The self-knowledge behind psychoanalysis has been admittedly a defeat in probing to the depths of human problems. Very few psychiatrists engage in psychoanalysis now, but the need that they saw was very real.
They saw that in some way every person with deep problems must discover both the conscious and unconscious basis for their problems.
Since they assumed that the individual would never be able to arrive at this knowledge unassisted, the trained psychiatrist attempted through questions, through a certain psychic understanding with the individual, to unveil the secret and hidden depths in the mind and life of the individual and thus assist in eliminating these problems.
This is to say that human efforts and human wisdom fail to unlock the deep areas of problems in our lives.
But God searches the depths of the heart, and He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us “examine ourselves” (I Corinthians 11:28). The knowledge that we need for our deliverance comes through the deep “probing” work of the Holy Spirit who “searches all things, even the deep things of God” (I Corinthians 2:10).
These messages came by the Holy Spirit to help us understand, both scripturally and in the operation of the Holy Spirit, the way that God searches out the deep basic problems of our lives, and to show us the things about ourselves that we have locked out because we are unwilling to face the truth about ourselves.
This series of studies from the Scriptures we have called The Probe. These messages will probe into your life, into the hidden and secret motivations of your life, yes, even into the things that you do not want to admit to yourself even in the darkest night in a hidden closet.
Whatever your need or whatever your problem, there will be a message in this series of studies which will enable you to seek God with the illumination of the Holy Spirit, not a psychiatrist, and find a lasting, eternal answer.
Do you want to know the areas of your need? The Lord bless you with an open heart as you go through these messages, and may the precious sword of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, pierce through your innermost being and drive you to your knees in surrender, a total surrender, to the will of God with His deliverance for your life.
In these probe messages our desire is not to fill your mind with teaching, but rather to give you a working schedule, pacing the message so it will soak in.
You must absorb it. Have you noticed that when it has not rained for a long time, a sudden downpour does more damage than good, whereas a long slow drizzle has time to soak into the ground, and even half the amount of rain will be ten times as beneficial if it falls slowly and gently?
In a flash rain the water washes away topsoil, destroys crops, and often creates a flash flood. Even when the farmers pray for rain, they do not want it that way. Hopefully the Lord will help us to slowly absorb this message and see what must take place in our lives. The teaching will be neither complex nor deep. It will be very simple and something basic for you to grasp.
Our first concern at this point is to avoid accusing you of wrongdoing. Our purpose is not to admonish you critically, “Now we’re going to have a probe to find out how many of you are sneaking out on the side and committing sin.”
The aim of the messages on my website about repentance is to bring you to deal with, by the Holy Spirit, the things that hinder your walk and prevent you from breaking through to what you should have in God.
We want to deal with the impasses that cause you to be erratic in your development.
Are you holding back? Why don’t you go all out for a walk with God?
The aim of the messages on my website about repentance is to bring you to deal with, by the Holy Spirit, the things that hinder your walk and prevent you from breaking through to what you should have in God.
We want to deal with the impasses that cause you to be erratic in your development.
Are you holding back? Why don’t you go all out for a walk with God?
Perhaps you do fine for a while, and then suddenly you cannot function because you are sidetracked. Why does that happen?
Why is it that you try and try and yet you cannot get above a certain spiritual level?
What is it that defeats your prayer life, your worship life, meditating on the Word, and waiting upon God, so that you form a consistent pattern in your life, which is a walk with God?
Can we point to some specific sins that are causing all of this? You may be shocked to know that many times the people who are not conscious of committing any sins are having less of a walk with God than those who occasionally fall into real sin.
Those who fail once in a while seem to be able to get up and go on, doing better than some people who never stumble, but are continually defeated in their progress. Why?
(Do not misunderstand—I am not advocating that you go out and spend a night in sin in order to make it; that is not the idea.)
Why is it that some people who try and try, reach a certain impasse and cannot go any further? Why can’t they become a people of prayer? Why is their walk with God still spasmodic?
The answer is very obvious—the old nature is to blame.
When we are born from above, we are still human. We become a new creation, we become a divine human. But we still have a human nature, but now we have access to the divine nature, which will displace the flesh.
Every one that is truly born from above starts out struggling with the desires of their flesh, because they are contrary to the new born desires of the spirit.
