Gods Sabbath

366

E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

Voice of God to my heart The spoken Word of God The voice of God in nature Impressions of the Spirit through our conscience Dreams Compassion, feeling a burden Objective and Subjective ways of Communication

of the Spirit

Impressions

Objective Subjective

Circumstances (providence) Own experineces in the past

Councel of experienced brethren Principles of the message Principles of the written word The laws of nature

we cannot account for the reasons. But when doors open without using force, then we can move forward in faith and humility. As in other areas, so in this important phase, everything has to be confirmed by two or three witnesses (see Deuteronomy 19:15). In this first part of testing we need to obey the rules of obedi ence and submission carefully in order to escape the deception of sin in our own hearts. God will speak to us as a Shepherd guiding His flock and as we learn to hear His voice we will recognize it as such (see John 10:1–5). We will then be able to distinguish it from that of well-meaning friends or even our own stubborn will. But a great danger lurks in our own hearts here, ever ready to lead us astray. We tend to seek the counsel of those who ad vise us according to our own inclinations. When a brother or sis ter, as a true witness, gives us advice contrary to what we our selves would choose, we tend to think they are without love and begin to remodel their counsel to suit our own wishes and pre conceptions. We must be on the alert against this danger. We are not to re-interpret or ignore any counsel given to us, try to ma nipulate circumstances ourselves, interpret the word of God ac cording to our own understanding, nor silence the voice of His Spirit through self-justification.