Resurrection Life Ministries (Daily Reflections from the Word)

Matthew 2:12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. KJV

Our Lord still Divinely warns us today when our enemy is trying to deceive us into liberalism, license, or legalism and lead us away from our love relationship with Him. Those of us who know and love our Lord so much and mean to do others no harm often find ourselves deceived into thinking that others who we encounter are also of like mind. We can here remember the words of our Lord speaking to our hearts and mind, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing (humbly, gently, or kindly), but inwardly are like ravenous wolves (jealous, envious, sensual, and, unclean).” He went on to further say, “You will recognize them by their lifestyle.” He does not want us to get caught up into their false vain worship as often the children of Israel were led to do by the many Gentiles that lived in the same land.

Albert Barnes has this to say of this passage of Scripture, “This was done, doubtless, because, if they had given Herod precise information where he was, it would have been easy for him to send forth and kill him. And from this we learn that God will watch over those whom He loves; that He knows how to foil the purposes of the wicked, and to deliver His own out of the hands of those who would destroy them.”

“Those that act cautiously, and are afraid of sin and snares, if they apply themselves to God for direction, may expect to be led in the right way.” Matthew Henry

Matthew 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. KJV

And ever since this date, He (God the Father) has been calling His elect adopted sons and daughters out of each of our own personal Egypt’s (which represents our enslavement to sin) delivering us from the power of darkness and conveying us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through Christ Blood, the forgiveness of sins. In the next verse 16, we see a picture of the devil’s response when he sees a soul called out of sin into the liberty with which Christ has made us free and that is extreme anger and rage.

EXPERIENCE OR REVELATION

We have received ... the spirit which is of God; that we
might know the things that are freely given to us of
God.

1 Corinthians 2:12

Reality is Redemption, not my experience of Redemption; but
Redemption has no meaning for me until it speaks the language of my
conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me
right out of myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus
Christ. If I am left with my experiences, my experiences have not
been produced by Redemption. The proof that they are produced by
Redemption is that I am led out of myself all the time, I no longer
pay any attention to my experiences as the ground of Reality, but
only to the Reality which produced the experiences. My experiences
are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source, Jesus
Christ.

If you try to dam up the Holy Spirit in you to produce subjective
experiences, you will find that He will burst all bounds and take you
back again to the historic Christ. Never nourish an experience which
has not God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do,
your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions you may
have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you try to
lord it over Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? He
must be Lord over you, and you must not pay attention to any
experience over which He is not Lord. There comes a time when God
will make you impatient with your own experience - I do not care what
I experience; I am sure of Him.

Be ruthless with yourself if you are given to talking about the
experiences you have had. Faith that is sure of itself is not faith;
faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.

By

Oswald Chambers