Do we trend in that same attitude that they had?
Now this post is mainly for me and for my understanding but if you get something from it then great.
I've had a history of dissatisfaction while I was coming to know God. It was my want for more revelation, more understanding and more spiritual gifts that drove me to be dissatisfied. I would see someone else moving in a gift and I would want to as well. I would here knowledge coming from someone and I'd want knowledge or understanding as well. It was an unquenchable thirst for more that got me into trouble with Him.
Like the Israelites, I was not satisfied with what God provided me each day. I skipped over being happy with what He was providing me and went straight to wanting more like the Israelites. I was like a spoiled child that had everything yet wasn't happy with what I had. It got me in some deep trouble to say the least and I lost years of development to pouts and fits.
It wasn't a pleasant time in my Christian childhood which began when I was thirty. So now that I'm going on my nineteenth year as a Christian, I've started to mature somewhat under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
All that to say, we must be happy with what God is doing currently in our lives. I don't mean be complacent in your relationship because we have to maintain our faith but don't side step God and pursue something more exciting or more rewarding. If this is happening, its usually an indication your being led by the flesh instead of by the Spirit.
Walking in faith in God requires us to completely trust in Him and what He's doing in our lives. We cannot become restless in Him. Instead we must reassure ourselves by looking at what we have in Him instead of what we don't have. Turn our focus inward to our incredible relationship we do have.
The enemy will use tons of luring tactics to show you things you don't have so you'll want them. It's the grass is greener scenario. Show them what they are missing or show them how boring the same stuff is everyday and they will rebel every time.
Our desires to want more of what God has to offer us isn't bad if we filter it through Him and His timing. How can we say we walk by faith if we constantly run ahead of His leadership.
Look at the prophet who was told by God to go one way and come back another and not to stop. This story is for this occasion. So God gives specific instructions on what to do. It's like me now, I have been led to only have faith in Him and to walk in that faith through everything. I cannot do anything else right now because He is teaching me to walk in faith. When the prophet got side tracked by another, a so called prophet, he disobeyed and was killed by a lion I think, don't quote me on that. Anyway, this prophet didn't listen to what God told him to do by listening to another person say, I have a word from God for you.
Who has tried to get advice, solicited or unsolicited, from another. Each person will tell you their own opinion, quote the Bible and give you what sounds like excellent advice but is it really. If it is contradictive to what God wants you to do, then no, it's not good advice.
Establishing a good relationship with God is the key to everything. Listening to His direction, following that direction until He tells you otherwise is absolutely imperative. If we step out just one step then we are out of His will. Until we step back in, that roaring lion has full access to us. One of the only ways we stay in Him is to not want more than what we have been given and to walk in what He has given us to walk in. No matter how much I want to go and do something else, if it isn't ordered by God then it may very well be my flesh wanting it.
We are back to that again but it is critical and I can't state it enough. If we walk by faith in Him, to order all our steps each day then we are walking in the Spirit but the moment I think I can reach out with my hand and touch it in my flesh, then here comes that lion. Do you remember the ark of the covenant that was being moved and the one guy that though he was doing good, reached out to keep it from falling dropped dead. We have to look at all those old testament stories that happened in the natural and see them in the spirit. That man that reached out wasn't set aside by God to do that. He was reaching out in his own will and in his flesh, and when we do the same thing whether in mind or in deeds, then there's the lion waiting.
Have you seen these guys that wear the suits for police dog training. They get all that padding on so the dog won't be able to harm them. Of course they feel the dog moving and shaking them, they feel his weight but they don't get bitten. God is like that suit, and if we walk in that suit we don't get harmed. We get attacked and thrown down to the ground and get tossed a little but all in all we don't get bitten or injured by the dog. Now, step out of that suit and that dog has an arm or leg sandwich for dinner.
It's the same with all the scenarios I have listed above, living in Him through faith=good, stepping out of Him to go do our own thing=bad.
So, dissatisfaction is a definite stepping out of the suit and getting mauled by lions or dogs or anything that wants us away from Him. If you look at it in these terms and bring it into an understanding using real scenarios, then we can really feel the weight of how we walk each day.
One more then I'm done, can you name anyone that has stepped out onto a battle field with bullets flying around all over and not gotten shot. If they stepped up, out of the fox hole or trench they were hiding in and they just casually started to walk towards the enemy, they would eventually or immediately get cut down by flying hot metal. It's not a pretty scene yet we do this in the Spirit every day when we step out from under our submission to God. One head up and over that berm and we may not have a head. One arm raised up and bye bye arm. It's that serious and it's more serious the further we go in Him because we have more to lose then.
I hope this hasn't scared you into being paranoid because that too is stepping out of faith. It's a delicate balance and I am in that realm where I'm getting shaken by this big dog and if even one finger slips out of the suit, it gets ripped off. If we get bitten though or if we fall, God is merciful and good and He will let us back into Him. It takes acknowledgment of our mistake, an apology and a genuine repentant heart to get back to Him but we can get back to Him. As time goes by, instead of falling being a norm, it will become an exception and then an impossibility as God under our submission, takes control and we walk without any issues. This is the whole point of our existence, to be like Him.
Again, this is for me mostly but if you got more than a healthy dose of terror out of this then great. It was just a reminder for me to watch what I do, what I say and how I carry myself each day. Step out of faith in Him and I get bitten. It's definitely getting very real.
To God be the Glory
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