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Guidance chapter three
And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the
heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that
he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he
poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.
John 13:2-5
"Knowing that the Father had given all things into
his hands, that he had come from God and was going to God." Jesus knew who he was. The False Reference
The reason we have such a difficult time laying aside our
garments and washing feet is that we're still
trying to find out who we are. Most of us have a very shaky sense of our own identity. We're like a man who wakes up on a
plane and can't remember his own name, or where he came from, or where he's going; hoping with all his heart that when the plane
lands he'll meet some familiar face at the terminal that will bring it all back to him.
To be poor in spirit, to be meek and lowly of heart does not
mean to be forever in a panic trying to figure out who we are, but to be secure enough inside about who we are that we can
cheerfully face the truth of our utter need of God's mercy. The problem among believers is that instead of finding themselves by
losing themselves in God, they lose themselves by trying to find themselves in the eyes of men. We're living in a world where
everybody keeps losing track of who he is, where everyone's self-image keeps blowing up in his face because it's founded on human
opinion rather than the Spirit of God.
Here's a woman who when she entered into marriage a few years
ago was strikingly beautiful and overflowing with happiness. Now she has three children, a husband who lives for ABC's "Wide
World Of Sports," sickness boredom. The walls are closing in. If you asked her if she's the radiant bride who walked down the
aisle a few years ago she'd laugh in your face! Take a look at her husband. He had great plans for his life‑once. But now
his whole personality looks like it's been spin dried. He's resigned himself to a monotonous job, boring home life, whining
children, complaining wife, and escapes into TV, hockey, baseball and football. He has long since lost track of who he is. His
mind is shriveled and getting smaller every day. And these people we watch on our television, and read about in Time Magazine,
whose lives seem so interesting; most of them have about as good a grip on who they are as on that bar of soap in the bottom of
the bathtub. They have the same anxieties about who they are, the same emptiness, they experience the same inner desperation as
the rest of the population.
Ever since the fall of man, humans have tried to establish who
they are by comparing themselves with their fellowman. Cain looked at his brother Abel with envy that turned to murder because
Cain only knew who he was with reference to Abel; and it made him sick. Now Korah, Dathan and Abiram and the two hundred and fifty
who challenged Moses in the
wilderness were trying to find their identity with reference
to Moses. “Who do you think you are, Moses? You're no better than the rest of us!" (Moses never said he was.) The Pole Star
But in the Kingdom of God we know who we are not by comparing
ourselves with someone else, but from within – ever knowing who we are in
relation to God. He is the pole star. Outwardly we travel a road
that gives us little reassurance
as to who we are. If we don't know who we are, and keep knowing, we'll soon be swallowed up by the dullness, the
monotony, the hard things that come again to us, and open
ourselves to seducing spirits. It happens to many believers. They travel well for a while. Then circumstances become rough. And
when they get no assurance from outward sources or admiring friends, they become victims
of whatever lying spirit tells them something nice.
..Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his
hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a
towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was
girded.
John 13:3-5
This man washing the feet of his friends like a slave suffers
no identity crisis. He is able to serve so freely because he knows who he is in relation to the Father. Knowing that the Father
had given all things into his hands, that he had come from God and was going to God, he was able to lay aside his garments and
serve. A person who is in doubt about who he is can never do such things.
For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, and therefore I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. II Timothy 1:11-12
Paul is able to suffer as he does and not lose his mind
because he knows who he is in relationship to the true and living God. He knows who he belongs to -- where his anchor is.
To survive the storms and eerie calms and continuously live in
the mind of God which is mercy, free of the need to find our identity in circumstances, or our comfort in lying spirits, we must
know who we are, not as some idea we read in a book, but as blazing inner truth. It's 'up to us to know and to keep knowing who we
are. Know Who You Are
It's up to you to know and keep knowing that you are a
redeemed child of God.
But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.
Galatians 4:4-7
A son of God -- male or female --- born of his nature,
redeemed and set free from those things that kept you in bondage to your old nature. And the proof that God has adopted you as a
son is that you have the Spirit of the Son crying in your heart, "Abba! Father!" The man or woman who takes hold of this
truth and bases his life on it will begin to experience its reality. The old chains that bound you will fall away and you will
start living, thinking, praying, choosing, conquering, like a son of God.
