David once said:
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Psalm 37:25
God is faithful to fulfill everything HE says to us.
Moses died and God said the following to Joshua …
Joshua 1 … Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Have not I commanded thee?
(Didn't God tell you to do this?)
Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
*****
God gave Joshua an assignment. Joshua was to replace Moses in leading the children of Israel into the promised land.
The assignment given Joshua differs from our assignments, but the way to achieve success is the same for us as it was for Joshua.
The strength and power of God comes from the word you receive from God by the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit bringing scripture and thoughts to our mind, we know what will work for us on this present earth because the Holy Spirit shows us the will of God in the matter at hand.
*****
A woman who lives across street from me became very angry with me. I tried to apologize and she would have no part of my apology. I tried to reason with her and she slammed the phone down.
A few years later, she blamed me again for a very small incident. It was completely unreasonable. I was having firewood delivered and at the exact time the delivery truck came down the street, she was standing in her driveway waiting for someone to pick her up. The delivery truck pulled into her driveway thinking she was waiting there for him to show him the place to leave the firewood. She became so angry when she realized the firewood was for me.
I prayed, "What to do?"
I was writing her a note to say how sorry I was for this troubling, when God brought to my mind a scripture by the Holy Spirit and then I knew what to do.
This is what was brought to my mind:
"If the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch ... Leave her alone ..."
I tore up the note I was writing and left her alone ... that was several years ago.
Later I was reading Romans 1. The word "implacable" stood out to me. I stopped and looked that word up in dictionary to see what it meant. As I was looking up this word, the memory of the trouble with this woman was brought to my mind.
(This is the Holy Spirit doing all these things ... getting my attention on that word in Romans ... getting me to look up the meaning ... reminding me of this woman.)
Implacable: opposed to someone in a very angry or determined way that cannot be changed.
Romans 1 ... And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
This woman religiously attends a Methodist church and certainly should know better than to act this way.
Several years passed. I met this woman in the aisle of grocery store. She quickly walked passed me and I then ignored her.
I cried out to God: " THIS IS WRONG ... we are both acting wrong."
A few days later, I saw this woman at her mail box. I went out to her and again said how sorry I was ... this time she came to me and was friendly.
Her sister had died. She said her sister had always been the strength of their family and now she was dead. She had also seen her nephew die of cancer. This woman has no children and her husband is dead.
I suspect all these things softened her where now she was able to act differently toward me.
*****
I have been very strongly trained by God and exercised in recognizing the thoughts brought by the Holy Spirit showing the will of God in the matter at hand ... and I clearly recognized the operation of the Holy Spirit showing me what God wanted me to do concerning this woman at various points in time.
All that matters in any issue is: What does God want me to do?
I Cor. 2 ... the Holy Spirit searches the heart of God to reveal the will of God to us.
Jn. 14:26 ... the Holy Spirit teaches us all things and reminds us of everything Jesus has said to us in scripture and in dreams
Jn. 16:13 ... the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth ... and shows us things to come
Those are incredibly strong advantages for us in this present life.
The Holy Spirit does not force us to do anything so we have to be able to recognize HIM when HE brings these things to our minds.
In this example, notice what happened:
1. HE got my attention focused on the word "implacable" as I read Romans 1 ... It was my job to stop reading and look closely at that word that stood out to me. I know not to race past scripture when something stands out to me when I am reading Bible.
2. It was up to me to look up that word and see what it meant. Take time with such ... don't go past it ... look into it ... dig for buried treasure from God ... something is there when Holy Spirit gets your attention.
I had no idea at this point where this was taking me.
3. As I looked at this word in dictionary, Holy Spirit reminded me of this woman and what she had done.
This is the way the Holy Spirit works in guiding us into all truth, but we have to cooperate.
*****
Another important foundation for the path to success from God in all that we do in this life is the following:
Psalm 1
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in HIS law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
We cannot seek our counsel from the ungodly.
We cannot stand in the way of sinners, the "way", the plans set forth by sinners or traditional ways of worldly human wisdom.
We cannot continue to visit with the scornful.
To do any of the above puts us in the path of destruction.
Scornful:
- one who shows contempt toward a person he considers to be despicable or unworthy
- looking down on someone and complaining about such in a derogatory way
- one who shows strong displeasure against another person while considering self to be more noble, worthy, righteous than that other person
- one who speaks of another person in a disrespectful way, making fun of that person such as saying, "Can you believe he would have said that?"
You must remove yourself from scornful people.
We bring blessings or curses upon ourselves by that which we choose to do. So it is very important not to continue with ungodly, sinners, or scornful individuals.
*****
The second part of Psalm 1, is to meditate in the word of God day and night.
As we keep that word before us, we gain strength to do that word.
Several years ago, God said to me:
"One step at a time ... one step at a time ... It is enough."