Aug 5th, 2001: Fiery Trials

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The Staff and Sword Ministry

August 5, 2001

FIERY TRIADS PART VII

By Nancy-TOM 'Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing has happened to you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, tv^iert his glory s hall be revealed, ye may be glad also with excee ding joy."

(I Peter 4:12-i3)

THE FOUNDATION OF AB

ID ING

"He that saith he abideth in him (Jesus) ought himself also to walk, even as he walked.

(I Jolin 2:16)

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love."

(Jesus in John 15:10) In the last "Fiery Trials" article I was led to begin to address what it means to "ABIDE IN CHRIST". As I prayed about what to write about this time I was led to begin reading Andrew Murray's book, LIKE CHRIST, an d found a rather challenging and intriguing insight he shared showing a direct connection between ABIDING and WALKING IN CHRIST. Mr. Murray saw that when Jesus was saying, "Ifye keep nay commandments, ye shall abide in my love," that Jesus was really saying this: "the surrender to walk like Me is the path to the full abiding in Me." Mr. Mur r ay then went on to explain two basic lessons we can learn from not only Jesus' words but from John's in I John 2:16, "He that saith he abideth in him (Jesus) ought himself also to walk, even as he walked" One lesson is that he or she who seeks to abide in Christ must also walk even as He walked. The other lesson is that he or she who seeks to walk like

Christ must also abide in Christ. My own way of understanding this insight is that one cannot fully enter into one without the other for to abide but not walk is to be stagnant and to remain in one's self. On the other hand, to seek to walk without abiding is also to walk in self and not in Christ.

As I pondered this fu rther in prayer I began to see that in a lot of ways these scriptures brought up a more foundational issue an d that is: What is your motivation or purpose for

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abiding in Christ? I say this is a "foundational issue" because the focus and intent of your heart is foundational to what kind of relationship you will or will not have with Jesus Christ and therefore has direct bearing on how little or how much you will benefit and grow from abiding in Christ.

MOTIVATION Let's take a closer look now at just why you personally are interested in abiding? What is your motivation in learning to abide in Christ? What do you hope to gain from it?

For example: (List #1) Are you seeking comfort?

Is it for the experience?

Is it for attention?

Is it to see a vision?

Is it for knowledge?

For the power?

To be of help to others?

Are you trying to escape something in yourself you don't want to face?

Are you trying to escape some circumstance in your life that is unpleasant?

Qr are your reasons more like this: (List #2) Do you want to abide because you want to know Jesus and God the Father personally?

Do you want to be like Jesus?

Do you want to have a relationship with Jesus like the one He had with the Father?

Do you want to walk as Jesus walked while on this earth?

This is where you're going to have to be honest with yourself. On one level you probably know the "correct" answer or list to choose from but it won't help you to give a superficial or quick answer, rather you need to take an honest, hard look at what is at work in your heart.

If in this process you find your mind coming up with arguments to the connection between abiding and walking as Jesus walked then there is something within you that is seeking to hold back from a deeper relationship with Jesus. For example, if you find yourself thinking, "I just want to abide in His presence and rest there and let God do everything," then this is showing you that there is a part of yourself that doesn't want to make the effort to die to itself.

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MOTIVATION continued The truth is that while there are times when Jesus asks little of us, we must always be ready to do His bidding, no matter how great or small the task and regardless of the call, and this almost always involves dying to or denying some part of yourself and this takes inward effort and does not come naturally to us. However, Jesus did say in Luke 6:46, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

Then there are some who may argue that they are walking in Christ already and don't need to learn to abide. To those I would point out what Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of the Father which is in heaven. Man y will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew You depart from me, ye that work iniquity. "

As I have said before, the only way to come to truly "know" someone is to spend time with that person. The only way we can come to know Jesus and God the Father is to spend time in their presence, communing by the Spirit of God and then learning to operate within and from that Spirit in our daily walk with the whole end result being so that the "excellency of the power (or whatever God would have to us do) may be of God, and not of us. " (II Corinthians 4:7) To me, this is what every Christian should be doing — we are to seek God for God alone and seek to know Jesus just for the sake of getting to know Him without any other motive. We are all here on earth to do the Will of God and not our own wil , no matter how noble or righteous our intentions may be. We must be as dependent on Jesus for our every instruction as Jesus was/is dependent on Gad for His and to have the relationship with Jesus whereby that is a reality. This my heart's desire and what Chuck-JOHNEL and myself are working towards and is the foundational motivation of our respective walks in Christ. The `List #2' of possible motivations for abiding stems from this desire and what I believe the Spirit of God has revealed to me as the Heart of the Father's intentions for all His children.

