The New Life, Inc.

Who Will Go?

Isaiah 6:8:  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ” Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? “Then I said, “here am I send me!” 

The church needs to be challenged constantly. It is so easy to become a hearer instead of a doer. If this is the kind of hearing that we have, all we have is selective hearing; we hear only what we want to hear.

Mark 16:15 And He said to them” Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to all creation.

I believe the Lord is still speaking to the church today; “Whom shall I send, who will go for us? Do we hear? Do we want to hear?

What is it that the Lord wants from the church and us as individuals?  

He wants us to bring the good news, the gospel out into the world. Some might say; I pray for the world every day! I read the bible every day! I go to everything that is going on at the church! Is that bringing the gospel, the good news out into the world?

You might say; “Being a good church member is my testimony! Is it? Is that good news to the world? Is that touching the world out there in some special way? When the Lord says; “Whom shall I send, who will go for us? Is that where He wants us to go?

I encourage you be a good member of the body of Christ, the church. Do not make it your hiding place, or your excuse that we are not called out into the world. If you do, your spiritual growth will stop there.

Where Are We? 

I am sure we would all like to think we are spiritually mature. I expect the foolish Galatians liked to think that as well as the Hebrew church and other church groups back in that time.

How do we know that we are spiritually mature people?

Is it because we pray every day, read our bible on a regular basis, go to a particular church on a regular basis, give some of our money to the church and to people in need? I expect the Galatians the Corinthians and the Hebrews did all these things. Paul still referred to them as spiritual babies, as natural men. All these things should be apparent in a Christian living as a spiritual person. Paul must have seen that something was missing in there spiritual walk. We can do all these things and not be spiritual. What was missing?

Part of this question was answered in Hebrew 5:11. Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become hard of hearing.

This was a problem in the Old Testament and the new; “Seeing they see not and hearing they hear not”

Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Milk is when someone else must keep feeding you. Solid food is being led by the Holy Spirit and doing what God wants you to do!

Hebrews 5:13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.

Note it says “only of milk” we still need teachers. We also need to hear the word of righteousness which is the living word that is in our heart and mind and obey what God is saying to us.

Hebrews 5:14 But solid foot is for the mature who because of practice have there senses trained to discern good and evil.

Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 2;13; which things we speak not in word taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. This is the word of righteousness. This is the solid food if we learn to hear it and do it, we know that we are spiritually mature.

Hearing We Hear Not! 

One of our abilities that is very important in our spiritual growth is hearing. I expect if you have not become a good listener you have had very little spiritual growth.  This is very apparent in our natural life as well as our spiritual life. So much off our growth comes from hearing new thoughts and ideas.

In this day and age our natural hearing is bombarded with sounds of one kind or another. If we do not put up some defense to block some of this input we go nuts. The problem with this is we block out some of the things that we really need to hear.

It is easier to hear the lie than it is to hear truth. In politics, this is quite obvious. In our spiritual journey this is also true. The enemy can lie to us and we accept it. God speaks the truth to us and we reject it.

One of the voices that speak to us if we have ears to hear is the faith God has given to us. It does not shout at us, it only whispers. I have come to believe it is the clearest and most sure way of hearing God’s voice on a daily basis. This faith that comes from God cannot be deceived! For those that are not dull of hearing and are listening, it is there for you every day in all kinds of situations.

Faith speaks to you and says; “Don’t say that.” Because we are not paying attention we say it anyway. Other times it says; “Don’t be involved in that conversation” and we do. Don’t read that book, we do! Go and visit your friend in the hospital, we are too busy and he dies that night. I could go on and on. I am sure you know what I am saying. The faith of God is active in you if you will listen and act. You see just hearing is not enough. There is some action that is involved.

The sad part is if we ignore this still quiet voice long enough we will not hear it any longer because we have blocked it out and become deaf.