Scripture and Healing

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful" (Psm. 1:1). The only man who will not walk in the "counsel of the ungodly" is the man "who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word, [and] hath marked his word, and heard it" (Jer. 23:18). Jeremiah was one such man, and he like all before and after him who have heard and followed what truly is the word of God; paid a price to hear and follow after that word from heaven. He described both the blessedness and the pain of truly identifying with God among a people who THOUGHT that THEY were the ones identifying with God: "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed?" (Jer. 15:16-18). And what was God's answer to him? "... let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them" (Jer. 15:19). So he was doing the right thing by refusing to sit in "the assembly of the mockers," and by not rejoicing in the falsehoods that almost all of God's people were rejoicing in. He longed for true fellowship with God's people, but his love for God's truth, and his fellowship with him, far outweighed that longing. If he lived today, he would be in the exact same position, and God would still instruct him, "let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them." Nothing ever changes. Nothing. Ever. And do you know what the "Christians" would ignorantly have to say about it? "Forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is" (Heb. 10:25). But his answer would still be that he would "refuse to sit in the assembly of the mockers," or to rejoice in the erroneous gospel that God's people today embrace. And it would still be in order with God for the people to return to Jeremiah and to the truth he would be upholding, and for him to not return unto them and their religious mockery.

Jeremiah and everyone else who has ever truly known and loved what really is the word of God, has understood a very narrow and straight reality: "[The love of God] rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth" (I Cor. 13:6). The prophet Amos said by the holy Ghost, "Can two walk together, except they be agreed" (Amos 3:3). Jesus took that saying a step further: "How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" (Jn. 5:44). Unless and until you are willing to be alone with God, and rejected by your brethren in Christ, you will not even WANT to know the truth. They didn't believe Jesus because they were too concerned about being accepted by one another, THINKING that they were acceptable to God; when in fact they were not. God's people didn't believe Jeremiah because they judged according to the appearance, and the appearance was that there were hundreds of prophets who spoke contrary to the very hard words of Jeremiah, who was actually imploring God's people to give up the city that he had chosen for them, and to surrender to a foreign nation, and be taken away captive (Jn. 7:24; Jer. 14:13-15; Jer. 24:5). When the vast majority of God's people are NOT in agreement with God, as has always been the case; those who ARE in agreement with him cannot walk with them, or sit in their assemblies and act like they are part of something that God is not part of. And those who know and love the truth, and "who have stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word;" are no more impressed with or intimidated by the religious traditions of their day, than was Jeremiah, or as is God. Because they know what their peers refuse to know, as was stated by Jesus to the religious leaders of his day about themselves and the traditions that they rejoiced in: "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Lk. 16:15). The bottom line? Every child of God must find out what really is the truth of God, and follow after that, and rejoice in nothing else (Jn. 14:26; Jn. 16:13; I Jn. 2:27). "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith" (Rev. 2:7). Amen.