In this walk the subject of initiative becomes a big issue. How much does God do sovereignly and how much is at our initiative?
Is it important to know exactly what to expect God to do apart from us and what to expect to happen when we exercise the initiative of faith? In appropriating the promises of God it is essential to know exactly what to believe for and how to reach in for more. The theme of this message, stated simply is, “God has taken the initiative to give us the initiative.”
Let me illustrate with a parable in modern-day language: “God has laid the tracks, but you must get the steam up in your own engine.” This is the difference between this walk and other religions, even most of Christianity. In religion, man makes an effort to help himself to reach God. In this walk God gives us by revelation the principles and the truths enabling us to have a walk with God. Our efforts are directed and energized by the Holy Spirit because we have a walk with the Lord. Romans 8:3–4 gives a Scriptural illustration of this truth: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. When we refer to this move of God as “the walk” we are using a Scriptural term.
God has made the provision and laid down the rules for us. These rules or principles are the tracks on which we must travel. There are many energetic, zealous people who have a lot of steam, but our zeal must be directed along the path God has laid out for us to walk in.
The soul-winning efforts and other activities of old-order denominations have a way of dissipating themselves into dead ends. If we want to travel, we had better decide where we’re going and find the tracks, the principles that God has laid down. Our initiative is involved when we zealously follow those tracks. Our zeal will make us appear like real fanatics, but different than the pointless fanatics who aren’t going any place, except on a self-glorification “trip.”
We’re not trying to build ourselves up to be something special. All we want is to do the will of God and go on into the restoration. More has been committed to us than we realize or are walking in. Don’t sit and talk about it—get on the track and travel on it. God did it and we walk in it. The restoration is much further along as far as God’s part is concerned than we are actually experiencing. We are still too much involved with our own sense of restriction and inadequacy, imposing on God our own limitations. God laid the tracks and we’re sitting off on the sidelines grumbling and confused. If there was ever a time to believe what God has said and walk in it, now is the time. Yet we experience ups and downs, periods in which we’re elated and then discouraged. This is not good. If we were to pursue unrelentingly—day after day, hour after hour—what God is setting before us, we would make progress. At no point would we bog down and say, “I’ve traveled on this track so far and where did it get me?” We must believe in the ultimate goal that God has set before us and travel the entire length of the track. God has laid the tracks; now it’s up to us to follow them. God has taken the initiative to give us the initiative. More has been laid in our hands than we can imagine.
It reminds us of the king to whom the Lord said, “Do whatever is in thy heart. The Lord is with you to prosper you in anything you do” (I Kings 2:3, 4). However, before you reach that position, God warns and corrects you until your motivation is right. Then you know what to do, how to do it, and what you’re trusting God for. Go after it and the Lord will be with you and help you. It is not a time to sit and wait—it is a time to walk with God and believe, constantly appropriating more.
Paul writes in Romans 10:1, 2: Brethren, my heart’s desire and my supplication to God is for them (he’s referring to Israel after the flesh, his Jewish relatives and kinsmen), that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal to God, but not according to knowledge. The same situation exists today. Many have a religious zeal that is not directed by God. They bring out their blueprints and plans, asking God to bless them, instead of praying to God to help them draw up the blueprint of their life. Afterwards it occurs to them that they should ask God to put His stamp of approval on it. The result is that God does bless it in a measure, but so much of it is born in man’s efforts and ambitions that it cannot go any place, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh. There’s a futility in our striving in the flesh, but there’s a fulfillment in our efforts in the Spirit. We who have had a word from God in this walk and understand it, are not a people with zeal who are striving without knowledge. We are struggling according to the principles and truths that are being laid down for us. This could easily be the most effective endeavor in all the world.
Jesus told His disciples, “The fields are white unto harvest (John 4:35); but the laborers are few. Pray that the Lord will send laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38). “I’m sending you forth to reap where you have not labored. Others have labored and you are entering into their work” (John 4:38). He meant that the Lord had already laid their groundwork. It wasn’t Peter’s good preaching on the day of Pentecost that brought in five thousand people. Their hearts had been prepared ahead of time.
