I have had two dogs now for about a year. Jack is three and Bailey is one. Jack is older and wiser, Bailey is young and more unpredictable. I walk them both of leash so discipline is very important. They are both required to sit to the side when a bike or walker or runner approaches, hold that position until they pass, then they can get up and go. Every now again Jack decides he does not want to sit. He stands still but he does not want take the effort to put his bum on the ground then raise it back up again. If I let that go without challenge, the next time he slips a wee bit further and so on. In other-words his discipline begins to unravel. Left unchecked he would not mind me at all. So, he gets a stern warning ( tone of voice is important, low and menacing) I remind him that sit is not a suggestion but a command. He is brought back into line.

So much of Christendom is in a state of lawlessness. Each man does what is right in his own eyes. They may know the commands but long ago they decided that these commands were mere suggestions. God commanded His people not to venture out until they were endued with power from on high, for without this power they could do nothing, they could build kingdoms of men but not the Kingdom of God.

When Paul comes across groups of people following Jesus in the the book of Acts he first inquires of them if they have yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit. They reply they have not even heard of such a thing and he deals with it. It was his first order of business. Imagine preaching to men and women you know are not baptized in the Holy Spirit without ever mentioning that, would that not be an act of total futility? What could we expect of men outside of being endued with power from on high?

Is it not actually a cruelty to place expectations on men and women whom we know not to be baptized in His Holy Spirit? Jesus did not do it, neither did Paul or Peter. God’s commands are not suggestions. If we choose to ignore the only reliable pattern that we have, the living word of God, for the patterns and traditions of men let us not expect God to move, He will not. Obedience to His Word and fearing God over men is the beginning of wisdom/discernment. Without that we are mere waves tossed upon the sea of circumstances and the opinions of men.