This would be a wonderful walk if you didn’t have to think—if somehow your spirit could tune into the Lord and you could just start down the road by faith to do the will of the Lord. These moments in which we seem to have a fluctuating situation make it difficult. Sometimes we look at the situations and say, “They have to disappear. Those mountains have to be cast into the sea.”
Other moments we look at them and say, “They’re nothing—they’ll disappear any moment now.” Then we wax hot and cold over the mountain out there and our various thoughts about it. You could write a book titled, “My Various Thoughts About The Mountain,” in which you recorded all your different viewpoints and feelings day by day, and then later on would attach an appropriate Scripture showing the way you ought to feel. Our feelings vary so—sometimes we’re really moving and other times we seem to bog down. Because of that I want to help those of you who have prophecies over you, goals and objectives in the Spirit that you want to obtain more than anything else in the world. How do we do it?
It isn’t by sustained enthusiasm, nor is it by frequent ministry, because whether you get a lot of ministry or very little, God sees to it that it’s still a walk of faith. It’s similar to the gathering of manna—he that gathered little had no lack and he that gathered much had nothing left over—for it had a way of equalizing itself. Ministry works that way, too.
Your own abilities don’t play a part either, because this is so rigged that it doesn’t make a difference how much ability you have. The problem is always a little beyond your intelligence to solve; the situation is a little bit more than your perseverance can handle; and the aggravation of it is just a little beyond your patience, so that you always have a feeling that you’re getting into a situation with too little just a little too late.
Sometimes we get on a little sidetrack, sitting there by direct orders of the Lord, when the midnight flyer goes zooming by, and we wonder, “How did that ‘Johnny-come-lately’ get ahead of me? Why does the Lord have me sitting here?” There are many things in this walk that no one can understand and those aren’t really the things that should bother us. But what should bother us, are the things that we do understand.
This message contains one important point concerning this walk and your ministry and place in the Kingdom. It’s something you must always remember so that your whole approach is right. Everything that has been said so far has shown that your own approach and initiative are never really the key of making it.
So then, my beloved, even as ye 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. Are you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, as though you weren’t even sure of it? That doesn’t sound compatible with our exhortations toward faith. I’m positive this does not mean your eternal salvation, but the salvation in your present situation.
Do all things without murmurings and questionings: that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life; verses 14–16a. Paul is talking about the present situation of our walk with God, and this is where we need our salvation. I think everyone in this walk is sure of his place in the Lord. That has become a certainty with you more than is usual or customary among believers as a whole. Yet there isn’t anyone who is more unsure of his place in the Kingdom of God and seeking it more carefully with fear and trembling than someone in this walk. That’s a strange contrast. The more sure we are of our place in God as far as our salvation is concerned, the more careful we are to find the perfect will of God in our perfect functioning in the Body. This is our continual search, for we know God sets us in the Body as it pleases Him and we’re concerned in ministry or in the pursuit of the Word for that one requisite: how do I know for sure what I’m to be doing and what place I’m to be filling?
This is what we’re pursuing. We want to know the mechanics and basics of ministry. We want to move into the supernatural as fast as we can. So the issue causing the fear and trembling is not, “Am I saved or am I lost?” but rather, “What is my ministry and function?”
The doubts and the uncertainties should not be on the basis of the word God has spoken, but in finding the perfect will of the Lord. We are in constant pursuit of it because we want to know what God wants us to do today and then for tomorrow, too. We want to be sure we’re going in the general direction, and moving exactly in the area that God wants. We don’t want to occupy ourselves with a lot of pointless works that lead us down a blind alley.
Sometimes we have revelations and prophecies to show us the way concerning these things that we’re pursuing. Then what do we do? Verse 13 gives us the key—for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. It is very important that we see this point. If we don’t, we will just stumble along, trying to find the will of God fulfilled in our lives. This is where worship and the continuous seeking of the Lord comes in. This is why it’s a walk with God. You can’t be in the perfect will of God without an absolute walk with God. You can’t have excellent judgment to decide what you’re going to do and say in every situation, for you will make mistakes. You will not be able to do the will of God in either a general direction or in the specific leading, without having a continual walk with God.
A highway patrolman on duty always has his radio on, and even when he is attending to other duties, he is always alert to keep one ear tuned for a specific call that might come for him. We live our lives from day to day in this walk, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, making the will of God as best we can; but all the time we’d better have the transmitter on, and be sensitive to hear what He is saying. This is what we want—to be led by the Spirit of God. As many as are led by the Spirit, are not under the law. When we walk in the Spirit, we’ll not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16, 18). This passage indicates that such a person is in tune and walking, he has an immunity and a place in the will of God that not only guarantees right judgment in everything, but it involves a walk with God. And how do we get that walk with God? God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. That means I don’t dare to become encouraged or discouraged from day to day over the way things happen.
