God is an excellent teacher, says Christian author Christy Fitzwater, and whenever He wants to send a message across to His people, He often does it in multiple layers and directions.
"God often speaks to us in multiple layers," she writes in an article for Charisma News. When she got into a book contract just one week ago, she began to have a personal battle over her godly and ungodly motives.
Fitzwater says her main purpose in writing was to glorify the name of the Lord and help others know Him, but thoughts about fame and recognition soon clouded her thoughts.
"I can't seem to maintain a humble, godly motive for even two seconds!" she confessed to her husband. And he replied, "You should be encouraged that you recognise your wrong motives. That's a sign the Holy Spirit is working in you."
Sure enough, when they went to church, they heard the Bible passage Thessalonians 2:2: "For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you."
"By the end of the singing and sermon that night, I was fully reminded that I am a sinful woman, and my motives are naturally impure," Fitzwater says.
The very next day, while she was reading Paul Tripp's book "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands," she read about her struggle once again. "Sin makes us glory thieves. There is probably not a day when we do not plot to steal glory that rightfully belongs to the Lord ... We crave glory that does not belong to us," wrote Tripp.
And when she watched a new video about a pastor in Germany who is met with strong opposition because he is insisting that Jesus is the only way to God, she encountered the same message. The pastor, despite the opposition also received tons of encouragement and praise, and pretty soon the thoughts went to his head.
"I am really a great pastor!" he said to himself, but after saying that, he shook his head and admitted, "No, I am nothing. I am only a sinner. I am only a tool for Jesus Christ."
"So my point is that good teachers layer information, so that it sinks in and makes a lasting impression in the learner's thinking and lifestyle. Like God keeps impressing on me that I need to be rescued from bad motives," says Fitzwater.
Christians should become good and attentive listeners who should always have their Bibles open and their hearts prayerful, Fitzwater says. They should always be "hungry" to get His new information, believe it, and obey it, she adds.
