Wednesday 8 January 2014

DIVINE DOWNLOAD

Before sharing a word in season to weary souls, we need to set aside time to listen to God

How we sometimes wish that God could download the Word to our “hard drive” so that we no longer need to engage in serious Bible study, which is such a laborious task. But this is just fantasy, a figment of our imagination. In fact, we are told to study it well in order that we have a firm grasp of the truth and not be put to shame (2 Timothy 2:15).

                                                                     



Yet those who are well-versed with scripture and the ways of God are able to receive "divine downloads". Let us delve further into the broad ramifications of the following verse:

The Lord God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.
(Isaiah 50:4).

First, we notice that we’re able to speak comforting words to the weary because God empowers us with special wisdom. These words touch and refresh the lives of the weak because no one knows better the needs of people than God.

Before we minister to others, we ourselves have to be ready and well-equipped. Our own needs must first be met. If we are in a mess, spiritually and emotionally, how are we going to reach out to others? (Isaiah 58:11). We have to be refreshed first before we can encourage others.

Second, we notice that the counsel comes from someone who is learned. The latter is instructed not only in man’s wisdom but is filled with godly wisdom and discernment (1 Corinthians 2:10-13).

Probably, he or she would be like Ezra who spent his entire life studying and obeying the Law of the Lord and teaching it to others (Ezra 7:10).

Third, we notice that such "divine downloads" occur in the early morning hours when many would be in slumber, let alone think of communicating with God.

The learned one in Isaiah 50:4 seems to take on the habit of Jesus who got up while it was still dark, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed (Mark 1:35).  

David was hungry for God’s presence. While lying in bed, he meditated on God in the watches of the night (Psalm 63:1, 6). When he awoke, he still had this sense of God’s presence as his mind had been dwelling on godly things (Psalm 139:17-18).

We too must be willing to pay the pricein terms of occasional sleep lossif we want to receive such divine downloads. What is the level of our spiritual hunger? Does this hunger impel us to commune with God in the early morning hours?

Fourth, we must have the ears to hear. Those who have ears to hear can understand what the Spirit is saying. We need to develop this capacity to shut ourselves from incessant “inner chatter” (negative self-talk) and any distracting music that seeks to entertain. As time progresses, despite initial faltering baby steps, we will learn to hear correctly like the child prophet Samuel.

                                                                   


Finally, if God is the source, we need not fear that the supply of wisdom and counsel through this "divine download" will ever run out. Streams of living water will burst forth from our lives if we know how to tap into the Eternal Spring: “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them" (John 7:38).

RELATED POST
RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
What does Jesus mean when He says, “Whoever believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water?”


Footnotes:
The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail
(Isaiah 58:11)

O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
(Psalm 63: 1)

When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
(Psalm 63: 6)

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
(Psalm 139:17-18)

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
(1 Corinthians 2:10-13)

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