Humility: Flexible in Service to the Holy Spirit The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. —John 3:8 Surrender of the Vision Keeper To walk with God is to walk a path of increasing surrender and trust. Indeed, the time is at hand when the Lord Jesus shall confront our tendencies to control Him. Not only will we know doctrinally that Christ is Lord, but we will also serve Him as Lord. Churches in Transition If you find yourself more drawn toward prayer than promotion, more toward humility than hype, you are being prepared by the Lord for the glory of God. What He is working in you is typical of what God is establishing in thousands of other believers. However, before the Father ultimately reveals Christ as Lord over the earth, He will first reveal Him as Lord over the church. And while we should rejoice, we must also take heed. For until we are standing face-to-face in glory with Jesus Himself, we are going to be in transition. To each of us, Christ’s call remains, Come, follow Me! (Luke 18:22) If we will walk with Him in obedience, He will take us into the fullness of His presence. Still, transitions can be frightening. The uncertainty of those passages between spiritual plateaus can hold us hostage to yesterdays blessings. Let us recall with godly fear that the bronze serpent, which brought healing to Israel in the wilderness, by Hezekiahs day had become an idol which had to be torn down. Our hearts must bow to God alone, for even spiritual gifts when isolated from Christ, the Giver, can become idolatrous. Therefore, to successfully navigate this season of change, the Lord will require of us a fresh surrender to His Lordship. He will demand that our preconceived ideas and expectations be submitted to Him. For if we are continually telling the Holy Spirit where we expect to go, we neutralize our capacity to hear where He wants to take us. Christ in Us To better understand the changes God is initiating in the church, we are going to study the life of Mary, Jesus mother. More than any other woman, God had blessed Mary. She alone was granted the wondrous privilege of giving birth to the Son of God. While the Lords promise and purpose with Mary were unparalleled, in two significant ways His promise to us is similar. First, even as Mary received Christ into her physical body, we have received Jesus into our spirits. And secondly, as she birthed Christ, our quest is to see Jesus unfettered from the womb of our religion about Him. Our destiny is not just to carry Christ inside but to reveal the fullness of His glory in this world. Even now, abiding within our spirits, deeper and more profound than our church doctrines, is the actual Spirit of Christ. The consequence of this union of Christs Spirit with our spirits expands the original seven creation days into the eighth day. We are new creatures in a new creation (Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 5:17). In this new beginning to Gods eternal plan, Jesus Christ is the firstborn of a new race of men (1 Cor. 15:45; Col. 1:15). As Jesus was both God and man, so the church is actually the dwelling of Christ in the temple of man. There is not a different Jesus in us than He who dwells in Heaven. He is Christ wrapped in glory in Heaven; He is Christ wrapped in our human flesh on earth. Our salvation is nothing less than the Perfect One dwelling in imperfect ones, the Almighty abiding in the feeble, the all-sufficient God dwelling among insufficient people. This is the mystery and glory of our salvation: Christ in His completeness extends Himself into our lives! Crucial to the success of His mission is our receiving these truths with faith, determining that they shall be our reality, not just our theology. It is here, in this carrying of the actual presence of Christ within us, that we share with Mary the awe of Gods purpose for us. Jesus in Subjection While Joseph was a good man, it was Mary who nurtured Jesus and continued to raise Him after Joseph died. In fact, we shall see that Mary became the matriarch of the family. Uniquely, under her spiritual influence, Jesus matured. It was natural that, over time, Mary would consider herself the Keeper of the Vision, Guardian of Him Who Is to Come, for in truth she was. And He continued in subjection to them (Luke 2:51). This is an astonishing thought: Jesus, Lord of Heaven, in subjection to a lowly carpenter and his wife. Yet if we think about it, is it not equally astonishing that the rule of Christ in His church is, at least in part, subject to our initiatives? He submits Himself to our schedules and to our service times. He works within the confinements of our weaknesses and temperaments. Yet we should honestly ask ourselves, is it a voice from Heaven or the traditions of earth which determines how long we shall worship Him on Sunday morning? If the Lord so decided, in an instant He could reveal His majesty and draw trembling surrender from all mankind. However, He restrains Himself, choosing not to intimidate but to inspire our obedience. He has chosen to hide His glory not from us but in us. And then, in order to perfect our character, He subjects Himself to our initiatives of hunger and faith. However, the fact that Jesus will accommodate and submit Himself to the conditions we offer Him does not mean that He has approved of our limitations upon Him. The standard of the church is not the church; it is Christ. And this is our present dilemma: Just as Jesus subjected Himself to Mary and Joseph and they became, for a time, the vision keepers, so we have assumed that Christ will continue to exist in subjection to us. He will not. For as Jesus arises in His Lordship, to save us He must first deliver us from our efforts to control Him. A Time to Let