As for the `List #1' of possible motivations, I see these as being so limiting and flawed because they are based on desires and intentions that are self-centered in nature and therefore will not produce fruit by the Spirit of God but of self and its sinful nature in the long run. For example, seeking comfort is not a `bad' thing for the Lord did say He would send the Comforter to us, but if that is the extent of one's relationship then it is sadly one-sided. To come to Jesus for your needs only is to seek God to endorse your will and your wants when we are here to do His Will and to seek His Will for us, not the other way around.

Then there are those who seek the "power" to heal, to cast out demons, to see visions and

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MOTIVATION continued have spiritual experiences with the seemingly "best of intentions". However, these motivations stem from a presumption that we of ourselves know how to rightly use the authority and power that God would give us when we don't. Only God sees the whole picture of any given situation and knows what will happen down the road and only God knows what is truly best for any individual. To have the power and walk like Jesus Christ had while on earth and not know the Father and Jesus Himself would be like giving a loaded gun to a child. The weapon itself can be used for good or for evil and harm but unless the handler is mature and knowledgeable about how to handle it, it can easily be misused. This is happening all the time in the Church today; they have all the authority with little of the maturity, knowledge and relationship with God to know how to rightly use it. For us as Christians, it isn't so much a matter of being knowledgeable about Christ but do we KNOW Jesus Christ personally? For us as Christians it isn't so much a matter of being mature in the sense of physical age but of ti me spent in prayer and walking in Christ to where you KNOW Jesus and you have a relationship with God the Father to where you know His Heart, His Will and how He operates and can rightly discern and use the gifts and authority He has bestowed upon you. This the difference between a "babe in Christ" and a "son of God".

FREE WILL By now a part of yourself may be uncomfortable with feeling pressed to make a decision and yet it is your decision alone to make - to lay down your life (self-life) or to take it back again.

Do you realize that everything can be taken from you except your free will and that God gives us a free will and waits for us to give it back to Him? Just look at what Jesus said in John 10:17 -18. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because flay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandmnent have I received of my Father." What this says to me is that Jesus was commanded of the Father to lay down His life but it was a choice Jesus had to make as to whether He would yield and do the Father's commandment or not. Jesus is making it clear that He has the power to take His life back or to lay it down and that Jesus Himself is choosing to lay down His life. God is not overpowering Jesus and Jesus' Will but, after making His Will and commandment known, God the Father waits for Jesus to surrender to it.

This is the very heart and foundation of Jesus' walk on the Earth - Jesus was/is constantly yielding and surrendering His will to God's Will and making God's Will, His will. Just look at some of the Scriptures showing this very thing:

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FREE WILL continued - - ^-"Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."

(John 4:34)

"...nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Jesus in Luke 22:42) "... Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the

Father do; for what thing soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

(Jesus in John 5:19) "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, Ijudge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hat!: sent me. " (Jesus in John 5:30) "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent inc."

(Jesus in John 6:38)

One thing that strikes me about the Father's Will being mentioned in these Sc ri ptures is how full of life that choice is for Jesus. He says the Father's Will is meat to Him, it sustains Him as He struggles in the Garden, and it was His Life's purpose and destiny.

I like what Andrew Murray had to say in his book, GOD'S WILL: OUR DWELLING PLACE , page 71. He wrote, "The will of God Is a living, spiritual energy. We do not truly know that will until it has entered into and filled our will.

As love alone can meet love, and heart alone can touch heart, so will alone can grasp will. Anything less is merely a mental image - a conception of the truth and not the thing Itself in Its reality and power."

I have found this to be true for my own walk in Christ. If I have prayed and come to know God's Will for me there is not only a contentment and ce rt ain joy but also an energy and inner s trength that sustains me even when trials and troubles occur. It is only when I am doubting or unsure that I am in Go d's Will that the seas get rougher and harder. But like Mr. Murray said, only when you surrender your will can you truly know God's Wi ll . You can't just give the parts of yourself you want to and hang on to your will but you have to surrender your all.

You also don't `feel' God's Will like an overpowe ring force but rather you learn to yield to His Will and let Him work it out in your life. I can say from personal experience that at least twice, before God worked a major change in my life, it was preceded by a time of intense dying to self and totally yielding and surrendering my will to God; totally le tt ing go of the situations in my life to trust God implicitly to work out His Will for me. It was a very difficult

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FREE WILL continued and at times almost depressing experience to go through and yet I knew that to do anything on my part would only make matters worse and that I had to let God be God and work the whole thing out. In the end, He did work everything out wonderfully and I would do it again if I had to but it wasn't "fun".

