Willing to do His will

In the past few weeks, the Lord has been leading us to attend a church closer to where we live. This has not been easy because we gone to our present church for twenty years. However, over time God has convinced us that this is His will for us. 

Yesterday, we told our friends at church. Each person had a different reaction. Some were surprised, some not surprised. Some cried. Some understood that where God leads, you must follow, even when it does not make sense. Some related it to their own situations with trying to discern God’s leading. One person was certain of what they were supposed to do, then found that reversed by circumstances. Another told us of their obedience resulting in disaster. Two people said we are making a mistake and they were going to try to talk us out of it. The most discussion seemed centered around how a person knows the leading of the Lord. 

God’s leading was once a visible thing. Back when God’s people came out of Egypt, He led them through the wilderness with signs they could see.

In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. (Psalm 78:14)

This verse tells of visible signs yet even in this example, there are some clues about the way God leads. Night speaks of darkness and not knowing where I am going. In those situations, the leading of God can be the brightest. It often stands in contrast to the confusion or hesitation that is part of not being certain. That is, when life is murky the will of God can be totally bright, like fireworks against the night sky.

His leading in the daytime is another matter. When I can see what is happening around me, the leading of God might be more like a cloud. I am aware of many things and unless the cloud is very prominent, it is not as easy to see. There may be other clouds, other options. Which one is of God? How can I know His leading in the midst of everything else that pulls at my interest and affections?

I noticed yesterday that folks have ideas about how God leads them and tend to think that everyone else makes decisions the same way as they do. For instance, one person told me that the “leading of God” is mixed with what you really want to do yourself and this must be what I really wanted. Another said that God changes His mind based on the circumstances, indicating that His leading is more about whatever way the wind blows, so if situations change, we might change our mind. 

Those ideas seem more about my will than God’s. Jesus teaches that the leading of God is not about my I-wants. In fact, I cannot be certain of His will until I’ve come to the place where I have dropped my own preferences and am willing to go whatever direction He says. Jesus said,

If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. (John 7:17)

Dropping my own desires might take a long time. Part of the problem is not recognizing them in the first place, or even thinking there is anything wrong with what I want. However, Jesus prayed “Not my will but Thine be done.” His will was never mixed with sin and selfishness. This speaks to me. My will can be polluted. I need to drop my own desires if I’m going to hear and follow God’s will.

For us, being aware of that ‘requirement’ made it easier to pray, “Not our will, but Thine be done,” yet getting there took several weeks. It also meant being aware and honest about our own motivations. We finally came to the place of being willing to go or willing to stay, whatever God wanted.

Once there, knowing God’s will becomes easier. Sometimes His Word makes it clear, but on issues like this one, it was more like the Holy Spirit nudging us, giving us a divine elbow in the ribs. Once we made the decision that He wanted, the nudge was replaced by a sense of, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Does going with the will of God mean everything will be rosy? Not necessarily. Jesus prayed the same thing and willingly followed the will of His Father. By doing so, He was crucified. The will of God may not be a bed of roses, but it will be obedience, and never done in vain. 

Our friends look for reasons. Our rational and human minds want to have reasons. However, faith is not like that. Faith means that when God sends a cloud or a fiery light, you follow it. We can ask why or what He has in mind, but that is not necessarily an expression of faith. Instead, faith just does what He says and lets Him decide how much He will show us about His reasons and purposes for it. 

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Lord, I’m challenged by whoever said, “Live in such a way that your life and actions cannot be explained by any other reason than God is at work.” This is both a scary place to be and a delight. I don’t know what You have planned, but I do know that yielding to Your plans is always better than resisting. Yielding also makes walking with You a great adventure. We want to be close to You, so clouds or bright lights, here we come.

Sticks and stones and hurtful words

Yesterday’s Bible study was about speaking the truth. I’d not planned to, but during the class was prompted to read a page from the book mentioned in yesterday’s post. One of the women in the class said that it seemed as if God was speaking through the words read and suggested we start a book club and make this book the first one every person reads.

Truth and words have great power if rightly used. It isn’t enough to say (or write) what is true, but to say it as the Spirit of God motivates and leads. When a Spirit-filled person says words that God gives them to say, lives are changed. Spurgeon says the same thing in his devotional for today. It is based on one of these verses . . . 

