HOW TO KNOW GOD'S WILL FOR IMPORTANT DECISIONS IN YOUR LIFE. Part 1 of 6.
God’s Basic Will for Every Christian.
"Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17).
How does God make known His will to us? He revealed His will to Joseph in dreams, warning him to take Mary into Egypt with the child Jesus; and again, after the death of Herod, God instructed him in another dream to return to Palestine. He spoke directly to Samuel during the night, and to Moses from a burning bush, imparting to them revelation concerning His will and purpose. God revealed His plan for the redemption of the Gentiles in a vision to Peter, and sent an angelic messenger from heaven to Zechariah announcing the birth of John the Baptist
who was to be the forerunner of Christ. In answer to the prayers of the Church at Antioch, the Holy Spirit made known God's will concerning the apostolic ministry of Paul and Barnabas (Acts13), while He confirmed His purpose to Gideon through the use of a fleece. He continually imparted, both to Israel and the Church, revelation of His will and purpose through His anointed prophets. Also the Scriptures themselves, as seen for example in Paul's epistles to the churches, were intended as a divinely inspired revelation of God's will for the believer.
In these and other ways, God has unfolded His will and purpose in the past, and continues to the present time. God has a plan for the life of every believer; and it is His desire, by one method or another, to reveal His will to you. The Christian may be assured that there is no need to stumble through life bewildered and confused, imploring heaven for divine guidance, as if God must be persuaded to give us help and direction. On the contrary, the Scriptures not only declare over and over God's willingness to make known His will to us, but also tells us that He has provided the means whereby we may ascertain it. This will be unfolded in the following studies which set forth: God's basic will for every Christian, and how God makes known His will for specific decisions and needs.
God's plan and purpose for your life did not begin the day you were born–it did not begin when you were saved–it did not begin at the time you received the baptism in the Holy Spirit– but the Scriptures declare that you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and have been called to fulfill His purpose in you (Rom. 8:28-30; Eph. 1:3-6). You will find that God many times has been working in the circumstances of your life months or years before He reveals some aspect of His purpose to you.
The popular notion held by most Christians that God's plan for our lives does not begin until our conversion. That God, like man, is more or less at the mercy of our circumstances, in that He must wait until He learns what we are going to do, or not do, and then adjusts His plans accordingly, has absolutely no basis in Scripture. On the contrary, the Scriptures show that God already has a complete and perfect plan for every Christian's life, and that it does not fluctuate and change to conform to our notions and beliefs. Nor does He adjust it to fit our lives when we
do not know His will for us, but He expects us to seek diligently to learn His will and do it. One basic cause for much of the sickness, worry, anxiety, frustration, and failure of the Christian life is directly related to his lack of knowledge concerning God's will for him, and, as a consequence, he finds himself compelled to live much of the time in a state of confusion, disharmony, and defeat.
How then can we learn God's will and put an end to such frustration and failure in order to fulfill His plan and purpose for our lives? This will be made clear in the discussion which follows.
STUDY 1
God’s Basic Will for Every Christian.
Basically, God's will for every believer is three-fold. While God's will and purpose for the individual Christian will vary, inasmuch as no two individuals are alike in their needs, spiritual
maturity, understanding, obedience, or their function in the Body of Christ, nevertheless, His will is the same for every believer in three important areas. These are a vital and necessary part of the Christian experience, as well as in the fulfillment of God's will in our lives. Upon conversion, the believer is expected first of all to–
1. Receive the Promise of the Spirit.
And being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which said he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit... (Acts 1:4-5). The Apostle Paul admonishes us in Ephesians 5:17, saying, "Where-fore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is," he then informs us how this is to be accomplished, saying, "be filled with the Spirit" (5:18). In John 14:26, Jesus declares that when the Holy Spirit comes to the believer that "He will teach them in all things." Therefore, a Christian who has rejected the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit as valid for today, to pray for God to reveal His will for his life, or to ask for divine wisdom in order to make an important decision, finds that, all too often, such prayers are ineffective.
Does such an individual really expect that God should make an exception for him and reveal His will for his life, giving him divine wisdom and guidance when he has rejected the Holy Spirit, Whom God has sent for this express purpose? In large measure, the cause for much of their confusion, frustration, and failure, as well as the cause for much unanswered prayer, results
from their inability to discern the will of God.
It is a great blessing to know heaven's will for our lives, to be given divine guidance day to day, and have the wisdom we need to make important decisions – which is largely impossible without the infilling of the Spirit. The Christian without this experience spends much of his time out of the will of God, wandering aimlessly about, fearful and anxious, often wondering if he has made the correct decision about this or that matter. His life hindered and frustrated because of doubt and worry, which resulted from his ignorance concerning the will of God.
Therefore, God's will for every Christian is, first of all, that he in faith receives the promise of the Father, experiencing Pentecost just as the first disciples. He is to be filled with the Spirit, in order that he will "not (be) unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17-18). Being filled with the Spirit is equated with the baptism in the Spirit in the New Testament (e.g., Acts 1:4-5 with 2:4), which is to be received by asking for this experience in faith, (Luke 11:13). It will be accompanied by the sign of the baptism as one acts upon his faith and begins to speak in new tongues as the Spirit gives him utterance (Acts 2:4).
Do you wish you knew the will of God for your life? Do you desire His guidance each day and want to put an end to your doubts, worries, and frustrations, which are due to your inability
to discern His will concerning decisions you must make? Then ask for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, for God tells us that His Spirit has been sent to give you such understanding, concerning
the will of the Lord (Eph. 5:17-18).