SUFFERING I believe one of the most difficult things for Christians in America today to accept is the idea of suffering for Christ. We want to come to Jesus for the "good stuff', the "easy stuff' but suffer?? That is not part of the deal, is it`??

And yet as we abide and walk as Jesus walked, we can be sure that trouble will come. After all, Jesus said it plainly in John 15:20. '..The servant is not greater than his lord If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."

Jesus also said in Matthew 5:10, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for

righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "

Or just take a look at Paul's experience in II Corinthians 11:24-27: "Of the Jews five times received Iforty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen,

in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among the brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watching often, in i false stin hunger and thirst, nfa gs often, in cold and nakedness."

Not exactly the easy road and yet who would judge Paul as not walking the Christian walk? For some Christians today, if something trialsome or difficult comes their way, then they pray for God to quickly take it away instead of realizing that in many cases, it is just part of our walk in Christ. Even dying to self brings a certain amount of suffering.

We are even challenged in Scripture to go a step farther and consider ourselves fortunate to be suffering for well-doing as that is a way of partaking of the walk that Jesus walked. Peter speaks of such a suffering in I Peter 2:15,20 when he said, "For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men... but when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable to God For even hereunto were ye called.• because Christ also sufferedfor us, leaving us an example, that ye shouldfollow in his steps."

Peter also goes on to say, "For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. For Christ also hath once sufferedfor sins, the justfor the unjust, that he might bring us to God. " (1 Peter 3:17-18)

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SUFFERING continued Or lastly, as the Scripture used for the title of this series of articles says, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy... Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will ofGod commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. " (I. Peter 4:12-13) r I mention this because if you motivation or expectation of abiding and walking in Christ is one ofjust having "good" things happen to you, that you'll be well-liked, accepted and be able to help others and that they'll be grateful to you in return, then there will come a time in your walk when your motivation or expectation will clash with your experience, This could even cause a crisis of faith in you as you discover that the foundation of your walk in Christ is not built on Rock of Jesus but on the sands of being accepted in a world that rejected and crucified Christ. This is a hard lesson to learn but if our walk is built on a self-centered foundation it will not stand when the storms of trials, troubles and tribulations come. Only a Christ-centered foundation built on the Rock will stand and even emerge stronger than before.

In the end this all comes back to Jesus' call in Matthew 16:24, "...If any m an will come after

me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me."

EVERYTHING TO GAINS LITTLE TO LOSE Should all of this sound a bit discouraging to you, let me assure you that in following Christ we ultimately have everything to gain and little to lose when you get right down to it. We know this with our heads but having it become real to us is another thing. This takes time so let's just take this one step at a time, one day at a time, one moment at a time.

Let us deny ourselves by getting outside of ourselves to Abide in the Lord Jesus. Let us take up His cross which is surrendering our will to the Will of God and follow Him, keeping His commandments and walking as He walked. The reward will be beyond measure or price for Jesus promised, ".If ye keep my commandments, YE SHALL ABIDE IN MY LOVE " (John 15:10) He also promised in John 14:20-23, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him... If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Iather will love him and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

Let us learn to love God and surrender ourselves wholly to Him in all circumstances and situations. Francois Fenelon wrote in his book, TALKING WITH GOD , on page 29,

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EVERYTHING TO GAIN continued "We should never so fully abandon ourselves to God as when he seems to abandon us. Let us enjoy light and consolation when it is his pleasure to give them to us, but let us not attach ourselves to his gilts, but to him.

When he plunges us Into the night of pure faith, let us still press on through agonizing darkness" until we are aware of being in His Light again.

As Come ten Boom is fond of pointing out, even when we "walk through the valley of the shadow of death ", God's Light is there casting the shadow. God is always there for us and we need to learn to trust and truly believe that in good times and hard times for truly everything works for the good to them that love God.

SOME P RACTICAL COUNSEL Again, in your walk in Christ it is always important and practically a necessity for survival to live in the present moment and to take things one day at a time and yet with a heart set on Jesus, having made a commitment to Him to endure and persevere for however long it takes for God's Will to be done in your life. As a matter of fact, Francois Fenelon called it one of the cardinal rules of the spiritual life. He wrote in TALKING WITH GOD, page 31, the following, "One of the cardinal rules of the spiritual life is that we are to live in the present moment. You remember that the Israelites in the desert followed a pillar of fire or cloud, not knowing where it was leading them.

They had a supply of manna but for one day, and any they gathered for the next day became useless. There is no need to move in haste. Think only of laying a solid foundation."

