Obeying God's Word-vs-Obeying man's word

Do we as Christians "truly" listen and obey our Heavenly Father and His Word, knowing that His Word is what is right and true, or do we have a tendency to lean more toward man's word and believe what he has to say?

Some are quick to obey man's word before God's Word. They believe man before they believe God. They seek man before they seek God. They ask man before they ask God. They trust man before they trust God. They will search a self-help book written by man before going to the ultimate self-help book written by the Holy Spirit. And some will continue in the man-mode of obeying and never "truly" look to God for the answers concerning his physical as well as his spiritual life. Why is this?

Are you a God-seeker?

Do you know that God delights in us seeking Him? The Word says that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6b). As we seek God with our whole heart He will be found of us. (Jer. 29:13) says: And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

I loved playing hide and seek as a child. It was especially fun the closer it got to being dark outside. When I was growing up the whole neighborhood was our back yard so there were a lot of hiding places. We would try to make some reasonable boundaries of course for everyone. Those were different days then. The neighbors didn't mind when children would play in their yards, and all of them looked out for every one's children. Wow! I am giving away my age now, it's really sad to see how far we have come. Well that was just a side bar. Now to get back to playing hide and seek. Like I said it would get more fun the closer it got to being dark. Things would get pretty tough then. At this point the seeker would sometimes pull out a flashlight and he/her would begin shining the flashlight at certain objects just be sure there wasn't someone hiding there. Sometimes the seeker would sneak up on the hider and shine the flashlight just in time to tag them and now they were it. But most of the time the one hiding would sneak out of his/her hiding place just in time and make it to the home base before the seeker could catch him. Those were some good memories.

Now that I am an adult I have found it very exciting to seek God. What's so awesome about seeking God is that He gives us a flashlight as well. I like to refer to God's flashlight as the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit "flashlight" will never fail in leading us directly to God. He will never leave us groping in the dark. The Holy Spirit will reveal the truths of God to us. He is always faithful in letting us in on the secrets of God and seeing things that we didn't notice without the flashlight. He brings things to light. Of course this is God's plan and how He prefers things to be. What's so great about seeking God is that when we finally find Him He doesn't run away. He just smiles real big and says, "see, I knew you could find me if you sought me hard enough."

What happens when we seek God with our whole heart and find Him? As the Word says, He will reward us. What is our reward? I believe it is the Holy Spirit who is given to us to teach us the deeper things of God. Of course it all begins with His son Jesus. Rewards of salvation and eternal life is our final destination in and through Christ Jesus. But as we grow in Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit within us we are rewarded with revelation and truths about God that the natural man cannot understand because it is spiritually discerned by the Spirit of God. Therefore we are rewarded with the mind of Christ by and through the power of His Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2: 10-16).

And as we are faithful with the truths of God that have already been given to us, then God will give us more revelational truths. The seeking doesn't end it continues. In the beginning we walk to find the truths, then as we find more truths we break into a run because we are excited to find them and want even more. God just smiles so proud and continues to reward us. For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath (Mt. 25:29). We don't want to find ourselves in the latter part of that verse. If you read prior to verse 29 it is the parable of the talents. Our Father God has given us the gift of His Holy Spirit by and through His Son Jesus because of the finished work of the cross. Which is more precious than any talent. We don't want to make light of this and find ourselves in the same shoes as the unprofitable servant that when the Master returns all we have is some lame excuse for our wickedness and laziness. We won't be able to say: I just chose to ignore/bury my convictions and the things pertaining to God. This is not going to hold water my friend. In that day those who try to give lame excuses will find themselves cast into the outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

If you are a God seeker, then you will be like unto the faithful servants who took their talents and made more for their Master. You will take very seriously the things pertaining to God. You will be one who is hungry for the things of God. You will not make light of the Truths of God. When your spirit man is checked and there is a red flag that pops up and says, STOP! Wait a minute! Don't do that! Don't go there! Will you be as the good servants and listen and be faithful with what God has given you via His Holy Spirit in you, or will you do as the unfaithful servant did? It is your decision.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I , that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (Jn. 16: 13-15).

Ask, Seek, Knock

Matthew 7: 8-11 (8) For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

(9) Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

(10) Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

(11) If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Our Heavenly Father is faithful in providing for His children. Whether we have a financial need, a spiritual need or a physical need God will always provide.
His Word says: But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:19).

According to the above scriptures in (Mt. 7:8-11) it seems to me that it is just a matter of asking, seeking and knocking. I like to think of it this way: Believe that when you ask something of your Heavenly Father you will receive, trust that when you seek Him you will find Him, and have faith that when you knock the door shall be opened unto you.

I would like to share with you a testimony of what I would consider a miraculous provision by God in our life. A few years ago we received a shut off notice in the mail from the electric company. All the monies that we had in our account was fifty dollars. Not nearly enough to pay our electric bill. We have made it a habit to daily check our accounts just in case of some mathematical errors by us or even the bank. And with all the fees now-a-days you just never know when they are going to withdraw monies- Ugh! For a week we did this and there was the balance of fifty dollars every time. We had about a week left now before our electric was going to be shut off. I had decided that this time I wasn't going to fret or worry about it. If the electric got shut off then it got shut off because there wasn't a thing we could do about it. God knew and we knew that we hadn't been negligent with our monies. So I continued to believe, trust and have faith that God was in control. After all, He has said that He would take care of our need. So that was final and I stood with my faith in my Heavenly Father!
About five days prior to our electric being shut off we looked at our account once again and would you believe it, our balance said $550. We thought, "Oh my goodness! How in the world did that get in there?" There was no record of a deposit. How can this be? We waited until the day before our electric bill was going to be shut off before we touched the money, because we wanted to make sure that it wasn't a glitch in the system or a bank mistake. Normally if it's a glitch in the system or a mistake by the bank they catch it and get it fixed pretty quick. Four days had gone by now and there set the $550 still in our balance.
What did we do, you may ask? Well, we thanked our Heavenly Father (the Great Mathematician) for His miraculous provision for us and used it to pay our electric bill. And we even had a little extra left over. We were so grateful that we couldn't stop praising God and thanking Him for providing for us. We still praise Him and thank Him even today in believing, trusting and having faith that He will continually provide for us.
I know that there are other miraculous testimonies out there about how Your Heavenly Father has provided for you. I would love to hear them, so please feel free to share them. As God's children share and testify of the blessings of their Heavenly Father in their life it will cause our faith to grow in Him.