PARTNERSHIP WITH JESUS

(1) PARTNERSHIP WITH JESUS

Under law, man tries to please God and fails. Under
grace, God works within us and enables us to please Him
(Phil. 2:12,13). Those who are trying to please God and
failing to do so, while sincere perhaps, are still under the
law. Most of them are weary and heavy laden with their
struggle to keep the commandments. Such weary and
heavy laden people are the ones whom Jesus invites to
come to Him and to exchange their heavy yoke for His
light one (Matt. 11:28-30). The yoke is a symbol of
partnership - whether in a marriage or in business. Jesus
invites us to enter into a partnership with Him where He
supplies the capital and we get the profits!

John calls the miracles of Jesus 'signs' (Jn. 2:11). In other
words, each miracle was a parable with a message in it.
Essentially, the one message that comes across in the
miracles recorded in John's gospel, is this, that Jesus
wants to enter into a partnership with us.

At the marriage at Cana, Jesus could have filled the water
pots with wine - from nothing. But then there would have
been no partnership. It would have been a one-man show.
The servants therefore were invited to share in the miracle
by doing their part - the easy part - of filling the pots with
water. Then Jesus did the difficult part - of turning it into
wine (Jn. 2:1-11).

Likewise, in the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus could
have produced food from nothing. But He did not do that.
He invited a little boy to give Him his lunch packet; and in
partnership with that little boy He fed the five thousand
(Jn. 6:1-13). The little boy did what he could; and Jesus
did what He could!

The man born blind too was first asked to do what he
could (Jn. 9:1-7). He had to wash in the pool of Siloam.
Then Jesus did the difficult part of opening his eyes.
We see the same principle in the raising of Lazarus. His
friends did the easy part - removing the stone that covered
the grave. Jesus then did the difficult part - of raising
Lazarus from the dead. His friends were then once again
given the opportunity to do what they could - to unbind
Lazarus and release him (Jn. 11:38-44).

After the resurrection, we see the disciples going fishing
one night. "And that night they caught nothing" (Jn. 21:3).
That is a picture of man striving under the law! Then Jesus
came. He could have filled their boats with fish without
their casting their nets into the sea. A God who
commanded the fish to come near Peter's boat on that
lake, could just have easily commanded those very fish to
jump into his boat. But then there would have been no
partnership. So man had to do his part. They had to cast
their nets into the sea. Thus in partnership with Jesus the
miracle was done. Man does the easy part and Jesus
does the difficult part. But they did have to cast their nets.
That is the obedience of faith - that Paul speaks of in
Rom. 1:5.

This is the gospel of the new covenant that the apostles
proclaimed. Where this gospel is not understood, man
tends to swing either to one extreme of legalism (striving
all night forever and forever, with empty boats and no
victory) or to the other extreme of a false grace (where
there is no striving at all and no victory either!).
Many sincere souls are weary and heavy laden because
they are groaning under the burdens of self- made
commandments. Like Pharaoh's taskmasters whipped the
Israelites to produce more bricks, the devil (disguised as a
"preacher of righteousness" - 2 Cor. 11:14,15) whips
many sincere believers saying, "You are not reading the
Bible enough. You are not fasting and praying enough.
You are not witnessing enough, etc". Many a preacher too
has unconsciously taken sides with Satan in bringing
God's people under condemnation through such
preaching. All such condemnation is the result of
ignorance of the new covenant gospel.

Jesus is a Shepherd who leads His flock by going ahead
of them. He does not use a whip and chase them from
behind, like a hireling. All preachers who whip their flock
are hirelings. True shepherds are those who lead, by
being an example themselves. Many have come into
bondage because they have listened to hirelings.
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the
world but to save it (Jn. 3:17). Those who minister
condemnation to others are therefore not sent by God.
God's servants always lead people to salvation.
In all our life, Jesus wants to be a partner with us. When
Peter came to Jesus to collect the temple tax, Jesus told
Peter to throw a hook into the sea and catch the first fish
that came up. In its mouth, Jesus said, would be a
shekel, which would be sufficient to pay the tax for both
Jesus as well as Peter. "For you and Me", were the words
that Jesus told Peter (Matt. 17:27). Think of that phrase
"For you and Me". This is partnership. Jesus is interested
even in helping us to pay our taxes. From the mundane
things that affect our everyday life here on the earth, on to
the things that will abide forever, Jesus calls us to live by
the principle of "You and Me".

Jesus said that when we took this yoke of partnership
with Him we could find rest in our souls (Matt. 11:28-30).
This is the rest that we are exhorted to enter into, by
ceasing from our own works (Heb. 4:10,11).

At the age of 95, having walked with God for over 65
years, the apostle John decided to write a letter - inspired
by the Holy Spirit. The theme of his letter was `fellowship'
(1 Jn. 1:3). Having seen churches and leaders who had
left their first love (Rev. 2:4) and who now had a name that
they were alive (with all their varied Christian activities)
but who were in fact dead in God's sight (Rev. 3:1), John
certainly saw that the great need was to lead Christians
into the joy of fellowship with the Father and His Son
Jesus Christ, inside the rent veil.

There may be joy found in several fields of activity. Some
find it in sport, some in music, some in their profession,
and some even in Christian work. But the purest joy in the
universe is to be found only in fellowship with the Father (1
Jn. 1:4). The psalmist says, "In Thy presence is fullness
of joy" (Psa. 16:11). This was the "joy set before Him"
that made Jesus willing to endure the cross daily (Heb.
12:2). The fellowship with the Father was Jesus' most
prized possession. He did not value anything else in the
universe in comparison with that. This fellowship was what
Jesus knew would be broken on Calvary, when for three
hours He would have to endure the agonies of an eternal
hell for lost humanity (Matt. 27:45). Then the Father would
have to forsake Him and the fellowship that He enjoyed
with the Father from all eternity would be broken for three
hours. He dreaded that break of fellowship so greatly that
He sweated great drops of blood in Gethsemane. The cup
that He prayed to be removed from Him was just this: A
break of fellowship with His Father.

If only we could see this and be gripped by it! How lightly
we speak and sing about following Jesus! To follow Jesus
means to value fellowship with the Father like He did. Sin
would then become exceedingly sinful to us, for it breaks
our fellowship with the Father. An unloving attitude
towards another human being would not even be tolerated,
for it would break our fellowship with the Father, etc.

May the Lord give us revelation so that we see clearly that
true Christianity is nothing less than a life of unbroken
fellowship with a loving Father in heaven.

(2) JOB - AN EXEMPLARY MAN

Job was one of God's choice servants. God could point
him out to Satan, as one man on earth who feared God in
all his ways. "The Lord said to Satan, `Have you
considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him
on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God
and turning away from evil.'" (Job 1:8). God says nothing
about Job's intelligence or his talents or his wealth - for
these have no value to God. He only points out his purity
and his uprightness. As in the case of Jesus, it was Job's
character and not his accomplishments or his ministry
that delighted the heart of God. Even Satan has
supernatural gifts and intelligence. He has Bible-
knowledge too!!

What God looks for however, is character.
When God tests us, He tests our character - not our
knowledge of the Bible. When God looks for a man whom
He can boast in, whom He can point out to Satan, He
looks for a man of character - a blameless and an upright
man, one who fears God and hates evil.

We may have a reputation among other believers for our spirituality. But
can God, Who knows us through and through, point us
out to Satan? Such a certificate as God gave Job is
greater than any earthly honour that we can ever get. All
the empty honour of Christendom too is as useless
rubbish compared to that. So the most important question
is not "What opinion do others have of my spirituality?"
but rather "Can God point me out to Satan as one Whom
He can boast in?"

When God told Satan about Job, Satan said that Job was
serving God because he had benefited and profited
thereby. "Satan answered the Lord, `Does Job fear God
for nothing? Hast Thou not made a hedge about him and
his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast
blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have
increased in the land. But put forth Thy hand now and
touch all that he has; he will surely curse Thee to Thy
face.'" (Job 1:9-11). God refuted that charge and allowed
Satan to test Job to find out for himself that his charge
was not true. God did that because He knew Job's
integrity.

How about us? Do we serve God for material
profit? Would God have to acknowledge that Satan was
right, if Satan pointed to any of us as one who served God
for personal gain? True service for the Lord will bring us
material loss not gain. The profit will only be spiritual. That
which brings material gain, on the other hand, belongs to
Babylon and not to the heavenly Jerusalem.

God had such confidence in Job that he could permit Satan to test
him. Even though Job lost all his children and his property
in one day, yet he continued to worship and serve God.
He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and
naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job
1:20-22). He knew that all that he had - children and
property and even health itself - were God's free gifts to
him and that God had every right to take these away when
He so desired. One cannot truly worship God until one
has forsaken all - that is, given up the right to possess
anything as one's own.

God then allowed Satan to go one step further and to
afflict Job with boils from head to foot. Sickness is from
Satan. But even that can be used by God to sanctify and
perfect His servants. Satan's third step was to afflict Job
through his wife. "Then Job's wife said to him, "Do you still
hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!" (Job 2:9). It
can be quite a test of your sanctification, when your own
wife turns against you and accuses you. The Word of God
commands: "Husbands, love your wives, and do not be
embittered against them .....Love your wives, just as
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for
her."(Col.3:19; Eph.5:25). A husband must never be bitter
against his wife under any circumstances, and he must
love her at all times. If you have a difficult wife, instead
of complaining of your lot in life and envying others who have
godly wives, you could look at your circumstances as a
means to your own sanctification. God tests you under
those very circumstances to see if you qualify to get His
certificate of approval. He tests you, when your wife
shouts at you and taunts you, to see whether you qualify
to be a true representative of Jesus Who was even called
insane by His own relatives. The gospel record says,
"Jesus' own people......went out to take custody of Him;
for they were saying, `He has lost His senses.'"
(Mk.3:21). Jesus bore that insult with patience. We are
called to follow Him and to represent Him.

Satan's fourth step was to accuse Job through his
preacher-friends (Job chapters 4 to 25). This was the
hardest blow for Job to bear - because those preachers
came to him and acted like prophets of God telling him
that all his sicknesses were due to his secret sins. Little
did those preachers realise that they were unconsciously
acting as agents for the `Accuser of the brethren'
(Rev.12:10). But God permitted them to do that in order to
purify Job. We can be overcomers now, even if we lose
our property and our children, or if our wives accuse us, or
if fellow-believers misunderstand us and criticise us, or if
anything else happens that God sees fit to send into our
lives. Thus God demonstrates to Satan that He has a
remnant on earth, who will not only submit to all His
dealings with them, but who will also accept every trial
joyfully, convinced that these light afflictions are designed
by God to produce for them an eternal weight of glory. The
Bible says, "For momentary, light affliction is producing
for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen." (2 Cor.4:17,18).

Every trial that we go through is a trial of our faith. Even
in Job's time, he could say, "God knows every detail of what
is happening to me." (Job. 23:10-Living). Today we can go
one step further and say (on the basis of Romans 8:28)
that "God PLANS every detail concerning me."

Do we really believe, concerning everything that comes across
our path, that God has planned it all in perfect wisdom
and love, and that His power is almighty enough to deliver
us from the testing, when the right time comes? Will God
find in you and me those whom He can boldly point out to
Satan as men who will never complain or grumble under
any circumstance, but who will only give thanks for all
things at all times?

(3) GOD'S PERFECT PLAN FOR THOSE

WHO HAVE FAILED

There are many brothers and sisters who feel that
because they have sinned and failed God at some time in
their past lives, therefore they cannot fufilll God's perfect
plan for their lives now.

The message that God is trying to get through to us right
from the opening pages of the Bible is that God can take
a man who has failed and make something glorious out of
him and still make him fufilll God's perfect plan for his life.
This is because even the failure may have been part of
God's perfect plan to teach him a few unforgettable
lessons. This is impossible for human logic to grasp,
because we know God so very little. It is only broken men
and women whom God can use. And one way He breaks
us is through repeated failures.

Part of the apostle Peter's training for leadership was
failure. The Lord used Peter's failure to break him.

