Heavenly Prompting

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Everything alright at your house? Well, I trust so, bless your heart. Nice to be back with you, This is your friend, Dr. Cook. I wanna go on with you today in Colossians chapter 1, “Giving thanks,” said Paul. This is part of what he’s praying for, he’s praying that they’ll be thankful. And thanksgiving is not just something that is an empty expression, but it always makes sense. You’re thankful for something. So he says, “Giving thanks to the Father who has made us worthy to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” Our inheritance is Christ himself and all that he is and all that he has and all that he can do and all that he can make of us throughout all eternity. What a blessed concept that is. “Ye are Christ’s and Christ is God. All things are yours,” says Paul. And “Ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.”

So we’re wrapped up together in the very nature and power and presence and blessing and potential of God himself. Then we’re thankful that we’ve been delivered, verse 13 of chapter 1, “delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” Your relationship with God must involve a change of allegiance, a change of citizenship, so to speak. Paul says in Philippians 3, “Our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it might be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.” “Translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,” the Lord Jesus is now Lord and King.

Stop here long enough in this brief review to remind yourself that the essence of your Christianity is not what you profess, nor indeed what you do, but whether or not Jesus is giving the orders. It’s that simple. Mister, have you asked your Lord for advice on anything non-religious recently? I have many friends, I have one friend of whom I think just now who runs a racing shop. He prepares cars for racing. Not a religious activity, you might say, but I can guarantee you that often and often he bows his head in prayer and asks God to guide him. I know that to be a fact. I have another friend who is an insurance salesman, and I know again, as a matter of fact, that he bows and asks God which prospect he should call on today. The last time I saw him, he was wearing a Hickey Freeman suit and driving a brown Cadillac and feeling no pain. It must be a pretty good method, don’t you think?

Have you asked God for advice on anything non-religious? Most of our praying is religious in nature, that is to say, the subject matter is religious. And we ask God to bless the the pastor and the deacons and the church and the sick and afflicted and the missionaries and the President and the Cabinet, and the Houses of Congress, and then we pray for our own family and relatives and in-laws and sign off. But most of our praying has to do with, “Lord bless them,” or “help them,” or whatever. Ask for God’s guidance in a business matter. Ask for God’s guidance in the matter of training your child, disciplining Junior.

If the whole essence of Christianity is that Jesus now gives the orders, you’re in the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. Do you follow that, beloved? So it’s not that you’re busy in church, many of you are, and that’s good. The emphasis here is not on what you’re doing; it’s on who is giving the orders concerning what you’re doing. “Whatsoever he saith unto you,” Mary, remarked to the servants, in the record, we find in John chapter 2, “whatever he saith unto you, do it.” Jesus our Lord said, “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” In another place, he said, “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”

Now, our blessed Lord is not with us in his physical presence any longer; he’s at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us. The fact is, however, that through the blessed in-dwelling Holy Spirit, you can be immediately in touch with deity, and you can find out what the orders are, the marching orders, so to speak, for any given situation. I think it’s Norman Grubb who remarked in one of his writings that the Christian soldier has the right to wait at headquarters until he gets his marching orders. Then he can go forth into the field of battle, confident that he’s following the orders of the general. Well, that figure of speech may well be taken for our daily procedure. “Wait at headquarters” means have that quiet time in the presence of your blessed Lord, and when he has indeed spoken to you by his Word and by the blessed in-dwelling spirit of God, then do what God tells you to do.

Small thought here: Don’t downgrade the importance of seemingly casual impressions concerning which you ought to take action. You are thinking, for instance, of a shut-in friend of yours, and you think, “Oh, how sad. Myrtle is shut in, she can’t get out anymore. Arthritis has anchored her. Isn’t that sad?” And at that moment, you think, “I ought to go see her.” Well, now, that is part of the prompting of the Spirit of God, and your best procedure is to make that trip to see Myrtle or whatever her name may be as soon as is humanly possible. And when you do that, she’ll probably burst into tears and say, “Well, I’m so glad you’ve come. I just needed somebody that knows me and understands me and can pray with me,” or words to that effect. Never reject the seemingly chance impressions that come to you as you’re thinking and praying and striving to obey God. He speaks in the quiet voice of the Spirit of God to your heart and mind, and you need to learn the habit of instant obedience.

