Spiritual Gestation

mukk_in

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Dear saints, it’s indeed good to be back with all of you :). I trust that the Lord has been preserving and prospering you. God gives all of us a vision about Himself and what He wants us to do (Exodus 3:5, 3:10). However, the vision may not always translate into action immediately. There’s incubation or gestation period before the vision becomes reality, and usually it’s during these times that we stumble.


Please turn with me to 2 Corinthians 10:5 in which the Apostle Paul was defending his apostolic ministry to the rather carnal and corrupt Corinthian church. I’d like to take this verse slightly out of context and focus on the latter half of the verse which reads as follows: “and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Now many saints interpret this scripture to mean mental discipline to cast out day dreaming, false imaginations, impure thoughts etc, and they are correct. However, I’d like to put a different spin on it. The thoughts that are in our head may not always be from the Devil. Sometimes, even the Holy Spirit can put God’s ideas and visions into our head. The above scripture means that even godly thoughts and ideas should be disciplined and made obedient to Christ. In other words, God’s plans put into our heads should be accomplished God’s way and not according to our natural understanding. All hell indeed breaks loose if we try to do God’s will our way.


Let’s look at some examples of how horribly things could go wrong if we rush to accomplish God’s vision our way. Genesis 37:5-10 narrates Joseph’s visions and how they aroused jealousy in his brothers. Joseph’s visions were indeed accurate as demonstrated by the events that played out later in Egypt (Genesis Chaps. 42-45). However, the golden boy Joseph must have had an arrogant streak in him when he narrated how his own parents would bow down to him (Genesis 37:10). My take on the events that followed is that Joseph’s suffering taught him patience and humility, virtues which he so admirably demonstrated as Pharaoh’s first lieutenant in Egypt. Joseph should have meditated on the visions before the Lord and sought God’s mod-us-operand i instead of bragging about them and getting into trouble.


Genesis 16 describes the story of Abraham trying to accomplish God’s will (Genesis 15:4-5) according to natural sense. This was actually a tradition in the ancient world, i.e., if the wife was barren, the maid could legally bear children/heirs to the man of the house. The consequences of Abraham giving birth to Ishmael through Hagar his maid was devastating (Genesis 21:8-21). Many believe that the on-going turmoil in Palestine, the conflict between Jews and Arabs, can be traced back in history to this mistake that Abraham made. Although Genesis 15:6 praises Abraham’s faith, the subsequent events clearly indicate that even this great Patriarch’s faith did fail when he consulted natural wisdom as opposed to relying fully on God.


Let me end with one final illustration of perfect spiritual discipline from the life of the Apostle Paul. In Galatians 1:15-18 the Apostle Paul describes how he didn’t consult flesh and blood, i.e., natural wisdom, but sought solitude with God in the Arabian Desert. In Acts 9:20-31 we read about Paul’s initial evangelical experience which wasn’t very successful as he was almost killed (Acts 9:29) and had to be rescued by the brothers in Damascus (Acts 9:30).


So you see friends, it’s a wonderful blessing to receive a vision from the Lord. The vision will indeed become reality, but God’s way and in God’s good time. There’s a lag time between the impartation of the vision and it becoming a reality. We shouldn’t run ahead of God and in our human enthusiasm try to do God’s will our way. Maybe God has given some of you a vision to become a missionary, to commence a new Tech start up, to expand your business internationally, or just teach Sunday school to the kids at church. Whatever your vision may be, please wait upon the Lord to accomplish His will, in His way and in His good time. Amen.


Saints, m[FONT=&quot]y intention in this writing was only to illustrate some concepts and not incriminate anybody in anyway. I apologize if some or all of this content offended you in anyway, as my intention was quite the opposite[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Dear friends, I’m quite certain that all of you are sanctified, Holy Ghost baptized saints. Should there be any amongst you that don’t know the Lord yet, I pray that the Lord of the Universe will set you free from sin and disobedience into His glorious light and freedom. Amen.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]PS: Thanks for taking the time to read my scribble saints. If you find a lot of similarities between this writing and those of Rev. Oswald Chambers, that’s because the late Rev. Chambers is my mentor. Dear friends, please forgive me if I don’t respond to your mails and debates. I’m a full time college professor and haven’t the time to debate (that and I’m not very good at it.) “……though it tarry wait for it, for it will surely come …. (Habakkuk 2:3)”. Amen.[/FONT]
 

dragongunner

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Joseph never rushed ahead of God to accomplish his own way, far from truth. He didn't arouse jealousy among his brothers through any fault of his own. He didn't have a arrogant spirit. The dream he told was from GOD, not from him. He never bragged about them, far from the TRUTH. The Truth is he loved his father, and he loved God. And for this he was favored by GOD and his father, this is what provocted jealously among his sinful brothers. He told his father his dream as God had shown him, just like others would do to their dad or pastor, no arrogance. You will read also his brothers were not taking care of the herds as they should and he told his father, not a tattle tale either, but because of his love and loyalty to his father and his work, his brothers decided on their own to hate and want to kill him. The story of Joseph is that the humble, and good can find themselves in dire straits and tribulation, and it just keeps getting worse and worse, but to keep faith in God for his promises and trust God that bad things can happen, in order to get us to the place he has for us to fulfill what he has promised, Joesph kept the faith and held on to his dreams from God.
 
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