Let's Get Things Straight // When God Speaks, Pt 10

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Have you ever found yourself in two minds over something. Perhaps this, but on the other hand, that. Hmm. This or that? This or that? Will I or won’t I? Sure, it’s good to way things up, but sometimes, we can take procrastination and turn it into an art form.

Okay, today it’s time to call a spade a spade.

Fact: Most of the people who say that they believe in Jesus, don’t read the Bible on a regular basis.

Fact: Most of the people who say they believe in Jesus, when push comes to shove, will go with instinct over and above what God’s Word says in making a decision – be it a big one, or a small one.

Fact: Most of the people who say they believe in Jesus are suffering through the consequences of sin that could have been avoided, if only they’d given God’s Word sway in their hearts.

I wonder, are you like ‘most Christians’, who don’t take God’s Word seriously enough to allow it to be the guiding light in your life? I’m not here to give you a guilt trip. I am here, simply to help you make up your mind. Psalm 119, verse 113:

I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.

There you have the person who wrote that Psalm, saying to God, “I am so sick of the double-minded. I’ve made up my mind God. I love your Word. I love what you have to say. I love the way that I can be rock solid in my faith, no matter what this world throws at me because I am a man of your Word”. That’s the effect of what he’s saying to God.

Are you in a position to be able to say that to God? Or, to be blunt, are you swinging this way and that?

Well, you know God, I’d love to be like that but reading the Bible, every day, I’m a bit busy you know and I have a lot of pressures you know and … then, I hear a message at church and I realise I should read my Bible, but then life takes over again ... well God, you know how it is.

You see, double-mindedness doesn’t work. James chapter 1, verses 5 to 8:

If any of you lacks in wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

It’s time to make up your mind. Are you going to be a man or a woman of God’s Word, or not? Do you want to live a powerful, victorious life in Jesus, or not? Do you want to have God’s Wisdom, God’s guidance, or not? Do you want to have the joy and the peace that Jesus died and rose again to give you, or not? Because let me tell you, the "or not" quite simply is not God’s will for your life. It’s just not.

Because when push comes to shove, when the going gets tough, God wants you to know where to flee. God wants to be your refuge place. God wants the best for you in those dark times. But unless we’re ready, unless we have His Word in our hearts, that simply isn’t going to happen.

When disaster strikes, where do you turn? When people are nasty to you, where do you turn? When you just don’t know which way to turn, where do you turn?

Well, where do you turn? The Bible is full of verses about God being the place where we can and should turn. Psalm 119, verse 114:

You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word.

When the chips are down, we can hope in God’s Word. In what God says. We can believe in His Word above the world’s words. We can believe in His faithfulness above the world’s seductive promises.

The problem is that so many of the people who say that they’re Christians, who say that they believe in Jesus, who say that they trust God simply can’t live out what they say, because they don’t have the Word of God in them. Psalm 91, verses 1 and 2:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Great, but let me tell you, you simply can’t cry out to God, “God you are my refuge and my fortress, in you I trust”, with any real conviction from the middle of your storm unless first, the Holy Spirit has written that Word on your heart. And He won’t have written it on your heart, unless you were in God’s Word beforehand.

Hey, we all have storms. We all go through dark times. I do and you do. But the man who is a man of God’s Word, and the woman who is a woman of God’s Word, they sail through those storms in victory. Even though their emotions are all over the place, even though they’re struggling and in pain, they know in their heart of hearts that their King reigns. That’s the confidence that you get from being in God’s Word every day.

I have a friend who calls himself a Christian and I know him well enough to know that he is. He believes in Jesus with all his heart. But he refuses to get into God’s Word. He doesn’t like to read, so hey, the Bible is just an optional extra.

No thank you sir. That’s just not true, because when the storms of life hit, I want to be grounded in the Word of God. I want the confidence of God alive and well in my heart.

I have a Word for you today from the Lord. Listen carefully to what He says, and my prayer is that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will receive it into your heart. John chapter 8, verse 31:

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus wants His Word to be in you. Proverbs Chapter 1 has a really interesting take on this. It talks about the fact that God’s wisdom is calling out to us from the street corner. Certainly God’s wisdom is calling out to you and me from His Word each and every day, if only we’ll open the Bible and hear what He has to say.

But this is what wisdom, God’s wisdom, says to those who didn’t listen while God was speaking – listen carefully, the meaning is plain and clear for all to receive:

Proverbs 1:23–33: If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.

Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.

For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”

That’s what God is saying today to those who refuse to be in His Word, who refuse to receive His wisdom into their hearts. You have been warned today. Please, please heed God’s warning. Become a man or a woman of God’s Word.