One of the biggest problems that God has with us is to
bless us in such a way that the blessing does not puff us
up with pride. To get victory over anger and then to be
proud of it, is to fall into a far deeper pit than the one we
were in! God has to keep us humble in victory. Genuine
victory over sin is always accompanied by the deepest
humility. This is where repeated failures have a part to
play in destroying our self-confidence so that we are
convinced that victory over sin is not possible apart from
God's enabling grace. Then, when we do get victory, we
can never boast about it. Further, when we have failed
repeatedly ourselves, we can never despise another who
fails. We can sympathise with those who fall, because we
have come to know the weakness of our own flesh,
through our own innumerable falls. We can "deal gently
with the ignorant and misguided, since we ourselves are
beset with weakness" (Heb. 5:3).

Nothing is impossible for God - not even to bring us into
His perfect will, after we have failed miserably and
repeatedly. Only our unbelief can hinder Him. If you say,
"But I have messed up things so many times. It is
impossible for God now to bring me into His perfect plan",
then it will be impossible for God, because YOU cannot
believe in what He can do for you. But Jesus said that
nothing is impossible for God to do for us - if only we
believe. "Be it done to you according to your faith", is
God's law in all matters (Matt. 9:29). We will get what we
have faith for. If we believe that something is impossible
for God to do for us, then it will never be fufillled in our
lives. On the other hand you will discover at the judgment
seat of Christ that another believer who had made a
greater mess of his life than you, nevertheless fufillled
God's perfect plan for his life - just because he believed
that God could pick up the broken pieces of his life and
make something very good out of it. What regret there will
be in your life in that day, when you discover that it was
not your failures (however many they may have been) that
frustrated God's plan in your life, but your unbelief!

The story of the prodigal son, who wasted so many years,
shows that God gives His best even to failures. The father
said, "Quickly bring out the best robe", for one who had
let him down so badly. This is the message of the gospel
- redemption and a new beginning, not just once, but
again and again - for God never gives up on anyone.

The parable of the estate-owner who went out hiring labourers
(Matt. 20:1-16) also teaches the same thing. People who
were hired at the eleventh hour were the ones to be
rewarded first. In other words, those who had wasted 90%
(11/12th) of their lives, doing nothing of eternal value,
could still do something glorious for God with the
remaining 10% of their lives. This is a tremendous
encouragement to all who have failed. "The reason the
Son of God was manifested was to undo (dissolve) the
works the devil has done (1 Jn. 3:8 Amplified Bible). That
means that Jesus came to untie all the knots that there
are in our lives. Picture it like this: All of us started at
babyhood with a nice ball of string. But by now that string
has been knotted up with ten thousand knots, and we do
not have any hope that we can ever untie those knots. We
are discouraged and depressed as we look at our lives.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus has come to
untie every one of those knots. You say, "That is
impossible!". Well then, it will be done to you according to
your faith. It will be impossible in your case. But I hear
someone else whose life is worse than yours, saying,
"Yes, I believe that God will do that in me". To him too it
will be according to his faith. In his life, God's perfect plan
will be fufillled. In Jer. 18:1-6, God spoke His word to
Jeremiah through a practical illustration. Jeremiah was
asked to go to a potter's house, and there he saw the
potter trying to make a vessel. But the vessel "was
spoiled in the hand of the potter". So what did the potter
do? "He remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the
potter to make". Then came the application: "Can I not, O
.............. deal with you as this potter does?", was the
Lord's question (v. 6). (Fill in your name in those dotted
lines, and that would be God's question to you). If there is
a godly sorrow in your life for all your failures, then even
if your sins are like scarlet or red like crimson, not only will
they be as white as snow - as promised under the old
covenant (Isa. 1:18), but God promises under the new
covenant, "not to remember your sins any more" (Heb.
8:12).

Whatever your blunders or failures, you can make a
new beginning with God. And even if you have made a
thousand new beginnings in the past and have come to
failure, you can still make the 1001st new beginning
today. God can still make something glorious out of your
life.

While there is life, there is hope. So, never fail to trust
God. He cannot do many mighty works for many of His
children, not because they have failed Him in the past, but
because they will not trust Him now. Let us then "give
glory to God by being strong in faith" (Rom. 4:20), trusting
Him in the days to come for the things that we considered
impossible up until now. All people - young and old - can
have hope, no matter how much they may have failed in
the past, if only they will acknowledge their failures, be
humble and trust God. Thus we can all learn from our
failures and go on to fufilll God's perfect plan for our lives.
And in the ages to come, He can show us forth to others
as examples of what He could do with those whose lives
were total failures. In that day He will show what He could
do in us, through the "surpassing riches of His grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:7).

(4) THE SPIRIT FILLED LIFE

One of the marks of the Spirit-filled life is a life that is
continuously seeking greater degrees of fullness. " I am
pressing on," says Paul, nearly thirty years after his
conversion, and as he was drawing to the end of his life
(Phil. 3:14). He still has not attained. He is seeking a still
greater degree of the fullness of the Spirit of God in his life,
and is therefore straining every spiritual muscle toward
this goal. " I am not perfect (complete)," he says in
Philippians 3:12. But in verse 15, he seems to say the
exact opposite: " Let us who are perfect (complete) be
thus minded." This is the paradox of the Spirit-filled life -
complete, and yet not complete; in other words, full and
yet desiring a greater degree of fullness.

The Spirit-filled state is not a static one. There are greater
and greater degrees of fullness. The Bible says that the
Holy Spirit leads us from one degree of glory to another (2
Cor. 3:18) - or, in other words, from one degree of fullness
to another. A cup can be full of water; so can a bucket; so
can a tank and so can a river. But there is a vast
difference of quantity between the fullness in the cup and
the fullness in the river.

The newborn convert can be filled with the Spirit
immediately on conversion. The Apostle Paul too was a
Spirit-filled man at the end of his life. But there is a vast
difference between the fullness of the newborn convert and
the fullness of the mature Apostle. The former is like a full
cup whereas the latter is alike a full river.

The Holy Spirit is constantly seeking to enlarge our
capacity, so that He can fill us to a greater degree. This is
where the Cross comes in. There can be no enlargement
in our lives if we avoid the pathway of the Cross. This is
why the Corinthians Christians were so shallow. They
glorified in gifts and ignored the Cross. And so Paul
exhorts them again and again in his two epistles to them,
to accept the Cross in their lives. He exhorts them to be
thereby enlarged (2 Cor. 6:13).

If we accept the Cross consistently in our lives, we shall
find the cup becoming a bucket, the bucket becoming a
tank, the tank becoming a river and the river becoming
many rivers. At each stage, as our capacity enlarges, we
shall need to be filled and filled again. Thus will be fufillled
in us the promise of the Lord Jesus, " Rivers of living water
shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in
me (He was speaking of the Holy Spirit)" (John 7:38, 39-
LB).

This also explains why Paul exhorts the Ephesian
Christians to ` be continuously being filled with the Spirit '
(Eph. 5:18). Paul obviously never believed in a once-for-all
experience of being filled with the Spirit. What he is
speaking of here is a continuous enlargement of capacity
for greater degrees of fullness.

Paul himself accepted the Cross always. He says in 2
Cor. 4:10, " Always bearing about in the body the dying of
the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made
manifest in our body (in ever-increasing degree)." One
aspect of the Cross that he accepted was the disciplining
of his bodily appetites. The fullness of the Spirit is never a
substitute for discipline and hard work. Paul still needed
to pommel his body and bring it into subjection. He says,
" Like an athlete I punish my body, treating it roughly,
training it to do what it should, not what it wants to " (1
Cor. 9:27-LB). He disciplined his eyes in what they read
and looked at, his ears in what they listened to, and his
tongue in what it spoke. He disciplined his life in every
area. Thus he was enlarged.

Thank God for the crisis He gives us in our lives. But let
us not forget that every crisis must lead to a process.
Christ is not only the Door, He is also the Way. If we
enter in through the narrow gate, we have to walk the
narrow way. Let us never be guilty of emphasising the
crisis to the exclusion of the process. The new birth is a
crisis, but spiritual life in the present tense is the
important thing, not just the memory of a date in the past.
Some are unable to remember the date when the crisis of
the new birth took place. But we don't say that a man is
dead merely because he can't remember his birthday! And
yet, alas, to some Christians, the testimony of an
experience is the only test of life!

In relation to the fullness of the Spirit too, the important
thing is the present tense reality of it, manifested in
Christlike living and service. The memory of an experience
in the past, however wonderful, is by itself of no avail.

God is looking for men and women who will never be
content with mere experiences and " blessings," but who
will take up the Cross daily and follow Jesus and thus
manifest in their lives and in their service the reality of
those words, " It is no longer I, but Christ that lives in me."
This, and this alone is the Spirit-filled life.

(5) THE SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM

The seven pillars of wisdom are listed in James 3:17, and
the true church is built on these pillars. By these
characteristics, we can identify the Bride of Christ
anywhere:

1. Purity

The first and most important pillar in the true church is
purity. This is not a hollow pillar of a merely external
purity. No. It is solid through and through. It is purity of
the heart, and it grows from the seed of the fear of God deep
within the heart. It is not by clever brains but by pure
hearts that the true church of Christ is built. We cannot
build the church if we don't have spiritual revelation on God
and His ways - and only the pure in heart will be allowed
to see God in their hearts (Matt.5:8).

2. Peaceableness

Righteousness and peace always go together. They are
twins. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace
(Rom.14:17). True wisdom is never argumentative or
quarrelsome. It does not strive. It maintains harmonious
relationships with everyone, as far as possible. It is
impossible to quarrel with a man who is filled with Divine
wisdom, for such a man is a peaceable man. He may be
firm and he may be hated by compromisers. But he is
always peaceable. Jesus told His disciples that when
they travel to preach the gospel, they should stay only in
the house of "men of peace" (Luke 10:5-7). We must be
men of peace, if we are to build God's house.

3. Consideration

The Bride of Christ is always fair to others, gentle, patient,
forbearing and courteous. She is never harsh or rough but
always considerate of the feelings of others. When the
church is supported by this pillar, it becomes easy to bear
with one another - even if some are slow of understanding
or crude in their manners. The problem, we begin to
realise, is not the crudeness of our brother or sister, but
the impatience that dwells within us. And so we fight the
right enemy - our Self-life - and not our brothers and
sisters.

4. Willingness to yield

One who cannot receive admonishment and exhortation,
or who feels that he has gone beyond that stage, is truly
foolish, even if he is an elder or an older man (See
Eccl.4:13). In India especially, many people have the
heathen idea that "older people are wiser". This may be
true in earthly matters but certainly not in spiritual
matters. Jesus did not choose any of the older people in
the synagogues to be his apostles. he chose young men.
Older people in the church often find it difficult to receive
exhortation from a younger brother who may be the elder
in the church and also far more godly. But that is because
of their pride. Those who are willing to receive correction
become wise (Prov.13:1O). And so where the brothers
and sisters in a church are eager to receive exhortation
and correction, a truly glorious church will be built. The
wise man loves those who exhort him faithfully and will
eagerly seek out their company. `Submit to one another'
(Eph.5:21) are the words written on this pillar.

5. Fullness of mercy and its good fruits

The Bride of Christ is full of mercy - not just occasionally
merciful. She has no problem forgiving anyone, freely and
cheerfully from the heart. She does not judge or condemn
others, but rather exercises compassion towards them
like her Bridegroom. This mercy is not just a mental
attitude but finds expression in good fruits that are brought
forth in her actions. She does good in all the ways she
can to all the people she can at all the times she can.

6. Steadfastness

A brother who has Divine wisdom will be free from all
crookedness. He will be wholehearted and straightforward,
with a single eye, free from doubts and hesitation. He will
not be double-minded, but strong in faith in God, and he
won't be looking at his own weaknesses, but at the
promises of God. Such a brother knows that victory over
all conscious sin is possible here and now. He is a
dependable person - who can be trusted at all times to
keep his word. He is steadfast and unmovable. You
cannot make him bend his convictions or to compromise
in any matter. He is straight and upright as a rod.

7. Freedom from hypocrisy

The Bride has more spiritual content inwardly than others
can see in her externally. Her hidden life is better than the
opinion that others have of her external life. This is the
exact opposite of the `spiritual adulteress' or the `Harlot,'
whose so-called spirituality is only meant for receiving the
honour of men. What she has is actually `religiosity' and
not true spirituality. The bride watches her inner thoughts,
motives and attitudes far more than her external words
and actions. She longs for God's approval over her inner
life and cares nothing at all for man's approval of her
external life. By this test, each of us can know whether
we are part of the Bride or of the Harlot.

