Many times, in our Christian journey we are uncertain of what to do. This article shows how God leads.
If you are going to follow Jesus, then it is imperative that you know Him and understand how He operates.
First, God (Jesus and The Father), never change. Unless He announces it, He always operates the same.
Hebrews 13:8 – Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
Malachi 3:6 – For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Isaiah 43:19 – Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth;
Second, He operates with us all the same. This is because He does what He does because of who He is, not because of who you are.
Acts 10:34 – Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons…
We can look at the bible from Genesis to Revelation to understand His ways.
The bible contains an excellent story that shows us how God leads and how He guides.
It also shows us what he expects, what he doesn’t do, the benefits of following, and the consequences of not following.
Even more, it shows what happens when we don’t follow exactly. In other words, what happens if we do less than what He has instructed or do more than what he has instructed.
Genesis – Chapter 12
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
The Lord gives Abram an instruction. Notice exactly what He told Abram. Note every word and every nuance. Next, note that God pronounces His desired outcome:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
The question now is what will Abram do? What would you do?
Will you look at your circumstances? Will you calculate what others’ reaction or advice is? Will you ponder for a long time? Will you consider all the steps or simply take the first step? Will you ignore it? Will you resist and disobey it?
Be honest with yourself. Your future hangs in the balance.
Let’s look. Did Abram obey?
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him;
In this instance, you, like Abram, need only take the first step. That is God’s expectation. So did Abram obey thoroughly? Did he do more? Did he do less:
…and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
We’ll hold that thought for a moment…
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
6 ¶ And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
In a nutshell, Abram did take the first step, and kept on walking in that first step.
As a result, we see how God leads:
7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
Now we see that Abram doesn’t wait for another instruction. He makes the decision to do his own thing:
8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
This time he builds an altar and calls on the Lord. And what happened??? Nothing.
A very important point. This should be a point of contemplation and not further action until that action is the right one. So here, what does Abram do with God’s silence?
9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
Abram keeps going in his former decision despite the lack of God’s leadership and instruction. And the result?
10 ¶ And there was a famine in the land:
A famine. Lack. So, in this moment and this circumstance, what would you do?
10 and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
Not just a famine. A grievous one. Now Abram starts looking at his circumstance. Look at how his thinking works:
11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
Is this the decision of someone who is operating in a place of faith in God? Of course not. He’s not believing God’s promise.
Not only is he not believing, he starts operating in a place of fear and selfishness. He is only concerned about his own butt.
We know the rest of the story. How Abram and Sarai go through a bunch of stuff with Pharaoh. In this instance God intervened.
We need to realize God intervened not because of Abram, but rather because of His plan to bring Jesus to the earth to be the Christ. You cannot count on a bailout.
20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
So, Abram is sent packing.
Genesis Chapter 13
1 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
An interesting point. The wonderful thing about God is that the power of the blessing still operates despite Abram’s actions. But this also shows that God makes lemonade out of lemons.
However, God’s plan is strategic. There is a purpose to the blessing to continue to operate despite Abram. Remember in this instance, that God’s plan is to usher Jesus into the earth.
3 And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Hai;
What is Abram doing? He is backtracking.
4 Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
What is the result of Abram calling on the Lord at Beth-El? The same as it was the last time he called upon the Lord at Beth-El: Nothing.
5 ¶ And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.
Ask yourself: When did God tell Abram to take Lot with him? God didn’t. God told Abram: ”get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house”.
Yet Abram did not get away from his kin. He did not get away from his father’s house (family). So how did this decision work out:
6 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.
7 And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
8 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.
9 Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
Abram is finally separated from Lot. Abram is back to Canaan. Abram is back the place where God spoke to Abram for the second time.
And look what happened:
14 ¶ And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.
16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
God shows up and picks up right where Abram was before. God leads by reiterating God’s plan. Not only does God show up. He gives Abram another (or the next) instruction:
17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
We see exactly how God leads and what happens as a result of our reaction to how God leads. Good or bad.
If you examine every other figure in the bible, you will notice that God operates exactly the same with them:
- He gives them an instruction;
- Then the outcome is dependent on whether the person followed the instruction precisely;
- We also see the result when they rebel, add to the instruction, or take away from the instruction.
The example of Moses when he struck the rock is a good example. There was a consequence to Moses when he did not follow God’s instruction precisely. (Numbers 20:7-12)
Remember truth is consistent throughout the bible. Doctrine is determined by an examination of a consistent idea or manner from all the bible.
In other words, the concept, or better, truth about Him should be one that is repeated throughout the bible without discrepancy or scripture that counters the concept.
When a good thing is not a God thing.
Many times, we look at a situation and determine “this would be a good thing to do”.
While on the surface it may appear to be “good”, it could very well be the thing not to do.
Unfortunately, even when we think we are doing good, if God is not in it, it could be anything from a waste of time all the way to a life altering disaster.
The fellowship between Jesus and The Father was so solid, that Jesus refused to do anything that He had not been instructed by The Father to do:
Luke 4:40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them, suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ. And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
So here we see Jesus doing great good for many people. Many people still needed to be impacted by Jesus.
Most people would say “well, this must be the place to stay, because good is getting done. Some would even allow their egos and insecurities cloud their direction.
But Jesus knew that the greater good is always served by what the Father sees, not what we see:
43 And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
So Jesus left. If you study, you will see that many times Jesus “departed”; following The Father and that mission without respect to circumstances or the needs of others.
This is also why religion and religious traditions can be very dangerous. If we are doing things because “it’s what we do, it’s what we believe” rather than “God told me to” then we have made ourselves and others god rather than The Lord.
Mark 7:9 – And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Mark 7:13 – Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
In our quest for Life Truth Today, let’s apply this to ourselves in a practical manner:
In our quest for Life Truth Today, let’s apply this to ourselves in a practical manner:
God gives us an instruction.
- If we follow that instruction precisely, He gives another instruction;
- If we fail to follow an instruction one of four things happens:
-
- He continues to bring it up;
- We wander in the wilderness until we return to the point God met us;
- The opportunity passes;
- Disaster.
It is imperative that we follow what is good in God’s sight according to the greater good He says and not rely on what we feel.
We are God’s house (Hebrews 3:6).
It is job one to be united with Jesus and with The Father as we endeavor on our mission and journey:
Matthew 12:25 – And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand…
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