OBEDIENT TO DECLARE WHAT GOD HAS SAID !

OBEDIENT TO DECLARE WHAT GOD HAS SAID ! These promises are conditional. Look at verse one: . . . "It shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments. . ." Now many people will think that he's talking about the 319 laws or commandments that are written in the Old Testament. When God is talking about the conditions of what He said. The voice of the Lord thy God which we have today is the Word of God spoken. In reading these verses, if you are not careful, you will miss what is actually being said because of the King James language. As I was studying this, the Lord said, "you look up that Hebrew word that is translated hearken." I thought I knew what it meant, but I looked it up. He is what I. Hearken first means "to hear intelligently." It also means "to be obedient," and "to declare." In other words, you would say the same thing that God has said ! Next the Lord said, "Look up the word diligently." I again thought I knew what it meant to be diligent about something. But to my surprise, I found that the Hebrew word translated diligently means "wohlly, completely, far, fast, and louder and louder." The word could be use that way. So allow me to paraphrase the word that way: "It shall come to pass, if you shall hear intelligently, be obedient to, declare wholly, completely, far, fast, louder and louder what God has said, to observe and to do all His commandments, then all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you." What God is saying in (Deuteronomy is almost exactly what He told Joshua. God says, "just declare what I have said. Here it intelligently, begin to declare it wholly, completely, far, fast, louder and louder." He was just telling them to get the Word of God in their mouths. Then God said, "when you do all that, all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you." Well, that doesn't happen overnight. Many people still think that God is going to do it for them; but you must understand God is waiting on you to do your part: and that is to get the word of God off the pages of the Bible in your mouth and in your heart. Obedience is first, and then the blessing. Next, God tells of all the curses. Notice that the curses come only after the people were disobedient. Remember, we are talking about faith in God and confession. This God kind of faith force works only in the heart. And God told Israel how to develop heart faith for the blessings. The secret was to continue to declare God's promises until they possessed them. That hasn't changed. You must confess God's promises until you possess them. (2 Peter 1:1) gives us much insight into possessing new covenant promises. "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ." Notice that Peter is talking to those who have obtained like precious faith with them. He is speaking of born-again believers --- which includes us today. Just because you go to some great edifice doesn't mean that you are born again no more than just going to a country club so you can say that you are a member ! "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." (1 Peter 1:2) Stop disassociating Jesus from the word: and the word from Jesus. John says the word was with God in the beginning and the word was God, the same was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-2).