(6) THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

There are three lists of spiritual gifts given us in the New
Testament (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, Romans 12:6-8 and
Ephesians 4:11). In 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, the exercise
of spiritual gifts is compared with the functioning of the
members of our physical body. A man may have life and
yet be blind, deaf, dumb and paralyzed. Many churches
are like that. Their members are born again. But they have
no gifts of the Holy Spirit with which to serve the Lord -
and so they are powerless. The gifts of the Spirit are what
enable the Body of Christ to see, hear, talk and walk.
Godliness is the life of the Body of Christ. But what can
Christ's Body do for others, without the gifts of the Spirit.
What would Jesus Himself have been like if He had no
gifts of the Spirit? He would still have overcome sin and
lived a holy life. But without the anointing of the Spirit, He
would not have been able to preach the way He did, heal
the sick, cast out demons or do any miracle. Jesus'
anointing with the Holy Spirit at the age of 30 did not
make Him any holier than He was earlier. His 31st year
was not any holier than His 29th year. But with the
anointing of the Spirit, He received power to serve others.
If Jesus had merely gone around showing people His holy
life, He could not have accomplished His Father's
purposes. Neither can the church today accomplish God's
purposes by merely manifesting holy living to others.
Jesus had both holiness and the gifts. His Body today
must have both of these too.

The tragedy in Christendom today is that some groups
emphasise holiness of life while others emphasise the
gifts of the Spirit. But these are not "either-or" options.
The Bible says, "Let your clothes be white all the time
(live a holy life at all times) and let not oil be lacking on
your head (live under the anointing constantly)"
(Eccl.10:8). We need both. The gifts of the Spirit do not
make anyone spiritual. The Corinthian Christians had all
the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor.1:7). They exercised "the word
of wisdom" (one of the gifts of the Spirit) in their meetings.
In spite of that, there was not one wise (spiritual) man
among them (1 Cor.6:5). A word of wisdom can come
through a carnal person. But wisdom itself is found only in
a spiritual person. One can receive a word of wisdom from
God in a moment. But wisdom itself can come only
through many years of taking up the cross. We cannot
choose our spiritual gift ourselves, because it is God Who
determines what gift will best fit us for our ministry in
Christ's Body. But we are told to seek earnestly for those
gifts that will build up the Body - and especially for the gift
of prophecy (1Cor 14:1,12).

When Jesus taught His disciples to ask the Father for the
Holy Spirit (Lk.11:13), He illustrated the way they were to
ask with a parable of a man who went to his neighbour's
house to ask for food. There are two important points to
be noticed in this parable: 1. The man was asking for food
not for himself but for someone else. 2. He kept on asking
until he received what he needed. What do we learn from
this parable? First of all, that we are not to seek the gifts
of the Spirit for our own benefit, but for the benefit of
others. If only those who have sought for the baptism and
the gifts of the Spirit had kept this one principle before
them, they would have become far more spiritual. And
there would have been far less exercise of counterfeit gifts
in Christendom today. Unfortunately, most people are
taught to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit only in order
to get an experience for themselves, and not in order to be
a blessing to others. There are many around us who have
needs that God wants to meet - and He wants to meet
their needs through us. That's why He allows them to
cross our path. He wants us to seek Him for the gifts of
the Spirit that are needed to deliver these people and
bless them.

A man came to Jesus' disciples once with his demon-
possessed child. But the disciples could not help him.
The man then went to Jesus and said, "I went to your
disciples for help but they could not help me." Are these
the words that our neighbours and friends are saying to
the Lord today about us? If we seek the Lord's blessing
only for ourselves, we will remain dry. God waters only
those who water (help) others (Prov.11:25). Perhaps some
brother near you needs a word of wisdom to solve his
problem. Another may be in need of a word of
encouragement for his depressing situation. Yet another
may need deliverance from some bondage. We must seek
God for the gifts needed to help such people. Every gift of
the Spirit is given that we might bless and edify others.
Luke 4:18,19 tells us the result of Jesus being anointed
with the Holy Spirit. He was enabled thereby to preach
good news to the poor, release the captives, give sight to
the blind, bring freedom to the downtrodden and proclaim
the favourable year of the Lord.

Notice that everything mentioned here is for the benefit of others.

The gifts of the Spirit did not bring any benefit to the Lord Himself in His
life. We must have a concern for others and a sense of
our own inability to help them, if we are to seek for the
gifts of the Spirit in the right way.

The second thing thatwe learn from this parable is that we

must keep on asking God for the power of the Holy Spirit

until we receive it. God tests us to see whether we are really

eager to receive His power and whether we really value

His gifts. He also waits to see whether we feel really helpless

and unable to serve Him, without His power. Many give up

praying too soon because they are self-confident - and thus fail these
tests.

(7) FREEDOM FROM FEAR

A spiritual leader will never use fear as a means to get
people to submit to him. On the contrary, he will seek to
deliver people from fear. Fear is a weapon found only in
Satan's armoury. Jesus came to deliver man from fear.
Every spiritual leader has the same task. It says in
Hebrews 2:14 that Jesus "took flesh and blood so that He
might deliver those who through the fear of death were
subject to bondage and slavery all their life". Romans 8:15
tells us that "we have not received a spirit of slavery
leading to fear again, but the spirit of adoption as sons".
Here Paul contrasts the Holy Spirit Who makes us sons
of God with the spirit of slavery that makes us fear. Fear
always brings slavery.

People all over the world live in fear.
Unfortunately, believers also live in fear . If a man can
frighten you sufficiently, you will be his slave. This is the
principle on which all cults operate. People with strong
soul-power use the weapon of fear on people, threatening
them that if ever they leave their group, something terrible
will happen to them or to their families. This is sheer
nonsense. But when people hear such threats again and
again over a period of time, they begin to believe it and are
scared to leave the cult. Even if they find everything wrong
in their group, they will still stay on through fear. The
leader may even be living in adultery. But cult-members
will not dare to speak against him, out of fear. Such fear
brings them into slavery.

Whenever a Christian leader uses the weapon of fear to frighten

believers into submission to his authority, or to pay their tithes, or to do
anything, he is using Satan's weapon. We must never use
the weapon of "fear" to make people do what we want
them to do. If anyone uses this weapon, then any group
he builds will only be a cult.

In the true church of God, every brother and sister must
be left totally free to make his own choices. We certainly
need to discipline people in the church if they live in sin.
But they must not be threatened with curses and
judgment. There are pastors who tell their congregations
that if they don't pay their tithes to the church, they'll end
up spending that money on doctors and hospital bills.
This is sheer nonsense.

We are called to deliver people from such fears. People

must give their money joyfully

and cheerfully - not under threat of punishment or
judgment. God doesn't want any money from anyone that
is extracted like that. And pastors who force money out of
people will come under the judgment of God sooner or
later.

Under the old covenant, people served God out of
fear. In Deuteronomy 28, the Israelites were warned that if
they didn't obey God's commandments, they'd be
punished with poverty, sickness, madness and other evils.
So they obeyed God - out of fear. Malachi told the
Israelites that they would be cursed if they didn't pay their
tithes (Mal.3:10). But that was under the Law. Jesus
came to deliver us from such legalistic obedience.
Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist prophesied of the
new covenant age and said that we could now "serve God
without fear" (Lk.1:74), in true reverence.

Is there anything in your life that you do out of fear? Do you

read the Bible each morning because you fear that some calamity may
strike you if you don't read it? That is plain and simple
superstition. And God certainly does not want you to read
the Bible in that superstitious way! He wants you to know
His intense love for you and to be free from all fear. The
reason why God has cleansed us in the blood of Jesus -
and justified us too - is so that we might never feel
condemned by Satan at any time. Any ministry that
brings God's people under condemnation can never be
from God. The Lord has come to set people free - not to
bring them into more bondage. Most believers are already
suffering so much with their many problems. We don't
have to give them more problems with condemnation when
they come to the church meetings. They come to be
delivered and helped - not scolded and condemned and
sent home depressed.

The Lord rejoices over His people with shouts of joy - and
that's what we must proclaim to God's people. The whole
purpose of praising the Lord in the meetings of the church
is to celebrate His love for us and to rejoice in the fact that
He delights in us and is happy with us. God forgave us,
not because we were good, but because He loved us. He
chose us in Christ, when there was nothing good in us.
How much more He will love us now that we have
repented? Yet Satan has succeeded in producing more
condemnation among God's children than among his own
children. Actually it is Satan's children who should feel
condemned, not us. But they live in a world of deception
and live happily. But most of God's children - who should
be among the happiest people in the world, live under
feelings of condemnation and unworthiness. This is not
humility but unbelief!

Many believers claim to be filled with
the Holy Spirit but they are still slaves to fear. How can a
person be filled with the Holy Spirit and still be a slave to
fear? Some false prophet comes along and tells them that
some calamity will come upon them - and they are
immediately filled with fear. Then the false prophet
collects money from them to pray for "God's protection
over them" - and then moves on to visit some other family,
to deceive them. We must beware of such false prophets.
There are many false prophets roaming around the world
today producing fear in people's minds. Ten thousand
false prophets may prophesy evil against us. But no evil
can touch us. It will only rebound on them. We must
teach our congregations this truth and make them bold.
We can never have confidence before God or boldness
before Satan if we have any type of fear! If we fear God, we
need never fear anything else.

Fear is the devil's weapon. Anyone who uses "fear" in his
ministry is in fellowship with Satan. Jesus warned people
about hell, but he never frightened them with scary stories
and gruesome details of the place! And He didn't threaten
His disciples who left him, with dire consequences. The
Bible commands masters never to threaten their servants
(Eph.6:9). If fear is a weapon of the devil, how can we as
servants of God ever use it. Yet there are multitudes of
Christian leaders who use fear to control their flock. Even
if people call us by bad names, we must not pronounce
judgment on them or threaten them with God's wrath. The
Pharisees called Jesus the prince of devils. But in reply,
Jesus did not threaten them but forgave them
(Matt.12:32).

Let us follow His example. When we speak
to people, we give forth a spirit with our words too. We
may not be not aware of it, but it is there. If bad breath
comes forth from our mouths, others can detect it each
time we open our mouths, but we may not be aware of it
ourselves! It is exactly the same with the odour that
comes forth from our spirits! We may preach on holiness
but the spirit coming forth from us may not be holy. We
may speak on humility, but the spirit coming forth from us
may not be humble! Two brothers may preach the same
sermon on humility. One may have a humble spirit and
communicate that spirit to his hearers. The other may
have an arrogant spirit and he will communicate that -
even though both sermons are the same! There's a lot of
difference between these two preachers - and we must
discern that. In the same way, we can transmit a spirit of
fear to others, if we have fear within ourselves. We can
also bring believers under condemnation by the way we
preach God's Word to them. We may be sincere, but the
spirit coming forth from us may be a spirit that brings
people into bondage.

The effectiveness of our message
depends on the spirit that comes forth from our hearts,
and not just the knowledge that comes forth from our
understanding. We are communicating a life to others and
not just a message. If you're a slave to any type of fear,
that spirit of fear will come forth from you and defile others
to whom you speak, and they will also be bound by that
spirit of fear. That's just like it is in the human body: If
you're a carrier of a sickness in your blood stream, you
will transmit that sickness to your children. That's why it
is important that we eliminate every fear from our life - fear
of men, fear of Satan, fear of sickness, fear of death, fear
of evil circumstances, fear of road-accidents, fear of
poverty (in a poor country like ours that can be a very real
fear), fear that our children may not get a good education
or good jobs, and many other fears like that.

The only thing that can drive out such fears from us, is the
fear of God and faith in Him. If we fear God, we will not
fear anything or anyone else. If we trust in God, we know
that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him and
that He honours all who honour Him. When faith dwells in
our hearts, fear cannot dwell there, even though we may
have occasional moments of fear. The important question
is what dominates our thinking: Is it fear or faith? We
must also ask ourselves if we ever try to dominate others,
using the weapon of fear.

