4SpiritualSecrets

“I have brought you out that I might lead you in…”
(Deuteronomy 6:23)

There are times when God wants to do a new thing in our lives. To do this new thing God faces three challenges. He has to get us out of the old place and that is not easy because we love the security of where we are. God therefore has to blast us out of the old place. That can happen in many ways. We could be fired, or we may just know in our knower that it is time to make a change. The call of God is often made up of a pull from the front and a boot from the rear. That can happen when God wants to do His new thing in our lives.

The second challenge God faces is that He has to keep us going so He might pull us through the transition time between the old place and the new place to which He is leading us. Transition times can be very difficult! The verse above describes the way God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt that He might bring them into the Promised Land. Their transition time involved crossing a desert, which should have taken eleven days. They went around in circles for forty years! That was a very difficult transition time for them.

They circled that desert because they did not have the faith to invade the land of Canaan. When God wants to do His new thing in our life do we go around in circles because we do not have the faith to enter into the new place to which God is leading us?

The third challenge God faces is that He has to make us right so He can settle us into the new place He has for us. One translation of 2 Corinthians 6:1 reads that we are ‘co-operaters’ with God. When we realize something of what God is trying to do in our life it would help Him and could be helpful to us if we would give God a little cooperation.

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…” (Matthew 6:9)

A second step that will lead us into the will of God is perhaps the most important base we need to touch when we are seeking divine guidance. The bottom line is that God will not reveal His will to people who are not going to do it when He reveals it to them.

When Jesus TAUGHT His disciples how to pray, He taught them to pray, “Thy will be done.” When Jesus SHOWED His disciples how to pray He sweat drops of blood as He prayed, “Not My will, but Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10; 26:39; Luke 22:42-44). In John 7:17, Jesus gives us a principle that shows us how we can know His teaching is the teaching of God. This principle also applies when we are seeking to know the will of God. The principle is simply this: If any man wills to do, he will know.

God has placed in our hands a key that can unlock His will for our lives. According to Jesus and Paul, knowing the will of God for our lives does not have to be difficult or complex. God does not deliberately complicate or obscure His will. The difficulty is not the will of God, but your will and my will. As Paul tells us how we can know “the good, acceptable and perfect will of God,” he begins his prescription for knowing God’s will by telling us to throw our hands up and offer an unconditional surrender of our will to the will of God (Romans 12:1, 2). The unconditional surrender of our will to the will of God will make our quest to know His will significantly less complicated.

“…And even the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
(Matthew 10:30)

A question I often find myself answering is, “Pastor, how can I know the will of God?” This question is frequently asked when there is a fork in the road kind of decision that has to be made, or it is the broader question, “How can I know what God wants me to do with my life?”

I often share a few steps that are bases to touch when we know we need guidance (rather than a ‘sure fire formula’) to know the will of God. I will share two of them with you.

The first step is to believe that there is such a thing as the will of God for our lives, especially when we stand at a crossroad.

The Bible proclaims that, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Psalm 37:23). David wrote that God had every day of his life scheduled before he even existed (Psalm 139:16 LB). According to Jesus, God knows the number of hairs on our heads and wills the death of every sparrow. Billy Sunday preached that when a sparrow drops dead from a tree God always goes to the funeral. Jesus makes the application that if God has a will for the death of a sparrow and we are much more valuable than sparrows, He certainly has a will for your life and mine (Matthew 10:29, 30). Paul exhorts you to meet certain conditions and then prove in experience that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves you toward spiritual maturity (Romans 12: 1,2 JB Phillips).

There are many, many more Scriptures like these that are the first base we must touch when we are seeking divine guidance.

“For of Him and through Him and unto Him are all things, to Him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).

The Apostle Paul closes the doctrinal section of his greatest masterpiece with those words. In his writings he uses the expression “all things” frequently but never casually or without great thought and inspiration. In this context he is probably referring to all the wonderful glorious truths he has written in his letter to the Church in Rome.

To paraphrase and summarize these words I believe Paul is writing that God is the source of all things, He is the power behind all things, and His glory is the purpose for all things. The Apostle suffered from chronic fatigue every day of his ministry. Since I have had chronic fatigue since 1978 I have become very discriminating about how I spend my energy and strength. I have used this doxology of the apostle as my criteria for deciding whether or not I want to get involved in a project.

I do not want to be part of anything unless I can say that God is the source of it, He is the power behind it, and His glory is the purpose of the project. I believe my life and strength are in such short supply I do not want to spend it on anything unless I know He is the source of it. He must be the power behind it, because I have no strength of my own. Since everything we do should be for the glory of God I want to be certain that His glory is the purpose of any work I attempt to do in this life.

I recommend this same standard to you.

“… before Phillip called you I saw you under the fig tree.”
(John 1: 48)

When Jesus was recruiting apostles he had a very interesting exchange with the one who was to become the Apostle Nathaniel. Nathaniel apparently had the regular practice of having times of intimate fellowship with God under a fig tree. When he met Jesus for the first time Jesus affirmed him as a Jew in whom there was no guile. When Nathaniel exclaimed, “How do you know me?” Jesus said in so many words “I’m the One you’ve been talking to under the fig tree!” That really blew Nathaniel away and he was convinced forever that Jesus was the Son of God and many other things. (The whole story can be found in John 1:47-51).

I find a challenge in this exchange between Jesus and his apostle. The challenge is simply this: do we have a fig tree or a place where we regularly meet with God and have intimate fellowship with Him? You might call this, as I have, “The Fellowship of the Fig Tree.”

