There is a simplicity in all that God does. God has a way of speaking a simple Word over your life that gives you something in your heart that you know is your destiny to fulfill—that is, the works which He has “before ordained that you should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). There is a relationship between Himself and you that He plans to fulfill. What a wonderful blessing this truth is!
When you have read the life of Paul, you realize that God’s first words to Ananias concerning Paul were fulfilled. When God told Ananias to lay hands on Paul, He said, “I will show him what great things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). Then a whole life of suffering followed; yet how beautifully Paul related to the Lord Jesus Christ in it. Christ came forth in his life through it. And so we realize that God was not concerned about how many things a man could suffer; He was concerned about manifesting Himself through all of that suffering and about deepening that man’s relationship to Himself.
The apostle Paul indeed suffered many things, but through all his suffering, the presence of the Lord was demonstrated in his life. God would never have permitted the sufferings in Paul’s life to become any occasion of grumbling and complaining. Those sufferings were to glorify Himself. God would never have allowed Paul to suffer so that he could say, “See how much I am suffering.” In the one instance in his letter to the Corinthians where he spoke about all the things he had suffered, he said, “I speak as a fool” (II Corinthians 11:23). To him it seemed foolish even to recount what he had gone through in his sufferings.
The references to Paul’s life, as well as other references in the Scriptures, reveal a very important truth. You will find that having a right spirit is related to the fulfillment of God’s will in your life. God will never let you fulfill the things that He has promised for your life until you are prepared to do them with a right spirit. Some people receive prophecies over their lives, and the next day they start walking in them. Other people with the same words for their lives, and with the same anointing and the same confirmation, cannot move; they cannot fulfill God’s will. Year after year goes by and that Word is unfulfilled. Finally, after utter disaster in their lives, they come to the place where they begin to do the will of the Lord.
What keeps us from instant fulfillment? What keeps us from doing the will of the Lord with all our heart? The answer is within our own spirit. It is not really a matter of how many words God has spoken over a church, or what Word He has brought forth in the earth, or what people He has anointed and commissioned to fulfill that Word. What really counts is how each person is walking with God. How are you walking with God? How is your spirit?
We all may come to the place where instead of saying to a prophet, “How do you do,” we will ask, “How do I do?” We will be more concerned about the things that are wrought in our own spirit. More than anything else, we will be concerned about our having a right spirit. Faith has a way of bringing everything within our spirit to focus in submission and aggressive faith to do the will of the Lord. This becomes very important in the true New Testament churches of today. They always have some problems to solve, especially growing problems. They have no hierarchy, no council of churches, no supervisors, no bishops to meet together and determine who is going to do what, where, and when. Therefore everything depends on the leading of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord shows our directions and our actions.
An individual should not be sent arbitrarily to fulfill a place, even though he has that prophecy over him. A man may have a prophecy over him with a leading of the Lord to send him to a certain place, but soon after he is sent his ministry may abort. When a man’s ministry does not work, look closely and you will see that his spirit was not actually right. It was not really the leading and the anointing of the Lord to fulfill the prophecy at that time because his spirit was not ready. The Word spoken over him was true; and when his spirit becomes right, he will have a glorious fulfillment.
People often think, “Well, I guess the timing wasn’t right.” Yet for a number of years, the fulfillment of almost every prophecy that has come to a remnant has been conditional upon the fact that no time element has been involved. The fulfillment usually is not a matter of timing and of thinking that eventually, in so many years, God will bring it to pass. God has been saying, “Now is the hour, now is the day, this is the time!” This is the hour when God is bringing forth His will in the earth.
There are many components of a right spirit. There must be an aggressive faith; there must be no withdrawal; there must be a willingness to sacrifice; there must be a pure motivation; there must be a release from human ambition. To have a right spirit, there cannot be any bitterness in your spirit. A right spirit means that we have a broken and a contrite heart that God does not despise (Psalm 51:17). David prayed, “Renew a right spirit within me. Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways” (verses 10, 13). The fulfillment of your ministry, the effectiveness and the fruitfulness that God wants to bring forth in your life, all begin with that renewal of a right spirit within your heart.
