The Same Old Same Old

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a message on Facebook, “Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting and tedious of all work.” Corrie ten Boom.  I got to thinking about all the different ways I’ve heard the first part of that message expressed by Christian people over the years.  ‘This is the Lord’s work, it’s not mine’ – ‘it’s not our strength, amen?’ – ‘we’re simply the Lord’s vessels making ourselves available to Him’ – ‘this work belongs to God so we leave the results with Him’ – ‘we do the possible and God will do the impossible’ – ‘it’s not for us to question results, God will act in His time, not ours.’  Sounds great.

Why do I say, “Sounds great?”  Don’t I mean, “That’s great?”  Sadly, no.  All too often in the church the people who make those statements pay lip-service to them.  They are doing it in their own strength in spite of their words.  How do I know that?  Because the second part of Corrie’s statement all too often surfaces later – confusion, exhaustion and tedium.  In other words, the first part appears to be underpinned by an unshiftable faith by all concerned, but when God puts it to the test it often shows up for what it is – works based, law based, rules based.  That’s why there is little to no true Holy Spirit-liberty and freedom in many of those places.

Take Salvation for example.  Every Bible Christian knows this is a gift from God, received by faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for us as a result of dying on the cross.  The pastor says, “Salvation is a free gift, we can’t earn it, amen?”  Lots of head nods, lots of “amen”s sure to follow such a statement.  To receive God’s gift of salvation … to know in my heart that God has washed away all my sins, guilt and condemnation … to know that I too died on the Lord’s cross … that I too resurrected as a new creature when I came up out of those waters of baptism … to know that Jesus ministers the Holy Spirit to me as a Person … to know that God Almighty Himself is my Friend -there is no greater truth for anyone to know or experience.

Yet, how come we have confusion, exhaustion and tedium working havoc in God’s people?  An opinion only:  Jesus gives some severe warnings in Revelation 22:18-22 to those who add to and take away from His word.  Without wishing to tie that Scripture too tightly to this, could it be that confusion, exhaustion and tedium are mini-judgments and wake-up calls from the Lord because of our love for adding our own silly little church laws, rules and doctrines and for taking away from God that which is grace based and faith based?  In my experience among them there has never been a church that didn’t have these additions and subtractions.

The first church I joined had two services on a Sunday, a mid-week early morning prayer meeting and a mid-week Bible study.  What’s wrong with that?  Nothing … except that you won’t find anything in the Bible about feeling obligated to turn up without fail week in and week out to any one of them.  Obligation was the name of the game for many people there.  I never knew that back then.  I used to ask myself why were there so many long faces, unhappy, angry and striving people among them.  Now I believe I know why.  They had added to the word of God and made such a practice of it that most thought it was the word God.  Common was the language, “We’re doing this for Jesus, amen?”  Were we?  Are we?

A pastor once taught, “Salvation is a free gift, but after that, everything else will cost you.”  He made that statement in relation to discipleship.  He labored the fact that Christians are not to be passive spectators but active participants in God’s program both in the church and in the world.  It sounded good and many of us got prayerfully involved and were mightily blessed for doing so.  However, this pastor was a joyless man and quick-tempered … quite brutal in fact to those whom he knew wouldn’t stand up to him.  In those days I used to think it was because he was man of God in constant battle with the devil.  But I was wrong.  He wasn’t grace based he was law based.

It seems to me that confusion, exhaustion and tedium eventually becomes the payoff for one who has his or her own agenda in God, but also for those who follow that agenda without seeking God for themselves on the matter.  Over the years I’ve heard the odd church leader say from the pulpit something like, “There are those of you sitting here this morning listening to this word and you’re saying to yourself, ‘I’ll have to pray about this.’  The reality is there’s no need to pray about it … God has already spoken!”  And not much grace, love or blessing was there to be discerned in them as they said it.  Somewhere in there too there could be accusing words such as, ‘rebel’ ‘self-willed’ ‘self-discipled’ ‘self-fathered’ or whatever.

These men (and women) do not speak for God when they say those things.  They speak for themselves.  It is they who are what they accuse you of being.  They are the rebels, not us.  We Christians need to let it sink deep within our soul that when the devil accuses, it is because that’s what he’s up to.  A Christian who says he wants to pray about something before he commits is a biblical Christian, not a man-centered one.  Biblical Christians won’t “follow a stranger” John 10:5.  “My sheep hear My voice …..” John 10:27. “Test all things;….” 1 Thessalonians 5:21; “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits,……..” 1 John 4:1.

