As a minister of the Gospel, one of the things I try to get across to people is the importance of being REAL with God. He IS the Omniscient God! The All-knowing One! He ALREADY knows everything there is to know about each of us! Check out these verses in Psalm 139:1-4:
1O LORD, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me.2You know my downsitting and my uprising; You understand my thought afar off.3You sift and search out my path and my lying down, and You are acquainted with all my ways.4For there is not a word in my tongue [still unuttered], but, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
Check these out in the Message Bible:
1-4 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I'm an open book to you;even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence.
Have confidence that the God of the Bible KNOWS you and STILL eternally loves you! In fact, He loved you while you were still a sinner, (Romans 5:8) that's WHY Jesus came! How much more now that you have been recreated in His image, now that you've been born again! There is nothing you could tell God about yourself that He doesn't already know and already have a perfect plan ready to get you into a better place - IF! That "if" is completely your choice. Do you want to be in a better place in your life? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to get in position to receive God's richest and best for you life and your family? THEN DO IT! Pray verses 23-24:
23Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!24And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Be honest before God, listen to what He instructs you to do, then DO IT!
In 2 Corinthians 12:7 we hear all about Paul's thorn:
7And to keep me from being puffed up and too much elated by the exceeding greatness (preeminence) of these revelations, there was given me a thorn (a splinter) in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted.
That thorn has been talked about SO much and used by so many to try to persuade people that healing isn't for us today. In the first place, when "thorn in the side" or "thorn in your eyes" was used in other places in the Word of God, it ALWAYS referred to people! Check out these Scriptures. Numbers 33:5:
55But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
Joshua 23:13:
13Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.
Judges 2:3:
3Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
These "thorns" were the ungoldy people of those lands who were not driven out as they were supposed to be and the Lord warned them that they would forever have trouble with them. Now let's look at 2 Corinthians 7 again:
7And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
Notice that this "thorn" was a messenger of satan! It was the devil who didn't want Paul to receive the revelation he was getting from God because he knew that if Paul understood the Word and he taught others to understand what belonged to them as a child of God and a Blood Covenant partner with Him, he would have a very hard time deceiving them into believing lies. Go through and read about Paul's adventures and see where the enemy used people to harass him and try to discourage him. When Paul asked the Lord to deliver him from this persecution, the Lord DID NOT say NO to Paul. He told Paul that the grace he had already received ( the Word, the Holy Spirit, the Anointing, the Name) was sufficient for Paul to deal with the problem himself! There was nothing more that Jesus needed to do! All authority had been given unto Jesus on the Earth, and He had given His authority to the Church to continue to carry out the work that He had begun! Paul just needed to stop whining about it and use his authority! When he did, he experienced deliverance! AMEN!
In 1 Samuel 3-4 we see the Lord beginning to use Samuel as a prophet, even as a very young boy. At first he didn't recognize the voice of the Lord. It takes practice on our part, also, to get to know the voice of the Lord in our lives. We like to say "practice" His presence. That means keep spending time in His presence, listening to that still small voice inside, until you become so familiar with His voice that you will no longer question it! Then KEEP "practicing" His presence every day. Stay in close, intimate fellowship with Him and nothing the enemy tries will ever take you by surprise again! Remember that one of the roles of the holy Spirit in your life as a believer in Jesus of Nazareth is to "show you things to come"! John 16:13:
13Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
He WILL and you can be prepared! AMEN!
Shalom in Him!