After the believer has received the promise and experienced Pentecost, he is then called to -
2) Go Back to Calvary.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me (Mt. 16:24). God's basic will for every Christian after being filled with the Holy Spirit is, in the second place, to yield completely to the Spirit, "Who has come to bring the believer into conformity to the death of Christ (Gal. 2:20).
Few Christians realize that after having received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit they still have not fulfilled God's ultimate will for their lives, nor attained His higher purpose. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is but the doorway to a deeper experience with God. It is God's call to live the crucified life.
God in this hour is calling Spirit-filled believers to walk on a higher spiritual level then they have ever known before. He is calling them to yield themselves fully to Him and allow the Spirit to: bring them into a place of the crucifixion and death of self (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10), so that the resurrection power of Christ may be manifested in and through them. The manifestation of the resurrection life and power of Christ, as the Apostle indicates in Philippians 3:10, comes through
our conformity to the sufferings and death of Christ. The crucified life is the deeper life in the Spirit, which is God's higher purpose for the Christian. It is the Spirit-filled believer's growth
"unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).
The way into the fullness of Christ is the way of the cross. It means to take up the cross and follow Jesus. It is, in a word, the death of the self-life, for Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Failure to understand this is to fail to understand the purpose why God filled you with His Spirit and to frustrate God's will for your life. We are called to go to Calvary twice– the first time, in order to meet Jesus and partake of His life– the second time, in order to go with Jesus and partake of His sufferings and death (Mt. 16:24).
The majority of those who are receiving the baptism in the Spirit today have little or no conception of this divine purpose and have not understood, or have misinterpreted, the nature of their calling. God's will for every Spirit-filled believer is for him to understand the purpose for which he has been filled with the Spirit, and to submit himself to it. This, as we have seen, is God's call to accept the crucified life to the end that we may experience the fullness of Christ (Eph. 3:19; 4:13), as preparatory for the restoration of all things now at the consummation of this age.
Acceptance of the crucified life, by yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit involves basically two things. To the extent we fail to understand them and submit ourselves to them, to that extent
we frustrate God's end-time purpose for us. We will find ourselves moving outside the sphere of His will for our lives.
(1) To accept the crucified life is to understand that the Biblical experience is not to "do" but to "die."
It is not surprising that most Christians who have been spiritually dry and unfruitful for so many years prior to receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit interpret their experience, especially in the light of Jesus words in Acts 1:8, as a call to do more for God, Now that they have been empowered by the Holy Spirit, they look upon their baptism as the means by which they may increase their religious activities, or become a more efficient worker in the church, or more effectively promote the Kingdom of God. It often comes as a surprise, therefore, to learn
that God has not called them to be anything or do anything for Him, but that He has called them to be crucified with Christ by submitting themselves completely to the Spirit's direction and control.
"But I thought that Jesus teaches in John 15 that He has chosen us to go forth and bear fruit," exclaims an astonished Christian. This is true; but even before He said this, in John 12:24: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if
it dies, it brings forth much fruit.
The crucified life is not trying to "do" more for God after receiving the baptism of the Spirit; it is not merely praying more, giving out more tracts, reading the Bible more, witnessing more, or increasing our religious works. It is not activity–, it is surrender–it is being crucified with Christ. It is not Christ and us, but Christ in us, that will make our lives effective and produce the fruit. There is no such thing as living the crucified life without the death of "self" as in this way Christ may then live His life in us and fulfill His will through us (Gal. 2:20). Otherwise, all we are doing is perpetuating what we already have a man-made partnership with God, in which "self" is still on
the throne, and the Holy Spirit is considered little more than the means by which we may empower our programs and promote our religious institutions, organizations, and ideas.
Christians have been led to believe that church programs are sanctified and all religious work made acceptable to God merely because these things are consecrated to Him and done in Jesus' name. One of the most difficult lessons Christians must learn is that such a conception has no scriptural basis whatsoever, and that God does not call us to devise plans as to the most effective means by which we can get the world converted to Christ, or promote the work of the Kingdom with His help. His call is always a call to submit to the Spirit without reservation; it is a call to be crucified with Christ to the end that He may then be able to fulfill His will through us.
One writer, whose ministry in the deeper things of the Spirit is well-known, relates her transforming experience in this regard. After some years of dedicated service to the Lord, the Spirit revealed to her in a very graphic manner just how worthless and unacceptable religious works are which are not produced by the Spirit through a fully yielded vessel, but which result merely from one's desire to serve the Lord and be involved in religious work.
One morning she awoke and beheld before her a hand holding up a handful of filthy rags, when a voice spoke, saying, "This is the outcome of all your past service for God."
"But Lord," she protested, "I have been surrendered and consecrated to You all these years, it was consecrated works" "Yes, My child," the Lord replied, "but all your service has been consecrated for yourself; the outcome of your own energy; your own plans for winning souls; your own devotion.. All for Me, but yourself all the same!"
Then came the deeper revelation by the Spirit that God does not call us to do something for Him by our own efforts, but that we are called to submit to Him, so that He can then do something in us in order that He might then do something through us. We are called to pick up the cross and follow Jesus to Calvary and there be crucified with Him.
From that hour she relates that she understood that it is in dying, not doing, that spiritual fruit is produced, for "except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit."
The deep work of the Spirit in us, as we submit ourselves fully to Him, may be compared to a tree in the wintertime. In winter the tree stands barren and still. All evidence of life and beauty are gone. The tree's ability to provide shade is gone. There is no fruit to be seen. Death seems to have conquered it. But if we could see beneath the ground we would find that life still exists. Down beneath the surface it is doing a deep work–new roots are being formed, while old ones are growing stronger and pushing deeper into the earth, becoming more firmly rooted to enable the tree to withstand the trials and storms ahead. It is in the tree's apparent death–when it grows still and ceases all outward activity–that the deep work of God is taking place beneath the surface.
