ISAIAH 55 - "Love God"

"Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, 'Nay; but we will have a king over us; That we may also be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles." (1 Samuel 8:19 & 20) If there is one thing that God wants from us, it is to Love Him; to make Him the Lord of our very lives; that there would be nothing in our lives to replace this Love for Him. God is Spirit; and those that worship Him, must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth; unfortunately, we are still walking, breathing and living in these fleshly body, which make us want to experience God the same way. God does not dwell in tents, buildings, idols, or any other thing that can be made with hands; and especially anything that can be established by man. As we saw yesterday in the illustration of God's Perfect Will, and the children of Israel asking for a king; they were going to be paying a price; in bondage to the king and his kingdom, they would be subject to this new type of a king in ways that would enslave their children and children's children; they would be caused to worship idols, by first setting their hearts towards an earthly King; and they would not be able to communicate with God. "And you shall cry out in that day because of your king which you shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day." (1 Samuel 8:18) This is so very important to understand, how when we are not loving the Lord with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul, and with all of our strength; we will not effectively be able to communicate with Him. Please try and follow what I am saying here. When I say effectively, I mean that the line of communication that we have with God in essence is directly towards Him, with Him, and in Him. The things that we place into our lives that replace the love we should otherwise have towards Him, can cause us to suffer many of those things (spiritually), that Samuel told the children of Israel their new king would cause them to suffer. God's perfect will for our lives in Christ is that we would be able to approach Him directly, so that we would not need to have anything else set between us and Him; no idols, no earthly king, no earthly thing; nothing else would be able to come between our experience in His love. "And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works that they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall rule over them." (1 Samuel 8:7-9) Here we can see a critical role that Samuel had in the nation of Israel; he was acting for them, much like the Holy Spirit is for us. To first off, be sensitive to anything that is against God and God's perfect will; then to try and persuade us in the way we should go. But we need to know this; the Holy Spirit will not force us to do anything; He will lead us, speak to us, quicken us, guide us in the things of God; but He will never force us to do the right thing, or make us chose the right path to take. So, even though God will allow us to make a choice for our lives, this does not mean that He approves of it, will bless it, or wants us to do it. This I think is a mistake many believers make in their daily lives; to seek some kind of a sign from God that demonstrates He is trying to stop them from doing this or that. In other words, they try to base their spiritual life in Christ on the physical life in which they walk. There is a good example of what I am trying to say in John 20:24-29; Thomas not believing Jesus had risen and was alive said: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Eight days later, Jesus shows up and says to Thomas: "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into me side; and be not faithless, but believing." And Thomas answered and said unto Him, "My Lord and my God!". Jesus said to him: "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." In John 4:24, Jesus speaking to the woman at the well said this regarding true worship of God: "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." We are not done with this...