Have you decided that you are not content to be what you were yesterday, and instead you are going to be what God says you are? Everything is done by the Word of the Lord.
Imagine for a moment that you are poised on a high diving board. It is the first time you have ever taken a dive, and as you look down, the water looks hard and far away. Get ready, for you are about to take the plunge. What would you do if you were a young girl between twelve and fourteen years of age, and an angel told you that you were going to conceive and bear a little baby, who would be the Son of God? That is an illustration of standing on a high diving board, looking down. What would you do if you were a brother to whom the Lord had spoken that he was to be a prophet of God? That, too, is like standing on a high diving board, looking down.
Would you be ready to handle all the problems that would be involved if the Lord were to release great financial blessings to His people, as He promised in Haggai 2:8–9: “The gold and the silver are Mine and the glory of this latter house will be greater than the former.” Would you be prepared for the responsibilities involved? Imagine the taxes you would have to pay and the records you would have to keep! Are you prepared to prophesy and ask the Lord to send forth this mighty end-time move, not in the future, but now? Knowing the full import of what it means, are you ready to say, “Be it done to me according to Thy Word”?
Would you prophesy the downfall of Babylon if it caused reactions that meant you could never meet in church again? If the churches were forced to go “underground,” would you continue to sing and worship the Lord? If you knew that very shortly a third of God’s people would be martyred, would you still say, “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word”?
Paul said, …neither count I my life dear unto myself….Acts 20:24. Can that attitude be repeated in your life, so that the only thing that really counts is to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? Are you prepared to do God’s will and to be the person God wants?
The Lord has promised that a thousand New Testament churches will be established. Although that sounds exciting, are you hoping it will happen after your time? Think of the sacrifices needed to help each one of those churches get started, as well as the responsibility of ministering to them. God does not do anything unless He has a people who are willing to follow through on His plan. When you put your hand to the plow, you dare not look back. In your heart you say amen to the will of the Lord. “Let it be done unto me according to Thy Word”—on these words you are going to live or die.
You will be harassed and persecuted. You will learn what it means for God to speak to your heart and call you into a ministry, and then each day to die a little over it. Perhaps you would like to be obscure and inconspicuous, but instead of shrinking you seem to be expanding. You may wish that God would not make you an issue. You may desire with all of your heart that only the Lord and His Word will be the issue. But the man who speaks God’s Word becomes a target. It is the same today as it was with the first disciples when Jesus told them, “If they receive Me, they will receive you also. If they receive My Word, they will receive your word also” (John 15:20). If your church is made an issue, if people investigate you and publicize all your problems, will you still say, “Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy Word”? Are you willing to become the issue? Can you say, “In the final analysis, it doesn’t really matter; I am ready to sacrifice a few things”? What are you going to sacrifice? a few comforts? a few goals that you would live for otherwise? You have already learned that those things are not worthwhile; they are meaningless. You have learned that the possession of things does not make you any happier; it only makes your life more complicated. Life is complicated enough. Cry out for the simplicity to live for God. Be ready to speak God’s Word and see it run its full course.
Before God does anything through a man, He first makes that man personally identified with the Word of God that he speaks. When Jeremiah prophesied, he was identified with that Word. He was persecuted and thrown into a miry pit because he identified himself with that Word (Jeremiah 38:4–6). Be identified; be one with the Word you preach. If people hate it, they will hate you. When the Word triumphs, it will be your help and your deliverance.
Prophesy your heart into the full obedience that the Lord desires. Ask God to bring a deep conviction to His people so that they might see that He is demanding them to be dedicated to love Him, to be prepared for everything He has for them. What God is demanding is different from the dedication meetings in which you dedicate yourself to do His will. The Lord is demanding that you present yourself and say, “Lord, here it is. I am laying this on the altar. Put the fire to it and consecrate it, Lord. Speak through me and make me the vessel You want me to be.” Now is the time for you to say that irrevocable, unconditional, “Yes, Lord.” Is His Word in your heart? Has He spoken over you? Has He called you into a Body of people and prepared you for this end time? Then say, “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word, O Lord.”
Your way of living is going to change. The coming days will be completely ordered of the Lord. If you walk with God, your way of living will be very sacrificial. You may weep for the things you loved yesterday, but do not look back. Even with its trials and its tests, yesterday may still look good. Good-bye, yesterday. Good-bye, days of uninvolvement. Good-bye, days when we did our own will to some degree. Now it has to be different. “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word, O Lord.”
There will be no more limping along, no longer that slow pace of God’s dealings. The little side eddies will suddenly be thrust into the main stream. Let there not be any casualties because we did not know the price required. Say it again and again and again, “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word, O Lord.” Good-bye yesterday. God’s tomorrow—we salute you. Day of the Lord, come forth. We are not worthy, but we shall walk with Thee. “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word, O Lord.”