2002-12-02
Good Morning Dear Ones,
We can begin to see we can use the blessings of our salvation to join God in His work of battling Satan and bringing as many potential believers to where the Holy Spirit can bring them to faith. How can we do this? It is done by appreciating and accepting that we have been empowered to do this successfully and by being willing to make ourselves available to God for this work. We are made available by 1) confession of our sins, 2) by emptying our vessels of human agendas, 3) by asking God to fill those vessels with the Holy Spirit, 4) by listening carefully for God’s commands through study of the Scriptures, prayer, our congregational interactions, and learning from the circumstances of our lives, 5) by trusting God, and 6) by obeying His commands at the time and in the way that He directs. That’s how we are available to Him. Inherent in steps 5 and 6 is the willingness to make whatever changes in our lives that God leads us to make. That’s not always easy or comfortable, but our loving Abba knows it’s necessary if we are to produce spiritual fruit [GA 5: 22-23], a byproduct of living lives of holiness and righteousness. When we serve God by joining Him in His work, taking the steps outlined here, two life-giving goals are accomplished: bringing others to Christ [JN 4: 35] and our own sanctification [Job 23:10; RO 8: 1-2; 2 COR 5: 17; COL 3:1-3].
Before going on to strategies we can use against Satan’s attacks on our minds in tomorrow’s message, let’s take a closer look at the issue of sanctification. Remember, this is the process by which God is perfecting us to prepare us to answer the call of the last trumpet to that meeting with Christ in the air [1 THESS 4 :13-17]. 2 THESS 2: 13, “We must thank God at all times for you, brothers, you whom the Lord loves. For God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the Spirit’s power to make you His holy people and by your faith in the truth.” We did nothing to deserve this honor and privilege; God calls us out solely because of His grace and love for His creation.
Note that it’s the Holy Spirit Who brings people to faith, not human efforts. All we do is bring a person to where he will listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit when it is God’s will this should happen. Paul gives us clear God-breathed instruction in EPH 4: 21-24, “You certainly heard about Him [Christ], and as His followers you were taught the truth that is in Jesus. So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to-the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness [GN 1: 27] and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.” We must have a complete change of values as instructed in RO 12: 2. This is more fully described in PHIL 3: 7-11, “But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ and be completely united with Him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith. All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of His resurrection, to share in His sufferings, and become like Him in His death, in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.”
From COL 3: 1-4, we gain insight both in how to stop mid-flight Satan’s fiery darts aimed at our minds and into what is going on as God is sanctifying us. “You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on His throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when He appears, then you too will appear with Him and share His glory!” How honored we should feel to have our lives “hidden with Christ in God!”
There is one more logical step to take in this process of being available for God’s work. That is to see how these principles discussed today apply to our individual lives. That’s going to take some reflection, but what more valuable use of our time can we make? In my own life, it means to have patience about our difficulties in selling our home and with our finances. It’s means keeping my mind on the work of serving God to which He has called me-writing daily devotions, coordinating and writing for our huge prayer chain, studying God’s word and teaching about it, continuing my participation in Cursillo [4-day spiritual retreat program, also known as Via de Cristo], being a good wife and mother, and speaking publicly about God-all with the Holy Spirit in leadership. If God calls me to more tasks, then I need to be willing to do them at the time and in the way He directs. What it doesn’t mean is grumbling, worrying, getting angry, and complaining. When we trust and obey God, He will provide, equip, direct, encourage, empower, and carry us through any challenges to our faith that Satan sends. Each of us needs to see how this applies to his own life.
PRAYER: O Lord, today You have taken us in an unplanned direction, because You wanted us to have a better understanding of making ourselves available to join You in Your work and of our sanctification. When we listen to Your direction and put our own plans aside, wonderful revelations are made to bless our lives. You call us not only to understand what has been cited here from the Scriptures, but to be thankful for the blessings You have already given us in our individual lives. You sent Your Son to serve a public ministry and to give His physical life with unheard of suffering on the cross. Then You raised Him from death to life, so that He could serve as our Intercessor with You at the heavenly altar. Because He is fully man and fully God, this experience enabled Him to have the empathy for our suffering that He does [HE 4: 15; HE 8: 1-2]. As if Christ’s intercessions were not enough, You also called the Holy Spirit to intercede for us [RO 8: 26-27]. So, our suffering, pain, and loss is not going unnoticed by You. 1 JN 2: 17 reveals the values You want for us. “The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but he who does the will of God lives forever.” Job, a man of profoundly real and tested faith, in JOB 23: 10, understood You and left us a valuable lesson. “Yet God knows every step I take: if He tests me, He will find me pure.” The very same lesson is illuminated in 1 COR 3: 13-15, “And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality. If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward. But if anyone’s work is burnt up, then he will lose it; but he himself will be saved, as if he escaped through the fire.” Today, we come before You to confess our sins, without human agendas, and to plead for You to fill us with the Holy Spirit. We humbly pledge You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, honor, glory, trust, obedience, thanks, and utmost praise. In Christ’s name, amen.
As promised above, tomorrow’s message will deal with God-given strategies for dealing with Satan’s fiery darts aimed at our minds. If space permits, we will begin looking at a crucial issue in today’s society-Satan’s phenomenal track record in breaking down families. Everything that was said in today’s message was a special and very unexpected gift to us from our loving Abba. He wiped away my original plan and replaced it with a far better one. That’s one way that He impacts us. Our Lord deserves what Rev. Oswald Chambers described as “The Utmost for His Highest.” By the way, if you haven’t read that wonderful book of devotions, let me recommend it. More importantly, our God’s love for us is so deep and wonderful that He deserves from us the very best we can give in faithfulness and willingness to be His servants. The thought that He promises His servants that they will be ruling priests with our Messiah later for eternity in heaven is motivation enough to spur us to lives of holiness and apostolic action now. We don’t understand the depth of God’s love for us, but Christ is the paradigm that should allow us to “love others, as He has loved us” [JN 13: 34-35]. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn