FAITH VS PRESUMPTION

Whether it is a decision related to a business venture, career or mission, it is imperative to seek God’s will on the matter. We should not deem spiritual areas as important and the secular as unimportant as both are significant in God’s eyes. There is no place for compartmentalisation in our lives.

As children of God, we are to walk by faith. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Romans 8:14).

To assume that God is with us as we contemplate embarking on a certain venture—when His will is still unclear—is to walk in presumption. Perhaps the potential rewards are so tempting that it’s almost irresistible. But going ahead without a clear “signal from above” may be costly in terms of time, energy and financial resources.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 16:25).

It is not enough just to depend on the logos to justify a particular course of action. We have to seek God so that we can hear His rhema word for us—His will for a specific time and situation in our lives. http://bit.ly/1fWBAia

Christian entrepreneurs can readily identify with the fact that God’s will has to be sought before we plunge headlong into a business venture. This is clear from the following passage:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

(James 4:13-15).

The crux of the matter is this: Has God showed us that we should take a particular course of action? 

Victory comes when we place our faith in God’s leading. That’s because wherever God leads, He honours it with His presence, provision and blessing.

Let us now consider three examples from the Old Testament which illustrate the danger of presumption and, in contrast, the importance of seeking God’s leading and walking by faith.

Battle of Ai

After initial victory in the battle of Jericho, God’s people continued their push towards claiming the rest of the Promised Land. They attacked Ai with only a few thousand men for they figured the enemy had few men and could be routed easily. But they were badly defeated.

Though the primary cause of the defeat at Ai was Achan’s sin of covetousness, a secondary cause was presumption—underestimating the enemy and overconfidence after initial victory at Jericho (Joshua 7:3-4).

King David’s military exploits

The above attitude clearly contrasts with that of King David, ‘a man after God’s own heart’.

David did not dare presume God was behind him each time he went into battle. After his initial victory at Baalperazim (2 Samuel 5:20), the Philistines returned and confronted him again. Lesser mortals would have rested on their laurels, overconfident in light of earlier victory. “No sweat; let’s go and defeat them.” But David was different. He enquired of the Lord again.

This time, God told him not to go up and face his enemies. “You shall not go up; go around to their rear, and come against them opposite the balsam trees” (2 Samuel 5:23).

David was told to advance only at the appropriate moment as God would fight for him. “It shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall act promptly, for then the LORD will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines” (2 Samuel 5:24).

David was successful in his military exploits because he made it a point to first enquire from God as to the specific course of action to take. He then followed whatever God instructed him to do.

Moses and God’s presence

Similarly, Moses knew that he should move only when God directs. Before leading the Israelites into the Promised Land, Moses sought God’s presence. If God’s presence did not go with him, he would not think of advancing into the land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 33:15).

Thus it’s apparent that Moses knew the ways of God. When it comes to entering the Promised Land, he cherished God’s leading and presence—more than blessing. He made sure he did not run ahead of God’s schedule. http://bit.ly/18gwREH

Presumption may be old as the hills but it is still happening today. Some ministers who move in signs and wonders (miracles, healing and deliverance) presume that since they have great power, God must be pleased with their lives. They probably congratulate themselves: How can God not be pleased with me when He is using me in such a mighty way? I must be His blue-eyed boy.

However, Jesus’ admonition against such presumption makes it clear that moving in dramatic spiritual gifts is not to be automatically equated to enjoying special God’s favour and blessing. Other factors such as character and the fruit of the spirit are also important in God’s sight.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

(Matthew 7:21-23).

Are we familiar with the ways of God? Do we seek out His will? Apart from knowing His will, do we know when we should execute His plan?

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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 price—in terms of occasional sleep loss—if 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).

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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)