I think church attendance is good, especially in this crazy world. We need to fellowship with other believers in corporate worship.
And I believe the pastor does hear from Gof for you, but you need to have a depth and spiritual maturity that goes beyond that. You need to learn to be alone with God in a secret place.
That type of relationship BUIlLDS the church and never destroys it.
Okay, but how does this line up with a 'no mentors necessary', wilderness experience?
Okay, but how does this line up with a 'no mentors necessary', wilderness experience?
I believe there are times when there is too much "noise" around us.
I believe there are times when God needs to get us away from our familiar surroundings, and pet doctrines, so that he can implant something new in us.
This is how movements are birthed. This is how consecration is developed.
Abram left his father's house.
God circumvented Eli, and went straight to the child, Samuel.
Jesus bucked against his mother's prodding, because it wasn't "time."
There are numerous examples of this in the Word.
Sometimes God wants to get us alone.
This does not mean he wants us to rebel against leadership, it means he wants to move us into a new arena of devotion.
__________________ The world has lost the power to blush over its vice; the Church has lost her power to weep over it.
Sometimes the "mentors" who are present are preaching a message God has moved away from, or never wanted in the first place. In that case, God has to remove his chosedn from the situation so that they are not polluted by the system.
__________________ The world has lost the power to blush over its vice; the Church has lost her power to weep over it.
Have you ever considered the fact that John the Baptist had no mentor?
Moses had Jethro, Elisha had Elijah, Joshua had Moses and Timothy had Paul, but what of John the Baptist? It seems he had no fleshly mentor in this world.
After four hundred years of spiritual darkness, John the Baptist steps on the stage. In his lifetime, the people of God were in a spiritual, economic and political wilderness.
John was a solitary figure, content to be alone with God in a desert place.
And it’s important to realize that John the Baptist did not think of the wilderness as a prison, that he wasn’t banished to the wilderness, rather he enjoyed the wilderness lifestyle. He loved the solitude of the wilderness, and he fostered a sense of intimacy with God there.
He was away from the religious systems of his day, away from his family and away from the politics and news of the day. He was alone, with God. And in that wilderness, God spoke with him, molded him and shaped him into His image.
Instead of organizing a bunch of people, sometimes God takes individual men, gets them alone, and molds them as he sees fit.
• He takes Moses to the backside of the desert until he is ready to become a great deliverer.
• Leads John the Baptist into a wilderness until the day of his showing forth.
• Leaves Jesus in thirty years of obscure training before he ever ministered.
• Lands Joseph in a pit and a prison, before he found purpose and the fulfillment of his dreams.
And I really believe God used all of these horrible circumstances in these men’s lives, just to get them alone with Him. God brings them away from their religious systems, their families and all outside influences so he can mold them into His image.
The separation is necessary because, without it, there is just too much spiritual noise that drowns out God’s voice to these men.
God wants men and women who are patterned after His image. Christians who will follow His will. People who will submit to a wilderness experience, and love it.
I believe we benefit from godly mentors. I also believe there are times when God calls us into wilderness experiences just so that he can speak special things to us, and prepare us for a ministry that our mentors and peers would balk at.
Good thoughts.
__________________
Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the people doing it. ~Chinese Proverb
When I was young and clever, I wanted to change the world. Now that I am older and wiser, I strive to change myself. ~
We know that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel early on, but what about in later life?
Act 9:27 But Barnabas took him [Saul], and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
Act 11:25 Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: Act 11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
I have to say Barnabas mentored/sponsored Saul.
__________________
Psa 119:165 (KJV) 165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
"Do not believe everthing you read on the internet" - Abe Lincoln
Linear Mode
