EBook PDF Download
By Arnold Fox and Barry Fox
Price:$16.99
Sale! $10.99
Price:
Sale! $10.99
Click HERE to order.
When we receive God's salvation through Jesus Christ, our reality is then forever changed. "Jesus said to him: 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life...'" (John 14:6). Then and forever, we as believers enter a new realm of authority. "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty'" (Rev.1:8). Although the way God's presence and power are experienced differs during distinct seasons in various settings, our priorities and processes of life are eternally impacted: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Rev. 22:13). And for those fully responding to become truly positioned to move with God as He moves, life becomes more and more exclusively about the Lord: "to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Php. 1:21).Whatever Works isn't Working
With such a life change becoming ours to walk in and live out, why do so many claiming Christ live and even promote such a rootless, dislocated, pragmatism of 'whatever works?' It would be easy to blame technology, postmodern thought, even globalization, etc., as the prevailing reasons. And it is always easier to look no farther than what we can conveniently see as the reason for the ways things are. But even 500 years ago we see how extensive the problem of self-oriented religious sinfulness was. Martin Luther was at the forefront of discerning and directing the Lord's present move at that time. In the midst of it, He said: "man's most noble efforts to serve God are laced with selfish motivations." Classically trained, he knew the history of the Church and was also well aware of the nature of religious man. But well before his time, the book of Ecclesiastes made it clear:
"That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, 'See this, it is new?' Already it has existed for ages which were before us" (Ecc.1: 9-10).
Whether it be today, 500 years ago, or times before and since: "there is no one who does good, not even one" (Psa.14:3; 53:3). Our inner sinful nature infects even righteous desires to the extent which our works can never achieve God's acceptance: "all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away" (Isa. 64:6). So the problem is not with how God made man; the problem is in the way(s) man seeks. As it also says in Ecclesiastes: "God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices" (Ecc.7:29).
That word, "devices" is chishshabon in Hebrew, meaning: "contrivance," "mental engine," "a self invention" (from Strong's OT Dictionary, #2810). The New Testament equivalent is when the Lord tells us through Paul of those "vain in their imaginations," explaining that it is the heart condition of those whose lives neither "glorify God," nor are "thankful" (Romans 1:21).
Today and always, such Luther defined "selfish motivations" result in "many devices" being sought out by those who are "vain in their imaginations." And without God becoming our starting point for all life and understanding of it, unless He is our "first" desire, thought and consideration: our discernment will always begin and end with us, missing the mark (Mt. 6: 33-34). When our considerations begin and end with us, instead of Christ "the Alpha and the Omega," we can only develop our own thoughts and understandings. Instead of "the mind of Christ," our unredeemed condition becomes what is extroverted and becomes the example, and the Lord is neither experienced nor seen in the world around us (1Cor. 2:16). This occurs because the inner man has been relegated to conceiving, igniting and directing desires disconnected from the life of God. As the Lord declared to His people then, we must each allow Him to speak freshly to us today:
"Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. 'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' declares 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. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it'" (Isa.55:6-11).
We must do everything necessary to enter into that realm with God which makes His Word "living and active" in our pursuits every day (Heb. 4:11,12). Every day? Yes. That was the timely Word the Hebrew believers received. God admonished them to consider the past failures of those who were once called to see His promise established (see Psa. 95:7-11). Through the Spirit He exhorted them also to always operate in "today" with God (Heb. 3:7; 13,15; 4:7). Being of such importance for early Christians that God would allow them to be reminded, as well as for us to have it available to exhort us now...how much more must we do the same!
When we do not walk current with the Lord - in a consistent way - we increasingly distance ourselves from experiencing His presence. Simply put, God keeps moving forward in His "eternal purpose" for the church and we can find ourselves left behind (Eph. 3:11). When that is taking place in your life, the witness of His Spirit has been calling you forward, but you have been failing to move with Him as He leads. Although that doesn't sound life threatening to many people, the more you resist the more you become accustomed to resisting. Instead of building a 'faith muscle,' you build a resistance to change. And any lack of immediate consequence for such disobedience suggests that you were either not hearing from God to make updates or that it is not essential to make them. That deceives people into believing that Spirit-initiated obedience is optional. This promotes an even greater de-sensitivity to the Holy Spirit within. Being in such a condition not only takes you farther from the Lord's thoughts and ways, it makes it increasingly unlikely that you recognize the Spirit's signals in the future or even sense His presence currently, while among God's people.
Continuing on that path, we not only become completely insensitive to the Spirit of God - grieving Him in moments - but also more and more unable to be moved by the One who gave us life (Eph. 4:30). This is evidenced by the way God says: "today, if you can hear His Voice, do not harden your hearts," instead of 'today, when you hear His Voice' (Heb. 3:7,15; 4:7).