(8) HINDERING YOUNGER WORKERS

A self-centered Christian leader hinders others below him
from becoming leaders, let his own position be
threatened. And so he ministers in such a way as to
make himself a necessity to those to whom he ministers.
This is utterly contrary to God's will. Oswald Chambers
once said that anyone who made himself a necessity to
some other soul had got out of God's order. God alone is
the only absolute necessity to any human soul. May none
of us ever try to take that place.

No one is indispensable in Christ's Church. God's work
can easily carry on without us. In fact, it can carry on
much better without the help of those conceited folk who
consider themselves indispensable! We must recognise
this fact constantly. And so, we must be willing to
withdraw into the background anytime God calls us to.
But the self-centred Christian worker will never accept
that. He will want to hold on to his position for as long as
possible. Many such "Christian leaders" are rotting away
on their "thrones" today, hindering the work of God. They
do not know what it is to face graciously into the
background and let someone else take their place.

You've probably heard the saying that success without a
successor is a failure. Jesus recognised this and trained
people to carry on His work. In 3 1/2 years He had trained
people to take over the leadership. Paul recognised the
necessity of training other people to carry on the work. In
2 Timothy 2:2, he says, "Now Timothy, what I have
committed to you. I want you to pass on to other people
who will in turn be able to train others (right on upto the
fourth generation)" (Paraphrase). What Paul was saying in
effect was, "You must ensure that you commit this
treasure to others. Don't ever hinder people younger than
you, from coming up." The people in the business world
recognise this principle too. But many Christian leaders
do not. Truly, "the children of this world are in their
generation wiser than the children of light."

It is indeed nothing but self-centredness that makes a
man jealous of someone younger doing things better than
he. Cain was jealous of the fact that Abel had been
accepted by God and that he himself had been rejected. If
Abel had been older than he, that might have been
tolerable. But it was the awful fact that his younger brother
was better than he that made him furious enough to slay
Abel.

We see the same in the case of Joseph and his brothers.
Joseph received Divine revelations, and that made all his
ten elder brothers green with jealousy and they tried to do
away with him.

King Saul was jealous of young David, because the
women sang, "Saul has slain thousands while David has
slain ten thousands." From that day he determined to kill
him. Man's history - and alas, the history of the Christian
Church too - is filled with the same story over and over
again.

On the other hand, what a refreshing contrast it is to look
at a man like Barnabas in the New Testament. He was a
senior worker who took the newly-converted Paul of
Tarsus under his wing, when no one else would accept
Paul. Barnabas brought him to the church in Antioch and
encouraged him. In Acts chapter 13, we read that
Barnabas and Paul went out together on a missionary
journey. And when Barnabas saw that God was calling
this junior worker, Paul, to a larger ministry than his own,
he willingly stepped back and graciously faded into the
background. And the phrase, "Barnabas and Paul"
changes almost unnoticed to "Paul and Barnabas" in the
book of Acts. The Christian Church suffers today,
because there are few like Barnabas who know what it is
to step back and let another be honoured. We are willing
to step back in matters of no importance. When passing
through a door, for example, we don't mind stepping back
and permitting another to go through first. But in the
realms that matter - such as position and leadership in
the Christian Church - we are not so ready to step back.
Our self-life is so deceitful. We can have a false humility
in things that don't count. But it is in important matters
that we see ourselves as we really are.

(9) HUMBLING ONESELF

A spiritual person will always be ready to humble himself.
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. If
we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, He
will exalt us at the proper time (1Pet.5:5,6). To be exalted
does not mean that we become great men in this world or
in Christendom and get the honour of men. It refers to
spiritual exaltation, where we are given spiritual authority
to fulfill all the will of God in our life and ministry. But such
exaltation depends on our humbling ourselves. To humble
ourselves under God's mighty hand means to accept
joyfully all the circumstances that God sends into our
lives. We allow those circumstances to humble us, so
that we become smaller and God becomes greater. When
we become smaller in people's eyes, then they won't live
in dependence on us, but on the Lord. Humbling ourselves
involves apologizing to all whom we've wronged. As
servants of the Lord, we are to be servants of all people
and must be willing to go under all of them to bless them.
When we make mistakes, we must be quick to
acknowledge them and to apologize where necessary.
The only one who never makes a mistake is God.

Henry Suso was a man of God who lived in Germany, a
few hundred years ago. He was a saintly man and a
bachelor. He prayed often that the Lord would make him
broken and humble like Jesus Himself was. This was how
God answered his prayer. One day Suso heard a knock at
his door. When he opened the door, he saw a strange
woman standing there with a baby in her arms. He had
never seen her before. She was an evil woman who was
wanting to get rid of her newborn baby and decided that
the best man to dump it on was Henry Suso. So she told
him, in a voice loud enough for everyone in the street to
hear, "Here is the fruit of your sin", and left the baby in
Suso's arms and walked off. Suso was stunned. His
reputation in the town had been shattered in a moment.
He took the baby inside, knelt down and told the Lord,
"Lord, you know I'm innocent. What must I do now?" The
Lord replied, "Do what I did. Suffer for the sins of others".
Suso accepted the word of the Lord and never justified
himself befo re anyone. He brought up that child as his
own. He was content that God knew the truth and he was
willing for everyone else to misunderstand him. Many
years later, the woman was convicted of her sin and came
back to Suso's house and proclaimed to all the
neighbours that Suso was innocent and that she had told
a lie. But what had happened in the intervening years?
Henry Suso's prayer had been answered. He had become
broken and humble like his Master. God had been able to
accomplish a work of sanctification in Suso's life, freeing
him from man's opinion's so that God's opinion alone
mattered to him thereafter.

Are we willing to pay such a price in order to become like
Jesus? Or do we still seek the honour of men? God
breaks us by allowing us to be misunderstood, misjudged,
falsely accused and publicly humiliated. In all such
circumstances, we must refuse to see the men who are
harassing us. They may be our brothers or our enemies. It
doesn't matter. Behind the hand of every Judas Iscariot, is
our heavenly Father giving us a cup to drink. If we see the
Father's hand in such situations, we'll drink the cup
joyfully, however bitter and painful it may be. But if we see
only Judas, then we'll take out our sword (as Peter did)
and cut off people's ears (or their reputations) or whatever.
When we are attacked or falsely accused, God wants us
to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. It's easy to
do that once we see that it is God's hand there, and not
man's.

It is best to leave all matters with God. He knows what He
is doing and He's got everything under His control. He's
chiseling away at the rock to sculpture the likeness of
Jesus in us. Some parts of the rock are very hard and He
has to use false accusations and persecution to chisel
out those parts. If we submit to His chiselling, we'll come
forth in the end as Christlike men with spiritual authority.
When Judas betrayed Jesus, Jesus could call him,
"Friend", because He saw His Father's hand clearly. If we
see the sovereignty of God in all our circumstances, it'll
be easy to humble ourselves. And it'll be easy for God to
exalt us at the proper time. God knows the right time to
lift a pressure from our shoulders and to give us His
authority. So let's wait for Him. No-one who waits for Him
will ever be disappointed or put to shame (Isaiah 49:23).
Let us follow in Jesus' footsteps. Let people say whatever
evil they want to, about us. If we honour God, He will one
day honour us. If we're serious about following the Lord,
we will find that God takes us through many painful
experiences. But His purpose in all of them will be to free
us from the opinions of men and from the chains that tie
us down to earth - so that we can "mount up with wings
like eagles" (Isaiah 40:31). God will order our
circumstances to so humble us before men, that we
finally come to the place where we care only for His
opinion. Then our spiritual authority will be really powerful.
May it be so for all of us.

(10) THE DECEPTION OF SATAN

In Genesis 3:1, we can see how Satan attacks. It says
there that the serpent was the craftiest of all the animals.
Satan entered that serpent (just like the demons entered
the pigs when Jesus cast them out of the man of Gadara).
And Satan spoke to Eve through the serpent and asked
her "Has God indeed said - You shall not eat of every tree
of the garden?" When Eve said that this was indeed what
God had said, Satan countered God's Word and said,
"You shall not die". Notice how Satan comes. First of all,
he questions God's Word. That is how he comes to us
too. "Has God really said that we are not to do that?", he
asks, "What's wrong in doing this? These Biblical
commands are old-fashioned. They were written for that
time and that culture in which Paul lived. They are not
meant to be literally obeyed by us in the 20th century",
etc., etc.,

We find young and old people asking such questions
constantly, little realizing that they are becoming
mouthpieces of Satan. Even when their conscience tells
them that something is wrong, they still use their reason
and question what God has forbidden. When something is
commanded or forbidden by God in His Word, we can be
sure that God has a very good reason for doing so. But
Satan always makes us question whether God really
meant it like that etc., And what is Satan's ultimate aim in
making us question God's Word? Exactly the same as
was his aim in Eve's case - to take us away from the
Lord, and to compel God to reject us and cast us out,
even as He cast Adam and Eve out of His presence.

Jesus once said that Satan was a thief. Satan does not
steal money, for he knows that money has no eternal
value. He steals only what has eternal value - primarily the
souls of men. Jesus said further that after Satan steals,
he kills and destroys what he has stolen (John 10:10). In
contrast, Jesus went on to say, that He Himself had come
to give us abundant life. Isn't it amazing that in a world of
5,500 million people, more than 99% of the people prefer
to believe Satan's lies and to obey him rather than believe
in Jesus Christ and obey the Word of God. There we can
see what a tremendous work Satan has done in
convincing people that it is not a serious matter to
disobey God's Word.

When people take their first drink of alcohol, or smoke
their first cigarette, or begin to take drugs like heroin and
cocaine, do you think Satan warns them that these will
destroy their bodies and minds on earth and finally send
their souls to Hell for eternity? No. He doesn't tell them
the truth - for that would be unpleasant to hear. He tells
them that they will get a kick out of trying it, and that they
can have some enjoyment out of it. That is what Satan
told Eve too. And that is how he is deceiving millions of
young people around the world today. Even if it is a matter
of immorality or stealing other people's things, Satan
says, "What's wrong with that? Don't be guided by
outmoded 19th-century ideas" etc., Be careful of these
thoughts that Satan puts into your mind. His ultimate
purpose is to destroy you. We see in verse 6 that as soon
as Eve saw that the tree was good for food, her body was
drawn to it. That forbidden fruit has many 20th century
counterparts. Many things that God has forbidden, we will
find our bodies being drawn to. The Word of God goes on
to say that Eve found the tree to be a delight to her eyes
too. Our eyes will find many things very pleasing that God
has forbidden us to even look at.

It says further that Eve found the fruit appealing to her
mind as well. She saw the fruit as something that could
make her wise. Our minds too are attracted to many
things that God has forbidden. Be careful when your body
and mind are drawn to something that your conscience
tells you is wrong. I am sure that at that moment Eve's
conscience told her clearly that what she was going to do
was wrong. She knew very well that God had told her not
to eat that fruit. But what did she do? Because her body
and her mind both wanted the fruit, she convinced herself
that there was nothing wrong in eating it. So she killed her
conscience and took the fruit and ate it. What did Satan
accomplish by making Eve sin? Many years earlier, he
himself had fallen from God's presence. Once he had
become evil, he was determined to make others evil too. It
is the same with the human race now. When a person
does something evil, he is not happy in being alone in the
evil he has done. He wants to get others to do the same
evil too.

In Proverbs 1:10, it says: "Don't go along with someone
who leads you to do evil". Satan became evil and he
wanted to drag Eve down with him too. And when Eve had
partaken of that poisonous spirit, she wanted to drag her
husband down. So she took another fruit and gave it to her
husband. That is how evil has multiplied in the world
through all the centuries. One man becomes evil and he
drags others down with him. That is why we need to be
alert always. Satan comes to us at times like a roaring
lion. If he always came as a roaring lion, we would
recognise him easily. But he doesn't always come like
that. He sometimes comes as a sweet "angel of light" (2
Cor.11:14). It is then that we have to be really careful.
Consider the time when Jesus told his disciples that He
was going to suffer and die on the cross, Peter said "No ,
Lord, don't let that happen to You". But Jesus
immediately turned around and told Peter "Get behind me
Satan". He recognised that the suggestion to avoid the
way of suffering was the voice of Satan, even though it
came through Peter. Jesus knew that He had to go to the
cross, because that was the only way man's sins could
be forgiven. Peter did not know that. Peter was well-
meaning, but he didn't realise at that moment that Satan
was speaking through him to try and stop Jesus from
going to the cross. Yes, Satan can come to us even
through a close friend and suggest something that sounds
compassionate and good humanly speaking. So we must
be alert at all times. The one thing we must all covet is a
sensitive conscience - something that speaks to us loudly
even when we do a small wrong.