And so it is in the deeper work of the Spirit in us; it is only as we submit ourselves in total surrender in Him and become still, ceasing from all religious commotion and fleshly activity, that He can perform His deeper work in our lives. It is only in this confinement on the cross that we can really learn to be still before God (Ps. 46:10), often stripped of our "leaves" and "fruit," with
nothing really monumental happening in which we can boast, just hanging there–learning that bearing fruit is not in "doing," but in "dying"--patiently waiting upon the Lord to complete His work in us so that He can then do a work through us.
(2) To accept the crucified life in the second place is to understand that the deeper experience is not God's call to work for Him, but to learn to move with Him.
This means we must learn to move only at the Spirit's command and under His direction, as we see, for example, in the lives and ministry of the apostles and other saints (Acts 10:1f.; 13:1f.; 16:6-10, 14-15).
God is preparing believers who will be so sensitive to the voice of His Spirit that they will immediately respond to His leading and obey without question or doubt. This is to be a spiritual army of specialists, thoroughly trained in spiritual warfare, completely emptied of self, joyfully submitted to the yoke of Jesus, fully equipped with the divine armour (Eph. 6), speaking with such authority that the very foundations of Hell will tremble at their voice, and able to pull down every stronghold of Satan by their faith alone.
Soldiers in the United States Army are not called to work for the army, but to learn to work and move with it. No soldier takes it upon himself to devise his own plans for winning the war all by himself, or for campaigning on his own in behalf of his country. He doesn't say, "I'll take myself one of these big tanks with a big gun and go out and shoot a lot of holes in the enemy forces and win a lot of victories for the army to prove my devotion to my country." No. He doesn't move until the commander tells him to move, and even before he can do that he must undergo an extensive period of discipline and training in which he learns to deny himself, submit to authority, and become sensitive to the desires and commands of his superiors.
Often when a man gets a degree from the seminary, he then feels this equips him to go out and build the Kingdom all by himself. "Now that I am thoroughly trained," he says, "I think I will start a church over here, or a mission over there, as I know God desires to see churches built and souls saved." But he is surprised when it does not always work out just that way. Disillusioned, he laments, "I just don't understand it. I know God wants to see His work prosper, but I've done all I know to do, and yet I've not been able to arouse much interest."
A pastor who has knocked on all the doors in his community without much success, and now feels, since he has received the Spirit filled experience, that this was the missing element in his visitation program, and he is bewildered to find there is still as little response as before to his invitations to church, as he walks about the community still knocking on doors.
In another church, the Spirit-filled pastor is disappointed to discover that he cannot use his experience to "pump" life into the old denominational program, having surmised that the only reason it did not prosper before was his lack of the Holy Spirit. He, just as the others mentioned, has failed to see that all he would be doing, if he were to succeed in his efforts, would be to perpetuate the old denominational practices and forms of religion of one kind or another, and that the Holy Spirit will not empower him to be a witness against Himself by promoting the programs and teachings at men.
Failure is just as assured in the life of a Spirit-filled Christian as one without the experience, unless he learns that God is not pouring out His Spirit to empower him to get busy in some form of religious activity. He is not calling men and women today to work for Him, but to learn to move with Him. When we learn to move with the Spirit, then God will send this one and that one to us, or send us to one who is in need. We will find, moreover, that the Spirit has already been there ahead of us and prepared their hearts to receive our message or ministry. Edited. Shared.
To be Continued.
God willing, more will be posted soon. All glory to Jesus alone.
God’s Basic Will for Every Christian.
"Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17).
How does God make known His will to us? He revealed His will to Joseph in dreams, warning him to take Mary into Egypt with the child Jesus; and again, after the death of Herod, God instructed him in another dream to return to Palestine. He spoke directly to Samuel during the night, and to Moses from a burning bush, imparting to them revelation concerning His will and purpose. God revealed His plan for the redemption of the Gentiles in a vision to Peter, and sent an angelic messenger from heaven to Zechariah announcing the birth of John the Baptist
who was to be the forerunner of Christ. In answer to the prayers of the Church at Antioch, the Holy Spirit made known God's will concerning the apostolic ministry of Paul and Barnabas (Acts13), while He confirmed His purpose to Gideon through the use of a fleece. He continually imparted, both to Israel and the Church, revelation of His will and purpose through His anointed prophets. Also the Scriptures themselves, as seen for example in Paul's epistles to the churches, were intended as a divinely inspired revelation of God's will for the believer.
In these and other ways, God has unfolded His will and purpose in the past, and continues to the present time. God has a plan for the life of every believer; and it is His desire, by one method or another, to reveal His will to you. The Christian may be assured that there is no need to stumble through life bewildered and confused, imploring heaven for divine guidance, as if God must be persuaded to give us help and direction. On the contrary, the Scriptures not only declare over and over God's willingness to make known His will to us, but also tells us that He has provided the means whereby we may ascertain it. This will be unfolded in the following studies which set forth: God's basic will for every Christian, and how God makes known His will for specific decisions and needs.
God's plan and purpose for your life did not begin the day you were born–it did not begin when you were saved–it did not begin at the time you received the baptism in the Holy Spirit– but the Scriptures declare that you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and have been called to fulfill His purpose in you (Rom. 8:28-30; Eph. 1:3-6). You will find that God many times has been working in the circumstances of your life months or years before He reveals some aspect of His purpose to you.
