The Worthiness of Jesus: Will

Psalm 143:10 NIV

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

How Are You Aligned?

In England, it used to be called an “electric torch”, in the US it is known as a flashlight.  The elderly woman who owns the home we are renting was taken to live in a nursing home and among the thousands of items she left behind that we have had to clear out of the house were half a dozen flashlights.  She had them all stacked in the front room which would have been convenient I guess if someone were breaking into the home at night and wanted to know what to steal without turning on the lights.  However, the only problem was that only one of the six flashlights worked.  The batteries had all corroded and so I took them out, wiped down the battery compartments and bought new batteries for the three flashlights not ruined.  Here was the catch.  You have to align the batteries properly for the flashlights to work.  No joke, the positive end of each battery must touch the correct terminal for it to work.  Because these flashlights required two batteries, every battery had to be aligned correctly for them to each work.

Of course it is silly to waste time on this but what is important is how you are aligned.  How are you aligned with regard to your internet browsing, your relationship with your husband or wife, the way you respond to difficult people?  How are you aligned in your use of money, your expression of anger or the types of words you choose in conversations?  How are you aligned with the people at work or school, with the movies you choose or the TV shows you watch?  How are you aligned with the troubles you face and the trials you are encountering?  How are you aligned in regard to what you say about others when they aren’t with you?  What is your alignment with the Bible, with the Church, with God?

Alignment is always a matter of the will.  Each of us has a will, it is what determines how we decide and what we decide.  The Bible makes two assumptions with regard to the will.  Human beings all have a will.  Each of us is free to make choices…important choices and trivial choices and we are accountable for the choices we make.  The second assumption with regard to the will is that our will is either aligned with God or with Satan at any given moment.  This is made clear throughout the Bible.  The will mostly operates in micro decisions that seem trivial and inconsequential.  But if your will is aligned with God, even the micro decisions are done through Him.  If though your will is aligned with Satan, what may seem to be insignificant decisions might have macro ramifications depending where your will was aligned.  For example, the micro decision to argue with your husband about his work schedule may be reasonable but was your will aligned with God in it?  If not, how could it affect each of you?  You might make the micro decision to go out with your friends and not study for your test but was that decision aligned with God or Satan?   It is your will that makes these decisions and if your will is aligned with God, every decision you make will turn out for your good but if your will is aligned with Satan, then it is never for your good even if the decision seems to work out for you at the moment!  Whatever decision you make that is aligned with the will of Satan is sin and the wages of sin is always death.

When King David made the decision to count all the fighting men in Israel, it seemed reasonable to him.  We find in 1 Chronicles 21 that David had aligned his will with Satan not realizing perhaps that was the case.  Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.  So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, "Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are." (1 Chronicles 21:1-2 NIV)  David was not a puppet of Satan.  He made the choice freely to call for the census but his will was aligned with that of Satan which explains his decision.  Even the deceitful and murderous Joab, his general, could see that David was acting badly in this but David could not be dissuaded.  But Joab replied, "May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?"  The king's word, however, overruled Joab… (1 Chronicles 21:3-4 NIV)  Of course, to David, this was a wise and proper decision to count the fighting men.  It was reasonable to him to know just how many soldiers he could count on having if he went to war. He probably was not even aware that he had aligned his will with that of Satan’s and you would have had a very tough time making him see it.  It was only later that he realized the ramifications of what he had done in siding with Satan.  This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.  Then David said to God, "I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing." (1 Chronicles 21:7-8 NIV)

A second example should be considered; that of the king before David, Saul, who went against the will of God and offered a sacrifice to the Lord anyway.  The Lord through the prophet Samuel gave Saul clear instructions in his fight with the Amalekites.  “This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.  Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'" (1 Samuel 15:2-3 NIV)  Saul though was afraid of what his soldiers would think if he did this; they wanted the best of the cattle and sheep spared.  Saul also, in a piece of convoluted logic, believed that if he sacrificed some of the cattle and sheep to God, the Lord would be proud of his piety.  Saul was greatly mistaken.  God’s response to Saul through the prophet Samuel was fierce.  “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king." (1 Samuel 15:23 NIV)

Perhaps Saul really believed that he was doing what was best when he decided to save the choice cattle and sheep from slaughter but in making this choice, he was aligning his will with the will of Satan.  Logical choices can be Satanic choices and decisions aligned with the will of God do not always make sense.   Just consider the decision of King Jehoshaphat to send his small band of soldiers up against the vast army of the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites.  Rather than sue for peace, he aligned himself with the will of God.  The Lord told him through the prophet Jahziel, “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you." (2 Chronicles 20:17 NIV)  It was not logical for Jehoshaphat’s little army to go to battle with the invading foreign hosts but they did because Jehoshaphat and the rest of the people of Judah aligned themselves with the will of God and trusted Him with the outcome.