Much of what the disciples did depended upon the Lord refining their spirits by putting them through trials. And now we can begin to understand why the Lord begins scourging when He receives a son. The book of Hebrews tells us that the Lord scourges every son whom He receives. The chastening of the Lord comes because He is dealing with us, not as with illegitimate children, but as with true sons. He disciplines us so that we will become partakers of His holiness and His righteousness, and so that His Spirit will be in us (Hebrews 12:6–10).
Not much was really accomplished in the disciples before the day of Pentecost, or even before the refining that the crucifixion worked in them. But in Acts 3:1–12 we read that after Pentecost Peter and John went up to the Temple and healed a man who had been lame from birth. When the people rushed toward them in wonder, Peter said, “Why look on us as though by our power or righteousness or holiness we made him walk?” It was not really a manifestation of their power or holiness; Peter said it was done by the name of Jesus, indicating that the people were seeing the power of God. They were seeing the character of God in everything that Peter and John did. Peter and John could say, “This is not really us, but this is something else coming through. We not only have the anointing to do this, but we have the very right Spirit from God in us too. We are manifesting the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ in what we are doing, so that you are not only seeing the power, but you are also seeing the righteousness of God. You are seeing what God has worked in us.”
There was a time when that was not true—a time when the disciples (James and John) wanted to bring fire down from heaven and burn people up. But the Lord said, “You do not know of what spirit you are” (Luke 9:54–55). There will be times when it will be perfectly legitimate for God to burn people up. During the tribulation period, fire will come down, but it certainly is not going to come through people with wrong spirits. If fire could come through people with bad spirits, there would be a population shortage in this world. God has planned to do something else within us. We look for the judgments of God to come on the earth, but those judgments will be held back until the instruments have been refined and there is a right spirit in them.
When a man receives a Word to go to a certain city and preach, the brothers should first check to see if it is really a confirmed Word from God. Then they should check to see if his spirit is right. There is no use sending a man out to be utterly destroyed in a situation. He will go through testings, and if he is not prepared to walk in what God has given him, and he does not have a right spirit for it, he will go under in defeat.
“Make haste slowly and have a right spirit.” This is the fastest way to see the Kingdom of God come forth upon the earth. Avoid carefully becoming stalemated in your life. Do not be so frustrated that you say, “I can’t understand why God doesn’t do what He said. He prophesied it; it is long overdue!” It is long overdue, but it is not God who is overdue; your own spirit has to be right first.
This truth may seem to be over-simplified in context with other truths that God has given; but we must deal with this need and pray, “Lord, what is in my spirit that hinders? What hinders me, Lord? What is it in my spirit that is wrong?” It is very important to have a right spirit. The Lord has been speaking about different basic ingredients by which great things are going to be brought forth in the earth. The man who serves God in this hour must persistently keep his spirit open to God. Also, he must keep his spirit open to those who are in the same situation as he is where God is working. He must persevere in that situation, no matter what opposition comes against him.
When you start opening up your spirit to the Lord and to everyone else around you more than you have before, then the enemy of the Lord will come against you. It seems that Satan is allowed to test you when, before the Lord, you say, “I want to be perfect in my way before the Lord. I want my spirit to really be right.” God allows you to be tested on it. And if you can come through the testing with a right spirit, you will be walking in the days of miracles again. It seems to be such a simple formula, but it becomes effective in everything you pray for. It opens the door. You will learn that when you say you are going to keep your spirit open, you have made a big statement. When you say you are going to have a right spirit, you have made a great declaration. During the testing, you may find yourself shouting, “I do too have a right spirit!” You will realize that half the problems and limitations that you have are in your head.
Of all the things that frustrate us, that limit us, that lock us in a state of limitation, at least half of them come because we tolerate things in our spirit that are wrong. Yes, we tolerate them! Do you say, “Oh, it is just a little sin. It is not too bad. I have a little bit of a bad temper. I have a bad feeling about So-and-So, but I just put it aside.” If you do, you are petting a tiger that will rise up at the wrong moment and keep you from doing the thing that God wants.
