My Own Counsel

"But my people would not heed my voice,

and Israel would have none of Me.

So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart,

to walk in their own counsels."

Psalm 81:11-12, NKJV

The Lord would speak to us and help us, guide us and govern our every thought, our every move, on every day of our lives. If we would let Him.

If the Bible shows us anything about God, it certainly demonstrates His great desire to have constant communion with His creation, the crowning jewel of His earth, the people made in His own image and after His likeness. In the very beginning, He walked with Man in the cool of the day and talked to Him. And ever since Man's fall from that fellowship, God has been looking for and providing ways to reach every descendant of Man, to bring all of humanity back into close relationship with Him.

God chose a people, Israel, and He told them that He would be with them wherever they went. God had no need for an earthly house--heaven is His throne, earth is His footstool, He says. Who can build a house to contain Me? And yet He instructed them to build an earthly tent to house His visible presence on earth. No other construct on earth has had such direct and detailed input from God as the Tabernacle in the wilderness. The cloud of His glory rested over it by day, and blazed above it by night. The tangible presence of His very person resided between the wings of the golden cherubim which overlooked His covenant with Israel. God was with the ancient Israelites in a very personal, very powerful way.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we also have that personal presence in us today. For we are His tabernacle, His dwelling place, the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. Those who have placed their faith, their trust, their confidence and their hope in Him have provided Him with their hearts, have invited Him to come in and dwell within them. It is an error to believe that there is some "divine spark" within every human being, some element of God's nature. We are born without God, and have to reach a point in our lives where we recognize His absence. And once we recognize His absence and our abject need need of Him, we have a decision to make. Will we give place in our lives to the Lord of all Creation, or will we continue to try and make our own way?

Israel learned a hard lesson. In Eden, Man had one rule to follow. He failed to keep it. Israel had ten commandments to obey. They couldn't keep it. God expanded His law to include 613 regulations of holiness, and for 1500 years, His people failed again and again and again, at last coming to a place where their whole attention was upon the letter of the laws rather than upon the spirit. People were more concerned with their own appearance than the condition of their heart. And God sent Jesus to save us from our sins, and reduced the commandments back to one--to Love. He gave the commandment two directions--upward toward Him, and outward toward others. On the commandment and covenant of love hang all other rules and regulations for life and living.

In the wilderness, Israel rebelled against God over and over again, until God reached the point where He stepped back and said, "Fine. You don't want to follow Me and do what is best? Go ahead and do whatever you want. Follow your own counsel." And an entire generation--more than a million Israelites--died in the wilderness without ever entering their Promised Land. And if we don't heed the voice of the Lord and follow His commandments, the same will happen to us.

To be quite honest, I don't want to be left to my own counsel. I don't want to be left to my own devices. Because in the absence of God, without His power and presence dwelling in me, convicting me, convincing me, covering me constantly in the cloud of His glory--without God governing my life, I know the choices I would make. I know the things I struggle with now; with no restraint in my life, I know with what abandon I would chase my own thoughts, my own desires. I know that my heart is deceitful and vain and would lead me to my own destruction.

God, please don't leave me to my own counsel. I don't know what I'm doing without You!