Chuck-JOHNEL once heard someone say, "God's the slowest man I know." This is true, God is not in a hurry -- we're in a hurry. When it comes to your growth in Christ, abiding and walking as Jesus walked, be patient . Most of all, be patient with yourself and don't let little setbacks or perceived failures on your part prevent you from continuing on in your prayer time

to abide and draw closer to Jesus and learning to walk as He walked. I remember reading once in a book by Jeanne Guyon that a Christian must never try to judge his or her own growth or walk in Christ. She wrote that the more one grows in Christ, the less the individual is aware of it. Others will see it, but the individual doesn't. I believe this is because the closer we come to knowing Jesus, the more we are aware of our own faults, shortcomings, sin and carnality but don't let this discourage you for this is part of dying to self-- seeing in us the sin that we are dying to. The same goes for the self-centered motivations we may harbor for seeking to abide in Christ. Once we see them for what they are, the more we have an opportunity to correct our course and build a solid foundation for Christ to build upon in our hearts and lives.

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LET LOVE BE YOUR FOUNDATION As I have pondered in prayer this subject of motivations and foundations in our abiding and walking in Christ, I was led to ask the question, "What was Jesus' foundation in His walk on earth?" And immediately the answer came, "The Love of God". We can truly see that Jesus loved/loves God as a son loves His Father - unreservedly and whole-heartedly.

Now just think, "God so loved the world (and that includes you and me), that he gave his only begotten Son... " ( John 3:16) Since then God has been just waiting for us to accept I Es Love and love-offering and love Him in return_ Jesus too waits for us to love Ham back. Jesus Christ spoke of His Church, His Body, as being a Bride in part to invoke the most loving of responses in His people. Jesus wants to be joined with His Bride, to be intimate with His Bride, in all of her circumstances and situations — for better or for worse, for rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, til death brings us even closer together.

How do I know this is the foundation from which your abiding, walking and seeking God must flow from? Well, it is no small coincidence that Jesus gave at least three commandments and each of them have to do with love. In Matthew 22;37 -39 Jesus gave the first two commandments: "... Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy

soul, and with all thy mined This is the first and great commandment And the second is

like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" A third commandment is seen in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. "

So you can see here that it all begins with loving the Lord thy God. From there, God the Father and Jesus Christ love us and as we are loved, so we are to love others_ To love others as ourselves is to love others as we would like to be loved and as we have experienced the love of God toward ourselves personally. But again, it starts with loving God first and it is from there that everything else is to follow.

To illustrate this even further just look at i Corinthians 13:1-3. Here Paul explains: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (the love of God), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity (the love of God), I am nothing. And

though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity (the love of God), itpmofiteth me nothin&" Later in verse 8 he goes on to say, "...but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

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LET LOVE BE YOUR FOUNDATION continued So you can see that these gifts, desires and motivations, like those in "List #1 all lead to nothing without the Love of God. Only a foundation built on the love of God and any desire or motivation stemming from that Love will allow the Spirit of God to work within you to produce fruit and works of God and not of yourself. Only a relationship built on the Love of God will sustain you through the hard times. Only the love of God, the love from God

and the love for God "suffereth long, and is kind, ... envieth not; ...vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. ("The love of, from and for God) never faileth... "(1 Corinthians 13:4-8) Just think about that - God's Love NEVER FAILS. What greater foundation is there to build your life upon and there's no time like the present to begin. Let the Love of God not only into your heart, but don't be afraid to love God back. He would like nothing more than to hear from you and your love for Him from the bottom of your heart. As you take time to pray and abide, let the love of God, the love you have for God, come forth to Him. Open the doors of your heart and let Jesus come in. Let all of your own desires, motivations and agendas go, to begin to walk anew according to Jesus' ways and God's Will and not your own. Let the Holy Spirit and Love of God transform you from the inside out and you move towards what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, "... then shall I know even as I am known, "In other words, you will come to know God and Jesus Christ and who they made you to be and as they know you to be and out of that relationship and just being who God made you to be, you'll end up doing what He wants you to do.

But it all begins with RELATIONSHIP. It is too easy to focus on the gifts and power of God when the thing we should be seeking is a relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Abiding is all about developing that relationship with Jesus Christ and from that relationship

learning to walk as Jesus walked. In this article I was led to challenge you to think about just what kind of relationship you would like to have with Jesus by examining your motivations for getting to know Him through your prayer and abiding time. Are you seeking Him for your own self-glory or for the glory of God out of a love for the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ?

This something only you can really answer and it is between you and God but I believe it's worth taking a look at for your entire walk and relationship will grow and extend from God's ability to work through you and to manifest His Spirit within you to bring forth His Will on earth as it is done in Heaven.