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:25–32)

Notice the focus on speaking truth and allowing God to rule in our relationships. No lies, properly dealing with anger, sharing not stealing, edifying words not harmful speech, and blessing others rather than harming them.

The Bible describes the capacity of our tongue in many other places. Proverbs says that it holds the power of life and death. James says it can be like a small rudder turning a big ship, or like a destructive fire. He also says no one can control it.

We know the struggle. We talk too much, or say the wrong thing, or spread gossip, or rile others — with our tongues. Feelings are hurt, friendships ruined, marriages put adrift, business relationships strained, all because we cannot put adequate controls on our words. Research says physical abuse does not stay in with a person nearly as long as verbal abuse. Words do hurt and such destruction is not only painful, but difficult to turn around and take back. Once the damage is done, it is almost impossible to repair.

For this, Spurgeon focuses on the short phrase that says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” He knows, and I am learning, that the only way to control our tongues by walking in the Spirit, by being filled with the Spirit, by obeying Him instead of our fleshy and sinful impulses.

He says just as all blessings flow to me through the Holy Spirit, “so also no good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the sanctifying operation of the same Spirit.” I have Jesus Christ in my life, but even then, His life lies dormant in me unless the Spirit of God is at work to bring it forth. I cannot speak for Jesus unless the Holy Ghost touches my tongue.

The Bible is clear on this matter. I cannot even pray as I ought without the help of the Holy Spirit, never mind subdue sin, be holy or imitate Christ. If I want to be zealous for Christ and His kingdom, then I must recognize that without Jesus, I can do nothing. I am a dead branch unless I am abiding in the vine, without fruit and without the vibrant life God gives through his Spirit.

This short verse means I can cause grief to God’s Spirit. Other verses say that I can also provoke Him to anger by my sin and “quench” Him by refusing to listen and obey. How vital to my spiritual life to heed every prompting and attempt nothing without the Holy Spirit. How often I begin a project without imploring His blessing, never mind finding out if this is what He wants from me. How often I enter into something with zeal instead of realizing that His strength is perfected in weakness. Do I stop to think that my zeal could be an indication that He is not with me, and the ideas are merely my own?

Just as truth and words have great power, so also does the Holy Spirit. To speak truth (or do anything) apart from Him is almost always damaging. To even talk at all without the Spirit guiding what I say can prove that the tongue has deadly power and is not only harmful to others, but grieves the Spirit of God.

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Father, again I realize that You have good reason to tell me to “Be still” for what I say needs to be at Your prompting. Otherwise my words can be useless at best or corrupt and harmful at worst. Grant me grace to listen to Your leading and speak only when You speak to me.

Learning a big lesson from a small problem

For months I’ve tried to lose 5-10 lbs. The first few were easy, but this became a battle that I could not win. At the time, a book called Born Crucified and my devotions were convincing me that this was one area of my life that I was trying to control and needed to give the whole thing to Jesus.

It took a while, but finally the Lord helped me understand that the issue was not weight loss but self-control. The Bible says this quality is something given by the Holy Spirit, but I was focused on the “self” part and was not letting the Spirit do His work. I could argue that I was afraid of what might happen, but have to say it was more like I didn’t want to give up the control of eating anything I wanted whenever I wanted it.

Yet the Lord persisted and finally I gave up. I couldn’t reach my goals and told Him to do whatever He wanted about this situation. In my struggle, I did learn some good things. I now have greater sympathy for those with dozens or even hundreds of pounds to shed. This is not easy. I also learned that it is a battle of the will. No matter what my common sense says, that chocolate cake or extra slice of pizza will find its way to my plate unless I decide otherwise.

After giving this over to the Lord, an odd thing happened. It seems small and one of those “why didn’t I think of that” kinds of solutions, but for me it is huge and, no, I didn’t think of it. The Lord’s cure is that His Spirit is making me strongly aware of my choices. Instead of just eating and then later saying that I shouldn’t have, He has changed the timing of His conviction.

For instance, I can eat pizza, but if I’m about to take the next piece that will put me over what is right for my health, the Holy Spirit gives me an instant awareness that now I must decide. Because I know that He will give me the self-control that I need, my decision at that point is not so much about the eating as it is about who I will let be the boss in my life: my wants and appetites, or God.

He also gave me a verse to encourage me. It says, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified (unfit)” (1 Corinthians 9:27).

Today’s devotional reading is further encouragement to obey God. If I want to keep my life clean from any sin, I need to pay attention to that conviction about my choices. The verse says, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word” (Psalm 119:9).

