"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You MUST be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:6-8 "SO IS EVERYONE who is born of the Spirit…" If there is a telling characteristic of the born-again believer it is that you never know what he/she is going to do next. In fact, he himself doesn't know what he is going to do next. Life for the believer is like the wind - you can't see where it comes from, nor where it's going. Why is that? People make their plans - what school to go to, what job to take, whom to marry, where to live and all the myriad decisions we all make in life. But ...the person who is born-again is in total submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and because he is led by the Spirit of God, it's impossible to know what will happen next at any time, anywhere, with anyone. The direction of the Spirit of God is totally unpredictable, and that makes the believer's life an adventure unlike any other. The believer who submits every situation in life to the Lordship of Christ will most often find his life taking twists and turns that would never have happened had the believer been the one in charge. But he will find that he was created specifically for the kind of calling with which he is called, and it is his delight to discover that. It's quite awesome when the Lord uses him to reach others so that they might also come to their Creator and receive the forgiveness of sins and the fullness of life that Christ gives. That's why it is vitally important to maintain an attitude of surrender and allow oneself to be directed by the Spirit of God rather than to "do one's own thing." God has the perfect plan for each believer, and the greatest joy in life lies in discovering that plan and finding fulfillment in the life directed by God himself. That life will be vastly different from what it would have been had the believer been in charge. Brothers and sisters this requires a commitment of time spent in God's presence, where the Lord will reveal his will, his plan, and his directions. If a married couple do not spend time with each other, their relationship will grow stale. Likewise, our relationship with the God we say we love requires spending time with him daily. Too often he is relegated to one's "spare time," as we busy ourselves with the cares of our world, thus relegating him to take second place or third place in our lives. Those who do this will walk in a second best or third best relationship with the God who has called them and though they may succeed in the interests of their lives, their lives will not produce the fruit that God desires. The Lord is great enough to merit being first in our lives; anything other than that is actually idolatry. What we place before God in our hearts is idolatry. The Spirit calls the believer into the presence of God. Let us therefore be always listening for his call, his directions, the life prepared for us from before the very foundation of the world. Only in this will the believer find fulfillment, because our works have been specifically designed by God for us to walk in them and only we can fulfill that call to which we have been called by the Creator of the universe who gives us the great privilege of walking with him and serving him. Give to God therefore the total surrender that he desires and that he is so worthy of. Then at the end, the believer will hear from him those coveted words, "Well done, good and faithful servant," the most desirable words one can ever hear in the presence of God at the end of this life ...and which will be his for all eternity.
"Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us..."
Ephesians 3:20
Most believers are familiar with this oft-quoted verse, but most have only focused on the power of God to do "exceedingly abundantly above..." But the next part of the verse is vitally important: "...accordingly to the power that works in us...."
What IS the power that works in us?
It is the resurrection power of God with which he raised Christ from the dead. This power resides in every believer who has been filled with the Spirit of God.
So if that Spirit within is ABLE, why doesn't he?
God has set things up in such a way as to bring about dynamic events in our lives, BUT ...we have to do it HIS way. We have to firmly understand that it will not be OUR power that will bring about these things, but HIS power working in us. In order to activate HIS power, we have to get HIS will on any matter.
That's not all, and that's not easy. Sometimes his will is not our will. Think of Jesus who was notified that his friend Lazarus was very sick. If you read the story closely, you will notice that Lazarus and his two sisters were personal friends of Jesus. But when he was notified that Lazarus was very sick, he did not immediately go to the scene, in fact he waited several DAYS before starting out. Would you have been able to do this? If you had the power to heal, and if you were notified that a personal friend of yours was very sick, would you have been able to not budge until the Father so directed you? This is almost super-human restraint, but it showed to what degree Jesus was surrendered to the Father. It must have been painful for Jesus, because this was not just one in a crowd, this was a close personal friend. Yet ...Jesus waited.
This is what it takes to see the power of God working through us. It takes a totally surrendered heart, a heart so surrendered that it will not act on its own, and will have sufficient RESTRAINT to wait for direction from the Father. That necessitates TIME, time spent alone with the Father. Throughout the Gospels it mentions how Jesus went aside alone to pray. If the Son of God had to go aside to pray until he knew the will of the Father, how much more do WE need to!
