Hearers
“Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?”
We must become 'hearers-from-God' and not 'hearers-from-man'.
Here we see the bold prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, is asking of the servant (Who was sent by the king of Samaria to find out from the gods of Ekron, whether he is going to live or die) because, if you remember, he fell through a lattice and injured himself severely. Of course, we know the story, Elijah told him to go back and tell the king that he would surely die.
We cannot run to and fro seeking council from man:
Do we take the vaccine, or don’t we take the vaccine?
Do we leave the country, or do we stay in the country?
Do we develop our business, or do we consolidate our business?
Do I marry that man, or don’t I marry him?
Should I go for surgery, or should I trust the Lord?
Should I plant a certain crop, or should I withhold planting?
We need to hear from God. If we don’t, we run around like a chicken with its head chopped off. It is very critical in this time in which we are living, to make people hearers from God (that’s a special word for any preacher reading this letter today). The danger is so often, we subconsciously draw people to ourselves and not to God. That is a very, very grave mistake.
Many years ago when we started our ministry, we had a little coffee bar in the local town, close to where we lived. The coffee bar grew to such an extent that my wife and I couldn’t continue to run it because we had hundreds of children every week. We had a weightlifting club and a music band of young people - it was really special. So we called a youth worker to come and run it for us and we paid him and his family. He did an incredible job, he took it to the next level. Then he got a call from a large church in Durban to be their Youth Director and he reluctantly said to me, he had to leave. I’ll never forget saying to him that the true worth of your ministry will now be tested because when you leave if the coffee bar dwindles and eventually closes down, it means that you have been drawing people to yourself and not to God. But if it continues to prosper and grow we know that you’ve done a good job. Needless to say, that it continued to prosper and grow.
Today make people 'hearers from God' and not 'hearers from man'.
Jesus bless you,
Angus and Jill Buchan