When Jesus Christ faced the terrors of the Cross, He made a solemn commitment to the Father while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.  "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42 NIV)  It was the Father’s will for Christ to die on the Cross so that He might destroy the Sin of the world.  To follow that will of the Father, Jesus had to be beaten, His flesh torn by whips and then take the Cross as His way of death.  Nothing could argue for such a choice except only this.  He believed the will of the Father to be good.  Satan argued otherwise.  Satan’s will was that Jesus could take another way to bring the world to Him…an easier way, a more comfortable way.  Satan seemed wise and sensible but in the end our Lord’s decision was clear and certain.  The Father’s will was good and it would be the Father’s will that would be done.  Jesus’ alignment to the very end was with the Father.  Do you believe the will of Christ to be good?  Have you made that decision, that regardless of how things seem, the will of Christ is good?  Are you clear in this that the will of Satan is wicked regardless of how good it seems?

Suppose you had been put in a Nazi Concentration Camp and one of the guards was more brutal than all the others.  He made you and others strip down just so he could stare at you, he beat prisoners out of cruelty, he insulted and ridiculed you and was rumored to have raped several women in the camp.  He was particularly cruel to your sister who died while there.  After the war, you come face to face with this guard.  He has just become a Christian and stretches out his hand to greet you.  You look long and hard into the eyes of this man.  You must at this moment decide where your loyalty lies.  Whose will shall you choose?  Will it be that of Satan or of God?  The scripture has come to your mind and you cannot just discard the memory of it.  "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven… (Matthew 5: 43-45 NIV) The temptation of Satan is to renounce your absolute loyalty to the Father and walk away from this man without touching him.  But the will of Christ is clear.  How do you respond?  Whose will shall rule over you as you fix your eyes upon the guard who wants to shake your hand?

How is your will aligned right now?  Is it aligned with the easy and comfortable will of Satan who smiles warmly as you and I decide what to do?  Is it aligned with the sometimes difficult and perhaps even painful will of Jesus who waits silently for you to decide?  How will you align yourself as you choose the kingdom that has your supreme loyalty?  How will your will be aligned this week?  Align it one way and it brings light to the world.  The other way only offers darkness.  How will you align yourself today?

Transcendent Doing

Just because you have believed in Jesus Christ does not mean you are His disciple.  You may have heard many good things about Him and acknowledge what He has done but not be His disciple.   You can even have powerful times of prayer and work with great and marvelous ministries tied to His name and not be His disciple.  The disciple of Jesus Christ lives out of a paradigm that is the fulfilment of Salvation.  It is a most explosive moment for the Christian when the realization strikes; "by myself I can do nothing".  It is not a partial accomplishing; it is not an imperfect doing.  It is nothing that can be done by myself.  We bark at the personal inadequacy expressed by this determination.  What is wrong with you?  Why are you so pessimistic?  Why do you give up so easily?  Don't quit yourself!  You can do it!  But the disciple realizes, "I cannot do it."  No matter how hard I work at my projects and goals, I am incapable of doing anything on my own.  Where we stumble on this is our view of "nothing".  I can build a computer program but to what point?  I can read an article but for what reason?  I can make lunch but why?  Everything hinges on the determination of the soul.  Am I at this moment in Christ, living through Him and by His might or am I on my own?  Does Scripture have its hold on me or am I just loosely associated with it?  Is the Holy Spirit worked through both my will and my reach?  It seems to the one without the Holy Spirit that Jesus' contention that even He by Himself could do nothing is gross irresponsibility.  Yet, nothing in eternity can be worked out on our own.  It is only in Jesus Christ and through Him that we take hold of heavenly purposes.  Everything else will be consumed by fire but what is done in God endures forever.  The disciple lets himself be held in the grip of Jesus Christ and decides by rugged determination to stay there regardless of the contending needs all around.  There were plenty of places our Lord could go during His life but He only went where the Father led Him.  Are you ready to take that next step?