If you want to see the power of God working in your life, you MUST take the TIME to go aside into communication with the Father. Every problem in your life will have a very specific remedy, and nothing can be accomplished until you have sought the will of God and asked him to reveal to you the remedy for this situation. You must wait on him until you have that answer. And then, and only then, can you go forward in faith - faith that whatever the Father shows you to do - will succeed - even if it takes a period of time in which you must only wait.
"I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge;
and my judgment is righteous,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the Father who sent me."
John 5:30
"Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 'Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.'” Psalm 2:1-3 Is this not speaking of the nations of our day? It's as though this passage which was written 3,000 years ago was foreseeing the very days in which we live. There is more written in the Bible about the second coming of the Lord, than what was written about his first coming. Indeed, the entire Bible speaks again and again to the last generation, to those living in "the last days." The universal voice of our day is "let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us." The bonds are the Word of God and the cords are that which restrains evil. Society has with great passion thrust away every restraint of the Word of God. Is there a single commandment they have not done away with? A society that murders children and denies that there's anything wrong with that; a society that embraces all that is evil and shuns all that God has said. Those who have lived long enough to remember how it was years ago stand appalled at what is happening now. It's almost beyond belief. But anyone not having lived long enough to remember how it was, has been thoroughly DESENSITIZED into believing that what we see is normal. No, it is NOT normal. We stand as the multitudes stood while Noah was building the ark. Scripture says that Noah was "a preacher of righteousness" - which tells us that as he built the ark he explained what he was doing and why. But they laughed him to scorn. "You're building a what? A place to be safe from a flood? Man, you've lost your marbles! It doesn't rain here, and you think this place is going to be flooded? Are you out of your mind?" But the flood came, didn't it. That's why they've found sea shells in the Grand Canyon, and fish fossils on mountain tops and in the pyramids in Egypt. God has left enough evidence to speak to all about sin and about scorning the Word of God. A man named Lot lived in the depraved society that was in Sodom, down south of the Dead Sea in Israel. God, intending to destroy those cities, sent an angel to bring Lot and his family out of Sodom to safety, and then horrific judgment fell upon that entire area. I've been to the Dead Sea. I've seen the salt pillars of that devastated land stretching as far as you can see. The minerals from the fire and brimstone so saturated the water of the Dead Sea that nothing can live in it, not even bacteria. The devastation of that whole area stands as a witness to this very day. It's covered with ash. What do you think is going to happen to society of today? In America, a country founded on the Word of God and whose every president up till Obama acknowledged the Lord and his Word. God made America the richest and most successful and blessed nation that has ever been on the face of the earth. Compare it to Haiti for example. The government of Haiti officially dedicated it to Satan three separate times. Look at the condition of that country. Compare it to the condition of the country dedicated to the most high God and his Word. God cannot NOT judge this world in the worst way. Some countries have never even heard of the Word of God, but America was dedicated to it. Some deny this, citing Freemason and occult icons throughout Washington DC. Yes evil is everywhere, even in the early formations of America. But the Word of God was everywhere too. George Washington, upon his inauguration, went to a chapel and dedicated this country to the Word of God. And ...which chapel? Saint Paul's chapel, next to the site of the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed on 9/11. The chapel survived! Many say that society has gone beyond the point of no return, and that is most likely true. Judgment will come just as the flood of Noah did, and just as the devastation of Sodom did. But there is still time for individuals to be saved. If you have never surrendered your self and your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I implore you to wait no longer. The judgments of the past came suddenly and unexpectedly, and the judgments to come will come suddenly also. God has sent men to cry out against the evils perpetrated in this country. God has sent warning judgments - September 11 and hurricane Katrina being two of the greater examples among many. But in spite of God's pleading with the people of this land, they have scoffed at him. They have broken off his bonds from them and cast the cords of his Word away. Noah is pleading, Lot is pleading; "people, please repent. Judgment is almost upon us." In the air is the sound of the hoofbeats of the four horses of the Apocalypse sent to destroy an unrepentant people from off the face of the earth. Don't be in that lot. Only eight people survived the flood of Noah's day. Surrender now and be saved. You'll never, ever regret it.