October 29, 2008

• Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful

  As I've been looking at my life I've been thinking about my failures. (See my last two posts here and here.) I had written up some nice theology about how we should be looking at our failures, but God had something much more vital to say to me about my failures..and I believe it's a message for much of the rest of the Church as well...for we all must go back to the one thing needful.[1]

  I've become more and more distressed at my continuing failures and my lack of fruit and powerlessness.
  
  I feel like Hannah. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. I cry out to God, "Give me children or I die!"

  I can relate to the barren woman (Israel) of Isaiah 54: we find words there such as ashamed, confounded, shame, disgrace, desolate, reproach, deserted, grieved in spirit.

  Granted, there has been some fruit in my life, but not as much as I know there should be. I don't like to admit it but it's true. I know it and God knows it. I could spin things to make it look better than it is, but I'd only be fooling myself and I certainly wouldn't be fooling God. (Here are some things to consider before I continue: 1) We can make fruit and power idols and pursue them ahead of God and must be on guard against that; 2) We must beware so we will not be ensnared in a legalistic trap and attempt to establish righteousness by our fruit; 3) Finally, there are seasons of barrenness and fruitfulness. But in my case, the truth is I know deep down that God has more for me.)

  Whenever we're not bearing fruit, whenever we're not manifesting God's power, the lack is not with Him, the lack is with us. The true Vine is perfect. There is no inadequacy or insufficiency or lack on the part of our faithful High Priest and Sanctifier. The Vine is able to provide all we need to live a Christlike life. So when there's no fruit, we can't blame the Vine, the problem lies with us, the branches. The Vine provides all we need for holiness and godliness. However, the branches must remain connected to the Vine and they must not hinder the life-giving sap which the Vine is more than ready to provide. We must not quench or grieve the Spirit by our disobedience and rebellion. There is a link not only between our continuing obedience and fruitfulness but also between our obedience and the presence/manifestation of the Holy Spirit.[2] The branches must be seeking to receive all the Vine has for them. We must be living in submission and surrender to the Vine. We must take advantage of spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible reading, meditation, worship, service and other spiritual disciplines to avail ourselves of all the benefits of the Vine. And we must be persevering in prayer for the Spirit to baptize us with fire, for Jesus Himself has told us Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, though at the same time we know that the Spirit moves as He wills and trust His sovereignty in that.

  I can see how I have neglected the one thing needful...

  Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. 41 But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. Luke 10:38-42.
  

  I've gotten so busy that I've once again forgotten the basic premise of the Christian life: what God has birthed in us by His Spirit will be sustained and brought to full fruition only by His Spirit. I can work and work and work in my own strength and power, but my own efforts will produce nothing and will never bring glory to God.

  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5.

  We try to live the Christian life without Christ. Does that make any sense?

  We would all say Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, but in reality, how do we conduct our lives? Don't we often live day after day in our own strength and forget that Christ Himself is our life and we have no real life apart from Him? Paul reminds us of what our lives ought to look like:

  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20.

  No wonder why I am seeing no real power and no real fruit.

  The true Vine has given life to this branch, and He is the one who sustains that life. What He's begun in the Spirit, I can never complete in my flesh. Therefore I must remain in constant communion with the Vine for without Him I can do nothing. I can do all things only through Christ who strengthens me. We forget Jesus' own words:

  Because I live, you also will live. John 14:19b.

  But isn't it easier for us to get on with our own lives, including works of service and ministry, rather than cultivating our relationship with the true Vine? We forget that first and foremost God is not so much interested in our work for Him but in our relationship with Him. God sent Christ to reconcile us to God, to restore the relationship sin had broken. Christ died so we might have fellowship with God. But how often do ourselves working busily like Martha (and working at good things, mind you) rather than sitting still at the feet of Jesus, the one thing much needed, that dedicated time with the One we simply cannot afford to neglect?

  Are we seeking to commune with God with a passion similar to David's?

  O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. 5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips...Psalm 63:1-5, KJV.

  To think that our God sent His own begotten and beloved Son to shed His blood so we might commune with Him! Yet how often do we find time to do a million and one other things, but claim we have not time for precious fellowship with our Creator each day? God is taking me back to the first things.

  Because of my latest failures, God is leading me to ask how my life really measures up to the description of what a Christ-follower ought to look like.

  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 (John 15:6a).
  
  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).
  
  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:38-39).
  
  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses...(Acts 1:8).

  

  Where is the abiding fruit (not only abiding fruit but much abiding fruit)?

  Where are the rivers of living water?
  Where is the power in my life?

  You know it's hard to ask these questions, but I have no recourse. They're questions we can't avoid asking.

  The Lord has been using my failures to bring me to a point where I have nowhere else to turn but Him. From Spurgeon:

  When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. Psalm 61:2.
  
