1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Don’t Limit Yourself To A Method

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by HAMel, Jun 8, 2011.

  1. HAMel

    HAMel Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2009
    Messages:
    2,099
    Likes Received:
    96
    Faith:
    Baptist
    God Speaks in Many Times and Ways

    Daily Devotional for Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

    God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. Hebrews 1:1

    Our generation is preoccupied with methods. When we find a program that works in one business, we immediately want to package and distribute it so that it will work for others. This attitude carries over into the spiritual life as well. We spend much energy looking for spiritual disciplines, books, seminars, or conferences that “work” in order to feel satisfied with our Christian life. God does not want us to trust in methods. He wants us to trust in Him.

    Trusting in methods rather than in a Person seriously limits the way we experience God. When we expect Him to speak to us only in predictable ways, we forget that God is much more complex than our perception of Him. In times past, God spoke in dreams and visions. He used nature; miraculous signs; prophets; a still, small voice; fire; trumpets; fleece; the casting of lots; and angels. He spoke in the middle of the night, during worship services, at mealtimes, during funerals, while people were walking along the road, through sermons, in the middle of a storm, and through His Son.

    The important thing was not how God communicated, but that He spoke. If God always spoke to us through dreams, we would remain in our beds awaiting a divine revelation! The means God uses to communicate with us is irrelevant; the fact that He is communicating is what is critical.

    Don’t limit yourself to a method, expecting only to hear from your Father in predictable ways. Rather, open yourself up to other means by which God wants to commune with you. Allow the Holy Spirit to sensitize you to God’s message at all times, in every location, under any circumstance. Then you will experience God in entirely new dimensions as you are receptive to His voice.

    www.studytheword.citymax.com
     
  2. sag38

    sag38 Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2008
    Messages:
    4,395
    Likes Received:
    2
    True, but let's not cut off our nose to spite our face. While we are to depend on God we must also realize that God can and does use methods and programs in the realm of that dependence.
     
  3. HAMel

    HAMel Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2009
    Messages:
    2,099
    Likes Received:
    96
    Faith:
    Baptist
    True, but let's not cut off our nose to spite our face. While we are to depend on God we must also realize that God can and does use methods and programs in the realm of that dependence.

    As the title infers, "Don't LIMIT yourself to a method".
     
  4. JohnDeereFan

    JohnDeereFan Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 26, 2009
    Messages:
    5,360
    Likes Received:
    134
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Thanks, but I think I'll stick with the objective and authoritative "method" of scripture rather than chasing subjective and esoteric experiences.
     
  5. J.D.

    J.D. Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2006
    Messages:
    3,553
    Likes Received:
    11
    There's some mixing of apples and oranges going on in this. For example, "means" is not the same as "methods". Means are constant (salvation is through the means of the Gospel Message and nothing else); methods are changeable (preaching, tracts, bible study, etc.). Also, neither the means nor the method is "irrelevant"; but if that is said to prohibit obsessing over one particular method against all others, then I would agree.
     
  6. HAMel

    HAMel Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2009
    Messages:
    2,099
    Likes Received:
    96
    Faith:
    Baptist
    J.D., what I gleaned from the above is this;

    "The important thing was not how God communicated, but that He spoke. If God always spoke to us through dreams, we would remain in our beds awaiting a divine revelation! The means God uses to communicate with us is irrelevant; the fact that He is communicating is what is critical."

    Trusting in methods is not really all that important to the Lord but rather, that we trust in Him. Or, trusting in protocol will get you nowhere.

    Not to mention that apples and oranges are both fruit no matter how you look at it.
     
Loading...