What is the area of the sovereignty of God in this walk, and what is the area of our own initiative?
Should we wait for God to act, or should we make our plans and afterwards say, “Oh yes, Lord, I forgot; You’d better bless these plans”?
No, for us it’s a matter of what I would call DIRECTED EFFORT. God is sovereignly directing us; He is the One bringing it forth. He commissions us; He enables us, but then He places a great deal of the initiative on those whom He has chosen.
We’re like an army, and that army is in submission; it cannot be passive. There’s a difference between submissiveness and passiveness.
When a sergeant says, “The orders are to take that hill,” everybody goes at it, live or die. They aren’t waiting for someone to shoot them; they’re doing their very best to take that hill and stay alive in the process. And when God raises up the army of the Lord, He expects them to have an aggressive submission also, which means a directed struggle or directed initiative.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Romans 8:14. Mature sons of God will be led; they will be directed.
The Lord gives a command and we say, “Yes Sir,” setting about to do it with all initiative and fulfilling exactly all the directions we’ve received from our Commander.
This day the Lord is uttering His voice before His camp and His army is exceeding great (Joel 2:11a).
They’re not running off just anywhere to fight any battle; they’re fighting the battle that the Lord directs and taking the objectives that the Lord specifies.
They do have a great deal of initiative: they can be passive or aggressive; they can be filled with unbelief or filled with faith; they are grumble and complain or rejoice always. A great deal is still up to them in order to be that good soldier. “Fight a good fight in the name of the Lord” (I Timothy 6:12). “Quit yourselves like men” (I Corinthians 16:13). Again and again the commandments speak of a directed initiative of those who are under orders, in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I wonder if you understand your relationship to the Lord. Can you honestly sit back and say, “I’m in the walk; I’m in what God wants,” and not be aggressively seeking after the Lord with all your heart? Oh, I know people could say, “I started off to do something and God set me down because of it.” Why? It happened because they were proceeding, not just at their own initiative, but also at their own direction. We must be led by the Spirit of the Lord. The aggressive initiative of faith is yours, but just as a soldier doesn’t grab a gun and shoot it at random, we fire at the enemy as the Lord directs.
We’re constantly told in the New Testament about the end time and about how sober and vigilant we should be. A carefulness is called for, an alertness. I don’t look for a Laodicean church in the end time, neither not nor cold (though it will be there to be observed, in great numbers), but for that Remnant that will come forth in the name of the Lord. They will be like those mighty men of valor in the army of David, the chosen three, the seven, the thirty, men who were right with David. All David had to do was to express a desire, and they would beat their way through a whole host of Philistines to get him some water from the old well in Bethlehem he drank from as a boy. You see, they listened to him so; they were almost ready to tune into what he was saying in his sleep. That’s how we’re going to be. Lord, You speak, Thy servant heareth! Whatever You want, Lord, that’s what we’re ready to do. We shall rush to do it because we know this is what God wants. We shall be led by the Spirit, directed by the Spirit, doing the job exactly with all the force that’s within us.
This gives us the absolute balance between the sovereignty of God and the personal initiative of man. A great contrast between the two is in the book of Philippians. Paul writes, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6. I like this; it’s a picture of God’s sovereignty. Paul is saying, “I’m confident God has started something in you that He will not turn aside. He is going to perfect it unto the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Then we get a picture of what we’re to do: But now much more … work out your salvation with fear and trembling.… “I thought it was God who was to work in us and perfect that which concerns us.” Well yes; you see this again as you read on: … work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12b, 13. Ah, now we have it. God is working within us and meeting our hearts, and what we do is turn it loose with fear and trembling. He is working in us to will and to do, and the outcome is the expression of the will and the working of God in the earth.
This is the right combination between the sovereignty of God and human initiative. We wait, we listen, we open our hearts. God fills it; He begins to move on us. We desire and will to do His will, then He works in us the ability to do it. Then we enter into it, working it out with fear and trembling, not of being lost, but lest we fall short of the full expression of all God can be through us. We fear and tremble lest we fall short of the glory and the wonder of the perfect will of God in our lives.
Paul also gives us the negative counterpart of this. He says, Do all things without grumbling or disputing; that you may become (I don’t think the choice of “prove yourselves” is accurate) blameless and innocent (“harmless” is a better translation), children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life (or better, holding forth the word of life), so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory. Philippians 2:14–16.
