Posts Tagged ‘joy’
Gods Trust in Us
Monday, April 13th, 2009The speed of our progress in being led of the Spirit is dependant upon our submission to His will. God moves us ahead as swiftly as He can in the proportion that he can trust us. The walk with God, therefore, is not so much our learning techniques of how to be led of God. the primary concentration is pressing in the interior life to submit to God’s will so perfectly that He might be able to trust us with a greater measure of His Spirit.
- A Voice In the Wilderness, Loran W. Helm
What does this mean? if God only moves as sqiftly as He can trust us… what does that tell us about out own walk with God.? Nobody else can measure how fast or slow we are moving, noone else can see what God is trying to do in the interior of our lives. We may seem to be moving very slowly, on the outside, and God is doing huge works in the interior. Or we may seem to be moving liek the wind on the outside, and yet God is doing very little.
Don’t judge others based on what they are doing or not doing. We only see from the outside, not the inside. We can not judge others based on what God is doing in our interior life. We can only look at ourself, and knowing that we woudl fail without His aid, throw ourselves on the mercy of the Lord. Please His blood, and ask Him to help us get where we are supposed to go. AS we cast all our cares on Him, then he can better trust us to respond to His leadings and guidances and thus can move us ahead much more quickly than we can even imagine.
However, if we try to manage and manipulate. Or if we try to take shortcuts to get where He is leading God will not be able to trust us and our forward movememnt will slow or stop completly while we are refined further inthe fires and trials of the wilderness.
Even if we are moving in complete obediance to Him:
My Friend, are you really determined to wait on God until He finishes the work He has begun at conversion? Will you let Him slay out of you that selfish, prideful, jealous, murmuring, fault-finding, analytical, self-sufficient spirit? He wants to uproot these poisonous weeds so that He might sow in us the seeds of His divine nature. But most people are unwilling to wait for God to produce His precious fruit. they want all that God has for them immediately. Most everybody wants a victoriou, overcoming life in Christ; but often they want the prize without the race. They desire the ends without the means. they wish to read a book and find out in a few hours how to walk with God.
We want to have the benefits of walking with God without the actual walking. We want to talk to our pastor and have him pray over everything we do, whether it is right or wrong, and then we don’t have to feel responsible for the decision ourselves. It’s like asking someone to go run 5 miles everyday, and expecting our bodies to get the benefit of that exercise. That simply is not going to happen. If we want the benefits of running 5 miles every day, then we are going to have to run 5 miles every day.
If we want the fruit of the Spirit in our lives then we have to be willing to let Him plant that seed in our hearts and in order for Him to plant, the weeds of sin and self, resentment, lies, anger and lust have to be pulled from our heart. It is not easy nor is it clean work, but once it’s done then the fruit can be planted, and not until then.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings in all your ways acknowledge him and He shall direct your paths. Prov 3:5-6
The Thousandth Encounter – David Miles
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009A man walks to the top of a small hill. The grassy knoll is a short distance from his home, but it is a peaceful and secluded place. As he reaches this place, this familiar place, he becomes his truest self once again. This place of personal prayer is a place he remembers well, and has spent many late evenings here.
As he steps from the woods into this small, open grove, he bows his head and opens his heart. To the rest of the world and even those he loves, he seems so strong, always having the right words and the right state of mind. To them he is a man of integrity and spirituality. True as these may be, this is furthest from what he feels.
Heart wide open, more open than he would dare appear to any earthly being, he simply pours his broken spirit out to his Heavenly Father. For the first few moments, there are no audible sounds, but more is said in these moments than any human language could begin to describe or record. He raises his head and looks into heaven, eyes full of tears.
Once again, he has come in the flaws and short-comings of his life to the one being who can truly minister to these deep and indescribable pains. All of heaven and everything spiritual witnesses this event in awestruck wonder. To man, it is a moment of weakness and embarrassment, but to the entities that can see this as it is, this conversation is the purest and most effectual form of communion and communication that any living thing can be engaged in.
Once the overwhelming presence of the omnipotent and all-loving God is softened, the man begins to speak his heart as best he can. “My Lord, I have done it again.” Bowing his head in shame he continues, “I knew better, as I have my entire life. Yet this is a recurrent sin, a never ceasing struggle. I thought I had overcome this, Father. Why do I still fall to this?”
Then the God of Heaven, the Commander of Heaven’s Armies, and the Father of this man’s heart and soul responds to him, not in audible voice but in a deeper, more effective response. Deep within this man, he suddenly understands that it was never he who succeeded, but God who had done the work in his life. It was never his gain which caused him to overcome this trial, but the work of the omnipotent Father.
The man is taken back by this revelation. Realizing that he will always fall to this struggle on his own, his mind turns to despair. Before his thoughts can take this sorrowful road, however, the same God speaks deep within him yet again. The impression He leaves is as if to say, “It is by my strength you are made strong, to be strongest in your weaknesses.”
The man is left with an even deeper understanding of where he stands. Responding aloud because no other option remained, the man nearly yells as he proclaims, “It is only in the total dependence on your strength and mercy that I can do anything right! I am unable to do ANYTHING right on my own! It is as I request your strength, wisdom, hunger, and passion daily that I will truly find what it means to serve you faithfully, with the power and determination that I have always lacked on my own. Glory to God!”
The man continues to pray, repeating this same phrasing to himself over and over again, each time in a different way to try and truly grasp the truth in this revelation. God rewards those who diligently seek Him, but the perfected work is only done in our spirits. Our flesh remains the same cursed corpse that it always has been since Calvary. The strength we are promised is as we live in this spirit, then the growth and power that God has given us will remain evident in our lives.
And if every good thing comes from God, then even the ability to live this life comes from God himself. Our desires, always corrupt on our own, will only be changed and remain pure as we consistently ask for them to be. We cannot maintain such a walk by our own drive, desire, or ambition. The fuel we must burn is oil for our lamps that we must request from the Creator of light. This is our daily bread. Everything we need to serve Him, in every way, can only be found in Him. The life we wish to live for Christ, requires that our entire life be nothing short of completely in Him, nothing withheld.
Written 3-28, putting an ongoing revelation to myself into words.