For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. 2 Corinthians 1:20
“Come near to Me, hear this:
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there.
And now the Lord God and His Spirit
Have sent Me.” Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way you should go.
Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” Isaiah 48:16-18
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; Jeremiah 29: 11-14
Whose path are you walking? His or yours? Be honest. Are you a ‘team’ with Jesus in ‘His yoke’ or are you still ‘kicking against the goads’?
(Note: Ever wondered where this saying came from? “Kicking against the goads” in Acts 9:5?
Biblehub.com
From Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: “As they occur in the English text, however, and belong to this crisis in St. Paul’s life, it will be well to deal with them now. In their outward form they were among the oldest and most familiar of Greek proverbs. The Jew who had been educated in the schools of Tarsus might have read them in Greek, or heard them quoted in familiar speech, or written them in his boyhood. They do not occur in any collection of Hebrew proverbs, but the analogy which they presented was so obvious that the ploughmen of Israel could hardly have failed to draw the same lesson as those of Greece. What they taught was, of course, that to resist a power altogether superior to our own is a profitless and perilous experiment. The goad did but prick more sharply the more the ox struggled against it.”
And from Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: “The expression “to kick against the prick” is derived from the action of a stubborn and unyielding ox kicking against the goad. And as the ox would injure no one by it but himself; as he would gain nothing, it comes to denote “an obstinate and refractory disposition and course of conduct, resisting the authority of him who has a right to command, and opposing the leadings of Providence, to the injury of him who makes the resistance.” It denotes “rebellion against lawful authority, and thus getting into greater difficulty by attempting to oppose the commands to duty.” This is the condition of every sinner. If people wish to be happy, they should cheerfully submit to the authority of God. They should not rebel against his dealings. They should not complain against their Creator. They should not resist the claims of their consciences. By all this they only injure themselves. No man can resist God or his own conscience and be happy.”)
So how does this all apply to the new covenant and today and your current situation? Do you understand God’s heart for you? (reread the above scriptures if you don’t know)
Do you still resist the conviction and instructions from the ‘still whispering Voice’ within you of the Holy Spirit? Are you ever still enough to hear Him?
Be still, and know that I am God; Psalms 46:10
What does it mean to have ‘profit’, what kind of profit would God lead us to? Here’s a suggestion… do a word search in the scriptures on ‘treasure’. It’s much deeper than you think.
If you want the true riches… you will have to listen to His Voice and instructions very carefully.
For whom the Lord loves He corrects,
Just as a father the son in whom he delights.
Happy is the man who finds wisdom,
And the man who gains understanding;
For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver,
And her gain than fine gold. Proverbs 3:12-14
Selah!