The author of my devotional book adds that any godly conduct that produces spiritual stability depends on obeying God’s Word because the Bible cultivates godly attitudes, thoughts, and actions. He offers an analogy. If a policeman sees a person about to break the law, he will arrest him. In the same way, godly thoughts produced by God’s Word are like that policemen. They arrest the sinful flesh before it commits a crime against the standards of God. Yet if these attitudes and thoughts are not on duty, they can’t make the arrest, and sinful me will easily feel free to violate the biblical commands.

The New Testament says that only spiritual weapons will help me win this battle against my sinful flesh. By using the right weapon, I can take “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4-5) because the Holy Spirit is there to give me the self-control I need to say no when the choice is presented. Of course it is better to have the crime stopped before it happens then to eat too much and be filled with regret.

However, the main lesson in all this is not about the weight loss, even though that is happening. It is about self-control and listening to His voice in all the details of life, many of which are far more important than making sure my clothes still fit.

Subjective and Objective Discernment

When someone calls themselves a Christian, how do I know if their claim is true? What marks them or makes them stand out?

Over the years, I’ve had some interesting experiences with this issue. I’ve had people tell me they were but were not, and others who didn’t say a word, but I knew that they belonged to the family of God. Have I ever been duped or mistaken? The only times I miss is when someone is a Christian but is not walking in obedience. Their sinful condition at that time seems to hide their true spiritual nature. However, discerning who is who is nothing to boast about for it is God who gives discernment.

Besides that intuitive knowing (not all Christians have it) is there a more tangible, objective measurement? Jesus says there is. In John 14:23, He says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

The first criterion in this statement is that a Christian will love Christ. I remember talking with a member of a cult who claimed to love Him, but does not acknowledge that He is God the Son. When I pointed to a particular statement Jesus made to His disciples, this person figured it had to mean something other than what it plainly said. I replied, “It doesn’t seem to me that Jesus would deliberately deceive His disciples.”

At that, this cult member said, “Oh, yes He would.” No love (or trust) in that statement, verifying to me what I already suspected; this person doesn’t know the Lord.

The second criterion is more dicey; a Christian will obey what God says. At times in my life, when I looked at my performance I’ve wondered if I was really a believer. Obeying God, from the heart, with all my strength and in love for Him is much more difficult than anyone can imagine. It isn’t that I don’t want to, but the problem is with my sin nature. Sometimes I can obey externally (looks good to others), or obey half-heartedly (and say at least that I did it), or obey to impress others, hardly out of love for Him and a desire for His glory. None of those things can be called obedience.

At the same time, people who do not know and love Jesus cannot obey Him at all, at least not in the sense that Jesus is talking about. If a person seems to be doing spiritual good deeds but does not have the Spirit of God motivating them, then it is being done merely in the power of their own humanness, to either impress people or earn brownie points with God.

True obedience is about the God who lives within using the Christian as an instrument to do His will, sort of like a hand in a glove. The glove is nothing apart from the hand.

The Bible reiterates this in several ways. In John 15, Jesus talks about Himself being the vine and His people being the branches. If the branch does not abide in the vine, it cannot bear fruit. Other places speak of our lives being surrendered to His life.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Obedience looks like me doing the deed, but it is Christ who lives in me that motivates it and makes it happen. Sometimes Christians obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit so easily that they don’t even realize that they did an amazing or powerful work of God. Only true Christians can do this because only true Christians have the Spirit of God living in them.

The other part of true obedience is that this obedience is continual. A true Christian hangs in there, works at it. We make mistakes, but we also confess them and eventually get back on track. Because God makes His home in us (the verb means eternal abiding), He gives that continual motivation and power to obey Him.

As for the subjective, intuitive discernment that just ‘knows’ when someone is a believer, this is actually the Spirit within me connecting to the Spirit within that other Christian. The unity is there, often without any or many words spoken or even deeds done. This isn’t an “I’d like it to be so” thing nor a human judgment based on human reasoning. For one thing, my human spirit is clueless and powerless apart from God. If He doesn’t give me insight, I don’t have it, and if He doesn’t give me any ability, I am powerless.

How is this practical? Jesus said in the last days that many would claim to represent Him, and many will be deceived. By giving His people discernment and some practical ways to evaluate those claims, God is protecting me from spiritual deception and disaster.