Anyone who wants to serve the Lord today should be helped to orient himself to the will of God, so that he knows where he stands, what God wants of him, and what will be taking place. Then he can relate himself to it.
God has laid His hands on people, and they are looking for something. Along comes some blind leader of the blind who says, “Go this way.” Someone else says, “Go that way.” Others say, “This is important,” or “that is important.” Because folks are so intently groping to find the meaning of their whole life before the face of God, they are “biting” on a lot of things which they should not, settling for many lesser goals in life while missing the most important things God has for them.
People out in the world are like the blind man whom the Lord touched. Jesus asked him, “What do you see?” The man replied, “I see men as trees, walking” (Mark 8:23–24). Everything was all distorted. People looked like trees walking around. That was a strange sight. After the Lord went through the process of healing him again, he saw every man clearly. This is a picture of what is happening to people all over the country. They have a touch from God, and they see something. They are not blind anymore, but the whole picture is very much distorted before them. They do not really know what God is doing or what they are doing. But they want to be busy; they want to do something.
The actions of many people today remind me of a story in the Old Testament. After the death of Absalom, Ahimaaz wanted to run and bring news of it to the king, but he did not know the full story. The Cushite received the whole message, and Joab told him to run and tell David what he had seen. Ahimaaz said, “Let me run, too.”
Joab answered, “Wherefore wilt thou run seeing thou hast no tidings ready? You don’t have anything to say when you get there.”
Ahimaaz replied, “That’s all right. Just let me run.” So Joab let him run. He was a beautiful runner, and soon he passed the Cushite. He came running through the gates of the city and the watchman said, “You are the first one here.
What’s the news concerning Absalom?”
Ahimaaz answered, “When I left I saw a great tumult, but I don’t know what happened.” They had to wait for the Cushite to tell them that Absalom was dead. Wherefore wilt thou run, seeing thou hast no tidings ready (II Samuel 18:1–32)? There is no use exerting all that energy when you have nothing to say when you get there. God is laying it right on the line: this is what you are to do—you are to give your life for the gospel of the Kingdom. The word that has been preached has come in an orderly sequence of revelation. This panoramic view should be preached to the ends of the earth because it gives the best picture of the gospel of the Kingdom. It is time for the messengers of the Kingdom to come, but they will not be those who run with no tidings ready. The Lord is instilling in you a love of the Word and a knowledge of the Word, with a real revelation of the times and what God is doing. The next thing will be to thrust forth each ministry into the places of service.
We must find a way of stepping up the process. By way of illustration we might compare it to the process of oxidation. If oxidation occurs slowly, the result is rust. The burning of fuel, or combustion, is rapid oxidation. You can dip the end of a wire in sulfur, light the sulfur, and place the wire in a jar of oxygen. The wire will burn and throw off brilliant sparks. At the end of this experiment the inside of the jar will be coated with rust. You have stepped up the process by increasing the amount of oxygen in the bottle. If oxidation is at a slow speed the result is only rust. If it goes rapidly, you have an explosion.
We do not want to rust Babylon away. It would take too long. We do not want to burn it down either. By taking the fire that is within us and stepping up the process, we can blow it up! We want to create an explosion that will move things! We would not put out the fire for anything in the world. We will encourage it.
Be very careful. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of the leaven of anyone. People will come along, and in the name of the Lord they will say, “Oh, dear brother, now you must be careful. You must love holiness and turn away from this and turn away from that.” All of this may be true, but you can accomplish it better by having the right focus than by being distracted. Try walking down the street toward an objective while you are looking inward, and see what happens. Soon you will stumble and fall because your gaze is on the wrong object. You are so busy looking inward that you do not see your objective. The goals that are within are best attained by focusing your eyes upon the Lord. By having a fuller revelation of Him, you will appropriate the grace necessary to take care of the internal problem. But if you focus entirely upon the internal problem and try to exercise will power over it, if you are so busy grappling with the weaknesses that are internal in your life, your mind will be distracted from the grace of God.
You are able to shake the problems and weaknesses best in the light of a real revelation of the Lord. As you go on walking with God, you shake them off, saying, “Get out of my way. Don’t bother me because I’m busy. I’m going some place with the Lord. I’m walking with God.” Take the positive approach. Walk with God! If you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). The more you set yourself toward that positive goal of walking in the Spirit, the more the Lord will bless you, and the old habits and attitudes of the flesh will drop off. It really is the best approach.
If you are constantly worried about sinking, when you try to float on the water, you will go down like a rock. When you tighten all your muscles, and lie there all tense, blub, blub, blub, you sink to the bottom. Instead, take a deep breath and just relax on the water, and you will find the water will buoy you up sufficiently. When I float, my feet go down, not the rest of me. But if I move my feet just a little, I can float along indefinitely with very little effort. Some people splash around, and still they sink. It is not the amount of effort that counts; it is the way you trust the water to hold you up. The grace of God works the same way.
