Cooperating with God's Work

In the last post, I stated, "There is nothing in salvation of which we can boast because our deliverance is of the Lord alone (Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 1:3).  We cooperate with it, but it is His work completely."

Some people find this statement to be an oxymoron.  If salvation - and thereby our deliverance - is of the Lord alone, then why does it require our cooperation?  Those who struggle with this most are they who have been falsely led to believe that man has no role in salvation, has no free will, or is unconditionally eternally secure (OSAS) due to a one-time profession of faith.

How do we cooperate with God's work?  We yield over control of our vessels to Him.  That is it.

It reminds me of the television show "Extreme Home Makeover", where a team of carpenters offers to completely remodel your home.  In order to receive this offer, what is the first thing you have to do?  Get out of the way.  The crew is not there to build according to your specifications nor to equip you with the skills to build according to your own desires.  They will take on the expense of the rebuild, but you must give them complete control.  The result?  You are given a complete renovation of your house where everything is made new.

Think sensibly now.  Just because you gave up control of the house, can you then take credit for having performed any of the renovation?  Can you point to even one change in that home and state that it was your effort, might, or skill which produced it?  Of course not.  People in error like to call any responsibility man has in covenant with God as a "works salvation".  Yet tell me, "What work have you actually performed in such a case?"  All you did was get out of the way and yield the vessel over to the carpenter.  Well, that is what we do in turning to faith in Jesus Christ. Our bodies are the temple of God. 

"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" I Corinthians 6:19

Our vessels must be turned over completely to the Lord in order to be made new in Him. This is what is meant when we say that it is God's work alone with which we must cooperate.  Do not let anyone deceive you into believing that God will perform His work within you apart from your free will. Even though we do not belong to ourselves, God still refers to these bodies as "ours".  According to His word, it is we who must commit our bodies to Him in order for His work to be done.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:1-2

Salvation is the actualization of presenting our lives to the Carpenter and saying, "Here Lord, do with this whatsoever you will.  I belong to you.  I am YOUR house."  The moment you step back in and start attempting to direct the Carpenter about how to perform the renovation is the moment the work He performs slows down.

"Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it..." Psalm 127:1a

Yet, because we do not have the ability to see every step of the plan, it can be easy to become discouraged if we fail of His promise.  Know this.  The Lord promises that He is faithful to complete the work He has started within you.  That is something upon which you can be absolutely sure.

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." I Thessalonians 5:23-24

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2

"The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands." Psalm 138:8

This assurance does not come because we have responsibility for rehabilitating ourselves.  Nor is this assurance based in some false belief that our cooperation with God's work is not needed.  The assurance comes because God is a God of His word; if we present ourselves as a living sacrifice, we will be transformed and made new in and by Him.  

Obedience - yielding our vessels to the Lord - is not a "work", but is the very evidence that we are in right relationship with Him (John 15:10).  It is the path by which we receive the blessing He wants to bestow upon us, for Jesus came not to be served, but to serve (Matthew 20:28).  If we do not submit to Him, then we can have no part in Him (John 13:1-10).  Remember, the Holy Spirit is only given to those who obey the Lord (Acts 5:32); and only those led by His Spirit are His children (Romans 8:14).

Our problem comes when we look for the inward changes to be made manifest at the expense of believing in His promise.  We do not see or know all that God is performing within us to bring about this renovation.  If we are not careful, this can lead to frustration and even doubt about whether God's work is being done at all.  We are anxious to see the finished product, and our impatience can be a hindrance to the work He IS performing...even if we cannot immediately see it.  The Lord gave me a reminder of this recently.

Years ago, I shared a testimony about being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.  What I had not spoken about was that I have been dealing with a recurrence of this cancer for the past few years.  It is inoperable and has spread.  As such, I had recently become exasperated. I confessed last week to my husband and friends that I believed I was at my wit's end.  I had grown weary in dealing with this trial.  I was doing what I felt the Lord was leading me to in order to address the cancer, but I could not see what was happening on the inside of my body.  Was it spreading more?  Was it worsening?  I was tired and in my heart I believed that I was close to giving up, even while I prayed for the strength to continue on. 

