HOW TO BE USEFUL TO THE LORD
CHAPTER SIX
WEEK 3 - FRIDAY
Bible Reading: 2 Cor. 12:7-9; Phil. 3:12-14
Read and Pray: “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Cor. 12:9)
FIVE QUESTIONS FOR OUR EXERCISE (3)
True consecration is allowing God to work in us. It is not about working for God, as most people think. True consecration is letting God work in us. It is not about us working for the Lord.
Many people believe that after consecrating themselves, they must work for the Lord. They fail to realize that consecration means allowing the Lord to work in them, that is, allowing the Lord to carry out His work of dealing with them. Through our consecration, the Lord gains the right and responds by beginning to work in us. Thus, consecration comes first, and then the Lord deals with us.
Of course, there are exceptions at times. Sometimes, the Lord wants to gain someone, but that person refuses to consecrate themselves. The Lord wants to conquer them, but they refuse to say yes. The Lord wants to work in them, but they do not cooperate or allow Him to do His work. So, what must the Lord do? He must create situations to strike them—with blows to their business and health. This is not yet breaking but merely a “blow” to force them into having no choice but to consecrate themselves, agree with the Lord, and say yes to Him. True discipline and breaking come after consecration. Only after we consecrate ourselves can we truly be disciplined.
The blows mentioned earlier are external. Even physical illness is external. These are blows to one’s circumstances, not dealings with the inner "self." After you have consecrated yourself, the Lord begins to deal with your "self." We all know that the Lord dealt with Paul not just once but over a long period. He said that a thorn in the flesh had been given to him. Because of this thorn, he pleaded with the Lord three times to remove it, but the Lord did not take it away (2 Cor. 12:7-9).
The Lord left the thorn in Paul, so the dealing never departed from him. Why? Because he had not yet left his flesh behind. We must always remember that until we are transfigured and raptured, no matter how much the Lord has dealt with us, our flesh remains untransformed. Therefore, we must live under the Lord’s dealings daily.
It is truly a paradox: a person whom the Lord has not dealt with does not feel they are carnal. Every day, their flesh is at work, yet they do not perceive it. In contrast, a person whom the Lord deals with daily has a strong awareness of their flesh and realizes they are truly carnal. It seems that if they speak, they are carnal, and if they remain silent, they are still carnal. No matter what they do, they feel their carnality.
This experience is proper. The more the Lord deals with us, the more we will sense our flesh. Thus, we will submit to Him and say, “Lord, I am so miserable.” This is a good situation, a wonderful situation. If you think that after the Lord deals with you once, it is a success, that your flesh has been broken, and your natural self purified, then you are deceiving yourself. You have not been broken.
Even when he wrote the book of Philippians, Paul said that he had not yet been perfected, had not yet reached perfection, and had not yet attained it. He was still pursuing, and the Lord was still dealing with him (Phil. 3:12-14). The truth is, some people, even when they grow old, remain useless in the Lord’s hands. Why? Because even in their old age, they still do not allow the Lord to deal with them. We never graduate from the school of the Lord’s discipline.
Enjoy More: Hymn 196
No comments:
Post a Comment