The popular notion held by most Christians that God's plan for our lives does not begin until our conversion. That God, like man, is more or less at the mercy of our circumstances, in that He must wait until He learns what we are going to do, or not do, and then adjusts His plans accordingly, has absolutely no basis in Scripture. On the contrary, the Scriptures show that God already has a complete and perfect plan for every Christian's life, and that it does not fluctuate and change to conform to our notions and beliefs. Nor does He adjust it to fit our lives when we
do not know His will for us, but He expects us to seek diligently to learn His will and do it. One basic cause for much of the sickness, worry, anxiety, frustration, and failure of the Christian life is directly related to his lack of knowledge concerning God's will for him, and, as a consequence, he finds himself compelled to live much of the time in a state of confusion, disharmony, and defeat.
How then can we learn God's will and put an end to such frustration and failure in order to fulfill His plan and purpose for our lives? This will be made clear in the discussion which follows.
STUDY 1
God’s Basic Will for Every Christian.
Basically, God's will for every believer is three-fold. While God's will and purpose for the individual Christian will vary, inasmuch as no two individuals are alike in their needs, spiritual
maturity, understanding, obedience, or their function in the Body of Christ, nevertheless, His will is the same for every believer in three important areas. These are a vital and necessary part of the Christian experience, as well as in the fulfillment of God's will in our lives. Upon conversion, the believer is expected first of all to–
1. Receive the Promise of the Spirit.
And being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which said he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit... (Acts 1:4-5). The Apostle Paul admonishes us in Ephesians 5:17, saying, "Where-fore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is," he then informs us how this is to be accomplished, saying, "be filled with the Spirit" (5:18). In John 14:26, Jesus declares that when the Holy Spirit comes to the believer that "He will teach them in all things." Therefore, a Christian who has rejected the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit as valid for today, to pray for God to reveal His will for his life, or to ask for divine wisdom in order to make an important decision, finds that, all too often, such prayers are ineffective.
Does such an individual really expect that God should make an exception for him and reveal His will for his life, giving him divine wisdom and guidance when he has rejected the Holy Spirit, Whom God has sent for this express purpose? In large measure, the cause for much of their confusion, frustration, and failure, as well as the cause for much unanswered prayer, results
from their inability to discern the will of God.
It is a great blessing to know heaven's will for our lives, to be given divine guidance day to day, and have the wisdom we need to make important decisions – which is largely impossible without the infilling of the Spirit. The Christian without this experience spends much of his time out of the will of God, wandering aimlessly about, fearful and anxious, often wondering if he has made the correct decision about this or that matter. His life hindered and frustrated because of doubt and worry, which resulted from his ignorance concerning the will of God.
Therefore, God's will for every Christian is, first of all, that he in faith receives the promise of the Father, experiencing Pentecost just as the first disciples. He is to be filled with the Spirit, in order that he will "not (be) unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17-18). Being filled with the Spirit is equated with the baptism in the Spirit in the New Testament (e.g., Acts 1:4-5 with 2:4), which is to be received by asking for this experience in faith, (Luke 11:13). It will be accompanied by the sign of the baptism as one acts upon his faith and begins to speak in new tongues as the Spirit gives him utterance (Acts 2:4).
Do you wish you knew the will of God for your life? Do you desire His guidance each day and want to put an end to your doubts, worries, and frustrations, which are due to your inability
to discern His will concerning decisions you must make? Then ask for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, for God tells us that His Spirit has been sent to give you such understanding, concerning
the will of the Lord (Eph. 5:17-18).
After the believer has received the promise and experienced Pentecost, he is then called to -
2) Go Back to Calvary.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me (Mt. 16:24). God's basic will for every Christian after being filled with the Holy Spirit is, in the second place, to yield completely to the Spirit, "Who has come to bring the believer into conformity to the death of Christ (Gal. 2:20).
Few Christians realize that after having received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit they still have not fulfilled God's ultimate will for their lives, nor attained His higher purpose. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is but the doorway to a deeper experience with God. It is God's call to live the crucified life.
God in this hour is calling Spirit-filled believers to walk on a higher spiritual level then they have ever known before. He is calling them to yield themselves fully to Him and allow the Spirit to: bring them into a place of the crucifixion and death of self (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10), so that the resurrection power of Christ may be manifested in and through them. The manifestation of the resurrection life and power of Christ, as the Apostle indicates in Philippians 3:10, comes through
our conformity to the sufferings and death of Christ. The crucified life is the deeper life in the Spirit, which is God's higher purpose for the Christian. It is the Spirit-filled believer's growth
"unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).
The way into the fullness of Christ is the way of the cross. It means to take up the cross and follow Jesus. It is, in a word, the death of the self-life, for Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Failure to understand this is to fail to understand the purpose why God filled you with His Spirit and to frustrate God's will for your life. We are called to go to Calvary twice– the first time, in order to meet Jesus and partake of His life– the second time, in order to go with Jesus and partake of His sufferings and death (Mt. 16:24).
The majority of those who are receiving the baptism in the Spirit today have little or no conception of this divine purpose and have not understood, or have misinterpreted, the nature of their calling. God's will for every Spirit-filled believer is for him to understand the purpose for which he has been filled with the Spirit, and to submit himself to it. This, as we have seen, is God's call to accept the crucified life to the end that we may experience the fullness of Christ (Eph. 3:19; 4:13), as preparatory for the restoration of all things now at the consummation of this age.