  Most of us know what it is to be overwhelmed in heart; emptied as when a man wipeth a dish and turneth it upside down; submerged and thrown on our beam ends like a vessel mastered by the storm. Discoveries of inward corruption do this, if the Lord permits the great deep of our depravity to become troubled and cast up with mire and dirt. Disappointments and heart-breaks will do this when billow after billow rolls over us, and we are like a broken shell hurled to and fro by the surf.[3]

  And Martyn Lloyd-Jones reminds us:

  We are in the world to be perfected...We all need to be humbled, to be brought down to the dust...He humbles us by such things as disappointment, failure, weakness, or illness.[4]

  As I've looked at my failures, I'm feeling overwhelmed, emptied, broken, hurled to and fro, humbled, brought down to the dust...yet I can thank Him for I know it is part of His sanctifying grace and refining fire working to perfect me, to conform me to the image of His Son.

  And through it all God is once again showing me how much I need His power. It's easy for us to begin to coast and rely on our own strength, especially if we do see a little "success" for it's at that point there's a great temptation to take credit ourselves or to revert to working out of the flesh. With just a smidgen of success we become puffed up and forget that But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. I Corinthians 15:10. And as the saying goes, you dance with the one who's brought you. But it's easy for us to forget the One who's brought us to where we are today. It's too easy for us to stop looking to the Vine for our strength and power and begin to trust in ourselves or earthly means.

  About a month ago I was reading about King Uzziah in II Chronicles 26. We read that when Uzziah sought God, God helped him.

  He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper (v. 5).
  

  
  So far, so good. But then, and we see this pattern all throughout Scripture, as well as in our own lives:

  And his [Uzziah's] fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. (v. 15b-16, emphasis mine).

  The priests warned Uzziah against doing this, but he insisted. (You can read for yourself about his temper tantrum in the temple!)  The King had become puffed up and forgot the One who helped Him and made Him prosper. Uzziah's success went to His head and led Him to be unfaithful to the Lord His God. The result: The Lord struck Uzziah, a man who'd once experienced much victory and success so long as He remained in the vine, but then the Lord struck Him These sobering words describe his life after that time:

  And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land. 22 Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz wrote. 23 And Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, He is a leper. And Jotham his son reigned in his place.

  After reading all this, I'd written in my journal: "Let me see my bankruptcy daily that I would not take pride in what you have done through me."

  That's the type of prayer God will answer...

  When I read Psalm 86 the next day ("I am poor and needy") it was as if God were telling me, "Oh so you thought you knew you were poor and needy. You're much poorer and much needier than you ever imagined." And during the intervening weeks God has continued to hammer that truth home. (Just a reminder that you need to be careful when you pray for...God will take you up on it, no doubt, so be prepared. This is why I like to journal and write these types of things down, so we can see how God is answering our prayers.)

  I imagine I may be feeling a little like Peter did when Jesus looked at him after the cock crowed the third time. "Peter, my brother, I still love you, but now do you finally understand that you're much poorer and needier than you ever imagined?" God continues to shatter any sense of our own sufficiency to live the Christian life. He bursts our pride like a balloon when we begin to get puffed up so all the air goes out and there's nothing left. We're reminded that any works done in our own strength will not withstand His fire and are but filthy rags in His eyes. His kindness brings us to bitter weeping and repentance so we might come to our senses and seek out the one thing most needful, to come back to sit at His feet.

  Alan Redpath described how we should respond to our barrenness and failures:

  You look up into the face of the Master and say, 'Lord Jesus, my life is so barren, I am not worthy to serve You.' Praise Him that barrenness is no reason for failing to serve Him. The only reason for such failure is a sense of your fitness for service. Pride hinders the working of the Holy Spirit, because the human spirit has never bowed before his omnipotence.[5]

  That's where I'm at now. Brought low like Peter. Weeping bitterly. Seeing that in and of myself I am unworthy and unfit, an unprofitable servant.

  I've had people all but tell me I'm unfit. If you've ever had that happen you know that it is a most humbling and humiliating experience. We do all we can to fight back, defend ourselves and justify ourselves. We deny the charges. We think: How could someone say that about me? There may or may not be merit to the charges other people make about us. But when the God of the Universe calls us unfit, unprofitable and unworthy, the charges are true, and there's no denying them. We are perpetual backsliders, prone to wander, shapen in iniquity, indeed no good thing dwells in us. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores...Isaiah 1:6a, KJV.

  Through our failures God reminds us of our poverty and need, our utter destitution, and we fall flat on our faces to repent and be cleansed of our pride and our sense of self-sufficiency and inadequacy so we might see the futility of our own feeble attempts at goodness and righteousness. Thank God for humbling us, for it reminds us we must reposition ourselves and begin to drink in the life-giving sap of the Vine, to eat of His Body and drink of His blood. We must be emptied of self so we can be filled with the Spirit. Redpath once spoke about Stephen in this way: he could be filled with the Spirit because he was not full of himself! So long as we're full of ourselves, we can't be filled with the Spirit.

