When God promises us a double portion, it means that there is not only a portion of grace, but also a portion of judgment. Sometimes grace can come to sustain us and help us to endure things, but judgment comes many times to loose us in areas where we need to be set free. How could we ever describe the judgment that accompanied the exodus out of Egypt—the ten terrible plagues, culminating in the death of the firstborn. But was that not really an exhibition of grace? It was the grace of God that brought the Israelites out. But in order to bring them out, there had to be judgment against the oppression. I believe that the oppression that comes against God’s people is coming against them at the enticement of God, so that He may deal with the oppressor. He is just coaxing out the oppressor so that He can smite him.
We must not relent from an intense seeking after the Lord. It is not enough to come and worship the Lord for ourselves; we must become a sustainer of the brethren. We must become those who cast bread beside all waters. We must become those whom God has raised up. I do not think a believer should ever approach a worship service carelessly or even with thought for himself. The destiny we have to fulfill is something that grows on us all the time.
God is answering a prayer; our own personal desires and interests are waning. They are becoming less important all the time, and the importance of the Kingdom is looming up far greater in our thinking. Nothing seems to be satisfying except one thing: doing the will of the Lord. When we have done it, when we have spoken the word of the Lord, then we are satisfied. We have meat to eat that they know not of; our meat is to do the will of Him who sent us and to finish His work (John 4:32, 33). This seems to burn in our minds.
Oh, the will of God must not be vague in your mind. You ask, “What is the will of God for me individually?” Sometimes the perfect will of God is best expressed when you lose sight of the perfect will of God for yourself and you see the perfect will of God for the Body. In that revelation, you seem to know what is for you. You are more aware of what you are to have in the perfect will of God when you see what the will of God is for all. When you reduce God’s purposes and plans down to your own seeking and your own need, you can get into difficulty. Then the battle is all wrapped around you and your problems, your needs, your weaknesses, and your failures; and you can be defeated. But it is very easy to rise to a place of supreme victory when you say, “I’m a part of the Body, and the will of God is being revealed to the Body. It comes to me uniquely as an individual revealing where I am to fit into it. But more important than my own individual revelation is the whole thing that God is doing in the earth, what He is doing through the whole Body.”
I am concerned that the personal ministry, the prophecies, and the teaching lift to a new level in the destiny that God has for us to fulfill. I know that there are individual matters that are important. We have a lot of marriage counseling in which the young people ask, “Are we right for each other? Is our relationship the will of the Lord for us?” It is marvelous that they submit their relationship to the Lord and walk away from one another if it is not God’s will. That submission to the Lord is important. Many people would be happier if they had sought the Lord more earnestly about their marriage. After two people get married, they go through testings; and you realize that they need something more than just a word that they are to be together in a marriage relationship. They need a mutual sense of the destiny they are to fulfill. They need to fit into the destiny of the Body, to lose themselves in the greatness of what God is bringing forth in the earth. If they do not do that, they bog down, and it seems things end for them right there.
The same is true when we come into the worship services. We should never be guilty of just turning it on as we sometimes do. It would be better for us to spend more time really seeking the Lord than just getting up and pulling the trigger that brings a prophecy or a psalm. We should be asking what God wants in that service. What does He want with us? There seems to be a more perfect will of God. Let us prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2). The perfect will of God comes when we have lost ourselves in the revelation of what He has for us to do. The churches need revelation in order to know what each member is to do; we must know how to move ahead. There is a necessity for us to periodically reorganize everything because the churches keep expanding. But if we just reorganize so that everyone can fit in individually, we have lost sight of the overall vision and the sense of destiny that each church must have. On the other hand, when we have that overall vision and sense of destiny, we have something that will drive us on as individuals to labor day and night. We will forget ourselves in the fulfilling of the vision. One church can reach the whole world with such a vision.
There needs to be more guidance given concerning prayer so that we are not so much concerned about the Lord anointing each of us for a little prayer, but have that unity of prayer that just nails down the thing that God wants to do in the Body and what He wants to do through the Body. We cannot lose sight of the destiny that we have to fulfill in the world. If we do, we immediately become just another group of churches circulating around what God has done for us. There is a greater vision: out of these churches will arise apostles and prophets and ministries of intercession and prayer. When we see that greater vision, we continually seek for God to reveal what He has for us as a Body of people.
Is it possible that we are a bit smug because of what we already have from the Lord? Is it possible that we are a little self-righteous? I tell you, we have just enough from God that He will deal with us drastically if we do not walk in it. We have a tremendous responsibility to find the will of the Lord and to walk in it with all our hearts.
The eighth chapter of Romans deals with the unconscious ministry, the ministry which comes forth from us that does not even channel through the conscious mind. We yield ourselves to such a ministry, because often we do not know how to pray; we do not know how to move in God. Many times we hit an impasse, and we do not really know how to seek the face of the Lord. We must ask the Lord to open our hearts to a new level of awareness of what He wants us to do.
Do you believe that you are here on this earth for a specific purpose? Do you believe that you are fulfilling that purpose completely? Do you believe that you have failed in it? How would you like to answer to the Lord today? What if at 11:59 P.M., the angel came to you, saying, “Look! Account for yourself in the next minute, or you are going to get it. Are you doing the will of the Lord?” Would you say, “Yes, I am doing the will of the Lord. I am fulfilling the purpose for which I was brought forth.” It is not that difficult; it is not that far off. A little prayer, just a little reaching in to a new level, and you can walk in the perfect will of the Lord. You are not that far from it.