GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 24 ~ ~ John 15:19 ~ ~ “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

I don’t have to tell you what kind of society, what kind of world system we live in. Every Christian knows, or should know, that this world system is in the hands of satan. The world still belongs to the Lord Jesus, and He will take it over at His Second Coming, to be sure, but the system that is in control now is satan’s false kingdom. He is the ruler of the “tares” that are growing in the wheat field in Matthew chapter 13.

This evil world system controls most of the governments, the communication systems, and a great share of the economic enterprises. At least in the US at the time of this writing, this is obviously the case, as the true Church of God is being increasingly oppressed by the people in authority.

Of course, those people are not working on their own. Again, every true Christian knows that the Prince of the air in controlling them, unknown to some of them, while others are openly devoted to him. The goal of satan is, and always was, to keep as many from the kingdom as possible. Don’t be deceived, he is not ignorant of God’s ways. He was the most powerful, most talented, and most beautiful angel in heaven, as well as, I am sure, the most loved by God, before he defected. So he knows how God thinks.

He knows how Our Lord uses His people in the Spirit, to accomplish His will on earth sometimes. God, of course, can, and will, do whatever He desires directly, but sometimes He chooses, for our benefit, to use us in the process, because it bring us closer to Him, with what is necessary to obey Him.

For us to know what He desires of us, we need to communicate with Him. It’s very difficult to communicate with anyone with background noise disturbing the concentration. To communicate in the Spirit is even more difficult with distractions, because it’s not only outward sights and sounds, but our inward thoughts, plans, desires, and physical needs that flare up in our minds. Of course, the enemy understands all this very well. His demons are busy constantly to create chaos in our lives, in order to stifle our work for the Lord, and thereby take souls for himself.

Quietness is spoken of in God’s Word 52 times. Once for each week. Is that random? Of course not. Our Lord is always speaking to us between the line of His written Word, if we will listen and study.

He spoke of quietness in the land sometimes for many years. Quietness in the land would be peace, joy, contentment, and love, all which come from knowing Our Lord’s inner peace. That usually happened when the ruling king at that time was spending time with Jehovah.

Both Nehemiah and Caleb, as well as Moses and others, seemed to routinely quiet the people before they spoke with them. Samuel told Saul to “be quiet, and I’ll tell you what the Lord said to me last night” Psalm 107:30 says, “Then they are glad because they are quiet; So He guides them to their desired haven.” He can’t guide us in our lives if we’re not quietly listening to Him!!!! Notice, it says “haven”—this is also for protection, which we definitely need in this evil world. If we’re listening to the world, we won’t hear His direction in the time of danger.

God won’t compete with the world, or our thoughts and desires, in order to speak to us. He won’t force us to listen, anymore than He will force the world to believe and obey. We must quiet ourselves in order to hear Him.

More about this tomorrow.

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