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Guidance chapter thirteen
INNER RENEWAL
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. II Corinthians 4:16-18
To follow Jesus in this world of flesh and blood is to walk
every day in the middle of a discrepancy. On the one hand is that blinding vision of God's glory which came to us at some point in
our life ... a God who is utterly good ... a Kingdom of God where there are no tears, no sickness, no pain, no death ... a Savior
who heals the sick, opens the eyes of the blind, forgives the sinner, changes people into new creatures. Surely it was the vision
of this God, which opened the door for us into a new life. We have seen the merciful God and once having seen him we can never be
the same.
On the other hand, we have to live every day in a world which
absolutely repudiates our vision of God ... a world where the hard realities are tragedy and evil ... a world where on every side
we see weeping, sickness, pain and death. Where people don't receive our gospel and where even among those who do receive our
gospel there often seems to be no change. The man goes on drinking the woman goes on hating her husband. A world where the nations
are getting ready for an inevitable war and we can see that it is only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.
Here's the vision of God ... here's the anti-God reality of
daily life. The trick is to keep the vision clear, keep our feet on the ground with real living in this real world, and still keep
our sanity.
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves..." Matthew 10:16
For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. Matthew 24:5-6
Consider what happens to many believers as they experience
this tension between their vision of God and the anti-God realities of daily life. It is like having two giants, each pulling on
one of your arms until you feel as though you're going to be torn apart. And the temptation is to try to back away from one or the
other.
There are those who try to eliminate the tension by scaling
down the vision of God. "How can I serve a merciful God in an unmerciful world?" "How can I live by his Spirit
of giving when the world is cheating me and taking from me at every turn?" So they lower their sights to a vision of a
God who is very mild and very weak … to a Jesus who contents himself with patting little children on the head and posing for
religious pictures. And when you scale down your vision of God, you end up with a lukewarm life. Numberless people who started out
as burning and shining lights have settled for the lukewarm routine of a little bit of church, a little bit of prayer, and a life
without strain or risk or pain, which is also a life without joy and without lasting fruit.
There are those who become alarmed and give up the
vision completely. "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars -- see that you're not alarmed." When believers become
alarmed they panic and run from the vision. "I must have made a mistake. Perhaps I only imagined that I saw the glory of
God." And when they let go of the vision, despair sets in. Soon their minds are engulfed by the absurdity of life and they
spend the rest of their days lying on the bottom of an ocean of cynicism, like sunken ships.
Then there are those who try to preserve their vision of
God by running away from the world. Whether we find a quiet cabin on a lake a hundred miles from the nearest town, or
whether we bury our heads in "Christian sand" and withdraw from everything that seems to be of the world -- only listen
to Christian radio, Christian T.V., read Christian books, (never talk to anybody in the plant but Christians and one or two
red-hot prospects) --- we're running away. Soon our vision of God, far from being preserved, begins to shrivel until the God we
serve turns out to be as unreal and demonic as all the idols of Babylon.
"I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one ... As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." John 17:15, 18
But there are believers who keep their vision of God right in
the middle of all the turmoil and they don't wear out or become bitter, or stale, or stagnant. They live every day in this tension
between their vision of God and the anti-God pressures of this world and become stronger and fresher and keener all the time. How
do they do it? They are renewed by God! In the midst of the strain, pressure, and tension which they experience every day,
they have found the Sabbath Rest.
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
That's what Jesus is talking about -- inner rest, inner
renewal. Living water that keeps you fresh for the raging battle.
We cannot afford to compromise our vision of God; it's the
most precious thing we have. That vision needs to get brighter with every year that passes because that vision of God, shining
from the face of Jesus, is our life. Nor can we afford to withdraw from the world. God put us in this world. Jesus has sent us out
into this sea of troubled human life to proclaim his gospel, to call souls into his kingdom. We need to be out in this crazy world
with our eyes open and our hearts on fire. But to keep the vision and continue our labor in this world we need to be renewed by
God himself. He promises to do it if we will but make ourselves available.
God himself will give us an inner renewal.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day II Corinthians 4:16
Paul was getting older as he wrote this. He
experienced the bodily changes that age brings to all humans. But the inner Paul was younger than ever.
“... that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts that you may be filled (inwardly) with all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19
"Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom."
