Healthy Aspiration - Abiding in What Can Only Be Given

From "My Utmost for His Highest," November 24:

DIRECTION OF ASPIRATION
"Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters . . . so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God." Psalm 123:2

This verse is a description of entire reliance upon God. Just as the eyes of the servant are riveted on his master, so our eyes are up unto God and our knowledge of His countenance is gained (cf. Isaiah 53:1. R.V). Spiritual leakage begins when we cease to lift up our eyes unto Him. The leakage comes not so much through trouble on the outside as in the imagination; when we begin to say - "I expect I have been stretching myself a bit too much, standing on tiptoe and trying to look like God in stead of being an ordinary humble person." We have to realize that no effort can be too high.

For instance, you came to a crisis when you made a stand for God and had the witness of the Spirit that all was right, but the weeks have gone by, and the years maybe, and you are slowly coming to the conclusion - 'Well, after all, was I not a bit too pretentious? Was I not taking a stand a bit too high?' Your rational friends come and say - Don't be a fool, we knew when you talked about this spiritual awakening, that it was a passing impulse, you can't keep up the strain, God does not expect you to. And you say - Well, I suppose I was expecting too much. It sounds humble to say it, but it means that reliance on God has gone and reliance on worldly opinion has come in. The danger is lest no longer relying on God you ignore the lifting up of your eyes to Him. Only when God brings you to a sudden halt, will you realize how you have been losing out. Whenever there is a leakage, remedy it immediately. Recognize that something has been coming between you and God, and get it readjusted at once.

There is a subtle distinction in the writing above between striving to attain the Goal and seeing and knowing the Goal. If you read O.C.'s writing, you'll find a very strong emphasis against striving to achieve any great thing on our own or for ourselves (which is actually a Bible Truth--no doubt the Truth O.C. is trying to convey)--though it may seem so, he is not condoning this striving in the passage above. The above addresses the goal and the life of continual full reliance on God, producing an awareness of His presence that overflows in us to the point that others might notice and errantly say "it was a passing impulse." If we can keep this in mind as not a contradiction, but instead as clarity on the life of delighting in the Lord, desiring Him above all else and even being very aware of Him versus striving to attain any self-righteousness by our own efforts, then we can see this not as a contradiction but instead as a more detailed clarification. Jesus is the Way and the Destination. While united with Him, we do have the experience O.C. describes. Let us never give it up willingly in the name of false humility, knowing also that we could never gain it on our own apart from Him and He is available to all.

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and..."

Psalm 37:7 - “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

What an amazing promise. What stellar truth. However, I feel that there may not be another verse so wonderful yet applied to our hearts so errantly.

When you read that verse, what are your immediate next thoughts? Search them and see.

If you are like me for the entirety of my life including immediately up to this moment, the principal joy and attraction of that verse is the second clause, “and He will give you the desires of your heart.” We have seriously missed the point…we have seriously missed the joy…we have seriously missed the attraction: God, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Delighting myself in Him is the delight. That sounds redundant and I wrote it purposefully as such in order to demonstrate its simple truth and expose how easily we miss what should be so obvious. If I delight myself in the Lord—delight!—what else matters? I am delighted in and of the Lord Himself, and nothing apart from Him. In that moment, all the desires of my heart are fulfilled, whether they are purely spiritual or actually realized in the physical world.

But when this verse is read, and when I have heard it all my life, it is given as hope for all the good things we desire or might desire. We realize that we do love the Lord at some capacity and are delighted in Him alone to some capacity, and we see the true promise that follows. That is actually fully good in my opinion—as the starting point of our thoughts—but it cannot be where our thoughts end. It could be the spark that ignites the flame, but God is the only fuel that will keep the flame burning. Who can keep warm via merely spark after spark? Only the flame that burns much hotter can satisfy that need for warmth in a world that is cold. Desiring the current things in our hearts as a result of delighting in the Lord is like desiring sparks instead of the flame—it is backwards and leaves us yearning for more. So the promise of good things that our hearts desire is the spark that turns us to the first part of this verse, delighting ourselves in the Lord.

Unfortunately, most of us take that verse into our worlds this day or week or year and start looking for all the desires of our hearts to come true. We keep a record, as if we had to prove that God is true to His promises. Firstly, if we think by keeping the knowledge of those desires and the status of their fulfillment or lack thereof is at all important, then we have kicked faith to the curb. If we had faith, we wouldn’t have to keep track, for God would do the good thing in His timing with no need of our record keeping. The fact is, such behavior displays doubt that the promise is true because God said it—instead, we are saying to some degree that it is only realized as true when we have seen it personally—where is our faith? But beyond that, we should have never let that second part of the verse so powerfully overshadow the real importance of the promise: the prerequisite that is also the fulfillment—delighting ourselves in the Lord.