By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.     John 5:30 NIV

The Certainty of Doing

There are countless matters in our life with God that we do not understand and mostly it is because we have not done the one thing He has told us to do.  We hem and haw, complain about the difficulty, ignore it and pretend like it was never there but it was there and until we do the thing, we will never get any closer to God.  We might sound spiritual to everyone else, seem to be religious in all the public ways but at our core, we will know that we are mostly faking it.  We have not actually heard from the Lord in any tangible way and it makes us bitter, depressed even.  We become tightly wound, like a screw that has been turned one too many times.  We flinch at the point of real love, curse under our breath the troubles we face and get perturbed by the frustrating people we have in our life.  All the while, it is the one thing that we have rejected that keeps us from knowing the joy and peace of Christ at the points of certain supernatural contact.  The Holy Spirit waits for us to bend our will to that of Christ and we don't and so He waits longer.  He frustrates us to get us to turn and we won't, all the while blaming everything and everyone but ourselves for the dryness of our spirit.  The promise that out of Christ will spring gushes of Living Water is not fluff...it is what actually happens when we turn to Him for help.  Moses could not "get on" with his life until he marched down to Egypt and met his pharaoh and Hebrew family.  Jacob could not "get on" with his life until he returned to the land of his fathers and settled matters with his brother.  Peter could not "get on" with his life until he walked away from his fishing business.  You can not "get on" with your life until you take heed to the last matter you had before you when you faced God squarely.  No one can help you adjust your life to God but you.  He will not push you along, give you a bolt of nerve or take matters into His own hands and absolve you of your duty.  You must get up, get out of bed and push yourself.  It is only then that the Lord will energize your determination and heal your woundedness so that you will be fit to handle what is before you.  God's will is never confounded; your will in Him can be though if you wait too long.  We are to take matters into our own hands only in this one place; to do what the Lord tells us to do in the strength He gives us.  Keep your mind fresh and alert to all the ways the Savior meets you and many will drink from the living water spilling out of you at every turn where the Holy Spirit brings you.

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."   John 7:38 NIV

Full Effort

Philippians 3:13-14 NIV

… straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

What has your full attention?

The other day I was at a very nice restaurant with a good friend and we had a great time together.  The food was delicious and honestly I ate far too much.  I gained a full pound just having lunch there.  As we were leaving, the Lord prodded me to go to a couple with a newborn child and start a conversation with them.  I was not sure why He wanted me to do it; I didn’t know them and it could have seemed odd to the couple but I was certain the Holy Spirit was pushing me to approach them.  Now it could have been that this was just something I wanted to do…they had a cute baby and perhaps I was happy for them and wanted to let them know I was happy for them.  Maybe I just wanted to try to sell the young couple on our church; I am a pastor and that is my job.  It might just well be that it is my personality to talk with people I don’t know and start conversations at random places.  I know anyone who was watching me could have made any of these same deductions.  But I was sure that the Lord in some way that is beyond my ability to explain or prove wanted me to approach the couple who were busy enjoying their lunch and their baby and visit with them a minute or two.  What outcome there might be, I did not know nor did I have any idea what the Lord wanted me to say actually.  So there I was, about to leave the restaurant, with the Lord’s insistence that I stay just a bit longer and inject my life into the lives of two people who were perfect strangers.

Is it true that we each are being moved along by an unseen hand of one who has designs upon us that we may or may not know or care to know?  Do we have a purpose to our lives, a reason why we are here?  Is it to get an education, to work hard and do well in school?  Are we here to be successful in some career or at least make a good living at what we do?  Are we here to buy a house, get a car, pay off our debt?  Is there a purpose to our lives?  Are we here to gain US citizenship, make sure our kids get a quality education, pass along what we have learned to the next generation, aggravate people, watch as much TV as possible, find a husband or wife, develop an addiction, look good when we are old, stay healthy?  What is our purpose here?

There is an interesting account in the Bible that gets at an important consideration if we do think there might be a reason why we are on this planet for a certain period of time.  Most of are not under the illusion that we are going to stay here one hundred years or more and certainly are not going to have thousands of years to get everything done that we think we need to do before we die.  So there is a certain level of urgency each of us faces when it comes to doing what we feel we should do.  David, who already was king of Judah, was invited by the northern tribes of Israel to be their king also.  Their previous king, Ish-Bosheth had been murdered, and so the popular choice to replace him was David.  David eagerly agreed to the offer but the armies of the northern tribes had to sign off on the deal as well. It was not long before nearly three hundred thousand men came to meet with David, soldiers representing all twelve tribes of Israel, and pledge their support of him as king.  In fact, they were fiercely decided on this. They came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel. All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make David king.  (1 Chronicles 12:38-39 NIV)  “Fully determined” implies an unwavering sense of direction or purpose.  They came to David’s camp for a reason and intended to accomplish the task they had decided upon before leaving.  The army was full of purpose; it was not a spontaneous excursion so they didn’t treat it as such.  They were in Hebron to make David king over Israel and and they did it.

