I was reading Peter this morning and he's talking about putting to death the old nature , and what the old nature represents. And we always think, well, wow, I've done that. But have we? Have we really done that? Is there more? I don't know I think there's a thoroughness that we need to reach into in waiting before the Lord, and allowing Him to come in.
It's about the suffering that Christ went through in doing the will of God. He had to put to death the things in the nature He was born with. Now, I know that He was God in humanity, but if you don't think that He had to put to death, the things that were in, in His own spirit or in His own being, He was a man like us.
He, He was involved with all the suffering, with all the, all the things going on in Him. He had to face those things. If that were not true we wouldn't have a true Savior.
You know, God's given us choices. He's also given us a will. We can will to do good, or we can will to allow the enemy to come in. We can do that. He gave us that choice. But He also gave us the option. of asking for His will in our lives. I think sometimes we take for granted the fact that it's all accomplished when I think it's good to say, Lord, am I where you want me to be?
Have I offered myself as a living sacrifice to You, which is my reasonable service of worship? That's the real worship He's looking for. This is about giving our will to the will of God, to be completed by Him. This is not a work of us, He's the one that does the Pentecostal outpouring, and the completing of our spirits.
Often times we get this idea, Oh my God, I've got to humble my heart, I've got to do this, no. You simply have to submit to the will of God.
When we give our hearts wholly to the Lord, that's the pure way of change. It's the pure way of cleansing. If we go any other route, it's a self help program. We're trying to fix ourselves, and we know that's a dead end street.
That can be a pitfall because the Lord starts showing you things that's coming up in you that He wants to eliminate out of your spirit, out of your mind, whatever. And then we go out of His presence and try to fix them. That's it. It doesn't work. No, no, no. You gotta stay in the fire. Just stay in the fire.
Stay in His presence, and then He's the author and the finisher, so I just let Him do the whole thing.
Refusing to get out of the fire because that's the key. You can't do anything yourself. It's the preparation of the Holy Spirit just ministering to you, and the submitting to staying, waiting for Him to complete the work in us.
That is a challenge to stay in His presence. Stay and wait, not knowing what's going to happen, having any feelings about what's going to go on. You don't know, but you just stand in His presence in your worship. I know nothing else to do, but to stand in the presence of the Lord, be still and know that I am God. That's where my completion comes from.
And we were talking about the stay in His presence all the time. We're not there yet. I think we have made great strides and I think the implication of them, we come very humbly means I've been somewhere else. And that's what we're trying to deal with. And I think again, we're making progress.
We should be encouraged with ourselves, and one another more and more. What we're moving toward is this place of being in His presence instead of saying, “okay, yeah, Your ways are not my ways. So I just. Lay down my will and accept Your will.” I think He wants more. He wants my will to be transformed, and He wants me to be willing, and participate in that, and saying, “yeah, Lord, I want to be in Your presence, and I want to be able to lay these things aside, and I want to know how to do this.”
What we're looking for is what does work, and what works more effectively. Not just in God doing a better job, but hey, it's gotta be in us doing a better job.
Help me. Say, Lord, You're the one that started all this. You created me. You created the way I am. Complete what You started in me. You're completing something in my life, Father.
What a privilege. The privilege is we know Him. Does it end right there? No. We're going to keep knowing Him. We're going to keep this experience fresh, and anticipate the next step, the next thing that God's doing. Am I doing the right thing? Am I hearing what God speaks? Do I know the will of God for my life right now? Am I walking in His ways? There is a deposit in each one of us that nothing of this world can take away. Lord, I want all that you want to give me. I want it all.
Just trust in the Lord with all your heart. Stop leaning on your own understanding. Don't even give it a thought. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.