There is to be no grumbling, no disputing if you want to be blameless and harmless. Remember, a griper is never innocent, because he creates an effect upon people. He is a poison to himself and everyone else; he never knows what great damage or dangers he creates. Paul is telling us, “Are you striving for God to work in you and through you? Then be sure you don’t grumble and complain, because if you do you can’t be classified as harmless and blameless. You are to be children of God above reproach.”
But that’s just the negative side. We find the positive expression in the fourth chapter of Philippians: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Verse 4. The whole book is full of this idea. He’s trying to show you that if you want to do the will of God, you can be aggressive, believing, pushing ahead, but you can’t be a grumbler or a complainer. You must be disciplined to rejoice. That’s the positive side; the refraining from grumbling and murmuring is the negative instruction. But the positive instruction is, Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:5–7.
Here he is picturing beautifully something we need to grasp. The book of Philippians was written in the midst of a prison, and addressed to people who had known persecution since the day their church was started. They faced a very difficult situation and yet the theme of the letter is joy and rejoicing; you see those phrases over and over again. The people could have been bitter and passive, and Paul could have rotted in jail, but they had learned this one thing. In this chapter Paul mentions that they had brought him an offering and revived their care of him while he was in that Roman dungeon. The officials then didn’t worry about whether prisoners got enough to eat; sometimes prisoners would have to look for some means to support themselves. But because the Philippians were sending everything to him, Paul, manacled and chained in a Roman prison, treated like a criminal, says, “The word of God is not bound” (II Timothy 2:9). He could still write the epistles; he could minister … you see, he knew he was in the will of God. And because of that he wasn’t going to be passive or feel sorry for himself, or complain and murmur.
Paul was writing to the people the same thing that he was living: “Rejoice! Give thanks to the Lord. Don’t be anxious for anything; don’t worry.” Oh, bless your heart, Paul, what you’re saying here is marvelous. “God is going to perform His will in my life right unto the day of the Lord. He has begun a good work and He will perform it. It is God who is working in me to will and to do of His good pleasure.” He had such confidence in that that he turned it loose. Even while he was in prison he could move a world for God.
We start feeling sorry for ourselves when we become a little harassed, and forget that there is only one course to follow: Be anxious for nothing. The victories we’re winning are not half so important as our learning to face the difficulties with joy and a rejoicing of heart. So we pray and God gives a deliverance—we don’t learn too much from that, really. Some people run around to healing meetings to see miracles, but you don’t grow much watching miracles. You learn when God puts you up against a problem and you have to pray and believe. Beware lest the problem gets to your spirit and makes you a grumbler and a complainer. As Paul said, “You’re not to do that. You’re to be blameless and harmless, the sons of God who hold forth the light, the living word.” You’re going to hold forth the living word, and this is how you’re to do it, being anxious for nothing, rejoicing in the Lord.
Days of miracles will come upon the earth, signs and wonders until it were possible they would deceive the very elect (Matthew 24:24). There will be false prophets and false christs; we shall see exhibitions of power. An exhibition of power is not necessarily of God, but one with the fragrance and the holiness of Christ coming through is of the Lord. God has that certain fragrance you will find in every miracle, in every sign. It doesn’t accompany the man who can move down the road like an efficient dynamo, yet be a devil on wheels in his off hours. I don’t care how many signs a man performs; I want to know if he is able to walk consistently as a child of God, twenty-four hours a day, along with all those miracles and signs.
This is what God is working in us, to be consistent, anxious for nothing, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving letting our requests be made known unto the Lord. Then what happens? The peace from God guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Then He gives you His word, which Paul refers to in verse 8: Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things—not your troubles or the battle! It’s a constant living unto the Lord.
Now you see your part in this balance between the sovereignty of God and human initiative. If you are doing your part, God will see to it that you keep going on from victory to victory; He wants to do it and in His sovereign will it’ll be done. “Our God works all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11). “If He is working everything after the counsel of His own will,” you say, “then how am I needed?” You are to be that vessel who gives himself wholly to do the job, who brings it forth the way He wants it done. God is not interested in unworthy vessels.
