Voice of Reason

When God is in it, there will always be a voice of reason.

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Acts 15:7 – And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

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In my almost 50 years of ministry, having had the great joy and honor of working with some of the finest saints who have ever walked this earth, and having been privileged to travel to many nations around our world, I can tell you I’ve been in more meetings than I can count.  Most were good meetings, blessed by the Lord and strengthening to the attendees.  A few were total losses, edifying no one, hurting anyone who got in the way, and grieving to Holy Spirit.  I am glad to say that I was able to extricate myself from those meetings by the precious and merciful keeping power of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

But I have also been in meetings that, at some point in that meeting, looked like it was about to erupt in what some might call a major conflagration.  But because those who were present were men (women) of integrity, with a sincere heart for God, Father always used Holy Spirit to raise up, embolden, empower, and use a voice of reason; a voice that when heard became quickly recognized as coming from the Lord.  We see that in our Text for Today.  We also see in in Job (our Manna for Today) when Elihu, a young man who said he should be quiet and learn wisdom from his older compatriots.

The voice of reason is not about age, or title.  It is about that person who has an ear to hear what Holy Spirit is saying to the church.  It is the voice of Peter in a Jerusalem council.  It is about the voice of Jethro, a keeper of sheep, to the deliverer of Israel.  It is about the voice of Elihu when Job and his three friends had exhausted all their pitiful reasonings and self-justifications.  It is about the voice of Jesus when the crowd stood ready to stone an adulteress.  It was the voice of Apostle Paul on Mars Hill when he spoke of the unknown God.  The voices are many, the characters varied, their location sometimes surprising, sometimes amazingly close, and often, unexpected.  But still, they are there.  Keep yourself in the Word, stay before the Lord in prayer, occupy your time in service . . . be one of those voices.  Be a voice of reason and speak forth the reason that would be heard when reasoning together with Father.

Manna for Today – Acts 15:1-21; Job 32-37; Psalm 8:2; Isaiah 1:18