It's up to you to know and keep knowing that you are a
chosen vessel.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
John 15:16
Long before you ever heard of Jesus Christ he knew you and he
chose you to be his disciple. And now he ordains you to go and bring forth fruit that will last.
He didn't choose us because we're so talented, or so
kindhearted, or so spiritually inclined. He chose us as living evidence of the mercy we ourselves have experienced of God: if he
can save us he can save anybody. If he can use us he can use anybody. So how can a chosen vessel have an identity crisis? Only by
taking its eyes off the One who chose it and by starting to
compare itself with other vessels. Peter was chosen to do what
Peter was ordained to do, not what John was ordained to do. "If I want John to tarry until I come, what's that to you? Follow
me!" Keep your eye on your own work and leave your brothers and sisters work alone.
It's up to you to know and keep knowing that you have been
called into a royal priesthood.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. I Peter 2:9
And what does this priesthood do? Everything the Messiah, the
High Priest does. It enters into his work of worshiping the Father and serving him night and day, ministering the life of God to
the world through the blood of the Lamb, and above all interceding, praying.
The best place to discover again and again who we are in
relationship to God is prayer -- especially intercessory prayer. As we pray for others by name, faithfully lifting them before the
Throne for blessing we will know that we are indeed members of a royal priesthood and we will see life descending from heaven upon
those for whom we pray.
It's up to you to know and keep knowing that you are on
your way to glory.
Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall I be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. I John 3:2-3
"Knowing that he had come from God and was going to
God." Knowing that in spite of the humiliating and agonizing things that lay directly ahead he was on his way back to the
glory of the Father. If we allow ourselves to lose sight of the goal we make ourselves vulnerable to every false goal, every
distraction the enemy dangles in front of our minds.
We are on our way to a place where all the glory for which we
were made, all the good our hearts have ever longed for, the beauty of the living God to which the whole universe sings in harmony
will be visible to our eyes. We will see his glory, we will hear unspeakable music, and we will taste unimaginable delights. And
the assurance that this glory waits for us is that the foretaste of all this is ours now through the Holy Spirit. But it's up to
us to know and keep knowing where our destination really is. Who we are is clearly connected to where we're headed. If I forget
that I'm a pilgrim passing through this world in the service of God on my way to glory in the service of God, I've lost my
identity, I've forgotten who I am.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God..... John 13:3
So we, knowing that we are redeemed sons of God, chosen
vessels, a royal priesthood on our way to glory, can lay aside our garments, gird ourselves with a towel and wash feet until Jesus
comes.
May the Spirit of God help us to be clear about who we are and
remain clear about who we are and remain clear through whatever storms may come until the day dawns and the night is gone forever. Guidance chapter four BELIEVE! And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, "What are you discussing with them?" And one of the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able." And he answered them, O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he had this?" And he said, "From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us. And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again." And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. Mark 9:14-27 "They Were Not Able!"
We know how those disciples felt when the man brought his
demon-possessed son to them, and they were powerless to help. There is a discrepancy between the life Jesus offers to those who
follow him and the life we're living.
"If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you." John 15:7
If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. John 8:31-32
Jesus promises that we will have authority over all the power
of the enemy, that rivers of living water will flow out of our hearts, that the works that he does we shall do in this life ... in
these bodies of flesh and blood. That we, like our Lord himself, will go forth into this troubled world and set the captives free.
But is it happening? Too often the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind come to us with hope, and after a while this
hope fades and they limp away, still hurting in their souls. Yet we know our Lord means it to be otherwise. It can be otherwise!
Believe!
We know what it is that will bring an end to our inadequacy.
If there is one word Jesus Christ speaks to our hearts it's the word "Believe!"
"0 faithless generation, how
long am I to be with you? Believe in me! Trust me!"
When they told the ruler of the synagogue that his daughter
was dead, Jesus fixed his eyes on the man and said, "Don't be afraid, just believe." As Jesus approached the grave of
Lazarus, he said to the dead man's sister Martha, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that
he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who
believes in me, though he were dead yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe
this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the
world."
