Recently I began a series of posts on the writings of Oswald Chambers. If you are really looking to Live Well, I can think of no man better to help in that process. If you missed the first part, check in here.
Our problem is that we often become impatient with God. Our thinking implies that since we know where we are going, then we should get at it directly. However, we do not have God’s perspective and we never will. As his sheep, though, we can learn to hear his voice and thus be able to follow. We must continue to remember that we do not have his view on things.
So God may have many rough edges and pieces of the puzzle to get into place or take care of before the timing is completely right. And, from God’s view, those rough edges and pieces may not all have to do solely with you. God could not send Moses back to Egypt till the correct pharaoh was on the throne. So, we must be patient.
We are focused on the right individual perspective of things; we have the vision and can say “I know this is what God wants me to do.” But we have not yet learned to get into God’s stride. (Oct 13)
One problem many Christians have is understanding the ultimate goal of God and how that relates to them as an individual Christian. We often get confused with the idea behind the “Great Commission.” We see that statement as a “missionary” command about going. Sadly, most people miss the point that they are ALL missionaries once they accept God’s call for salvation. Yet they argue that they are somehow not ready yet, that really they are not sure that they have accepted the fact that God might send them.
Somehow, this mistaken idea about there being a division between Christ as savior and as Lord has taken hold in the modern church, yet that idea is pure heresy. How often you hear testimonials that say, “I had accepted him as savior but not yet as lord, then this other great event happened in my life. . . .” Confusion in the understanding is all such a statement implies. You either are a Christian, accepting him as savior and Lord or you are not a Christian. You just have not gotten there yet. If you truly have seen the Lord, you will be changed in such a way that there will be no confusion on the matter. That doesn’t mean you won’t sin, but you won’t live in a sinful state of being constantly in rebellion to God.
So, as a current Christian on mission, we need a proper understanding of the Great Commission. “Going” does not necessarily mean leaving where you live.
“Go therefore . . .” the go simply means to live. Acts 1:8 does not say “Go into Jerusalem,” but “you shall be my witnesses.” Jesus takes it upon himself the work of sending us. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you…” –that is the way to keep going. Where we are placed is then a matter of indifference to us, because God sovereignly engineers our goings. (Oct 14)
What a promise from God. No longer must we be trapped by our human inability to see the future, worried about what is around the next corner. God engineers our goings–lean not on personal understanding and I, God will direct your steps. So what that means is that God is in control. Now that is very easy to say, but not quite so easy to live out. How can we accomplish this task?
The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work. In the natural realm, prayer in not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view. (Oct 16)
If we will busy ourselves with prayer and prayer alone, then God will have a vessel He can use. When I say “prayer alone,” I am not absurdly hinting at a life that does no work ever, but I do mean that instead of the crazy, over-active life that has “no time for prayer,” we must make time for prayer. If we do not, we are merely wasting our time in a futile existence that the world calls religion.