You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
19 If ye
be willing ['abah] and obedient, [shama`] ye
shall eat ['akal] the good [tuwb] of the land: ['erets] KJV-Interlinear
19 "If
you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; NASB
If, and this is a big if, because you might follow through, or you might not.
But if you are willing and if you obey Gods commands, then you 'will' be prosperous. You 'will' share in the best that life has to offer.
Best, 'tuwb', the good, the best, beauty, gladness, better than the former. Whatever your current status is, there is always better, and that is what is waiting for each one of you. There are no restrictions, no limits as to how many can prosper, there are no limits as to how many winners there can be in the spiritual life.
In this world there is only one winner in a race, only one person who gets the job. But in the spiritual life, everyone can be a winner. Gods resources are unlimited. Gods desire for you is for you to have the best possible life.
The other side of the coin is negative volition (you are not willing) and what comes with it is gloom and misery. God doesn't really have to do anything to negative people, they are their own worst enemy, and they cause their own misery.
Without doctrine in the soul, the soul is weak and sick. Without doctrine in the soul, the soul develops scar tissue from its unhealthy state, from its open sores, from its wounds that are not treated, wounds that are a result of the sin nature rather than the Holy Spirit being in charge of the soul.
So how exactly do we advance spiritually? You do exactly what you are doing right now. You study your Bible regularly everyday. You maintain a fellowship status (through confession) in your life so that you are consistently in Gods presence - on Holy Ground (shoes removed, hands washed, feet washed). In other words your soul is spiritually clean with respect to God, your attitude is spiritually clean with respect to God.
God has given you two sets of gifts.
The first set was given to you at birth. Your may have natural talent in sports, in math, in carpentry, in cooking, in organization, in communication, or whatever your natural talent is. At the point of your salvation (when you believed in Christ), then at that moment you received spiritual gifts unique to you, and most likely they enhance your other gifts, or perhaps they are in addition to your natural gifts.
By studying Bible doctrine everyday, you will not, repeat, will not, get some magic formula for instant spiritual maturity. Your responsibility in this life is to maintain a daily study program which will keep God in your thoughts, which will keep you on your toes with respect to your fellowship status, which will keep Bible doctrine in your soul rather than empty human viewpoint.
Now you might just be the person who invents something special, or is able to relate with disabled people, or perform intricate musical standards or medical surgical procedures, or simply answer the phone pleasantly. All are equally important in life.
When you read the Bible with legitimate and honest intent, you will read the Garden of Eden stories, the Samson stories, the David stories, the baby Jesus stories and so forth. And none of these stories will teach you to cook or build rockets. But what they do, is keep you honest with respect to God, keep you in fellowship with confession, keeps Gods view point in the forefront of your mind, and that opens up a vast pipeline between you and God and the magic, if you will, of the spiritual life comes together for you by means of Gods effort.
As a result God, who had placed you in this life at this specific time in history and in the specific geographical location where you reside, will bring together for you all the things that you need, to have a great life. You will meet the right people, or perhaps that perfect person in your life. You will stumble across all the right things that have been brought together in your life by God who saw them in eternity past.
Having this unseen choreographing effort from God for your life is a big plus for positive believers, which unbelievers and negative believers do not have.
They may seem odd coincidences to you, but nothing in life occurs by chance. Repeat, nothing in life occurs by chance.
So the choice is simple. Study doctrine everyday and allow God to show you the 'great and mighty things that He will do for you', or you can get your own opinion 'which of course is better than Gods', and follow your life right over the cliff into a miserable existence.
Then, too late, when you are removed from this world, you'll learn that your opinion isn't, and wasn't, worth squat!
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