The sons of Sceva saw Paul casting out devils and thought it was wonderful, so they came up to a certain man and said, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth that you come out.” And the devils answered back, “Jesus we know. Paul we know. But who are you?” Then they came at them and rent their clothes and beat them. They ran into the streets howling and shrieking in pain and agony, and fear came upon the hearts of the people (Acts 19:13–17). You see, the name of Jesus is not to be honored only by the devil, as a magic formula for deliverance, but also in the vessel using that name. “Let everyone who names the name of Jesus depart from iniquity” (II Timothy 2:19). It’s how you do it. Paul was speaking to Timothy about becoming that vessel of honor.
Our violent prayer is good, the greatest thing that has happened to this walk for a long time, but don’t use it to vent your frustrations. When you pray, pray violently unto the Lord-but with a rejoicing heart, not with a hindering frustration or with a fearfulness. You’re to rejoice always, be anxious for nothing. Instead of an anxiety, appropriate and claim from the Lord in a violent surge of believing, rejoicing faith that which you know is in His will to give you. There must be that deep, unanxious flow of the Spirit for your prayers to be led and sustained by the Spirit of the Lord, that casting of your cares upon Him because He cares for you (I Peter 5:7). When a joy and rejoicing arises in your heart, it is assured.
“Well, what about bearing the burden?” A burden of prayer is only given by the Spirit of the Lord to be transmitted back vicariously to the Lord. He is the One who ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). Prayer that just sees you bogging down under the burden has dead-ended, and it shouldn’t; it has to go on back to the Lord. There has to be that committal, that praying through, that full scope of rejoicing coming up to the Lord. That is the way God wants it to be.
Now in case you have lost sight of the striving element, we’ll go back to the Philippians 3:12. Listen to what he’s saying: … I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for that which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Here it is again, perfectly phrased. This could actually be the text of the hour, expressing the balance between what God is doing sovereignly and our cooperation with it. Now Paul knew that God had laid hold on him. God was reaching down: … Saul of Tarsus.… He didn’t wonder what He was going to do with him; He knew. He had already told Ananias, “Go, He is a chosen vessel unto Me. I will show him what great things he must suffer for My name’s sake. I have My hand on him. I have laid hold on him” (Acts 9:15, 16). What did Paul do? wiggle to get out of the hands of the Lord? No, he said, “Hang onto me, Lord. I’m going to strive to attain to the goal You had in mind for me when You first laid hold upon me.”
“I am going to make you an apostle.” “Good, I’ll struggle to be that apostle!” “I am going to make you a prophet.” “Good, I’ll struggle to be that prophet.” I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. “I’m going to get it. God got hold of me and he is trying to work something out. I’ll struggle in faith to see what God has in mind come to pass.” Strive for that perfect will and plan of God to come forth in your life!
Now do you see the relationship between divine sovereignty and human initiative? You don’t just run off in any direction; you struggle with all your heart to get that which God says He really has for you. This is what makes this walk unique. Prophecies and revelation come over churches and individuals until they get the general idea and direction. They set off, and if they start to make a mistake the Spirit will hinder them, because their striving and struggling is right in the direction of what God really wants them to have. If we know we’re asking in His will, then we know that whatever we ask of the Lord, we have the petition we’ve desired of Him (I John 5:14, 15).
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13, 14. I’ve got to run this race and press in with all my heart, looking forward with everything that’s within me. I may have a lot of defeats behind me, but I’m not going to try to carry yesterday’s burdens and defeats upon my shoulder today. Neither will I be handicapped by some kind of pride over yesterday’s victories—I’ll dump them all, victories and defeats alike. There’s only one thing that counts right now: pressing on toward what God had in mind when He first laid His finger on me. I’m going to struggle for that, work for that. Lord, You say “Jump” and I’ll be in the air when I ask, “How high, Lord?” I’m going to move. Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.
Oh, this willingness to do the will of the Lord! There is a striving, and there is a striving in the right way. On the day of the battle between Absalom’s and David’s armies, a messenger was sent to tell King David that Absalom’s army had been defeated and Absalom killed. Another man was there who wanted to run too, so they told him, “The other man has gone with the message.” But he said, “Just let me run!” Then Joab, who was the commander, said to him, Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou has no tidings ready? II Samuel 18:22. You haven’t a blessed thing in the world to say when you get there! But he kept saying, “If you would just let me run!” So Joab let him go. Off he went, running just as hard as he could, and he got there first, panting hard. The hitch came when David asked how his son was. He passed it off by saying he couldn’t tell, they were all in it or something like that; the king had to wait for the first messenger to get there for the tidings.
