There is a wonderful tool on the internet for hungry believers. www.studylight.org It has wonderful bible study tools: dictionaries, multiple translations, commentaries links etc. Highly recommend to you!
Anyway, this morning on the studylight website, C.H. Spurgeon's devotional was on the passage from Phillipians that I was blogging about several days ago. Phillipians 4:12 "I know how to abound." Spurgeon gave me a different perspective. His was a warning about abounding.
"Fulness of bread has often made fulness of blood, and that has brought on wantonness of spirit. When we have much of God's providential mercies, it often happens that we have but little of God's grace, and little gratitude for the bounties we have received. We are full and we forget God: satisfied with earth, we are content to do without heaven. Rest assured it is harder to know how to be full than it is to know how to be hungry-so desperate is the tendency of human nature to pride and forgetfulness of God. Take care that you ask in your prayers that God would teach you "how to be full. "
I am reflecting upon this in light of my own journey into hearing and knowing God in a deeper more profound way. Is it possible to walk in a relationship with God that is so "full" that one gets prideful and takes the relationship for granted? It seems unlikely, but yes, I think that can truly happen.
Remember Moses leading the people in the wilderness? Now here was a man who was tight with the Lord. So tight, he took the relationship for granted. He once had been told by God to strike a rock to get water for the people as they traveled through the desert. Thirty-some-odd years later, when God told him to only speak to the rock to get the water he didn't listen. He fell back on old revelation and hit the rock again, not just once, but twice! (More dramatic effect!)
I am feeling convicted here. This is exactly what I have been doing. I get revelation from my precious Lord, and assume it is now the holy doctrine for life! When I think I am close and listening and full, what may be happening is assumption. Forgive me, Lord!
I think this is one of the important reasons He calls us to be part of His Body. We each receive from Him and as we share our hearts and lives with one another, we are refined. If we are walking in old revelation, our brothers and sisters in Christ will help us to see it, if we are vulnerable with each other.
The Lord loves to do new things. He is the Creator! I am understanding the silence of this fast more. Being silent, emptying one's soul before the Lord allows His Spirit to flow through us in a new way every moment. I am learning through this time of seeking Him with all my heart that He really is preparing me for newness of Life! Glory!!
Help me to always stay open to You Lord and to Your voice and heart. Thank You that I am learning to trust You in a brand new way. Help me to never take You for granted, but to always listen for Your creative new instructions. I love you Lord! Yours Truly, Anna Marie
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