You are not randomly placed where you are without direction.  There is a point to who you are and why you are what you are.  Each of us faces a moment when we realize we really are sinners.  It is not that we have done a few things wrong; we are sinners through and through and we cannot fix that about us.  Some of us then discover that Jesus Christ alone gives us a way out from our sinfulness.  When He died on the Cross, Jesus took into His own body our sins and when Jesus physically died, those sins and their permanent effect died with Him.  To be forgiven of your sins, you must believe Jesus did that, He took your sins into His body and they died with Him and after that, three days later God raised Him from the dead.  Nothing about your sinfulness changes in your life until you decide this is so.  Your sins remain your death, they separate you from God and in the end you are without hope.

But when you by faith accept the work Jesus Christ did in dying for your sins, something astonishingly supernatural occurs.  Christ physically becomes a part of your life.  He enters you and joins you in all you do.  He empowers transcendent life changes that mark how you do things.  You change in ways noticeable and discreet.  Every Christian experiences this, a new life with Jesus Christ in the totality of life.  Jesus called it being “born again”.  If your life doesn’t change, then perhaps nothing is different with you.  You are not born again and not living with Christ in your life.  But if you have been remade by God through faith, then there is a different you in place, a “you” that includes Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul put it this way regarding the union of Christ and any true Christian.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. (2 Corinthians 4:10-12 NIV)  Jesus Christ crucified becomes part of us, who we are, what we think and what we do.  Not only that, the life of Christ is there in us too.  What this does for us is make us dead to sin…sin no longer controls us like a slave master.  Christ crucified makes sure of that for our sins were killed in His body.  But because Christ alive lives in us too, His vibrancy and power are always ready to spring from us, show themselves in us.  We become alive with the personality and will and ability of Jesus Christ and that Christ-part-of-us will not remain dormant.  It like a seed planted in soil will eventually poke out of the ground and you are the soil where that seed is planted.

We have in the book of Acts a case study of what happens when Jesus Christ crucified and alive lives in you and becomes a part of your decision making, will and behavior.  In Acts 4: 13 is an interesting aside regarding the Christian people.  When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (NIV)  There is something tangible, something different about those who have become intimate with Jesus, who live with Him.  The ones observing it may not be able to put a finger on exactly what they see but it is recognizable.  Sprinkled throughout the book of Acts are some examples of how Christian people who are living with Christ in them look.

In Acts 7: 59-60 is the terrifying account of Stephen who was martyred for his faith crying out for God to forgive the very ones who were murdering him.  While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. (NIV)  To use a metaphor that could make some squeamish, Jesus Christ was seeping out of Stephen as he faced his death squarely.  That mercy he had for his killers was not his own, it was the nature and will of Jesus Christ living within him.  As you are being crushed by skull shattering stones, what you are comes out of you, not an imitation of something.  Stephen felt pity on his attackers because of the one living within Him, Jesus sincerely loved them.

When Paul, on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians, was converted by the personal work of Jesus Christ it was no small matter for the Christian Ananias to approach Paul and offer to baptize him and pray over him.  The prejudices he held were legitimate and based on factual information.  Paul was a real threat to him and his family.  To overcome this fear, Ananias had to possess Jesus Christ living in him who was fearless.  We know Ananias was afraid because he protested the demand of Christ that he go see Paul. "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.  And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."  (Acts 9:13-14 NIV)  Ananias the man felt the very natural panic at the mention of Paul’s name; Ananias with Jesus Christ unafraid living in him went courageously to Paul and prayed over him.

Something we have talked about before popped up in the Christian community that first few years after Christ ascended to the father.  Spontaneously and without coercion or any sort of Church direction, Christians started selling off their property and giving the proceeds to the work of the Church.  They weren’t pressured into doing it.  They weren’t even asked.  They just gave generously and sacrificially and it had a stunning effect upon other Christians as well as the community where they lived.  All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 4:32-35 NIV)  The reason why this was such an established practice is not because of the strategic training and pressure tactics in the Church; it occurred because the resurrected Christ lived in these people and His nature came out of them in tangible ways.  When Jesus Christ lives in you, your will moves in the direction of generosity and away from a drive to acquire possessions and gain for yourself stuff to hold and keep.