You may have a few little problems, but with some people it takes only a few. If you do not want to sink, take the positive approach and throw yourself on the mercy and grace of the Lord. Cast yourself upon the Lord, and He will sustain you. He will lift you up, and you will overcome your weaknesses and problems. Determine to walk in the Spirit constantly, giving yourself over to the things of the Lord.
We read in Hebrews 10:25–39: Not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man that hath set at nought Moses’ law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He is pleading: “Be careful, don’t sin, don’t fail now. Realize the criticalness of the hour in which you are living. Don’t neglect the things of God.” Then he brings out the point we want to emphasize.
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings: partly, being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used. For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one.
Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a very little while, He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry. But my righteous one shall live by faith: And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that shrink back into perdition; but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul.
This passage points out how people in the early Church actually lived and how they faced their problems. They so wanted to walk with God and not miss what He had for them that when someone took their possessions away, they accepted joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven they had a more enduring substance. They were willing to be persecuted and made a gazingstock. That did not bother them much. They had a great conflict of sufferings, as well as much spiritual warfare and battle constantly besetting them. Consequently, they gave themselves wholly to walking with God. They would not cast away their confidence. They knew it was a great recompense of reward. They knew they had need of a little more endurance before they would win the prize. Everything else had to go by the board. If someone took away their possessions, they said, “That’s all right. Joyfully we accept it.” They had learned that they would have to lose their life and everything else for Jesus Christ. They were ready to lose it all for the Lord because they knew they had a more enduring substance.
Looking at the world situation today, I do not think any believer will have much opportunity to choose lesser goals than the perfect will of God and come out with anything worthwhile in life. Suppose your goal is to own a lot of property—taxation will wipe you out. At the rate we are heading into socialism, very few people will be owning property in a few years because the taxes will confiscate it all.
Maybe you would like to make a lot of money. You must remember, if you get into a higher tax bracket, you will have difficulty keeping much of it because of higher taxes. Inflation will continue to be a problem, too, even though it will be regulated to some extent. The government intends for it to continue so that they can come out ahead on all their own indebtednesses. A sum of money invested in government bonds twenty-five years ago, plus all the interest it has accumulated, represents less today in actual buying power than half of the original investment.
Your money is losing its value. The government knows this and so do the investors. That is why the insurance and loan companies are the scandal of our country. Compare their modern beautiful buildings with the modest houses in which most of the people are living who are paying them the mortgages on those homes, many of which were obsolete thirty-five years ago. The interest rates paid to large companies continue to sap away the life of the people. If any kind of financial trouble arises, the companies are protected. Because they can take over the ownership of property all over the country, they have a great stranglehold on it. The economic system is holding you by the throat. Do you want to live for that?
Perhaps you want to be an educator or go to school. It is important to get an education, but you will not get it in school. I constantly counsel the young people to go to school because it disciplines their mind to think. But I also know that in many cases what they learn was obsolete years ago.
Studies conducted at Duke University probably did a great deal to disprove, scientifically, many of the sciences. All the sciences that are based upon hard facts and laws deny the fact that there is a realm of spirit. Even in the field of psychology they refuse to accept the spirit realm. This is not true in Russia, however. Behind the Iron Curtain, the spirit realm is being studied and explored. They are learning to project their thoughts and read people’s minds so that in case of a war they will know how to tune into wavelengths of the generals, of men in the Pentagon, or of anyone anywhere and know exactly what is being planned. Many of you are aware of this. But in our country the laws of physics, chemistry, and other sciences determine what people accept and believe.
What about the strange things that take place in the mystical realm? What about the significance of being able to reveal the future and foretell events? If everything is controlled by cause and effect, how can we leapfrog all of that and know what is coming to pass? Any time that one prophecy comes to pass in this walk, the basic sciences that are taught in school have already been disproved. Many of the facts of science are disproved by that one revelation of the future. The minute you can interfere with cause and effect through prayer, you have set aside the validity and the finality of many sciences.
What about the laws of science when the Lord Jesus walked on water, with the temperature above thirty-two degrees? There you have a miracle (Matthew 14:25–27). A miracle is the setting aside of those laws temporarily. When Jesus turned water into wine, He was bypassing the processes of nature. The wine He produced was not synthetic; it was real wine (John 2:7–11).
If you want an education, get it. But after you finish school, you will really start your education. Then you will start to learn and to think. Then you will begin to know the voice of God and have the revelation.
What do you want out of life? possessions? money? fame? Read what the Word of God tells us about it in James 5:1–7: Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.