In this day a vacuum has been created for leadership. Fine old white-haired people are still staggering into the churches because this is an established pattern in their lives, but the young people are looking for something else. Hungry people of all ages are seeking something from God, and they don’t know where to go. They are hungry and their hearts are prepared. Leadership is desperately lacking, and not only in the church world. We have no statesmen, no political leaders, no one who is in touch with the people and aware of their needs.
People don’t know what they believe in. Rising numbers no longer believe in marriage. Satan worship and witchcraft are attracting many. Some insist they still believe in Christ and the church they’re staying home from—it’s the same one their fathers stayed home from. God has created a vacuum. Without our being leaders, all we have to do is get on the track and start traveling according to the principles and rules God has given, and we could actually see a spiritual revolution this year in the whole country.
The country is more ready for this walk now than ever before. The prophecies during the past twenty years have opened the door to more changes in the Roman Catholic Church than have taken place since it’s inception. The impact of prophesying and God’s moving upon the scene, has brought more changes even in the last ten years than did the Reformation. According to predictions this may be the year that the door is opened for priests to marry and have families, and to other radical changes. Why is this? The leadership is gone. The pope today is more or less a figurehead, no longer reverenced and obeyed as he was a generation ago. This situation exists in the denominational churches, too. The leadership in the World Council of Churches has passed into the hands of the Communists who dictate the policies. Throughout the world we are facing a complete vacuum in leadership. All we have to do is to move into it. God is sending us to reap where we have bestowed no labor, and no promotion. All we have to do is to walk by the word of the Lord. People will become so hungry that they will open their hearts to that word.
This is already happening. People are listening to this word who wouldn’t have had any part of it ten years ago, or even as recently as five years ago. Some of you wouldn’t have listened to it a year ago, but God did something in your life. He made a Jonah out of you, and after God had dealt with you, you found yourself willing to go. Now it’s up to you to get on the main line. After Jonah had been thrown overboard, had his little submarine ride, and had been vomited up on the shore, he was ready to follow the tracks to Nineveh that the Lord had clearly laid out. He was not convinced to go against his will—the Lord just made him willing to go.
Are you on the track now because God has been working you over? The Lord has taken the initiative to give you the initiative. This means that you can move into something almost beyond what you can comprehend. Just press in. Forget your ups and downs. Every day, every hour, keep drawing on the Lord. If you want to change, you cannot change by your efforts after the flesh. The futility of the flesh and the fulfillment of the Holy Spirit are always in great contrast to each other.
For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby. But the righteousness which is of faith saith thus, Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is to bring Christ down:) or, Who shall descend into the abyss? (that is to bring Christ up from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 10:3–9.
How far away is the Lord? How can you reach God? You don’t go up into heaven and pull Him down nor do you go down into the abyss to bring Him up from the dead. That has already been done. Where is He then? He’s right here. What about the word of faith—where is it? Not far away—in your mouth and in your heart. What must you do? Speak it. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth and it’s done. God has laid the charge of dynamite and you light the fuse. God is saying, “Prophesy against Babylon.” Babylon will come down because God is using you as an instrument to prophesy. Paul, turning the world upside down, said, “We are laborers together with God.” We light the fuse of the charge that God has planted. We change an age because it’s time for it to be changed. God has created all the situations in the world, preparing the setting, and when we speak the word it comes into being.
What remains to be done? How do we bring God on the scene? Where we’re concerned, more faith is needed. God has restored worship—what a marvelous truth. We could write many books on worship, but wouldn’t it be better if we just worshiped? We can draw near because God rent the veil from top to bottom into the Holiest of Holies, into His very presence. He opened the door by which we can come in. He invites us to draw near to Him and He will draw near to us.
