LISTENING TO CHRIST

(Part 2)

Matt. 7:24

Morning Meditation 10/3/17

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:"

With Christ it is hearing the truth and doing something with it that counts. James says in James 1:22, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." Then in James 2:17-20 we read, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." James says that if you claim to believe in Christ and do not practice what He says, you are doing no more than the devils. That is a pretty strict rebuke to those who believe without doing. Works are the application of genuine faith. That is, walking by faith. James says, "Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." James teaches here that works that are seen are a visible testimony that faith in your life is a real testimony to others.

We are looking at the present, about listening to Christ. In the last meditation we looked and listened to Him as our Teacher, and Captain. In this meditation, first of all, we are urged to,

LISTEN TO HIM AS OUR GUIDE

He will lead us safely as our Guide, if we will listen to Him. Jesus gave the early Church the great commission after His resurrection and before His ascension back to where He was before the incarnation. John 17:4-11, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are." This is a portion of the REAL LORD'S PRAYER. In it we find that Jesus knew where He came from. He knew He was on a mission. He knew when He finished the mission. He knew that the disciples had enough training to carry on the work that He has begun. So He turned it over to them and asked the Father to receive Him back to the place He had with Him before the world was created. John 17:5, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."

There is nothing more important to me than to have His guidance as we make our pilgrimage through this old sinful world. Some of the top priorities I have in this life is to have His guidance, to have His wisdom, to have His power, to have His presence, and to glorify Him by the way I speak and live. He is my life, and my love, and He is the focus of my life. I am looking forward to His return. Though I have never seen Him with my natural eye, I will know Him when I see Him. Peter said in 1 Peter 1:8, "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:"

The first beginnings of the Church that Jesus built brings it out that He is our Guide. He said when He began calling out His disciples in Matthew 4:18-19, "And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Later when He called Matthew it is recorded in Matthew 9:9, "And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him." Matthew was a tax collector, and well off, but Matthew did not let that alter his decision to follow Jesus. He immediately let his work of collecting taxes for the Roman government and followed Jesus.

JESUS GAVE THE LIMITED COMMISSION

Jesus began to give The Twelve responsibilities and this is recorded in Matthew 10:1, "And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." Then in Matthew 10:5-8 we are told, "These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." What I mean by limited is that He did not tell them to go into all the world. He told them to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This was the commission that was a part of their training. But the commission in Matthew 28 was to all the world.

Jesus is always there with His church. He is there to guide. We can know right from wrong, not just from reading but also from the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. Next lets look at,

LISTENING TO HIM AS OUR LOVER

We are the bride, He is the groom. He taught us to love Him. John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Discipleship is built on love. Love is the motivator of all service. Not just love for the one whom we are winning to faith in Christ, but also, love for Jesus Himself. Loving Christ must be a disciplined love. It involves a discipline to read His word and take it seriously. Loving Christ must be a disciplined love because we do not SEE Him. Remember, Peter said in, 1 Peter 1:8, "Whom having NOT SEEN, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:"

I believe the Love of Christ is Divinely enabled by the presence and work of the Holy spirit in our lives. I have begun to pray anew about my love for the Lord. He must know that I love Him. It should not be hard for other's to know that. Yet I feel that I do love Him with all my heart. I do not boast of that love because I see others that I believe has a better understanding of what that love is than I. They seem to be able to lay hold upon God in a way that He could well say, "I am loved by you. I am encouraged by the kind of love that you are exercising toward me." Wouldn't you be blessed beyond measure, if He would say it in a way you could understand that you are His son and He is well pleased with you?" I am afraid I would disturb the peace!!! It would be more than holding my mules!!!

We are His bride. It is perfectly natural for a bride to love her husband. He is the object of her attention. He is the possessor of her love. He will not allow himself to be drawn to one side so that another would steal his affection away from the bride. This is the very thing I think is happening in this day of apostasy. We are being distracted. It is not the Bridegroom's fault. It is true that we do not see Him with our natural eye. But we do have His Word that continues to woo us into His arms. We see Him in His beauty by faith. I am asking the Lord to give me what He wants of me, and I will return it, with my spirit, soul, and body to Him so He will know that I love Him and that I do not take Him for granted.

We need to pray that the Holy Spirit will aid us in our worship of Him. Paul said in Romans 8:15-16, "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:" These are words of worship. The Holy Spirit comes into contact with our spirit and we can cry "Abba, Father." I have had those words pressed upon my regenerated spirit so that I was crying out Abba, Father. I knew when it was happening that the Holy Spirit was helping me to form those words and they were coming from the very depth of my soul in saying them.. That is true worship. But I go for long periods of time where I cannot say those words. I am not saying that the Holy Spirit is not doing His job. I am the one at fault. I have become so occupied with serving Him that I forget to be occupied with Him and to love Him with spirit, soul, and body. Then we need to,

LISTEN TO HIM AS OUR LORD

Jesus is Lord. Some have said, and I am inclined to believe them, that Jesus is always Lord. He becomes Lord of our lives at the moment of our new birth. And many of the professions of faith are nothing but an experience with Him that we should have maintained from the moment of our New Birth.

I am going to tell you, I searched for this relationship with Him from the time that I surrendered to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus. But for years I knew I lacked something. I sought the answer, but could not find it. It would evade me. I became so discouraged that it would have been easy to have made a serious mistake. I prayed and asked the Lord to save me. I got no relief. I prayed until I was prayed out and still didn't get satisfaction. But thank the Lord it finally came. And do you know what? I discovered I had His presence all the time. When I realized that, I didn't ask someone to hold my mules, I ran over them!!! One mule said to the other, "who was that that just passed by?" The other answered, "I don't know for sure, but I think it was the idiot that works us so hard every day. I think he's got religion again!!!"

Well, ok. It didn't happen exactly like that. I just came to understand that I didn't have to pray for Him to come in a special way. He was there all the time. And when I believed without seeing I got connected with the Father through Christ and I had a camp meeting spell in the presence of people who would not have understood if I had told them in detail. God can't give you something you already have. If you ask for salvation that you already have, what do you expect Him to do? He certainly can't do it again because He did it eternally the first time. The problem is the "little faith" on our part, not wrong action on God's part. He has acted permanently and He cannot do what He has already done.

Let me warn you. If you ask God for something He has already given you, it is probable that Satan will step in and give you the emotional experience that you equate with the filling of the Holy Spirit. Then you will begin to swear by an unscriptural experience, and the fruit of that experience will be Satan's work and not God's. I would take nothing for the experiences that I have had with the Lord. But to Him they are daily experiences that He shares with His children and they are not for sale.

We need to listen to Him as our Lord. If we do we will render service to Him. He tells us in John 13:13-16, "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him." May the Lord bless this to our hearts today.

In Christ

Bro. White