I think we need to focus on the second half of that verse, the fulfillment of the “desires of your heart,” just long enough to recognize that a wonderful promise has been given by a Wonderful God and to recognize that He loves us that much and in that way. Upon the revelation of His love through this promise, we must then immediately shift all focus, desire, passion, and energy on the first half, delighting “yourself in the Lord.” That is the beginning and the end of it.

Too often we take it as the means to the end. That “if I delight in the Lord, I’ll get the desires of my heart.” I want to change our attitudes—yours and mine—to, “if I delight in the Lord, He is the desire of my heart.” Then we realize for whom that is true, He will not hold back the all-surpassing greatness of knowing Him, the overwhelming joy in His presence, the fullness of His love, the depth of His mercy and grace, the peace that surpasses all understanding. In that moment, whatever desires of our hearts that remain have been tested as true, and all other desires that are present have been newly given, better than all I previously held in my heart. And in that moment, all the goodness of Christ is availed within me, and all the desires of my heart—my now pure heart through Christ—are given freely and abundantly, to the extent that I cannot contain it alone and it flows forth from me into the lives of those around me who are also beginning to delight themselves in the Lord.

A note of encouragement here: if you feel so far removed from this attitude of abandonment, such that you have no practical vision of how you could ever be so dead to your current desires, and fully and only fulfilled by your relationship with God—know that I stand with you. I have stood with you my entire life, and this realization is only one step closer. Imagine someone who one day realizes that they must climb over and trek through a mountain range in order to get from their place of starvation and isolation to a wealthy village inhabited by their family that yearns for them to be present to share in their wealth. What lies before them is the choice of staying where they are, a certain and lonely death awaiting, or finding a way to assured life and loving community. But they must do what seems impossible—make the seemingly insurmountable journey, starting with almost nothing. They would feel like if they started on the side of wealth and provision, fully fed and fully equipped, that they could make the trip to the other side, but how can they hope to make it to prosperity if they have nothing to get them through the perilous journey?

The realization of where we need to be is quite different than starting out in that direction. This inspiration is only a realization and not a testament to arriving, nor even starting, except for maybe one single step. Ah, but I know something that I hope you also know. Our situation is not so bleak as the one described in the paragraph above. For we have One who is with us where we are, who will not leave us to find our way Home alone—for without Him our fears are well-founded—we would certainly not survive the journey, never making it to Paradise! Instead, there is One who has come down the mountain to meet us, to give us Nourishment to get us started, Provision to keep us going, and He is already there before we’ve even made this first tiny step: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). How much more will He be there once we have taken that first step?!

The One here is Jesus Christ. The Nourishment is the Holy Spirit and Word of God sent to sustain from within our very bodies. The Provision is the entirety of the Word of God through the Bible, as well as the Holy Spirit within us. All of this possible by the incomprehensible depth of love of our Father in Heaven, our Salvation through the bearing of our sin in Jesus Christ—tortured, killed, and resurrected to give us eternal life—and the companionship and advocate of the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us to the Father and affords us the presence of God right where we are and everywhere we go, for “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt 28:20).

Even still, you may ask, “where do I begin?” First, above all else, is asking Jesus Christ to be your Savior, confessing your unworthiness as a true sinner, acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God. Soon you’ll come to realize that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, who took on human life, bearing the burden of sin, yet remaining perfect, who died a mortal death, but conquered it by rising from the dead, and He now reigns forever. Start simply by declaring your yearning for Him to save you, and He will instantly.

Next, what about the desires that are in your heart right now? What do I do with them, especially if I have no idea if they are good or need to be banished from my heart? Jesus speaks to you regarding this and the thoughts above in Matt 7.

Matt 7:7-11 - “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

If you ask, not knowing you are asking for a stone or a snake, he will be sure not to give you something so terrible, for He knows what you need and what you were really longing for in that request. And if you do ask for bread or a fish, then He will certainly give it to you or something even better. So we find that no matter what we ask, God knows the source of that desire, and is willing to go right to the foundation of it and give us that bread and fish. Along the way, we’ll begin to recognize exactly what we were truly asking for all along, most deeply to delight ourselves in Him.

Here is the rest of the this portion of Psalm 37 that I think paints an even fuller picture:

Psalm 37:4-24 – “Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For those who are evil will be destroyed,
but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.
11 But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy peace and prosperity.
12 The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at them;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he knows their day is coming.
14 The wicked draw the sword
and bend the bow
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose ways are upright.
15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
16 Better the little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked;
17 for the power of the wicked will be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.
18 The blameless spend their days under the LORD’s care,
and their inheritance will endure forever.
19 In times of disaster they will not wither;
in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.
20 But the wicked will perish:
Though the LORD’s enemies are like the flowers of the field,
they will be consumed, they will go up in smoke.
21 The wicked borrow and do not repay,
but the righteous give generously;
22 those the LORD blesses will inherit the land,
but those he curses will be destroyed.
23 The LORD makes firm the steps
of the one who delights in him;
24 though he may stumble, he will not fall,
for the LORD upholds him with his hand.”