Acceptance of the crucified life, by yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit involves basically two things. To the extent we fail to understand them and submit ourselves to them, to that extent
we frustrate God's end-time purpose for us. We will find ourselves moving outside the sphere of His will for our lives.
(1) To accept the crucified life is to understand that the Biblical experience is not to "do" but to "die."
It is not surprising that most Christians who have been spiritually dry and unfruitful for so many years prior to receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit interpret their experience, especially in the light of Jesus words in Acts 1:8, as a call to do more for God, Now that they have been empowered by the Holy Spirit, they look upon their baptism as the means by which they may increase their religious activities, or become a more efficient worker in the church, or more effectively promote the Kingdom of God. It often comes as a surprise, therefore, to learn
that God has not called them to be anything or do anything for Him, but that He has called them to be crucified with Christ by submitting themselves completely to the Spirit's direction and control.
"But I thought that Jesus teaches in John 15 that He has chosen us to go forth and bear fruit," exclaims an astonished Christian. This is true; but even before He said this, in John 12:24: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if
it dies, it brings forth much fruit.
The crucified life is not trying to "do" more for God after receiving the baptism of the Spirit; it is not merely praying more, giving out more tracts, reading the Bible more, witnessing more, or increasing our religious works. It is not activity–, it is surrender–it is being crucified with Christ. It is not Christ and us, but Christ in us, that will make our lives effective and produce the fruit. There is no such thing as living the crucified life without the death of "self" as in this way Christ may then live His life in us and fulfill His will through us (Gal. 2:20). Otherwise, all we are doing is perpetuating what we already have a man-made partnership with God, in which "self" is still on
the throne, and the Holy Spirit is considered little more than the means by which we may empower our programs and promote our religious institutions, organizations, and ideas.
Christians have been led to believe that church programs are sanctified and all religious work made acceptable to God merely because these things are consecrated to Him and done in Jesus' name. One of the most difficult lessons Christians must learn is that such a conception has no scriptural basis whatsoever, and that God does not call us to devise plans as to the most effective means by which we can get the world converted to Christ, or promote the work of the Kingdom with His help. His call is always a call to submit to the Spirit without reservation; it is a call to be crucified with Christ to the end that He may then be able to fulfill His will through us.
One writer, whose ministry in the deeper things of the Spirit is well-known, relates her transforming experience in this regard. After some years of dedicated service to the Lord, the Spirit revealed to her in a very graphic manner just how worthless and unacceptable religious works are which are not produced by the Spirit through a fully yielded vessel, but which result merely from one's desire to serve the Lord and be involved in religious work.
One morning she awoke and beheld before her a hand holding up a handful of filthy rags, when a voice spoke, saying, "This is the outcome of all your past service for God."
"But Lord," she protested, "I have been surrendered and consecrated to You all these years, it was consecrated works" "Yes, My child," the Lord replied, "but all your service has been consecrated for yourself; the outcome of your own energy; your own plans for winning souls; your own devotion.. All for Me, but yourself all the same!"
Then came the deeper revelation by the Spirit that God does not call us to do something for Him by our own efforts, but that we are called to submit to Him, so that He can then do something in us in order that He might then do something through us. We are called to pick up the cross and follow Jesus to Calvary and there be crucified with Him.
From that hour she relates that she understood that it is in dying, not doing, that spiritual fruit is produced, for "except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit."
The deep work of the Spirit in us, as we submit ourselves fully to Him, may be compared to a tree in the wintertime. In winter the tree stands barren and still. All evidence of life and beauty are gone. The tree's ability to provide shade is gone. There is no fruit to be seen. Death seems to have conquered it. But if we could see beneath the ground we would find that life still exists. Down beneath the surface it is doing a deep work–new roots are being formed, while old ones are growing stronger and pushing deeper into the earth, becoming more firmly rooted to enable the tree to withstand the trials and storms ahead. It is in the tree's apparent death–when it grows still and ceases all outward activity–that the deep work of God is taking place beneath the surface.
And so it is in the deeper work of the Spirit in us; it is only as we submit ourselves in total surrender in Him and become still, ceasing from all religious commotion and fleshly activity, that He can perform His deeper work in our lives. It is only in this confinement on the cross that we can really learn to be still before God (Ps. 46:10), often stripped of our "leaves" and "fruit," with
nothing really monumental happening in which we can boast, just hanging there–learning that bearing fruit is not in "doing," but in "dying"--patiently waiting upon the Lord to complete His work in us so that He can then do a work through us.
(2) To accept the crucified life in the second place is to understand that the deeper experience is not God's call to work for Him, but to learn to move with Him.
This means we must learn to move only at the Spirit's command and under His direction, as we see, for example, in the lives and ministry of the apostles and other saints (Acts 10:1f.; 13:1f.; 16:6-10, 14-15).
God is preparing believers who will be so sensitive to the voice of His Spirit that they will immediately respond to His leading and obey without question or doubt. This is to be a spiritual army of specialists, thoroughly trained in spiritual warfare, completely emptied of self, joyfully submitted to the yoke of Jesus, fully equipped with the divine armour (Eph. 6), speaking with such authority that the very foundations of Hell will tremble at their voice, and able to pull down every stronghold of Satan by their faith alone.
Soldiers in the United States Army are not called to work for the army, but to learn to work and move with it. No soldier takes it upon himself to devise his own plans for winning the war all by himself, or for campaigning on his own in behalf of his country. He doesn't say, "I'll take myself one of these big tanks with a big gun and go out and shoot a lot of holes in the enemy forces and win a lot of victories for the army to prove my devotion to my country." No. He doesn't move until the commander tells him to move, and even before he can do that he must undergo an extensive period of discipline and training in which he learns to deny himself, submit to authority, and become sensitive to the desires and commands of his superiors.