  I can't thank God for my unfruitfulness or powerlessness, but I can thank God that He is showing me how unfruitful and powerless I am. I can thank God that to in His own inscrutable will and mysterious ways He is using my failures to accomplish His perfect purposes: to humble me and bring me back to the one thing most needful: continuous abiding and unbroken connection to the Vine, to my Savior.

  I have to ask: Would I neglect to eat and drink daily? Would I think I could live without from breathing air into my lungs? Yet this is too often what I do in my Christian life. And so in His grace, our Father humbles us, He brings us to our knees. He draws us back to Him with cords of love to sit at His feet. We come to Him like an infant who's hungry for her mother's milk for we know He alone has the words of Life. God has promised to fill us to overflowing but we must come to Him with open mouths to be fed. Yet we only come with open mouths when we're hungry and thirsty. We only come when we see that there is no life apart from Him.

  The Holy Spirit isn't an add-on to our salvation. The Spirit isn't optional. He is the very source of our life. We can't say we're perfectly fine with God the Father and God the Son and exclude God the Spirit. If we take one, we take all. Father, Son and Spirit, the Godhead, the Trinity. The Holy Spirit IS the Spirit of Jesus. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Romans 8:9b.  He is our meat and drink as we travel as pilgrims in this world. I know I don't yet fully understand the scope of the power that dwells in me. I so appreciate Paul's prayers in Ephesians[6]

  ...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:17-23.

  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21.

  

  Paul is addressing Christians here and praying God the Father would show them the power that is available to them. In many churches and denominations the Spirit is neglected or only given a casual mention now and again, usually on Pentecost Sunday. It sometimes seems as if the pastor looks ahead at the calendar, "Oh, Pentecost Sunday, I guess I'd better preach about the Spirit that week." Because of excesses or abuses in some parts of the Body of Christ, much of the Church wants to put the Spirit in a box or keep him at length with a ten-foot pole. I know I'm repeating myself here because I've written of these things before. Much of the Church is afraid or leery of the Spirit, yet here in the book of Ephesians we can see there is another level of life in the Spirit that the Ephesians had not yet experienced, and I know I've not yet reached. So I am asking God to pour out all He has on me so I might no longer be powerless or barren...and I pray that for the entire Body of Christ.

  Apart from God's shattering me, I would go on and live a fat, dumb and happy life. But what kind of life would it be? A nice life. A safe life. A comfortable life. True. But at what cost? A mediocre life. A fruitless life. A powerless life. A dry life. A life without risk. A complacent life. (Is there such a thing as complacent Christianity?) And most of all, a life that doesn't bring glory to my Redeemer.

  After all, a fruitless and powerless Christian is not only an oxymoron but also a reproach to the God who suffered and died and bled for us and redeemed us to be His precious possession and recreated us so we might proclaim His praises and bring renown to His Name.

  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. Romans 6:22.

  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. John 15:8.

  And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.  Philippians 1:9-11.

  Christ didn't die on the cross so I might continue to live for myself.

  I'm to be living for Him who died for me and rose again.

  Christ hasn't showered me with grace and made me a new creation so I would continue in sin.
  

  I've been set free from sin so I might offer my members as instruments of righteousness for holiness.

  Christ didn't pour out His blood so I might drink of His blessings and keep them to myself.

  I'm to be poured out, even unto death, if that is the cup He has for me to drink.

  Christ hasn't filled me with His Spirit so I might keep Him bottled up.

  I've been filled so rivers of living water might flow from me.

  Christ hasn't suffered for me so I might live in comfort.

  I'm to be willing to cast aside all earthly comforts for His Kingdom.

  Christ hasn't baptized me with fire only to grieve and quench His Spirit.

  I'm to let that fire burn in my soul so I cannot hold Him in.

  Christ hasn't blessed me so I might hoard His blessings.

  I've been blessed so I might be a blessing to others.

  Christ hasn't planted His incorruptible seed in me so it might lay dormant.

  His seed ought to be bearing fruit in and through me, much fruit, fruit that will last.

  Christ hasn't saved me by hearing of the Word of reconciliation only so I might remain silent.

  I'm called to proclaim it on the housetops, to be ambassador of His Good News.

  Christ hasn't put His light in me so I might hide it under a bushel.

  I'm to be shining out as a light in a dark place.

  ...And so on. You get the idea...

  Christ appointed us to bear fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last, by His power all to the glory of God.  Such fruit ought to be the natural outcome of the life of Christ in us. We're to be reflecting Christ's character to the world. We're to be overflowing with rivers of life in a dead, dry world. We're to be proclaiming His Gospel without fear or worry about what others might think of us. We're to put our hands to the plow and not look back. We're to pursue the Pearl of great price without reservation.