"Create in me a clean heart, 0 God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51
"Give for alms those things which are within;..." Luke 11:41
God renews us from the inside out. Don't worry about the
outside. Give him the inside and watch the change that will come over your whole life.
God himself will give us a daily renewal.
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is
wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day."
This isn't a once-a-year thing or even once-a-week. It's a
daily thing. Just as our bodies are renewed with sleep -- daily, and our strength is renewed with food --- daily, so out vision of
God is renewed daily.
Of course, there is a need for us to make ourselves available
to him daily. How can God renew me if I don't take the time for this? If I'm going to expect God to renew me inwardly as I do my
daily work and drive down the freeway I'm going to take some time, daily, to hold still before him. Jesus, the incarnate Son,
found this necessary; so did the apostles. Holding still before God in prayer is not a luxury, nor is it a religious chore. It is
a wonderful necessity.
God himself will give us a renewal of the mind.
"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2
The mind: the place where we imagine, weigh, consider, decide
--- if it is not the dwelling place of God becomes the dwelling place of Satan, the habitation of lies. If it is not constantly
renewed in God it soon becomes home base for weird thoughts, suspicions, lusts, fantasies that are the very atmosphere of the
world.
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind .... "
So if we open our mind to him, God puts his word into it --
his life. He gives us thoughts to think, mental visions to behold, that cleanse us, refresh us, draw us afresh into the reality of
his kingdom.
God himself will give us a renewal of all our powers.
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; But they who wait for the Lord, shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:29-31
How many times we go to prayer in a state of actual physical
weakness and come out strong. How many times we lie down at night drained of strength even to think of that obstacle we have to
face the next day. In the morning we rise renewed -- by sleep to be sure -- but by sleep in which God restored our strength on
every front.
We have brothers and sisters in prison camps who know much
more about this than we do. While others around them with much more stamina faint with weariness they mount up on wings like
eagles. They don't just survive, they burn with holy light! And in our relatively safe situation, needs press upon us from all
sides which will also exhaust us unless our powers are renewed by God. And we soon find that the most important function of our
lives is not eating, or sleeping, or even ministering to the world, but inwardly waiting on God in whatever we're doing.
Ministering to him with our hearts while we work, while we rest, even while we sleep.
As the end of this age draws near, the tension between our
vision of God and the surrounding anti-God atmosphere of daily life will increase. And as that tension increases the lamps of some
will flicker out. If there has ever been a time when we need to offer our inmost lives to God's Spirit for daily renewal, it is
now! There is a life of freshness, zeal, unquenchable joy, closer than we may have imagined. God help us to receive it and live it
that we may mount up on wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint.
Guidance chapter fourteen LED BY THE LAMB Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?" I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Revelation 7:13-17
And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. Mark 1:16-18
There are two things we can be absolutely confident of, if we
allow ourselves to be led by the Lamb of God. The first is that ultimately we will be following Jesus in a world beyond this one
--- on the other side of death. Call it "pie-in-the-sky by-and-by" if you like, but one day quite soon, unless the
Lamb's return comes first, we're going to die. And it's not at all impractical to find out from the One who has the keys of death
and Hades what waits for us on the other side of death. People who have no vision beyond the grave are living in a narrow world.
They're living in a cave as if the cave were the entire universe. They never take the trouble to climb to the mouth of the cave
and look beyond those iron bars to the sky and the mountains and the rivers and the sun and the stars. Everything you do in the
cave has an influence on the life you will live when those bars open and you pass into the world beyond. "If you follow me,
here you will follow me there. You will see the God of glory. You will serve him day and night in his temple. You will never again
know hunger or thirst or scorching heat for I will be your Shepherd and I will guide you to springs of living water. And the
Father will wipe away every tear from your eyes."
The second thing we can be absolutely confident of, if we
allow ourselves to be led by the Lamb of God now, is that on our way to that glorious day we will pass through tribulation.
“... In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John 16:33
"If they persecuted me, they will persecute you...” John 15:20
"They will put you out of the synagogue; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God." John 16:2
Just as surely as we have to have a vision of the life that
waits for us beyond the grave and on into the resurrection of the dead, we also have to have a grasp of the hour of trial which,
one way or another, comes to every saint of God who walks this earth. When it is to come, how it is to come, is God's business.
But we need to know that it is coming.
