A.W. Tozer has an article entitled, “Listen To the Man Who Listens To God.” This is difficult for today’s carnal culture that puts so much emphasis on the external “earthen vessel,” rather than the “treasure” within it. We like to pick and choose the pitcher we drink from. "The fine china, if you please, not that old chipped stuff!"
Concerning the building of the Temple, David told his young son, Solomon, that God’s Word came to him explaining why Solomon would build it and not David himself. But when you check the reference, you’ll find that it was the prophet Nathan God used to relay His message to the King. It was the lesser, as the old-timers used to say, telling "his betters” what he was to do. It was a plain prophet who instructed “the man after God’s own heart.” From this we learn, King David considered no one beneath him! He was a good listener, whoever was speaking for God.
It was because, no doubt, Paul’s “bodily presence [was] weak” and “his speech contemptible” that many of the carnal Christians at Corinth chose to listen to eloquent Apollos over Paul. In Acts chapter twenty-seven, Paul warns the ship's builder and master of impending danger, but he would not heed his words. The experts were listened to over Paul, and this to their own peril. Later, in the midst of a terrible storm, the old preacher said to them, “Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me.” Paul was one of those people we dislike immensely, one who reminded them, “I told you so.”
God sometimes uses strange instruments to speak to His people. Ask Balaam!
by an Aged Saint
I love this wisdom.....
The more I die, the more I am trivialised, even by those closest to me. Thank you Richard.
So true, Dad.