Waiting on God

To get out of a pit, it's really not complicated.  Psalm 40:1-2 tells us the first step,

I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.  He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.

The first step in getting out of the pit of despair is to cry out to God.  He will hear your cry, and He will bring you up and out.

But His answer is not always instant.  Notice David said, I waited patiently for the Lord.  The answer to his cry wasn't apparent for a while.  If you've spent a long time getting yourself into a mess, it may take some time for your deliverance. 

A number of years back I went hunting with a friend.  I was to fly on a little plane into a meadow about 20 miles into the wilderness where he was going to meet me.

For a variety of reasons, I ended up being six hours late to the drop-off point.  My friend wasn't there, so for 20 minutes the pilot of that little plane tried to convince me not to stay.  He said there were mountain lions, grizzly bears, packs of wolves…I would get eaten alive!

He finally left, and at about two in the morning I heard a noise.  It wasn't a grizzly bear; it was my friend with the horses! 

I think the devil is like that airplane pilot.  He is always trying to talk us into quitting and giving up.  But we can miss the greatest blessings in our lives when we are not patient. 

~Bayless Conley~

Striving In Prayer # 2

The Factor of Prayer In Relation to the Lord's Purpose

Take the present situation among the Lord's people. God has a purpose, but are we taking it for granted, are we waiting for something to happen, looking out all the time, observing, spectators, weighing it up, judging it? This is not happening and that is not happening, this is all we can see! I do not believe anything will happen until a people really get down to this; a people, mark you, who stand on resurrection ground, who have the anointing, and then get down to it to break the deadlock of death, to break the bonds which bind. It is real business. There has to be a striving over this matter. It is not going to happen, it is not just going to come to pass. All this that Paul says and all that is here in the Word is sheer nonsense if the mere fact of a thing being in the will of God ensures its happening, apart from any other consideration. What are you striving about, Paul? There is no need for all that agony, travail, striving of yours! The Lord purposes it, it is the will of God; you just believe and be quiet and it will come to pass, the Lord will do it! Well then, all this is unnecessary, and therefore it is nonsense. Is it? Does this not represent something, count for something? You see what I mean?

In Colosse, in Laodicea, and for many others who had not seen His face in the flesh, all those churches, their being knit together in love unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding that they may know the mystery of God, be presented every man complete in Christ, that hangs upon this man's conflict and the conflict of Epaphras and others. How much of this are we doing? It is so easy to criticize one another's spiritual life, and the spiritual life of other people. It is so easy to take account of small measure, little growth, the arrest and limitation. It is so easy just to be looker-on. Yes, in our hearts we are troubled, we are perplexed. In a way, we ask the Lord continually to do something, we are not detached altogether, but are we quite sure that we are where Paul was? "How greatly I strive for you." How I get down to this, how I identify myself with this situation, this need! - this that has come in which is just the opposite of what God intended, this that has interfered with the continuation of progress and development in a life that God produced, this which undoubtedly is of the Lord but locked up, fallen under something in the way of a blight, a lack, an arrest, a hold up.

There is sovereignty of God, of course, in this, the sovereignty of God which works over the enemy in order to draw out some people. As we said at the beginning, our own enlargement is bound up with our vocation; or, to put it in another way, we shall not make much progress spiritually until we take spiritual responsibility. It is vital to our growth that we have concern for souls, our own spiritual growth. I do not believe people do grow, however much information they accumulate along spiritual lines, if they are all the time turned in on themselves. Responsibility is a tremendous thing for enlargement, and here is a man who took responsibility to the full. But he turns to these Philippians and he says, "To you it hath been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer in His behalf," and these sufferings are very often along this line, soul suffering for the saints. "I ... fill up ... that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ ... for His body's sake, which is the church" (Colossians 1:24). The sufferings of Christ; it is given to you to suffer with Him. The sufferings of Christ for His Body's sake which is the Church - I fill up that which remains of that.

It might be that the edge of a great deal of the enemy's assault upon us would be blunted if we were a little more of the assailing kind. I think we feel the keenness of it because we wait for it. I think there is something that really does save us when we are turned out in the aggressive. There are values, great values, to our own spiritual life, safety and growth, by a positive and an aggressive spirit in the interests of the Lord; for undoubtedly a positive state is a protection. To be fervent in spirit is a great protection.

I do not want to say a great deal more. I felt that the Lord wanted that emphasis today. You are concerned and I am concerned in a way. We recognize a need, a great need, and in relation to that need perhaps we come to wonder why this and why that. Then we begin to try and interpret it and explain it, and we give this interpretation and that interpretation, and all too often it again becomes a turning in on ourselves or on ourselves collectively.

