Moving Backwards Instead of Forward - Do What God Has Called You To DO!

Over the past couple of weeks I have felt a leading to read the book of Jeremiah. I am ashamed to say that I knew that upon reading it the Spirit would reveal to me a Word of reproach that our Lord wanted to speak to me and through me, so I prolonged reading it. I guess the truth is that there is still this fleshly side of me that longs to be accepted and not persecuted for speaking God’s Word. But I love Him too much not to allow His Spirit to speak through me. I love Him with all my heart and I long to please Him and be His faith filled handmaiden; therefore I must be obedient to His leading. He constantly reminds me that if I am going to try to win the approval of people, then I will not find approval with Him. If pleasing people ever becomes my goal, then I could NOT be Christ’s servant. (Galatians 1:10)

I only got to chapter 6 when I had to start writing this. My spirit is so grieved within me. All our heavenly Father has ever wanted was for us was to truly surrender our pride and power. He has wanted us to trust Him and change our hearts before Him. He wants us to be humbly sorry for our sins. To go before Him with broken and contrite hearts, with weeping and mourning because of the sins that we have committed, instead of acting nonchalant and ignoring the Holy Spirit’s tugging at our hearts to do what is right. He wants us to have a reverential fear of Him. A holy respect and honor for our God that will keep us on the narrow road that leads to life. He wants our obedience.

All we have to do is acknowledge our guilt, admit that we have rebelled against the Lord and wanted our own way, and confess that we refused to listen to His voice. Can’t we see that His kindness and patience has always been meant to lead us to repentance? But so many take His kindness for granted and continue in their rebellion and sin forgetting that our God sees everything. There is no where that we can hide from His Spirit. We can hide from others. We can lie to them and to ourselves, but we cannot lie to our omnipresent God.

There is a lack of reverential awe for God in the church today. This lack of fearing the Lord has caused many believers to ignore the direction the Lord is giving them for their lives. Many Christians are refusing to receive the Lord’s correction and then are wondering why their families are falling apart, their businesses are in trouble, their finances are mess, and they have no peace. They are doing work for God and making sacrifices in Jesus name, but they have forgotten what the Lord told His people when He led them out of Egypt. Listen to what the Spirit of the Lord says through Jeremiah about this,

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Take your burnt offerings and your other sacrifices and eat them yourselves! When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not burnt offerings and sacrifices I wanted from them. This is what I told them: ‘Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’ “But My people would not listen to Me. They kept doing whatever they wanted, following the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They went backward instead of forward..” Jeremiah 7:21-24

How many of us today feel like we have moved backwards instead of forward. If so then we need to allow the Holy Spirit to show us where we have gone wrong. Where we have rebelled and refused to listen to the Lord and instead followed our own desires. We need to get back to doing what we know is right. We need to get back to truly loving God. Loving Him means obeying Him. That is how we truly know that we are in Him. Jesus said, “If you love Me, obey My commandments.” (John 14:15)

1 John 2:3-6 says, “And we can be sure that we know Him if we obey His commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love Him. That is how we know we are living in Him. Those who say they live in God should live as Jesus did.”

It is time for us to start living in the truth. No matter what our Lord is calling us to do, whether it’s something we need to change, to leave behind, to surrender to Him, to step out in faith and go, the time has come to step out in obedience and faith. Remember that He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He never asks us to do something that He has not equipped us to do. Sometimes we will not feel equipped for what or where He is calling us, but we have to believe that He will honor our obedience and give us everything we need to do His will.

Don’t be fooled when we know what we ought to be doing and instead we choose to ignore God’s direction, then we are in sin and rebellion against God. (James 4:17) We can be sure that because He loves us so much that we will receive His divine discipline and punishment if we don’t repent and do His will. Oh but too many believers are following teachings of those who water down the Word and glorify a God that they have made up that is so merciful and forgiving that He does not judge, correct, punish or rebuke us. But this is not the God of the bible. This is not our Heavenly Father. You see our Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes each one He accepts as His child. He disciplines us so that He can produce a harvest of right living in us. (Hebrews 12:5-12)

No more excuses it’s time to do what He has called you to do! If not, your rebellion will deprive you of wonderful blessings. Your sin will rob you of many good things that the Lord has planned for you. (Jeremiah 5:23-25)

“Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16

Brothers and sisters it is time for us to go before the Lord and humble ourselves in His presence asking Him to forgive us for being rebellious and giving in to fear, doubt, anger, bitterness, unbelief, compliancy, or whatever other hindrances’ we have allowed to keep us from obeying His direction. He will not reject a broken and contrite heart. If you want to see change in your life then it’s time to humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor. Make a choice today stop moving backwards and start moving forward. (James 4:7-10)