Those that hear His voice,

It seems that lately I have been led on this journey of seeking. And one thing keeps coming to light, that although we are to spread the gospel, and let people know of the gift of grace, it is ultimately God's plan in the new covenant that everyone will know Him, in their heart.

It has led me to a ministry of seeking those that seek Him, not standing on the street corner shouting out His name, but teaching those that hear His voice, and truly seek Him.

Jesus said in John 14, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd."

I don't believe this means we should just discount, or stop spreading the gospel throughout the world, we should just not force it on those not ready to hear.

After all "His voice" maybe coming from someone typing out a message on Facebook at seven o'clock on a Tuesday morning.

Hebrews 8: 7-13 NLT
7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. 8 But when God found fault with the people, he said:

“The day is coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and Judah.
9 This covenant will not be like the one
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to my covenant,
so I turned my back on them, says the Lord.
10 But this is the new covenant I will make
with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11 And they will not need to teach their neighbors,
nor will they need to teach their relatives,
saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’
For everyone, from the least to the greatest,
will know me already.
12 And I will forgive their wickedness,
and I will never again remember their sins.”
13 When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.

Is God on your caller ID?

How do you know when you've been called? Or when it's time to step out of the boat? I am reminded of the gentleman that was in a  flood and they were evacuating the area.

The first person came by in a truck and said " Hey you need to go now the waters rising." He said, "Nah I'm ok God will take care of me."

The water rises a little more and the next person comes by in a boat and said " Hey you need to go now the waters rising." He said ," I'm good, God will take care of me."

The water  engulfs his house, and now he is on the roof. The next person comes by in a helicopter and said, "Hey now is the time, your house is going to be washed away." He said, I'm good, God will take care of me."

He dies and gets up to heaven, and his first question for God is, "God why didn't you take care of me?" God said, " What did I have to do, I sent a truck, a boat, and a helicopter."

Some times we do exactly as the gentleman in the story. God has a plan for our lives, but we just don't seem to see the forest for the trees. The obvious eludes us, while we work our jobs praying for God, to show us His plans for ours lives.

Acts 9:1-8
1Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest  2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he  found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.  4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
Me?”
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord? ”Then the Lord said, “I am
Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what
do You want me to do?”
Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you
will be told what you must do.”
7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one.  8 Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.  9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Not every calling is going to be a miraculous event, like Saul's transformation.

But what if he has already shown us His plan? What if His plan, that we are praying for, is right where we are now?

Over the next few weeks we are going to look at other people in the bible that were called by God to do something miraculous, some of  their lives were changed in a radical way, others were used right where they were, doing what they had always done.

This week listen for God to speak to you and share with you His plan for your life.

Jesus: Our high priest, forever!

Jesus is our high priest appointed by God, to not only offer the sacrifice, but be the sacrifice for our sins. He was able to know our sufferings and troubles, because He too, suffered as a human.

I also want to Point out verse 4 where it states, "And no man takes the honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.

God puts the call on our lives to teach, and spread His word, it is not something that we take on ourselves, it is only with God speaking through us that we are able to lead people to His word, and we should lead according to where they are in their walk, whether new born believers in need of milk, or those that have progressed to solid food.

Hebrews 5:1-9
1For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.  2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.  3 Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.  4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.

5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:

“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.”

6 As He also says in another place:

“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek”;

7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,  8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,  10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”  11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.  14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Are you living in His rest?

The Israelites that fled Egypt, were promised a land flowing with milk and honey, and a rest from all of their strife, but they weren't ready to follow Moses in faith. So only their offspring was able to see the promised land.

God wants us to enter into His rest so much so, that He gave His son, to allow us to enter into the rest we could not enter on our own.

Today open your hearts, accept Christ into your life, and enter into the rest that God had intended from the very beginning.

Hebrews 4:1-10
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. ² For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. ³ For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:

“So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest,’”

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; ⁵ and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”

⁶ Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. ⁹ There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

Whose house were you built from?

Whose house were you built from, Jesus whose house has been reconciled through the price He paid on the cross, or Moses, whose house was under the old covenant?

Both were built by God, but Moses', was to built to point us to the other, Jesus, and His house or covenant. Through Moses we were given the law, through Jesus we were freed from the law.

Hebrews 3:1-6
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,  2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.  3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.  4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.  5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward,  6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

What is man that you are mindful of him?

Think about the following passage, and let what it has to say soak in.

When I read this passage, it makes me think of God's plan for mankind. You see God didn't plan for us to be in subjection the world, but for the world to be under our authority. Many people think that the devil has more power than man, but in reality He only has what power we give him.

In the beginning, God said man would have dominion over the earth, and after Jesus resurrection, the Holy Spirit gives us back, through Jesus Christ, the authority and dominion we, as born again believers, once had while in the garden.

So "What is man that you are mindful of him?" Just God's crowning creation!

Hebrews 2:5-9
5 For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. 6 But one testified in a certain place, saying:

“What is man that You are mindful of him,
Or the son of man that You take care of him?
7 You have made him a little lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
And set him over the works of Your hands.
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

He has recieved His inheritance!

Just a few days ago we celebrated Resurrection Sunday, the day Christ came forth from the tomb, showing all of mankind that He indeed had conquered death.

It is fitting that we finished the book of John on Sunday, and now we are starting Hebrews, as Hebrews opening verse tells us who the Son of Man truly is, and of His inheritance as the son of God.

It is so refreshing to know that through Christ, we are given the same inheritance, and all of the promises of the old testament are fulfilled through Him.

Hebrews 1:1-4
1God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.