Presumption - Star Purswell

From The Vine
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me,
and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for without me ye can do nothing." John 15:5

Twenty years ago, as I was riding home around midnight with a fellow minister, Roger, the Lord spoke to me, and may I tell you, it was not a light thing He revealed to me! The previous year the Lord told me in three different ways how He would use me. But suddenly, within one week, a year later, things began to happen. I had been to a big meeting where a supposed "prophet" told me several things, but all I could remember was, "Move out! Move out!" Move out, just continued to run rampant in my mind. I talked to the Lord and reminded Him that He said His sheep know His voice and they would not listen to another nor follow them. This just didn't sound like the Lord to me!

In the first place, there was absolutely no humanly possible way that I could ever do these things myself! Then maybe a week later, the minister and his wife that I spoke of came to visit us. Roger, a mighty man of God, and I had a common minister friend, Joe, that Roger had not seen in years. We spent several enjoyable hours talking with him, and just as we were leaving, Joe said, "Star, what is wrong with you? You know the ministry that the Lord has given you. Do you realize how many people will be helped? Why are you sitting here? Star, the Lord says for you to move out!" Need I tell you, this gave me quite a start?

Usually, Roger and I had nonstop conversation, fighting for the floor, but on this particular 15 mile drive home there was total silence. That is outwardly, but inwardly, war was going on. I said, "Lord, could this be You? You know there is no way I can move out without you! Maybe, I could have done some of the "other things", but not this, Lord!" How in this world could this be the Lord? Why would I hear in one weeks time, two different times, from two different people to "move out"? This seemed to go on forever inside of me! It was as if time stood still.

Suddenly, the Lord showed me a lady I'd know for years. Jennie loved the "work of the Lord", and when she decided that the Lord had told her something, nothing nor anyone could keep her from her own self will. In the multitude of counselors there is safety. She would get infuriated if anyone tried to tell her she had not heard from the Lord. She was determined to do whatever, even if it was wrong, all in the name of the Lord! During the years no matter where I went, no matter when, I would see her van in front of a house. She was driven to "work" nonstop to tell people about Jesus. That is good, because Paul said to always be affected by a good thing. And surely it is a good thing to spread the gospel. But much more important on her agenda was to tell them they'd better be sure they attended church!

This tormented me, seeing her constantly working her way around the community, always busy "about the Lord's business"! Sometimes I just flat worried that there was really something wrong with me, because I didn't seem to have the same motivation. But mainly, it just irked me! The Lord put a perfect picture of all her doings in my mind that night. Then He spoke to me; "I DID NOT SEND HER!" So many times I'd gone and prayed for someone, or felt I needed to impart my special wisdom to some poor soul. The Lord sent me the majority of the time, but occasionally, HE DID NOT SEND ME! I was absolutely overwhelmed! All of the times I'd tried so hard not to be, "Miss Molly Missionary", and I was guilty of the same sin!

To presume is to act without warrant, or to assume on someone or something when no one has told you to do it. To assume to take for granted, or to flatter one 's self, suppose, expect, be rash, insolent, unwarranted, are all definitions of presumption. A good example would be for instance, if I were to go to your house, walk right by you and head straight for your frig assuming, or presuming to make myself a sandwich without even asking you. It might not matter if I am a close friend of yours. But it might matter if I'm a close friend or not if it just happens to be that the lunch meat I was using was the last in the house, and you were just about to make a lunch for your husband to take to work. If only I had asked you if it was all right to make a sandwich, no harm would have occurred, and perhaps you might have told me that you needed that lunch meat, but you probably would have offered me something else. Maybe wouldn't have offered me anything! I indeed would be most presumptuous.

In Romans, Paul says how can they hear lest there first be a preacher, and how can he preach lest first the Lord send him? There are innumerable preachers, but if the Lord has not sent them, it is wood, hay, and stubble. When tried by fire, it will disintegrate. Those things done under the direction of the Holy Spirit according to His word will be gold, silver, and precious stones, being laid up in heaven for our account.

We got home and everyone went to bed. That is, all but me. I was wide awake! I began to remind the Lord that Moses had refused to move without His presence and that He sent a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. I also reminded Him that He as not a respecter of persons, and I wasn't going to budge until He sent His presence before me. And I didn't budge! This was all I knew to do! Wait, pray, and continue to read His word. He told me how he was going to use me, but without His presence, the presence of the Holy Ghost, all I could do is sit! I was almost positive this indeed was the Lord that had spoken to me that night. I wasn't absolutely sure until a year later when He lead me into a secular bookstore causing me to find a book that I didn’t even want to read, that shouldn't have even been there. There were only about ten Christian books in the entire store. In this book was an exact account of presumption with the word Presumption in it! I just cried and cried. I was so grateful the Lord had confirmed His word to me.