As I worship and wait before the Lord, this one thing I’m sure of—even if I’m dead wrong in my judgment of a situation or about a person or about something that is to come: if I’m an honest seeker after the will of the Lord and I’m working out my salvation with fear and trembling as I wait before God, it is God who works in me to will. It will reach my spirit and my will is going to be molded and set by God. It’s in this area where people fold up, because they don’t realize that; they don’t wait before the Lord. Recently someone said to me, “I know I’m not doing what God wants me to do. Tell me what to do.” I won’t tell him what to do. He is already failing to do the thing God tells him to do: wait on the Lord, read the Word—so all of a sudden he is floundering.
A person’s will is not as strong as you might think. The will is often the thing that turns your spirit, but your spirit also gives direction to your will. They work interchangeably. I don’t know of anything that is more directly related to the human spirit than the human will. When God works in you to will, it means He works in your spirit to put something in your will. Now you might be without any will power at all and say, “I have habits that I can’t kick.” Here’s a young fellow who can’t kick his heroin addiction. That will be no problem if he does what he is told. Let him wait on the Lord and learn to worship God. As he exposes himself to God, the Spirit of God puts it in his will. Even if he’s screaming and climbing the walls, God will put the victory over that habit in his will and he’ll break it. God works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure, and you can’t do it without either one. That working of the Spirit of the Lord comes down deep as you wait before Him and pray.
Every one of us experiences this failing, “O Lord, I’m not doing the things I know I should do. I didn’t today and I didn’t yesterday, either.” Sometimes it’s a matter of time and we become a victim of the circumstances and the demands of the day, but usually it’s more than that. Sometimes you just goof off. You come alive to the fact that you had a beautiful day all planned out, things you were going to do; now the hours have passed and nothing has happened. You didn’t get it done. So then you say, “I have to redeem the time,” but it’s like making a New Year’s resolution. You want it very much but there’s something lacking in your will. If you want to fulfill your place doing the will of God, you must never fail to wait before God, to feed on his Word and worship Him. That direct communing with the Lord allows Him to get at your spirit and He starts working in you to will.
Have you ever noticed that after being in a service where God is working, you leave it so fired up, that all the devils in hell couldn’t distract you? But when you spend the day neglecting to walk with God, everything in your will is weakened, because the human will does not set itself on a course and follow it through. It has to be fortified. That’s why Alcoholics Anonymous is successful. A man can’t just decide, “I’m going to quit drinking,” and do it. So he meets with others who have the same problem and they strengthen and encourage one another. They give each other booster shots, so to speak. You come to services and worship the Lord with all your heart. While you are worshiping, you get that booster shot and you go home saying, “I wasn’t feeling very well tonight. I was so discouraged. I’m glad I went to the service. It lifted me up, and now I’ll go on.” That’s what I’m here for. I have a degree: Doctor of Booster Shots.
You remember how Abraham received a call from God, and then as you read chapter after chapter in Genesis, you find God speaking that to him again and again. David was only a lad when Samuel came over the hill and anointed him to be king. A few years later he anointed him a second time and later on the third time. All that time Saul was still king, but David was being anointed. What about the first anointing? I guess it just sort of wore off, when God meant it to be permanent. It isn’t that God is fickle, but the human will has to have God’s continual attention on it.
When Paul says, “I fought a good fight, I finished the course, I kept the faith.” he’s not bragging. All he’s saying is, “I kept exposing myself to the Lord and it was the Lord who worked this thing in me so that I was faithful.” It’s drawing on that faithfulness of the Lord that makes you faithful. When you come before the Lord, He works in you to will, and then He works in you to do, of His good pleasure. You can occupy yourself day after day wanting something to happen, fighting the devil and this and that, and yet many things you desire do not happen to you and that is your own fault; it hasn’t been worked in your spirit, you haven’t been prepared for it. Therefore God demands that you open your spirit so He can put it in your will.