Often when a man gets a degree from the seminary, he then feels this equips him to go out and build the Kingdom all by himself. "Now that I am thoroughly trained," he says, "I think I will start a church over here, or a mission over there, as I know God desires to see churches built and souls saved." But he is surprised when it does not always work out just that way. Disillusioned, he laments, "I just don't understand it. I know God wants to see His work prosper, but I've done all I know to do, and yet I've not been able to arouse much interest."
A pastor who has knocked on all the doors in his community without much success, and now feels, since he has received the Spirit filled experience, that this was the missing element in his visitation program, and he is bewildered to find there is still as little response as before to his invitations to church, as he walks about the community still knocking on doors.
In another church, the Spirit-filled pastor is disappointed to discover that he cannot use his experience to "pump" life into the old denominational program, having surmised that the only reason it did not prosper before was his lack of the Holy Spirit. He, just as the others mentioned, has failed to see that all he would be doing, if he were to succeed in his efforts, would be to perpetuate the old denominational practices and forms of religion of one kind or another, and that the Holy Spirit will not empower him to be a witness against Himself by promoting the programs and teachings at men.
Failure is just as assured in the life of a Spirit-filled Christian as one without the experience, unless he learns that God is not pouring out His Spirit to empower him to get busy in some form of religious activity. He is not calling men and women today to work for Him, but to learn to move with Him. When we learn to move with the Spirit, then God will send this one and that one to us, or send us to one who is in need. We will find, moreover, that the Spirit has already been there ahead of us and prepared their hearts to receive our message or ministry. Edited. Shared.
To be Continued.
God willing, more will be posted soon. All glory to Jesus alone.
❤️HOW TO KNOW GOD'S WILL FOR IMPORTANT DECISIONS IN YOUR LIFE. Part 1 of 6.
God’s Basic Will for Every Christian.
"Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17).
How does God make known His will to us? He revealed His will to Joseph in dreams, warning him to take Mary into Egypt with the child Jesus; and again, after the death of Herod, God instructed him in another dream to return to Palestine. He spoke directly to Samuel during the night, and to Moses from a burning bush, imparting to them revelation concerning His will and purpose. God revealed His plan for the redemption of the Gentiles in a vision to Peter, and sent an angelic messenger from heaven to Zechariah announcing the birth of John the Baptist
who was to be the forerunner of Christ. In answer to the prayers of the Church at Antioch, the Holy Spirit made known God's will concerning the apostolic ministry of Paul and Barnabas (Acts13), while He confirmed His purpose to Gideon through the use of a fleece. He continually imparted, both to Israel and the Church, revelation of His will and purpose through His anointed prophets. Also the Scriptures themselves, as seen for example in Paul's epistles to the churches, were intended as a divinely inspired revelation of God's will for the believer.
In these and other ways, God has unfolded His will and purpose in the past, and continues to the present time. God has a plan for the life of every believer; and it is His desire, by one method or another, to reveal His will to you. The Christian may be assured that there is no need to stumble through life bewildered and confused, imploring heaven for divine guidance, as if God must be persuaded to give us help and direction. On the contrary, the Scriptures not only declare over and over God's willingness to make known His will to us, but also tells us that He has provided the means whereby we may ascertain it. This will be unfolded in the following studies which set forth: God's basic will for every Christian, and how God makes known His will for specific decisions and needs.
God's plan and purpose for your life did not begin the day you were born–it did not begin when you were saved–it did not begin at the time you received the baptism in the Holy Spirit– but the Scriptures declare that you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and have been called to fulfill His purpose in you (Rom. 8:28-30; Eph. 1:3-6). You will find that God many times has been working in the circumstances of your life months or years before He reveals some aspect of His purpose to you.
The popular notion held by most Christians that God's plan for our lives does not begin until our conversion. That God, like man, is more or less at the mercy of our circumstances, in that He must wait until He learns what we are going to do, or not do, and then adjusts His plans accordingly, has absolutely no basis in Scripture. On the contrary, the Scriptures show that God already has a complete and perfect plan for every Christian's life, and that it does not fluctuate and change to conform to our notions and beliefs. Nor does He adjust it to fit our lives when we
do not know His will for us, but He expects us to seek diligently to learn His will and do it. One basic cause for much of the sickness, worry, anxiety, frustration, and failure of the Christian life is directly related to his lack of knowledge concerning God's will for him, and, as a consequence, he finds himself compelled to live much of the time in a state of confusion, disharmony, and defeat.
How then can we learn God's will and put an end to such frustration and failure in order to fulfill His plan and purpose for our lives? This will be made clear in the discussion which follows.
STUDY 1
God’s Basic Will for Every Christian.
Basically, God's will for every believer is three-fold. While God's will and purpose for the individual Christian will vary, inasmuch as no two individuals are alike in their needs, spiritual
maturity, understanding, obedience, or their function in the Body of Christ, nevertheless, His will is the same for every believer in three important areas. These are a vital and necessary part of the Christian experience, as well as in the fulfillment of God's will in our lives. Upon conversion, the believer is expected first of all to–
1. Receive the Promise of the Spirit.
And being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which said he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit... (Acts 1:4-5). The Apostle Paul admonishes us in Ephesians 5:17, saying, "Where-fore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is," he then informs us how this is to be accomplished, saying, "be filled with the Spirit" (5:18). In John 14:26, Jesus declares that when the Holy Spirit comes to the believer that "He will teach them in all things." Therefore, a Christian who has rejected the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit as valid for today, to pray for God to reveal His will for his life, or to ask for divine wisdom in order to make an important decision, finds that, all too often, such prayers are ineffective.