The point is that if you are actually Christian you have Jesus Christ, who suffered the Cross to take away your sins and rose from the dead and is not bound by the constraints of this world, living in you and undoing the constraints of your common thinking.  He makes you aware of the miracles that are possible. He opens you up to blessing people who hurt you and take from you and use you.  He gives you a determination to give up what you have to bring God glory.  He makes you courageous and confident and willing to die if you need to die for the Lord’s honor.  Jesus Christ living in you gives you the ability to quit judging people, quit deciding you don’t like them or won’t trust them or don’t want to have anything to do with them and gives you the determination to bless and pray for each person you encounter.  This does not come from you; it comes from Christ living in you.

We waste a lot of time and make ourselves miserable trying to fight off what Christ resurrected is in us.  Essentially we war against ourselves when we act selfishly, react angrily and refuse to love someone we dislike.  Because Christ resurrected has become a part of us, part of our personality…that is who we are.  The most miserable people in the world are those who war with themselves, who will not let Christ resurrected come out of them, show Himself in what they do.  Non-Christians can be perfectly content avoiding mean and irritating neighbors and co-workers and family members but Christians who have Christ resurrected living within them will be miserable if they try to be that way and the same is true when it comes to keeping too much for themselves and being afraid to trust God in stressful situations.  If you want to be unhappy, cranky and discouraged, then do your best to avoid who you are…Christ resurrected living within you.  If you want to be free of care, contented and courageous in your life with God, then let Christ resurrected have His way with you in what you do.  You cannot be at peace if you fight against who you are…but you will have perfect peace if you let Jesus Christ have complete sway within your personality.

Spend a week praying for God’s blessing upon someone who has treated you badly or someone you just don’t like.  Let Christ seep out of you.  Buy a sandwich for someone you don’t know and who doesn’t deserve your generosity.  Let Christ resurrected show Himself in you.  Do something nice for someone and never tell that person it was you who did it.  Let Christ resurrected show up where you are.  Announce your Christian faith in Christ where it isn’t known and see what God does with your courage.  Somehow find a way to give Christ resurrected room to live through you this week.

Pushing Forward

Why do we think we have developed a heightened level of spirituality when we give up on praying and stifle our love of Christ in a muffling "your will be done"?  Nothing so marks the carnal mind like the indifference to praying and "keeping on" praying.  It is passive aggressive bitterness that stops at the point of impassioned interceding for all the needs that come to our mind.  The great purpose of intercessory prayer is simple; to bring each and every one of those things that disturb us to the mind of Christ and there with the Holy Spirit working in our heart  learn to love God with the type of love Mary had not many minutes after she  wondered aloud why Jesus had waited too long to save Lazarus.  The pagan determination to pray for the dead is not so far off the mark as we think.  In Christ, who is the Alpha and Omega all at once, who is to say our praying cannot reach back before us and alter even what has happened in the past.  Where is the justification for giving up on everything that seems hopeless to us if God can pull the dead from the grave on the last day?  The praying of one believing Christian can change the course of events miraculously and in stunning fashion, not because she is worthy of it but because the love of God is poured out in the interceding and that love is a healing fire.  Nothing in the spiritual realm is quite so intoxicating as the determination to quit on a matter because it seems hopeless.  It is the morphine of Satan, this resolve to let go of the thing when the Holy Spirit is pressing us forward in prayer.  Who among us has not quit on a matter just as arrogantly as the mourners who laughed when Jesus informed them that the little girl was not dead but merely sleeping?  The opportunity to pray at any given moment for each part of a day is a privilege won for us at the Cross and we should not quit on it so carelessly.  

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24 NIV

Spiritual Leakage

When once we start to question our ability to do a thing or give up a thing, we should always ask if we have let a habit or a behavior sap our strength and diminish our spiritual vitality.  God will never give you a task or a challenge that He has not already empowered you in the matter.  You have all the ability you need and all the creativity necessary for the task.  But if you lack power or will, you need to first go back to the beginning point when you started leaking the Lord's oil and plug the leak.  Renounce the act, stop the habit, get rid of the subtle rebellion and climb back into the arms of Christ with determination to trust Him in the matters that have caused you to turn your back on His help....he should do it with the strength God provides...(1 Peter 4:11 NIV)