Living sinfully, insensitive to the Spirit of God actually builds His anger against us (Heb. 3:7-12). Instead of a heart becoming set in place with Him for His design and destiny, we find ourselves grumbling against God (3:8-9). "Today" - as it says in Scripture - it is more urgently essential than ever before that we return to the presence of the Lord. But to do so absolutely requires that you not "harden your hearts." But you can only do so by remaining in the place where it is always possible to "hear His Voice" (Heb. 3:15).
Fully Facing the Fallacy of "Whatever Works"
In the same way God's care cannot be separated from what He has created, we too cannot distance ourselves from our own imaginations and desires- except through true worship and relationship with the Lord by the Spirit He gave us (Jn.4:23-24). But that is the very way Jesus Himself will be revealed to us. And a most wonderful aspect of what He has given us is not just the "Who" of the Holy Spirit revealing Jesus to us, but the "word made flesh" that Jesus is as He manifests Himself through that same Spirit (John 1:14).
But this requires us to enter into the desires of the Father manifested in Jesus, ones being released now only through the Holy Spirit. To the degree our desires of self are placed first- ahead of the Kingdom- we fail to receive God's revelation, power and process. By refusing the Kingdom "first" we reject the provision, restoration and prosperity He defined and designed for us (Mt. 6:33; 1Ths. 5:23, 3 John 2).
Whether it be in the past or at the present time, self orientations with God invalidate our relationship with Him by thinking, feeling, wanting and seeking only in the natural (at best) and (at worst) by only the base desires of the flesh. And such a self-validating, culturally-oriented, religiously justifiable, minimalistic expression of Christianity suffocates the true reality of what God has for us. It makes impossible the fulfillment of God's design and determination: "Christ in us, the hope of Glory" (Col. 1:27).
God's "Nothing" Works; Our "Something" Does Not
When life is first and foremost about us instead of God, it is impossible to allow Him to create out of our 'nothing' because when we do pray, what we attempt is to bring God into our 'something.' These 'somethings' are usually so saturated with self that they cannot be separated from us. Ignited by the natural man and defined by our soulish understandings of life, God is enlisted through our own energy, 'informed' by our human nature (flesh). This is normal, understandable and it is- as said above - natural.
But that is the problem. We can no longer function with God as lost souls limited by natural desires and understandings of life. We have been given a new "citizenship," and we're recreated to function with God as He is by entering into new "conversation" - even as we grow into a mature expression of representing Him in the earth (Php. 3:20 NASB, KJV). We are neither designed nor approved for functioning by the insufficiency of what is 'normal, understandable and natural' (Mt. 19:26; Heb. 11:6).
So when life is first about natural matters of the self instead of establishments of His eternal Kingdom, we do not enter into God as He is. In fact, we do not even truly enter at all (Mt. 11:12). We remain outside the realm of the Lord's presence, the only place He can be revealed and experienced (John 6:63). We then must carry ourselves through life, approaching and managing it as we are without Him. But Christ has come to live in us so that we would live by His life, not ours alone!
Failing to receive revelation of His Spirit and plan for our lives as the gift of His very own created order (Spirit), prayer becomes the attempt to press our agenda on God by our natural understanding and ability. By that we insure that whatever we attempt to 'create' is only according to our image, especially our picture of who we want God to be and want Him to do. This, even while using His own Word to tell Him what it is that He wants us to be, to have and to do. But instead, the testimony of Heaven is that:
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor and power: for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev. 4:11).
With God – Whatever He Does Works
We are now a "new creation," having been told of a place we have "with Him in the Heavenly places" and that we already have "everything we need for life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him" (2Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:6; 2 Pe. 1:3). But without the faith that He provides through His revelation, we will find it impossible to either please Him or have what we have asked (Romans 10:17; Heb. 11:6; 1John 5:14-15).
God knows what He wants. He wants us to enter into His very own pleasure. By securing us and giving us a greater significance through His purpose we can know and become the pleasure of His will, allowing Him to become our pleasure as we walk together (Amos 3:3; Psa. 37:4).
We need to continually find and fellowship with the will of God, and that can only be revealed to us by Him. "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:11). And following that we read: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God" (2:12).
You have permission to find out from God what He wants- it is your right, privilege and yes- it is a responsibility you are accountable for (Ac.22:14). But it can only be done by His Spirit. To do so, you must become one who truly desires to know and walk in the will of God above all else.
"'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart'" (Jer. 29:11-13).
Bill Click
Visitor Comments (0)
