Thought of the Week

Thought of the Week is taken each week from an edited transcription of the Citywide Family Hour message.

Discerning the Word of God

from Citywide Family Hour 4th December 2011 by Josh Mackay

Over the years, wherever the focus of the word of God, there is the answer to every issue that we would face in that season. No matter what problem anyone has during that phase of their lives, the answer for them is there in that word. Then, as a new direction or a new season comes to us, in that word is the answer to every issue that we would face in that season.

We could easily become jaded by this, but it is not for us to pick and choose the word. This is present truth at work. It seems as though the answer to every issue is in that word, because it is God’s proceeding word at that time. That is God’s provision to us.

Matthew 4:4

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

The only way you will find salvation is the word for now. It is easy to retrospectively “add” something to our lives. While it may appear that we can just sit back and wait for the next word, if we do that we have missed it. They are not the flavour of the month from which we can pick and choose; they are building blocks or foundation stones.

What is God saying to us now?

In this current season, the word has come that we are to walk in the light; to stay in the light where the lampstand is shining. There is everything you need. If we are where the light is shining, we are with Christ.

We are also being sown as firstfruits. We are to sow again. We are not to become stagnant, but see increase come to our lives. The Lord wants our lives to be fruitful.

The works of our sonship are the evidence of our faith. How do we obtain the word of God for our lives? It is through the two or three, gathered in His name.

In this season, we have heard these important keys for our lives. Most importantly, how do we apprehend the mind of Christ for our lives? How do we know who we are to be? How do we know our works?

Your works are unique to you. Do you know how to find the mind of Christ for your life?

Let us contrast two different Old Testament stories to look at this point.

Gideon was named by God as a “mighty man of valour”. Yet Gideon did what we all do – He corrected God.

Judges 6:15

So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

We have been named by the world, but God names us differently. Are you basing your decisions on what others say or your history? Or are you receiving God’s name for you?

Ephesians 4:17-24

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

We are not to be of the world, but of God.

In the second story from the Old Testament, the man is not named but identified simply as “a man of God”. In the time of Jeroboam, the king sinned against God by setting up alternative places of worship.

1 Kings 13:1-10

And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.’” And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.” So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before. Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’” So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.

This man had a clear commandment from the Lord which he was to follow.

1 Kings 13:11-24

Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah. Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’” He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He was lying to him.) So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back; and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the LORD said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’” So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him.

There are things that will come and take us away from the word of God. This is where we need to know ourselves – reflect upon the corporate word of God and what God has said to you over the years. These are your landmarks and peg posts. They will show you the direction. God will not contradict these things. Do not let anything distract you from the word of God. God never changes His mind.

Just as the man of God was not to return by the same way, we do not have to backtrack on our path. God is always leading us forward. Any other word that draws you back is not a word of the Lord. Take time to look at the guideposts in your life and the way they are leading. If something contradicts that, it is not of the Lord.

Every moment of every day we are responding and making decisions. How are we deciding what to do? What speaks into our responses and decisions? Don’t let anything rob you of that word. We have the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of truth.