Contending for God's Promises
Truly trusting and yielding to God isn't passive. Waiting on God isn't inactive.
Trust and faith are never defined by inaction... They are literally verbs. "I'm trusting God." "I'm waiting on God."
What defines faith and trust as being trusting in God and faithful to Him is obedience to what He says and fully embracing what He says He wants though it hasn't actually happened yet. We have faith (confidence) in Him, and we hope for what He says He will do.
No spiritual war is ever won doing nothing. If I want victory, I have to fight. But, I'm naturally inclined to fight carnally and that is where I lose faith and trust in God.
If I have faith in, and trust, God, then I fight spiritually. Actively. Unceasingly. I recognize the war I'm in and I resist, push back... War. The war I wage in my Spirit is for my thinking! My thinking determines my victory.
Romans 8:5-10 NLT — Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.
There are wrong things that need to be made right. God gave the earth to man to govern with Him. But, my first instinct is to govern as God, not govern with Him. This is where my thinking is wrong and I remain in conflict with the Spirit, even though I believe the Spirit needs me to do something! Thinking the Holy Spirit needs me to do things is where everything was broken in Genesis 3!
The analogy I often think of is that of a farmer given a field to plow. God is the power in my life, I am the weak child given an immense responsibility: to have dominion over the world around me.
God has parked the tractor that can easily plow the field right with me. I can jump in, turn it on, and start driving, but I usually take a spoon, so to speak, and start trying to scratch out furrows from the hard, dry, rocky soil. This is what all my effort to make wrong things right actually amounts to. I don't get very far very fast, but because I'm working up a sweat I think God is pleased.
***God isn't pleased with my labor. He's pleased with my obedience. He is pleased by my faith in who He is, a rewarded of those that diligently seek Him. ***
I'm supposed to use the powerful tractor He has given me. The Holy Spirit is the power to do all of the battle. But the Spirit won't fight for the control of my life. I have to give it.
In my little analogy, Simply getting in the tractor and starting it up is the same as getting victory over the whole unplowed field! It's easy work for the tractor and impossible for me on my own. God could plow it Himself ... He IS the tractor, but the real battle is for my thinking... My yielding to God is to believe the tractor is the only way to get the work down well. Yielding to God by actively getting out of my natural thinking IS the victory and it will eventually manifest in my circumstances.
All the circumstances around me are organized by God to put me back safely in His kingdom, under His authority.
The choice in HOW I live is mine. I can live well with God, or labor like crazy, live poorly, win sparingly, and think God's pleased because I "try." Satan asks to sift me, and God says "yes" so I will learn to humble myself, resist the devil, and see him flee, taking all my selfishness and vain striving with him as I give my life to God in difficult circumstances God picked to train me!
There is a war over my thinking that trickles down into a war for my circumstances. All my trying to make circumstances right isn't worth anything if it isn't extending God's kingdom around me. If I die lawless, I truly die. If I let life teach me humility and power, then no battle is wasted. It's vain to labor to keep life going, instead I want active movement to give my life to God in all circumstances.
that the wealth of nations will turn to ashes?
They work so hard,
but all in vain! For as the waters fill the sea,
the earth will be filled with an awareness
of the glory of the LORD.
Passivity does not please God, but neither does vain striving. What pleases God is actively warring in the Spirit. Contending for what God says He wants, not because He needs me to be able to accomplish it, He WANTS me to be engaged in what He is doing, how He is going it, and why. My simple stand is the fight He wants!
Ephesians 6:11-13 NKJV — Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
See?! The war is won in thoughts and recognizing where they are coming from, embracing the ones from God and contending for them in prayer, and resisting the ones from me and the enemy of God:
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 NKJV — For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
There are areas God wants breakthrough, but He waits on me to do my part. I can't do His part and He won't do my part. My part is small: it's finding out what He wants, recognizing where the enemy is resisting it and I'm not grabbing hold of it, and praying. His part is literally everything else.
Now is not a time to be passive, indifferent, or self-willed and striving. Now is a time to get the vision, values ,and the power of God into my circumstances where the enemy is resisting what I already know God wants done.
Luke 21:34-36 NKJV — “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. “For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
1 Corinthians 16:8-9 NKJV — But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
Paul didn't wait in Ephesus doing nothing, He tarried for what He knew God wanted to do... He went to war with God against the adversaries of the open door... including his own impatience!
-to stay at or with, to tarry still, still to abide, to continue, remain
-to persevere, continue
-of the blessing for which one keeps himself fit
-denoting the action persisted in
Paul "stayed with it in God" for this door in Ephesus until it opened. Waiting for Pentecost literally meant He was waiting for an outpouring of power as well as the right timing.
What am I engaged in while I wait for breakthrough? Maybe the "Lord of the breakthrough" is wait for me to be fully engaged?
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