(11) JESUS - TEMPTED AS WE ARE

The secret of a godly life lies in Jesus Who lived on earth
as a Man, and Who was tempted in every way as we are,
but never sinned even once in thought, word, deed,
attitude or motive or in any other way (1 Tim. 3:16; Heb.
4:15). Since it is only those who have come to a godly life
who can live together without strife as one body in Christ,
we could go one step further and say that a local church
can be the expression of Christ's body only where
believers have seen our Lord Jesus in this way. This is the
truth of which the church is to be the pillar and support (1
Tim. 3:15,16). Temptation is not the same as sin. Jas.
1:14,15 makes that clear. Our mind has to agree with the
temptation before we sin. It is clear from Matthew 4 that
Jesus was tempted. But His mind never agreed with any
temptation even once. Thus He never sinned. He kept His
heart pure. Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit. He did not
have the 'old man' that we were born with. We have sinful
flesh, whereas Jesus did not have sinful flesh. He came
only “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom.8:3). But the
Bible teaches that our Lord “was tempted in all points as
we are” (Heb.4:15). We do not have to analyze this, even
as we do not analyze the mystery of God becoming Man.
We only have to believe it. At every point, in every
temptation, Jesus obeyed His Father, unlike Adam.

God’s Word says about Jesus, “He learned obedience
and was made complete” (Heb. 5:7-9). The word “learned”
is a word that relates to education. So what this verse is
saying is that Jesus received an education in obedience
as a Man. In each situation, He obeyed His Father and
thus completed His education as a Man. Thus He became
a Forerunner for us, so that we too can follow in His
footsteps, overcoming temptation and obeying God (Heb.
6:20). Our Lord can sympathise with us in our struggles
against temptation, because He too was tempted like us
(Heb. 2:18; 4:15; 12:2-4). The purity of Jesus as a Man
was not something that He received on a platter, but one
that was acquired through battle. But those battles were
not endless ones. Every temptation was conquered - one
after another. Thus, over the period of His lifetime, He
faced every single temptation that we are tempted by -
and overcame.

All of us have lived in sin for many years, and our sinful
flesh can be likened to a box full of poisonous snakes that
have been well-fed – by us!! The names of these snakes
are impurity, anger, malice, strife, bitterness, love of
money, selfishness, pride, etc. This box has an opening
at the top from which these snakes put out their head
whenever we are tempted. We have fed these snakes in
plenty during our unconverted days. As a result, they are
well-fed, healthy and strong. Some snakes have been fed
more than others, and so those lusts have a greater grip
on us than others. Now that we have died with Christ to
sin, even though these snakes are still hale and hearty,
our attitude to these snakes has changed! We have now
been made partakers of the Divine nature and "those who
belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its lusts"
(Gal. 5:24). Unlike in the old days, now, when a snake
puts its head out of the opening of the box (when we are
tempted), we hit it on the head with a stick. It goes back
into the box. When we are tempted again, the snake puts
its head out again, and we hit it again. Gradually it gets
weaker and weaker. If we are faithful in each temptation to
hit the snake instead of feeding it, then we will soon find
the pull of temptation weakening. The flesh cannot be
'shot' or 'hanged' in a moment. It can only be crucified.
Crucifixion is a slow death, but it is a certain one. That is
why we consider it all joy, when we are tempted (Jas. 1:2)
- because it gives us the opportunity to hit the snakes and
weaken them. This would not have been possible
otherwise.

(12) THE TESTING OF ELISHA AND GEHAZI

At a critical time in the history of Israel, God raised up the
prophet Elijah to be His witness to the nation. Elijah had a
servant called Elisha whom God selected as the next
prophet to the nation. Elisha had a servant called Gehazi.
It is an interesting study to see the contrast between
Elisha and Gehazi.

Elisha's Faithfulness

God anointed Elisha with a double portion of the anointing
that Elijah had. This was God's seal of approval on
Elisha's life. But before God anointed him thus, he had
been tested. As in the case of all true servants of God,
Elisha too was called to the ministry, while he was
faithfully doing his secular duties. "Elijah found Elisha the
son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of
oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah
passed over to him and threw his mantle on him."(1 Ki.
19:19). Thereafter, Elisha spent many years doing menial
jobs for the prophet Elijah. He was known as the one "who
used to pour water on the hands of Elijah."(2 Ki. 3:11b).
He did not seek great things for himself, but God had
great plans for that young man. Before Elijah went up to
heaven, Elisha had to be tested. And so Elijah told Elisha
to stay on in Gilgal, while he himself went on to Bethel.
Elisha refused to stay back but was determined to go with
Elijah. At Bethel, Elijah again tried to shake off Elisha by
saying that he had to go to Jericho. But Elisha stuck on
like a leech. Finally, at Jericho, Elisha was tested once
more in a similar way. Again, Elisha passed the test of
persistence and accompanied Elijah to Jordan. It was
thus that he got the double portion of the anointing - God's
best for his life (2 Ki.2:1-14).

What is the message here for us? There are various
stages in our spiritual development at which God tests us
to see whether we are satisfied with what we have already
received or whether we will press on to God's highest.
Gilgal stands for the place where our sins are forgiven.
"The Lord said to Joshua, `Today I have rolled away the
reproach of Egypt from you.' So the name of that place is
called Gilgal to this day."(Josh. 5:8,9). Many Christians
get thus far and stop there. Some press on till Bethel
(meaning 'the house of God') - which stands for fellowship
with believers in the family of God. "And Jacob called the
name of that place Bethel. Then Jacob said, `This stone,
which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house.'"
(Gen. 28:19,22). Some stop here. But a few go still further
to Jericho - which stands for the manifestation of the
supernatural power of God. "The people shouted with a
great shout and the wall fell down flat.....and they took the
city (of Jericho)."(Josh. 6:20). This is as far as most
Christians ever go. Very, very few go all the way to Jordan
- which stands for identification with Christ in His death,
as symbolised in baptism. "Then Jesus arrived at the
Jordan, coming to John, to be baptized by him."(Mt. 3:13).
Very, very few are willing to walk the way of the cross -
"the new and living way that Jesus has inaugurated for us
through His flesh." (Heb. 10:20). But it is these few, who
are wholehearted enough to press on to total death to
Self, who receive the double portion - God's best. All of us
are being tested today, as to what stage we will stop at.

Gehazi's Unfaithfulness

Even as Elisha had succeeded Elijah as the prophet,
Gehazi could perhaps have succeeded Elisha as the next
prophet, if he had been faithful. But Gehazi had to be
tested first. This testing took place when Naaman, the
Syrian general returned to Elisha after being healed of his
leprosy. Out of gratitude for his healing, Naaman offered
Elisha silver and gold worth nearly a million rupees and
ten fancy Syrian suits of clothing. What a temptation for a
lesser man than Elisha! But Elisha turned down the offer
without a moment's hesitation. Naaman was an unbeliever
and a compromiser and Elisha would receive nothing from
him. The fact that Naaman was a compromiser is clearly
seen in what he said to Elisha after he had been healed.
He said that he was compelled to worship idols, because
of his official position. Naaman knew that idolatry was
wrong. But he was unwilling to sacrifice his job for the
sake of the truth, just like many today. Naaman told
Elisha, "In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant:
when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to
worship there, and he leans on my hand and I bow myself
in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house
of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this
matter."(See 2 Ki. 5:18). Elisha would not receive
anything from such a man.

The early apostles followed the same pattern. "They went
out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the
Gentiles."(3 John 7). Gehazi had observed Elisha's
attitude towards Naaman's money. But he felt that Elisha
had been foolish to refuse what Naaman had offered so
freely. He ran after Naaman therefore (just like many
Indians today run after Western Christians), told a few lies
and collected forty thousand rupees worth of silver and
two of those Syrian suits. Elisha who could see through a
crooked man easily, immediately exposed Gehazi's
covetousness. He told Gehazi that since he had grabbed
Naaman's money, he would get Naaman's leprosy as well.
He told him, "`Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall
cleave to you and to your descendants forever.' So Gehazi
went out from his presence a leper as white as snow."(2
Ki. 5:27). Instead of getting a double portion of Elisha's
anointing, Gehazi got leprosy instead. Little did Gehazi
realise that he was being tested by God that day. If only
he had known what tremendous issues were at stake, he
might have been more careful. We have seen repeatedly,
we don't usually realise when God is testing us -
particularly in the area of mammon. There is a word
written concerning King Hezekiah that at one time "God
left him alone to test him so that he might know what was
in his heart" (2 Chron. 32:31). This was true of Gehazi too.
God allowed him to be in a situation where no-one was
watching him. Only thus could he be tested.

(13) THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY

When God is present in our midst, we will hear Him
speaking to us powerfully in the meetings. That is the
meaning of prophecy. In old covenant times, prophecy
was meant for foretelling the future and for guiding people
as to what they should do. But now, in the new covenant,
prophecy is for exhortation (challenging, rebuking and
correcting people), consolation (comforting and
encouraging people) and edification (building up the
church) (1 Cor.14:3). Prophecy is the main gift of the
Spirit by which the church is built. The prophetic word is
"a lamp shining in a dark place" (2 Pet.1:19). Without this
light constantly burning in the church, it will be impossible
to escape the wiles of the prince of darkness. The church
itself will sink into darkness. The main reason why many
Christian groups that started out well degenerated over a
period of time was because the gift of prophecy gradually
disappeared. Whenever God's presence departed from
Israel in Old Testament times, one mark of His forsaking
them was that "there was no longer any prophet" among
them (Psa.74:1,9).

Israel always degenerated whenever they did not have a
prophet, as in the days of Eli (See 1 Sam.3:1). But Israel
rose into a place of eminence when they had a prophet,
as in the days of Samuel (1 Sam.3:20). It was through
Samuel that David was anointed as the king of Israel. And
that began a glorious new era in Israel's history. When
Samuel prophesied, "the Lord did not allow any of his
words to fall to the ground" (1 Sam.3:19 - KJV). We too
must pray earnestly for such a powerful ministry of
prophecy in the church that every word we speak goes
straight home to people's hearts like an arrow to its mark.
Through the gift of prophecy, "the secrets of people's
hearts are disclosed" (1 Cor.14:25). Thus everyone in the
church will get light on the deceitfulness of sin.

We are commanded to "exhort one another daily (in the
church), lest we be hardened through the
DECEITFULLNESS of sin" (Heb.3:13). There are sins that
are obvious and there are sins that are subtle and hidden.
But the spirit of prophecy will expose both the
deceitfulness of sin as well as the schemes of Satan, so
that we are protected. We see an illustration of this in the
Old Testament. When the king of Aram was warring
against Israel, every time he and his generals planned in
secret to attack Israel at a certain point, his plans were
revealed to the king of Israel by Elisha, through prophecy
(2 Kings 6:8-12). Thus the king of Israel knew exactly
where to place his army to defend the country, and saved
his nation again and again. That is how the Lord, through
prophecy in the church-meetings, warns us in advance of
the areas where Satan is going to attack us in the coming
days. So we can be on our guard in those areas.

Paul exhorted Timothy to fight the good fight (against
Satan) by paying attention to the prophecies made
concerning him (1 Tim.1:18). Proverbs 24:3,4 says, "By
WISDOM a house is built, and by KNOWLEDGE the
rooms are filled with pleasant and precious riches". There
is a place for knowledge in the church - God's Word
taught by anointed teachers. But knowledge is like the
furniture, with which a house is furnished after it has been
built by WISDOM. So if we only have Bible-knowledge in
our churches, we will be like a family living on an empty
plot of ground with a lot of expensive furniture around us,
but with no house - no walls, no roof and not even a floor!!
That's why we are exhorted in the New Testament to
pursue after WISDOM first of all. "If anyone lacks wisdom
let him ask God who gives liberally to all" (Jas.1:4). It is
through wisdom that the church is built. And God's
wisdom comes to the church through the gift of prophecy.
That is why we must "earnestly seek to prophesy" (1
Cor.14:1,5), in every meeting of the church. Meetings for
Bible-study and evangelism are good. But if we are to
build the church as a pure testimony for Christ, then the
gift of prophecy must be given the FIRST place.