Then, three days later as I was changing the dressing for the tumor, a small piece of it just fell off from my body...dead and dried up as a rock.  I was shocked.  Was this a sign from the Lord?  Was this an answer to my prayer?  I was hesitant to believe it although seeing it with my own eyes.  The next day, an even bigger chunk fell off from the tumor; again, necrotic and hard as a rock.  There could be no doubt, the cancer was dieing.  While I could not see the work God was performing within me, that didn't mean He was not performing a work.  It is the same with our spiritual life.  That old man is being crucified day by day; that source of life is drying up as it is displaced by the life of God within. 

Do not let what you think to be your current condition rob you of the joy of God's promises.  He is making all things new within you little by little and you will see victory as He has already declared it to come to pass.  Don't get frustrated with the process, but just stay under the power and authority of God's word.  The nature of Jesus Christ will continue to grow within you by His Spirit as God does the work.  God's timing is always perfect...and He is faithful!  No matter your struggle, addiction, or shortcoming, He will deliver you from all that defiles you.  While the changes God is bringing about on the inside will eventually bear fruit on the outside, remember that we do not walk by sight, but by faith (II Corinthians 5:7).  Cooperate with God's transformative work in your life by yielding to Him daily and you will see the manifestation of His life within you as a witness to the world.

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Philippians 2:12-13 

 

The Pride of Your Humility

Filthy Rags

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Isaiah 64:6

I am sure that everyone has heard the story of the man stuck on his roof during a flood. For the record, it goes something like:

A man was trapped in his house during a flood. He began praying to God to rescue him. He had a vision in his head of God’s hand reaching down from heaven and lifting him to safety. The water started to rise in his house. His neighbour urged him to leave and offered him a ride to safety. The man yelled back, “I am waiting for God to save me.” The neighbour drove off in his pick-up truck.

The man continued to pray and hold on to his vision. As the water began rising in his house, he had to climb up to the roof. A boat came by with some people heading for safe ground. They yelled at the man to grab a rope they were ready to throw and take him to safety. He told them that he was waiting for God to save him. They shook their heads and moved on.

The man continued to pray, believing with all his heart that he would be saved by God. The flood waters continued to rise. A helicopter flew by and a voice came over a loudspeaker offering to lower a ladder and take him off the roof. The man waved the helicopter away, shouting back that he was waiting for God to save him. The helicopter left. The flooding water came over the roof and caught him up and swept him away. He drowned.

When he reached heaven and asked, “God, why did you not save me? I believed in you with all my heart. Why did you let me drown?” God replied, “I sent you a pick-up truck, a boat and a helicopter and you refused all of them. What else could I possibly do for you?”

Sometimes we expect God to do grandiose things (and often He does), but this expectation can blind us the every day, practical ways in which God seeks to interact with us.  Here is the newsflash: God is practical!  I learned this lesson once in relation to money.

There is a phrase people like to use which says, "I pride myself on..."  Well, for years I "prided" myself on never taking money from brothers and sisters in the Lord (I never used that phrase, but that was the condition in my heart).  I would try to be available for whatever a person might need (building websites, polishing resumes, conducting job searches, writing documentation, etc.), but I would never request or take a dime for the effort.  I just never felt comfortable taking from the Body of Christ.  Further, I always believed that if I was a blessing to the brethren, then the Lord would bless me.  My God would take care of me!

I maintained this thinking when I started this blog.  People would sometimes write and ask, "Where can I send you a donation?"  I would respond, "Thank you, but if you really want to send a donation, please send it to my church instead."  This approach I thought was appropriate, Godly, and even humble.  After all, I was relying on the Lord alone to provide my needs.

Then one day, the Lord told me, "Put a donation button on the blog."  I was shocked!  "Lord", I replied, "I don't want to take money from these people."  He responded, "That is pride."  I was speechless.  Imagine my dismay to consider that my humility in this area - in which I "prided" myself - was being rejected by Him.