Well, let us face this to begin with, that the Lord's people never did in all their history come through to His end for them without terrific conflict, a great withstanding. It was always so, and they have never come through only as the Lord has had a vessel which has taken up that issue in a most positive way. It was like that with Israel in their getting through to the land. Joshua and Caleb took up that issue and fought it through, and by them a generation came in. Daniel took up that issue when the people were in captivity and fought it through in the heavenlies. The coming back of the remnant was undoubtedly to be laid instrumentally at Daniel's door. And here is Paul in the same thing on the higher spiritual level; satan out to withstand this coming of the Church to God's end in fullness. Among others, here is Paul taking it up, fighting it out. It always has been, it always will be. In every city Paul had to meet it and fight it through. He is there himself on resurrection ground under the mighty anointing, but look at Philippi and the jail and the stripes, look at Corinth. There was evidently very real need for the Lord to say to Paul about Corinth, "Fear not, I have much people in this city" (Acts 18:10). It was very necessary for the Lord again and again to come alongside and fortify His servant because of what he was meeting in the city. See what he met in Ephesus: the sentence of death, he despaired even of life. Right in the conflict in every city, but fighting it through. The Lord needs that kind of instrument. Again I say, while there may be various subsidiary causes for arrest or limitation, here is the big issue, that the enemy is out to prevent our going through, to prevent the Lord's people from knowing what His thoughts are about them, being brought into touch or led into touch with that which will be for their enlargement. It is all a mighty campaign of the enemy, blinding, nullifying, neutralizing, hindering, putting up blankets, clouds and smoke, everything and anything. It is all apart of this determination of his that the saints shall not be brought through to completeness in Christ.

Over against that, there have to be those who, together in the Lord, standing on the right and sufficient ground, take up this issue in the Name of the Lord and fight it out. "How greatly I strive" has to be true of a company of us.

The Lord give us grace for this and really work in us, and we shall see things breaking. No one will doubt, no one will dispute, that we are in a life or death issue. We are going to live and live triumphantly, or we are going to die, going to fade out. Perhaps int the Lord the issue rests with us along this line. The Lord add to the company of Epaphras!

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(the end)

The Real Food

But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.   But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. 1 Corinthians 8:8-9

 How often do you think about food?  What types of cravings do you get for your favorite foods?  Midnight snacks and mad dashes through our favorite drive-thrus are part of our lives and culture.  Hunger is a drive necessary to sustain life while appetite is a desire to satisfy our cravings for food.  Food is a necessity to our physical bodies and to enjoy good food is one of our greatest pleasures. However, even with all its necessity, this earthly food has no value to us spiritually.

If Paul is saying that what we eat, or do not eat, has no effect on our relationship with God, then why can we not eat whatever, drink whatever and be merry? One reason is because the choices that we make impact others. We must realize that our actions are being watched by others and that we have a responsibility as Christians to set godly examples for others. God does care about the behaviors and attitudes we exhibit that affect those around us.

There are numerous examples of this behavior in our churches today. Movies and television choices can influence our families and friends.  What kind of example do we set for those in and out of the church? Would seeing certain movies stumble others? What about drinking alcohol? Many Christians have no problem with limited alcohol consumption. But, would it not influence the Christian who feels that this type of drinking, without exception, is wrong?  Some might argue that the Christian church in general stumbles non-believers, because much of our behavior is not just in the world, it is of the world.

Food is not the real issue, but it is certainly representative of how our behaviors as Christians can greatly affect those around us, even if there is technically “nothing wrong” with certain activities. Jesus gave His life for us so that we can have the real food—the bread of life.  If we follow Him, our choices in this world will bring glory and honor to His name while also setting the right example for others.  We should pray not to get hung up on things of no value spiritually but to get caught up in the Spirit of God so that we may be a blessing to others, not a stumbling block.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

Striving In Prayer

Philippians 1:29-30; Colossians 1:28, 2:2, 4:12

There is much more in the Word of the same nature that could be added to these passages, but these are sufficient, I think, to indicate something we need to lay to heart. I always feel that one of the great factors in our own spiritual enlargement is a real active concern for others; not in the sense that we look after another's vineyard and neglect our own, become "busy-bodies" as the Apostle would term it, occupied with everybody's business except our own, but that there is a right and proper and fruitful concern for others. What the Scriptures that we have read bring before us is that God's great revelation of purpose in the Church is not going to be realized without some tremendous and terrific conflict. There have to be those who throw themselves into that conflict for that end.