(14) THE TRUTH CONCERNING SALVATION

The word of God speaks of "salvation" in three tenses -
past (Eph. 2:8), present (Phil. 2:12) and future (Rom.
13:11) - or in other words, of justification, sanctification
and glorification. Salvation has a foundation and a
superstructure. The foundation is forgiveness of sins and
justification. Justification is more than the forgiveness of
our sins. It also means that we have been declared
righteous in God's eyes, on the basis of Christ's death,
resurrection and ascension. This is not on the basis of our
works (Eph. 2:8,9), for even our righteous deeds are like
filthy rags in God's sight (Isa. 64:6). We are clothed with
the righteousness of Christ (Gal. 3:27). Repentance and
faith are the conditions for being forgiven and justified
(Acts 20:21).

True repentance must produce in us the fruit of restitution
- returning money and things and taxes due, that are
wrongfully in our possession (that belong to others), and
apologising to those we have wronged, as far as possible
(Lk. 19:8,9). When God forgives us, He also requires that
we forgive others in the same way. If we fail to do this,
God withdraws His forgiveness (Matt. 18:23-35).
Repentance and faith must be followed by baptism by
immersion in water, whereby we publicly testify to God, to
men and to demons that our old man is indeed buried
(Rom. 6:4,6). We can then receive the baptism in the Holy
Spirit, whereby we are endued with power to be witnesses
for Christ by our life and our lips (Acts 1:8). The baptism
in the Holy Spirit is a promise to be received by faith, by
all of God's children (Matt. 3:11; Lk. 11:13). It is the
privilege of every disciple to have the witness of the Spirit
that he is indeed a child of God (Rom. 8:16) and also to
know for certain that he has indeed received the Holy
Spirit (Acts 19:2).

Sanctification is the superstructure of the building.
Sanctification (meaning `being set apart' from sin and the
world) is a process that begins with the new birth (1 Cor.
1:2) and that should continue throughout our earthly life (1
Thess. 5:23,24). This is a work that God initiates in us
through the Holy Spirit, writing His laws upon our hearts
and minds; but we have to do our part, working out our
salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12,13). It is we
who are to put to death the deeds of the body through the
power that the Spirit offers us (Rom. 8:13). It is we who
have to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh
and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2
Cor. 7:1). Where a disciple is radical and wholehearted in
cooperating with the Holy Spirit in this work, the work of
sanctification will progress rapidly in his life. The work will
obviously be slow or stagnant in the life of one whose
response to the Spirit's leadings is sluggish. It is in times
of temptation that our wholeheartedness in desiring
sanctification is truly tested. To be sanctified is to have
the righteousness of the law fulfilled inside our hearts -
and not just externally as under the old covenant (Rom.
8:4). This was what Jesus emphasised in Matt. 5:17-48.

The law's requirements were summed up by Jesus as
loving God wholeheartedly and loving our neighbour as
ourselves (Matt. 22:36-40). It is this law of love that God
now seeks to write in our hearts, for that is His own nature
(Heb. 8:10; 2 Pet. 1:4). The outward manifestation of this
will be a life of victory over all conscious sin and of
obedience to all of Jesus' commandments (Jn. 14:15). It is
impossible to enter into this life without first fulfilling the
conditions of discipleship that Jesus laid down (Lk.
14:26-33). These are basically to give the Lord the first
place above all our relatives and our Self-life and to be
detached from all of one's material wealth and
possessions. This is the narrow gate that we have to go
through first. Then comes the narrow way of sanctification.
Those who do not pursue after sanctification will never see
the Lord (Heb. 12:14).

While it is possible to be perfect in our conscience here
and now (Heb. 7:19;9:9,14), it is not possible to be
sinlessly perfect until we have a glorified body at Jesus'
return (1 Jn. 3:2). We can be LIKE Him only then. But we
must seek to WALK as He walked even now (1 Jn. 2:6).
As long as we have this corruptible body, unconscious sin
will be found in it, however much we may be sanctified (1
Jn.1:8). But we can be perfect in our conscience (Acts
24:16) and be free from conscious sin (1 Jn.2:1a), even
now, if we are wholehearted (1 Cor. 4:4). Thus we wait for
the second coming of Christ and for our glorification - the
final part of our salvation, when we will become sinlessly
perfect (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21).

(15) PETER'S ATTITUDE TO MONEY

AND CORRECTION

God had a great calling for Simon Peter. But it could not be
fulfilled until he had been tested and approved. Peter
however had no idea about God's wonderful plan, at the time
that Jesus called him. God unfolds His plan to us only one
step at a time. One day Jesus came into Peter's boat and
told him to put out the boat into deep water and to let down
his nets for a catch. Peter did so and caught the greatest
catch of his lifetime (Lk. 5:1-11). If Peter had been like
some Christian businessmen today, he would have said
something like this to Jesus, "Lord, this is fantastic. Let
us - you and I - be partners. You do the preaching and I
will support you financially. If my fishing business is
going to be like this, I will soon be the richest
businessman in all Israel; and my tithes will support not
only you but a host of other Christian workers in many parts
of this land and abroad as well!" Peter could then have gone
around the world giving his testimony at various conferences
for businessmen and taught businessmen about a Christ who
could make their businesses prosper.

Such is the reasoning of the carnal mind. But Peter didn't
do that. When Jesus called him to leave his nets, He left
his fishing business immediately and followed Jesus. He
passed the test. Little do Christians realise when God
prospers their ways so that they earn more money that they
are being tested. Most Christians fail the test here. They
settle for being empty millionaires when they could perhaps
have become apostles. Years later, Peter, far from being a
wealthy businessman, could only say, "I do not possess
silver and gold."(Acts 3:6). But he had something far better
than silver and gold. He had given up the rubbish of earthly
wealth for the eternal wealth of Christ's kingdom. Christian
bookshops are flooded these days with books that claim to
teach Christians how to become materially prosperous and to
make money, with Jesus as a partner in one's life!
Christians are encouraged in these books to claim expensive
cars, and houses and lands - all by faith in Christ.

Even though a child can see the earthly-mindedness of these
writers, yet many believers are being deceived. The
testimonies given therein of people receiving material
things may all be true - but how many of them realised that
God was testing them when he gave them wealth? They were
being tested when they became rich to see whether they would
learn to give away their wealth and become `rich towards
God' (Lk.12:21). But they all failed the test - unlike
Peter. Self is the centre of every child of Adam. When we
are converted, Self does not die, but seeks in subtle ways
to make God also to serve its own interests. This is the
source of the carnal Christianity that majors on getting
material and physical blessings from God and that comes to
us nowadays in these books, clothed in the garb of `faith'.
Yet these books serve a purpose too, in that they reveal
what the hearts of their readers truly desire - the earthly
or the heavenly. Thus the wheat is sifted from the chaff in
Christendom!

We see how Jesus tested Peter in yet another way when He
rebuked Peter publicly with the sharpest rebuke that He ever
gave any human being. When Jesus told His disciples that He
was going to be rejected and crucified, Peter, with intense
human love for the Lord "took Him aside and began to rebuke
Him, saying, `God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen
to You'"(Mt.16:22). Jesus turned around and publicly said to
Peter (in the hearing of the other apostles), "Get behind
Me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to Me" (Mt.16:23). It
is quite insulting to our ego to be rebuked publicly. It is
far worse to be called `Satan'. Yet Peter never got
offended.

When many of Jesus' disciples got offended with the message
of death to Self that Jesus preached, and left Him, Jesus
asked the twelve apostles whether they would like to go away
too. It was Peter then who replied saying, "Lord, to whom
shall we go. You have words of eternal life"(Jn.6:68). These
words were uttered by Peter soon after he had received that
strong rebuke from Jesus' lips. That is what makes Peter's
words even more wonderful. He felt that any words of rebuke
from Jesus' lips were only words of eternal life! Our
ability to accept rebuke from an older brother is a test of
our humility. Peter passed the test with flying colours.

(16) LIVING IN THE WILL OF GOD

"From Him are all things" (Rom. 11:36) Jesus said that the
kingdom of heaven belonged to the poor in spirit (Mt. 5:3).
He also said that only those who do the will of the Father
would enter that kingdom (Mt. 7:21). The kingdom of heaven
is eternal, and only that which has been done in the will of
God will be found there. The poor in spirit are those who
are conscious of their human insufficiency and who therefore
submit to the will of God completely. In this sense, Jesus
was perpetually poor in spirit. He lived as God intended man
to live - in perpetual dependence on God, refusing to
exercise the powers of His mind apart from God. Consider His
words: "The Son can do nothing of (out from) Himself......I
do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak as the Father
taught Me.....I have not come on My own initiative, but He
sent Me.....I did not speak on My own initiative, but the
Father Himself Who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to
say and what to speak..... The words that I say to you I do
not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me
does His work" (Jn. 5:19,30; 8:28,42; 12:49; 14:10). Jesus
never acted merely because He saw a need . He saw the need,
was concerned about it, but acted only when His Father told
Him to.

He waited at least four thousand years in Heaven, while the
world lay desperately in need of a Saviour, and then came to
earth when His Father sent Him (Jn. 8:42). "When the right
time came, the time God decided on, He sent His Son" (Gal.
4:4-Living). God has appointed a right time for everything
(Eccl. 3:1). God alone knows that time, and so we won't go
wrong if we seek the Father's will in everything, as Jesus
did. And when Jesus came to earth, He did not just go around
doing whatever He felt was good. Even though His mind was
perfectly pure, yet He never acted on any bright idea that
came to mind. No. He made His mind a servant of the Holy
Spirit. Although He knew the Scriptures thoroughly by the
age of twelve, yet He spent the next eighteen years as a
carpenter, staying with His mother, making tables and
chairs, etc., He had the very message that dying men around
Him needed, and yet He would not go out into the preaching
ministry. Why? Because the Father's time had not yet come.
Jesus was not afraid to wait. "He who believes will not be
in a hurry" (Isa. 28:16). And when His Father's time came,
He went out of His carpenter's shop and began to preach.
Often thereafter, He would say concerning some course of
action, "My hour has not yet come" (Jn. 2:4; 7:6).
Everything in Jesus' life was regulated by the timing and
the will of the Father.

The need of men, by itself, never constituted the call to
action for Jesus, for that would have been acting out from
Himself - out of His soul. The need of men was to be taken
into account, but it was the will of God that was to be
done. Jesus made that very clear in John 4:34,35. The need
(v.35): "Look around you! Vast fields of human souls are
ripening all around us, and are ready now for reaping....."
The principle of action (v.34): "My nourishment comes from
doing the will of God Who sent Me, and from finishing His
work." (Living) Jesus did not do the many good things that
His friends suggested, because He knew that if He listened
to men and did the apparently good, He would miss the best
that His Father had for Him.

Once, when men begged Him to stay in a particular place, He
said He could not, because He had heard His Father's voice
calling Him to go elsewhere. Humanly speaking there were
very good reasons for staying where He was, because of the
unusual responsiveness of the people to His message. But
God's thoughts are not as man's thoughts and God's ways are
not as man's ways (Isa. 55:8). Early that morning, Jesus had
gone out alone and prayed, and He had heard His Father's
voice (Mk. 1:35-39), before He heard Peter and the others
with their suggestions. Jesus did not rely on human
reasoning. He obeyed the Word which said, "Do not lean on
your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and
He will direct your paths" (Prov. 3:5,6). He leaned upon His
Father for guidance in every matter. In a prophetic
reference to the Lord Jesus in Isaiah 50:4, we read,
"Morning by morning, He (the Father) wakens Me and opens My
understanding to His will." That was Jesus' habit. He
listened to His Father's voice from early morning and
throughout the day, and did exactly what His Father told Him
to do. He did not have discussions with men, to decide on
what to do, but had prayer-meetings with His Father. Soulish
Christians plan through discussions with men. Spiritual
Christians wait to hear from God. Jesus lived by His Father
(Jn. 6:57). To Jesus, God's Word was more important than
food (Mt. 4:4). He had to receive it many times a day,
straight from the Father. Having received it, He obeyed it.
Obedience too was more important than His daily food (Jn.
4:34). Jesus, lived in dependence on the Father. His
attitude throughout the day was, "Speak, Father, I am
listening."