For years scriptures had jumped out at me all through the Old Testament. In Jeremiah Chapter 23:16, the Lord says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: They make you vain: they speak a vision out of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. V17 they say unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, "Ye shall have peace; and they say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come unto you". Also he talks of all the pastors becoming brutish and leading His sheep astray, speaking vain imaginations, out of their own evil hearts, He speaks of presumption in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and in Psalms. David prayed in Psalms 19:13, "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then I shall be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

Presumption is a deadly sin. David always inquired of the Lord before He did anything, and when he didn't he got in big trouble. In I Chronicles Chapter 21, David really blew it with the Lord when he took a census of the people because the Devil provoked him and he paid by seeing seventy thousand innocent men die until he repented and the Lord stayed the hand of the enemy! All of these years the Lord had told me by His word that these prophets were an abomination to Him and He would make wormwood out of them! I really had never even heard one sermon on Presumption until the Lord spoke this to me. He has to reveal His word to us by Divine revelation. Then it is very real to us.

The Lord says in Matthew 7:21 that in that day many will say, "Lord, Lord, we've done many wonderful things in your name. We've cast out devils, healed the sick, Oh, we've been busy all of our lives doing "the work of the Lord"! Then He will tell them that He never knew them, and they shall be cast into Hell! They seemed to be surprised! But Christians, read on! He says that blessed is he that not only hears the word of God but also does it! He will liken him unto a man that built his house on a rock, and when the storm hits, the house will not be washed away! That is because Jesus is that Rock, and if we are grounded and rooted and built up in Him, The Rock, we will do His will. Now how can you do the will of God, if you don't have a clue what His will is? Is it by getting a "word" from the visiting "Prophet" that comes to your church? Can you hear a voice or have a dream and know that the Lord has spoken to you and told you His will? If you do not have the word of God in your heart and spirit, you will not only not hear from Him, but you will most probably hear from other spirits, familiar spirits, from your own spirit. But you will be deceived if you have not heard by His word!

The Lord told me as plain as I could possibly hear a voice what He wanted me to do! Did He? Who did you hear from? He said, "But he that doeth the will of my Father". The only possible way you can know His will is by reading His word. "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God." (John 1:1) "And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) Jesus is the living word. He told his disciples, "IF you continue in My word, then are you My disciples indeed". (John 8:31) He says, "For this is the will of my father", all through the bible.

This is the way you can know His perfect will. This is the way you can know when people are prophesying by the mouth of the Lord or they are prophesying out of the vain imagination of their own heart!

Of course the Lord speaks to many of His servants through dreams and night visions and through fellow Christians, but always it will line up with the word of God! Remember in Acts, when the Lord spoke to Paul, (then Saul) and told him that a man named Ananias would come to him and lay his hands on him and he would receive his sight? At the same time the Lord spoke to Anaias and told him to go to a street called Straight and lay his hands on Saul and he would receive his sight. The Lord spoke to two of his servants at the same time. Just like He spoke to Peter about Cornelius and to Cornelius about Peter. When the Lord speaks to us and it is He, you can be sure that it will be first in His word, and then He will confirm His word. Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses it is established in heaven.

Apostle Paul tells us to speak the truth in love, not with maliciousness, but rather that the body of Christ might be exhorted, instructed, and corrected so that we would become mature, going to all the world preaching the gospel. It is my responsibility, as my part in the ministry, to tell the body when I see them sin to repent. If I tell them and they repent, that is what God wants, but if they do not repent, then their blood is not on my hands. Warn them! Warn them! No matter how good your intentions, if you send yourself or some preacher sends you, and the Lord does not send you, WOE UNTO YOU! Don't be deceived, read His word, and He will send you and you will know His Perfect Will! Many times people are just innocent, because they do not know any better, but after you have heard the truth, then you are responsible to repent and obey His word! Remember, David always inquired of the Lord, and he was always quick to repent and turn form his sin, and that is why David was the apple of His eye. I too wish to be the apple of His eye. How about you?

Please accept this letter in the love our Dear Lord, Jesus Christ, and with the very best wishes that I can send to you, with much prayer that you will be rooted and built up in maturity in Him and that you will be equipped for the ministry and meet for the Master's use! If you are not guilty of this sin, then thank the Lord. If you are guilty of the deadly sin of presumption, Repent, and turn from your self-willed ways! Read God's word, pray, obey, and do!

"The Husbandman
   is never nearer
   the branches
   than during pruning."
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