2 Devotional Thoughts from Ezekiel

And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and they’re doing: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord God.     Ezekiel 14:23

God had brought serious punishment to His people: death, destruction of cities, captivity and deportation. Though they had sinned, like most people when things go wrong their cry would be, “Why are you letting this happen to us, O Lord?” What God says in this verse is very comforting. I have not done this randomly. I have not done it without cause. What you have experienced is the result of your own choices, your own sins, your own disobedience, your own disfigured faith. His people deserved what they got, but there was more in God’s action than punishment. There was His purpose in restoring them to right fellowship with Himself, repairing their faith, making them His people again like they were in better days, giving them a new start.

Christians should apply this concept, that God has a purpose in what happens, to their own lives, and difficulties, and setbacks. They should not view them as punishments (although what Ezekiel refrerences here regarding God’s ancient people was a direct punishment), but situations that help reveal God’s purpose in our lives. His grace is sufficient for us!

And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.     Ezekiel 36:27

Having the Spirit of God in them was a new thought to God’s people of the Old Testament. But he tells them, one day He will put His Spirit “in” them, and through His Spirit will cause them to live, vibrantly, within  God’s rules. The ministry of the Spirit is dynamite that blasts away the sin, and hard headedness, of God’s people. By God’s grace, we New Testament Christians have God’s Spirit indwelling us from the moment of the new birth in Christ.

I believe that the ministry of the Spirit is so dynamic that if a new Christian was born again in true faith in Jesus, that even if he/she did not have the Guidebook, the Bible, that the Spirit would begin to make changes in lifestyle in that person by His impact on the heart and soul and mind. But the usual path of righteousness in Christian living is for the Holy Spirit of God  to take the word of God, which the Spirit Himself inspired, and teach and apply it in the lives of believers. Harry A. Ironside, the great preacher of the 20^th century wrote; “A word filled Christian is a Spirit filled Christian.”

The way of Christian growth is being regularly in God’s word through reading and hearing it preached in worship, believing, obeying, and living it. So read it, pray it, go to church and hear it preached, share it, and your Christian growth is assured. It will be consistent and strong. Trust the Spirit to cause you to be God’s person in the way God wants you to be His person.