The Importance of Taking the Initiative

So here the Apostle says, "What great conflict I had for you and for them in Laodicea," and for many others. "Striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily." "Epaphras ... a servant of Christ Jesus ... always striving for you in his prayers." It is the laying to heart of this matter about God's desire for His people in such a way as to draw us into tremendous spiritual conflict over it. Now, we are meeting the conflict perhaps, without seeking it directly, but it is a very true thing that very often the advantage is with those who take the initiative. Do  you not recognize that when the enemy takes the initiative in the matter of spiritual assault, we usually find ourselves at a disadvantage. When it comes from his side, we turn in upon ourselves, we begin to ask questions. We find ourselves sometimes almost paralyzed by the pressure the tenseness and the forms in which his assault comes. It affects us in such a way as almost to overwhelm us and put us out. That is because he is taking the initiative, and he knows enough of strategy in warfare to know that it is with the one who takes the initiative that a great deal of the advantage lies.

Now we shall always of course meet that and he will always be doing it, but what about the other way around? Paul met a very great deal of the onslaught of the enemy upon spirit and mind and body. It came along every line and by every channel and means conceivable. He tells us a good deal about the nature of his conflicts, spiritual and temporal, in his ministry and life, but Paul by no means left things there. He also makes it perfectly clear that he took the initiative as well, and these words which we have just read concern the initiative of the Lord's people on this matter. If the enemy is out with all his might and all his cunning to frustrate this purpose of God in the saints, namely, their coming to the fullness of understanding, their having the full knowledge of Christ; I say if he is out by every means to frustrate that, there has to be some initiative from the other side. There has to be a real throwing of ourselves into this matter in a spiritual way against this assailing of the children of God, so that God's end shall not be frustrated.

"What great conflict I have for you," says the Apostle, "striving." You know how he uses that word in his Corinthian letter about the Olympic games. "If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully" (2 Timothy 2:5). He sees this man in the arena or on the track stretched out, throwing himself into the battle, striving for the mastery. It is the same word. And here it is striving for the mastery over the enemy and for the will of God, that His people might know the mystery of God, even Christ, unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, and so on. Well, the emphasis is clear and does not need a great deal added to it of words from me.

My deep feeling is that there has to be another side to our concern about this matter of the Lord's desire for His people to come to fullness, beyond the personal, and until that other side is brought in the end will not be reached. That means there must be those who will really throw themselves in to strive, by the enablement, the energy of the Spirit, to strive over this matter.

An Old Testament Illustration

When I was thinking about this there came back to my mind the very familiar story of Elisha and the Shunammite, and her son. It seems to me to be the point of this very matter. Elisha, as you well know, sets forth in type that which was ordained to remain here on this earth after the Lord was risen. Elijah and Elisha had passed through the Jordan, the Cross, and Elijah had been translated to heaven. The great issue upon which that continuation of the testimony here depended was that there should be with Elisha a double portion of his mater's spirit. His request was that. He was put on probation over that. He was tested and drawn out concerning that, but, having been approved, Elisha received a double portion of the spirit of his head. The sons of the prophets always spoke of Elijah in those words - "Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?" (2 Kings 2). Elijah was his head. Now when the head was received up into heaven, the double portion of the Spirit came upon Elisha. He was here on this earth in the power of the Spirit to maintain and carry on a testimony of life, so that at every move, in every connection, Elisha is found meeting conditions of death. He is called upon to prove that the Spirit is with him as the Spirit of resurrection by having to encounter death in many forms.

Among these many instances is the one of the Shunammite's son, full, I think, of helpful features and elements if we were dealing with it as a whole. We only have one thing in mind at the moment. Here, for instance, in grace the Lord had visited her and given her son; for I think it is quite evident that she had closed that chapter in her life as something which would never be. You remember she asked the prophet not to mock her, and then later when the son died, she said, "Did I desire a son of my Lord?" as much as to say, I had closed that chapter, that was something which I killed in my heart, I was not any longer thinking in that direction; you did that. It was something that could not be, but the impossible was done. The thing that she no longer dared to think about or hope for had become an actuality by the grace of God. It was something God had done in grace, and the son existed.

Now the son dies.  Strange mysterious ways of God, to give something altogether of Himself, something beyond our powers and beyond our expectations, and then, having done something so much of Himself, to allow it to fall under what looks like a mere calamity, to die. Strange ways of God! The Lord does do strange things, things that are strange to our understanding. He is beyond us.