How many people became millionaires during the Vietnam War? Many business interests clamored for the war to continue on a limited scale because of the profits they reaped from it. As James says, they made money by nourishing their hearts in the day of slaughter. I wonder how much good has been accomplished in the wars we have fought, especially this last one. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one; he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
I suppose in some ways this is radical thinking, and some of you may be critical of it. But the Lord said, “I come to bring fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?” (Luke 12:49). The fire is already kindled in your hearts, and my job is to keep throwing kerosene, or gasoline, or nitroglycerin on it. I want the fire to burn brightly. I want you to find the meaning of your existence: who you are in God, why God put you here, and what He wants you to do! That is what this walk is all about—that there be revelation, and prophesying, and an anointing upon you.
I am telling you to forsake the objectives of this earth. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I John 2:16, 17. The will of God is what you must live for with all your heart! You cannot give way to those youthful lusts. You cannot give way to distractions.
After the Israelites left Egypt, they went into one defeat after another. It is true the Lord delivered them, but why is the story in the book of Exodus so filled with defeat? Why were people always murmuring, always complaining? It was because they were only dedicated to being delivered out of Egypt. They were never dedicated to a walk with God. There is a big difference. Many people are dedicated to getting out of certain difficult situations. For various reasons some of you may find that you do not like living at home. If you are in this walk only because you want to split the old scene, you are still not going to make it. You have to be dedicated to walking with God, or you will always have a reason to complain and criticize and murmur about some circumstance or problem that comes up along the way. But if you are dedicated, not only to escaping the old, but to absolutely becoming a citizen of the Kingdom—one of the soldiers in the army of the Lord ready to do the whole will of the Lord—then you will not back off or lose out when things get a little rough along the way.
Recently I read a magazine report telling what today’s young people are facing. They realize that the riots and demonstrations will get them nothing. Probably not one demonstration made by any group of young people has had any great effect or bearing whatsoever on any current problem. They can shoot off their mouths and go wild over some incidents, but it does no good because that is not the way to get the job done. It will be done with our leverage at the throne of God. We have an inside track to the throne of Him who rules all things. This report pointed out that young people have become disillusioned. Although they claim to be against the establishment, they cannot wait until they graduate to grab a piece of it. What a farce is being perpetrated by those who talk about the hypocrisy of the establishment, yet they themselves cannot wait to become a member of it. As soon as they graduate, they send applications to various companies, trying to find the best job. These radicals who have been going around with bare feet and long hair, yelling from every soap box they can find, suddenly shave off their beards, put on some shoes, and take the best job offered to them and settle down to become good members of the establishment. What hypocrites! It happens in every generation. It is only manifested a little differently. In each decade people change their ways of rebelling. Then they settle down in the groove to be nice members of the establishment.
I hope we can see something different. The Scripture says, “Be not conformed to this age, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). That is what we will buy. Ours is not some political objective or some economic objective; it is something else. We will have to coexist with this age, but we will not be conformed to it. We are not going to love its loves or seek its goals. We will not bow down to its idols or mouth its shibboleths. We will walk in the will of the Lord with all our heart, in a way that will be contradictory to everything that exists, because the old order is coming down. The King is coming soon. All the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign (Revelation 11:15).
We are to be like a John-the-Baptist company. What shall we name this movement? Shall we call it Methodist? Shall we call it Baptist? Shall we call it Presbyterian? No, no, no! We have a little bouncing baby on our hands that is healthy and growing so fast it is breaking out at the seams in the churches. There is not room enough to house it. Dear, dear, what shall we call this little baby? John the Baptist was not to be named Zacharias after his father; and we also will not call this by the old priestly order because it is born, somehow not to wear priestly robes and be a part of a dying, ritualistic system, but to go out into the wilderness where men can come and hear a word from the Lord: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.”
John-the-Baptist companies are coming up strong. You will have to want this walk with God more than anything else. At times you will look around and see the people who have beautiful homes and are driving expensive cars, and you will wonder. It is difficult to give up something that has been an object of covetousness in your heart. Then you feel as if everything is lost.
When the stock market crashed in 1929, many people took their own lives. When a man lives for such small goals and they are taken away from him, he has no incentive to live. Immediately after the depression there were a few good jobs available, and a man who had barely been able to exist during the depression was suddenly making it fine with a good job and financial security. The first thing he did was have an affair with his secretary. The result was that he left his wife and children and eventually fell completely apart. Ten years later he was staggering down skid row, an alcoholic.
There are two ways to ruin a man whose heart is set upon this world. Either take the things of the world away from him, or suddenly give him more blessings than he can handle. He will be destroyed either way.
Lord, if our hearts are not ready, give us neither too much prosperity nor too much adversity. Deal with our hearts until we can say, “Lord, let either plenty or adversity come. We know how to be abased, and we know how to abound. We know how to have nothing, and we know how to have all things. We have learned in whatever state we are, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11–12). We must learn to be content, without covetousness. If God gives us money, we must be faithful stewards, If He gives us nothing, we must be faithful stewards. We must be faithful men before the face of the Lord. To live for something else besides this passing scene, to live wholly for the Lord with all our heart and soul, with all our mind and strength, serving the Lord with everything that is within us—let this be our goal.