Find someone who fluctuates from day to day and week to week, encouraged and discouraged, and you can be very sure of one thing: that person may love God very much and want a ministry, but he does not have a walk with God. As you walk with God and you worship Him, it is God who works in your will and sustains you will. I know that when day after day I wait on the Lord, I’m unswerving in purpose and stay right with it. But let me become preoccupied with things, and after a while I either do a work mechanically that’s out of the will of the Lord, or I’m faced with the fact that I blow hot and cold on it. I’m very much encouraged toward this one approach in the ministry school and the whole church—to help you find that walk with God so that you can fulfill the will of God in the ministry God has for you.
What about the latter part of this passage: “It is God who works in you to do of His good pleasure”? Again your worship, your walk and your waiting on the Lord become absolutely essential. You can’t have the ministry without the walk with God. You can’t do the will of God without the walk with God. You have to become a walker before you become a worker. As you walk with God you know what you are to do, your will is set in that direction, your dedication is brought about by the Lord; and then the ability to do it is wrought in you by God. God works in you to do it.
Apart from this verse I have never understood why in years past God called me to do a certain thing that I would look at and say, “It can’t be done. I can’t do it. I have neither the ability, circumstance, drive or anything else to do it.” As you wait on the Lord, God puts it in your will so that you are determined to do it, you start to do it, then He gives you the ability to do it—and you do it. After all, this is God anyway—it isn’t us. We’re just instruments in the hand of the Lord raised up in this end time. This is God moving through you people.
Suppose you’re called to be a prophet or a prophetess or you’re set aside for some ministry. How are you going to accomplish it? You will either not get into it at all, or if you do, you won’t continue in it, without having a walk with God. Sooner or later this business of going on your own momentum and coasting along will result in something happening which is very deadly. You’ll become a parasite, living off of the life of the other members, because you do not have a real walk with God in drawing the life of God yourself. If you become such a parasite, you’ll continue to minister, but you’ll be drawing the life and spiritual force from the people and then turning around and trying to minister back to them, and it’s a dead end. It’s like taking a nickel out of one pocket and putting it in the other. The ministries that count are those that have a walk with God, and are drawing from God. They bring life to the Body. That which has to live off of the life of the Body is a parasite that God will sooner or later remove and cut off. We have to open our hearts to the fact that this is a real living organism and you cannot coast on your reputation in this walk. I don’t care who you are. Sometimes the old seasoned saints become negligent in reading the Word and before long you see them sitting with spiritual pride and indifference, and without the fresh flow of life we see in the new convert. To maintain this walk with God, a continual appropriation of the life of Christ for yourself is an essential thing.
Do you feel like you need a new anointing? It would be good to take inventory each month and write down what you need. For example, “I need to examine my salvation experience.” Why? To see if you are saved? That isn’t the idea. If you’re diligent you’ll discover areas in your life that are yet to be delivered. Then pray, “Lord, forgive me of this sin and cleanse me afresh from it.”
Next, you might question, “Am I filled with the Spirit? I’ll examine my experience. Oh yes, forty-five years ago I was baptized in the Holy Ghost and fire.” Yes, but the fire has gone out. Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Look at your experience. Have you been filled with the Holy Spirit? Are you speaking much in tongues lately? Take a little check on yourself this month and see how many total hours you spend speaking in tongues and waiting before the Lord in the Spirit. Don’t say it isn’t necessary. As deep as his spiritual life was, even Paul found speaking in tongues a necessary practice.
What about your prayer life? “Oh well, just trust God. You don’t need to go on with that jazz of praying all the time.” Remember how Paul talked about praying continuously, day and night, for the believers in the churches. You think you’ve outgrown it? You don’t outgrow a walk with God and there’s no substitute for it.
Perhaps the reason some of you have not come into your ministries as yet is because your walk is deficient. And some of you who have ministry or a place, but are not walking in it fully, that may also be a reflection of your walk with God. It may have nothing to do with your ability to move in the Spirit at all. Many of our people could do a very good job of preaching, of prophesying, of revelation ministry, etc.; but the thing that is actually holding them back is that they don’t have a walk with God.
I don’t know of anything I taught more diligently in the early years of this church than waiting on the Lord. And the whole church I don’t think I have found half a dozen people who have followed my teaching or my example in waiting on the Lord. I think we’re moving into the effective stage of this church and that means you better carefully examine your everyday walk with God.
Notice this warning: But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.… Revelation 21:8. I can understand the abominable, murderers and fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters and even liars being listed, but it says that the fearful and the unbelieving are heading up the parade. If that’s the case, then on the other side will be those in whom God has worked the courage and the will to do of His good pleasure. You have your choice of two directions: read the Word of God and you’ll be bold to do of His good pleasure, or go in the other direction with the fearful and the unbelieving.