Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
12 4 2024
He heard God speak…but said – No I can’t.
I heard a story this weekend of a man who was standing in line at a fast food restaurant waiting to get his food. He felt the lord tell him to tell the lady in front of him that He still loved her. He said, No, I can’t do that. They brought the ladies order out and it was wrong, and they went back to redo it. The same urging came, tell her – I still love her. He said, I won’t! they brought the order out, and again, it was incorrect. He had gotten his order and he heard the call again – tell her. He finally said after the 2nd mistake to say to her. You don’t know me but I felt the Lord wanted me to tell you that – He still loved you. She started to scream and cry and, in between breaths, said, I just told the Lord this morning that he didn’t love me and had given up on me, and you, my dear friend, have given me the most encouraging words.
I know that feeling and that calling, but too many times as I was maturing in my walk with God, I too, said NO. How about you? Did you ever feel that urge or unction to say something to someone? You, who had never been told or had an inkling that you had any sort of prophetic gift from God or that God could speak through you. How could you know that was God’s urging? This man did not either but two times her order was wrong. It was like the Holy Spirit had laid out a fleece like Gideon in Judges 6:36-40, where Gideon asks God to provide a sign by making a fleece wet with dew while the ground remains dry, essentially “testing” God to confirm his calling to save Israel; this is often referred to as “putting out a fleece.” In this case, the Holy Spirit Gave this Christian son two signs to confirm it was indeed his voice. As it played out he gained confidence in knowing that still small voice was indeed God. How that must have grown his faith.
Can you see that the story of Gideon testing God with his fleece is a pattern for us to follow in discerning the will of God for our lives? There is nothing wrong in testing God when we have an important decision to make or feel we have a word from the lord. We need to test it. We need to confirm it in His word. We can talk to another Christian that we trust and ask them to pray and discern with you a particular leading, in order for us to determine what God would have us do in a particular situation. It is indeed Ok to test him and seek a sign from him
Another example was when God said “test me in this” is Malachi 3:10. In this verse, God is essentially challenging people to faithfully bring their tithes to the storehouse and see if He will not open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon them. God is not opposed to his children testing His word. How else do we know that His promises are true beyond what our parents said? We must surely walk by faith, but faith is the essence of things hoped for and the EVIDENCE of things not yet seen. Hebrews 11:1 It’s a conviction based on trust and hope, even in the face of uncertainty. He wants us to be expectant children and trust him. Give God a chance to prove His word to you. Isaiah 55:11 states, “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”. I pray you are listening. When you’ve experienced that urging or, through a circumstance, sensed the presence of god talking to you to do this or say this or give you an insight that you just feel is from him. How much did you learn from that? Is it something you journaled or talked to others about and purposed in your heart to understand what He was trying to show you, teach you? Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”.
Did you indeed ask of the Lord regarding this sign he gave you and press in to learn more about how He communicates with us? And to grow in that? Andrew Murray asks, “Did you know that the faith that receives!!… is the fruit of faith? Because faith is the outcome and the growth of prayer. Because it is in that searching, that communication with God, called prayer, that faith rises to grasp what at first appeared too high of a reach”. Like, is God really talking to me through a circumstance or even a direct urging or command? That can be a pretty high reach as a younger Christin or even an older one who has never yielded to such a sign or sought God purposely and deliberately to learn more about what God’s word says about that. In essence not just wanting to know more but investing some time into watering this seed of faith that he planted in you. It’s in prayerful listening and prayerful asking and prayerful waiting that we wait for the leading of his Holy Spirit, whether we are asking the right thing or in the right spirit. It’s in prayer that we discover and become conscious of our want for more faith. Then, we prove the reality of our newly discovered faith” by persevering in prayer”. Those who lose their heart in prayer because they do not feel the faith needed to get the answer… will forever struggle to truly believe. Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, BELIEVE that you have received it, and it will be yours”. There is a distinct part that we play in this. Do you see that?
FAITH TO BELIEVE; Why we doubt God communicates with us.
We often get hung up on being disappointed in God for prayers unanswered or things happening that we don’t understand…which makes it even harder to believe he might talk to me in some way. And let’s not forget promises that we perceived he did not keep. (In my way of thinking) And we bring down His
“ALL things are possible” to the level of what we can believe vs having Faith and taking God at his literal word! Period! At some point, we must let go…and acknowledge that I often don’t know his ways and that, in the end, his choices are always the best. That also applies to unanswered prayer. There are more than a few conditions to unanswered prayer, and we will only know them by being dedicated to learning about God, discovering who he is at a deeper level, what he says, what he has done in the past, and what promises he has made..IN HIS WORD.
Including how he communicates with his children and gaining faith and confidence in obeying his direction and leading even though they might embarrass us or make us feel awkward like that man who wouldn’t tell the lady that God still loved her.
I will be teaching an online Jesus Following Class Thursday night, starting at 7pm EST to 8:30. Tomorrow, Dec 5th. We will be covering Chapters 1 & 2 this week on Prayer and Worship and the Bible. If you have time, please join us. Call if you have trouble joining. (813 967 7127) Here is the link. Blessings.
https://meet.google.com/qrb-mpkw-puu
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My website to view past devotions is https://fearlesslycourageous.com
Excerpts are taken from Andrew Murrays book With Christ in the School of Prayer.
Fall Like Rain // Passion //
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