To Listen, To Discern, To Act

SUN., SEPT. 12, 1993, 5:48 AM
FARM, STUDY

These verbs, that come from the title of the sermon My servant Karen will preach today are certainly familiar ones to you, for I have used them, in various ways in Our relationship. Your first task is to listen, and you have attuned yourself well enough to Me so that as you listen you can hear Me. I have not used the term “discern” so much as I’ve preferred “be aware” and “appreciate”. My Teachings should help to make you aware of opportunities in your earth life here, and then appreciate how these relate to you and your capacities. For some, then, there should be action… something for you to do.

You just have experienced quite an earthly example of this sequence. You heard your horse whinnying, and this is not usual. You discern that he has become separated from the cows, which could mean they’ve gone through the fence… or just haven’t moved with him. Your action, to settle him down, was to give him too apples and a “leaf” of hay, allowing you this time with Me before checking further on the cattle.

Jeremiah, as a young lad, heard Me as I called to him. He had been chosen for a lifetime task, one much mightier than yours. You don’t have much appreciation for the prophesies I had him bring to the chosen people of his time, but hear Me say that they were important. He didn’t want to act in accordance with what he heard, but the Scriptures here contain quite a counter to the notion of human free will. He had a will, but it could not match Mine, when I wanted him to act for Me. So it has been, and so it always shall be. Free will is what you have when I don’t have something I want you to do. And My Will is always the more important one.

Then there is the brief story of the woman who comes to Me, as Jesus, wanting to show her love for and appreciation of Me. Her way was not one of words, but of action. She had some nard, which was very expensive, and she simply poured it over My head. Now this sounds pretty gross to you, and you have a hard time seeing this action in a positive light. To be sitting at a meal and have a woman come in and pour perfume on your head, no matter how costly, doesn’t sound appealing. But, you see, I was able to discern what she was saying to Me, in this action. My disciples couldn’t. They discerned that it was expensive stuff, and they had heard Me preach about giving to the poor, so their conclusion was the practical one. Why didn’t she just give it to us, so that it could be sold, and the proceeds go to help the poor.

I then said something that has been interpreted in many ways, some of which represent selfishness, certainly. I said, “The poor you have always with you, but I shall not be with you long.” This certainly is a truth, for there certainly are more poor… and more relatively poor… than in that Biblical time. You must discern that I don’t say that the poor don’t need help. Never would I say that.