Until we learn the secret of walking in the Spirit, we will fulfill the desire and reaction of the flesh, we will have a civil war going on in the inside of us.
Even when you have restrained yourself in your behavior, it may still defeat you in some other way.
A person thinks, “If I can just break a few habits I should be able to really walk with God.” So they break the habits, but they still do not have a walk with God.
The habits were not the factor hindering them from getting into the spiritual flow. Let us look to the Scriptures to find the cause of failure.
You do fine for a while, and then suddenly you cannot function because you are sidetracked. Why does that happen?
Why is it that you try and try and yet you cannot
get above a certain spiritual level?
What is it that defeats your prayer life, your worship life, meditating on the Word, and waiting upon God, so that you form a consistent pattern in your life, which is a walk with God?
Can we point to some specific sins that are causing all of this? You may be shocked to know that many times the people who are not conscious of committing any sins are having less of a walk with God than those who occasionally fall into real sin.
Those who fail once in a while seem to be able to get up and go on, doing better than some people who never stumble, but are continually defeated in their progress.
Why?
(Do not misunderstand—I am not advocating that you go out and spend a night in sin in order to make it; that is not the idea.)
Why is it that some people who try and try, reach a certain impasse and cannot go any further? Why can’t they become a people of prayer? Why is their walk with
God still spasmodic?
The answer is very obvious—the old nature is to blame.
When we are born from above, we are still human. We become a new creation, we become a divine human. But we still have a human nature, but now we have access to the divine nature, which will displace the flesh.
Everyone that is truly born from above starts out struggling with the desires of their flesh, because they are contrary to the new born desires of the spirit.
Until we learn the secret of walking in the Spirit, we will fulfill the desire and reaction of the flesh, we will have a civil war going on in the inside of us.
Even when you have restrained yourself in your behavior, it may still defeat you in some other way.
A person thinks, “If I can just break a few habits, I should be able to really walk with God.” So, they break the habits, but they still do not have a walk with God.
The habits were not the factor hindering them from getting into the spiritual flow. Let us look to the Scriptures to find the cause of failure.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind (there’s the key: transformed by the renewing of your mind), that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1, 2.
It is not enough to be a Christian; you must have a renewal of your mind. People who are cynical and critical, who hold back and never give themselves to a walk with God may wonder why it does not work for them. It cannot. In their behavior they may look like real believers. They are faithful in coming to church and generous in their giving. They try to do the right thing in paying their bills and taking care of their responsibilities. But they are still thinking like a sinner. Unconsciously their attitudes are still the attitudes of the world. They have never wholly presented themselves to God and said to Him, “I want to think like You think.” They complain that they do not understand the Word when they read it, and they do not because their own minds are in the picture.
The person God blesses is not necessarily a yes man where men are concerned, but he is a yes man where God is concerned. He says, “Lord, You show me what I’m supposed to feel now, and that’s what I’ll feel. You show me what I’m to think, and that’s what I’ll think.” He reads God’s Word to learn God’s attitudes about every situation because he is determined to think, to act, and to respond that way too. When he prays he forgives men their trespasses against him and the Father forgives him. In his mind he is conditioned to think like God thinks, to be a follower of God and respond to Him.
We are more concerned now with the renewing of your mind and your attitudes than with anything else. Self-pity, self-condemnation, the feelings of defeat and depression—all come from the human level. We must get rid of these reactions. They are like weights on us. Hebrews 12:1 tells us, Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. You want to be a winner in this race and to do so you must drop off everything that will hinder you in the race. We are not talking now about whether you are going to heaven or not—we are talking about your excelling as a believer, walking in the power of God and the victory of the Lord. If you are going to do it, do it right. Do not use religion as a kind of salve for your soul, to take care of its aches, its needs, and its feelings of inadequacy. Do not use religion for that! Use the Word of God to strengthen you, so that the life of Jesus flows to you. We are not interested now in only trying to help you stay on your feet and continue on in the old status quo. We are interested in your breaking loose from your limitations and restrictions so that you can rise in your spiritual level. We are trying to recognize and deal with the impasses you meet. We want to see how you can change in your responses.
Paul gives us an apt illustration. In writing to the Corinthians he says that one was for Paul, one for Cephas, and one for Apollos; then he concludes, “Are ye not carnal and walk as men” (I Corinthians 3:3–4)? Because they were almost completely living on the human level, they responded to things round about them on that level.
