It Starts In The Heart

My Utmost For His Highest

Jesus did not commit Himself to them…for He knew what was in man. —John 2:24-25

{CHAMBERS}  “Put Trust in God First. Our Lord never put His trust in any person. Yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because He put His trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God’s grace could do for others. If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what no person can ever be— absolutely perfect and right. Never trust anything in yourself or in anyone else, except the grace of God. Put God’s Will First. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:9). […] Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transformed by the indwelling life of the Son of God? God’s ultimate purpose is that His Son might be exhibited in me.”

{ELGIN}  The difference between your desire for someone to be a certain way or want a certain thing and their desire for the same thing is called frustration.  Spiritual change happens from the inside out.  It starts in the heart.  Prisons are full of people that have their wrong behavior constrained by locked doors and prison bars.  But let many of them free from those constraints and they will go right back to the life they had been living before they went to prison.  God changes hearts.  A study in 2005 showed that 75% of prisoners released were re-arrested within 5 years.  Jesus said, “It is not the outside of the cup that makes it unclean.” (Matthew 23:25)  Just as sure as you can’t save any one, you can’t change anyone’s heart.  (Jeremiah 17:9-10) “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”  Only God knows and only God can change the heart but it requires faith on our part.  The change in a person that you so desperately want to see can only come through their faith transaction with God.  So what do you do in the meantime?  Love them like Jesus loves them, but remember, He never condoned the sin.  He confronted it and encouraged the people to repent.

To Accept God's Call You Must Embrace The Spiritual And Abandon The Natural

My Utmost For His Highest

Lord, I will follow You, but... —Luke 9:61

{CHAMBERS} “Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. […] every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about…?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.” […] Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.”

{ELGIN}  (Proverbs 16:9) We make plans .. God orders our steps. (Proverbs 3:3-6) Trust God don’t trust your own wisdom.  There is a principle that I have learned over time.  God never asks you to do something that you can do by yourself. You will always need God to do it.  Why? Because it is a spiritual act not a natural one.  Oh, it may have the form of the natural, but if God is in it, that is the limit of the natural, its form.

When the young man told Jesus he would follow Him but he needed to first bury his father, Jesus said let the dead bury the dead. (Luke 9:60)  When the rich young man asked about what he needed to do to have eternal life, Jesus said “sell have you have and give it to the poor”  (Mark 10:21)  The problem with obedience is the depth of our love of God and faith in God.  God asks us to abandon natural understanding and embrace the spiritual understanding.  If we did, obedience to the call of God would be natural and immediate.  You would not have to lay the fleece out six ways from Sunday before you submitted to what you knew to be God’s call the first time.

With Enough Faith You Think You Can Ask For Anything And Get It - Well, That Is Not Exactly Correct

My Utmost For His Highest

In that day you will ask in My name…for the Father Himself loves you… —John 16:26-27

{CHAMBERS}  ““In that day you will ask in My name…,” that is, in My nature. Not “You will use My name as some magic word,” but— “You will be so intimate with Me that you will be one with Me.” “That day” is not a day in the next life, but a day meant for here and now. “…for the Father Himself loves you…”— the Father’s love is evidence that our union with Jesus is complete and absolute. Our Lord does not mean that our lives will be free from external difficulties and uncertainties, but that just as He knew the Father’s heart and mind, we too can be lifted by Him into heavenly places through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that He can reveal the teachings of God to us.[…] Jesus said that because of His name God will recognize and respond to our prayers.”

{ELGIN} I am certain that you have heard of the term, “Name it and claim it.”  The idea being that you can have anything you want, all you have to do is ask for it. And if you don’t get what you want, then it is because you do not have enough faith.  Frankly, I can see how people could interpret verses in the Bible that way.  “Faith like a mustard seed.” (Matthew 17:20)  “Ask anything in My name.” (John 14:14) But, those verses must be counter-balanced with “You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.  You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4:3-4) The idea being that maybe you don’t get what you ask for because what you ask for is to satisfy your flesh and not to bring glory to God at all.  When Jesus prayed in the Garden, He asked if the Father would “take this cup” from Him, yet not Jesus’ will but the Father’s will be done.  We tend to forget that the Bible is a spiritual book.  It is God’s revelation to the world.  There is nothing in it that does not have spiritual context.  It describes how man relates to man, how God relates to man and how man relates to God.  Jesus did not come so that man could prosper in material things.  There are many, many saints who are impoverished.  That does not mean they lack faith.  But if you have a “fleshly” view toward God’s provision that is what you think it means.  We are not “blessed” because we enjoy the excesses that this country brings.  We are blessed because we have salvation through Jesus and a child of God.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight  making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:3-14)

Want God's Best? Stop, Look, Listen, and Obey. There Is No Other Way!

My Utmost For His Highest

If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. —Genesis 13:9

{CHAMBERS} “As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. […] This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice. Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. […] Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “…walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1).”

{ELGIN}  Hearing God’s voice.  That is a result of listening with spiritual understanding and spiritual preparation.  It is often difficult to discern when it is God and when it is merely me wanting to do something godly.  I have met a number of people who told me they wanted to serve God.  When God presented an opportunity that was clearly supernatural, they said “no, I really want to do this other thing.” And they turned away from the opportunity.  Their response was telling.  Their desire to do good was greater than their desire to follow God.  God will not condemn you for that, but oh what you miss when you choose poorly.  I was talking to another missionary about this person just yesterday.  It is with sadness that I speak of it. Dr. Henry Blackaby said that hearing God is normally not the problem.  Obeying God is the problem.  Proverbs 16:9 say “Men make plans in their hearts, but God orders their steps.”  The problem is when we refuse to throw our plans away and follow God.  All the will convinced that we have chosen well.  And how do I know what the best thing was for that person?  Because God revealed it to me by his Spirit and circumstances that were indisputably impossible to orchestrate by man but trivial for our God.  Oh friend, don’t miss the joy of walking after God by faith.  Great things He hath promised.  Great things He hath done. And great things He wants to do through you if you will only stop, look, listen, and obey.

