January 6, 2017
Well,
my dear Heartdwellers...I pray for all of you to have wisdom,
docility and humility that is necessary for a minister of the Gospel.
I have told you earlier in messages that the Lord trains His prophets
and ministers through breakings and trials to work a deeper level of
humility into our souls, as well ascending the mountain with Him.
Not
all are fortunate enough to have a spiritual parent, but for those of
you who are, please don't ever take them for granted or look down on
them. If God has put one soul in your life who can guide you, you are
a very blessed individual and it's because you have a high calling
that He sends those more mature in the Lord to caretake your souls.
Tonight, the Lord gave me a parable for just such situations, and
asked me to share it with you.
The
Parable of the Gold Miner.
There
once was a man who had mined gold for 40 years and he knew the
mountains and mine shafts like the back of his hand - better than
anyone else in the territory. He was an old salt, seasoned in his
ways, quiet for the most part and wise to the lure of gold and where
it can take a man. He'd made his fortune alright, but preferred a
quiet, retired life to the partying and carrying on in the bars in
town.
He
had invested in some hotels and land in the town, and managed things
with great fairness.
Now,
his nephew (his brother's son) was a geology major and he came from
San Francisco, on fire with gold rush fever. He was a precocious
young man who had studied geology in the University and was very
accomplished with a doctorate. But he heard how his uncle had struck
it rich in the gold country and all he wanted was wealth to add to
his academic accomplishments. So, he showed up in the bustling town
of Sacramento, eager to try his hand at mining in the Sierra Nevadas.
Taking
his accumulated earnings and loans from his father, he invested in
supplies and equipment and soon began blasting and tunneling into the
Sierra Nevada mountains, searching for that vein that would bring him
a fortune. One day, his uncle paid him a visit and was taken on a
tour of the mine shafts.
The
old man was eager to encourage his nephew, who had made remarkable
progress in pressing into the areas where gold bearing ore was most
likely to be found. As they descended further into the shaft, the
uncle began to notice that the buttresses were not solid enough to
hold the tremendous weight of the ground above. Furthermore, he saw
signs of a water table seeping into the tunnel that made a left fork
from the main shaft. There had been traces of gold ore picked out of
the walls of that tunnel that held much promise of a larger deposit
further ahead.
He
remained quiet for most of the tour, until the young man finally
pressed him for his opinion. "Well! What do you think? Doesn't
it look promising? Haven't I made remarkable progress?"
The
old man cleared his throat nervously as he gathered the right words.
"Oh, it looks promising all right. You've made some amazing
progress in the few short months you've been here and you're onto a
vein all right."
Yet
the reserve in the old man's voice made him nervous, "But...?
There's something wrong? We've bought the choicest lumber for the
buttresses. And we are discovering signs of gold up ahead. What could
be wrong?"
"Well,"
he hesitated. "For the most part, yes, it looks good. But I'm
concerned that last 50 feet before the fork, looks, well... pretty
skimpy. You need bigger timbers in there. I wouldn't go any further
'til you shore it up. And that's not all. That tunnel to the left
spells trouble. Moisture on the walls tells me you're headed smack
into the water table. If you breach that wall, you and all your men
will be instantly killed. The problem is, there's no telling where
that water table is or at what depth. But it's there all right. Just
look at the sweat on those walls."
Just
then one of the miners came running towards the men, "We've
struck it rich!!! We've found the vein, it's getting bigger. We found
it!" He danced around, threw his hat in the air and shouted
"WooHoo!!! We found that vein - we're getting' closer!"
The
nephew asked, "Where?"
"In
that left fork, Boss, just like you said. In that left fork, and it's
a honey of a load of gold. It's gonna be a big one, make you rich
beyond all tell'n!"
The
young man looked at the old miner with a sense of 'I told you so!' on
his face. "We're almost there." he said to his elder.
"We're going to strike it big, just a few more feet, we can't
stop here!"
But
his uncle was quiet. This was his brother's son, a precocious man;
confident, outspoken and self-assured. He remembered, back when he
first came to the gold fields, another miner very much like him.
Business man. But that man was not so lucky. He died when his tunnel
caved in 269 feet down. They never did recover his body. That man,
too, had been in a big hurry and skimped on timbers to shore up the
shafts.
Now
his nephew was headed for certain disaster, but there was no way to
get through to him. He had gold fever and couldn't see anything but
dollar signs. The uncle remained quiet.
"Don't
you see? We can't stop now. Just a few more feet to get to the
motherlode."
"Oh,
I see alright. I see that you're going to break through the water
table and be crushed and trapped in that watery grave. Don't do it,
son. Don't do it. It's too risky."
Well,
they parted company and the old uncle returned to Sacramento to his
hotel businesses. A week later, some miners came in badly shaken, and
went straight to the bar and ordered doubles - drinking it down just
as fast as they could pour them.
"What's
going on with you men? Did you see a ghost?"
They
answered, "Didn't you hear? That young man from San Francisco
that had a big education and was so bright and sure he'd strike it
rich? He went plum through to the water table and drowned when them
tunnels caved in on him beneath the water pressure. We tried to tell
him. We quit that outfit because we knew trouble was coming and we
weren't about to lose our lives down there."
The
old man started sobbing, "That was my nephew. I tried to tell
him, I tried. But he was just too smart for an old man with no
education, like me. He was just too smart, wouldn't listen. Oh, I
tried alright. I tried to tell him something weren't right about that
sweat on the walls. Now I have to be the one to tell my brother - his
son is gone. He's dead."
So,
what is the moral to this story? Well, it seems obvious that the
moral is: Pay Attention to those who have more experience in an area
than you do. Because they're looking at you, and they can look ahead
and see when trouble is coming.
There's
not a whole lot of difference between gold fever and God fever. Once
we've caught the spirit, once the Lord starts loading us with
gifts and we begin to see mountains move - it's exciting. We want
more. We don't want to stop. But sometimes the Lord sends people
ahead of us, to warn us that there's trouble up ahead. I just pray
that we'll listen. Pay attention and try to be humble, docile and
consider things that maybe make no sense to you now, but looking back
on the position of that person in your life, it's important to
listen. And never take for granted, when the Lord sends someone your
way to help you. Don't take it for granted. Pray that the Lord gives
you a humble and docile spirit. And that you listen to good, sound
council. And not spurn people because they look less intelligent or
less gifted than you. I made that mistake once in my marriage and
I paid dearly for it.
So,
for all of us, let's keep an eye on that pride and be docile with
those the Lord sends to help you. I'm not talking about authority
figures pushing you down and giving you a hard time. I'm talking
about people that love and care for you and have wisdom from above
and experience. And can see where you are headed for a problem.
Love
you all, Heartdwellers! Thank you so much for contributing to our
ministry. You've really helped us stay afloat and take care of the
things that we have, the needs that we have. And we've been able to
help some of the very poor families with their electric bills this
month. They were on the verge of having their electricity cut off.
We've
got a big snowstorm headed this way and today we were able to get
some wood for some families that had no firewood at all. Probably 8
or 9 families in all. And now they have firewood before this storm
hits. It's really important. It breaks your heart sometimes, to hear
how these families are living. They're burning sagebrush to stay
warm. They have little children and no running water. It's rough!
Really rough out there.
But
thanks be to God, because of your generosity, we were able to buy
firewood for the most needy families out on the mesa. We really
appreciate your support, it keeps us going smoothly, running smoothly
and take care of those around us. And that's what the Lord has called
us to do.
The
Lord bless you all, Heartdwellers.
Source:
heartdwellers
Watch the video here
