John 7:17 Discipleship: Knowing The Truth

I have shared the last couple of devotions about the need to properly prepare ourselves and others for discipleship. It is not sufficient to go through the motions, but to obey Christ, to seek Him and His truth with our whole heart. Today's devotion deals with the same principle, the way to know the truth.

The way to know
The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience. If things are dark to me, then I may be sure there is something I will not do. Intellectual darkness comes through ignorance; spiritual darkness comes because of something I do not intend to obey.

No man ever receives a word from God without instantly being put to the test over it. We disobey and then wonder why we don't go on spiritually. 'If when you come to the altar,' said Jesus, 'there you remember your brother hath ought against you. . . don't say another word to Me, but first go and put that thing right.' The teaching of Jesus hits us where we live. We cannot stand as humbugs before Him for one second. He educates us down to the scruple. The Spirit of God unearths the spirit of self-vindication; He makes us sensitive to things we never thought of before.

When Jesus brings a thing home by His word, don't shirk it. If you do, you will become a religious humbug. Watch the things you shrug your shoulders over, and you will know why you do not go on spiritually. First go- at the risk of being thought fanatical you must obey what God tells you.

Shalom

Bob Goldsby

Morning and Evening : Daily readings / Charles H. Spurgeon.-Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.-Peabody, MA : Hendrickson Publishers, c1991.