What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:15 NLT
The danger of presumption is the false belief that it carries the approval of God. James began his thought in chapter three verse five, highlighting the tongue as such a small member yet boasting great things. He continues in verse six calling the tongue a fire which can stain the whole body and sets on fire the entire course of life. Which, by implication, means presumption and boasting is fed by the strategies of Satan and works to produce our separation from God.
Let’s recall the proverb, ‘man plans his own way, and when it doesn’t turn out right, he rages against the Lord.’ (My translation.) With this in mind, we’d better ask and answer for ourselves the question, “Did God really say…”?
This is not just a great individual test for good, it is also our greatest temptation. You can see from Eve’s temptation in the garden, even knowing what God had said, did not prevent her from being tempted. Every temptation holds a test to prove what is in the heart of man.
Our foundation must be our assurance of what God has saId. We hold a God breathed living Rhema word from the Lord that directs our steps.
Most of us understand the difference between Logos being the written word of God, and Rhema as the spoken word of God. We have the value of this written word of God, yet each of us must attend to this so that the Holy Spirit is able to take this word and make it a “rhema’ to us. It must hold the breath of God on it to become a living word in my heart.
We don’t get to pick and choose a word that seems right in our own minds. We search the scriptures diligently until we sense the Spirit breathing upon a word and then we take the time to process this with our Father, allowing Him to bring the Yes and Amen.
Without this process we are presuming upon the goodness and grace of God, We don’t want to enter into something ‘thinking’ this is okay with God, we want the assurance that God has said!
If we follow the example set before us in Abraham’s life, we can learn how God speaks and leads. Abraham has the first encounter with God and is instructed to go. We find Abraham going, not knowing wither, Hebrews 11:8. Most of us would like to sit and wait to know the wither, the why and the what that is going to happen when we get there.
Abraham left by faith, knowing nothing more than God Had said I will show you a land. I will make your name great. I will bless you. Apparently this is all that is needed to go. There is no word of God that is void of power. The spoken word carries with it all the grace needed to obey. Sometimes it is a matter of stepping out and walking the land to find this isn’t the land I am to settle in, but it never makes having taken the journey wrong.
Our need to understand the beginning, the middle and the end of our life’s journey require more than human reasoning. If you take the time to study Abraham’s story you will find a journey of discovery. Every step brought Abraham into the greater purposes of Gods plan and a greater understanding of who God is, how He works and what He demands.
Our own journey is to be walked out in the same way, with the same workings of God. The difference between faith and presumption is what God has initiated.