Listening and Obeying

Some months ago a lady who wasn't a follower of Jesus asked me to pray for her back, seeing as I'd been sharing tales with her about some people I saw God heal of physical stuff going on. So, I went to the toilet in the building we were in and cried out to God. I asked Him what I should do. Good start.

Jesus said "I only do what I see the Father doing". When praying for people, it's a very good idea to involve God and ask for His leading! We can do nothing apart from Him and He always knows best what people need.

I felt God say to me quite clearly that I should pray in a specific way, a way that I was quite uncomfortable with, a way that I had been taught not to pray when with non-Christians. Not a bad way though, let me just clarify that! (I'm deliberately withholding the specifics of this testimony because I don't want people focusing on the method.)

So, I left the bathroom and joined the lady in the room she was in, with many other of her friends curiously watching and listening. She told me to pray for her back, so I asked if I could lay hands on her, to which she said something along the lines of 'absolutely not!' So I prayed every kind of prayer I could think of, rebuking the sickness, asking God to remove it, commanding it to go, releasing peace, acknowledging I can do nothing apart from Christ...I used all the options and words I could think of to try to make the pain leave. But I felt that I really should pray in the specific way that I felt incredibly uncomfortable doing, especially in front of all these people. And you know what? I didn't do it. And there appeared to be no difference in the pain level when I asked the lady, and I felt stupid.

Alls I know for sure from this experience is that I didn't obey God when He told me to do something. It's not something I'm proud of, but I do wonder whether this lady would have been healed if I had obeyed what I felt God telling me to do. Thankfully, my God is a God of grace and I am on a journey. I really do want to be a person who obeys God when He speaks to me. 

It's one thing to hear from God, but those who listen & obey are truly wiser than those who hear from God and do not obey Him.  It's not how much you know, but it's what you do with what you do know.

Relative Truth and what it means to 'Know God'

Relative Truth


Some of the world appears to have this concept that 'truth' is relative. Meaning, your truth and my truth, though different, can coexist. This seems in my opinion to be a man-constructed abstract idea as to avoid conflict or being challenged when there are people who have different 'beliefs' or religions that people are uncomfortable with.
        When applying this stream of thought to the truth that the person Yeshua the Messiah (widely known as Jesus) claims, I wonder if it really holds up? How can all apparent truths or opinions or religions or faiths be all equally true if you are including Christianity as well.


Yeshua says of the way to Father God "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6


He does not say that he is 'a way' or 'a truth' but makes strong claims that nobody comes to Father God through any other path or teaching or person. Only through Yeshua. 


I also wonder, how can someone who believes in ideas such as survival of the fittest, that nature just has its way and runs its course, that life is just a bunch of scientific calculations without meaning- how can such things be true and yet that same person knows that suffering is wrong, that certain things are wrong or right. How can there be wrong or right in a world where nature just has its way and we just go along with it? And yet we see in the media, on social network sites, from heated debates and conversations with friends, that most people think suffering is bad.   


So if we generally, as humankind, know that suffering and pain and abuse is wrong and shouldn't be happening, perhaps we have a subconcious understanding that this world was created perfect and something must have happened at some point for it to be tainted?


Knowing GOD
In the bible, there is a hebrew word that is translated as 'know'. It is 'Yada'. Yada basically means 'to know' but depending on the context of when it is used, can have different meanings. 


יֹודֵעַ (yo-dey-ah)

This is the verb yada meaning "to know" but written in the participle form meaning "knowing" a present action. In Hebrew the verb yada means much more than to know. It means to have an intimate and interactive relationship with its subject"

It can mean giving ourselves to someone so we can engage them with our love and affection, understanding the needs of those around us and taking care of them- living out the covenantal relationship we have with the LORD in every area of our lives.

So, when we talk about 'knowing God' we are not talking about an opinion or thought of the mind. We are talking about giving ourselves to God and enjoying an intimate and interactive relationship with Him. Hope you get that.