The Lord's messenger must listen to the Lord. Some people have attempted to call me down from the wall but they have not succeeded as yet. They reason, reason, reason why I should come down and listen to them. When I inquire of the Lord he tells me they are speaking foolishness.

I think it was C. S. Lewis who said the demons love to reason.

On occasion I have wrestled with the Lord because of the severity of my preaching. When I go to the Lord He says, "If you won't preach it I will get someone who will."

God's messenger must be blind and deaf to all distractions. He must be so committed to the Lord that if he is martyred because of his message it is of little consequence to him.

The Lord's servant sees all that is around him. He can hear what is being said. But he pays no attention to all of this. He goes straight on as the Lord leads him, trusting in the Lord Jesus, keeping the Lord always before him so he may be full of eyes in front and in back, like the four living creatures around the Throne of God. He knows where he has come from and where he is going in the Lord.

Until we become blind and deaf to the distractions around us we cannot see what God is seeing. The disciples showed Jesus Herod's Temple. The disciples were impressed with its grandeur. Jesus saw a pile of rubble. He had "eyes in front" to see as the Father sees.

Do you want to see and hear what God is seeing and hearing?

The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. (Isaiah 42:21—KJV)

When we become blind and deaf to the compulsions and advice of our fleshly mind we live righteously. We, as Christ always does, see past the letter of the law and act in a manner pleasing to the Lord. The moral law of God then becomes great and glorious instead of a heartless religious ritual.

There are Christians who have a religious spirit. They fasten on particular Scriptures and will not budge from these even though it is obvious to everyone else the letter of the Bible in this case works against righteousness.

We have to know the heart of God or else we can be trapped by what appears to us to be Bible law.

One striking instance of this is the insistence by Christians that all who have not heard the Gospel will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. While such a point of view may be deduced from cutting and pasting a few "precious promises," there are other passages indicating that people are judged only by the light they were given.

But the person with the religious spirit will cast aside all compassion, the welfare of those for whom he is responsible, such as his children, all reason, and plunge ahead to destruction while he is quoting Scripture. This is the spirit that murdered Jesus. Its basis is religious pride—perhaps the closest of all spirits to the nature of Satan.

The Servant of the Lord is deaf and blind to such impalings on the words of the Scriptures. He or she goes straight to Jesus and asks His opinion. He may end up eating the showbread with the blessing of God.

To be continued.