Facing Life In The Reality Of Your Faith Or Not

My Utmost For His Highest

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. —Revelation 1:17

{CHAMBERS} “”He laid His right hand on me…” (Revelation 1:17). In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. […] Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), full of support, provision, comfort, and strength. And once His touch comes, nothing at all can throw you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory, the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, saying, “Do not be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). His tenderness is inexpressibly sweet. Do I know Him like that? Take a look at some of the things that cause despair. There is despair which has no delight, no limits whatsoever, and no hope of anything brighter. But the delight of despair comes when “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…” (Romans 7:18). I delight in knowing that there is something in me which must fall prostrate before God when He reveals Himself to me, and also in knowing that if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible.”

{ELGIN}  In the Focus on the Family study, the Truth Project, a question is posed.  “Do you believe, that what you believe, is really real?”  Are your walking and responding to life in the reality of your new life in Christ, or is your religion something that is notional? Something that makes you feel good but has little practical value?  If you don’t believe it is real … that it is something that can be grasped and is helpful in this natural life on terra firma, then you are not likely to trust and obey.  Instead you will live your life as you see fit, doubting that there is any practical value to your faith in Jesus.  How much time do spend each day in consideration of your relationship with God?  If you don’t spend time on any relationship, that relationship will soon fade.  It will lose its luster and become like a distant memory.  I can recall that happening many times in my life.  So many people that I have known, but neglect and distance eroded the connection between us until the only time I might think of them is when I see a picture or someone reminds me of an event in my life.  So it is with us and the Lord.  Do not neglect your time with the Lord.

How To Be Of One Mind With The Father And Why You Should Be

My Utmost For His Highest

…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21

{CHAMBERS}  “If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17. […] God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). […] The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best.”

{ELGIN}  I am certain that you have heard the phrase “being of one mind”.  It means that whomever is being referred to all are in agreement over some issue.  There is no wavering.  They are “one” with respect to whatever issue was at hand.  In the same way, yet in a more comprehensive way, Jesus prayed that we would be of one mind with the Father on all things, not just some things. There is never a time when we agree to disagree.  As we submit our lives to the Spirit and live our lives by faith, we are united in harmony with the will of the Father.  That is represented by complete trust in God no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in.  We don’t blame God or distance ourselves from Him because He has let us down somehow.  Some bad thing has happened to us and we feel God has not kept up His end of the bargain. 

God did not say that we would not have to face crisis, disappointments, heartache, or loss in this new life of ours.  We live in a corrupt world and our natural bodies are still subject to its corruption.  But, He did say that we could endure whatever comes and through it, He would be glorified.  (2 Corinthians 4:8-10) “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”  The Haitians often say to me “Si Bondye Vle” meaning if God is willing. A phrase that you don’t hear so much in this country anymore is “The Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.”  Both speak to the acknowledgement that God is sovereign and we yield to that sovereignty.  We are of one mind with the Father.  This not something that just happens after salvation, it is a result of doggedly pursuing a relationship with the Father through prayer, the Word, and worship.  Failing that, you will never know, never experience, what being one with Him is like.

Are You Down? Is Your Soul Weary? Our God Will Raise You Up!

My Utmost For His Highest

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? —Romans 8:35

{CHAMBERS} “God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble…” (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God. “In all these things we are more than conquerors…” (Romans 8:37). Paul was not referring here to imaginary things, but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are “super-victors” in the midst of them, not because of our own ingenuity, nor because of our courage, but because none of them affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ. […] “Shall tribulation…?” Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event; but whatever it may be— whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness— it is not able to “separate us from the love of Christ.” […] “Shall…distress…?” Can God’s love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice? “Shall…famine…?” Can we not only believe in the love of God but also be “more than conquerors,” even while we are being starved?[…] Logic is silenced in the face of each of these things which come against him. Only one thing can account for it— the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

{ELGIN}  Every day I see saints who are faced with great difficulties in their lives.  I am not speaking of the consequences of sin, but the consequences of living in a corrupt and fallen world.  Many books have been written about why bad things happen to “good” people.  We value our natural life, but we should value our eternal life even more.  If we do not have a spiritual perspective on both, we will struggle when troubles come.  Josh Gorban sings a song, “You Raise Me Up”; “When I am down and oh my soul so weary, When troubles come and my heart burdened be, Then I am still and wait here in the silence, Until you come and sit a while with me, You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains, You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas, I am strong, when I am on your shoulders, You raise me up, to more than I can be.”

It is not I, but Christ in me that allows me to persevere in the face of great trials in my life.  (2 Corinthians 4:8-11) “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”  When you are faced with the trials that are sure to come, you may be in one even now, don’t look inside for the strength to continue on.  Look up!

Don Moen, He Will Come And Save; “Say to those who are fearful hearted, Do not be afraid, The Lord your God Is strong with His mighty arms When you call on His name He will come and save. He will come and save you. Say to the weary one YOURE GOD WILL SURELY COME , He will come and save you. Lift up your eyes to Him You will arise again He will come and save you. Say to those who are broken hearted, Do not lose your faith. The Lord your God Is strong with His loving arms When you call on His name He will come and save”  He will.  He is faithful but you must put your faith in Him.