  God is bringing me to the place where I'm tired of living a life of mediocrity, of powerlessness, fruitlessness, of playing it safe, of being self-obsessed rather than Kingdom-obsessed. God has created me for His glory but instead of my life bringing glory to His Name, much of it brings a reproach upon His Name.

  Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life;
  whoever comes to me shall not hunger,
  and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
  John 6:35
  

  I Hunger and I Thirst
  (John S.B. Monsell, 1866)
  
  I hunger and I thirst,
  Jesu, my manna be;
  Ye living waters, burst
  Out of the rock for me.
  
  Thou bruised and broken Bread,
  My life-long wants supply;
  As living souls are fed,
  O feed me, or I die.
  
  Thou true life-giving Vine,
  Let me Thy sweetness prove;
  Renew my life with Thine,
  Refresh my soul with love.
  
  Rough paths my feet have trod
  Since first their course began;
  Feed me, Thou Bread of God;
  Help me, Thou Son of Man.
  
  For still the desert lies
  My thirsting soul before;
  O living waters, rise
  Within me evermore.
  

  On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39.

  And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Luke 11:9-13.
  

  
  

  Holy Father, I have sinned against You
  I have neglected the most needful thing,
  abiding in Your Son, the True Vine.

  I have been so full of self
  I've not been filled with Your Spirit.

  I have neglected to ask You for what I most desperately need
  filling and baptism with Your Holy Spirit.

  Forgive me that I have not hungered and thirsted after You as I ought
  Make me hungry and thirsty for You.

  Apart from Christ
  I can do nothing.

  Apart from the true Vine
  I am barren.

  Apart from the Spirit
  I am powerless.

  Send Your Spirit
  Fill me, baptize me for Your glory
  Empower me for Your glory
  so I might bear fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last
  so rivers of living water might flow from me
  All to Your praise, honor and glory
  All for Your Kingdom

  Please watch and listen to Red's "Breathe" You Tube video. (Warning! This song is a tad more kicked up {that's an understatement!} than Red's song "Pieces.") After you watch/listen consider how hungry and thirst you are for the Spirit to breathe into you...

  Coming next: God speaking to me about my failures: I can sing in my barrenness when I consider Jesus
  
  
  You may also be interested in reading:
  

  • Naphtali News/Bible Reading: Isaiah-Looking at My Vineyard
  • Bible Reading: Acts – Some Questions the Church Should Be Asking
  • Things To Look for in a Church: What We Might Learn from Solomon's Temple, # 8: Steadfastly Continuing in the Gospel
  • Luke 11: The Gift-Giving Father/Pentecost Sunday: The Present of Pentecost, part 1
  • Things to Look for in a Church: An Orthodox Spirit-filled People
  • In Christ the Abiding Sufficient One I Have the Living Water
  • My posts tagged Abiding, Dependence and Holy Spirit
    
  • these books (which I've not specifically referenced here)
  • David Martyn Lloyd-Jones' books "Joy Unspeakable" and "The Sovereign Spirit"
  • Andrew Murray's "Absolute Surrender," "Abide in Christ"

  
  
  

  ---

  Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

  [1] In Andrew Murray's "The Full Blessing of Pentecost: Your Greatest Need-The Spirit's Unlimited Supply," Murray writes, "the one thing needful for the Church, and which men ought to seek for with their whole heart, is to be filled with the Spirit of God." I liked that phrase (from the story of Mary & Martha), so I've decided to it as well since it does describe what I want to say here.

  [2] See John 14:14-20; 14:21-22; and 14:23-26. Even though I'd read those passages before, I'd never quite made the connection between our keeping the commandments and the Spirit's presence/manifestation in our lives until I read about it in Lloyd-Jones' "Joy Unspeakable" and Andrew Murray's "The Full Blessing of Pentecost: Your Greatest Need-The Spirit's Unlimited Supply."

  [3] Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, Sept. 22 Evening.

  [4] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "Safe in the World: The Assurance of Our Salvation" (Westchester, Il.: Crossway Books, 1988), 151.

  [5] Alan Redpath, "Faith for the Times: Studies in the Prophecy of Isaiah: Chapters 49 to 54: Part II: The Plan of Deliverance" (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell, 1972), 74.

  [6] Again I'd read many passages like this in Scripture and pretty much glossed over them until I began to read/listen to Martyn Lloyd-Jones. *** Updated February 12, 2013***:  Thanks to the MLJ Trust (http://www.mljtrust.org/), Dr. Lloyd-Jones' entire sermon "The Importance of Spiritual Growth" is now available here for free download: http://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/the-importance-of-spiritual-growth/ along with over 1600 other sermons (http://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/).

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