He Trains Us For Action

For about 3 years Jesus trained His disciples to learn how to "see" differently. Daily He walked with them and daily He demonstrated in front of them, the discipline of love and the power of godly grace. In Col. 2:8-10 we, as believers, are given a warning and a promise. We are not to allow our minds to be shaped by the philosophies and expectations of society around us. Instead, we are to continually remember that we are FILLED by Christ with His Holy Spirit. He governs all things and as we allow Him to prune and shape us according to His Wisdom, we will be transformed in our thinking to carry out the will of God in our lives.

In years gone by, we were shaped by the thinking of our own culture and our own nation. Today, however, we have become a global marketplace. We do not simply hear the pressures of our culture but we are pressurized even more due to the "globalness" of the information and ideas that surround us. Because we are "spiritual beings", I believe we can sense this pressure even if we do not overtly define it. Like radio waves that are hidden from our view, spiritual bombardment is happening to us constantly.

As Christians we have protection, and that protection lies in knowing our God and walking in His ways. Our protection kicks into high gear when we call out to Him, stand upon His Word and mix it with the knowledge of His character and nature.

Proverbs 24:3-5 tells us how to that a house is built by wisdom. The walls of protection therefore in the houses of our lives is constructed from the fear of the Lord, for this is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:7 and 9:10). Understanding God's character and nature establishes us in the time of storms. Then seeking Him for knowledge about how He sees things, what He desires to do and how we can link up with Him in that process is what furnishes our spiritual house with glorious treasures!

Psalm 103:7 tells us that God made known His ways to Moses while He only made known His acts to the people of Israel. We want to be people who know the character and nature of God Himself. And we see that faithfully represented in the life of Jesus who became Christ by fully accomplishing and participating in the will of His Father - our Father.

It is as we learn to carefully mount guard over the thoughts that come into our minds and discern whether they are from the Spirit of God or from the god of this world that we will then be empowered to say no to ungodliness and walk in the way that He would have us go.

There is a lot of noise about walking in "signs and wonders" because we want to see people healed and delivered from bondages. The God who is in charge of signs and wonders will confirm His Word with us as we learn to walk in the humility that comes from knowing God's Word, His ways and then joyfully seeking the disciplined life that these things require.