Believe! Believe! Believe! Jesus never tires of uttering that
word because it's the only way anyone will ever come out of the darkness into the light.
"What must we do, to be doing the works of God?"
"This is the work of God, that
you believe in him whom he has sent."
John 6:28-29
"While, you have the light,
believe in the light, that you may become sons of light."
John 12:36
What a contrast between the disciples who stood there that day
with empty hands -- they tried to cast out a demon and it wouldn't go-- and this heartbroken father who kept pressing on to get
some help for his son. The disciples, in this situation, were powerless. But this father was making progress. He was going to get
what he was after -- his faith was getting stronger by the minute in the promise of Jesus.
And he answered them, "0 faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." Mark 9:19
0 faithless generation! Never mind those disciples of twenty
centuries ago ... they far out performed us. Can we deny that we lack faith? "Believe!" Jesus says to us. What stands in
the way of the faith he calls us to have? Removing The Hindrances
Burning faith in Jesus Christ is always thwarted by our
insistence, that we do believe when we don’t
. How often we go on pretending to ourselves, and others, to
have a faith in Jesus that simply isn't there? "Don't worry about me, Lord, I have plenty of faith!" But if every
cupboard is bare, if we're totally empty inside, there will be no change until we admit our need, until we get to the place where
we cry, "I believe! Help my unbelief!" When we admit our unbelief, he helps our unbelief, and faith wells up and things
start to happen.
Burning faith is always thwarted when we try to put our faith
in principles and doctrines, or even faith itself, instead of the person of Jesus Christ
. We're busy reading books and going to meetings trying to "build faith," always careful
never to say or think anything negative for fear it will tear down our faith. But what kind of faith is thus produced?
Self-conscious faith … faith in our faith. We're like a man walking in a crowd who feels for his wallet every three minutes to
make sure it's still there -- ever feeling for our faith. "Do I still have it? Ah, yes, praise the Lord, it's still
there!"
.... What's still there? Forget your principles and your
doctrines and your faith building exercises, and your "positive confessions" and get your heart on Jesus himself. And
when he says, "Believe!" answer him everyday even if you have to say, "I believe, help my unbelief!"
Burning faith in Jesus Christ is thwarted by our seeking our
own glory
.
"How can you believe who
receive honor one from another and seek not the honor which comes from God only."
John 5:44
We cannot have faith in God when we have our eyes on men. We
will never put our lives into the hands of Jesus so long as we are still lusting after human approval. That father didn't care
what anybody thought .... didn't care if the whole world saw him weeping for his troubled son.
“If you can do anything have pity
on us and help us! “
"What do you mean, if I can?
... all things are possible to him who believes."
"I believe!" cried the
father in tears, "Help my unbelief!"
0 God, help us to cry out to your Son like that!
Burning faith in Jesus Christ is thwarted by an unforgiving
heart
. Notice how often the promise of answered prayer is connected with the command to forgive.
"Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one...." Mark 11:24-25
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us. An unforgiving heart is an unbelieving heart and it will never be a believing
heart until it is a forgiving heart. “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief! Help me to forgive! "
Burning faith in Jesus Christ is thwarted by a prayerless life
.
And when he had entered the house his disciples asked him
privately, "Why could we not cast it out?"
And he said to them “This kind cannot be driven out by
anything but prayer."
Mark 9:28-29
Some manuscripts add "fasting"...."by prayer
and fasting." When we are living a life of prayer we will know when and how to fast. But it is important to remember that
fasting is a part of prayer, not a thing in itself.
The same Holy Spirit who enables us to say, "Jesus is
Lord," enables us to pray. If I yield to the Spirit as he moves me to say, "Jesus is Lord" but hold back when he
directs me to pray, how long will I continue to say and believe that Jesus is Lord?
Surely if we are going to do the works that our Lord did, as
he promised believers would, we are going to have to be the men and women of disciplined, faithful prayer, Jesus calls us to be,
even if we have to start every day with the prayer, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"
We can eliminate the discrepancy between the life Jesus offers
us and the life we're actually living. We simply need to listen to one word from the lips of our Master which he speaks as
urgently to us today as he ever spoke to anybody,,,
"Believe! All things are possible to him who
believes."
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