When Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples . . . He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities —Matthew 11:1
He comes where He commands us to leave. The Holy Spirit is the teacher whether by shining light on the Word or by leading us through actions and experience. Our duty to to obey. We are not responsible for others; but only for obeying Our Lord whether it relates to our spiritual life or the life of others. If we can accept this truth then a great weight can be lifted from us. It is ours to obey and His to be responsible for the results.
He teaches where He instructs us not to teach. “Master . . . let us make three tabernacles . . .” ( Luke 9:33 ).
This truth is especially applicable to our family, our children and their children. After we have lived a few years and made our share of mistakes and possibly learned a bit about our God, we want to pass this on to others. We want to convey information and spare our loved ones the pain that can come with experienced learning.
It’s not the way of God. Are we playing the part of an amateur providence, trying to play God’s role in the lives of others? Are we so noisy in our instruction of other people that God cannot get near them? We must learn to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. The Spirit is the teaching and learning is sometimes a painful experience. To try to short cut the pain, is often to miss the lesson. Shut up and obey.
He works where He sends us to wait. “. . . tarry . . . until . . .” (Luke 24:49 ). “Wait on the Lord” and He will work (Psalm 37:34 ). But don’t wait sulking spiritually and feeling sorry for yourself, just because you can’t see one inch in front of you! Generally we are terrible waiters. We have no patience. If we can’t see movement, we don’t believe anything is happening. We are like children crying out, “Are we there yet?”
To wait on the Lord may be our most difficult orders. But there is so much to be gained from the waiting. We learn patience. We learn God is the doer of every God thing. We can learn the wonder of simply spending time with Him.
It is simple to say it: “Simply obey.” Oh, if was as simple to do.
But do it and we will be blessed.
Nick
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