Arise from the dead… —Ephesians 5:14
Not all initiative, the willingness to take the first step, is inspired by God. Someone may say to you, “Get up and get going! Take your reluctance by the throat and throw it overboard— just do what needs to be done!” That is what we mean by ordinary human initiative. But when the Spirit of God comes to us and says, in effect, “Get up and get going,” suddenly we find that the initiative is inspired.
We all have many dreams and aspirations when we are young, but sooner or later we realize we have no power to accomplish them. We cannot do the things we long to do, so our tendency is to think of our dreams and aspirations as dead. But God comes and says to us, “Arise from the dead….” When God sends His inspiration, it comes to us with such miraculous power that we are able to “arise from the dead” and do the impossible. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life and power comes after we “get up and get going.” God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, “Arise from the dead…,” we have to get ourselves up; God will not lift us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch out your hand” (Matthew 12:13). As soon as the man did so, his hand was healed. But he had to take the initiative. If we will take the initiative to overcome, we will find that we have the inspiration of God, because He immediately gives us the power of life.
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Journal, DJR
Good morning, Lord. We have the tendency to live life like it’s all about us. And we make all our own choices, live with their consequences and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. That’s pretty ingrained in the American psyche. And it seems to work pretty well (at least the self help seminar industry does well promoting it) .. until we do a closer examination and begin to see from your point of view. Then we see that you give us all of our abilities in the first place. And the inspirations and the ideas and the nudges from the Holy Spirit. So what is our place in any initiative? Like Peter walking on the water. You certainly made the miracle possible. You inspired him (told him to come). And held him up and picked him back up when his faith failed him. So his part was to lift his leg and step out. You could have forced that…. but you aren’t like that… So is that all that we need to do? wait for your inspiration and then just obey?
You have, perhaps, over simplified it, but yes. You will find that a good way to live and walk in the peace that passes understanding. You will notice that that is what I did when I walked among you….
John 5:19 So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing.
There are many things that will de-rail you from that simple process if you allow them. Just look at my explanation of the parable of the sower and the seed.
Mark 4:13-20 Then Jesus said to them, “If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables? 14The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others. 15The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. 16The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 17But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 18The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, 19but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. 20And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
“There’s a lot in there, to consider, like Satan who will come at once… but for today, lets focus on the “worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things” You’ll notice that although Satan came immediately, trying to get me off track… that I didn’t let him, nor did I let these three distract me either. You really can live this way. Just stay surrendered, connected, curious, about what the Father is doing in any situation and how you are going to respond in addition to curious, you can stay suspicious. Yes, I said suspicious. Suspicious that one of the “Big Four” human motivations is sneaking in… masquerading as inspiration from me. They are slippery. So stay suspicious of your desire to Look Good, Feel Good, Be Right and Be In Control. You’ll notice that I never spent any time catering to any of those. When you give them up, you’ll be well on your way to that simplified life of peace that passes (human) understanding.”
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