Hearing the word of God...

The inspiration of God is a fearful thing. I have so many stories of people who followed what they think was the word of God and did what they thought was God's work which turned out differently from what you might expect.

This then is a guide for you who has heard His word:
1. God made the world and for the most part it is ordinary. We humans yearn for the extraordinary and often think that if it is extraordinary, it is God's work. In the ordinary, there is a wonderful simplicity and balance. Watch the imbalances, they may spin you away from God's path.
2. God is noted for taking his time. Throughout the Bible, from the time of Abraham to the Second Coming, God has been slower than we expected. Sometimes, his revelation is just part of our learning, not for our doing. I learnt this early in my Christian days. Readers will know of my conflicts and blasphemies. When I first realized these thoughts, I wanted to share them but it turned out that they are for my learning. Even now, I share these thoughts with caution - perhaps even now the time is not ripe (and we should not mislead others in our confusion.).
3. The first command is to love God and love one another - and that the two are the same. Too many times, those who have heard God's word throw caution to the winds and jump straight in, with dire consequences. To learn to depend on God does not mean that you stop taking care of yourself and all around you. Moses, and others, resisted God's calling. Still others, like Abraham, persuaded God from His 'intended' course. I think this too is part of His plan. God made us thinking creatures and I think he takes pleasure in our thoughts and our views. Relationship with God, in the Bible, is always a two-way thing. Jesus always asked us to ask from God and to plead with Him. Jesus himself tried to divert his own destiny. The church may teach obedience, but let that not be blind obedience.
4. There is a New Testament to the Old Testament. Jesus loved us in a way that best translates God's love. Be grounded in the love that Jesus taught rather than in the power and majesty of miracles. Worse still, miracles you may have imagined.
5. When Jesus came, he rebuked the most those who were teachers of the Law. In the hands (and minds) of man, the simplicity of God that frees us easily becomes the complication and ambitions that bind and blind us. The 10 commandments of Moses and the over 600 laws of deuteronomy were not only critiqued by Jesus but fulfilled by a single command. And that single command draws us back to what we already know. When God separated the sheep from the goats, the criteria was not the greatness of the deeds done but the dedication to the ordinary and everyday needs.

Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Walk with God but seek ye first His wisdom and His understanding. God seeks to bring rest to your souls, not to make you weary and burdened. Beware that which leads you from His rest.