Delight in these truths, for they are surely delightful! He will fulfill the desires of your heart. Delight yourself in the Lord. Amen.

Intercession --> Salvation --> Discipling

This is interesting. O.C. never fails to stretch me a bit.

From “My Utmost,” Nov. 7 –

“Your part in intercessory prayer is not to enter into the agony of intercession, but to utilize the common-sense circumstances God puts you in, and the common-sense people He puts you amongst by His providence, to bring them before God's throne and give the Spirit in you a chance to intercede for them. In this way God is going to sweep the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Holy Spirit's work difficult by being indefinite, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession, and the human side is the circumstances I am in and the people I am in contact with. I have to keep my conscious life as a shrine of the Holy Ghost, then as I bring the different ones before God, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for them.”

Rom 8:26 -

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."

Of course we do in fact engage in sincere, conscious prayer of intercession. We are called to do our part, to our “utmost.” That does not change by this realization and is not threatened by it. It is instead a comfort in the truth, and relief in the fact that the power is not of us, but of God Himself (2 Cor 4:7). We don’t stop praying consciously…in fact, we might be spurred onward to pray with all the more fervor, upon realizing this truth. It is freeing. Suddenly, prayer of intercession feels like less of an energy drain and more of tapping into the energy of the Holy Spirit.

Now, I am very encouraged by this, for I walk and work among many whom I see that do not know our Lord. It’s heartbreaking and you just don’t know how to reach them. But since we know the Holy Spirit resides within us, as we approach them, the Spirit is there with us, interceding "with groans that words cannot express,” praying perfectly for their salvation. We “go and make disciples of all nations" (Matt 28:19) because the movement of the Holy Spirit makes them willing to be discipled. As many have pointed out, we do not “go and save,” we "go and make disciples." Saving is Jesus’ work. We merely go…the Holy Spirit intercedes...Jesus saves...then we make disciples.

Disciples seek teaching and training and we are to be there to teach and train, whether by word or deed. This is only possible if God makes the way for us and prepares their hearts by the relentless pursuit from the Holy Spirit, a pursuit brought right to them by our presence in their lives. We go out into the world, but not of the world (John 17:14-16), because in doing so, we drive the vehicle that God has chosen to place the Holy Spirit within, and we outpour as vessels within whom God has chosen to pour his Spirit.

Rom 10:13-15a -

"for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?"

Again, I believe that we do physically teach and preach, but I also believe with this perspective, that Rom 10:13-15 could be applied to the moving of the Holy Spirit in those whom we see lost all around us. How can they hear the Spirit of the Lord if no one brings Him to them? How can we bring the Holy Spirit to them unless we are sent? Well, if you’re reading this, you have been sent. If you’ve been sent, you can have the confidence that the Holy Spirit goes with you and ahead of you. And if the Holy Spirit is with you and ahead of you, then He will intercede for all those whom you encounter. And if the Holy Spirit intercedes for them, they have the opportunity to receive Christ and have eternal life. When once they have accepted Christ, we are there to disciple them. Let us keep our eyes open for the opportunity, and until we see the “fields ripe for harvest” (John 4:35), let us plant, water, and cultivate daily as we walk amidst our lost loved ones—all whom we encounter—by living as Christ and carrying the Holy Spirit within us. Amen.

You and Me: Friends and Children with a Servant's Heart

Ever get stricken by the pride of man? You don’t have to admit it to me, but at least admit to yourself…at times in your life, when you’ve done something and seen that it was good, you have had at least a little pride in what you’ve shown yourself capable of doing. Perhaps this has even hit you when you spoke the Truth of God and led someone to recognize Christ and commit to Him. Praise the Lord! That’s awesome, and we should be filled with joy! But be on your guard in that situation…it’s only natural for a human to immediately feel so joyful, which is initially rooted in God and righteousness, but then to be tempted to feel like you did something good or great. We start out in life so eager to please men—our parents, our friends, our bosses. Think about childhood and adolescence and see if that isn’t true. It’s even true in adulthood for most. Somewhere along the line, we see Christ for who He is by His grace, and we set out to change whom we are eager to please. When we seek approval of men and obtain it, we are filled with pride—that is 100% true. As we change what we seek, we must break this cycle. If we seek God’s approval, when we see He has done something good through us, we will have the same response that we had with men—pride. Now there is a real irony: doing God’s work, resulting in the cancerous sin of pride! How terrible. So how do we break out of that mentality? Firstly, we are already approved, only by Jesus’ intercession to the Father. There is no approval beyond that…we are loved, plain and simple. You cannot be more loved than by the Love of God! And you have received the Love that is so consuming that there is no greater approval to be found. The rest of our lives, we do not gain approval—we simply respond to the amazing rebirth with gratitude and love that pours from Him into us until we overflow into others. At that point, when we stop seeking approval of our Heavenly Father as we seek approval of men, we might begin to slay the tenacious Pride of Man. Consider this truth from Jesus himself, in talking with the disciples:

Luke 17:7-10 - "Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? 8Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? 9Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'"

“We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” This is for you and me as much as it was for the 12 disciples. I think we need to be reminded of this verse every time we see God do something for His Kingdom through us. He chose to do it through us and could have used anyone else…He chose us, we didn’t choose Him first.

