Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
A Message Straight from God
This section of Scripture in Galatians chapter 1, verse 10 is really special and profound when you give yourself time to go through it slowly. At the beginning of this book of Galatians, we see Paul establishing the authority he's been given by God to share the messages that he's sharing with this community that he's writing to.
What's interesting about the beginning of this chapter is that Paul begins by describing how he came to the awareness of understanding the fullness of the picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, in chapter 1, he talks about how he got the Gospel straight from God. No human person taught it to him.
Let's just stop for a second and think about that reality. Even in this moment right now, it's not lost on me that I'm a human person sharing with you some thoughts that come to mind for me when I read the Scriptures right off the pages. I'm hopeful that God, by His Spirit, is encouraging me as I'm sharing with you the things that I'm learning.
Ultimately, though, I'm still a person telling you the things I'm telling you, and you are receiving them from a human. Paul tells us that in his encounter with the living God on the road to Damascus, he was ambushed by God's power and presence. It was in the wilderness that he received a download straight into his heart and mind from God Himself about what it meant to know Him and what it meant for him to share this message of hope—the Gospel—with other people.
Called and Equipped by God
He wasn't taught it by a human. He was given it by God Himself. I tell you that little bit of background because, even when we see the words of our Verse of the Day, it might feel a little bit confusing to figure out how to practically apply this in the same way. Paul says these words because of how he received this authority. It didn't come because of how much he studied. It didn't come because he passed some test.
It came because God Himself equipped and called him into the ministry work he was supposed to do. Now, you and I probably won't find ourselves in a place similar to Paul, where we hear straight from God the messages that he would go on to write in 13 letters of the New Testament. We do have, just like Paul, the ability to hear from the living God, directly downloaded into our hearts and minds by the power of His Spirit.
What if We Believed the Same Thing?
This is something that I think is elusive for us in our humanity at times, simply because we don't take time to consider its implications. The reason for this is because it's almost more than our minds can handle. Think about it. He says here he's not trying to please men, because he knows with deep conviction that God Himself is the One who's directing his steps.
What if we began to believe the same thing? What if, in hidden places in our hearts, we were communing with the God of the universe by the power of His Spirit? What if we were seeking to study His Word, and through prayer and through meditation, we were communing with Him, listening to His voice and being obedient to what He called us to?
What if we were living from that place of conviction in the world? I bet you we would more easily and readily say, we're not trying to please people, but just be obedient to God. When we live in this way, it allows us to experience freedom and lightness in a way that I think God truly intended for the people of God to experience here on earth.
Tap into that today, and see what the Lord wants to say to you, so that you can live with that kind of confidence in Him.