Does such an individual really expect that God should make an exception for him and reveal His will for his life, giving him divine wisdom and guidance when he has rejected the Holy Spirit, Whom God has sent for this express purpose? In large measure, the cause for much of their confusion, frustration, and failure, as well as the cause for much unanswered prayer, results
from their inability to discern the will of God.
It is a great blessing to know heaven's will for our lives, to be given divine guidance day to day, and have the wisdom we need to make important decisions – which is largely impossible without the infilling of the Spirit. The Christian without this experience spends much of his time out of the will of God, wandering aimlessly about, fearful and anxious, often wondering if he has made the correct decision about this or that matter. His life hindered and frustrated because of doubt and worry, which resulted from his ignorance concerning the will of God.
Therefore, God's will for every Christian is, first of all, that he in faith receives the promise of the Father, experiencing Pentecost just as the first disciples. He is to be filled with the Spirit, in order that he will "not (be) unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17-18). Being filled with the Spirit is equated with the baptism in the Spirit in the New Testament (e.g., Acts 1:4-5 with 2:4), which is to be received by asking for this experience in faith, (Luke 11:13). It will be accompanied by the sign of the baptism as one acts upon his faith and begins to speak in new tongues as the Spirit gives him utterance (Acts 2:4).
Do you wish you knew the will of God for your life? Do you desire His guidance each day and want to put an end to your doubts, worries, and frustrations, which are due to your inability
to discern His will concerning decisions you must make? Then ask for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, for God tells us that His Spirit has been sent to give you such understanding, concerning
the will of the Lord (Eph. 5:17-18).
After the believer has received the promise and experienced Pentecost, he is then called to -
2) Go Back to Calvary.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me (Mt. 16:24). God's basic will for every Christian after being filled with the Holy Spirit is, in the second place, to yield completely to the Spirit, "Who has come to bring the believer into conformity to the death of Christ (Gal. 2:20).
Few Christians realize that after having received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit they still have not fulfilled God's ultimate will for their lives, nor attained His higher purpose. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is but the doorway to a deeper experience with God. It is God's call to live the crucified life.
God in this hour is calling Spirit-filled believers to walk on a higher spiritual level then they have ever known before. He is calling them to yield themselves fully to Him and allow the Spirit to: bring them into a place of the crucifixion and death of self (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10), so that the resurrection power of Christ may be manifested in and through them. The manifestation of the resurrection life and power of Christ, as the Apostle indicates in Philippians 3:10, comes through
our conformity to the sufferings and death of Christ. The crucified life is the deeper life in the Spirit, which is God's higher purpose for the Christian. It is the Spirit-filled believer's growth
"unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).
The way into the fullness of Christ is the way of the cross. It means to take up the cross and follow Jesus. It is, in a word, the death of the self-life, for Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Failure to understand this is to fail to understand the purpose why God filled you with His Spirit and to frustrate God's will for your life. We are called to go to Calvary twice– the first time, in order to meet Jesus and partake of His life– the second time, in order to go with Jesus and partake of His sufferings and death (Mt. 16:24).
The majority of those who are receiving the baptism in the Spirit today have little or no conception of this divine purpose and have not understood, or have misinterpreted, the nature of their calling. God's will for every Spirit-filled believer is for him to understand the purpose for which he has been filled with the Spirit, and to submit himself to it. This, as we have seen, is God's call to accept the crucified life to the end that we may experience the fullness of Christ (Eph. 3:19; 4:13), as preparatory for the restoration of all things now at the consummation of this age.
Acceptance of the crucified life, by yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit involves basically two things. To the extent we fail to understand them and submit ourselves to them, to that extent
we frustrate God's end-time purpose for us. We will find ourselves moving outside the sphere of His will for our lives.
(1) To accept the crucified life is to understand that the Biblical experience is not to "do" but to "die."
It is not surprising that most Christians who have been spiritually dry and unfruitful for so many years prior to receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit interpret their experience, especially in the light of Jesus words in Acts 1:8, as a call to do more for God, Now that they have been empowered by the Holy Spirit, they look upon their baptism as the means by which they may increase their religious activities, or become a more efficient worker in the church, or more effectively promote the Kingdom of God. It often comes as a surprise, therefore, to learn
that God has not called them to be anything or do anything for Him, but that He has called them to be crucified with Christ by submitting themselves completely to the Spirit's direction and control.
"But I thought that Jesus teaches in John 15 that He has chosen us to go forth and bear fruit," exclaims an astonished Christian. This is true; but even before He said this, in John 12:24: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if
it dies, it brings forth much fruit.
The crucified life is not trying to "do" more for God after receiving the baptism of the Spirit; it is not merely praying more, giving out more tracts, reading the Bible more, witnessing more, or increasing our religious works. It is not activity–, it is surrender–it is being crucified with Christ. It is not Christ and us, but Christ in us, that will make our lives effective and produce the fruit. There is no such thing as living the crucified life without the death of "self" as in this way Christ may then live His life in us and fulfill His will through us (Gal. 2:20). Otherwise, all we are doing is perpetuating what we already have a man-made partnership with God, in which "self" is still on
the throne, and the Holy Spirit is considered little more than the means by which we may empower our programs and promote our religious institutions, organizations, and ideas.
