OSWALD CHAMBERS – “Our Lord’s teaching can be summed up in this:
the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done
a supernatural work in us. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the
strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear
the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself— a
relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one
purpose remains and I can truly say, “I am here for God to send me where He
will.”
Many of Oswald Chamber’s
devotions were derived by his wife from his lectures at a Bible College. He was speaking to men and women who had been
called by God to service beyond what most of us are called to after our
conversion. But, no matter the what or
where of your calling, the principles are the same. Even the person with only one spiritual gift
and that gift they may consider to be almost non-essential (God does not agree
with them by the way) faces the same challenges that every other saint faces in
living their new life. We are all called
to abandon the same things, even though for most it will be an abandonment in
the heart, but with a few, it will require physical abandonment. It is one thing to say that you love God more
than your family, it is quite another to leave your family and go on Mission
for God. It is one thing to say that you
do not love the things of this world, it is quite another to sell your house
and put your retirement at risk in order to go where God has said “Go!”.
I would find it very difficult
to write these things to you if I had no intention of doing them myself. When I was on staff with Promise Keepers in
the ‘90s, there was a saying that was popular among us. “You can’t teach what you don’t know, you
can’t lead where you won’t go, and you can only recreate what you are.” The secret to going is obedience and
faith. Faith comes from God and
obedience comes from a “broken and contrite heart”, wholly submitted to the
will of God. Every step you take for God
requires the power of God. It is a
glorious life .. living by faith and not by sight.
The person whose abandonment is only in the heart is no
less faithful than the one who must abandon physically as well in response to the call of
God. The point is being obedient to God
no matter what He calls you to do. So when the Spirit whispers in your ear, “This
is the way walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)
Walk on! … to the glory of God and in testimony to a world that needs to see Jesus.
CHARLEY
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