A good thing happens as we work on God’s ventures together; by the time they are finally completed, we will be formed into a habitation of God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). Nothing will test your spirit more than working on a project of God with others. You will get the idea that the enemy is really coming against you. Rather, it will be God making a prophet out of you while you are working for Him. “Well, how can He make a prophet out of me when I am angry all the time? I am under a cloud! I am defeated!” That is His way. He must show you what has to change. When the Lord finds a sore spot in your life, He begins to rub it, just like a chiropractor. He makes it hurt worse so that it will feel better later. That is the way the Lord deals with you. It is the way He gets at your problems. And you might as well laugh a little at what you have been crying about. Maybe you can come to rejoice in the dealings of the Lord and say, “Thank You, Lord.” The Lord wants you to rejoice evermore and in everything give thanks (I Thessalonians 5:16, 18). He may put you in situations that will break you; but even as you are crying, if you rejoice and praise the Lord He will honor it. Soon the tears will stop and joy will take over.
We have such a spirit of self-sympathy and understanding for ourselves that rarely do we believe we are really wrong. We always wish that the Lord would teach us discipline some other way, like the mother of the little boy who was very sensitive. When he started kindergarten, she told the teacher, “Now don’t scold my boy, and don’t hit him, because he is very sensitive. If he does something wrong, hit the boy next to him. That will be enough to teach him.” Do you ever wish you could say, “Don’t hit me, Lord; just hit the person next to me and I’ll learn!” However, it takes a very personal dealing for you to come into the fulfillment of all that God wants to do in your life. He wants to be glorified in you (II Thessalonians 1:10).
Paul wrote to the Ephesians: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8–10. First we have to be His workmanship. We have to come forth with the very image of Christ being fulfilled in us, of Christ coming forth in us. When this is done, then we can walk in those good works. We can walk in them whether they are works of sacrifice or of much labor, requiring great faithfulness. All the time that God is working with us it is difficult to keep a right spirit.
Anything that God brings forth becomes a real trial to you, especially if you are the only one working. As you struggle by yourself, you worry about the brother who is doing nothing that day. In fact, you may know several brothers who could be there helping you, but you just have to praise the Lord and do the work anyway. When you are doing all the work alone, it is easy to have a bad spirit. Then the Lord will have to deal with your heart until you do His will joyfully with rejoicing. The third time that Jesus appeared to His disciples after He had risen from the dead, He told Peter, “Follow Me.” But Peter said, “What about my brother?” Then Jesus answered, “What is that to you? You follow Me! (John 21:22).
You must come to this same total dedication to a right spirit. You cannot choose to work only if you do not have to work with people you do not like. If you cannot bear to be around them because of something that irritates your spirit, then the best thing to do is to ask them, “May I work with you?” Work with them until they become a joy and a delight forever to you. Personality-clashes only reveal how much you walk on a human level instead of a divine level. II Corinthians 5:16 speaks of the divine level: henceforth know we no man after the flesh. We are not to recognize one another according to the fleshly problems and characteristics; rather, we are to see them in Christ Jesus.
In the ninth chapter of Luke we read about the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ when He took Peter, James, and John up on the mountain to pray. There they beheld His glory. Then starting at verse 37, we read what came out in their spirits after they came down from the mountain: And it came about on the next day, that when they had come down from the mountain, a great multitude met Him. And behold, a man from the multitude shouted out, saying, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only boy, and behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams, and it throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth, and as it mauls him, it scarcely leaves him. And I begged Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not.” And Jesus answered and said, “O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you, and put up with you? Bring your son here.” Verses 37–41.
Christ’s reaction is interesting. It was perfect. He did not make any mistake. He did not say, “Oh, that poor boy! Oh, isn’t that terrible! Bring him here.” He was more disturbed at what was wrong in the disciples, that they could not do the job. The Lord has a whole world that needs to be met, but He is more concerned about our spirits being right so that He can use us to meet that need! If He has limited Himself to move through His many-membered Body, then that many-membered Body should be functioning or ready to function.
Then Jesus called for the boy. And while he was still approaching, the demon dashed him to the ground, and threw him into a violent convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness (or the majesty) of God. But while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples… Verses 42–43. While they were all rejoicing in the Lord, He was picking out what was wrong in the spirit of the disciples, the unbelieving and perverted generation. They were distracted by what was wrong.
A right spirit has a focus on God and never alters its focus from God. If you have a wrong spirit, your spirit has been distracted and you are focused on something else. A person who has a wrong spirit focuses on a problem, or something someone said, or something that happened to him; his focus is not on the Lord. A right spirit focuses on God; a wrong spirit focuses on something else.
