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Sunday 1/04/26
Title: Encounters with the Author leads to Relational Trust
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Encounters with the Author leads to Relational Trust
Last week, we learned about developing a relationship of knowing and trusting with our Helper from Heaven – the Holy Spirit! As such, I knew going in that the venue in which the enemy would express his buffeting of me this past week would be in the form of challenging my faith in this regard. I will just tell you now, I was not disappointed.
So, this morning’s teaching will be my perhaps, clumsy attempt, to unpacking the truths I learned and or had deepened in me regarding relational trust in the Holy Spirit which sprang out of these times of attack.
The main focus of our teaching last week regarding developing a relationship of knowing and trusting the Holy Spirit was on being led by Him.
This was because we know that FAITH is the foundational support for things HOPED for, but that if our faith is to be IN GOD, then our HOPE or EXPECTATION must be found in what He has revealed to us of Himself.
We restricted most of our search into what we can expect out of our relationship with the Holy Spirit last week, to those things Jesus told His disciples about Him as recorded int John 14-16. These passages reveal that Jesus‘ main focus regarding the coming of the Spirit of God, was that He would be our teacher, our guide and the One Who reveals Jesus to us.
Jesus said,
“(18) I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
(19) Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.
(20) In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
(21) Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
(22) Judas (not Iscariot) said to him,
“Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
(23) Jesus answered him,
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.
(24) Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s Who sent Me.
(25) “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. (26) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
(27) Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.
Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
So what did I learn in relation to my relationship with the Holy Spirit this week regarding faith – a.k.a. Relational Trust?
Well in short, what got me through the times of attack was adoration. Adoration which led to surrender and trust!
It was worship, coming again and again to the place of choosing…
- to not be anxious
- to believe the words the Lord was giving me by the Holy Spirit of being my defense and
- in the end just choosing to believe through surrender.
What I found most often was surrender was the doorway to trust.
Making that decision gave way to faith.
Faith came as a result of surrender not as a result of bible reading, confessions, or even meditation.
That isn’t to say meditation did not play a part.
I had to seek God, to hear from Him, to make my mind focus upon HIS words to me, but in the end it was loving, devoted surrender to Who I know Him to be that has helped.
So upon looking at how to move forward after last week’s message, Loving the Lord is what came to mind, because that was the beginning of my journey to surrender. Love and deference (respect or fear of) towards God.
Ultimately it wasn’t the need that pressed me to surrender and that is important!
It wasn’t even the sense of being overwhelmed, though that did press me to draw near, I will not lie.
But in the end it was my choice to be devoted to what I know I’ve come to know of Him – His person and His character, which in turn led me to EMBRACE SURRENDER.
So while surrender plays a major part, I honestly believe it was my love for God (which love is a result of knowing and believing the love He first has expressed towards me) that led me to embrace surrender by which I came to experience victory and peace.
I suppose the actual “working out” of the process began with seeking Him. Asking the Spirit to reveal truth to me.
This led to a choice I had to make to honor (respect) His words spoken to me above the din of the noise from the enemy and my own fears.
This honoring His words came at the personal cost of protecting myself from all the “what ifs” that come against the mind of anyone who decides to place their trust in God.
My decision to honor His words above my concerns was ultimately my adoration of Him. My loving respect for Him which is the result of the years we have been together as Father and son. The investments He has faithfully made in me have created a chart springing backwards through time revealing a God Who can be trusted.
Out of this decision to ignore and not admit into my consideration as “evidence” any word or argument which detracted me from trust in God, came the settling of surrender. And it was in this act of surrender that I found myself in relational trust!
As I was thinking through all of this, what came to mind first was Jesus’ words that in loving God, we are keeping all the law and the prophets.
Which means that in loving God, we are keeping His will.
Let’s read it…Matthew 22:36-40,
“(36) “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
(37) And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
(38) This is the great and first commandment. (39) And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (40) On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
So loving the Lord with ALL THE HEART (or life) is to Keep His Word – which by expansion means not only His written word, but the leading of His Spirit which connects us to both last week’s teaching and the struggles I was encountering last week.
Listen…obedience is obedience!
Loving God is no less significant in relation to obeying God’s voice through His Spirit in day to day life than it is in obeying His written word.
If God places it upon your heart to say… go testify of Jesus to a person. Or pray for them. You know that inward urge and leading so many Christians are aware of, but are often intimidated out of obeying?
THAT act of disobedience is no more or less disobedience to God than disobeying His written word!
So in thinking about Jesus’ statement about this I knew He was quoting from the Law. So I found the place Jesus was quoting from which is in Deut. 6:5, so guess where we are turning now!
But you know we are big on context, so we are going to start with Deuteronomy 6:1 and read through to verse 15. That isn’t the whole piece but it is sufficient to offer us a clear context which is our goal.
“(1) Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, (2) that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. (3) Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. (4) “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. (7) You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (8) You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (9) You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (10) “And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, (11) and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, (12) then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (13) It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. (14) You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— (15) for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.” – Deut. 6:1-15
Now for a little more context Moses was…
- Addressing the second generation of Israelites who came out of Egypt
- He was recounting to them what HAD happened 40 years prior
- His job and goal was to teach them before they entering the promised land
So I thought – where in Moses’ written accounts of the 40 years is this command to “Love the Lord you God with all your heart?” even mentioned. I could not recall a single instance.
Man this is SOOOO instructional on SOOOO many levels!
Like I said, for the life of me I could not remember a place in all Moses had written which mentioned this commandment specifically, so I did a little digging and arrived at the only location in scripture which Moses COULD have been referencing!
Now this is going to help you in SO many ways, but we are NOT going to explore this passage until next week.
What we are going to read next week are the events which happened to Moses not long after he first went up on the mountain to get the first set of 10 commandments 3 months into their 40 years of wandering. So these events Moses is remembering and RE-telling the second generations about, are 40 years in his rear view mirror!
Why is this important? Because Moses has had a LONG time to contemplate this encounter with God as well as the words spoken to him.
What came out of all that reflection? Revelation!
What was that revelation? A condensed statement which Jesus used to answer the question
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
This revelation cut to the core of what God spoke to him on the mountain. It is was the Holy Spirit revealed to Moses about the heart of God behind the command. now this is something God will do with ANY of His children!
Jesus Himself demonstrated this in the beatitudes when He made statements like…
“You have heard it said… but I tell you.“
Was Jesus contradicting scripture? Certainly not. If He had, He would have been contradicting Himself and God does not change!
So why did Jesus‘ words sound so different from what Moses wrote?
“(21) You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ (22) But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” – Matt. 5:21-22
Because Jesus had spent time with the Holy Spirit Who revealed to Him the heart of the God behind the command. The command was never JUST about murder, but anger and hatred. If one does not allow their heart to hate his brother, they will never come to the point of murder either.
In traditional fashion, God is NOT about your actions but your heart. If He has your heart He will also have your actions, and this includes obedience and surrender leading to faith!
And that is where we well pick back up next week!
Blessings!
Tri
