{"id":10603,"date":"2019-02-24T22:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T22:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=10603"},"modified":"2019-02-24T22:00:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T22:00:32","slug":"self-will-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/10603\/self-will-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-will Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi, Pastor John:<\/span><\/p>\n

Your most recent blog, Self-will: The Door to Insanity<\/a><\/em>, touches on the same story that I have been reading the last couple of weeks.\u00a0 I have spoken a little about this with Aaron & Vince last week, and asked them about\u00a0the translation of the word “enquired”, as in I Samuel 28:6.\u00a0 And Saul enquired of Jehovah, but Jehovah did not answer him, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.\u00a0 Also, in the scripture I Chronicles 10:14, it says,\u00a0\u201cAnd (Saul) enquired not of the\u00a0Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse\u201d (1Chron. 10:14).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought, “W<\/u>ait a minute.”\u00a0 It says Saul enquired of the Lord in I Samuel, but in I Chronicles 10:14, the scripture states that Saul did not enquire of the Lord.\u00a0 Insomuch that in 1Chronicles 10:13, God killed Saul, or rather, Saul died for his transgression by the hands of the Philistines because, 1) The transgression he committed against the Lord, even the word of the Lord, which he kept not, (or the words spoken from Jehovah to Samuel for Saul)., and 2) asking counsel of the one that had the familiar spirit to “enquire of it\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I asked Aaron Nelson if the two words “enquire” are the same words in Hebrew.\u00a0 Aaron said that the word \u201cenquire\u201d in I Samuel is more of a formal way of enquiring about something, as Saul did in this case, as with the Urim, the prophets, or even dreams.\u00a0 The same English word \u201cenquire\u201d in I Chronicles is not the same Hebrew word or meaning. The word there means “seeking, or to seek”. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought, “That explains it.\u201d \u00a0Both are right in their own context.\u00a0 In Saul’s court, to others that were there, it appeared on the outward appearance that Saul was seeking God, but he was not seeking God in I Chronicles (with his heart) as David did when he sinned against the LORD.\u00a0 God did not answer Saul when Saul was enquiring of the LORD in Saul’s court because Saul was not seeking for an answer, but did as he thought to do.\u00a0 And when God did not answer Saul as Saul thought Jehovah should do, Saul enquired of the one with the familiar spirit. I Chronicles is correct, Saul did not seek God; Saul wanted an answer to his way, the way he thought God should answer him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I pondered about seeking God.\u00a0 I asked myself, “Jesus, do we seek after you when we gather in the meetings just for an appearance (as in a formal nature as Saul did), or are we seeking you from our hearts?\u00a0 This latter way, you don’t have to speak a word, but pour out your spirit unto the Lord.\u00a0 The best we can do if God is not speaking or answering us is to do nothing.\u00a0 Not like Saul did when he continued to enquire to get an answer he wanted to hear.\u00a0 If we are doing anything in formality unto God, is it our own self-will?\u00a0 The word \u201cformality\u201d has a base word, “form”; it is not from the heart, and God will not hear it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bill M.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

============<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I really like the point\u00a0and the lesson\u00a0contained in brother Billy’s email – I have read it several times; it has a good message.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a difference in praying simply\u00a0because\u00a0it is appropriate for religious folk to submit to prayer, versus\u00a0“seeking the Lord” because we\u00a0really\u00a0want to know what the Lord wants.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first \u201cseeking\u201d being nothing but etiquette, a polite form to say that we did it;\u00a0we can submit to prayer without ever submitting to God.\u00a0 But the second \u201cseeking\u201d is a sincere plea for God to intervene and change our life –\u00a0to\u00a0change\u00a0us!<\/span><\/p>\n

It gave me a new perspective on what it is that is really being said, when someone suggests to another that they should “pray on a thing.”\u00a0 Asking the Lord is only a part, and by itself a useless – if not damning part- were the Lord to answer on deaf ears.\u00a0 But submitting to be changed is what praying means.\u00a0 It means being willing to step in as one person, and then step back out another – every time!\u00a0 That is the only prayer that has ever reached Jesus!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wonderful!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jerry<\/span><\/p>\n

============<\/span><\/p>\n

These emails about praying have been so good to me. It makes me wonder about when one says, “I am praying for you.”\u00a0 Is that just a phrase that we learned to say in Christianity?\u00a0 OR are we EARNESTLY going to our quiet spot and praying for that person or situation.\u00a0 And getting very real with Jesus!\u00a0 It is a very HEARTFELT thing.\u00a0 And we can feel those heartfelt prayers when ones are praying for us.\u00a0 And I am so thankful for these prayers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All of these emails have made me stop and think.<\/span><\/p>\n

Diane<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi, Pastor John: Your most recent blog, Self-will: The Door to Insanity, touches on the same story that I have been reading the last couple of weeks.\u00a0 I have spoken a little about this with Aaron & Vince last week, and asked them about\u00a0the translation of the word “enquired”, as in I Samuel 28:6.\u00a0 And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}