Understanding God's Plan

(Note: I was reading this devotional this morning. I can't recall for sure but believe it was penned by a dear brother named Steve Bray. This is the first of three posts that comprise the article... Enjoy!)

When Christians first believe {agree to submit to God’s ways}, they generally turn to God with their whole heart. They then are enabled to partake of His grace and receive the gift of His Spirit. The indwelling Spirit provides them with a real desire to follow the ways of the Lord. But this is only the doorway into a spiritual life in which God wants to become our All. The ultimate intention of salvation is to turn people from a self-centered way of life to a God-centered way of life.

God uses tribulations to separate His called-out children from their love for the world. He wants them to turn to Him as their only source of spiritual life. But as He takes them through a spiritual wilderness on the way to His life of promise, with the intent of teaching them to live by faith in Him alone, many begin looking back to the things of this world for relief. Like Israel of old, they begin to complain and long for the things they had given up in Egypt {a type of the world}.

While God is seeking to make His children holy, they are generally looking for personal blessings. Consequently, when trials begin to occur in their lives, they tend to be drawn away from the straight and narrow path that leads to the Kingdom-life of God.

Jesus had thousands of followers after He fed the five thousand. But when He began to explain how they would need to sustain themselves on Him alone, which would require them to fully surrender their will to His will (John 4:34), they turned away. “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’…From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (John 6:60, 65)

Jesus, in His Parable of the Sower said, these are the “the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” (Luke 8:13 Emphasis added) They are willing to follow Christ while He is blessing them in the temporal realm, but they reject His way of the cross. They prefer to develop a spiritual life by following after their own personal desires. They are unwilling to die to this old worldly form of life so they may have a supernatural life from the heavenly realms. “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has {from the self-life} cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33)

Falling away from Christ’s way of life in the time of testing does not necessarily imply a separation from the organized church. These people will often hold to fundamental beliefs about Jesus. But they do not trust Him enough to fully surrender to His way of life. Christ’s message to the church at Ephesus applies to all church members who find themselves drifting back to a self-centered way of life. This group of Christians at Ephesus was involved in church activities when Christ sent His warning. They also believed in the fundamental doctrines of the church. But they still needed to repent: “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. {Their service was more focused on self than on God.} Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent.” (Rev. 2:1-5) He will eventually take His Spirit away from everyone who refuses to turn away from their self-centered way of life.

The salvation offered by the Lord is not man-centered. Christ has come to save His followers from their fallen nature. He does it by purifying the hearts of His tested disciples so they may “serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of [their] lives.” (Luke 1:74-75 Emphasis added) He provides them with a pure heart so they will have the capacity to overcome all the temptations of the world and continue to live in an entire devotement to God. (Acts 15:8-9)

Until this Kingdom-life has been established within the heart, even earnest believers will periodically find themselves being pulled away from the life of holiness and righteousness that God requires of His children. The devil uses many crafty devices to draw these unstable Christians into fleshly activities. Even while they remain members of a church body, they are drawn back to serving themselves.

The leaders of Christ’s church have not been reminding Christians of their need to deny themselves and take up their cross. Because there has been a neglect of this all-important doctrine, we do not find very many church members entering into Christ’s Kingdom-life. Let us therefore begin to exhort one another daily while there is still an opportunity, “lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Heb. 3:13)

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. (Heb. 2:1) Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life {the Kingdom-life}, and there are few who find it. (Matt. 7:14)

God’s children do not have the right to live for themselves or even to do what they please. God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling…according to His own purpose.” (2 Tim. 1:8-9) His intent is to separate us from the self-serving ways of the world so we will be available for His exclusive use. He created us to live for His purposes.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless… (1 Thess. 5:23) For this is the will of God, your sanctification. (1 Thess. 4:3)

If you have not been looking for a salvation from your self-centered and self-serving nature, then you are not following the true Christ.

Phoebe Palmer, in her book Full Salvation, has described this principle more clearly: "There are many who take upon themselves the name of Christ who do not renounce the world. They seem to have found some broader, easier way than the way of the cross. But the Bible presents but one direct way to heaven, and that way is the narrow way of the cross… The Bible… presents no way of going around the cross without getting out of the way. Jesus says, “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, {not try to go around it} and follow Me.”

Those, therefore, who attempt to go around the cross instead of taking it up, get out of the way to heaven into the by-path that seemeth to be right, but the end whereof is death. And these are the “many” to which the Savior refers when He says, “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? And in Thy Name have cast out devils? And in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you!”…How evidently had these people died in their deception! And now they come to the very door of heaven, expecting admission, but the Savior says, “I never knew you.”"

Now would you love to imagine yourself in the way to heaven in some other way than the way of the cross? Christians are called the light of the world, and would you love to take upon yourself a profession as a light of the world and have others follow you, as you are wishing to follow other worldly-minded professors, and then find in the end that souls have been lost by following you instead of being saved through your influence? Suppose one puts up a beacon-light in a wrong place and a vessel is decoyed from the right channel and stranded and all on board perish. Who is responsible for the loss of life?