I asked, "But Lord, how is that pride when I am relying on you?"  He stated, "I will provide for you, but who are you to tell me how I will provide?  Maybe donations are part of my plan of provision for you?  You need to learn how to receive from others.  You need to be humble enough to receive from others."

Suddenly I could see; it was as if God had opened my eyes.  I was the man on the roof in the flood.  I couldn't receive the ways in which God wanted to bless me because it wasn't coming in a way that I expected.  I had forgotten that God works through willing vessels and His Body is His hands and feet.  I claimed to rely on God's sufficiency, but I was really relying on self-sufficiency.

It was not prideful to receive blessings from others nor was it prideful not to.  What matters is what is in the heart.  God wants us to be a blessing to each other.  It is selfish (and prideful) not to want to receive a blessing, but only to be the giver (as if you don't need others, but they somehow need you).  There is joy in giving and you rob people of that joy when you refuse to let others bless you.  It was God's design to place His children in families...and those families are the Body of Christ (Psalm 68:6).

Don't make the mistake of confusing your pride with humility.  It can manifest any number of ways.

We are not to be so independent that we don't need others in the Body of Christ.

We should not be so headstrong that we cannot appreciate others' gifts, running about trying to accomplish what the Lord is calling others to do.

We must not be so (hypo)critical that we quickly point out the flaws in the service of others, yet make no priority to see how we too might be of service.

We must not be so caught up in being right that it prevents us from seeing the heart of God towards a person right in front of us.

We are never so close to God that He can only speak to us directly and not through others.

We must not make ourselves the standard in measuring someone else's commitment to the Lord.

I could go on and on.  However, the point is that if there is anything in or of ourselves (what we do or don't do, what or who we know, etc.) which we think makes us humble, then we have already been deceived.  There is nothing in salvation of which we can boast because our deliverance is of the Lord alone (Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 1:3).  We cooperate with it, but it is His work completely.  If there is something in which we have pride - even our religious works - then it is all flesh and not of the Lord (Isaiah 40:6; I Peter 1:24).

When we understand that true humility only comes from the nature of Christ within us and absolutely nothing of ourselves, then we will recognize God's hand all around us in the various ways He moves amongst His people.  

Preparation for the Promised Land

"Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. 

From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them." Joshua 1:1-6

The Omega Church & Ministries Center is having its next fellowship January 3rd - 5th, 2014.  It is entitled, "Preparation for the Promised Land".

This past week, a brother sent me the video below which he made from the last conference.  This brought such joy as I reminisced about the fun & fellowship we experienced this past August.  I look forward to this time in January and would like to invite you all to join.  As you will notice in the video, we get lots of participants from across the nation.  There are even international brothers and sisters who attend.

For more information, please see the events page on the Omega site. I am sure it will be a blessing for you.

Turning Away The Ears

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." II Timothy 4:3-4

This morning, I listened to an interview from a lawyer handling a U.S. Supreme Court case on prayer.  The case involves two women fighting against prayers being made before town council meetings in Greece, NY.  It is not exactly prayer which is the issue, but "Christian" prayer.  As their attorney Douglas Laycock stated, "This case is about Christians aggressively imposing themselves on their fellow citizens with the power of government."

While I really don't care what the Supreme Court decides in this case (and please don't comment about why I should), it is interesting how acceptable it has become to be openly hostile to Christianity.  We are not talking about people who are primarily fighting for equal representation for all religions; we are speaking about people who openly hate Christianity...and the God Christians serve.  Say what you want...pray how you want, but do not name the name of Jesus Christ.  If you ever had a doubt before, know that this antagonism is very personal.

I find it also telling that this argument against Christianity is coming from Greece.  Symbolically, the Grecian mindset has always been antagonistic to Christianity. Greek philosophy is based primarily in humanism; where man - his thoughts, desires, and will - is the supreme standard.  According to this thought, man is the center of everything; man is his own god. 

