on that one.
Blessings,
BT
Declaring The WHOLE COUNCIL Of God
Act 20:26 — Act 20:27
Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
2Ti 4:3 — 2Ti 4:4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
I had a dream early the morning of January 5th, 2016. In this dream there were 3, what I will call, teachers.
Each teacher had a line standing in front of them. The first teacher had the longest line. What he would do as people in the line would come up to him was tear a page out of the Bible and hand it to them. When first reading this one would be inclined to think that he was giving the person a word from the Bible based on what the Lord was having him say. I have done this many times. However, this was not the case, hence my quote from 2 Tim where it speaks about people gathering to themselves teachers who would tickle itching ears. In other words this teacher was telling the individual what they wanted to hear, a feel good message, and not what they needed to hear which was to live a holy life. As you might have guessed, he had the longest line standing in front of him.
The next teacher did not tear out pages from the Bible and hand them to people, instead, the people standing in line would come up and tear out the pages they wanted and walk away. It seemed that each had their own truth. This line was a little shorter than the first but nonetheless was still a long line.
The 3rd teacher held the Bible closed and would not allow anyone to pick and choose what they wanted to believe. They either took the whole Bible, representing the whole counsel of God, or they walked away with nothing. As one might guess, his line was the shortest although people did try to get him to compromise he refused. Hence my quoting Paul stating first off that he was innocent of the blood of all men. Why? Because he did not shrink away from preaching the whole counsel of God.
False teachers will be guilty of the blood of those who burn in hell because of the false doctrines they taught.
The statement by Paul that he was innocent of the blood of all men by reason of the fact that he declared the whole counsel of God to them is a frightening thought, however, this is exactly what is happening today
Such a timely word for this day. I love the quote of Francis Bacon:
“In periods of unsettled faith, skepticism, and mere curious speculation in matters of religion, teachers of all kinds swarm like the flies in Egypt. The demand creates the supply. The hearers invite and shape their own preachers. If the people desire a calf to worship, a ministerial calf-maker is readily found.”
Francis Bacon
THREE TEACHERS
……and glorious powerful meetings we had there, for the Lord’s infinite power and life was over all. In the fresh openings whereof I was moved to declare of the three estates and three teachers, viz. ‘God was the first teacher of man and woman in paradise; and as long as they kept to and under his teaching, they kept in the image of God, in his likeness, in righteousness and holiness, and in dominion over all that God had made; in the blessed state, in the paradise of God. But when they hearkened to the serpent’s false teaching, (who was out of truth,) disobeyed God, and obeyed the serpent, in feeding upon that which God forbade; they lost his image of God, the righteousness and holiness, came under the power of satan, and were turned out of Paradise, out of the blessed into the cursed state. Then the promise of God was, “That the seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head,” break his power that man and woman were under, and destroy his works. So here were three states and three teachers. God was the first teacher in Paradise; and whilst man kept under his teaching, he was happy. The serpent was the second teacher; and when man followed his teaching he fell into misery, into the fall from the image of God, righteousness, and holiness, and from the power that he had over all that God had made; and came under the serpent whom he had power over before. Christ Jesus was the third teacher; of whom God saith, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well please, hear ye him:” and who himself saith, “learn of me.” This is the true gospel-teacher, who bruises the head of the serpent the false teacher, and the head of all false teachers and false religions, false ways, false worships, and false churches. Christ, who said, “Learn of me.” and of whom the Father said, “hear ye him,” said, “I am the way to God, I am the truth, I am the life, and the true light.”
George Fox, approx.. 1650’s