Is something bothering you? Has something crippled you so that you are not functioning, you are not worshiping or moving ahead? Look to your spirit to see what is there. A right spirit focuses on God, but a wrong spirit focuses on circumstances, problems, and a number of other things. The children of Israel murmured and complained. They did not like the manna or anything else that God provided for them. Never once do we read that they were excited because of the pillar of fire, for the glory of God that was actually leading them. They did not focus on that—they focused on something else because their spirits were wrong.
Jesus said to His disciples: “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” Verse 44. Why did He say it right at that moment? He said it because everyone was marveling at the majesty of God in the wonderful miracle they saw. But He looked within them and saw that even though they were impressed with the miracle, their spirits were wrong, and they would soon be among those men to whom the Son of Man would be delivered.
It can happen today. People pray for the apostolic ministry to come forth, and they can be strong and adamant in blessing that vessel; but if they are doing it on a human level, they are almost glorifying a man. And if they do that, they also can turn around and be among those who will persecute him later on. If people have a true vision and a true spirit in prayer, and in the Holy Spirit, they begin to reach up to God and intercede for the foundational apostolic ministry to come forth in the earth again, their intercession will stand. God will honor it. It all depends on what spirit is behind it—is it a right spirit before God?
Jesus told the disciples that the Son of Man was going to be delivered into the hands of men. But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this statement. Verse 45. Even your reception of this message may vary. You may either remember only one or two points, or you may experience a deep searching of heart.
People with a right spirit will find that a revelation of the Word always brings a fresh cleansing. Those with a wrong spirit criticize what they see because of their limited understanding. The full truth is hidden from a bad spirit. Even the disciples could not understand what Jesus said after He healed the boy. Unless a person’s spirit is right, his ears are closed. Know that unless your spirit is right, your ears are closed; and to the extent that you close your heart, to that extent you shut off your understanding of the Word.
People who have problems understanding the deep Kingdom-worship probably did not relate to their former ways of worship any better. Understanding is still a matter of having a right spirit, of having ears that are open. Of course there are old styles of worship that some people like better than the new; they may not like the versatility that is coming in the worship now. Yet there is freedom and liberty now and good anointing in it. God is doing new things in leading His people along, and I wonder if He does it sometimes just to bring out the bad spirit in someone. He does things that bring their feelings to the surface. Some people could not become accustomed to singing in the spirit. If they become accustomed to some of the new songs, even though they are a little different, God throws in something newer, and they react.
Let us see the spirit that was revealed in the disciples: And an argument arose among them as to which of them might be the greatest. (At least the disciples were honest; they brought it out in the open and argued about it. Nowadays there is no argument about it; each is already convinced.) But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side, and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for he who is least among you, this is the one who is great.” Verses 46–48. Have you ever noticed that when a person’s spirit is right, little children are open to that person? A little child has a spirit that is very kindred to a right spirit. Instinctively a baby knows when there is a bad spirit in someone. A child-like spirit is simple and unassuming; it is not hung up with the many things that constitute a wrong spirit.
Let us see another evidence of a wrong spirit: And John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to hinder him because he does not follow along with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.” Verses 49–50. Some people with that “exclusive spirit” want to draw a circle and leave you out. Others with an exclusive spirit want to draw a big circle and put you in it with their name on you. Do not be exclusive.
No matter what you seem to be going through, or what God seems to be doing in you that is unique and different, that makes His remnant seem like a flock of speckled birds in the sight of everyone else, remember that the ultimate goal is the blessing of the Kingdom of God for all of His people. If you are following a certain pattern from God in your life which others reject for the moment, do not worry about it. Do not reject them, because it is very possible that they will be following along in the same thing sooner than you think.
Many years ago when the Pentecostal movement was frowned on, we opened up a church under much persecution and saw restored truths develop. What we taught in the early Thirties is being heralded now by thousands of people in the largest charismatic conventions ever held. What a great change has taken place in the religious world since that time! The charismatic movement is nationally proclaimed and accepted now. Roman Catholics and Protestants of every denomination are a part of it. Have they finally accepted what we believe? No, they have accepted what we believed then. They do not accept what we believe now. We have moved on and taken another step. We still believe what we believed then, but the Lord has expanded that revelation. The restoration has progressed. The wonderful message of the Kingdom, of which that was a prelude to open it up, is bursting forth upon us. If we proclaim the Word that God is saying today to those thousands of charismatics, they will be as much against it as the denominations were in the Thirties when we were preaching the Word that they believe now.
