Farmyard Insights

By Glenn Edwards

The Value of “How-To’s” for Life: (Not Formulas)

With the advent of social media, just ask Google, 24-hour news channels, and phones that stream constant entertainment, this predisposes us to be seekers of trivial knowledge, and less oriented to knowledge that helps us to “do” things.

On the farm, as a boy growing up, I watched what my father did closely, and I learned to drive trucks and tractors by the age of 12. Those first 12 years saw me going everywhere with my dad and learning how to hook up implements to the tractor, learning about the dangers of powerful equipment, and learning to master these powerful machines. Even in our 4 H Club, we were shown videos about the dangers of farm equipment. Many farmers and/or their children had lost limbs, and fingers, become paralyzed, and even died. It often could be life or death work. This was a lot for a 12-year-old boy to take in.

It is interesting to me today, that there is not much life or death in surfing the internet. The demand for intense focus is much less when the cost to us is less.

In my master’s degree Thesis, I developed a training model for management personnel. It was based on “how-to,” management methods, and not just the philosophy of management. For Example: I believe that if we look at a well-installed door, there were exact actions that the Carpenter used to hang the door. Sounds simple enough, but in practice, not so much. There is more to it than meets the eye. The same is true with relationships, whether in the family or a business setting.

I have heard it said that to learn a new skill, we must first be introduced to the skill (learn about it), then we must work with the skill to practice what we have learned, and eventually we attain some measure of mastery of this new skill.

I believe this is the same in our walk of faith. We learn how faith works from our born-again relationship with our Heavenly Father and the study of God’s word. As we begin to walk together, learning more day by day, we slowly begin to trust in what we are learning as the truth is confirmed. In the practice portion of this journey, we learn how God sees us, what God wants from us, and what His ways are, and then we end up over time like Moses, and we see God face to face. This is the movement from seeing what God does to seeing who God is and sharing an intimate heart-to-heart relationship with the Holy Trinity.

My challenge to you is to move yourself from knowing about God and listening to good messages, to a personal encounter with God. To walk with our Holy Father, to fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and to commune with Jesus our Savior and Lord. I have found this a helpful quote:

Quotation from the Book - A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 By Phillip Keller

“… it helps to hold clearly in mind the part played upon our history by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

1. GOD THE FATHER - is God the author - the originator of all that exists. It was in His mind, first, that it all took shape.

2. GOD THE SON - our Savior, is God the artisan - the artist, the Creator of all that exists. He brought into being all that had been originally formulated in His Father’s mind.

3. GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT - is God the agent who presents these facts to both my mind and my spiritual understanding so that they become both real and relative to me as an individual.

This brings us back to the “Value of How-To’s,” where relationships are concerned. Our relationships are to be more than knowledge “about” God. We are to learn who God really is, what God does, and how He views us. Then in day-to-day interactions begin to learn how this relationship works. What is pleasing in God’s sight, what grieves the Holy Spirit, and what hurts the heart of God, just to name a few realms of interaction.

Remember that without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6) To build a vibrant relationship requires faith and interaction. You talk and He listens, then He talks, and we listen. Then we do and He does. These are the stepping stones of spirit-led actions. Pastor Ken Hagin has a saying, “When the Natural and the Supernatural work together they will produce an explosive force for God. Our part and God’s part working together.

Happy Faith Adventures!!

Insights from the Farmyard for you today.

Be Blessed.

Glenn Edwards