Consider His chasing the money-changers out of the temple.
There must have been many occasions when Jesus was in the
temple with the money-changers there, when He did not chase
them out. He did so, only when led to do so by His Father.
The soulish Christian would rather chase out the money-
changers perpetually or never at all. He who is led by God
however, knows when, where and how to act. There were many
good things that Jesus could have been done, that He never
did, because they were outside the scope of His Father's
will for Him. He was always busy doing the very best things.
And those were enough. He had not come to earth to do good
things, but to do the will of His Father. "Did you not know
that I had to be in the things of My Father," He asked
Joseph and Mary, at the age of twelve (Lk. 2:49-Literal).
Those were the only things that He was interested in
accomplishing. When He came to the end of 33-1/2 years on
earth, He could say, with real satisfaction, "Father, I have
done everything YOU told Me to do" (Jn. 17:4).

(17) LISTENING TO GOD

A spiritual man will take time to listen to God, every day.
A phrase that occurs frequently in the very first chapter of
the Bible is this: "Then God said". God said something on
every one of those first six days, when He remade the
chaotic earth. And each time God spoke, the earth became a
better place. So, right there on the very first page of the
Bible we learn one very important truth - that we must hear
what God has to say every day. And if we submit to what God
tells us every day, we will be transformed into better and
more useful Christians. There's a lot of difference between
hearing what God has to say to us and just reading the
Bible. Remember, it was people who studied their Bibles
daily who crucified the Lord. They studied their Bibles but
they never heard God speaking to their hearts (See Acts
13:27). That's the danger we face too. And then, we can be
as blind as they were. Genesis 1 also teaches us that God
wants to speak to us every day.

Jesus once rebuked Martha for being busy with so much work
instead of being like Mary who sat and listened to Him
speak. Our Lord went on to say that what Mary did was the
ONLY necessary thing in life (Lk.10:42). We must all have
the attitude that Samuel had, who said, "Speak Lord, your
servant is listening". What did we see in the very first
page of the Bible? Whenever God spoke, something was
immediately accomplished: Light was produced, the earth came
up out of the waters, trees, fish and animals were created,
etc., Isaiah 55:10,11 tells us that the Word which goes
forth from God's mouth will never return empty without
accomplishing what God desires and without succeeding in the
matter for which it was spoken.

I want to listen to a man who listens to God - because such
a man can teach me more in five minutes than theologians
(with long 'tails' of degrees), can teach me in hours. John
the Baptist could teach people more about God than Professor
Gamaliel or any member of the Jewish Sanhedrin! When you
listen to God, you won't preach what you've read in
Christian books and magazines or heard from Christian tapes.
The man who hears God speaks from revelation, not from
academic knowledge or study. Such a man first experiences
what he reads - and then speaks forth from his life.

God speaks to us through many ways.

He speaks to us primarily through His Word. If something is
clearly written in God's Word, then we don't need to pray to
find God's will, because it has already been revealed.

God also speaks to us through our circumstances. Our Lord
has the key to every door (Rev.1:18) and when He opens a
door no-one can shut it and when He shuts a door, no-one can
open it (Rev.3:8). So our circumstances are very often an
indication of whether God wants us to go along a particular
way or not. We don't have to bang away at a door that God
has not opened. We must of course pray, when we see a door
shut. But if after repeated prayer, a door still remains
shut, it may mean that God does not want us to go through
that door. We must ask God to show us if this is so, or
whether He wants us to continue in persistent prayer to open
that door (Lk.11:5-9).

God also speaks to us through the advice of mature, godly
brothers. Such men have gone through many experiences and
they can warn us of pitfalls that we are unaware of,
ourselves. We don't have to blindly obey them, but their
godly counsel can help us.

God often speaks to us, while we are fellowshipping with
other believers. Thus He teaches us our dependence on other
members of the Body of Christ, even for revelation on His
Word.

God always has something important to say to us, whenever we
go through a trial or when we are sick.

God also warns us through the failures of others. If, for
example, we hear of some servant of God who has fallen into
sin, it is good to ask God what lessons we can learn from
that man's failure (for we are all weak) and how we can
preserve ourselves.

God can also speak to us when we hear news of evils being
done somewhere or of accidents that have taken place. Jesus
told the people of His time to repent, when they heard of
Pilate butchering some Jews and when they heard of the
accident in Siloam where a tower fell and killed some people
- because such things could happen to anyone (Lk.13:1-4).

Develop the habit of listening to God. This is the single
most important habit that you can ever develop.

(18) THE HUMBLE RECEIVE GRACE

AND REVELATION

"You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders;
and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one
another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace
to the humble." (1Pet.5:5). Here Peter speaks about the
importance of learning submission to spiritual authority
in our younger days itself. If a young man is saved by the
age of 20, it is usually God's purpose that he should have
an effective ministry by the time he is 35 years old. But
for this to be fulfilled, that man should learn the
all-important lessons of brokenness and humility by the
time he is 35. And those lessons can be learnt only as he
submits to spiritual authority. Only thus can He receive
grace to exercise spiritual authority later in his home
and in the church. Young people who do not submit to
spiritual authority invariably end up losing the ministry
God had in mind for them. This does not mean that we
don't have to humble ourselves once we are older!!
Subjection to elders must be learnt when we are young.
But following Jesus along the way of humility is something
that we have to keep on doing until our dying day. That
is the only way to keep on receiving grace until the very
end of our lives.

Bible-knowledge cannot give us grace. It is an amazing fact
that our Lord was crucified by Bible-believing Jewish
zealots, and not by the heathen Romans or Greeks who had
no knowledge of the true God. The leaders of the only
true religion on earth in Jesus' day (Judaism) and the
scholars of the only true Scriptures (Genesis to Malachi),
were the ones who called Jesus a deceiver, a heretic
and the prince of devils. Those scribes and Pharisees
were intelligent, Bible-believing, well-educated and
ardent for the truth of the Scriptures. Yet they were
totally blind spiritually. They did not get grace. Why?
The answer to that question is important, because history
has repeated itself again and again in the Christendom.
Ardent Bible scholars even today, are totally blind to
the true Jesus of the Scriptures and to the true grace
of God. Like the Pharisees of old, they too are unable
to receive the hidden wisdom of God (1 Cor.2:7-10).
The reason in both cases is just the same: They are
proud and seek the honour of men.

Jesus said to the Pharisees, "How can you have faith
who receive honour from one another and do not seek
the honour that comes from God" (Jn. 5:44). Those who
live before the face of men, seeking their own honour
can never receive revelation on the true meaning of the
Scriptures, for God blinds them to the truth (Mt.11:25).
God has written the Scriptures in such a way that the
wise and intelligent will not be able to understand it,
if they do not humble themselves. That cannot be said
about any earthly book. There is no book in the world
that requires humility as an essential qualification
in order to understand it, except the Bible. The
natural mind (no matter how clever) will consider the
revelation of the Spirit that comes forth from a humble
brother as foolishness (1 Cor.2:14). One requires
grace to understand God's Word. Proud theologians
today proclaim many different interpretations of the
Scriptures. But they are totally unaware of their
blindness. We have to humble ourselves before the
face of God, and finish with seeking the honour and
approval of men. Then God will REVEAL to us what He
hides from others.

God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the
humble. If we are proud, then even if all our
doctrines are right, we shall end up like the Pharisees,
deceived and blind concerning spiritual realities.
Then we shall not be able to recognise the true prophets
of God in our day, any more than the Pharisees could
recognise Jesus, the True Prophet of the Lord in their
day. All sin has its origin in PRIDE and SELFISHNESS.
In the same way, all the virtues of Christ have their
origin in HUMILITY and SELFLESSNESS. The more we
humble ourselves, the more we will receive grace
from God. Then we shall live in victory and manifest
Christ's character more and more in our lives. If
anyone does not have victory over sin, that would
indicate clearly that he has not humbled himself -
because all who humble themselves will certainly
receive grace (1 Pet.5:6), and all who come under
God's grace will certainly get victory (Rom.6:14).
There are many false ideas of humility in Christendom.
But this is the test by which we can evaluate ourselves
unfailingly: Have we got victory over sin and is the
character of Christ being manifested increasingly in us?

(19) THREE IMPORTANT EXHORTATIONS

1. Be continually filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph.5:18-
Literal).

It is impossible to live the Christian life, as God wants us
to, if we are not continually filled with the Holy Spirit.
It is impossible to serve God as we should without being
anointed with the Spirit and receiving His supernatural
gifts. Jesus Himself needed to be anointed. The Holy Spirit
has come to make us like Jesus in our personal lives as well
as in our ministry (See 2 Cor.3:18). God fills us with the
Spirit in order to conform us to the likeness of Christ in
our character, and to equip us to serve as Jesus served. We
do not have the same ministry that Jesus had, and so we
won't be able to do what Jesus did in His ministry. But we
can be as fully equipped to serve God as Jesus Himself was -
to fulfill OUR OWN ministry. All that is required is an
adequate thirst and faith, on our part, for rivers of living
water to flow out through us (Jn.7:37-39). We must earnestly
long for the gifts of the Spirit if we are to have them(1
Cor.14:1). Otherwise we will never have them. A church
without the gifts of the Holy Spirit is like a man who may
be living but who is deaf, blind, mute and lame - and
therefore useless.

2. Know God intimately

Knowing God intimately is the secret of being strong "The
people who know their God will be strong" (Dan.11:32) Today,
God does not want us to know Him second-hand through others.
He invites even the youngest believer to know Him personally
(Heb.8:11). Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God and
Jesus Christ personally (John 17:3). This was the greatest
passion of Paul's life and must be our greatest passion too
(Phil.3:10). One who desires to know God intimately, will
have to listen to Him always. Jesus said that the only way
man could keep himself spiritually alive was by listening to
EVERY word that proceeded from God's mouth (Matt.4:4 ). He
also said that to sit at His feet and listen to Him was the
most important thing in the Christian life (Lk.10:42). We
must develop the habit that Jesus had of listening to the
Father from early morning every day (Isa.50:4), right
through the day; and then to be in a listening attitude in
the hours of night when we are asleep too - so that if we
ever wake up from our sleep at night, we can say, "Speak,
Lord, Your servant is listening" (1 Sam.3:10). Knowing God
will make us overcomers in all situations - because God has
a solution for every problem that we face - and if we listen
to Him, He will tell us what that solution is.

3. Be a cheerful giver

"God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor.9:7). This is why God
gives man total freedom - both before and after conversion,
and after being filled with the Spirit. If we are like God,
we also will not seek to control others or pressurise them.
We will give them freedom to be different from us, to have
different views from ours and to grow spiritually at their
own pace. All compulsion of any sort is from the devil. The
Holy Spirit fills people, whereas demons possess people. The
difference is this: When the Holy Spirit fills anyone, He
still gives that person freedom to do whatever he wants. But
when demons possess people they rob them of their freedom
and control them. The fruit of being filled with the Spirit
is self-control (Gal.5:22,23). Demon-possession however,
results in the loss of self-control. We must remember that
any work that we do for God that is NOT done cheerfully,
joyfully, freely and voluntarily is a dead work. Any work
done for God for a reward or for a salary is also a dead
work. Any money given to God under pressure from others has
no value at all, as far as God is concerned!! God values a
little done cheerfully for Him far more than a great deal
done under compulsion, or done merely to ease one's
conscience.

(20) FAITHFULLNESS IN SERVING

OUR FELLOW BELIEVERS

In Matt. 25:31-46 we see that some inherit the kingdom
because they served their fellow believers as unto the Lord.
Their service was so much in secret that their left hand did
not know what their right hand was doing (Matt. 6:3). So
much so, that when the Lord reminds them of the good that
they did, they do not even remember it! (Matt. 25:38).

Jesus also taught here that any service that we do to the
least of His brothers is considered as service done to Him
(Matt. 25:40). It is significant that He speaks of the least
here, for our tendency is to serve the most important
believers and to ignore the poor and the despised! Those who
are occupied with eating and drinking, buying and selling,
and building and planting for themselves alone, will
certainly be left behind when Jesus returns (Lk. 17:28,34).