The reaction of the disciples as recorded in Luke 9:51–55 provides another illustration. And it came to pass, when the days were well-nigh come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he were going to Jerusalem (an evidence of the friction between the Samaritans and the Jews). And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Didn’t they believe they could do what Elijah had done—bring fire down out of heaven? Weren’t they motivated by love for the Lord and a great deal of faith? No, they were motivated by a very human trait—the desire to retaliate.
The spirit of retaliation manifests itself at a very early age. Even as young as six or nine months, a baby whose favorite toy is taken away by another child may hit or bite the “culprit” in his first expression of retaliating. When you meet a situation that threatens you, the response and reaction is either flight or fight. If you think you cannot handle it, you withdraw and run. If you think you can handle it, you aggressively try to change it. That is the way people react on the human level.
We find many examples of a human response recorded in the gospels. When Jesus girded Himself with a towel and began to wash the disciples’ feet (a very menial task), Peter protested with a human response, “You are not going to wash my feet!” Pride entered in. Young preachers sometimes proudly refuse to accept an offering that has been taken for them, because “it’s too much like charity.” You cannot respond that way. Almost everything that people do and think on a human level is wrong; even right actions probably come from a wrong motivation. What was your reaction the last time somebody told a lie about you? What about the last time people were critical of you, even for a good reason—what was your reaction then? The last time someone was outspokenly critical of you—what was your reaction? Think about the last time you were put in a bad light. When people persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, how do you react? You should be rejoicing and exceedingly glad, for so persecuted they the prophets before you (Matthew 5:12). When they accused Jesus, He opened not His mouth. If you analyze your reactions you will know why you are not growing. You are still facing situations and reacting on a human level. You must come to the place where you respond and walk on a spiritual level.
In one situation this seems especially difficult: when someone borrows from us and does not repay. If a person has a need, we are happy to give him some money and we do it with a right spirit. But if he borrows and fails to pay us back, we have a battle with that, and it gets to our spirit. Again the old nature is responding on the human level. Jesus said, “Lend to him that would borrow of you, expecting nothing again” (Luke 6:35). Do not even expect to have it repaid. What happened in your thinking the last time a friend borrowed one of your tools or a book and did not return it?
These human responses are weights that are slowing you down. If you want God to talk to you and enter into the reality of a sweet fellowship with you, you had better learn to think as He thinks and react as He reacts. The New Testament contains classic illustrations of people whose responses were entirely different than one might expect. For example, Acts 16 tells of two men who were beaten until their backs were raw and bleeding, then their hands and feet were placed in the stocks, and they were imprisoned in the inner dungeon where it was damp and dark. Their reaction? They sang praises to the Lord. What would a natural human response have been? They might have tried to bribe one of the trustees or guards, promising him money if he would notify the authorities that they were Roman citizens and that beating them without a trial was a capital offense, demanding to be released at once—or else! When you have been injured or wronged—much less severely and unjustly than Paul and Silas—what kind of spirit do you have about it? Are you wondering why you do not have a consistent prayer life when you allow little things to bother you? It is not important who is right and who is wrong in a situation, but who has a right spirit and who has a wrong spirit about it. By now you are no doubt aware that you need to do some “homework.” And we will give you at least one key with which to make a change.
Do you have an explosive temper? or a streak of meanness in your spirit? or a critical vindictive nature? You know whether or not you act the way God wants you to act. Sooner or later you will have to face that—all of us will—and say, “Lord, I have to get rid of this.” Your weights and hindrances may lie in other areas. Do you sulk off in a corner with self-pity? or let pride and arrogance defeat you? When some situation demands humility of you as a child of God, do you draw back?
You can be in a walk with God for years and still find yourself suddenly defeated because of that one deep wrong response in your heart. How do you change it? If you try to change it yourself, at best you will only partially succeed and the element of defeat that remains could still rob you of the victory at any time. You cannot change by your own efforts—by resolving to get hold of that weakness and keep it under control. It will still get away from you. You must change in your nature, and that you cannot do by yourself. You change only by the grace of God, by exposing yourself to God as the only source of change. Jeremiah asked, “Can a leopard change his spots, or the Ethiopian the color of his skin? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:23). You cannot change in yourself. Only God can change human nature. By the grace of God we change—there is no other way.