Rom 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

1 John 4:10, 19 – “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins…We love because He first loved us.”

We did nothing but have our eyes opened and see God as He already is and see what He is to be doing in us, then we watched as He poured forth from us with our eyes wide. “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Loved servants, for sure. Even friends of God, with whom He shares not just the 'what' but the 'why' of His work:

John 15:15-16 – “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”

That is absolutely amazing. I think as friends of Jesus, we can still approach with the same unwavering attitude: “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”

What a glorious duty. I think when we get to the point of humility and actually declare that truth, we are never more joyful. Many are going to hear that verse by itself and immediately say, “Who am I? I am so unworthy.” Me too. But the focus of unworthiness isn’t rooted in guilt, it is revelation of God’s incomprehensible righteousness, glory, power, and mercy. If not applied to the heart as intended, you may feel sorry for your unworthiness and forget that you are a child of God, not just a servant (Rom 8:14-17, John 1:12, 1 John 3:1-2, for starters). We can have the pure attitude of a servant while being treated as God’s very children. That is a joyful realization, I believe. We can err with an attitude that is not joyful, begrudgingly declaring ourselves as servants, as if to be a servant of God was a low and joyless position. Realize that a servant in Heaven is higher than the highest position on earth! However, if that suddenly makes being a servant more doable, then we are still stricken with pride and selfishness. We have missed the entire glory and grace of God! How could we then take on this attitude: “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty” if we seek the position through servitude, instead of serving God in gratitude?

So now that we realize that there is no guilt or dread in humbling ourselves to be servants, we can go right back to the conviction. We could have been tossed out like garbage, for before Christ’s blood, death, and resurrection, I was a garbage heap of a man, not fit for righteousness, and certainly not at all compatible with Heaven. But immediately upon receiving the Truth of Christ, God has made me righteous. God has given me the opportunity to give up my room in Hell, and take the position of a servant in Heaven. The same is true for you. We have not earned it. We can barely accept it, as it is so far beyond even the purest gifts of love possible from a mere human. So we say with joy, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty,” as we praise Him forever! Amen!

Radical Faith, Greatest Joy

Check out the "My Utmost" for Oct 23: http://www.myutmost.org/10/1023.html

Here is a quote that I find most powerful and deep reaching:

“How are we going to get the life that has no lust, no self-interest, no sensitiveness to pokes, the love that is not provoked, that thinketh no evil, that is always kind? The only way is by allowing not a bit of the old life to be left; but only simple perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God's blessings, but only want Himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him? When once we see God at work, we will never bother our heads about things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in Heaven Whom the world cannot see.”

Firstly, can you even imagine life so refined by God that you have no lust or no self-interest? No sensitiveness to “wrongs,” or unprovokable love? I can hardly fathom it. But we’re working our way there by God’s grace.

Secondly, would our faith be tested and revealed so strong as it currently seems or appears if all of God’s blessings were stripped away? All of them. For Job, all was taken but his life, yet he remained faithful. We seek blessing after blessing—at least I have for the longest time—but there is a major difference in seeking gifts vs. seeking the Giver. To think that we’d be content to have daily conversation with God, stripped of every human comfort and physical blessing. To think that quite literally, “My grace is sufficient for you,” and that was literally all we had to cling to (2 Cor 12:9). Few of us have ever truly been there, not to that extent, and honestly, I kind of hope not to be…yet, what a joy must be developed in someone who is led down that path, never forsaking God, continuing to have faith and be sustained by God Himself alone, supernaturally through the presence of His Holy Spirit within us. I don’t think you or I even know what that really means or looks like, for we are so far from it. It makes me consider the following: the man who does not know Jesus and is suffering--he is to be pitied. The man who stands solidly in Christ and is suffering--he is to be envied (in a righteous sense, such that we see his plight as good and desirable). That’s a radical change of thought, but I believe it is true. Understandably, many cannot accept it.

Let's ask ourselves this piercing question today: What would it take for me to trust God with absolute abandonment to the point that all I desire is His presence and grace and nothing else matters? Am I willing to pursue eternal life with Him that way, or am I resigned to always put a little bit of myself above all other things, including my all-powerful, perfectly loving God and Creator?