Lets play a little bit of make believe. Imagine you are a faithful and loyal carpenter who is engaged to be married to your high school sweetheart. Every time you are with her your heart skips beats, your hands get a little clammy and the amazing things about her do not stop going through your head. When you are apart you miss her and can barely contain the excitement of knowing you will soon be married and will be able to share all of the beautiful benefits of that covenant.
A few months before the wedding and most things are set. A church is booked, dresses are bought, tuxedos rented, meals planned, dj's interviewed and music chosen. The honeymoon is planned and your dad is gonna let you borrow his best two humped camel for the journey. But then; news arrives.
Your fiance, whom you thought was a virgin, tells you that she is pregnant. If it's me, my first reaction is anger. Then betrayal and confusion. I'll guess that Joseph likely had some of that too. He probably also had some relief. I mean think, he was close to committing the rest of his life to this woman who is clearly insane. "Yeah right, an angel came and knocked you up? Sure, okay Mary. Have a good life." Seriously, would you believe that story? Thankfully, God knows our hearts, hopes and plans. He also knows our fears. So, Joseph also received an angelic visit with the sole purpose of confirming the wacky story his future wife told him. I believe that if Joseph never had received a visit from an angel or a vision from God or something UNDENIABLY from God, then the divorce would have happened. Even with the visit it is difficult to believe. But without it there were simply too many ways for Joseph to doubt that crazy story.
God still speaks to us. Not always through angels but His ways are not limited. But how do you know if that voice rolling around your skull is Him or the devil? As it would've been for Joseph then, without a divine interaction, it can still be difficult for us today to discern His voice. I've heard dozens of methods that people use to determine the source of their thoughts. Many of them are probably successful. But they are often much more complex than they really need to be. If God wants to talk to you [and He does] then hearing Him shouldn't be that difficult. Realistically, the hearing is easy. The challenge is knowing who is saying it. With that in mind I just want to share my favorite method of determining who says what. It's only a few scriptures but they contain the answer we are searching for.
First, we know that Satan's plan is simple. He aims to kill, steal and destroy by prowling around looking for someone to devour. With those goals in mind we can determine who is telling us what we hear. See, when there is a thought planted in your head just follow that thought to it's natural conclusion. If you follow through on that thought what will happen? In Romans Paul gives us a list of attributes that result from the godlessness and wickedness of man. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped the creation rather than the Creator. With that choice came envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They were gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invented ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. In Galatians, Paul adds to that list with sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Every single one of those ends in pain and bondage. Is that what your God wants for you?
By stark contrast the opposite is true of God. He gives abundant life. He wants us prosperous, joyful and loved. When God plants an idea in your head the fruits are beautiful things that we should all want to give and receive. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, happiness, faithfulness, goodness, kindness and self-control. What evil, hurt or iniquity can those things possibly cause?
God is speaking to us today. He never stopped. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. God's voice always builds up. The enemy's voice always breaks down. Should be a simply concept.
God Bless!!
A few months before the wedding and most things are set. A church is booked, dresses are bought, tuxedos rented, meals planned, dj's interviewed and music chosen. The honeymoon is planned and your dad is gonna let you borrow his best two humped camel for the journey. But then; news arrives.
Your fiance, whom you thought was a virgin, tells you that she is pregnant. If it's me, my first reaction is anger. Then betrayal and confusion. I'll guess that Joseph likely had some of that too. He probably also had some relief. I mean think, he was close to committing the rest of his life to this woman who is clearly insane. "Yeah right, an angel came and knocked you up? Sure, okay Mary. Have a good life." Seriously, would you believe that story? Thankfully, God knows our hearts, hopes and plans. He also knows our fears. So, Joseph also received an angelic visit with the sole purpose of confirming the wacky story his future wife told him. I believe that if Joseph never had received a visit from an angel or a vision from God or something UNDENIABLY from God, then the divorce would have happened. Even with the visit it is difficult to believe. But without it there were simply too many ways for Joseph to doubt that crazy story.
God still speaks to us. Not always through angels but His ways are not limited. But how do you know if that voice rolling around your skull is Him or the devil? As it would've been for Joseph then, without a divine interaction, it can still be difficult for us today to discern His voice. I've heard dozens of methods that people use to determine the source of their thoughts. Many of them are probably successful. But they are often much more complex than they really need to be. If God wants to talk to you [and He does] then hearing Him shouldn't be that difficult. Realistically, the hearing is easy. The challenge is knowing who is saying it. With that in mind I just want to share my favorite method of determining who says what. It's only a few scriptures but they contain the answer we are searching for.
First, we know that Satan's plan is simple. He aims to kill, steal and destroy by prowling around looking for someone to devour. With those goals in mind we can determine who is telling us what we hear. See, when there is a thought planted in your head just follow that thought to it's natural conclusion. If you follow through on that thought what will happen? In Romans Paul gives us a list of attributes that result from the godlessness and wickedness of man. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped the creation rather than the Creator. With that choice came envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They were gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invented ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. In Galatians, Paul adds to that list with sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Every single one of those ends in pain and bondage. Is that what your God wants for you?
By stark contrast the opposite is true of God. He gives abundant life. He wants us prosperous, joyful and loved. When God plants an idea in your head the fruits are beautiful things that we should all want to give and receive. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, happiness, faithfulness, goodness, kindness and self-control. What evil, hurt or iniquity can those things possibly cause?
God is speaking to us today. He never stopped. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. God's voice always builds up. The enemy's voice always breaks down. Should be a simply concept.
God Bless!!