The key to change is found in II Corinthians 3:17,18. Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. We are transformed by exposing ourselves to God. Paul uses the illustration of Moses, who saw the glory of the Lord. When he came down from the mountain the skin of his face was shining and he had to put a veil over his face when he talked to the Israelites. When he went into the tabernacle to talk with God, he removed the veil. That is what we do. We take off the veil and talk to God, and then, like a mirror, we reflect His glory. A mirror reflects the image before it. Likewise, as we contemplate the Lord and have a revelation of the Lord, we are changed into His image from glory to glory. Therefore a revelation of the Lord is the key that brings about a transformation in you.
I John 3:2 tells us, It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. One day when He breaks through and reveals Himself to you just as He is, your body will be transformed like unto His glorious body. You will be just like Him. When He sees fit to reveal Himself in all His glory, your body will be glorified too.
Do you want to be transformed? You will have to have a revelation from the Lord—not just a great revelation about prophecy or about a doctrine, but a revelation of the Lord Himself to you. To the extent that the Lord is revealed to you, to that extent you change. There is no other key to change. The Word is preached to you, you pray and wait on God, and that brings a change. There are people who never give one thought to their problems, but they are tremendous worshipers. The Lord is close to them, revealing Himself to them. And they change. They drop the old life, the old nature, the old walk. It all disappears.
You don’t have any love? Pray for the Lord to reveal His love to you. You have no patience? Do you lose your temper? Pray for the Lord to reveal His longsuffering to you. The attributes of God are communicable to you. Whatever is in God will be conveyed to you—in limited measure perhaps, but it will take place. You will be changed from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit. Has some weakness been born and bred into your nature? Then get rid of it by letting God reveal Himself to you. Expose yourself to God and say, “Here I am, Lord.”
Men who have had a real revelation of the Lord have been undone by it. Do not approach this key to change with the delusion that it will be a beautiful, glorious experience to get off alone with God and have Him reveal Himself to you. You will be shattered by the experience. The first time Peter had a revelation of the Lord, he fell on his face and cried, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). When Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord in the temple, high and lifted up, he said, “Woe is me! for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the glory of Jehovah” (Isaiah 6:5). A revelation of the Lord will expose you for what you are and the filth of the old nature will come out for you to see. It is a double exposure: God is revealed to you and you are revealed to yourself at the same time. Then God begins to move, bringing about a divine transplant and you become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (II Peter 1:4).
This is the simple and beautiful formula of God’s Word. How can preachers bungle it so completely? They preach to people, trying to stir their consciences, making them feel condemned, urging them to make new resolutions with the hope that they will be changed thereby. They are saying in effect, “Next year this tree is going to produce apples instead of sour grapes. We are determined to have good fruit.” That will never work. Put the ax to the root. Chop it down. Do not try to make things over. Do not start in the Spirit and then think you can work it out in the flesh.
You say, “Oh, I want this beautiful walk with God. I want to go out like some of our enthusiastic young people and talk to people and win them to the Lord. Give me a list of the Scriptures they use and all the answers I will need and then I’ll be ready.” It is not those little external things that do the job. It is something that comes from the inside of these young people, that response of an inner nature, born of God. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Why? As they wait on the Lord they receive His strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).
When someone fails and the old nature takes over, you will soon find the pride and arrogance, the lust and bitterness, the retaliation and vindictiveness coming out. How did that old nature take over? Hebrews 2:3 tells us, “How shall you escape if you neglect?” That individual did not wait on the Lord. He did not feed the inner man that was coming forth in the image of Christ. You are going to be changed and transformed into the same image from glory to glory. The English derivative of the Greek word for “transformed” is “metamorphosis”—the complete change in the form of life that transforms a worm in the manure pile into a butterfly flitting among the flowers.
You have begun in God; now continue to grow in God. You cannot do it in the flesh. Wait upon the Lord. Open your heart to Him. Seek Him. Cry to know Him, “Lord, reveal Yourself to me!” Do not get the cart before the horse and say, “I have such a need; Lord, take care of my need.” Ask the Lord to be revealed to your heart and then your need will also be met. The transformation will take place, slowly but surely, from glory to glory.