- Fear the Lord And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
- See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse — the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known
- Thus says the LORD, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.
- Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose hope is the LORD.
- For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
- “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are brothers…. Nor are you to be called ‘Teachers,’ for you have only one teacher, the Christ!
- My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
- For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men
- And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.
- Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, And see if any wicked way is in me; and lead me in the way everlasting.
- Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; may Your good Spirit lead me on level ground of uprightness.
Many of us are busy everyday, don’t have time to read a lot of the Old Testament, and we missed many important warnings from God. For example, Jeremiah 17 summarized the difference between curse and blessing. Chapter 29 told us how to receive it. Below are the key points;
- When God said; “Cursed is the man who trusts in man” it is not limited to the old time believers, we should not trust any man for interpreting or understanding of the scriptures, including ourselves. Only trust in God. But what about those who teach and preach? Should we trust God’s servant?
- We have to listen to Jesus for this; “Nor are you to be called ‘Teachers,’ for you have only one teacher, the Christ!” This is to say anyone who teaches, he must not speak anything of his own, nor any man-made doctrine. He has to seek the Lord for instruction first. As it is written: (1 Peter 4:11 KJV) If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; False teachers hate this verse, they will never obey! Only God’s true servant will try to follow. Paul instruct Timothy who may not be ready at that time, to focus on reading of the scripture first, (1 Timothy 4:13 ISV) Until I arrive, concentrate on the public reading of Scripture, on exhorting, and on teaching.
- Jesus said (John 10:27) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. But why so many of God’s children do not hear Jesus’ voice all the time? Is there something seriously wrong with the teachings they are following? Is that true that many have grieved the holy Spirit?
- When God said; “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose hope is the LORD.” It would be easy to obey if there is a hot line to call, but Jeremiah 29 just provided that hint, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart“. However, the cost is very high, halfhearted will not be able to find Him.
- Psalms 25:4-5 instructed us how to pray, “Make me know Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day.” But many God’s children have been busy with all kinds of activities all the day without knowing their spiritual condition are the same as the church in Sardis and Laodicea.
- Many church goers do not know how to trust in the LORD. They attended local church decade after decade, but still haven’t learned to inquire of Jesus for instruction on repentance or anything, for they rarely hear his voice. They pray regularly but do not spend time to wait for definite answer. They are not warned about Do not grieve the holy Spirit, and they rely on men’s opinion and doctrine for all spiritual matters.
The heart is deceitful
We all know many scriptures, but often fail to put them into practice due to the lack of pure heart. It is written: (Jeremiah 17:9-10) The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “ I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” The problem and solution are all in these 2 verses, “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind”. The only way to correct this is through prayer, asking God to do it, they are written in the book of Psalms:
- (Psalms 19:14 NIV) May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
- (Psalms 26:2 MKJV) Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; purify my heart and my mind.
- (Psalms 51:10) Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
- (Psalms 86:11 AFV2020) Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.
- (Psalms 90:14 NIV) Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
- (Psalms 119:33-37) Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep Your law and observe it with all my heart. Make me to walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in them. Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from seeing vanity; give me life in Your way.
- (Psalms 139:23-24) Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
These prayers are simple, but not many people would pray like this. Now I can see each time when we pray after the psalms, the words went into our inner being, allowing the holy Spirit to do the work, such as purify the heart and mind. After that work is done, our heart will be able to hear the word, it then become the rhema, spoken word of God, it will increase our faith. For it is written, (Romans 10:17) So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Here the “word” is rhema, so faith comes from hearing God’s rhema speaking to the heart. It is the mysterious work of the Spirit, we can’t comprehend. In the same way Jude said, (Jude 1:20) But you, dear friends, must continue to build yourselves up on your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit.
Cursed is the man who trusts in man
In Jeremiah 17:5 and 17:7, God is telling us no man can be trusted, only trust in God. But some may quote the scripture, (1 Timothy 5:17 NIV) The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. And (Hebrews 13:17) Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. Should we obey the elders of local church today?
Before answering this we have to know what kind of church Paul was talking about. It is written, (James 5:14-16 NIV) Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
We see the elders of the early church have faith to heal the sick, but elders in the church today do not have enough faith to heal. Further more, today’s institutional church do not obey many scriptures, such as “confess your sins to each other”, there is no fear of God at all. As it is written, (2 Timothy 4:3 NIV) For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. This time is now here. Many are dead like Sardis church or lukewarm as Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3. Therefore, we have to inquire of the Lord for who is worthy of honor or listen.
Apostle Paul told us not to trust even the prophets, (1 Corinthians 14:29 KJV) Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. Also in (1 John 4:1 AFV) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Paul also warned us, (Acts 20:29-30) For I know this: that after my departure grievous wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; And from among your own selves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. It has been like this for centuries already, many are speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves.
Watch out also for ungodly men, (Jude 1:4, 19 NIV) For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. …… These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. They don’t have the Spirit, God’s people must learn to be filled with the Spirit, there is no easy way to identify them correctly without guidance from the Spirit.
Walk in the Spirit vs flesh
So, how to walk in the Spirit regarding 1 Timothy 5:17 ? The person who trust the Lord would probably pray like, (Psalms 25:4) “Make me know Your ways, O LORD; teach me whether I should honor or pray for the elder or point out their sin as 1 Timothy 5:20 said, “those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.” Upon receiving answer from the Spirit, he then act accordingly, in this way he does the will of God. For he is led by the Spirit, (Romans 8:14) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
This is the way our Savior walked on earth, he do nothing of himself, see (John 14:31) but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here. We have to do the same as it is written, (1 John 2:6 NIV) Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. That means we have to learn imitating the Lord through the holy Spirit.
