1 Timothy 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.

During walk 1807 it is all about the pilgrims on their walk, but God will not limit Himself to man’s plan and this devotional is about how God smacked me upside the head during my service to others. I have to admit I deserved it. This I confess.

I have the gift of prophecy and my ministry is using that gift to write a daily devotional about those things which God reveals to me thru that gift. Because these are words that are written on a website and delivered via the internet all over the world, I have no control over how it is received. I have to trust God.

This is not my only ministry. There is a ministry within the local body of Christ which is not written, it is spoken. Because it is spoken I do have some control over how that message is delivered. I have failed to control the words of my mouth because of the mindset used in delivering devotionals. I get to edit and reread and pray about what I release to my readers, not so with my mouth. Words spoken cannot be taken back.

Our spiritual director was given a word from a team member and he thought it was so good he used it. When he said it, smack, it hit me.

“I don’t care how much you know. I want to know how much you care.”

When I go into life groups with the same attitude in which I do my devotional ministry, I fail to touch my brothers and sisters with the only thing that matters in that setting, how much I care. If I wound a brother or sisters with my words, I fail them and I fail my Lord. This is the one great truth in all this…..

When you wound a brother you wound yourself because you are one body in Christ.

Matthew 18:11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

Continuing on with some supplemental notes made during my Walk to Emmaus 1807, I want to deal with this issue from two perspectives. The first is so simple, it is found here in Matthew 18:11 in that the words of salvation, the simple gospel truth, were meant for the lost. They are meant to bring lost sinners to a saving grace knowledge of Jesus Christ and all that He did to achieve that end.

“He is not talking about me.”

Most refuse to listen, they are so caught up in themselves that they blow off the gospel that they have heard. It is not that they have not heard the Word but failed to listen. In the parable of the sower that is the seed that is quickly snatched away. That is what it is but more seed gets thrown, we never run out of seed.

The harder truth is heard here in this verse.

Luke 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

During the Justifying Grace talk it was pointed out that God said yes and what He asks of us is to say yes. We are asked to say yes to the free offer of salvation. Just for arguments sake, let us say that you have said yes to that offer and that you are justified, your sins are forgiven and now you are a member of the body of Christ.

Are you thru saying yes?

Somewhere along this Pharisee’s life he stopped saying yes to God. It comes in many forms and whatever form it takes the source of that failure to answer yes is the same.

“He’s not talking about me.”

It might come in the form of an attitude that I have done enough, let someone else do that. It might come in the form of I am not gifted enough to do that. It might be in the form of I don’t hear the Holy Spirit speaking to me. It might be that I stopped listening because all he ever talks about is my sin.

We said I am sorry, I need help and thank you at the moment of our salvation, in those early years when we were born again and became a new creation. At what point in my walk with Jesus did I stop saying I am sorry, help and thank you?

You don’t have to be a Pharisee to have the attitude of one.