- araratchurch
- Feb 5
- 3 min read
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV
All through the Old Testament, we see references to the children of Israel refusing to hear what the Lord had to say. It wasn’t that the Lord wasn’t speaking to them. It wasn’t that the prophets weren’t making the voice of the Lord known to them. Rather, they couldn’t hear because their hearts were closed to what God had to say.
Jeremiah—with great consternation—pointed out the dynamic that the people of God, were “deaf” to Him.
“To whom shall I (Jeremiah) speak and give warning That they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed [absolutely deaf to God] And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reprimand and an object of scorn to them; They have no delight in it.”
Jeremiah 6:10 AMP
Jesus pointed out to the religious leaders that His word was rejected by them because they had made no place for it.
“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you plan to kill Me, because My word has no place [to grow] in you [and it makes no change in your heart]. Why do you misunderstand what I am saying? It is because [your spiritual ears are deaf and] you are unable to hear [the truth of] My word.”
John 8:37, 43 AMP
Just before Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death, He challenged the religious leaders with the fact that their refusal to believe the truth concerning Jesus Christ, was in line with how their fathers always rejected what God was saying.
“You stiff-necked and stubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did.“
Acts 7:51 AMP
Now, we may read about others rejecting the word of the Lord and not realize that in some way or another, we are doing something very similar.
Many years ago, the Lord spoke to me, saying, “Janet, what you think you know about Me, is keeping you from truly knowing Me.“ Of course, I loved the Lord and thought that I already truly knew Him. And—to a certain extent—that was true. But therein was the problem: My knowledge of Him was only to a certain extent; that extent being defined by what I had assumed to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about Him. My assumptions limited my ability to go further, limited my ability to go into a deeper knowledge, a deeper understanding of the Lord.
As the Lord inspired me to say to someone recently: Sometimes we can’t hear from the Lord in terms of direction, in terms of an answer, because we have limited the instruction we will “hear.” In other words, we have—on some level—decided the parameters within which the answer should come. So quite inadvertently (perhaps), we edit out, or block, any instruction, any word, that doesn’t fit into what we have decided the answer looks like. So, we may be actually blocking the voice of the Lord because what He has to say, falls within the area of what we will not consider.
In our opening scripture, the apostle Paul is pointing out the fact that our thoughts, if coming strictly from our own inner resources without the benefit of the Holy Spirit, fall short of being able to understand things of a spiritual nature.
Child of God, let’s make sure that our hearts and minds stay open to the voice of the Lord. Let’s make sure that we have not imposed artificial limits on our knowledge of God, or our ability to hear from Him, by stubbornly clinging to old ways, unrenewed ways of being and doing, and yes, old ways of thinking.
Lord willing, we’ll talk more about this next time.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Feb 4
- 3 min read
“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times. You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments.”
Psalm 119:15-21 ESV
It seems that one of the first things a toddler will do to assert their personhood, is to try to pull away from the protective hand of their parent. Well, any sane person knows that a toddler cannot be left to direct their own path. Indeed, they might run out into a road, fall off of a high place, or any other number of things that could lead to great injury or death. They do not have the ability to know what is best for them. Yet, they will sometimes throw fits to try to get their own way.
But what about us?
Oh, we’re all grown up; but don’t we pull those toddler stunts in our dealings with the Lord? Even though God created all that is, we often—whether consciously or unconsciously—buck up against the Lord, thinking that we somehow know better than He does. And, of course, we know that ends in disastrous results when we actually act on that impulse.
Consider this sad commentary from the Lord to His people:
“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.””
Isaiah 48:17-19 ESV
Although the Lord had time and time again shown His care for His people, His direction was still often rejected. So, like that impetuous toddler, the people repeatedly wrestled themselves from His protective grip, running right out into destruction.
What we are referencing here as “The Next Spiritual Journey,” began with this invitation from the Lord:
“I want to take you to the next level of endurance, a place where you will see what you did not see, know what you did not know, and be able to do what you could not do. Come with Me there. I Am preparing your way; forces all around, beyond your ability to comprehend and know, have endeavored to keep you from this moment. But you will have this moment, because I have said it will be so. You have only to come. I will do the work. I have made the way; you will become what all this has been about.”
Last time we talked about the fact that we come to a point where the only way to escape personal agitation, confusion, frustration, and so on, is to move forward, allowing the Lord to direct us into and through our next challenge. Today, we note that going forward in our spiritual development, our spiritual journey, can only happen by keeping our eyes fixed on our Shepherd. We must not allow the “noise” in our living, to distract us from His wonderful face.
In our opening scripture, we see the psalmist expressing that his ultimate desire is for the Lord’s direction, his ultimate motivation comes from the Lord’s command. Notice that the psalmist asks the Lord, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” He knew that wondrous revelation comes through meditation on the Lord’s commands. Indeed, God’s word illuminates all things we need to know, not just specific, so-called, “spiritual” issues.
Child of God, the Lord’s direction, the Lord’s word, opens up all truth to us. And through the work of Jesus Christ, we also have access to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Who Himself guides us into all truth.
No, we don’t know the way we should go, but the Lord does know and if we want to truly move forward we will keep our focus on Him by meditating on His word and seeking the guidance of His Holy Spirit. In doing so, we maintain our eye contact with Him, without which we can’t, we shouldn’t, attempt to go further on our journey.
“I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O Lord, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.”
Jeremiah 10:23-24 ESV
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Feb 3
- 2 min read
“The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!” I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.”
Psalm 118:14-21 ESV
I have found that agitation often signals the need for change. Possibly, some frustration has taken hold; the only way out is to go forward. Sadly, many people do just the opposite.
Now, of course, this observation could apply to our lives, our growth process in general. But our application here, is more so our “Pilgrim’s Progress,” our spiritual journey.
What I have personally come to reference as “The Spiritual Journey,” was a ten-day period of revelation, given through a series of visions from the Lord. That happened in January 2024.
Lord willing: These next several days, I will be sharing from a new journey the Lord called me to on January 21 of this year (2026), we are calling it “The Next Spiritual Journey.” It too was over a ten-day period.
Now, the first question that may come to mind: Why do I share my personal experience with you? Well, the Lord shares with me things that I am supposed to share with you. After all, it’s not just about me. It’s about what the Lord is doing in His army of the willing, those who want to be prepared themselves, as well as encouraging the preparation of family and friends, in terms of being able to victoriously navigate these Last Days before the coming of Jesus Christ.
Our opening scripture is one the Lord led me to on the first day of this journey. Here we see the psalmist extolling his hope in the Lord, found even in times of trials and testing. He has the assurance that God wants good things for him. As such, he wants to pursue and enter into the righteousness God has prepared for His own.
Friend, we can share this hope in the Lord. Truly, He wants good things for us. And because He wants good things for us, He lets us know when it’s time to take it up a notch, when it’s time to go to the next level. We’ll talk more about this next time.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!