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AbideinHim
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Joined: 2006/11/26
Posts: 5185
Louisiana

 The Need For a Clear Word - Sparks


March 20 "Open Windows" by T. Austin Sparks


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Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what He is saying. (Revelation 3:22 NLT)

A striking feature of our time is that so few of the voices have a distinctive message. There is a painful lack of a clear word of authority for the times.... Why is it so? May it not be that so many who might have this ministry have become so much a part of a system? A system which puts preachers so much upon a professional basis, the effect of which is to make preaching a matter of demand and supply; of providing for the established religious order and program? Not only in the matter of preaching, but in the whole organization and activity of "Christianity" as we have it in the systematized form today. There is not the freedom and detachment for speaking ONLY when "the burden of the word of the Lord" is upon the prophet, or when he could say, "The hand of the Lord was upon me." The present order requires a man to speak every so often; hence he must get something, and this necessity means either that God must be offered our program and asked to meet it (which He will not do) or the preacher must make something for the constantly recurring occasion. This is a pernicious system and it opens the door to any number of dangerous and baneful intrusions of what is of man and not of God. The most serious aspect of this way of things is that it results in voices, voices, voices, a confusion of voices, but not the specific voice with the specific utterance of God for the time...

Here we have the necessity for an awakening to what God has to say. In the Revelation this is "He that hath an ear, let him hear," and in the case of Laodicea - which represents the end - it is "I counsel thee to buy of Me eyesalve that thou mayest see." "And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me," said John. God is speaking, He has something to say, but there must be "a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened."

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Candlestick All of Gold


_________________
Mike

 2011/3/20 5:53Profile









 Re: The Need For a Clear Word - Sparks

What a coincidence that such a word would come up for today, in particular.

These things wouldn't be if the people didn't desire "smooth words" instead of the reality of the days that we're living in.

Reminds me of these verses -

Jer 5:29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer 5:30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
Jer 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Isa 30:10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits



Yes, men pleasers hear this from their people - "Speak unto us smooth things." Don't tell us that the world is rocking and reeling and ready to go under captivity and so forth. Oh no - stoke, comfort and make us feel at ease.

And the people love to have it so.

 2011/3/20 19:09
AbideinHim
Member



Joined: 2006/11/26
Posts: 5185
Louisiana

 Re:

"Yes, men pleasers hear this from their people - "Speak unto us smooth things." Don't tell us that the world is rocking and reeling and ready to go under captivity and so forth. Oh no - stoke, comfort and make us feel at ease.

And the people love to have it so."

Amen!!

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires." (2 Timothy 4:3).

"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD." (Amos 8:11).






_________________
Mike

 2011/3/20 21:30Profile





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