Greek thinking is even the main enemy within the church amongst self-professing Christians.  How can you tell?  They have no tolerance for the word of God.  They validate/justify sin and are offended by the very idea of a God who hates sin (Isaiah 59:2; Micah 3:4).  To simply believe the Scriptures these days is enough to get you labeled as a "radical" Christian.

I mentioned before how we are looking at publishing options for "The Organic Gospel" book.  Many agents/publishers who identify their specialty as "Christian" works also have requirements in their guidelines that they don't want anything "sermon-like".  They don't want to sound "preachy".  Instead, they are interested in publishing "inspirational" books or those which feature fictional Christian "romance" and "fantasy" story lines.  Have not many Christians turned their ears away from sound doctrine to fables?  After all, this is apparently what sells because the hearts of many Christians are still worldly.

Furthermore, I have been told by the Blip video network that all of my hosted videos will be removed tomorrow.  What was my offense? Posting "sermons". Apparently, this is part of the prohibited content as relayed in their Terms and Conditions of service.  I realize that many video links here will be broken at that point, however I don't know that I will seek to find another home for them.  The Lord has already warned me that the entire blog will ultimately be removed because of its content, so...

One of the first things that the Jewish people did in response to Stephen's preaching and the demonstration of the power of the Holy Ghost through him was to "stop their ears" (Acts 7:57).  Why do they do this?  Because they don't want to hear the word of the Lord (Zechariah 7:11).  God tells us that it will be the same in our day...and it is.  The Word of God (Jesus Christ) was the offense then and is still the offense now to those who are not saved - no matter what they profess.

UPDATE:  A brother sent me the following comment after reading this part of the article and I would like to post his comments for your edification.

"Not long ago I was studying the account of Steven in Acts 7.  The thing that impressed me at that time was that the people didn’t stop their ears when he called them stiffnecked, uncircumcised etc. – here they were pricked to their hearts and were gnashing their teeth (this was an internal response). IMO I don’t think they physically assaulted him yet i.e, actually bit him – because if they did I think Luke would have used the word ‘bit’ – but gnashing is like grating or grinding (seething) see Matt: 8:12 et al) – and I’ve really seen that happen before when I was a babe shooting off my mouth everywhere (in this case at a funeral no less:).  Anyway, it was when he said ‘I see the son of man standing at the right hand of the Father – ‘Then they cried out with a loud voice’ (now it’s an external response) and stopped their ears and rushed him". 

"Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed." I Peter 2:7-8

What did the people do after stopping their ears?  They attacked Stephen, gnashed on him with their teeth, and stoned him to death.  Get ready people.  This is what is coming.  If they cannot shut the mouths of Christians speaking the words of God, nor mimic the power which confirms the word, then next comes martyrdom.  I am not being fatalistic; this is what is said in your Scriptures (John 16:2; Revelation 20:4).

What should our response be?  Should we march in the streets?  Sign Congressional petitions?  Vote?  Go on TV to defend our views?  Concentrate on appearing as "nice people" so that the world will be won over by our sin-tolerant, non-Christian love?

Paul tells us exactly what to do in his admonition to Timothy.  In fact, the warning about those turning their ears from sound doctrine is sandwiched between Paul's instruction in this matter:

"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine....But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." II Timothy 4:2,5

We are to keep preaching the word.  Don't look to the left nor to the right, but keep spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.  We are not to be deterred.  We must continue to:

1. Watch
2. Endure Afflictions
3. Do the work of an evangelist
4. Make full proof of our ministries

The times are tumultuous, and people have certainly become dull of hearing, yet the truth remains.  Stay true to the faith and keep your eye single on Christ Jesus.  Don't be distracted away from fulfilling our calling in Christ: to preach the word of truth.

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." Psalm 14:1

I Love the Lord

I woke up with this song on my heart.  Even if it is the middle of the night, if the Lord wakes you with His praises on your lips, then praise Him.  He is worthy.  He is faithful.  He hears your cries.

Psalm 116

I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

I said in my haste, All men are liars.

What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?

I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.

I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.

I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people,

In the courts of the LORD'S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.