Monday, January 16, 2012

Who or what you follow...

...determines what (& even who) follows you.

Jesus encouraged some people to follow Him at different points & others just followed Him of their own accord - one thing was common: everyone who followed Him was blessed in one way or the other. The Bible also tells us that signs follow those who preached His word: "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen."
(Mark 16: 17 & 20 - KJV)
In addition to following the Lord and signs following the Word, the Bible encourages us to:
"Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." (1 Tim 6:11b-KJV)
"Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace,
with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." (2 Tim 2:22-KJV)
"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." (Hebrews 12:14 -KJV)

It's even interesting that God has made last one easy for us because: "when a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." (Pr 16:7 - NKJV) So to follow peace with all men, all we need to do is follow God & live in a way that pleases Him.

On the flip side, the Bible tells of things that will definitely follow us - the most familiar one:
"Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life..." (Psalms 23:6 - NIV)
Proverbs 21:21 even links what we follow to what will follow us: "He who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor." (NKJV)

The Bible doesn't stop there...if we continue to follow and obey the Lord, many more blessings will catch up with and then overtake us according to Deuteronomy 28: 2 - 14.

Unfortunately there are too many people seeking/pursuing/following goodness, mercies, blessings and those great things in life but expect peace, righteousness and other fruits of the Spirit to to follow them. When they don't, they wonder what's wrong.

The answer is simple...they have put the cart before the horse and there is no way they will progress that way.
I encourage us to follow God and also follow all He has asked us to - we'll be amazed at the great and mighty confirmations of His Word that will follow us...

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