Are you still hesitating, saying, “I don’t know much about the Lord; I’ve never had a meeting with the Lord; I don’t know how to pray; I don’t know how to wait on the Lord”? Just do what He invited you to do. Take the initiative He gave you. He opened the door—walk in. You’ll never learn any younger, and there’s no point in wasting years before you learn it. Walk with God now. Walking isn’t that difficult. Get up and try. Don’t say, “I’m afraid I might fall.” It is better to fall than have the fear of falling in you. It is better to stumble along, having us pray for you repeatedly, than to hold back passively with the fear of man on you and never make an effort. God opened the door. Kick your mountain—keep trying, even if it’s no more than making it shake a bit. We’ll keep praying for you until you cast that mountain into the sea. Take the initiative because God has taken the initiative to give you the initiative.
Another Scripture to establish this truth is II Peter 1:2–5; Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord (What a wise statement! It is only when we know the Lord and know the principles and truths, that this grace and peace is multiplied to us, and really works effectively.) seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness (His divine power has laid the tracks right into the Kingdom.) through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue; whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. We see what He has done and what He has provided for us, and thus what we can obtain by giving all diligence. Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence—not a diligence to do a lot of empty, senseless works—not just busy work, but with a zeal, giving all diligence, moving down the tracks God has laid.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I Corinthians 15:58. The futility in the flesh is contrasted with the fulfillment in the Spirit through our aggressiveness. In the Holy Spirit we desire to see every prophecy over every individual fulfilled in the name of the Lord. We are partakers of the divine nature. These promises are just waiting. All we have to do is go over the tracks, following the pattern He gave us, and it will lead us into the fulfillment of all these things.
The book of Joshua outlines it very clearly. Be strong and of good courage; for thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law … Joshua 1:6, 7a. It is very simple. God had given them the land of Canaan for He said, “I swore it unto your fathers.” To Joshua He said, “Be strong and of good courage and you’ll cause these people to inherit the land.”
I will be strong and of good courage, for God has given the promises and prophecies, and I have to cause you to inherit them. I will push, prod, and do everything necessary to stir your faith so that you move in to what God has for you, with no consoling sermons to help you develop a beautiful resignation toward life. I will stir you to become rebels against the old order and rise up in fury and completely reject everything the establishment represents and say, “One thing I’m going to do, and that is believe the word of the Lord and follow after that blessing the Lord has for me.” I’m going to cause you to inherit the land. The greatest favor I can do for some of you is to tell you, “You’re not doing well enough. Get with it!” There’s not one who couldn’t be moving down the road a little faster, strengthening one another a little more. The time is short. We must do it now!
After telling all the things He has done for us, God tells us what to do. So then, by beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12, 13.
The instruction, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” does not mean that you can’t even be assured you’re a born-again believer. Paul is writing to believers, not unbelievers. He is saying, “God has you started, but beware! How will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? You must work it out with fear and trembling because it is God Who is working in you, down inside. “Where’s the word?” In your heart and in your mouth. Speak it forth. “God is working in me?” Yes, to will and to do. Give in to it. and soon, away you’ll be going down the track, full steam ahead, because you’re letting God have His way—not in a passive acquiescence to truth, but in an aggressive appropriation of it, which is entirely different. While some are saying, “Yes, I believe you, but I’ll just sit here waiting and trusting that someday the Kingdom will come,” others are determined to make it come. They’re going to claim it; walking in all that has been committed. They’ll have the vision and the foresight to see that so much more has been committed to us than we are aware of, and they will start putting it into action.
These great and precious promises weren’t made to be plaques on your wall—they were made to be dynamite in your spirit. Don’t use them as a philosophical shot in the arm to help you bear the pain of passivity. Don’t be content with reading the biographies of great men of God. Don’t long for their days. Get out in the front line and walk with the Lord yourself—today. The tracks are laid right into the Kingdom. All you have to do is listen to what God is speaking, and get on the main line. We’ll watch one age die and disappear and another age come, and in the process we’ll see the coming of the Lord. What a precious day we’re living in.