Go It is significant that Mary still exercised matriarchal supervision over Jesus even after He was a mature man. At the wedding feast in Cana we find Jesus, His disciples, and Mary, the vision keeper. They have no wine, Mary told her son. Jesus answered, Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come (John 2:3–4). In spite of what Jesus just said, Mary tells the servants, Whatever He says to you, do it (v. 5). While I am amazed at the fact that the Father worked through Mary’s orchestration of this miracle, the fact is, Jesus did not come forth to do the will of His mother but His Father. It was time for Jesus, Marys son, to begin His ministry as Jesus, Gods Son. A significant and necessary reversal of authority was needed in Marys relationship with Christ – a change which she had not anticipated. In her mind, her sense of influence was simply a continuation of her God-given responsibility as vision keeper. The problem of control worsened after the miracle at Cana: After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days (John 2:12). The verse reads, He and His mother went to Capernaum. Do you see? Mary, the Keeper of the Vision, has taken what she thinks is a legitimate position, an earned place of influence, with Christ. In defense of Mary, she clearly has been with Jesus the longest; she has paid the highest price. More than anyone, she has heard the Word and believed it; her faith has borne Christ Himself! She has magnificently served the purposes of God. Perhaps she had every right to think that Christ could work the miracles as long as she remained a guiding influence. Her continued mothering was not evil but natural. However, God had determined it was time for Jesus to be unfettered from all human influences of control. Jesus would now only do the things He saw His Father do. This, I believe, is where God is jealously directing us: We are being emptied of our agendas, false expectations, and nonbiblical traditions so that Christ alone will be Lord over the church. What we are learning is that, even though we have served as keepers of the vision, before our hopes can be fulfilled we must surrender afresh to the Lord of the vision. A Sword Will Pierce Your Heart It should be noted that the plans of God are full of surprises. No matter how true a vision from God may be, it will never be fulfilled in the manner in which we have imagined. All our expectations are incomplete. In fact, our very ideas often become the most subtle obstacles standing between us and our appointed future in God. Thus, we must keep our minds open and submitted to God, for when God fulfills His Word, it is always exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think (Eph. 3:20 kjv). Weve been talking of Mary and her role as Keeper of the Vision. Now we will discuss how the Lord shifts our identity from control to complete surrender. Interestingly, during the first stage of Marys transition, she finds Jesus resisting her. Before the Lord can bring any of us into a new phase of His will, He must dismantle the sense of attainment that often accompanies our old relationship with Him. It is a fact that many church movements, both in and out of denominations, began simply. Hungry souls longed for, and found, more of God. Over time as their numbers grew, success replaced hunger; people grew more satisfied with God’s blessings than with His presence. There is a profound difference. The apostle Paul illuminates this phenomenon, using Israel as an example. He writes, Israel … failed to reach the goal of righteousness. And why? Because their minds were fixed on what they achieved instead of on what they believed (Rom. 9:31–32 phillips). What happened to Israel is typical of us all. Without realizing it, we find ourselves relying upon what we have achieved. The Bible says that God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). It is always His mercy which guides our gaze away from our attainments and back to the knowledge of our need. Today people from many streams of Christian thought are beginning to acknowledge their own personal shortcomings. The fact is, we all need correction! And the beginning of that process is found in Jesus resisting our pride and restoring to us a fresh hunger to know Him. Thus, in order to ultimately lift Mary higher, Jesus must lower her opinion of herself: He resists her on her present level. It is interesting that, in response to His resistance, Mary’s need to control seems to grow more aggressive. And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, He has lost His senses. —Mark 3:20–21 These are strong words: take custody … He has lost His senses. It is likely that the prevailing influence over Christs relatives has come from Mary. Has her unrest caused their unrest? The issue is not that Jesus has lost His senses but that they have lost control. For Jesus to take control, we must lose control. Revival is as simple as that. We should be aware that when the real Christ begins to unveil Himself to His church, He will first reduce us from being achievers to becoming followers again. The very power of Christ to heal, deliver, and work miracles is contained in the revelation of His Lordship. Deny Him His sovereignty in your church and you deny your church His power. He cannot be manipulated, bribed, or begged. Remember, Jesus did no miracle until He began to manifest Himself as Lord. From that time on, the only relationships He actively sustained were those that recognized and submitted to His Lordship over them. The very next scene in Marks gospel begins, Then His mother and His brothers arrived (Mark 3:31). We can imagine that outwardly Mary still thinks she possesses a role of influence over her Son. Her influence is no secret. Thus, when