"I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them..." John 16:1-4
We are going to get our opportunity to know Jesus in the
fellowship of his sufferings, to wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. And when this hour comes, we can
look the fire in the eye and say, "I knew you were on your way. At last you've come, so let's get on with it." And we
will find that the same Lamb of God who leads us now and will lead us through the fire. He will guide us, direct us, preserve us,
flood our hearts with glory. We will have a clearer sense of Jesus' presence as we walk through those flames than we had in all
our life.
Follow
Me
But what are we to do in the meantime? The baptism of fire
hasn't fallen yet. Nor has the hour of glory begun. So what do we do now? Sit around and wait? We are to do in this season of our
lives exactly what Jesus called Peter and Andrew to do: "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men." One day
we will follow Jesus through flames. And one day we will follow Jesus to springs of living water -- no more flames, no more
scorching heat. But now we follow Jesus out into that world of anguish and strife and catch men in the net of God's mercy. We draw
them into God's kingdom. "I will make you become fishers of men." None of us was born a fisher of men. None of us can
learn how to do it as a skill or a technique. We are made effective as fishers of men by the burning presence of Jesus within us.
We may be tongue-tied, shy, slow of mind, unattractive to look at, but Jesus makes us become fishers of men if we follow him.
Most of us still find it hard to believe that Jesus of
Nazareth intends to put us into this kind of service. "Lord, I'm just not cut out for that sort of thing. I'll gladly support
a missionary. I'll pray for others to be effective. I'll try to live a decent life. But don't expect me to bring people into your
kingdom." And yet, that's exactly what we're going to do -- all of us. In the most natural down-to-earth ways, without any
spotlights or trumpet fanfares, every single believer is going to see friends, acquaintances and even enemies respond to our
invitation to enter the Kingdom of God. It might happen on the telephone, or on a lunch break, a word spoken on an elevator, or a
street corner, or in a 747, a letter, a hospital visit, a bowl of soup given to a sick neighbor, or a prayer prayed with a
troubled soul after a Bible study.
"Follow me and I will make you
become fishers of men."
Follow him where? Follow Jesus first into the presence of God.
Surely that's where Jesus took Peter and Andrew: into the presence of the Father. He made God real to them. He taught them to
pray,
"When you pray, say, 'Our
Father who art in heaven...’”
Ask, and it shall be given you, Seek
and you shall find....
Find what? God's presence, God's living Spirit. God's reality.
The only one who can bring you into the presence of God is
Jesus. There have been magnificent teachers. There have been religious giants, awesome prophets, But there is only one Lamb whose
shed blood tears away the veil.
Each day that breaks you can follow Jesus into the presence of
the living God. "Lord, I don't know how to pray, take me on into the presence of the Father." He will!
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16
There in the presence of God we learn to deny ourselves, to
present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
Follow Jesus into the temple and the synagogue -- the gathered
assembly. The temple was corrupt and the synagogue was loaded with hypocrites. But Jesus was there with his disciples. He took his
disciples to the place where people who loved God and people whose religion was only a pretense were all mixed together. That's
where Jesus began his teaching. That's where Paul went every time he entered a city.
Don't make the mistake so many are making these days of
saying, "Those people in that church are all hypocrites." "That fellowship is a bunch of phonies." If there
are two people gathered there in his
“... not neglecting to meet together...”
Hebrews 10:25
"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Matthew 18:20
It's here in the fellowship that Jesus teaches us how to deny
ourselves -- to lay down our lives for one another.
Follow Jesus out into the midst of the masses, out to the
people for whom he died
.
"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." Matthew 9:37
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Matthew 10:16
"I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor..." John 4:38
Never has the Spirit of God more explicitly commanded the
saints to go out than he is commanding believers today. Because that's where the Lord is.
Surely every one of our lives takes us out among people who
haven't heard and don't know the goodness of the Lord. All we have to do is be there as followers of the Lamb. Allow him to direct
us as we mingle with people. There Jesus will make us fishers of men as we learn how to pour ourselves out in his name, even as
Jesus poured himself out for us while we were still dead in our sins.
One day we shall follow Jesus in another world to springs of
living water. One day soon we shall follow Jesus through flames. But now we follow him out among the multitudes of this world
knowing that as we do Jesus himself will teach us how to deny ourselves for the salvation of others ... how to catch men and women
into the Kingdom of God.
And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. Mark 1:
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