If we Cannot Follow Man, how can we Follow Jesus—R Fritz
We can see and hear and touch man yet when man tells us to do something we refuse to do it, we do not even ask God whether we should. When man tells us what we are doing is wrong or telling us our personality does not mesh with other people we decide to leave from that situation. When somebody points their finger at us, we should be listening, it could be God through the Holy Spirit showing our flaws, but we will not have anything to do with them. It is pride showing up and telling us not to listen, but we do not want to hear negative things about us. James 4:10 says “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” We are looking at ourselves and thinking “poor me” instead of taking our issue to God through the Holy Spirit. We do not even get to hear whether what is said is true. We all have had bosses we did not agree with, but they are the bosses, so we go along with what was said. We do what we are told because we need to put food on the table, or we have a need for money. It is not about our feelings or us, we are thinking about our family. There is something bigger than just us that gets us out of bed each morning.
If we do not have a need or a want, what is going to make us do the things we do not want to do? We will not change or obey God without a reason, usually we choose Jesus because we need something or are looking for what we have heard about God from somebody else. What I did was believe what I was told but did not know where to find the truth or how to look for the answers given to us in the Bible. This is where we start to hear the Holy Spirit and hear the answers to our questions. This starts our relationship with the Holy Spirit. We may not have heard about the Holy Spirit up to this point. This is a point for us to trust and follow somebody we cannot see or know who a part of us is. That is the difference between trusting man or trusting God.
The Holy Spirit is part of us, so our thoughts and the Holy Spirit become one. Most people do not understand that with the Holy Spirit our thoughts become one, yet people say God does not speak to me. There are about six times when I have heard that “still small voice.” 1 Kings19:12-13 says “And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him, and said,” “What doest thou here, Elijah?” This was the Lord speaking to Elijah to get his attention. He needed to get Elijah back where God wanted him to be. Now we have the Holy Spirit that speaks to us through our mind and thoughts, which is why we need to sift through our thoughts. We have many thoughts that we believe are our thoughts, but they are in our mind, but they all do not belong to us, we except only holy, righteous thoughts. We might ask about these thoughts if they line up with God. We must trust the Holy Spirit and these thoughts that come from God through the Holy Spirit.
We try to justify our thoughts but the thoughts that come from the Holy Spirit will be known where they line up with God’s word. The Bible was written so there are few excuses for not knowing what the expectation is and what is holy. The Holy Spirit was sent to be our teacher, we just need to be teachable. Being teachable can only happen to those that surrender their will. That happens when we get through the issues in our life one by one until we can. The biggest one for me was fear. I could not overcome completely until the Holy Spirit gave me 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 and says “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” This is what stops all ungodly words and spirits through God not by ourself, for we are using weapons that work against who we are fighting, It is a spiritual battle and we are using worldly weapons where we will lose every time. These two verses stop fear immediately and brings “every” thought into obedience to Jesus Christ.
If you have thoughts of suicide or you cannot stop something, you have been doing our thoughts must obey Jesus. We must put our thoughts under the authority of Jesus. This was given to us to get our life in line with God. These verses were put there for all who read the Bible or are under the Holy Spirit. I was given these verses for me to finally being able to overcome fear. I found out all thoughts must obey God through these verses.
Once we are told the truth it is up to us to proceed, Satan is going to tell us a lie, he is the father of lies. We should not accept his lies and discern where these thoughts are coming from. We need to ask the Holy Spirit about our thoughts. If the Holy Spirit participates in all our decisions, it will almost become automatic for us. I will say almost automatic because we should always remember who our LORD and Savior is and not ever take things for granted. Remember Jesus never forgot his Father in heaven till the end and we asked God to come into our life. John 5:19 says and this is Jesus speaking; Then answered Jesus and said unto them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” We cannot do God’s work by ourselves. We have always needed God, we finally admitted we needed him.
The question that needs to be asked is if we really needed God, why do we not follow him, when we are told something and find it truth we do not act immediately. Are we serious and looking for truth or just going through the motions? Only we can answer that question but if we cannot follow somebody we can see, how can we follow somebody we cannot. The truth will set us free. God Bless.
