Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

I use Google Maps as my guidance system to get to every new place I travel. When I think of what it took to find new locations years ago… It was exhausting and stressful! Now Google Maps easily guides me to every location! I love that! Likewise, prior to knowing Jesus, I had no inner guidance for my thoughts and behaviors. And frankly, because of that, it was destroying my life. When I prayed and asked Jesus to forgive my sins and be my Lord and Savior, my life began to change instantly. I couldn’t explain it at the time but I found an inner guidance that I evidentially learned was God’s Holy Spirit. I am thankful beyond words for God’s continuous guidance in my life!

God-given instruction and guidelines are something that helps us spiritually grow up in our thinking and maturity. God gives them to us from a heart of love. God wants to protect us from getting into what we shouldn’t and from things that will hurt, hinder, or steal our blessings. This is what Jeremiah is relaying to God’s people who were lost and far from Him, Jeremiah 31:21 NIV.  He says, “Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Let your heart be guided down the highway, the road that you take. Return, O Virgin Israel, return to where you know you should be.” Jeremiah is instructing them to have reminders of God’s ways in their heart.

In the Old Testament God gave the Ten Commandments to be guideposts for His people through life. Do you remember what they are? We see them in Exodus 20:1-17 (NLT) 

These guideposts were to help keep God’s children from trouble by keeping them aware of what to avoid. When adults don’t have them instinctively built into their thinking and behavior, then they behave carnally like children, still needing a guardian to remind them of what to do and not to do to keep from trouble. Do you know any adults like that?

As we spiritually mature, God wants us to take a higher approach than just do’s and don’ts. He wants us to take the higher way of love by changing our thinking from, What do I need to know to keep out of trouble? to instead think, What can I do to honor God, be a blessing, walk in integrity, and be an example of God’s love? This position of love does not want to hurt or violate God’s ways or people. God’s love wants to protect, lead, and bless, just like a parent’s love toward their children.

In the New Testament, Jesus’ sacrifice, death, and resurrection initiated our new and better covenant with God. His instructions are simpler yet more profound and important. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind and love our neighbor as ourselves.  James 2:8 NIV puts it like this, “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.” The royal law of love is a higher way than a law of do’s and don’ts.

If you know your life is carnal and sinful that identifies where your level of spiritual maturity is at. You need to get on God’s path or it will produce the consequences sin always brings to life. If you are living for the Lord and you’ve left carnal living behind, then the even higher way to live is to focus instead on the royal law of love—that is to “LOVE your neighbor as yourself.”  If you do, you are on the highway of life the Lord has for you! You have His heart and you’re letting the love of God guide your thoughts, words, and actions. Because of it, people will see the “light” in you. You will have favor with others. You will see supernatural signs of God’s presence and touch everywhere in your life. Your desire to live in this place gives you the spiritual eyesight to see God’s touch and presence in your life, even when there are troubles surrounding you.

God’s grace and strength working in you will help you mature past the do’s and don’ts of carnal living, to the path of living a life motivated by your love for God and for others. It’s the supernatural highway of God leading to His plan, purpose, and blessing for your life! It’s God’s GPS system within you to guide you always!

Proverbs 12:28 (NLT) “The way of the godly leads to life; that path does not lead to death” 

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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