Friday, May 22, 2009

5-22 Has God Spoken to You?

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Do you pray every day? That was the question Mike posed to me. (after I scared the daylights out of him! I opened the door from the inside just as he was reaching for it!) Good question. He asked me, now I’m asking you? Do you pray every day? Mike and Melissa both shook their heads in agreement as he told me how important prayer is to them. “We pray together every night before we go to bed. What happens to you if you don’t pray? I’ll tell you what happens to us. We can’t sleep that night. We toss and turn all night long.” I told them that I’ve found that the best way to go to sleep is to pray! It works every time for me! So thanks, Mike and Melissa for your faithful prayers. May many of the TWG family follow your example!

Today’s Scripture reading is 1 Samuel 26; Hosea 15; Mark 6:1-29

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Today’s thought comes from 2Peter 1:19-21 we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

How did the prophets get their prophecy? Did it come first class mail? Did they send away for their “free prophetic kit” that would make them millions! Did they attend a high powered seminar for the prophets to “learn how to write your own best selling Bible?” When a prophet said, “Thus saith the Lord!” a saying that occurs some 3808 times in the Bible, I’m thinking that he must have been pretty sure that the message he had came from God… at least if he was being genuine. So how did he know that God had a message for him? The prophetic gift is unique. It’s not something that God passed out en mass. Only a select few individuals over the centuries can say that they received special scriptural revelation from God. Over the 1500 years that the Bible was written only 40 people authored Scripture out of the millions or billions that lived! So if God hasn’t spoken out loud to you, don’t feel slighted! Most people, since the creation of man have never had that astonishing privilege. Peter relays the mechanism of prophecy in these verses. First of all the Prophetic word was given to the prophet and confirmed. So how did God give it and how did God confirm it? For that we need to read the previous verses. God spoke to the prophets… in Peter’s case, on the mount of Transfiguration. A prophet was an eyewitness of the Glory of God and often heard the very voice of God. If God spoke out loud to you, my guess is, that that is all the confirmation you would need! But Peter is saying more than this. In his case he spent 3 years with Jesus listening to everything the Lord said. Then he went up on the mountain and heard the voice of God… and what God the Father said was, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” That was the prophetic confirmation! So Peter, believing that Jesus is God the Son, took His words as a prophetic reality. Thus, when Peter quoted Jesus he could say, “Thus saith the Lord (Jesus)” and know that whatever Jesus said was God’s Word! He had a sure word of prophecy. First stated by God the Son, and second confirmed by God the Father! The simple truth of the prophetic word is that prophets got their prophecy from God! God spoke, either directly or through a dream, a vision, an angel or through His own dear Son. When God spoke to the prophets, He always confirmed His Word one way or another. And if God really said it, we would do well to heed it!

Dear Father. Thank you for Your Word. Thank you for speaking to Holy men so that they relayed Your message to us. What an awesome privilege to have the very words of God at our disposal so we can read them and know what You want for us! Please help us to obey them.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

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