Alright? The classic illustration of that in my own life, as I think I may have shared with you some years ago, some of you old-time listeners will recognize what I’m telling you now, but in one of the years that Coreen and I were in the pastorate, it was my practice to get to church early before a service to make sure everything was in order. You can’t take for granted that everything is set just because people are supposed to set it up. You know that, you have to check. And so I would always get there early. Well, on this occasion, it was for mid-week service and I was on my way out the front door of the parsonage over to the church to make sure that everything was in readiness for the mid-week service. And that was about a half hour ahead of time, and suddenly, I had a feeling that I ought to go see a certain couple with whom I had been dealing concerning their souls. And I stood on the sidewalk in front of the parsonage and had a conversation with God. I said, “Lord, I can’t do that now. I’ve gotta go check and make sure everything’s all set for mid-week service.”

But the impression was strong, and so I said, “Alright, I will,” and I went up the street a couple of blocks, and this was in LaSalle, Illinois. We lived on 3rd Street, and so I went up the street a couple of blocks to a street called Bucklin, I remember, was the name of the street, and turned right up the hill to a cluster of apartment dwellings. Went in, rang the bell, was brought into a scene that amazed me, for the house was completely empty except for packing boxes and some furniture here and there. And I said, “What in the world is going on?” “Oh,” they said, “we’re being transferred to Joplin, Missouri, and the movers are coming tomorrow morning.” And there, on one of the packing cases, was the remnants of their supper. They had opened a can of Campbell’s pork and beans and they had a carton of milk, and they had eaten their cold supper of pork and beans and a glass of milk, and they were busy with the last touches of packing because they were leaving in the morning.

“Well,” I said to them, “have you given any more thought to opening your heart to the Lord Jesus and making Him your Lord and Savior?” “Oh, yes,” the answer came back. “We’ve been thinking about it all the time.” “Well,” I said, “would you like to do that now?” “Oh, yes, we would.” And so, there we knelt by the packing cases, and they gave their heart to the Lord Jesus and became born from above, children of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I bid them goodbye and went on my way to prayer meeting, which, it developed, was alright. There wasn’t any catastrophe because I didn’t get there early, but in my heart was a song as I realized that I had obeyed the prompting of the blessed Holy Spirit of God, and a man and his wife had been brought to faith in the Lord Jesus thereby. Don’t reject the casual promptings, seemingly casual, that is to say, of the Holy Spirit of God. The kingdom of God’s dear Son involves His telling you what you ought to do.

My father used to call them hunches. He would say, “It’s just a hunch, boy, but I’ve got to obey God.” And so sometimes he would do some things that didn’t seem, to my little-boy mind, to make all that much sense, but in the long run, it turned out that God was guiding him and directing him. “Just a hunch, boy, but I want to obey God.” Well, you learn to obey the hunches, as we say. If you’re praying and seeking God’s will, you can be sure he will guide you. And I have the authority of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, to make that statement: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

How often in the course of life, some of us have had to pray and say, “Oh, God, tell us what to do”? I recalled an occasion where Coreen, my dear wife, and I, were faced with a tremendous decision that involved other people, and we didn’t really know what to do, and we stood side by side. I remember exactly the location of it: It was in our kitchen, and we stood both of us right next to the refrigerator. I was sort of leaning against it, and she was standing beside me, and I said, “Well, let’s ask the Lord what to do.” And so we prayed earnestly right there in the kitchen, “Oh, God, guide us.” And after we prayed, we agreed that we seemed to be of one mind that we would take such-and-such steps of decision. As it developed, it was exactly the right thing to do. Ask God to give you the orders, will you? He will direct your paths. That, beloved, is part of being in the kingdom of God’s dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear Father, today, may we be people who are doing what Thou dost tell us to do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!