Jesus is told, Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You (Mark 3:32), the implication is, There is someone here with something more important than what you are now doing. In any other scheme of things, it might be right to honor ones family with special privileges, but not above doing the will of God. For what may be the first time in her life, Mary feels some distance between herself and her Son. We should see that the more we set ourselves to control another person, the less intimate we can be with them; for intimacy is found in vulnerability and surrender, not in control. Of all those near to Jesus, Mary and family have slipped the farthest away; they are outside the sphere of intimate fellowship. When Jesus was told His mother had arrived, He took the opportunity to end this level of their relationship by saying, Who are My mother and My brothers? Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother. —Mark 3:33–35 Though they were outside, they were close enough to hear His rebuke. Right there the word spoken to Mary thirty years earlier by Simeon was fulfilled: a sword pierced her heart and her inner thoughts were revealed (Luke 2:35). Christ surgically and mercifully removed from Mary the stronghold of control. Today the Holy Spirit is surgically removing from us that which seeks to control the Son of God. It was for Marys good that Jesus cut her off. It was for her gain that He destroyed that which unconsciously opposed Him. There are times in our walk with God that, for our own good, the Lord cuts off old attitudes in us that have limited His freedom to change us. If we are truly His disciples, we will not merely survive His rebuke; we will bear more fruit under His pruning. As the day of His return nears, expect to see many changes. Our destiny is to become the body of Christ with Jesus as the head. The church was created to receive its directives from a living relationship with Him. There is no other way for us to be led by Him than through seeking Him in prayer and receiving His Word in contriteness of heart. Christ as Lord Over All Jesus is not being cruel when He terminates our efforts to control Him. Did He not command us, Whoever serves me must follow me? Yet with His command, was there not this promise: Where I am, my servant also will be (John 12:26 NIV)? If we follow Him, we will abide in fellowship with Him. His refusal to be controlled by our efforts is an answer to our deepest desires. We have prayed and labored to see the real Jesus emerge through the church – and He is! But He is coming as Lord. At the same time a caution is in order. This transition of our fresh surrender to Christ is not an excuse to rebel or justify lawlessness in the church. If we will all posture ourselves in prayer, ministering to Jesus as Lord, as did the leaders in Acts 13:1–3, we are going to see the most magnificent demonstrations of Gods power and glory. If we want our Christianity to truly have Christ, we must let Him rule. Certainly there will be a thrusting of our lives into greater dependency. Yes, we will be forced to embrace the most drastic of changes. Without doubt we will be reduced to what seems like the beginnings of our walk with God. Yet we shall also regain the passions of our soul in earnest seeking of the Almighty! And oh! How such seeking pleases Him! Biblically this state of heart is called first love, and there is no reality of God in our lives without it. You see, His arms are not short that He cannot reach to our churches and cities. The privilege the Lord is granting us is to enter the most profoundly wonderful, most unpredictably glorious experience we can have: to know the power of the living God! In such knowledge all reality is filled with meaning. What once seemed vague is now clearly unveiled as a fulfilment of the Word of God! But the power of God is also frightening. There is something about the actual presence of God when He supernaturally interacts with mankind that has no parallel in mere religion. It is a time of power but also of great carefulness. Not only do the dead come alive, but also the living may, as did Ananias and Sapphira, fall dead. It is the most exultant, yet fearful, thing! Like the women at Christ’s tomb, it is a world filled with fear and great joy (Matt. 28:8). Such is our Christian experience when Jesus is Lord over His church! What is perhaps most wonderful about serving the Lord is that, even when we fail and fall short, He remains true to His purpose in our lives. With Him, correction is not rejection. Although His hands wound, they also heal. The end of our story about Mary is this: On the day of Pentecost, Mary and Jesus brothers were all part of the 120 in the upper room. Scripture mentions Mary by name (Acts 1:14). Mary truly proved herself to be a bondslave of the Lord. This remarkable woman fully served God on the highest level of yieldedness. She went from giving birth to Christ to raising Him, to surrendering to Him, to experiencing unspeakable sorrow at His cross, to receiving the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost! Blessed was she among all women. Yet she also endured the pain of the sword of Gods Word piercing her heart. What she wanted from the beginning, she obtained: deep intimacy with Christ. She reached her goal not by striving or trying to control Jesus but by surrendering to Him. Lets pray: Lord Jesus, it is an indescribable honour to follow You. May I know, by Your Spirit, when to hang on and when to let go – when to birth a vision and when to surrender it back to You. —from the book The Days of His Presence – by Francis Frangipane
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 14:39:17 +0000
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