God’s desired goal for me is to fulfill the purpose for which He created me.
Without faith (Hebrews 11:6) it is impossible to please God. Why? Because faith recognizes that God is the only Source and looks nowhere else. So, if I do not trust God but I doubt God and look around for other avenues of help - - - that is sin. (Dr. Stanley) “To doubt God is not only sin, it is disaster. God sometimes brings us to a fork in the road, a difficult choice. If we let human reason over-rule faith and disobey, we will not only suffer the consequences, but we’ll wonder all our lives how richly God would have blessed us if we had obeyed Him”. Human reason says (Matthew 14:28-32) we can’t walk on water but faith says we can if Jesus tells us to do so. Where is our focus? If we trust God and obey Him because we trust Him, even if we have no idea of how it will turn out, the Lord will bless us beyond our hopes and dreams with spiritual riches. Sometimes the painful consequences of disobedience can last a lifetime. If we truly repent of our disobedience, God will always forgive us but He does not eliminate the consequences of our choices or restore the lost opportunities. Disobedience is a thief and it always robs us of rich and lasting treasures.
When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, his human reasoning allowed the wild wind to blow human reason back to centre stage and Peter began to sink. So will we if we forget that Jesus is the Master of the sea and of every threatening storm or trouble. Sinking is all that human reason can do for us in a frightening storm but faith never dreams that God will let us down. Link these two verses together:
Deuteronomy 33:27 – Sheltered in the arms of God and –
Hebrews 13:5 - God Himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.
Now ask yourself why you would remove yourself from such impregnable safety in order to sin and sink under. If we choose to sin and sink, we are deliberately choosing pebbles when we could have had diamonds. We can walk on the ripples, on the waves, even the most turbulent waves, ONLY IF we walk with Jesus. The Lord tests our faith through trials to strengthen our faith. Our confident assurance is that He always knows exactly what we need (Dr. Stanley) “and we can never out-guess Him.”
God not only knows the end from the beginning but (Isaiah 46:10) He has declared the end and the result from the beginning because the future of anything and everything is the ordained history which He created when He created the ordained history of its beginning. (Gideon Levatam) “Spiritual power for building godly character (Colossians 1:11) is developed through trials.”
I can be a prayer partner with the Holy Spirit because His desired goal for me is the same as mine --- to fulfill the purpose for which God created me. There is no higher goal for any Christian. As we obey the Lord, we can constantly draw on His grace and make fresh discoveries of the perfection of His unfailing strength (2 Corinthians 12:9) in our unfailing weakness. (Dr. Stanley) points out that “we are God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10) means more than His creation of us as human beings.” I can see that God’s workmanship includes His continual work in Christians (Philippians 1:6) to equip us for the good works (Ephesians 2:10) which he prearranged for us to do.
The following thoughts are based on a sermon I heard from Pastor McBride. Jesus told His disciples (Matthew 10:16) to conduct themselves wisely and not to look for trouble. It took (Matthew 10:5-8) four verses to outline the thrilling mission of Jesus “Heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead”. Every Christian would want to be part of such a miracle-filled ministry experience. But it took (Matthew 10:16-25) 10 verses to describe the dangers. Then Jesus told them (Matthew 10:31) not to be afraid but to look at the birds.
To be an obedient disciple involved in God’s redemptive purpose, makes us sheep among wolves. What is the victory of the GO command (Matthew 28:18-20) of Jesus? It is dangerous for sheep to go among wolves but how else will the wolves hear the message? By God’s transforming power some of the wolves will become sheep (2 Corinthians 5:17) a totally new creation. I have heard amazing reports of such transformations in prisoners in different countries. One prisoner was a violent, brutal, blood-thirsty man and everyone in prison feared him. Faith Comes By Hearing Ministry gave a technical device called a proclaimer to someone in that prison. Its sound covers a large area and the gospel was spread throughout that prison. The vicious prisoner heard the way of salvation and trusted Jesus as his Saviour. He was so obviously changed from attacker to helper that he was released from prison. He requested and received a proclaimer and returned to the extremely dangerous area where he had lived. No outsider could go there and survive. As he spread the Gospel through that whole region, changes began to take place. Many of the worst of the ruthless responded to the Truth, were cleansed by the Blood of Christ and became new creatures. God’s light had shone into Satan’s darkness and triumphed over it.
In another prison a thief was incarcerated for perpetual robberies. He stole even from the other prisoners. He was so changed by being born again, that he was so trusted by prison officials and prisoners that he was trusted to take their money and leave the prison to shop for them. He returned to the prison with the purchases and the exact change. Every prisoner knew not one dime would be missing. Even some murderers on Death Row waiting for execution by hanging, were so transformed that they were released from custody.
God is still in the business of saving souls and transforming lives. The wolves don’t look so intimidating when we remember that it is not the wolves who have all the power. The One Who has all the power is the One Who has commanded us sheep (Matthew 28:18-20) to take the Gospel to the wolves. We sheep can trust our all-powerful Shepherd to go with us as we go to attack the wolves.
Jesus Himself was the will of God in the world. I pray that (1 John 4:1-7) Jesus will so truly be Himself in me through the Holy Spirit, that I will be God’s will in my world. Then I will see the miracle of wolves becoming sheep as I walk on top of the waves with Jesus.