He tends to veer away from saying things that our ears itch to hear, because those are things we tend to over-emphasize and that tend to foster our pride. Rather, he tends to say things that we have forgotten, that we overlook, that we ignore or that we deliberately stop our ears to.
Therefore, in any situation, God's word will appear to go against what most people in that situation would expect him to say. God's word will be a corrective - though sometimes it will also be an encouragement.
God's word never panders to human pride; by this, above all, you may know it. But neither does God's word crush the human spirit; rather, it inspires and enlivens to greater things.
So, what is God saying today?
To whom? To what human situation?
First of all, what is God saying to his own people, today?
I believe that God is saying something like the following (clickable summary, followed by the detail). Since it is normal in charismatic churches to hear "The Lord says, 'I ....'", I will use the first person stance here.
radah
'radah
'. In Ezekiel 34 I berated the shepherds of the House of Israel for the wrong type of 'radah
'; they were supposed to look after my sheep, but they saw that as an opportunity to look after themselves, and did not tend the sick or strengthen the weak. They were focused entirely on themselves, thinking they had my favour. How wrong they were.
radah
'.
radah
'.
Copyright (c) Andrew Basden 2009. But you may use this material subject to certain conditions.
Part of his www.abxn.org pages, that open up discussion and exploration from a Christian ('xn') perspective. Written on the Amiga with Protext. Number of visitors to these pages: .
Created: 1999. Last updated: 20 Jan 2002. 1 January 2009 .end, .nav. 18 April 2010 summary and some slight rewording.