When the boy is dead, there is one there who has not by the way of the Cross and the anointing, namely, Gehazi. He was not there to go through the Jordan with Elijah and Elisha. He did not come back again across Jordan in the power of the anointing, triumphant over death. He was not under the anointing of the double portion; he was a mere professional, not an anointed one. He came to the very sad end, a very tragic end. The leprosy of Naaman the Syrian clave to him. That, by the way, happens to people who take up Divine things not crucified, uncrucified people, unanointed people. Gehazi went to this death chamber and tried to do something for this boy, and nothing happened, and he had to go away acknowledging that there was nothing. Elisha came, and you remember his procedure. He went in and he stretched himself upon that body, hands to hands, feet to his feet, lips to his lops, eyes to his eyes. He got right down on this situation, so to speak. He got into it, he identified himself with it, he made himself a part of it. But he was in the good of the power of resurrection. It is safe to do it when you are there. He was under the anointing on the ground of resurrection, he could come into touch with that situation, not to his own undoing but to the undoing of it. It was as though he literally lifted that boy out of death.

Few things in the New Testament more amply describe that sort of thing than these words about Epaphras: a servant of Jesus Christ striving for you in his prayers. It is like that. I am not just giving you Bible study. This is the point: I do not believe things are going to happen until we get down to it. I believe God is waiting for a getting down to this situation. There have to be some people who really do get down to it.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 2 - "The Factor of Prayer in Relation to the Lord's Purpose")

The Slippery Spiritual Slope

The slippery slope to spiritual decline is one that is almost imperceptible.  One day you are on fire for God, and then before you know it, you are dull and lethargic.

How does spiritual decline happen?  I think there are at least four ways:

1. Through neglect.  If you neglect a garden, the weeds grow.  If you don't water the garden, it will eventually dry up.  Sometimes we get into a state where we need to be revived due to neglect.
2. Through the storms of life.  Life can sometimes beat you up.  Some people have been so beaten up that they are just worn down; and when you couple that with neglect, it is a recipe for spiritual disaster.
3. Through the influence of wrong company or wrong relationships.                        1 Corinthians 15:33 says, Do not be deceived.  Evil company corrupts good habits. ." And the very next word is awake.  Awake to righteousness, and do not sin.  Do not be deceived.  Evil company, bad company, corrupts good habits.
4. Through willful disobedience.  I don't know anyone who hasn't been guilty at one time or another of willful disobedience.  And when that is not repented of, when it is not taken care of, it brings us into a state of spiritual decline that can be very dangerous.

So what do you do if you find yourself in spiritual decline?  Let me leave you with this verse, Hosea 6:1,

Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.

The same Spirit that convicts also comforts.  If you are convicted, repent.  Repentance is an inward change of heart resulting in an outward change of direction.  Return to the Lord and let Him heal you and bind you up.

~Bayless Conley~

God's Standard of Values

"For who hath despised the day of small things?" (Zechariah 4:10)

"Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? and how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes as nothing? Yes ..." (Haggi 2:3, 4)

"Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, even mine own possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him" (Malachi 3:16, 17).

Just as a ship, after a long voyage, spends some time in having its compass adjusted, because of interferences and variations, so it is with us on our way. It becomes necessary from time to time to stop and think again, to get our minds corrected, and to be freed from those influences that upset our balance and poise and our right appreciation. This matter of greatness and smallness is an important matter, and it is therefore very necessary for us to have it made clear in our hearts and in our minds, to have our mentality adjusted concerning it. There is a good deal of confusion on this subject, and that confusion can result in our missing the way entirely, or being found in an altogether false position. We need to know what we mean by "greatness", and what we man by "smallness."

It is quite evident, from the Scriptures which we have read, that a certain kind of appraisal, a certain kind of observation, resulted in a false judgment which brought the people perilously near to calamity. The Lord, reading their heart, used this word as to their attitude and their reaction - "despise" - "Who hath despised the day of small things?" And if you look carefully into these prophecies, you will see that from God's standpoint things were not as small as they thought. God had an altogether different point of view about the matter. You see, we have a way of confusing bigness with greatness, and they are two entirely different things. Bigness may be in outward dimensions and bulk, and in the impression that a thing makes upon your senses. Greatness may have none of those characteristics at all. You may not even be able to take its measure or see any measure in it at all from the human standpoint, and yet in God's sight it may be very great. There is a lot of difference between bigness and greatness from God's standpoint - just as there is a great deal of difference between  littleness and smallness. I know that that may give trouble to some of our friends who are not familiar with the English language! But things can be quite small outwardly and yet of tremendous value. You would sooner have an ounce of gold than pounds of iron in intrinsic value.

