FIVE SMOOTH STONES - The Five Ascension Gifts in the Heavenly Shepherds Bag

FIVE SMOOTH STONES — The Five Ascension Gifts in the Heavenly Shepherd’s Bag

way, walk in it, whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. '" Mostly He directs us by His peaceful voice that says, " This is the way ." In Jeremiah 32:6 Jeremiah said, " The word of the LORD came to me, saying ... ", (it told him what to do and he carried it out). Then in verse 8 it says, " and then I knew that this was the Word of the Lord ." Jeremiah received the word and was obedient to carry it out and believe it, but only after he obeyed did he know it was the Lord. If Jeremiah sometimes was not clear until after he had obeyed, what about us? God spoke to Moses and said for him to go down to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to “let My people go” and that he would do many miracles. Moses asked for a sign to know if these things were true. God said after you go down there and all these miracles happen, Pharaoh will resist you but he will eventually let the people go and you are going to bring them back here and you are going to worship Me on this mountain. Then you will know it was Me. (Exodus 3:12). That was his sign. Go do it. When you come back that will be the sign. This is not the kind of sign we like, is it? However, this is often God’s way. He expects us to walk in faith, and rewards us for doing His will. Confirmation is according to His will, and if we always require confirmation before obeying, we will one day find ourselves missing God. With the Lord it is possible that the person who receives His word will not need to understand in order to obey. If that person waits in order to understand before obeying, it is possible they will remain behind while others go forward. God will always confirm His word, often by the fruit it produces after it is carried out and not before. The confirmation is up to Him, the obedience up to us. I like to describe understanding as the louvers in a blind. From one angle you cannot see out. As you change your position the view becomes unobstructed. From the new angle you can look outside and can see everything clearly. What has changed? Nothing but your position. When we go out in faith we have changed our position. We can receive from the Lord and we can say like Jeremiah did, " Now I know it is the Lord ."

One of the three Hebrew words that are translated as a prophet in the Bible is raah and this is one that has the calling of a seer. Someone

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