Jesus said, (John 10:27) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. God’s children should follow the Savior by inquire of the Lord through prayer in their daily activities. This is the main purpose of prayer — to do the will of our Father in heaven. This voice of our Savior, the rhema word is the daily bread of the Lord’s prayer, each child of God should seek. For Jesus said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.‘ ” Remember in this verse, the “word” is “rhema” spoken word, not “logos” written word.
Those walk in the flesh are similar to the Corinthians, (1 Corinthians 3:1) And, I, brethren, was not able to speak to you as to those who are spiritual, but as to those who are carnal—even as to babes in Christ. At this stage, all like to hear the man-made doctrine like “faith alone”, “no works required”. Not many likes to obey Paul’s instructions, (1 Corinthians 4:16) So I urge you to become imitators of me. (1 Corinthians 14:1 NIV) Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. Only a few have the fear of the LORD.
To prophesy need first hearing from the Lord, not man. But they don’t believe the word, (Psalms 28:1) To You, O LORD, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. They are deceived. They can’t see nor care what is the will of God. They rely on man’s opinion and interpretation of the scriptures. In fact almost every believer may go through this stage in their spiritual walk.
I was like this for many years, struggling for hearing from the Lord, but was deceived by men from time to time. Only after I started to get more serious about imitating Jesus, I gradually see more truth from scriptures. Then after years of praying the psalms my faith started to increase more often. When I look back, my heart and soul learned a lot from the sermon by the Spirit which is the book of Psalms. God’s people need to hurry up, for the time is running out. It wouldn’t be good if we don’t know how to listen to the Lord’s voice when He comes back for the bride.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
It is written, (Titus 3:8 NIV) This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. But how do we practice doing what is good? Ask the Lord what to do and then carry it out, (Acts 9:3-6 NKJV) As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Paul demonstrated the trust by asking, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” He choose to forget about himself, his idea and plan, just surrender and do what the Lord wants. Paul know the scripture very well, he fear God so he choose to surrender. Whenever an individual reads the word of God, the Spirit can speak to him, for example. (Psalms 4:2) O sons of men, how long will my glory be put to shame? How long will you love delusions and seek after lies? If the heart is not hardened he will probably respond something like this, “Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth.” and “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
In this way we are actually practicing “pray in the holy Spirit”, if we are serious enough, the prayer will be answered, then our walk will be getting closer to the Lord gradually. But many scholars and preachers have missed this. That resulted in most people only praying in the flesh, that is to pray according to one’s own needs and understanding. Pray in the holy Spirit means pray after the scriptures, particularly psalms which is written so the holy Spirit can teach us how to pray.
Those who have hard heart will not hear much. He may cherry-pick some verses to believe, but not the real ones such as “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children“. He is like psalms 39:2 (NIV), For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. And this is me too, I didn’t think about imitating the Lord for a long time. After years of reading the word and repeating the psalms I have made some progress, but still not dead to myself yet, and I have to keep working.
Today most of us still don’t know much about how to inquire of the Lord, nor listen to Jesus’ voice. Many sheep are left on their own to decide how to do the will of God. Not so many like to obey what is written, (1Pe 2:15 NKJV) For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. But Jesus was doing this all the time, (Acts 10:38) God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and he went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him. This is truly God’s will for us to do, as it is written, (Ephesians 2:10 NASB) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Everyday we are overwhelmed by huge amount of disinformation and lies, without focusing on the Word and prayer no one can discern properly. God’s people need to wake up, this is not the time to take things easy, things will change suddenly. Now let’s pay attention to the Word of the Most High;
(Zephaniah 1:2-6 NIV) “I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. “I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. Against Judah “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem. I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagan and the idolatrous priests — ” those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molech, those who turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor inquire of him.
(Zephaniah 1:14-18 ) “The great day of the Lord is near — ” near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers. I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth.“
(Zephaniah 2:1-3) Gather together, gather together, O shameful nation, before the appointed time arrives and that day sweeps on like chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s wrath comes upon you. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger.
Let us seek the Lord by learning from Apostle Paul’s prayer for carnal believers, (2 Corinthians 13:7 ISV) We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not to show that we have not failed the test, but so that you may do what is right, even if we seem to have failed. That prayer is the same as (Psalms 119:2-3 NIV) Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways. This prayer is very important, without it the Corinthians will keep doing wrong, that means continue to live in sin. Since there no apostle to pray for us today, we have to follow Paul’s example to pray for ourselves. Just as he wrote, (Ephesians 5:19 KJV) Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Because I have little faith, can’t remember how many times I prayed the psalms until it makes any real difference. Each time I pray the psalms my heart get a chance to hear the holy Spirit speaking, but often not accepting it right away. Jesus said, “these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me“. We hear Jesus’ voice by our heart, not with ear or mind. If anyone can’t hear Him, it is due to calloused heart. The root cause is always the heart, each time I pray, it may change a little bit. After many times my eyes of the heart are opened, then I can hear through the Spirit. The logos of the scripture will become rhema word of God into the heart, and it has the fruit of obedience or repentance. It takes me lots of time, I realized when I read scriptures without praying psalms, it will take even more time for my heart to hear. But I don’t know how much time do we have before our Lord’s coming.
May God have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.
Now let’s pray psalms 119:1-16, 32-40 and 89-112.
Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.
Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.
They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways.
You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.
Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!
Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.
I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.
I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.
How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees.
With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.
Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.
Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.
Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared.
Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good.
How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness.
Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.
Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures.
Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you.
If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.
I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.
Save me, for I am yours; I have sought out your precepts.
The wicked are waiting to destroy me, but I will ponder your statutes.
To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless.
Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.
I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.
I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me.
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.
I have suffered much; preserve my life, O Lord, according to your word.
Accept, O Lord, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws.
Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law.
The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts.
Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.
My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.
Amen.