God may lead us as pioneers, and we may not always be accepted, but that does not mean we will exclude others. In His compassion and in His grace, God will help us to be so faithful to Him that we can open the door for them to walk in what He is restoring now. God grant that it will not be another thirty or forty years before they do, that there will not be that time lag before people begin to open up to it. May they not be slow to accept something that God is really bringing forth in the earth.
Listen—if you have a bad spirit about accepting something new, do not take forty years to get it straightened out. Straighten it out now. Maybe you have been blessed for years by everything God has been bringing forth, and yet you cannot handle things that are coming right now. Stop and reevaluate what is happening. The miracles of people’s lives are fantastic! The greatest miracles are coming forth now in this generation. Keep an open heart; and instead of being upset, find out why you are upset. People of various degrees of intelligence have accepted what God is doing now. Your intelligence should not be any criterion as to whether or not you are going to walk in it. Just open your heart and ask yourself if you have a right spirit. Perhaps you find your heart crying, as David’s did when he said, “Renew a right spirit within me. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which You have broken may rejoice” (Psalm 51:10, 8).
In Luke 9:51–53 we see the spirit of prejudice that came against Jesus. And it came about, when the days were approaching for His ascension, that He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him. And they went, and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make arrangements for Him. And they did not receive Him, because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.
Oh, the prejudice that will come against you if you do not have the right label! And if you dare not to have any label at all, one will be made up for you that you will wish you had never seen. You will be pigeonholed into some category that is marked, “Reject!” The Samaritans wanted nothing to do with Jesus, because they had already set their minds to have nothing to do with anyone who was going to Jerusalem. Their prejudice was quite old, dating back to the time when the tribes of Israel seceded from Jerusalem and built their own ways of worship. A few of them clung to the teachings of Moses after the captivity. Some filtered back, but other peoples were brought in who mingled and intermarried with them until they became a half-breed, half-Jewish mixture. Some had the books of Moses, but that was all. They had their own interpretations of the Scriptures: “We worship in this mountain.”
Their prejudices had built up as an aftermath of rebellion and apostasy in the history of the northern tribes of Israel. They were still conditioned by the days of Jeroboam who became king over the ten tribes of Israel when they separated from Judah. The Samaritans were really a mixed-up people. Because the Lord Jesus Christ seemed to be walking down the road toward Jerusalem, the Samaritans wanted nothing to do with Him. Of course, that infuriated the disciples. Does that make you angry? Does it upset you to think that people would be so stupid as to be prejudiced by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples walking down the road to Jerusalem? Does that fact make you as furious as it did James and John? And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village. Verses 54–56.
And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Verses 57–58. That person seemed to have a good spirit when he said, “I will follow You wherever You go”; and he probably had a nice place in mind for spending the night. After he found out it would be a sacrifice, we do not hear another word from him. He did not have such a good spirit after all.
And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Permit me first to go and bury my father.” But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead: but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” Verses 59–60. We do not hear any more about him either. Where did he go? We can see the struggle he had with that: “The Lord told me to follow Him, but how can I follow a man who will not even let me bury my own father?” Something came up within his own spirit which showed that he was not as dedicated as he really thought he was. It is easy to give out of the top of your purse; it is easy to give out of your spare time. It is not so easy to be a true disciple of the Lord—with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.
And another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” (It was a very simple request: “I have to say good-bye.”) But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Verses 61–62. Oh, how great the conflict of responsibilities, the conflict of amenities that you feel you must perform: “I have to be so many things to the people in the world.” Say, as Paul said, “This one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, I put my hand to the plow.” That is part of having a right spirit. A right spirit reaches up and says, “I will be a part of everything that God is doing.”
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23–24. A broken and contrite heart is a sacrifice that God will not despise (Psalm 51:17). Therefore, let us empty ourselves out and refuse to be opinionated. Let us open our heart to a new level and refuse for any deep reactions to be within us. We cannot desire too much to have a right spirit before the Lord.