Yes, there probably are a few Christians who use “I want to pray about it” as an excuse not to do anything, but under the anointing of a holy man of God in the pulpit – a man who is dead to self and alive to Christ, it’s my opinion such Christians would be few and far between and soon get sorted out by the Lord Himself.  The point I make is, no preacher has the Lord’s permission to dump his ungodly condemnation on the whole group when there’s only the odd one who’s dulled to the Spirit’s conviction. This is the time to live in the truth that, ‘this work belongs to God so we leave the results with Him.’

If there is more than the odd one in the group who’s dulled to the Holy Spirit, then perhaps that leader should look no further than within.  Could be that it’s time for him to prostrate himself before God and ask Him for the real issue as to why this is so.  It’s been said on this blog more than once that whatever is at the top flows down.  Confusion, exhaustion and tedium have no dealings with the leader who truly knows who he is in Christ and can say for himself in relation to the gift of salvation that there’s no greater truth for anyone to know or experience.  Flowing out from him will be love, joy, peace and evidence of spiritual authority, setting the captives free Luke 4:18.

This anointed, holy man of God mentioned here – the one who’s dead to self and alive to God; would his be the perfect church?  No, there’s no such thing.  But it would be the REAL church.  In other words, reality would rule not all that other stuff.  Reality is the Holy Spirit.  He’s not interested in anything else because nothing else can bring spiritual liberty and freedom into play.  Religious people have tried to bring it in all sorts of ways down through history by leaving this group and joining that one … becoming more certificated … starting their own denominations and Christian fellowships – but eventually, what have they ended up with?  The same old same old.

In my post: The I Believe/We Believe Man, I say, “When God begins to teach us about the reality of His gift of freedom, being stripped of all that brings hindrance to it becomes part of the deal.”  Keeping it real is where God is at.  Keeping it real is where we know it’s at too.  Deep in our innermost being each Christian knows that.  So when, ‘this is the lord’s work’ and ‘we’re simply the Lord’s vessels….’ begin to get bandied about God will give us a few practical tests to sort out what’s real and what’s simply Christian-speak.  And guess what shows up, mostly?  Christian-speak.  How do we know?  Confusion, exhaustion and tedium … it’s not really the Lord’s work at all – it’s our work.

What’s the result of that?  Well, the Lord backs off and He leaves us to our own devices.  The only problem is most Christians don’t believe that to be the case.  That’s why a leader will often pray asking for the Lord to “guide and help”… some of them finishing their prayer in what I call the machine-gun manner:

“wethankYouLordweaskYouthisinJesus’namehallellujahpraisetheLord – nowchurchthiswhatwe’regonnado!”

So everybody gets with the program, things go along smoothly for days, weeks – even months.  “God’s really blessing us in this place, bless God hallelujah….”  Everybody in the church sees themselves as God’s right-hand man and woman “we’re gonna take this land for Jesus, we rebuke you Satan, Jesus said, ‘I will build My church and the …..”  But one day, crunch-time comes.  The program hasn’t gone anywhere but nobody is going to say it or admit it.  They wrap themselves up in more Christian-speak robes and off they go again, with a revised program.

The revised plan eventually falls over along with most of the other plans.  As does the church.  But is anyone going to admit that?  Not in a long shot!  “Where’s your faith brother???” so says the church.  But confusion, exhaustion and tedium shows they don’t have much of that.  The pastor sees it, even if he can’t call it such so he (perhaps with a machine-gun prayer) decides, “what this church needs is a 6-week series of faith messages.”  He preached them some time ago and they worked wonders, so with a few revisions and updates he decides to bring them out again.  The church looks forward to hearing them – starting next week.  Cynical?  What does the Lord say to you?

Now back to: “Salvation is a free gift, but after that, everything else will cost you.”  It’s true.  It costs you your life.  That’s the price we pay if we want Jesus.  We too died with the Lord on His cross.  Scripture makes that abundantly clear Galatians 2:20.  For the repentant water-baptised Christian a divine exchange has taken place … death for life – eternal life … God’s life – eternal in quality, eternal in quantity.  No man-centered rules, laws or obligations to adhere to though, but rather, allegiance and obedience to the Lord Himself as the indwelling Holy Spirit reveals the word of God to us and empowers us to live it out.  More about that on another post. “….Not by might no by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.” Zechariah 4:6; “…..for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5; “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you….” Acts 1:8.