Years ago I gave a devotional to several hundred men on this concept. One of them, who became a dear brother, was in the furniture business. He was Jewish and gave me a beautiful artificial fig tree, placing it in my home where I had my quiet times with God every morning. He wanted me to have my intimate times with God under a fig tree. That was nearly 40 years ago. It is still here today.

Do you belong to the Fellowship of the Fig Tree? Do you have a place where you meet with God every day?

Father, You tell us in Your Word that You can keep us in a state of perfect personal peace if we meet Your conditions for that state of peace. Because I seek this peace in my life, give me the wisdom to worry about nothing, and the faith to pray about everything. May I receive from You the mental discipline to think about all the good things and the moral integrity to do all the right things.

Enable me to meet these conditions for personal peace in the name of Jesus Christ, for my peace and for Your glory. Amen.

The peace of God… will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:7, 12, 13)

I conclude my summary of Paul’s prescription for the peace of God with this condition for attaining and maintaining the peace of God: rest in Christ Jesus.

What does it mean to rest in Christ Jesus? What does it mean to be in Christ? When they want to describe the relationship we have with the risen Christ, the authors of the New Testament say it’s to be “in Christ.” Paul uses this description ninety-seven times in his writings.

According to Jesus, the expression means that we are in union with Him, as a branch is in union with a vine. If we are involved in the work of God, then all day long we are going to be faced with the impossible – things we cannot do – because they are His work and we cannot do His work. We can only be vehicles through which He does His work. When we lose sight of the obvious reality that it is His work, and only He can do His work, if we think it all depends on us, we lose our peace, big time!

Perhaps the greatest “peace thief” devout disciples of Jesus experience is doing the work of Christ in our own strength. What I call “Four Spiritual Secrets” is the solution to that problem. These four secrets are my way of expressing what it means to “rest in Christ Jesus.” (You will find them in the margin of these blogs).

“If you value the approval the God…”
(Philippians 4:8)

Have you made the observation that Jesus asked a lot of questions? The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus asking 83 questions. He asked a profound question in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John: “How can you believe since you look to one another for approval and are not concerned with the approval that comes from God?”

Abraham was told by God, “Walk before Me” (Genesis 17:1). How many of us do that? Do we really move through a twenty-four hour day holding in focus how God feels about who we are, what we are and all the things we’re doing-or are not doing?

There are times in this life when we simply cannot have the approval of God and the approval of man at the same time. When those times come, if our peace depends on the approval of people, the foundation of our peace is very fragile. More than one hundred and fifty times, these three words are found in the New Testament: “In His sight.” That concept must be very important to us all the way through this life. Because, when we all face the certainty of judgment, the way we have lived our lives “in His sight” will be the only thing that matters.

I once heard a law professor challenge his students to be sure to make their presentation to the judge and not to the crowded gallery. It will not be what the spectators think, but what the judge thinks that determines the fate of their client.

Can you see why Paul’s eleventh condition for peace is for us to learn to value the approval of God?

“Delight yourselves in the Lord; yes, find your joy in him at all times.” (Philippians 4:4)

“While pain and suffering are inevitable, misery is optional.” Those were the words of a man who lives every day with excruciating pain. How could misery be optional for someone in agonizing pain? And how do we explain Paul mentioning joy seventeen times in a short letter he wrote from prison to his favorite church?

Paul explains that for those who are experiencing a relationship with the risen, living Christ there is a peace and joy that is not controlled by circumstances. The peace and joy Paul experienced and prescribed could be called, “Peace that doesn’t make good sense” and “Happiness that doesn’t make good sense.” According to Paul, the foundation of that peace and joy is the Lord Himself. He therefore prescribed that we are to delight ourselves in the Lord and then find our peace and joy in Him at all times.

What is your foundation for serenity and joy? If your foundation is the relationship with a loved one, do you realize there is no relationship with people here in this life that cannot be removed? If that foundation is your health, your youth or your athleticism, many thousands of people, who had those foundations before age, an illness, or an injury destroyed them, will join me in warning you that they are very fragile foundations for the peace and happiness Paul is prescribing.

In the opening words of the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John we’re told that Jesus identified and declared the right foundation for us as knowing God and Jesus Christ Whom God sent into this world. Do you know them?

“…never forget the nearness of your Lord.”
(Philippians 4:5)

When Paul was experiencing his last horrible Roman imprisonment, visiting him was very dangerous. If you came to see him the Romans might chain you next to Paul. And nobody did. He writes: “They all forsook me. May God not lay it to their charge.” But he also wrote: “Nevertheless the Lord stood by me and ministered to me” (2 Timothy 4:16, 17). That is what he means when he prescribes: “Never forget the nearness of your Lord.”

This is why I am continuously emphasizing the ground rule that a personal relationship with the Lord is an absolute if you are serious about understanding and applying Paul’s prescription for maintaining the peace of God. If you would like to have a relationship with Christ, follow His directions. Our Lord prescribed:

“Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. For every one who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened” (Luke 11:9, 10 Amplified Bible).

Seeking is intense asking and knocking is intense seeking. If you cannot really relate to the concept of “the nearness of your Lord” give yourself to the pursuit of God as described by Jesus in the passage above.

There is comfort and peace to be found in a personal relationship with God. Millions have made that discovery. Join them and experience the peace of God maintained in your life.