This message deals with the basic thought of what it is to have no illusions in this Walk with God. Dedication with illusions is dangerous, for somewhere down the line someone is going to stick a pin in your balloon. There will be someone dedicated to rain on your parade. If your dedication is not based upon illusions about others or about yourself, but is based completely upon what God has revealed through His Word, then you will walk in the Master’s footsteps.
Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed on His name, beholding His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need any one to bear witness concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man. John 2:23–25.
If this is only a visionary walk and we assume a pie-in-the-sky attitude concerning human nature, we are going to be greatly disillusioned. If we expect gratitude from those to whom we minister (perhaps a good conduct medal or at least a purple heart for all our wounds), we will be disappointed, for we won’t get them.
In this Walk there is very little recognition of people’s efforts. No greater test will ever come to the ministers who go out on the field to start churches than the disillusionment that comes when the devil tells them, “Nobody cares about you, nobody loves you, they have all forgotten you.”
This disillusionment hits everyone and it will come to you too. There will be a time when suddenly you are so disillusioned that it seems as if the bottom has dropped out of everything. You say, “I did my best and nobody appreciated it. I tried, and see what’s happening to me.”
When disillusionment comes, the Lord is testing your love for one another. It is also a test revealing the level upon which you will respond. With that comes the real test of whether you will follow the Lord.
I’ve seen it happen. Some person who is a reputed influential leader discovers this Walk and thinks it is great and he brings his friends. Then God begins to deal with the leader about having a little kingdom of his own and he becomes angry and leaves, but the people that he brought, stay. This has often been the pattern here. It isn’t enough to trust the leader. You must get a word from God and trust Him, regardless of how you are disillusioned.
We do not set about to win people. There is no salesmanship program to try to sell people on the Walk. There is no way you can sell the Walk because it’s too good to be true. No one is going to believe it.
Don’t have any false illusions about The Walk. You may not turn handsprings over what people in the religious world say about it, but don’t allow their opinion to disillusion you. Learn to walk with God without any illusions.
You will probably be called many things as you give your self unfailingly to a walk with God. You will be tested and shoved into corners again and again; therefore you must learn how to react. You must be conditioned to react on a spiritual level.
In 1 Corinthians 3:1, Paul says, “I couldn’t write to you as to spiritual but as to carnal.” Why? Because their reaction, even to the apostles who were sent to them—Apollos, Cephas, and Paul—was not good.
He said, “Are you not walking as mere men? You aren’t reacting like the spiritual sons of God at all.” They weren’t reacting to the teaching, the situations, or to the problems as they should have. They were always reacting on a lower human level.
This Walk with God will require that all of us learn how to get out of the human level and how to react on the spiritual level. There can be no meanness. When persecutions come, you cannot fight back on a human level. When someone lies about you, determine that you won’t even tell the truth about him. That takes real dedication! God forbid that we should be human. You say, “Aren’t we human beings?” Yes, we are human beings, but without human reactions. Do you understand the difference? If people slap you on the cheek, you turn the other. When they persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, Rejoice, and be exceeding glad … for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:12.
This rejoicing will not be lighthearted and phony, but a rejoicing with the utmost of faith. Even when we have tears in our hearts, we can also know joy at the same time.
Satan is trying to attack our weakest points, and if he can’t defeat us on our weak points, he will attack us on our strongest points where we are so cocky that we’re not trusting God.
But we are not ignorant of his devices, and we are going to learn how to react and always walk in the Spirit, placing our complete trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the days that are just ahead, we do not dare react on the human level.
Suppose we find a brother accused of being overtaken in a fault. The rule of thumb that I follow is this: What does God say about that man? Facts are not important to me; the truth is.
The truth is that we are brothers and we are one. I look at what God has said about the brother and that is my truth. If the facts are in conflict with it, I forget the facts and stick with the truth. Is that possible? Sure.
What a brother does when he’s discouraged is not the basis by which I evaluate and judge that one who belongs to God. One fall doesn’t lose a war. A righteous man falleth seven times and the Lord upholdeth him with His hands (Proverbs 24:16; Psalms 37:24).
Uppermost in my mind is what God has said about that man. I will rejoice in him as long as he is moving in God. I don’t care if he takes one step and falls on his face, gets up, goes back a step, takes two steps, and falls on his face again. As long as he is moving, that is a sign of life and I open my heart to him.
I will never again be guilty of measuring a man by the old denominational yardstick. How often we have been hindered by people judging and reacting on a human level to what we have done.
Can we learn to think differently? Can we be conditioned not to be legalistic, exacting demands or being critical of others, but to have that loving faith that lifts one another up? Do you remember Paul saying how he labored by that anointing of Christ that worked in him mightily to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Colossians 1:28, 29). We all have problems. Sometimes we can be very strong to exhort one another, but we must never judge a man. When a man is in motion, help him, move with him. It doesn’t matter how far he has to go; if he’s moving, stay with him. You say, “How often do I forgive that rascal?” Not seven times, but seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22).
We must have it in our hearts to love one another, to pass the test of disillusionment, to forsake the pie-in-the-sky idea we have about human nature. We must be very realistic because we don’t know where a problem will arise.
As you progress in the Walk, your shock level will change and you won’t be shocked so easily. When you see what is in man, you won’t be disillusioned because you will also see what is in the Lord, and that gives you a positive viewpoint.
You won’t need to have any illusions about anything or anyone because you have a revelation of the Lord, and that is the basis of this Walk.