My Utmost For His Highest
"By this we believe…." Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?" —John 16:30-31
CHAMBERS} ““Now we believe….” But Jesus asks, “Do you…? Indeed the hour is coming…that you…will leave Me alone” (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment. The reason for this is actually the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6). […] We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them. […] If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ. […] We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus. […] When we do something out of a sense of duty, it is easy to explain the reasons for our actions to others. But when we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation— just obedience.”
{ELGIN} James said that “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:17) But, on the other hand “works without faith is impotent” (Charley Elgin) Living a “good” life or at the very least the “best you can under the circumstances” is not fulfilling God’s purpose and intent. It’s like asking someone to jump the battery on your car because it’s dead. You get the car started and drive off leaving the one who helped standing there … getting smaller and smaller in your rear-view mirror until they are out of sight. So very often that is what we do with Jesus. He merely helps us get started. We don’t see Him as critical to living our lives, we just need Him to get started. And so we deceive ourselves and wonder where the power is. In my experience, there are very few Christians who live fully dependent upon God and the leading of the Spirit. I saw that a new television show is about to launch about a man who has decided to live according to the Bible. It’s about works without faith. Living life using the Bible as an instruction manual, but lacking the power thereof. It is the secular world trying to mimic the Christian life. In their ignorance, they will make a mockery of the Christian life. (1 Corinthians 2:12-16) “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
Don’t expect the world to suddenly embrace the Christian faith. That won’t ever happen. Listen, so long as a person’s religious beliefs do not offend the god of this world, the world will embrace them. That is why you see some belief systems are tolerated, even promoted, by our culture. But I digress. The point today is that we must be determined in our spiritual walk. If you are not, you will leave Jesus in the dust and will live a life that is a mere shadow of the life God has called you to live.
"By this we believe…." Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?" —John 16:30-31
CHAMBERS} ““Now we believe….” But Jesus asks, “Do you…? Indeed the hour is coming…that you…will leave Me alone” (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment. The reason for this is actually the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6). […] We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them. […] If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ. […] We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus. […] When we do something out of a sense of duty, it is easy to explain the reasons for our actions to others. But when we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation— just obedience.”
{ELGIN} James said that “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:17) But, on the other hand “works without faith is impotent” (Charley Elgin) Living a “good” life or at the very least the “best you can under the circumstances” is not fulfilling God’s purpose and intent. It’s like asking someone to jump the battery on your car because it’s dead. You get the car started and drive off leaving the one who helped standing there … getting smaller and smaller in your rear-view mirror until they are out of sight. So very often that is what we do with Jesus. He merely helps us get started. We don’t see Him as critical to living our lives, we just need Him to get started. And so we deceive ourselves and wonder where the power is. In my experience, there are very few Christians who live fully dependent upon God and the leading of the Spirit. I saw that a new television show is about to launch about a man who has decided to live according to the Bible. It’s about works without faith. Living life using the Bible as an instruction manual, but lacking the power thereof. It is the secular world trying to mimic the Christian life. In their ignorance, they will make a mockery of the Christian life. (1 Corinthians 2:12-16) “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
Don’t expect the world to suddenly embrace the Christian faith. That won’t ever happen. Listen, so long as a person’s religious beliefs do not offend the god of this world, the world will embrace them. That is why you see some belief systems are tolerated, even promoted, by our culture. But I digress. The point today is that we must be determined in our spiritual walk. If you are not, you will leave Jesus in the dust and will live a life that is a mere shadow of the life God has called you to live.
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