One morning not long ago I was having my daily, personal time with God. I noticed something I found both convicting and helpful.<\/p>\n
My Old Testament reading was in Ezekiel 21-22. As I read I began to observe an amazing contrast going on throughout Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy.<\/p>\n
On the one hand Ezekiel routinely speaks of his reception and transmission of God\u2019s word to those to whom it was spoken. These expressions are found repeatedly throughout his prophecy:<\/p>\n
Ezekiel knew he had heard from God! And thus was able to confidently, authoritatively pass that word on to God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n
But on the other hand I ran across for the second time (cf. also 13:6-7, 10) his denunciation of others \u201cprophets\u201d who did not accurately hear God and transmit God\u2019s word:<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, \u2018Thus says the Lord GOD,\u2019 when the LORD has not spoken.\u201d (Ezek. 22:28)<\/p>\n
Clearly and frequently Ezekiel heard the word of the Lord, discerned it as such, knew he had heard Him rightly, and communicated it in God\u2019s Name with utter confidence. Ezekiel knew when he\u2019d heard God and when he had not. Additionally, he knew when others had not heard Him and inaccurately spoke in His Name.<\/p>\n
How can you and I be like Ezekiel? How can we be sure not to be like the other \u201cprophets\u201d of his day? How has that task and responsibility changed this side of Jesus\u2019 completed redemptive work and with a closed canon of Scripture?<\/p>\n
I then turned to that day\u2019s New Testament reading, which happened to be in the latter half of Hebrews 11. There I read of the great men and women of God \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cwho through faith conquered \u2026 enforced \u2026 obtained \u2026 stopped \u2026 quenched \u2026 escaped \u2026 were made strong \u2026 became mighty \u2026 put \u2026 to flight \u2026 received back \u2026 were tortured \u2026 suffered \u2026 stoned \u2026 sawn in two \u2026 killed \u2026\u201d (Heb. 11:33-36).<\/p>\n
They too had heard God, knew it, and acted upon it. And their faith was clear for all to see.<\/p>\n
Obviously it is of the utmost importance to rightly hear<\/em> and discern<\/em> God\u2019s voice\/word. But it is equally important to act<\/em> upon His voice\/word! It is easy to become immobilized by introspection and equivocation and \u201cdiscernment\u201d efforts. God intends us to hear and know His voice \u2026 and act upon it in faith<\/em>!<\/p>\n Faith moves! Faith acts! Faith does! Faith achieves! Faith receives! Faith leaves demonstrable evidence! Faith leaves footprints!<\/em><\/p>\n And the net of all this in Ezekiel is found in the oft repeated phrase: \u201cthen you will know that I am the LORD\u201d (72x).<\/p>\n So I conclude this: God speaks<\/em><\/span> that we might act<\/em> <\/span>that we (and others) might know<\/em><\/span> Him in experience!<\/strong><\/p>\n If we fail to rightly discern His voice, we will never know Him in experience.<\/p>\n If we hear and rightly discern His voice, but do not act in faith, we will never know Him in experience.<\/p>\n If we act with utter conviction and confidence upon what we believe to be the word\/voice of God, but (despite our bluster and bravado) have not rightly heard him, we will never know Him in experience.<\/p>\n If we hear and rightly discern His voice and even communicate it to others, but do not act upon it in faith, we will never know Him in experience.<\/p>\n We can cry and wail all we want about wanting to \u201cexperience\u201d God and know Him deeply, but unless we authentically and rightly hear<\/em> His voice and then act<\/em> upon it in faith, we (and those for whom we are divinely accountable) will never know<\/em> God in experience.<\/em><\/p>\n Father, would you please enable us to leave a trail of faith-footprints through 2013. We ask this in Jesus\u2019 Name and for your glory. Amen!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One morning not long ago I was having my daily, personal time with God. I noticed something I found both convicting and helpful. My Old Testament reading was in Ezekiel 21-22. As I read I began to observe an amazing contrast going on throughout Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy. On the one hand Ezekiel routinely speaks of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ezekiel","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-lK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1539,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions\/1539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}