Only those whose service for the Lord involved a loving
concern to serve their fellow believers, will be taken up.
In another passage, Jesus spoke of another group of people -
who are a contrast to this group. These are the ones who
remember all the good things that they have done in the name
of the Lord. They are also at the judgment seat, and they
remind the Lord that they have expelled demons, preached,
healed the sick in Jesus' name, etc. But they are rejected
by the Lord, even though they did all these things, because
they lacked the very first requirement, of a hidden life of
holiness before God. They were taken up with the greatness
of their gifts.

It is interesting to see the contrast.

Those who healed the sick are cast out (Matt. 7:22,23). But
those who merely visited the sick inherit the kingdom!
(Matt. 25:34,36). God does not ask us to heal the sick if we
have not been given the 'talent' of the gift of healing. But
we can visit the sick and encourage them and bless them in
the name of the Lord. We shall then find that we are ready
for Christ's return, while many who healed the sick are left
behind! To serve others in this way, we have to be willing
to be inconvenienced.

Those who never want their daily plans to be disturbed by
interruption from needy people, will certainly be left
behind when Jesus comes. We have to sacrifice time, money,
and above all, our own plans and our will, if we are to
serve others in the name of the Lord.

Selfishness is so rooted in our flesh that even when we have
cleansed ourselves of the sins of lusting with our eyes,
anger and covetousness, it is still possible to live just
for ourselves. There can be a holiness, like the holiness of
the Pharisees, which is occupied only with ourselves, and
which does not deliver us from self-centredness. This is a
counterfeit of the true holiness; yet it is easy to be
deceived by it.

Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us ... Forgive us ... Deliver
us ..." (Matt. 6:11-13). A sanctification that does not give
us a concern for others who are still in their sins and
need, is a worthless counterfeit that is fit for only being
thrown into the garbage bin.

We need to re-orient our way of thinking ('renew our mind'
Rom. 12:2) so that we put ourselves 'in the shoes of others'
and try and understand what they are going through. This is
Christ-like thoughtfullness that prepares us to inherit the
coming kingdom. One who thinks only of his own and his
family's need, however 'holy' he may be, is only deceiving
himself if he thinks that he is ready for Christ's coming.

(21) NOT KNOWING ONE'S WRETCHEDNESS

The elder in Laodicea (Rev.3:14-22) was rebuked strongly by
the Lord for a number of reasons. He felt he was rich and
increased with goods and had need of nothing. Riches are not
related only to money. One can be rich in knowledge, gifts
and talents too - and thus feel self-sufficient. Those who
are intelligent, eloquent and gifted need to walk with fear,
because they are in constant danger of being proud of these
human abilities and of depending more on them than on the
Lord. The elder here was satisfied with his Bible-knowledge,
his gifts, his achievements, and his position as an elder.
But he was not aware of the fact that in God's eyes, he was
still spiritually "wretched, miserable, poor, blind and
naked" (Rev.3:17). It is sad indeed when we are ignorant of
our true spiritual condition, as God sees us. While this
elder brother was totally ignorant of the fact that he was a
wretched man, we find a godly man like the apostle Paul
crying out and saying, "O wretched man that I am" (Rom.
7:24).

How did Paul know his own wretchedness and the Laodicean
elder not know his? Because Paul lived before God's face,
while the Laodicean elder did not. In God's light, Paul
constantly realised that his flesh was corrupt (Rom.7:18).
Thus Paul remained constantly poor in spirit, and became a
godly man. The Laodicean elder however, not seeing the
wretchedness of his flesh, became carnal and lukewarm. It is
very easy for self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency to come
into the life of a servant of God, if he does not live
before God's face - for he will not see his own need. And
evidence of this will be seen in the way he speaks and
preaches. The way a needy person speaks is quite different
from the way a strong self-sufficient person speaks.

There are gifted preachers who can speak well, who are
eloquent, and who know the doctrine well. But if you listen
to their spirit when they speak, you will be able to sense
an arrogance there. They speak as experts, and not as those
who are poor and needy themselves. The Body of Christ cannot
be built by men who have a strong, arrogant spirit, but only
by men who have a humble, gentle spirit. It is easy for an
arrogant preacher to whip people in his sermons!! Then he
becomes like the servant Jesus spoke of, whose master had
appointed him to give others their daily ration of food. But
instead of giving them food, he whipped them (Lk.12:45)!
Unfortunately, there is a lot of whipping that goes on from
the pulpit in Christendom today. Whipping never leads anyone
to a godly life, but only to feelings of condemnation, and
to subservience to the preacher who whips him. Consider how
a poor, helpless beggar speaks to anyone. It is always with
meekness and respect - because he knows that he is a nobody
in the world. That is how the Bible tells us to speak to all
human beings, for we too are nobodys in the world (1
Pet.3:15). On the other hand, how does a dictator speak?
Always with arrogance.

Does our speech come from poverty of spirit or from
arrogance? 1 Peter 2:17 commands us to "honour all men". Is
there a single human being on earth who is excluded from
that command? No. A brother who is not eloquent, and who
does not know much of the Word, but who has a humble, gentle
spirit, will build the Body of Christ far more than an
arrogant brother who is gifted and eloquent. The gifted
brother may look like a spiritual man here on earth, and
others may even consider him to be a great asset to the
church. But at the judgment seat of Christ it will be seen
that it was the humbler brother who actually built the Body
of Christ. It is essential that we realise that the Body of
Christ is built, not by Bible-knowledge and spiritual gifts
primarily, but by our life. Only the poor in spirit can
build the kingdom of God (Matt.5:3). And there is only one
way to remain poor in spirit (aware of our own spiritual
need) constantly, and that is, by looking at Jesus always.
When we see ourselves in His light, we will realise how
unlike Him we are, even if we are better than others around
us. In His light, we will lose sight of the weaknesses of
others, and see only our own. And we shall spontaneously
say, "Oh, wretched man that I am" (Rom.7:24). We won't have
to be prompted by anyone to say it. But we must live in that
state always. Otherwise we can easily backslide into the
deep pit of lukewarmness, carnality and arrogant pride that
the Laodicean elder was in.

(22) BEING LIKE A LITTLE CHILD

In Isaiah 11:6, we are told that during the 1000-year reign
of Jesus on earth, when He returns, everything will be
peaceful. There will be no wild animals, and life on earth
will be simply wonderful. But we have a foretaste of that
life in the church already - because the kingdom of God has
already come in the church. "Wolves" are already lying down
with "lambs", "leopards" and "goats" are at peace, and
"cattle" are safe amidst the "lions" - in the fellowship of
the church. In the world, people with such diverse
personalities as these, cannot get along with each other.
But in the church, they die to their Self-life, and live in
glorious peace with each other. And in this kingdom, Isaiah
says that "a little child will be the leader" (Isa.11:6).
Thus we see who is really fit to lead a church - the one who
is most like a little child. The real leader in a church is
the one who is guileless and humble like a little child. It
is easy to fellowship with such a brother. People develop
confidence in such a brother - who is himself, who is not
trying to impress others with his personality or his gifts,
and who is not trying to imitate some other more mature
brother. In many Christian groups, leadership is given to
those who are smart, talented and humorous, and who are good
musicians and organizers. But in the new-covenant church,
God appoints those who are like little children - for they
are the greatest ones in His kingdom. If the "wolves" in a
church are tearing up the "lambs", then the kingdom of God
has not yet come to that church. And that must be because
the leader is not like a child!! So it is the leaders who
should judge themselves when things go wrong in a church.

Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 18:4 to humble
themselves like little children, for a child is the greatest
in the kingdom of God. Now we know that the greatest person
in God's kingdom is Jesus Himself. So that must mean that
Jesus humbled himself at all times like a little child.
There we have an example for all Christian leaders to
follow. We read on one occasion that Jesus healed multitudes
of sick people, but told the people not to tell anyone about
it. He didn't want any publicity for Himself. That was in
order to fufill a Scripture that said that He "would not
make his voice heard in the streets" (He would not advertise
Himself) (Matt.12:15-20). That Scripture begins with these
words "Behold my Child..." (Matt.12:18 - margin). God is
saying there, "Look carefully at My Child - the One who is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven - He heals the sick
and then disappears as though He has done nothing." In the
church, the one with this spirit is the real leader.

A little child realises that he is a nobody, and that he
knows almost nothing. And it is the realization that we are
nobodys and that we know almost nothing of spiritual
matters, that will keep us as little children always. It is
only such a person whom God can attest as His representative
in the church. Jesus gave us only two examples to learn
humility from: Himself and little children. In the gospels,
we can see how Jesus lived, and learn humility from His
example. Around us, we can see little babies, and learn
humility from them. What are the thoughts that go through a
little baby's mind when it is lying in its cradle? Does he
think how smart he is or how much others appreciate him
etc., No. He has no such thoughts at all. He has no self
consciousness whatsoever. He is just himself - natural, with
no pretence or artificiality. That is our example. Are we
bothered with thoughts about what others think about us or
our ministry? Then we are not like little children. We must
battle these high thoughts until we are converted and become
like little children. Only then will we be fully qualified
to lead God's people. Then we will be happy with any small
corner on this earth that God places us in, to do His work.
And we won't have any ambition to become great in the eyes
of men. We will be happy to fufill the task that God has
entrusted us with in Christ's Body. And we won't be jealous
of anyone else's ministry either.

Praise God that we can experience as well as proclaim such a
wonderful gospel - that we can unlearn all our corrupt
"grown-up ways" and become like little children once again.

(23) AN END OF OURSELVES

It is not the size of a work that impresses God. The world looks
for size and numbers. But God is looking for works of faith -
even if they be the size of mustard seeds.

And so, when God brings us to an end of ourselves, hedging us
in on every side and shattering our hopes, let us take heart! He
is preparing us for greater usefulness by bringing us first to the
place of impotence. He's equipping us to produce Isaacs.

This was how Jesus prepared His apostles for His service. What
do you think was the purpose of His training them for three and
a half years? They were not being coached to write scholarly
theses that would earn each of them a doctorate in theology.
That's how some people today feel they can be equipped to serve
the Lord. But Jesus didn't train His apostles for that. None
of the twelve disciples (except perhaps Judas Iscariot!) would have
qualified for a basic theological degree (by our standards),
even if they had tried. Jesus trained them to learn one lesson
primarily - that, without Him they could do nothing (John 15:5).
And, I tell you, a man who has learned that lesson is worth more
a hundred theological professors who haven't learnt that lesson.

Total dependence upon God is the mark of the true servant of
God. It was true even of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He was on
earth, as the Servant of Jehovah. In a prophetic reference to
Him in Isaiah 42:1, God says, " Behold My Servant, whom I
uphold." He does not stand in His own strength; He is upheld
by
God. Because Christ emptied Himself thus, God put His Spirit
upon Him, as the next verse says (Isa. 42:2). Indeed, it is only
on those who have come to an end of themselves and who have
emptied themselves of self-confidence and self-sufficiency, that
God pours out His Spirit.

Look at some of the remarkable statements that Jesus made, which
clearly show how emptied of self He was:

" The Son can do nothing of Himself " (John 5:19). " I can of
Mine own self do nothing " (John 5:30). " I do nothing of Myself
" (John 8:28). " I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father
Who sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what
I should speak " (John 12:49). " The words that I speak unto you,
I speak not of Myself " (John 14:10).

Amazing! The perfect, sinless Son of God lived by faith. Emptied
of all dependence upon His own self, He depended entirely on
His Father. It is thus that God calls us to live too.

When we are self-sufficient, we try to use God to help us serve
Him. But when we are emptied, God can use us.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christian Fellowship Centre,
40 Da Costa Square, Bangalore 560 084, India

            For more information, write to: Christian Fellowship Centre at

            the following email address: cfcbang@vsnl.com

© Copyright - Zac Poonen
The above articles have been copyrighted to prevent misuse. It should not be reprinted or translated without written permission from the author. Permission is however given for any part of this book to be copied, provided it is for FREE distribution, provided NO ALTERATIONS are made, provided the AUTHOR'S NAME AND ADDRESS are mentioned and provided this COPYRIGHT notice ["Copyright by Zac Poonen"] is included. For further details, please contact:
Zac Poonen, 16 DaCosta Square, Bangalore - 560084. India.