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2010 - HIS GLORY REIGNS
| LIFE IN JESUS-MINISTRIES |
| GOD ACCOMPLISHES HIS WORK Henry & Richard Blackaby and Claude King I AM REVEALED B. Childress May 05 2013 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God. (John 3:21) My plan will take place, and I will do all My will…Yes, I have spoken; so I will also bring it about. I have planned it; I will also do it. (Isaiah 46:10-11) AFFIRMATION When we experience God’s invitation to join Him, some people insist on seeing some kind of sign. In essence they are saying: “Lord, prove to me this is You, and then I will obey.” When Moses stood before the burning bush and received his invitation to join God in His great work, God promised to affirm the invitation in due time. He said, “This will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain” (Exodus 3:12). In other words: “Moses, you obey, and I will deliver Israel through you. You will come to know Me as your deliverer, and you will stand on this mountain and worship Me.” God’s affirmation that He had sent Moses would come after Moses obeyed, not before. This is most frequently the case in Scripture. The affirmation comes after the obedience. When Jesus invited Peter to get out of the boat to walk on the water, He did not assure Peter he would stay afloat! The Lord simply said, “Come!” (Matthew 14:28). Peter wouldn’t know if he could walk on the water until he took his first step. Because you love God, obey Him. Then you will so fellowship with Him that you will come to know Him intimately. His work through you to accomplish God-sized assignments will be a joyous time for you! WHAT IF THE “DOOR” CLOSES? Suppose you sense the call of God to a task, a place, or a particular ministry, and when you set about to do it, everything goes wrong. Often people say, “Well, I guess that wasn’t God’s will.” Since God calls you into a relationship with Him, be careful how you interpret your circumstances. Many times, we jump to a conclusion that God is moving us in a particular direction. We make up our minds about what He is doing and when He is going to do it, according to what seems logical to us. We start following the logic of our own reasoning, but then nothing seems to work out. We have a tendency to neglect our relationship with God and take things into our own hands, but don’t do that. Usually, when God calls or gives you a direction, His call is not the thing He wants you to do. He is telling you what He is about to do where you are. For example, examine this record of the apostle Paul’s ministry:
message in the province of Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, bypassing Mysia, they came down to Troas. During the night a vision appeared to Paul: a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!” After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to evangelize them. (Acts 16:6-10) God had already told Paul He would reach the Gentiles through him, but God – not Paul – would do the saving. Paul started in one direction, and the Spirit stopped him (see Acts 16:6-10). Then he began in another. Again, the Spirit prevented him. What was God’s original plan? To reach the Gentiles. What was Paul’s problem? He was trying to figure out what to do, and the “doors” of opportunity seemed to close. In fact, God was saying, “Listen to me, Paul. Go and sit in Troas until I tell you where to go.” While he was in Asia Minor, in the city of Troas, Paul received a vision to go to Macedonia and help the people there. God’s plan was to carry the gospel westward toward Greece and Rome. He was at work in Macedonia and wanted Paul to join Him in that place. When you begin to follow what you sense God wants you to do and circumstances seem to close the door of opportunity, go back to the Lord and clarify what God said. Better yet, always try to make sure on the front end exactly what God is saying. Remember, He is not calling you primarily to a task but to a relationship. Through that relationship, He will accomplish His purposes through your life. Moses had to re-check God’s directions constantly. He obeyed God, spoke to Pharaoh, and everything went wrong, but Moses didn’t quit. He went back to the Lord to clarify what was happening. God began to give him directions about the plagues He would bring on Egypt. Pharaoh seemed to be getting more and more obstinate. Moses daily sought God’s directions and obeyed them. Later, Moses could look back and see God’s handiwork in all that took place. God delivered Israel from the Egyptians in such a way that Israel, Egypt, and the surrounding nations knew God had done it. Pharaoh’s stubbornness was not a sign that Moses misunderstood God’s directives. Rather, it was the way God performed an even greater work than Moses could have imagined. A COUPLE’S CALL TO STUDENT WORK I talked with a couple who said God was inviting them to Saskatoon to do student work. They initiated the process for assignment as missionaries, and the mission board turned them down. Their conclusion was: “We made a mistake.” I advised them not to jump to that conclusion but to go back and recall what God said when they sensed His call. They were canceling the whole plan of God because one detail did not work out as they thought it should. I asked them to spend time confirming God’s will. Was He calling them to missions? Was He calling them to student work? Was He calling them to Canada? Then I said, “Keep that sense of call in place, but watch to see how the God who is speaking is going to implement what He said. When God speaks a word of direction, He will bring it to pass. Just be careful you do not let circumstances cancel what God said.” This couple had to go to God and be sure they understood His directives. Perhaps He had a different city in mind for them. He may have wanted them to secure a different means of financial support. Or He may have wanted more time to prepare them for the assignment. As they awaited confirmation from God, I advised them to keep doing all they knew in obedience to Him. If you’re in a situation like this, what should you do?
