"For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." Acts 15:28-29
There are two thoughts I want to extrapolate from these verses.
First, how does James know that it seemed good to the Holy Ghost not to place too heavy a burden on the gentile believers?
Second, along with accepting Christ as your personal Savior, God gives us His principles in succession, truth upon truth, precept upon precept, over time and during the process of living the Christian life/lifestyle.
How does James know that it seemed good to the Holy Ghost not to place too heavy a burden on the gentile believers? The Holy Spirit lives within us and we can know the mind of Christ and the will of God and the expectation of the Holy Spirit if we are in alignment with His will. If we are in love with Jesus and following after His ways, it is almost second nature to hear and understand the voice of the Holy Spirit within.
A good knowledge of the Bible and a healthy dose of following after Christ and anyone can know the will of God. We make a big deal about it because there is a lot of money to be made on keeping people in their ignorance and bliss; steering believers to believe that they need a mediator between them and Christ or that the 'average' Christian can't know the will of God; It must be revealed by a priest or prophet or apostle or preacher. Sorry, but you are just as responsible to gather and follow the teachings of Christ as anyone and you have been endowed with the ability to activate the power of God within you equal to and the same as anyone who claims Christ. We all have different gifts, but all who are born again have within them the Holy Spirit of God. All who have been born again have the same chance to find and develop the mind of Christ. James and you can know what the Holy Spirit desires you to do or say.
God gives us His principles in succession, truth upon truth, precept upon precept, over time and during the process of living the Christian life/lifestyle. The Holy Spirit did not want to lay too heavy a burden on the new gentile believers at this time. The process of the Christian life is to start and then move forward and then grow and then abide in Christ and each of these phases are filled with events and struggles, obstacles to overcome and barriers to break down. At every turn there is a principle of God to be opened up and then utilized, new truths to be learned and new directions to take. No one gets all of God at one time nor do they get all that God has for them in one sitting. The process is to grow in Christ and to go through things that develop a God-consciousness in us. We start out by accepting Christ and we move forward co-creating with God to accomplish the will of God in our life and for the overall good of all.
During this process we also fulfill the prophesies of God concerning mankind and the condition of the world that we live in. Don't take your part in all this too lightly. God chose you and that makes your position pretty important. No you will not get it all at the same time, but you will get all that God has for you in His time. God's way really is the best way.
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