God works in you to do and will and so we work it out with fear and trembling. I have that fear and trembling; sometimes I’m scared stiff. Do you realize the tremendous day in which we’re living and how easily we could miss it, by just going on our merry way living—business as usual. In the midst of the Passover preparations, with the sheep bleating and the cattle being brought to the slaughter, no one noticed a lonely figure sitting up on the brow of the hill overlooking Jerusalem, weeping, “Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft I would have gathered you under My wing as a hen doth her brood, but you would not. You didn’t know the day of your visitation and now your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:37–38). What a tragedy. They were so busy getting ready for the Passover that they never saw the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. We are so busy living out our lives that we’re not aware of what is going on.
Imagine the morning in Gomorrah when a man met his friend, “Did you see the strangers in town? I wonder where they’re going in such a hurry?” “I can’t be bothered. I have important business to take care of. There’s a good corner lot down here in Gomorrah that I’m going to buy today.” “But did you see those strange-looking characters? They were holding onto a man and a woman and two young girls, hurrying them out of the city.” What was it like the morning the fire fell on Sodom and Gomorrah? What was it like in Jerusalem the day they crucified the Lord? What will it be like when you go out the church door and remark, “Oh, it’s a nice day; the sun is shining; everything is bright.” Do you know about the missiles aimed at us right now, that could wipe out the United States? “We can’t be bothered; we have something else to do.” Everything of the old order is ready to come down, but some of God’s people who know the truth are too busy to light the fuse and send into orbit the things that must be. God isn’t doing it apart from you. He has taken the initiative to give you the initiative.
We need a fresh vision, a fresh anointing. We’ve had a survey of the things set before us. We’ve learned about prayer and how to pray—now we ought to pray. The Lord taught us how to worship—now let’s worship. We’ve learned how to prophesy—now let’s prophesy. We have learned to do, let’s do.
We’re going to change, aren’t we? We’ll not sit here on the sidelines and grieve because we see things in our nature or impasses in our circumstances we don’t like. Many people are breaking through into every good thing. We can do it, too—every one of us.
Problems will rise one after another; they’ll not stop. But you’re a people in motion. God set before you the track. Keep moving; keep reaching in in the name of the Lord. It’s so hard to say that unconditional, perfect “yes” to God. You think you’ve said it and then something comes along and you realize you didn’t say it as deeply as you wanted to; and you keep saying, “Yes, Lord, I surrender to You Lord, more and more.” Reach a little further into Jesus Christ. Take a little more of His life, of what He wants to be to you. Renounce the things of defeat, the patterns of your life a little more. Especially as you get older, those ruts can become graves. They’re deadly; get rid of them. Be involved with one thing: to do the will of God and seek first His Kingdom.
How many things hath the Lord spoken unto His people? How many times hath He come to them again and again to confirm the word He hath brought to them? Now the hour has come. Shalt thy heart seek for more light? Shall you look to the Lord for another word, or shall ye pray unto the Lord that you shall have faith to walk in what you know and what you have received?
Let not thy heart be perplexed to ponder the questions for which thou hast no answer. Let not these things disturb thee. Rather let thy heart be disturbed by the things that the Lord has spoken unto thee that you do understand and that you’ve not wholly walked in. This is the truth that thou shall diligently apply to your heart and walk in with all your heart. For what thou knowest not, shalt thou be held accountable for it? Behold, what the Lord hath spoken unto thee and thy heart hath perceived—this shall the Lord require at thy hand; this shall you walk in. So pray the Lord will stir up your heart and memory that you will remember all the words of the Lord; that the Spirit of the Lord may bring to mind what the Spirit of the Lord has spoken of unto you, that you might press in, in the name of the Lord. For there remaineth much land to be possessed and the Lord hath declared that all of it is yours. Amen.