Broken or Broken Down

I was introduced to The Calvary Road by Roy Hession about 6 years ago. It took me two weeks to get past the first three paragraphs. It was that powerful. We either become broken or broken down. Check it out for yourself. You'll need a highlighter. It's in my recommended reading book list - to the right of this post. You can get the book online and at most bookstores, or you can read it for free online at http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/hession/calvary%20road/

The following 3 paragraphs are from chapter 1: Brokenness

We want to be very simple in this matter of Revival. Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts. Jesus is always victorious. In heaven they are praising Him all the time for His victory. Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, He is never defeated. His power is boundless. And we, on our part, have only to get into a right relationship with Him, and we shall see His power being demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and victorious life will fill us and overflow through us to others. And that is Revival in its essence.

If, however, we are to come into this right relationship with Him, the first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to His will is the beginning of Revival. It is painful, humiliating, but it is the only way. It is being " Not I ,but Christ,(Gal 2:20)' and a " C " is a bent " I." The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through until the proud self within us is broken. This simply means that the hard unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God's will, admits its wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory - that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all. In other words it is dying to and self-attitudes.

And as we look honestly at our Christian lives, we can see how much of this self there is in each of us. It is so often self who tries to live the Christian life (the mere fact that we use the word " try " indicates that it is self who has the responsibility). It is self, too, who is often doing Christian work. It is always self who gets irritable and envious and resentful and critical and worried. It is self who is hard and unyielding in its attitudes to others. It is self who is shy and self-conscious and reserved. No wonder we need breaking. As long as self is in control, God can do little with us, for all the fruits of the Spirit (they are enumerated in Galatians 5), with which God longs to fill us, are the complete antithesis of the hard, unbroken spirit within us and presupposes that it has been crucified."

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When we break God's law, guilt, anguish, anger, bitterness, emptiness, or despair will follow. Why? Because we practice (do) only what we really believe. If we don't really believe what God says, then we believe and live a lie. We can search for truth, or we can search for excuse. Choose truth.    PM 

Joshua 24:14-15

Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: 

and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, 

and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, 

choose you this day whom ye will serve; 

whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, 

or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: 

but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

     

The Snake's Reasoning: Happiness or Holiness?

I've been reading Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot, and I found a simple yet deep truth very clearly written out in one of the chapters. This truth is illustrated throughout Scripture and in our every day lives.

Consider Jacob and Esau. Both were hoping and praying for their father's blessing, but only Jacob received it. Did they both serve a sovereign, loving God? Think about those two Christian men you know who are unemployed and were recently interviewed for a position at that well-known company. They, and many of the people they know, were praying for God to provide for their families through them getting the job. However, just one was offered the position. Does God still care about both of them?

Elisabeth writes about a conversation she once had with a friend in the middle of the night. Her friend had just come in from a date, was troubled, and wanted to talk.  She explained her eagerness to marry a handsome and wealthy man, however, she had just been out with a Christian man who was very nice, interesting, and handsome, but...not wealthy.


Wisely, Elisabeth asked her a few questions.

"What do you want more than anything else?" I asked. "God's choices or your own?"

"God's, of course."

"What if He should choose for you a man who was poor and homely?"

"Oh, but he wouldn't!"

"Why not?"

"Because He loves me."

"I see. Then He will give the poor and homely man only to a woman He doesn't love?"

"Oh, but--"

"Or--think about this one--does He love the poor, homely man? If so, will He give him an ugly woman? Or might He give him a beautiful one?"

"Oh, please!"

"You said you wanted God's choices, Jane, and God's choices involve His plans for the whole universe--all the atoms, all the worlds, all the people, pretty and ugly, rich and poor. He's engineering an intricate pattern for good, and part of that pattern might necessitate giving a beautiful girl to a homely man. Maybe the man with no looks and no money is praying God will give you to him. What about that, now?"

"That's too complicated for me. I've prayed for His will, and I've prayed for a rich, handsome husband, and that's what I'm going to get, because Jesus loves me and Jesus wants me to be happy."

"So if you don't get him, will that prove that God doesn't love you?"

The blue eyes filled with tears. "Doesn't He want me to be happy?" (I heard an echo of Eve in Eden.)

"He wants you most to be holy."

"Miserable and longfaced, then. Is that what God wants? Is that what holiness has to mean?"

"Has to? No. Not only doesn't have to, but can't. Real holiness can't possibly be miserable and longfaced, Jan. Holiness means 'wholeness.' Comes from the same root as hale--you know, hale and hearty. Healthy. Fulfilled."

"Well, that has to mean happy."

"That's what it means for sure. The problem starts when we make up our own minds what will give us happiness and then decide, if we don't get exactly that, that God doesn't love us. We slither into a slough of God-hates-me-self-pity."

"But you just said He wants us to be happy. He must want to give us what we want, doesn't He? I mean, within reason."

"He wanted Adam and Eve to be happy, but He didn't give them everything they wanted. He knew it would be the death of them. So they got mad and decided He didn't love them and was being stingy when He told them not to touch the fruit. How could He love them if He didn't let them have it? They put more stock in the snake's reasoning than in God's."

(Passion and Purity pp. 40-42)

When my prayers aren't answered the way that I see would fit into my life's plan, does God still see me? Doesn't He know that I have needs and desires? Doesn't Him loving me mean that He wants to make me happy?
What do you do when you feel you've come to a point that your circumstance appears to be an inadequate status for deep personal growth? How long do you hang on? How ever did Jesus manage to be content with the little he possessed on this earth?
When we feel this way, I'm afraid the Snake has been whispering in our ear, "God is stingy. He dangles beautiful, alluring fruit before your eyes but won't let you taste it. He refuses to give you the one thing you need for deep personal growth, the lone thing in the world that would solve all your problems and give you true happiness."

Love others today.
GE

    

My Will v God's Will

I found the March 4th My Utmost for His Highest devotional to be particularly challenging and inspiring. The title is “Could This Be True of Me?” The verse is Acts 20:24. "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself."

Chambers gives the following explanation. “It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because then you are not bothered by what He requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion, becomes your guide. You may be more prosperous and successful from the world’s perspective, and will have more leisure time, if you never acknowledge the call of God. But once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God asks of you will always be there to prod you on to do His will. You will no longer be able to work for Him on the basis of common sense.”


It’s simply a battle between my will and God’s will.

My Will
If I do service for God 
    without a vision for the future and 
    without a call in my life, 
               then I shan’t be bothered by what He requires.

My guide is common sense (reason), covered with a layer of Christianeeze (emotion or words) 

~ otherwise known as hypocrisy.

God’s Will
If I do service for God 
     with a vision for the future and 
     with God’s call in my life,
               then I must be consumed with what He desires.


My guide is uncommon sense (faith), supported by biblical knowledge 
~ otherwise seen as Christ-likeness.
PM