You are what you seek. Be careful what you hear

First, let's take a look at why people come to the scripture to start with. 

At one point in John chapter 6 the people were looking for Jesus after he had fed thousands of them earlier on.  When they finally located him, they asked him why he came to where he was. Jesus replied," Truly, truly, I say to you; you do not seek me because ye saw the miracles, but because you ate bread and were filled. Do not labor for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man will give to you: for it is him that God the Father has sealed.

Jesus could see that they were only seeking to satisfy their earthly hunger. Jesus was telling them plainly, don't come looking for me simply to feed you the food of this life, but come to me to receive the food of eternal life.

Often it is that way with us as well. We come seeking Christ, not for the bread heaven but the bread of earth, This is a lack of faith in God. God has said I will never leave you or forsake you. And Jesus said, "Your Father knows what you have need of before you ask, therefore (because of this), when you pray, pray after this manner (this way), : Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Beyond this pattern of thinking lies covetousness, which the scriptures calls idolatry. Idolatry is making something other than God your God. Jesus warns us in Luke 12:15 to beware of covetousness; he say's, "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Most of us will say we know that is true, but when we come to God, what are really we looking for? What we seek determines how we read the scripture. Again I'll say, what we seek determines how we read the scripture. Our enemy, Satan is crafty in the way in which he mis-handles the Word of God, and he does mis-handle it with you and I, just as did with Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew chapter 4.

Satan's goal was to remind Jesus how hungry he was, and then remind him that as a child of God he did not have to go without. He could use the power God had given him to save lives to feed himself. Notice the scripture never say's Jesus never ate, but he refused to call on the power of God to save himself from earthly trouble and stating to Satan that man does not live only by bread but by every Word of God. This was a rule Jesus followed right up to the prayer in the garden when he asked the Father to take this cup from him if possible, but then said, your will be done.

It was more important for Jesus to be crucified in order to fulfill the will of God. Jesus understood this even in his darkest hour. He was still seeking to fulfill the will of God in the face of death. he could of called ten thousand angels to come to his aid ye he did not. Because when Jesus read the scriptures, it was to fulfill the will of his Father. We see this in Luke 4:16-20, where it is written, And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up to read.  And there was delivered to him the book of the prophet Esaias, and when he had opened the book he found the place where it was written,  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."  And he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down.

You see here Jesus read the will of God for his life and followed it. And it all that he read it was never mentioned that he came for himself but was sent for the healing of others. There is nothing in the scriptures that suggest that God wants to give us everything we desire on earth. In fact the scripture tells us to take no thought what we shall eat, drink or wear. The scripture does not tell us to not work, but it does tell us why to work.

How do you read John 10:10 that say's, "The thief only comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Some people will hear through idolatrous ears, that God wants them to have all they desire here of this world. Others will hear through the ears of Truth that God wants to give them all they need to obtain eternal life. Again, in Lke 12:15, Jesus said your life is not made up of the abundance of your possesions, therefore the abundant life he spoke of in John 10:10 is not about this life.

We are what we seek. What are you seeking and why? How do you read God's doctrine (teachings). It is often said that God speaks different things to different people through the same scripture. This is not true. The Word of God proclaims that in these last times Jesus was chosen by God to be the voice of God. The message of Christ is consistent throughout and has only one interpretation according to scripture, which says in 2 Peter 1:20 that scripture is not of any private interpretation. Scripture can not mean one thing for me and something else for you. If we each have our own private meaning, this only works to separate us from the unity that comes from walking in the Spirit of Christ. That is what Jesus say's in John 10:10 that the thief comes to do, kill, steal and destroy. A body separated does not function at it's full capacity.

If one of your legs is trying to go left while the other is attempting to go right how far either way will you get? One leg has to overpower the other and then even drag it. If both legs are of the same mind and working together then the body moves in one direction freely and effortlesly. Which way are you headed? Is one leg dragging the other. James chapter 1 verse 8 say's, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." Are you stable, do you have a single mind, fixed on heaven and not on earth?

How are you reading scripture? Are you letting Satan convince you in tough times that God wants you to spend your prayer time asking him to fulfill your earthly needs? Are you letting Satan mis-handle scripture to convince you that God wants you by prayer and supplication to make these earthly request known to God? Or are you taking the pure example of Jesus and making those request about God's will?

When Jesus said, nevertheless your will be done, he understood this meant suffering for him. But he also understood that the fulfilling of God's will would mean the slavation of many, and that his suffering would only be temporary.

God knows what you need before you ask. Be careful how you read the scriptures, pay attention to what you hear, because it may not be God talking.

Focus on Jesus!