Tag: Becoming vrs Knowing

Are We Taught of God? – Excerpt from coming Book

Taught of God

“But as touching brotherly love
ye need not that I write unto you:
for ye yourselves are taught of God
to love one another”
1 Thessalonians 4:9

The culmination of God’s work within an individual is Love; His Love ruling and reigning in the life of His own. While those with “itchy ears” (desirous of hearing something pleasant Literal Greek Definition) clamor to hear teachers who will entertain the intellect and arouse their curiosity, those who are taught of God are brought into the arena of His Love for one another.

“For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine;
but after their own lusts
shall they heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth,
and shall be turned unto fables”
2 Timothy 4:3-4 (LITV)

The Gospel of God speaks of righteousness and grace. It presents to us a bruised and broken Son of God, delivered to wicked men to be crucified on our behalf, that we should no more be slaves of sin but would become servants of righteousness. The gospel of pleasant things is “another gospel” prevalent in preaching of today. The verse preceding the above one is Paul’s instruction to Timothy of what his preaching should be.

“Preach the word; be instant in season,
out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort
with all longsuffering and doctrine”
2 Timothy 4:2

We are to preach the Word, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting one another in the fervor and passion of the Holy Spirit. In our day those who live and preach such things are ostracized and ridiculed for being “legalistic”. In reality the Word declares just the opposite.

“Having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof:
from such turn away”
2 Timothy 2:5

It is those who live in the realm of appearances and hold to a form of righteousness from whom the Apostle exhorts Timothy to turn away. We have perverted the Gospel to such an extent that the “professors” of religion are accepted while those who seek to preach righteousness are turned away even by many who call themselves by His Holy Name. People desire to hear only “pleasant things”; things that soothe the soul and anesthetize the conscience from that word that would pierce asunder “soul and spirit” and make manifest the ulterior motives of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).

Those who are taught of God know of His Love which corrects, chastens and reproves that they may grow in the righteousness of God in Christ. Those who love religion and appearance are comfortable with a form of goodness and have no desire to come to the truth.

To be taught of God is to desire His word of reproof, exhortation and rebuke from all who walk in the light of God. Truth is the only means by which we can know in the depths of our hearts what God’s Love is. The Holy Spirit is never called the Spirit of Love; it is called the Spirit of Truth. It is in the ministration of truth, that piercing revelation of all who Jesus is, that we have any concept of the Holy Love of God. God’s love does not overlook sin; it atones for it!

Love is the end of God within His people. Those who know God love His people and have His heart, His call and His desire for them beating within their own hearts. It is from such that His ministrations of truth proceed. Those who speak only “pleasant things” are those who desire only pleasant things. Those who compromise with sin in their own hearts will easily overlook the sins of others. Those who shun those who speak truth are those who also shun truth in their own hearts; for by their works men reveal their true condition. It is a day of the unveiling of all things. The Revelation of Christ is also the day of the revelation of all hearts. In the shining forth of Him all things hidden will be exposed and “the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day”.

To Love someone is to care
To care for someone is to speak truth
To speak truth is to reveal Jesus
To reveal Jesus is to Honour the Father
To Honour the Father is to Love the Son

Whether or not we are taught of God is revealed by the depth of His Love which flows from our hearts to others. The validity of an individual being taught of God is revealed in the Love they walk in. If we only love those who love us we know not God.

“And if you love those who love you, what thanks is there to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what thanks is there to you? For even the sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what thanks is there to you? For the sinners lend to sinners so that they may receive the same. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be much; and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the unthankful and evil ones”
Luke 6:32-35

Ω

“He that loveth not knoweth not God;
for God is love”
1 John 4:8

Brian Troxel
www.aword.info

THE QUESTION

THE QUESTION

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us”
EPHESIANS 3:20

The “exceeding” and “abundantly” doing of God is in proportion to the power that is at work in us. Men want God’s working dynamic in external things without the working of God within our hearts and minds. We want the life without the death. We want the freedom of the Holy Spirit without the necessary disciplining work of Grace. God is far more interested in the internal state of our hearts than the empty religious works of men’s hands or even the overt acts of miracles and wonders. Have we not seen enough in these days of the multitudes flocking to see “acts” of power only to witness man’s failure in righteousness bringing dishonor and reproach to God’s name?

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city”
PROVERBS 16:32

The power of God which works IN us is to produce a life that testifies of Him. It is in our WALK that we reveal the power of Him who has and is saving us from our very selves. This is the real import of His Salvation. His name is Jesus, for HE came to save us FROM our sins (Matthew 1:21). Salvation is the work of God to free us and deliver us FROM OUR sins; from wrong thinking, wrong doing and wrong being. Salvation is the work of God to save us FROM this wrongness INTO HIS actual righteousness. This is all the work of HIS Spirit “according to” or in proportion to “the power that works IN US”! The power that works in us will be proportional to the yielding of our lives TO HIM.

“Therefore, brothers,
I call on you through the compassions of God
to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this age,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
ROMANS 12:1-2

The transforming work of God is DEPENDENT upon the offering and presenting of ourselves unto HIM as living sacrifices. The great work of being renewed in our thinking will always be proportional to this offering of one’s self. Men who fail to develop are those who have failed to submit themselves to the continual, transforming work of God. To go only so far and allow stagnation, spiritual laziness, and age to dampen our pursuit of Him is the great tragedy of life. Without going on in the full purposes of God, there is a numbing and slumber that will surely overtake all who succumb to the weariness of the age. The greatest trial HIS people will ever face is the apathy and carelessness from without becoming the apathy and carelessness within.

“Moab hath been at ease from his youth,
and he hath settled on his lees,
and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel…
therefore his taste remained in him,
and his scent is not changed”
JEREMIAH 48:11

Men become comfortable and settled in their present “vessel” (mode of fellowship and understanding). They fail to so pursue God and be pliable and surrendered unto Him that they remain in an old thing that may be comfortable but is in fact stagnant and dead. We see Moses…

“Esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt:
for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt…”
HEBREWS 11:26-27

By FAITH Moses was poured from one “vessel” into another for HIS heart was fixed upon the reward of Christ! The “power” that is at work IN us is revealed through the life we live. Words and sermons mean little; FAITH is revealed by what we do. Men who remain unchanged after years of being a “Christian” have “settled on their lees” and have become comfortable and restricted the “power” that would work in them to produce vessels “FIT and PREPARED for the MASTER’S USE” (2 Timothy 2:21).

The great and penetrating question of this hour for all of us…

“What is the power that is at WORK in US”?

 Brian Troxel