So many people just want to run. Now I don’t like to wear myself out that much, but when I get the word, then I want to run! When I get the direction, then I want to follow through with it—and that’s what the Lord is telling us today. There are so many eager beavers running down the road, saying, “Oh, I forgot, Lord, here are all these plans and blueprints I made up. Please bless them. Thank You, Lord,” and off they run. It was wholly their plan. What is born of the flesh is of the flesh and is going to stay that way. There’s no point in working up a lot of programs and plans and saying “Lord, bless it”—He isn’t going to do it. Everything that starts in the flesh like that will die, so instead we find something born in the Spirit and then we put everything behind it.
The men of the New Testament era were not passive. They went everywhere, suffering, not holding back in any way. There was an initiative of faith and dedication that they exercised continually, but at the same time every one of them was being directed by God in what they were to do. They got their directions and then went at it with everything that was within them.
We see a classic example of this in the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus. The formula for the anointing oil was given on the mountain to Moses; he came down and described the olive oil and all the various spices that were to go into it. It was all laid out for them, but then they had to scrounge around in the middle of a wilderness to find the ingredients. In the same manner the people received by revelation the exact specifications for the tabernacle. It was revealed, and an anointing from God came upon them to do the work, but that didn’t mean they weren’t going to have difficulties. Under great restrictions they had to build a furnace in the middle of the wilderness for the molten objects of metal and gold. They had to find the woods, collect the materials, make the fabrics. They couldn’t go to a yardage store and buy the fabric; those beautiful garments and curtains were all hand-woven. They had to obtain those stones that were to be put on the high priest’s breastplate. They received the instructions from the Lord through a vision, but it didn’t automatically jump into being. They went out and made it happen!
God brings a revelation in this word, and He says to His people, “Now go out and make it happen. Here is what I want: the gospel of the Kingdom carried to the ends of the earth. The vision of the great restoration. The release of the mighty Living Word, My Word.” Let’s not go after a man-made program or do just anything that pops into our head: “Well, that sounds like a good idea. That’d sell itself; we could raise money on that.” Let’s do what God says, getting the directions from the Lord and then going after it. This is one combination that’s unbeatable!
Other people don’t have the balance that they should: either they’re sitting around waiting on the Lord, renewing their strength all the time, or at the other extreme, tied up in the wrong things. The one group says, “I’m so tired, so I just keep renewing my strength.” You’re not getting that strength for nothing; you’re getting it for a purpose. You’re going to mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, and walk and not faint so that you can do a work for the Lord! The other group says, “I’m so tired I don’t have time to pray. I’m so busy.” “What are you doing?” “Oh, I’m doing several things! And last week I was given a dozen more to do—I’m going to do all of them too.” “Did God say anything about it?” “No. I just felt a sense of responsibility.” They are doing what people impose on them or what opportunity provides, but that doesn’t mean that they’re doing the will of God at all. Human initiative must be channeled in the divine direction. What God says, that’s what we shall do!
You can see that you shouldn’t do every idea that pops into your head, nor should you just sit back waiting for life to happen. Jesus says, “Come! Follow Me.” “Where do we sleep tonight, Lord?” If you ask a stupid question, you’re going to get an unexpected answer. “Come follow Me.” “Where to, Lord? Where dwellest Thou?” “Well, the fox has a hole, the bird has a nest, but I don’t have anyplace to lay My head tonight,” the Son of man said (Luke 9:57, 58). You don’t read about that disciple anymore! When the Lord says, “Follow Me,” say, “Yes Sir. Yes, Sir!” Sleep that night in a ditch if you have to; worry about that problem when you get there.
Start following, with no reservations, no passivity, aggressively going ahead saying, “Lord, I’ll walk with You. I’ll do what You want me to do, even if I don’t understand it.” A soldier gripes about the war he is fighting in, not because he doesn’t understand it, but because he doesn’t like it. You don’t have to understand it and you can’t not like it! You have to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (II Timothy 2:3). God has laid a commission before us to reach every nation on the face of the earth with the word He has given us We’ll do it. We are not waiting for circumstances to be right, either; we are doing what He says, with all of our hearts!