After their deliverance from Egypt, many of the Israelites complained about their accommodations, which led to unthankfulness, which led to a hardness of heart, which led to them not being able to enter into the land God promised their ancestors.
God was angry with the Israelites in the wilderness for two reasons; their hearts were hard toward Him, and they didn't know His ways. Think about that. He was angry because they didn't know His ways. Most pastors teach people that you can't know God's ways because they're higher than our ways. Confusion is encouraged. "Just accept that you can't understand God's ways and accept what's happening to you because we just don't know what God is doing." This is a lie from hell.
1 Corinthians 2:9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
Back to the Israelites in the wilderness, He expected them to know His ways! How? They were to remember His faithfulness. He delivered them from Egypt and reminded them of His original promises to their father Abraham and began leading them, but they still wondered if He would follow through.
Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” 12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.
Imagine this, God shows up and brings you out of slavery, gives you a bunch of gold, splits a sea for you, feeds you every day, speaks to you audibly, reminds you that you're headed for a beautiful land, and then you say, I'm not sure I can trust you. That's where they were.
Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
What were they not believing?
That He would do what He said he would do, even though they just saw Him do amazing things.
Believing isn't hard if you're willing to let go of the emotion of your current circumstances and your opinions of why those circumstances are in your life. But confusion sets in when you try to filter God's ways through your circumstances.
We know God's ways based on who He says He is and what He has done, specifically what He has done in and through Christ. Christ is God's ways; Jesus is THE way. He's not just the path to Heaven, He's the living example of how God operates. We can know God's ways because we can know Jesus.
Today's World
Some of your friends and family members are hardening their hearts toward the Lord right now. The state of the world is uncertain, and lots of people are wondering how God fits into their "new normal." They're a little bit afraid, and they're not sure what the future looks like.
If they don't hold onto the Lord as their anchor, they will begin to astray in their hearts. When people stray away from God in their hearts for too long, they begin to build a life view without Him. It's not intentional, they're just trying to survive. People don't know how to depend on God and include Him in their decision-making processes when life gets hard.
Your job is to love them. Remind them that God loves them and still has good plans for them. Life may be hard, but don't forget to turn to the Lord. Help them know God's love for them and help them learn how to depend on God in real-life situations.
We don't have to be confused. We know God, and we know His ways because we know Jesus.
How Are You Doing?
If you feel like you're drifting and don't understand life right now, don't worry, you can turn it around. Turn to the Lord. Let Him out of the box of your current understanding you have Him in and let Him into the rest of your life.
God is smart. He knows what to do. You can trust Him. His spirit WILL tell you what to do and how to do it. It may sound and look different than what you're used to, but He WILL teach you because He said He would.
Watch my message "How To Receive Revelation from God" and put the steps into practice. You can and will hear from God if you soften your heart toward Him and allow Him to be God in your life.