Now do you desire to take upon yourself the profession of Christ, without giving up the world? Would you be willing to be looked up to as one of the lights of the world, without having previously taken upon you the cross of Christ?

Christ’s true disciples will follow Him through the cross. “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has {from his self-life} cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33) These true believers in Jesus Christ stop living for themselves {they come out from the ways of the world}. They begin denying themselves by offering their flesh-life to the cross, so they may enter into a life of self-sacrificing love as Jesus did. (1 John 2:5-6) They will therefore begin saying with Jesus, “My food {or spiritual sustenance} is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)

In contrast to how Jesus lived, much of the church today has become man-centered. The members of Christ’s body are not being set free from their self-centered nature. Most Christians will frankly admit they expect their pastor to provide church services that will make “them” happy. After all, who is more important?

Activities that are centered around the desires of the members of Christ’s body will actually feed their flesh-life and make it stronger. As long as the work of the church remains man-centered – starting with man, centered in his needs, thinking of his welfare, and seeking his blessing – people will be led away from Christ and His way of the cross.

It should be very obvious today that we have been led terribly off course by our leaders. There are many within the church now walking on the broad road to destruction. They have been unwilling to take up their cross and lose their self-life so they can find Christ’s Kingdom-life of perfect love. (Matt. 16:24-25)

There needs to be a real change in the way the church functions. It was never intended to provide spiritual life by acting as a social organization. The church is a place where seekers after the life of God are to be encouraged to press forward in their faith until God has become their “all in all.” “Exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Heb. 3:13) Everyone who enters into Christ’s Kingdom-life will be found living in an entire devotement to God.

As Christians, we will need to renew the way we think before we can walk in the ways of the Son. In the past, we have responded to our own selfish desires. Whenever there was something within the grasp of our fleshly desires, we simply did it. This is how the world lives. The children of God are to live differently.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:22-24)

There is something Christians are to seek. But it does not include anything from this world. Christians, according to Jesus, are not even to focus their attention on the things they will need to eat, drink and wear. (Matt. 6:31-33) The primary concern of Christ’s disciples is to seek after the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In faith, they can rely on the Lord to be their Sustainer.

Once we have been credited with Christ’s righteousness through a faith that is fully yielded to Him, we are expected to seek out His Kingdom-life. We are then to depend on Him to take us through the cross and into the reality of His resurrection life. He has promised to manifest His life of true righteousness within the inner being of everyone who obeys Him. (John 14:21)

In this process of seeking out the Kingdom-life of God, we need to be laying aside every weight that holds us back. (Heb. 12:1) We are responsible for pressing forward in our faith until we have received the promised “abundant entrance” into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pet. 1:10-11)
The moment believers are able to trust in the Son to save them from their sin, they enter into a glorious new “position in Christ.” But there is a serious problem in the way this doctrine of imputed righteousness is generally presented.

The primary emphasis is on the individual. When man is placed at the center, these new Christians will naturally begin to build on a false foundation. The church has remained in a carnal condition because the members of Christ’s body are being taught to think about their imputed righteousness from a self-centered perspective.

If the scriptural teachings about imputed righteousness are twisted and become man-centered, the hearers will remain in a bondage to their fallen nature. They will never learn what it means to die to this old way of life and be gloriously lifted by the power of God into the Son’s Kingdom-life of perfect love. This is why all our messages, even those about imputed righteousness, must be God-centered.

A. W. Tozer, as quoted from Born After Midnight, once said, “The flaw in current evangelism lies in its humanist approach. It struggles to be supernaturalistic but never quite makes it. It is frankly fascinated by the great, noisy, aggressive world with its big name, its hero worship, its wealth and its garish pageantry. To the millions of disappointed persons who have always yearned for worldly glory but never attained to it, the modern evangel {gospel} offers a quick and easy shortcut to their heart’s desire. Peace of mind, happiness, prosperity, social acceptance, publicity, success in sports, business, the entertainment field, and perchance to sit occasionally at the same banquet table with a celebrity - all this on earth and heaven at last…”

“In this quasi-Christian scheme of things, God becomes the Aladdin lamp who does the bidding of everyone that will accept His Son and sign a card. The total obligation of the sinner is discharged when he accepts Christ. After that, he has but to come with his basket and receive the religious equivalent of everything the world offers and enjoys…”

“This concept of Christianity is in radical error, and because it touches the souls of men, it is a dangerous, even deadly, error. At the bottom it is little more than weak humanism allied with weak Christianity to give it ecclesiastical respectability. It may be identified by its religious approach. Invariably it begins with man and his needs, and then looks around for God; true Christianity reveals God as searching for man to deliver him from his ambitions.” (Emphasis added)

If we are ever to enter into the divine purpose that God has for His children, we will need to follow the Son’s path of the cross. God’s spiritual children will be found living for His kingdom and glory. They surrender their own wills so they may be led by His Spirit and filled with the Son’s Kingdom-life of sacrificial love.

This is a really good article! May we all come to understanding of this! S.I. group, do meditate on this.