Walk by Faith

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

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October 31, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, the scripture is clear that faith comes from hearing the word of God.  But I am learning that I only need faith the size of a mustard seed, because Jesus has all the faith I need for our relationship. Living in me, He brings the faith I need for every circumstance.

And God says…”Absolutely. When Jesus said “It is finished, He meant it is ALL finished. He did not say it is finished as long as you have enough faith, or as long as you do the right things, or as long as you go to the right church.  Jesus brings you everything you need for life and life more abundantly, which includes trials and challenges.  These trials and challenges are essential to helping you realize and understand that the life of peace is Jesus living in and through you. Whatever is required of you, let Jesus deliver and provide.”

A Christian worker has to learn how to be God’s man or woman of great worth and excellence in the midst of a multitude of meager and worthless things. Never protest by saying, “If only I were somewhere else!” All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose He has given them. Unless we have the right purpose intellectually in our minds and lovingly in our hearts, we will very quickly be diverted from being useful to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no purpose of God’s almighty grace or His mighty Word in them. Paul’s whole heart, mind, and soul were consumed with the great purpose of what Jesus Christ came to do, and he never lost sight of that one thing. We must continually confront ourselves with one central fact— “. . . Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

“I chose you . . .” (John 15:16). Keep these words as a wonderful reminder in your theology. It is not that you have gotten God, but that He has gotten you. God is at work bending, breaking, molding, and doing exactly as He chooses. And why is He doing it? He is doing it for only one purpose— that He may be able to say, “This is My man, and this is My woman.” We have to be in God’s hand so that He can place others on the Rock, Jesus Christ, just as He has placed us.

Never choose to be a worker, but once God has placed His call upon you, woe be to you if you “turn aside . . . to the right or the left . . .” (Deuteronomy 28:14). He will do with you what He never did before His call came to you, and He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.

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October 25, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, what is my purpose here. Is it to be light of the world, a city on a hill? Why have you called me into the family of God?

And God says…”It is enough for you to know and believe that I have called you for one purpose, and that is to be in a relationship with Me. We made you in our own image so that we could have a relationship with you.  Jesus came as a man and gave himself away… to take away the sins of the world so that we could have a relationship.  You were called for one purpose, and that is to be in relationship with Me;  Every other purpose of and for your life will flow from our relationship. “

The proper perspective of a servant of God must not simply be as near to the highest as he can get, but it must be the highest. Be careful that you vigorously maintain God’s perspective, and remember that it must be done every day, little by little. Don’t think on a finite level. No outside power can touch the proper perspective.

The proper perspective to maintain is that we are here for only one purpose— to be captives marching in the procession of Christ’s triumphs. We are not on display in God’s showcase— we are here to exhibit only one thing— the “captivity [of our lives] to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). How small all the other perspectives are! For example, the ones that say, “I am standing all alone, battling for Jesus,” or, “I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold down this fort for Him.” But Paul said, in essence, “I am in the procession of a conqueror, and it doesn’t matter what the difficulties are, for I am always led in triumph.” Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul’s secret joy was that God took him as a blatant rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive— and that became his purpose. It was Paul’s joy to be a captive of the Lord, and he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. We should belong so completely to the Victor that it is always His victory, and “we are more than conquerors through Him . . .” (Romans 8:37).

“We are to God the fragrance of Christ . . .” (2 Corinthians 2:15). We are encompassed with the sweet aroma of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

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October 24, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Thank you Lord for the joy I have discovered in worshiping you throughout the day.  I am also learning that praising You when I face challenges is a wonderful way to find the joy and security of my salvation. Praising and worshiping You as I go through my day has almost become a pattern Lord, and I thank You for the joy, peace and optimism that accompanies the praise and worship.

And God says…” The scriptures say “acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and He will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and all these things will follow. It becomes an easier path when you praise and join the Holy Spirit in worship during you day. When you keep your eyes on Jesus, your eyes are no longer on the circumstances around you, and your faith is renewed as the Holy Spirit worships through you.”

There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.

Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.

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October 21, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I am not certain I totally agree with Chambers this morning,  when he says…”We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.” I have tried and tried to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life and holy on the ordinary streets among ordinary people, and just when I think I am doing all that I am supposed to do….. I fail. And Lord I know You do not grade on the curve. Being 80% on track is not being on track at all. I suspect that this is one more lesson in discovering that the only way I can “measure up” to Your expectations is to stop trying to measure up, and let Jesus measure up for me.

And God says…”That is absolutely correct. You can never measure up, and your struggle to be a better person will always be a very slippery slope, because perfection is the only acceptable condition. And as you realize, and are reminded too often by others, you are not perfect, nor will you be perfect this side of heaven. However, Christ Jesus is perfect and He is prepared to live through you, allowing His perfection to replace your imperfections. Let Jesus be the perfection you can never be, let Him live through you.”

Galatians 2:19-21

The Message (MSG)

^19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation . . . . For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person’s life.

We must get rid of the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord’s life there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.

It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College— its entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in overactivity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God’s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.

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October 19, 2011

Journal Entry for Today

Lord, the thought crossed my mind this morning that I can choose to live in Your kingdom or this world, daily, hourly and even minute by minute. I can choose to allow you to live through me, or I can choose to live my own live in my own ways….calling on You when I find I cannot deal with my circumstances. I can live a more robust, adventuresome life, curious about how you will manifest yourself in my circumstances. Or I can seek my own ways; running back and forth to you as I find myself overcome by the trials and circumstances of this life.

Lord, I am not really certain how it is accomplished, but I want You to live through me.

And God said…”Seek first the kingdom of God. All you are to do is to seek Me and My kingdom. Trust in Me regardless of your circumstances, stay curious and connected to Me. Bring your petitions and requests to Me and trust Me to know how to respond so that the very best outcomes are yours. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and do not revert to your old ways of doing things, and I will make all your paths straight.”