A Reasonable Man

     When I was in the world and without Christ, I had always heard about and even admired a reasonable man.  These were men who seemed to have it altogether and weren't contrary to different things and ways.  You could come to an agreement and make a deal with a reasonable man.  They were men who would look at both sides of any argument and make a way to compromise an agreement that would satisfy both parties.
     I still admired and looked at these men admiringly (even Christian men).  One day the Lord spoke to me from Isaiah 1:18-19 (Amplified) saying, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool."  Verse 19 says, "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the Lord."
     I never gave much attention to reasoning with the Lord, but only with other believers.  How can I reason with the Lord?  Many view God as an unreasonable Being.  Others believe that God is unpredictable.  Many believe that you don't dare question God.  Still other Christians don't see any rhyme or reason to God.  They think He did whatever He pleased and that "You can never know what God will do."
     I found that the invitation God offered me from Isaiah 1:18-19 (Amplified) was something that most of us had almost ignored.  God's inviting us to look into His heart and His mind and His will for us.  It was God Himself offering insight into His thoughts and actions for me.
     God said something to me from Isaiah 1:19 (Amplified) that I'd never thought about until He said, "If you are willing and obedient, then you shall eat the good of the land."  Until that time, I had been obedient, but not always willing.  I had left my home, job and all of my kin behind when I came to New York.  I packed up my wife and family and left Illinois like God wanted.  When I arrived in New York, I naively believed that people would want to hear what God had sent me here to say.  Wrong again!
     All the while, I was in New York, but things didn't seem to work out the way I'd "reasoned."  Then the Lord spoke to me saying, "You have been obedient, but your will has been against Me from the time you left your home."  He said that I had been like the Israelites in the wilderness whose heart and soul was still living in Egypt.  They were willfully set against God's deliverance.  They murmured and complained the whole time in the wilderness.
     When I was a boy, most kids played a game whereby they could beat on you until you cried, "Uncle."  They could make you say, "Uncle," but they couldn't make you mean it.  I was being obedient by my works of the flesh and left home, but my spirit (my heart) was still "down home in Illinois.  I complained about the weather being 35 degrees below zero.  I complained about the people being cold too.  I complained about the wages I was being paid.  I was obedient, but I wasn't willing.
     I'd never thought of them as separate acts because I always just read them together in the scriptures.  I began seeing that reasoning with God was very different than reasoning with men.  God didn't compromise on what He said and He never made excuses for what He said.
     Isaiah 55:8-9 (Amplified) says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
     God wasn't saying this in boasting and arrogance, but in fact.  What He intended us to do was "reason with Him in His reasoning, to think with Him in His thoughts and to know His ways, which are higher than our ways."  In other words, I was to reason with Him in His reasonings, thoughts and ways, not with man's reasonings, thoughts and ways.
     Man's way of reasoning is to look at both sides of a situation and create a way of making it work.  God's way of reasoning is to look at one side (God's side) and then to judge and decide according to His Word.  His ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts, so we need to elevate our way of thinking and not bring down His way of thinking to our level.
     We can clearly see mans way of reasoning in all spiritual things in Mark 8:15-16 (Amplified) which says, "Jesus (repeatedly and expressly) charged and admonished them (the disciples), saying, Look out, keep on your guard and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod and the Herodians."  Verse 16 says, "And they discussed and reasoned with one another; it is because we have no bread."
     Finally, Jesus explained how it was the doctrine of the Pharisees that He was speaking about and then He reminded them about the loaves and the fishes.  Jesus asked the disciples how they could think He was worried about not having enough bread after He fed 5,000 men along with women and children with 5 loaves of bread?  It was the religious doctrine of the Pharisees that was the leaven Jesus spoke of.  Can you see how sometimes reasonable people can come up with unreasonable answers to spiritual things?
     When we "reason" with our own understanding, we always miss the mark of the truth of God's Word.  It seems reasonable to men that healing, tongues, casting out demons and anything that is spiritual, really isn't reasonable without, "Come reason with the Lord."