Session 4 – They Mystery of the New Covenant Welcome to another session in this simple yet inspired scripturally based program that very well may bless and change every area of your life starting today and reaching into eternity. Many people have heard the word ‘hearken’ but do not understand the fullness of it, let alone know how to go about ‘hearkening’. (You may decide this is not for you at this time… or you may want to suggest it to a friend, or you are ready but might forget to save our location. Be sure to bookmark this page now, while you can, so you may return easily). The Evil one does not like it when we take action for God, or pray, let alone when we want to draw closer to God. The church body camps around the sermon; Israel camped around the presence. Learning to recognize, treasure and carry this presence is at the heart the course and should be at the heart of the Christian life. Re-calibrating, or as the bible says; renewing, our hearts, minds and ears to this supreme value affects everything. After Googling the word ‘hearken’ we learned: heark·en [ˈhärkən] VERB harken (verb) listen. "he refused to hearken to Thomas's words of wisdom" synonyms: pay attention · pay heed · be attentive · listen · lend an ear · concentrate on · take note of · bear in mind · give thought to · take into consideration · be heedful of · heed. There are many ways to ‘hearken unto the Lord’ and this course will scripturally open up your heart and mind to them, giving you the ability to do so through simple exercise. Deuteronomy 28:1 tells us ‘and it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth’. This verse is loaded. Let’s break it down. It starts off telling the reader that God will do something IF the reader does something. What the reader must do is hearken, not with a passing interest, instead you must be willing to ‘diligently’ seek the voice of the Lord your God. The reader must also observe and do all He commands. If the reader is willing and able to do these things the reward promised by God is to be set the reader high above all nations on earth. Before we delve more into ‘Hearken’ we must take into account the fact that this was stated in the Old Testament. All of the laws, His commandments, were addressed by Christ in the New Testament when He said: The sacrificial laws were done away with because Jesus became our sacrifice and the new covenant was made. The Feasts were done away with because as the covenant maker Christ only initiated one way to remember Him, His death, burial, and resurrection and that was by weekly observing the Lord’s Supper for Jews and Gentiles alike. By diligently ‘Hearkening’ to His word (Deuteronomy 28:1, 2 Timothy 2:15), observing the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:26, Acts 20:7, Acts 2:42, Matthew 26:26-29, John 6:53-59, 1 Corinthians 11:23-29), loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mark 12:30), love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39), come out from the world (aka id) 2 Corinthians 6:15-18), we will be well on the way to complying to this provisional promise. In the New Testament we have a few verses that still want us to hearken unto the Lord (Mark 7:14, Acts 4:19, Acts 13:16, 1 Corinthians 14:2). Now, getting back to the word; ‘Hearken’. It is derived from two words, “Hear” and “Ken”. To hear simply means to perceive or receive information. Another word that best represent the word “Hear” is “Listen”. To hear or listen does not just mean through speech, in the case of perception it involves any part of the five senses. Listening involve allowing yourself to be led by the Spirit of God. To “Ken” or obey means to conceive, begat, develop or ‘TO DO’. The end product of our ‘hearing’ the voice of the Lord is for us to then obey. If you listen to the voice of the Lord and then choose not to obey you are not different from those who didn’t even listen to the voice of the Lord and only live by their id. “It is better to be in complete ignorance of the will and knowledge of God than for you to know and not do” Before we continue any farther we ask you to first please find a quiet place to sit, and second to obtain a notebook, a journal, and writing implement or a new blank sheet in your PC, laptop or phone where you can keep all of your notes on this course. Exercise 4A- We now ask you to write and then read aloud your prayer. This time you will be asking God to lead you with open heart, eyes, and ears prior to beginning each 10-25 minute daily lesson, including every inserted scripture, beginning with this very paragraph, as you read aloud slowly (Romans 10:17). Throughout all of these sessions, from here on out, we’ll be presenting exercises that require your participation. The exercises will lay precept upon precept (Isaiah 28:10-11), strengthening your prayer life, developing your eyes to see and your ears to hear (Matthew 13:15-17), all biblically. At the end of these lessons you will be able to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and as sheep following the Shepherd, recognize the responses from God (John 10:27), at any given moment, day or night, in any circumstance (John 14:16-17). You are not restricted to do only one session per day. If you feel comfortable and confident that you have fully grasped the current lessen and desire to continue on to the next one… by all means do so, growing in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18). This foundation we are building with Christ as our cornerstone (Psalm 118:22) is vital to your success. Please have patience. It took us months to create this biblically sound course. Every lesson is created to work with the next to increase your power, understanding, and success. The steps are laid out in the Bible but it took much research to find them and assemble them in a way that allows us to teach them to you. If you honestly want to hearken unto God you must focus on each lesson, undistracted, wholeheartedly, in order to fully attain the ability your desire. We will take you through this course in such a way that you gradually begin to learn how to ‘renew’ your heart and mind (Ephesians 4:22-24). You will soon find yourself hearkening unto God while driving in your car, when talking to salesmen, chatting with friends, while on social media, on the phone, or any other time that you want. You will receive guidance and direction that aligns with the Holy Scriptures, the written Word of God, the Bible, because it will be coming from the Holy Spirit that resides in you (1 Corinthians 3:16). We say this will happen soon, but that is a relative term. Some receive this ability ‘sooner than others’ but everyone who has ever taken this course, read every word and completed all of the exercises have gained this skill by the end of this course. Working through these 30 sessions is very soon compared to never. Exercise 4B- Write the following statement, lingering over it, ingraining it into your heart and mind, to the fullest for several minutes: I hunger and thirst to have my heart, mind, eyes, ears and will in readiness as I prepare to enter the race to be blessed and hearken unto God (Matthew 5:6, 1 Peter 1:13, Hebrews 12:1, Matthew 13:15-17,Proverbs 22:17-18, Luke 11:28). Now close with a written prayer and plea about how much this will mean to you to be able to hearken unto God. Then reread this prayer you just wrote several times as it deeply penetrates your consciousness and sub consciousness alike. When that is done, your first lesson is over. You are now finished with your assignment for today. May you experience the joy of beginning a wonderful journey as the blessings begin to flow in your direction pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38).
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Co-Authors:
Michael & Judy Peck Archives
February 2020
Categories |