2 Timothy 2:15

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Getting it right is one of the most important parts of following Jesus. Understand this one issue more than any other, the truth of the Word can only come from the Spirit of Truth.

1 Corinthians 2:14

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Spiritual discernment can only come to those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ and have received the Holy Spirit who will guide us in all truth.

2 Timothy 2:7

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

When we define a disciple as a student, we teach. When we define discipleship as the discipline to follow theological principles, we become judges.

Neither of those procedures fit the idea of following Jesus Christ.

In order to follow Jesus we must hear what He is saying to us. The activation of those spiritual ears and eyes can only come about from listening to the Spirit of Truth. If a disciple cannot discern the Spirit of Truth they will be a natural person trying to figure out the truth without any help from the third person of God.  Make no mistake, the Holy Spirit is God and without His help we are still just natural people.

How does one describe a sunset to a blind and deaf person? That is impossible. Being born again is like natural childbirth. One can see but has difficulty focusing the spiritual eye. The natural eye wants to overpower the spiritual eye.

Galatians 5:17

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

The spiritual ear is even more difficult because we associate hearing with the natural ear. If we hear something with the natural ear that is not present in the natural world we define that as a form of insanity. Spiritual ears do not operate with the natural ear, they operate by faith.

Romans 10:17

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Genesis 4:7

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Yesterday some will say that I should not have admitted I got the Word Preparedness wrong, that it wasn’t the Word of the Lord at all.

I say malarkey. Excuse my cussing.

The Lord gave me the Work Preparedness to demonstrate exactly what happens when we look to our own concerns rather than His. I did not get it right the first two times because I allowed my own concerns for this country to be put before what God wanted to say. No matter how smart we are, no matter how dedicated and persistent we are, we are still human and we will always struggle with that because we are not yet perfected.

Genesis 18:19

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Doing well might get us accepted as it was said to Cain but doing right is about seeing to it that God’s promises are kept. Doing righteousness and justice is impossible without taking God’s righteousness, Jesus Christ, into account for the choices we make. My fears and doubts were self serving. I was not serving the Lord.

It took three tries to see that. Getting the message right is not as easy as hearing and believing. We must see things from the standpoint of our position in God’s promises and serve His will from where we stand.

In following Jesus we must be aware that looking at all the dangers on each side and making a choice that isn’t following Jesus. He got us this far, don’t get sidetracked just because you don’t like seeing what is going on around you.

I did and I was wrong. That is the lesson of Preparedness.