Christians have been led to believe that church programs are sanctified and all religious work made acceptable to God merely because these things are consecrated to Him and done in Jesus' name. One of the most difficult lessons Christians must learn is that such a conception has no scriptural basis whatsoever, and that God does not call us to devise plans as to the most effective means by which we can get the world converted to Christ, or promote the work of the Kingdom with His help. His call is always a call to submit to the Spirit without reservation; it is a call to be crucified with Christ to the end that He may then be able to fulfill His will through us.
One writer, whose ministry in the deeper things of the Spirit is well-known, relates her transforming experience in this regard. After some years of dedicated service to the Lord, the Spirit revealed to her in a very graphic manner just how worthless and unacceptable religious works are which are not produced by the Spirit through a fully yielded vessel, but which result merely from one's desire to serve the Lord and be involved in religious work.
One morning she awoke and beheld before her a hand holding up a handful of filthy rags, when a voice spoke, saying, "This is the outcome of all your past service for God."
"But Lord," she protested, "I have been surrendered and consecrated to You all these years, it was consecrated works" "Yes, My child," the Lord replied, "but all your service has been consecrated for yourself; the outcome of your own energy; your own plans for winning souls; your own devotion.. All for Me, but yourself all the same!"
Then came the deeper revelation by the Spirit that God does not call us to do something for Him by our own efforts, but that we are called to submit to Him, so that He can then do something in us in order that He might then do something through us. We are called to pick up the cross and follow Jesus to Calvary and there be crucified with Him.
From that hour she relates that she understood that it is in dying, not doing, that spiritual fruit is produced, for "except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit."
The deep work of the Spirit in us, as we submit ourselves fully to Him, may be compared to a tree in the wintertime. In winter the tree stands barren and still. All evidence of life and beauty are gone. The tree's ability to provide shade is gone. There is no fruit to be seen. Death seems to have conquered it. But if we could see beneath the ground we would find that life still exists. Down beneath the surface it is doing a deep work–new roots are being formed, while old ones are growing stronger and pushing deeper into the earth, becoming more firmly rooted to enable the tree to withstand the trials and storms ahead. It is in the tree's apparent death–when it grows still and ceases all outward activity–that the deep work of God is taking place beneath the surface.
And so it is in the deeper work of the Spirit in us; it is only as we submit ourselves in total surrender in Him and become still, ceasing from all religious commotion and fleshly activity, that He can perform His deeper work in our lives. It is only in this confinement on the cross that we can really learn to be still before God (Ps. 46:10), often stripped of our "leaves" and "fruit," with
nothing really monumental happening in which we can boast, just hanging there–learning that bearing fruit is not in "doing," but in "dying"--patiently waiting upon the Lord to complete His work in us so that He can then do a work through us.
(2) To accept the crucified life in the second place is to understand that the deeper experience is not God's call to work for Him, but to learn to move with Him.
This means we must learn to move only at the Spirit's command and under His direction, as we see, for example, in the lives and ministry of the apostles and other saints (Acts 10:1f.; 13:1f.; 16:6-10, 14-15).
God is preparing believers who will be so sensitive to the voice of His Spirit that they will immediately respond to His leading and obey without question or doubt. This is to be a spiritual army of specialists, thoroughly trained in spiritual warfare, completely emptied of self, joyfully submitted to the yoke of Jesus, fully equipped with the divine armour (Eph. 6), speaking with such authority that the very foundations of Hell will tremble at their voice, and able to pull down every stronghold of Satan by their faith alone.
Soldiers in the United States Army are not called to work for the army, but to learn to work and move with it. No soldier takes it upon himself to devise his own plans for winning the war all by himself, or for campaigning on his own in behalf of his country. He doesn't say, "I'll take myself one of these big tanks with a big gun and go out and shoot a lot of holes in the enemy forces and win a lot of victories for the army to prove my devotion to my country." No. He doesn't move until the commander tells him to move, and even before he can do that he must undergo an extensive period of discipline and training in which he learns to deny himself, submit to authority, and become sensitive to the desires and commands of his superiors.
Often when a man gets a degree from the seminary, he then feels this equips him to go out and build the Kingdom all by himself. "Now that I am thoroughly trained," he says, "I think I will start a church over here, or a mission over there, as I know God desires to see churches built and souls saved." But he is surprised when it does not always work out just that way. Disillusioned, he laments, "I just don't understand it. I know God wants to see His work prosper, but I've done all I know to do, and yet I've not been able to arouse much interest."
A pastor who has knocked on all the doors in his community without much success, and now feels, since he has received the Spirit filled experience, that this was the missing element in his visitation program, and he is bewildered to find there is still as little response as before to his invitations to church, as he walks about the community still knocking on doors.
In another church, the Spirit-filled pastor is disappointed to discover that he cannot use his experience to "pump" life into the old denominational program, having surmised that the only reason it did not prosper before was his lack of the Holy Spirit. He, just as the others mentioned, has failed to see that all he would be doing, if he were to succeed in his efforts, would be to perpetuate the old denominational practices and forms of religion of one kind or another, and that the Holy Spirit will not empower him to be a witness against Himself by promoting the programs and teachings at men.
Failure is just as assured in the life of a Spirit-filled Christian as one without the experience, unless he learns that God is not pouring out His Spirit to empower him to get busy in some form of religious activity. He is not calling men and women today to work for Him, but to learn to move with Him. When we learn to move with the Spirit, then God will send this one and that one to us, or send us to one who is in need. We will find, moreover, that the Spirit has already been there ahead of us and prepared their hearts to receive our message or ministry. Edited. Shared.
To be Continued.
❤️
God willing, more will be posted soon. All glory to Jesus alone.
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