Heart Thoughts
In his book, “Unlimiting God,” Richard Blackaby shares a story from his life. As a seminary president and much in demand speaker, he led a life centered around a great deal of kingdom “business.” However, he had begun to become very convicted about how he was neglecting his family in the midst of carrying out all the business. As he was preparing to depart for yet another conference, he scheduled a coffee date with his wife before leaving for the airport. However, unexpected “business” broke into things, and he ended up sharing nothing more than a quick kiss and goodbye with his wife before boarding the plane.
At the conference, as he listened to various speakers, the Holy Spirit began to speak to him about what he needed to do to rectify the neglect of his family. He began to write down a list of “changes” he needed to make, ending up with a full page, along with a deep resolve to carry out all the contents of that page. However, when he arrived back home, he found a mountain of demands awaiting him. He immediately fell back into the same old routine, and the same old patterns of neglect.
Several months went by, and in the course of them, he acquired a new Bible, which he began to use. One day however, he wanted to look up something in his old Bible, and pulled it from the shelf where he’d placed it. As he opened it, the list he’d made at that conference fell from the pages where he’d put……and forgotten it. These are his words, “There in my hands was the list of actions I knew without question almighty God had given me. I had forgotten. I carefully read each item and remembered how powerfully God had spoken to me during that service. It became painfully clear to me why I hadn’t experienced God’s anointing on my life since that time. I had filed God’s instructions instead of following them.”
How often have you and I been guilty of doing the same? How many times have we sat under teaching, under a multitude of “voices,” all the while hearing His voice through them, whether they be actual speakers or writers, and meticulously wrote down what we heard, all the while vowing, as Blackaby did, to make changes, and yet, soon after, even immediately, filed what we have received away, instead of following His voice, His heart, and His instruction? How many lists are gathering dust somewhere, whether on a shelf, or in our hearts? How many words from our Almighty God have we heard, been impacted by, and then…..forgotten? How many more times will it happen? How long do we think it can go on without His holding us accountable?
Somehow, we have fallen into the trap, the deception, of thinking that being convicted about something, becoming aware of it, is the breakthrough? We’re now aware of the problem, and that is victory. We may spend a great deal of time talking about our “problem” even making lists, as did Blackaby, of how we may come out of it, but somehow, the lists always end up on the shelf, and the problem remains, and our lives are unchanged, and the Father is OK with all of it.
As Mark Batterson says in his book “Wild Goose Chase,” it’s not what we’re thinking, saying or intending in response to what He speaks to us, it is what we DO. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the faithful stewards of what they’d been given, “Well DONE good and faithful servant.” He had no such words for the one who hadn’t. Which words might He have for us?
Somehow, we have fallen into the trap, the deception, of thinking that being convicted about something, becoming aware of it, is the breakthrough? We’re now aware of the problem, and that is victory. We may spend a great deal of time talking about our “problem” even making lists, as did Blackaby, of how we may come out of it, but somehow, the lists always end up on the shelf, and the problem remains, and our lives are unchanged, and the Father is OK with all of it.
As Mark Batterson says in his book “Wild Goose Chase,” it’s not what we’re thinking, saying or intending in response to what He speaks to us, it is what we DO. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the faithful stewards of what they’d been given, “Well DONE good and faithful servant.” He had no such words for the one who hadn’t. Which words might He have for us?
What is the last thing that the Holy Spirit spoke into your life concerning behaviors, attitudes, habits, that He made clear to you had to change? Did they? What did you do with His words? Did you jot them faithfully down, then file them away under “forgotten?” Or, did you follow them? Are you following them now? With His Holy Spirit conviction, comes Holy Spirit power. Power to turn away, power to change, power to be transformed. Power to be made new. Has such happened to you and I? Or, has the light dimmed, the behaviors, actions, habits and attitudes continued on, while His words gather dust on the shelves of our hearts and minds? While the power of His presence in our lives becomes weaker and weaker? Will the last thing we heard from Him, now be the first thing we hear, and do, today?
Blessings,
Pastor O