You may have read the life story of Madame Curie, the discoverer of radium. If you have, you will remember how tons and tons and tons of byproduct from the gasworks were unloaded in her backyard, and how she worked upon this mountain of stuff and recovered from it the smallest particle of radium. There is your comparison between big and great: that almost imperceptible speck of radium, with its immense qualities, values, and potentialities, all extracted from this huge mass of stuff. There is the difference between bigness and greatness. That is why it is so necessary for us to get adjusted in our mentality about things, lest we go astray.

We may judge something merely in an outward way and say, "Oh, it is so small!", and despise it. And yet this day of small things may be a day of tremendous potential. "Feat not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). There is something little that is immensely potential: you have only to run your eye through the Bible to see again and again what God made of apparently little things that would have been despised and set aside, overlooked, scorned, by those who always had this mentality of bigness.

That Which Is Precious to God

Now yo will see from these passages that we have quoted that there was something that was very precious to God, although the people in their natural judgment were calling it so small. The last passage which we read, from the end of the Old Testament, marking a dispensationl end-time, finds God saying (in another translation): "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I do make, a peculiar treasure." "They that feared the Lord" - just that little company who feared the Lord - "spake one with another", "thought upon His Name", were occupied with Him. There is something here so precious that our translation does not convey how valuable it was to the Lord. You notice two words: "the Lord hearkened, and heard". That is not just a repetition of two words, or the same word in two different forms. The first word signifies that the Lord bent down, inclined. The Lord says, "Here is something to take note of; here is something to which to listen; here is something to hold Our attention." The Lord inclined, listened, heard. And then the picture is of the Lord saying, "Get the book, the great book, The Book of Remembrance, and put this down; put the names of these people in it." A book was kept, the Book of Remembrance of "them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, even mine own possession, in the day that I make, even a peculiar treasure."

What the Lord Looks For

What was it that made for this greatness, over against that which people were despising as so little? What does the Lord look for? Well, it is quite clear. This comparatively little company was a disciplined and chastened company. They had come out of the fires of Babylon. They had been through all the discipline of those years in exile. They were of those who had hung their harps upon the willows because their captors demanded of them, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion." "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" See where their hearts were. And then the day came when the proclamation was made - "You can go back, you can all go back to Zion." The vast majority decided that their present position was a very much more comfortable one than it would be back there in Zion, and decided to stay. This little company, with all the hardships, the difficulties, the sufferings, the toil, and  much more involved in going back, went back because their hearts were in Zion, and Zion was in their hearts. There was a heart relationship to the Lord and to that which was dearest to His heart. And so they were always thinking upon His Name, talking about His interests.

They were a little company, comparatively - a despised people. I expect all those who stayed behind in Babylon thought they were fools. Well, be it so. What did the Lord think? That was the point. And we know what the Lord thought. Here was a chastened and disciplined people whose hearts were for the Lord. Small? If you like. Read the prophecies of Jeremiah. What a book that is! What a time it takes, and what patience it takes, to work you way through Jeremiah's prophecies! What a big book - and what little books these of Malachi and Haggai are. We call them "Minor Prophets" - but what have you got for the Lord in the people as recorded in Jeremiah? A "major Prophet", if you like, but there is nothing in the people there for the Lord. But in these little "minor prophets", there is something very precious to the Lord. The discipline has taken place, the chastening has been carried out, the heart has been searched; the Lord has got something very great. That is what is precious to the Lord, that is what He is looking for; that is what He calls "Great". Although, looking at it with natural eyes and the eyes of man, judging by outward size and appearance, some may despise, there is much intrinsic value there; and with the Lord everything is a matter of intrinsic value, not of bulk.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

Is God's Word Living In You?

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
-Colossians 3:16 (King James Version)

There is nothing more important for the Christian, in my opinion, than time spent studying the Word of God. How else can you grow and become the person He wants you to be if you're not spending time in His Word. But, we must be careful to not just read the Word, we must apply the Word to our lives. James writes "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (James 1:22)." We deceive ourselves when we are just "hearing" the Word, and not doing the Word.

Paul writes, in Colossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom..." To dwell means to reside, it gives the idea of a residence or to live as a resident. The Word of Christ should take residence in our lives. It means the Word of Christ should live in us as we live in Him. Jesus said, "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. (John 14:23-24)." We prove our love for Him if we keep His Word. We show our hatred of Jesus if we don't keep His Word. The Word of Christ must be part of our lives.

Look at what Paul said to Timothy about the Word of God. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (Second Timothy 3:16-17)." The reason the Word of Christ must dwell in our lives is so that we may be ready for the works God has for us to do. You cannot do your job at work unless you're trained for the job you were hired for. Likewise, we can't do the work God has called us to do unless we're trained through the Word to do it.

Friends, the Word of God must be a living resident in our lives. Are you a doer of what the Word says? 

~Think About It.