Traffic Signals on the way:"Warning - Presumption"

Presumption is a belief that a person can do whatever he desires to do contrary to previous instructions and restraints, without experiencing consequences for his behavior.

Your life is your journey on the specific path that God laid out uniquely just for you. By following the Map, God's Word, and detailed Guidelines carefully, scriptures that give you specific directions for your personal journey, you will be amazed how God will reward you with fulfillment of the desires of your heart which in essence are plans He Himself placed in your life. There will be no doubts or guess work how to reach your personal destiny. All you have to do is listen, obey and follow His leading, and watch for warning signals on the way that would cause you to detour from your Christian path. Obey them and keep your eyes on Jesus! Obeying and following God's direction will avoid confusion, chaos and the possibility of losing out with God in the end.

We read examples of men in the Bible who made wrong choices while they were in leadership and suffered bitter consequences. We can learn from their mistakes. When wrong choices are made, it often takes many months and sometimes years to find a place to turn around and return to the place where a person left God, in order to be restored. Sometimes he is able to turn around successully but sometimes he turns around only to carry the baggage of consequences the rest of his life.

While we were on the mission field, we met an impressive young couple full of talent and the possibility of high leadership skills. It did not take long to recognize the wife was living with the consequences of the years she lived in the drug scene when she lived in a commune. When she talked of the goodness of God, she radiated with gratefulness that those days were behind her, but at times in ordinary conversation her mind appeared to be blank and she struggled to complete sentences. I'm reminded of the scripture: "Be sure your sin will find you out." You cannot assume you will be the exception who will have no consequences.

Saul had been chosen by God to be the first King of Israel. When he faced his first national battle, Samuel gave him specific instructions to meet him in Gilgal; wait seven days with the people, and he (Samuel) would come and offer a sacrifice before going into battle. He would ask God for His blessing before Saul would face the would be invading army. Saul did gather the people as he was instructed, but after waiting in Gilgal only six days, he became impatient, restless and doubtful of his instructions. He began to think since he was king he should be able to offer the sacrifice as the priests did. Though God gave Saul a new heart when he became King, Saul's leadership included learning the importance of following directions, not his assumptions. And he offered the sacrifice! This was the first disobedience but more followed until Saul eventually lost his way, lost the kingdom, and lost out with God. His sin of presumption was assuming he did not have to follow the directive God gave through Samuel.

David is known in the scriptures as the sweet singer of Israel. Growing up, as the youngest son he kept the family's sheep. Alone on the hillsides for long periods of time, he probably learned to know the Great God of the universe as few of us could imagine. Worship, prayer, communion and fellowship with God were consistent in his daily life. We remember the stories how he killed a bear, killed the giant Goliath, and had many great victories to his credit. In God's time, he was anointed to be king, following Saul. Fast-forwarding his life as king, after God had used him mightily in winning many battles successfully with the surrounding nations, a time came when David was sorely tempted. He sucumbed to the temptation, committed adultey and then he tried to hide his sin. Though he was known as a man after God's own heart, he was still human and was subject to temptations as the rest of mankind. No one is exempt.

After yielding to the temptation, we see another side of David. It's not only a picture of results that follow temptation but also a revelation how Satan can win in a person's life when just a small crack in the door of his heart is allowed to be opened to fantasy and sympathetic thoughts toward compromise to sin.

We see deception, lying, and trying to hide the consequences of his sin. Disaster after disaster followed David after that. Did God forgive him? Yes, but David paid the consequences for sin. His sin of presumption was thinking as King, he could arrange more deceptions to be carried out by one of his military men and no one would ever know what really happened. The warning signal here is: "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" Whose heart? Everyone's heart! David's sin of presumption was that he knew God would forgive him, but he did not count on the many consequences that followed because of his sin. From that time, David prayed, "Keep me from presumptous sins."

The lesson from his choice is to heed the signals on your journey of life everyday because they can be warnings in the busy and congested traffic on your road. Today as never before, the enemy of your soul, Satan, is after you. Your only safety is to stay close to God. Recognize and know that everyone is tempted at times and temptation is not sin. It is yielding to the temptation that is sin! If you have sinned or are in a difficult place of temptation, your only hope is to turn to the strong arm of God through His Word. The scripture says, "Submit yourselves unto God, .....THEN....resist the devil and he will flee from you." The next step is to CONFESS your problem to the Lord in prayer, not hide it. REPENT of your part in allowing yourself to be drawn into the problem this far. ASK FOR THE BLOOD OF JESUS to cleanse you from your involvement. Accept His forgiveness and cleansing and turn/run from the temptation. Then ASK FOR RESTORATION.

The scripture speaks of "Godly sorrow" with repentance. There are times when you need to spend more than a few minutes before God in repentance. You need to repent with Godly sorrow. This means to realize you grieved and wounded the Holy Spirit who attempted to restrain you from yielding to temptation. Your sin of presumption may have been that you thought you could always repent with a "sentence prayer," a quick and short one, and the presence of God would be restored quickly as before. The Holy Spirit will lead you to full repentance and Jesus will forgive you but you need to know your repentance must be with Godly sorrow. It is the Godly sorrow that will sharpen your will to resist a temptation the next time.

The good news is that the Holy Spirit places special kinds of signals on your your road of life from time to time, often to warn you. Be aware of them and obey them. It's because He wants you to remember always what a great sacrifice Jesus made for you. He desires you to live free from sin.

(This message us for a particular person who happened to find this on the internet today. I don't know who you are but I know Jesus loves you. He waits for you to go to Him and repent and be restored! I urge you to go today!)