God is all-powerful. He can change your circumstances in a moment. What takes longer is for Him to work in our lives so we are prepared to be of service to Him. As this couple earnestly sought God’s guidance and surrendered their wills fully to Him, God did guide them. They ultimately knew God was not leading them to Canada although in their hearts they had wanted to come. Instead, God led them in a different direction of ministry and has used their lives significantly ever since. God has also allowed them to make an important contribution to the work in Canada over the years as a result of the ministry positions they have held. SLOW GOING Does God seem to be working slowly in your life? Jesus had been with His disciples about three years when He said: “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come” (John 16:12-13). Jesus had more He wanted to teach the disciples, but they were unprepared to receive it. Jesus knew, however, that the Holy Spirit would guide these disciples into truth on God’s timetable. You may be saying, “God, hurry up and make me mature.” Perhaps you are asking God to give you a new and larger assignment. But are you ready for it? God will lead you in His truth as you respond in obedience, step by step. If you feel God is slow to work in your life, ask yourself these questions:
Grass that is here today and gone tomorrow does not require much time to mature. A giant oak tree that lasts for generations requires much more time to grow strong. God is concerned about your life through eternity. Allow Him to take all the time He wants to shape you for His purposes. Larger assignments may require longer periods of preparation. GOD ACCOMPLISHES HIS WORK THROUGH YOU The Holy Spirit will never mislead you about the Father’s will. In order that you not miss the purpose God has for you, He has given His Spirit to guide you according to His will. The Spirit also enables you to do God’s will. You are completely dependent on God for the knowledge and for the ability to achieve His purposes. You must be patient and wait until you hear a word from God about His will and His ways. Jesus is our model. He never failed to know and do His Father’s will. Everything the Father proposed to do through His life, the Lord Jesus did. Thus, Jesus could claim at the end of His life that He had completed everything His Father had given Him to do (see John 17:4). What was the key to Jesus’ perfect obedience? He was always rightly related to the Father. If you walk in a consistent relationship with God, then you should never come to a time that you do not know His will. There should never be a situation in which you are not enabled by the Holy Spirit to carry out God’s will. In Jesus, we have the picture of a perfect love relationship with the Father. Jesus consistently lived out that relationship. You and I quickly conclude that we are a long way from that, but Christ is fully present in us to help us know and do God’s will (see Galatians 2:20). We need to adjust our lives to God and faithfully live out that relationship with absolute dependence on Him. He will never fail to draw us into the middle of His purpose and enable us to do it – as He did for people throughout Scripture. Moses. Only through obedience did Moses begin to experience the full nature of God. We see a pattern of God speaking, Moses obeying, and God accomplishing what He purposed to do:
When the people stood between the Red Sea and the oncoming Egyptian army, God told Moses to hold his staff over the sea and Moses obeyed. God parted the sea and the people crossed on dry ground (Exodus 14:1-25). The Miriam led the people in a hymn of praise describing their new understanding of God. When the people were thirsty and had no water to drink, they complained to Moses. God told Moses to strike a rock with the staff. Moses obeyed and God caused water to flow from the rock (Exodus 17:1-7). Whenever Moses obeyed what God told him to do, he and the people of Israel experienced the awesome power of God at work. People of Faith. When Noah obeyed, God preserved his family and repopulated the earth. When Abraham obeyed, God gave him a son and built a nation. When David obeyed, God made him a king and greatly increased the power and prosperity of Israel. When Elijah obeyed, God displayed His astounding power by sending down fire from heaven. These people of faith came to know God by experience when they obeyed Him, and He accomplished His work through them. The Disciples. Luke records a beautiful experience of Jesus’ disciples. The Lord invited seventy of His followers to join Him in the Father’s work. Jesus gave these people specific directions, telling them how to travel, what to preach, how to respond to receptive listeners, and how to handle rejection. They obeyed Him and experienced God working through them to heal people and cast out demons. Jesus praised the Father for revealing Himself to these followers (see Luke 10:21-22). Then Jesus turned to His disciples and said, “The eyes that see the things you see are blessed! For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you see yet didn’t see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn’t hear them” (Luke10:23-24). These disciples were blessed. They had been chosen by God to be involved in His work. What they saw, heard, and came to know about God was something even prophets and kings longed to experience but didn’t. You, too, will be blessed when God does a special, God-sized work through you. You will come to know Him in a way that brings joy to your life. When others see you experience God that way, they will want to know how they, too, can experience God as you do. So be prepared to point them to God. If you are obedient, God will accomplish remarkable things through your life. You’ll want to declare the wonderful deeds of the Lord, but you’ll need to be careful that any testimony about what God has done gives glory to Him. Pride may cause you to want to tell your experience because it makes you feel important. However, you must avoid any sense of pride. “The one who boasts must boast in the Lord” (I Corinthians 1:31). YOU COME TO KNOW THE LORD Scripture shows us that when God did something through an obedient person or people, they came to know Him in new and more intimate ways. God revealed His name to Moses: “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Jesus expressed Himself to His disciples by saying:
Jesus identified Himself with the I AM of the Old Testament. Knowing and experiencing Jesus in these ways requires that you trust Him. For instance, when He says, “I am the way,” what you do next will determine if you come to experience Him as “the way” in your own life. When you believe Him, adjust your life to Him, and obey what He says, you come to know and experience Him as “the way.” This is true about everything God reveals to you. As you follow Him obediently, He works in and through you to reveal Himself to you and to those around you. Source: EXPERIENCING GOD, by Henry & Richard Blackaby and Claude King, Copyright 2008, B&H Publishing Group. |