|
|
|
|
Part
16 THY
WILL BE DONE IN EARTH (continued)
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in
heaven...Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mat. 6:9).
“Thy will be done!” In meditation I have come to the conclusion
that these are the greatest of all words; and yet they can mean nothing,
or worse than nothing, and often do. A cloud of false teaching surrounds
them; all sorts of lies have been told in their name; all manner of evils
have been tolerated under their auspices; they have covered for the most
damnable hypocrisy, and the most devilish superstition. To say, “Thy
will be done,” may either mean that you have found God, that you are
taught in His ways, that you love Him with all of your heart, or that you
know nothing of God whatsoever. These words may be the watchword either of
the faith and obedience of sons of God, or of resignation to a passive
fatalism devoid of any faith or obedience. TO BE HIS WILL
“Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” This is not a
prayer of passive Resignation, but of active Consecration. It is not the
plea for patience and understanding of the evil that befalls us, though we
need that, but the vigorous vow of a son of God coming to maturity. It is
not a sigh of surrender when the devil walks all over us. It is the final
bold and daring thrust to bring in the eternal reign of righteousness. Too
often we have thought otherwise. And we have thought wrongly. In the midst
of our disappointed hope and bashed dreams this has seemed to us a prayer
which strengthens us to accept the catastrophe and clings to the mercy of
God. The prayer has been too often a mournful wail. When the heart has
been crushed by anguish, when the waters have overwhelmed us, when we have
been beaten back and trampled down and when the sun has hid its face and
darkness has invaded our land; when sin, evil, sickness, sorrow and death
have robbed us of our inheritance in Christ, then we have tried to steady
our faltering faith on God with this prayer of fathomless pain: Thy will
be done.
The mistake is in supposing that this is chiefly a prayer of
resignation to affliction and loss. Consider the words of the petition as
our Lord teaches them to us:: Thy will be done in earth, as it is in
heaven — as in heaven, the realm of God’s Spirit, where there is no
blight nor sorrow nor failure, where there is no sad resignation to the
triumph of evil because there is no darkness there — God’s will is
done and our prayer is that it may be accomplished in us upon this earth
even as it is in heaven.
One of my many moments of being spiritually thrilled was upon
examining the second statement of the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father which
art in heaven.” But to be correctly translated it should read, “Which
art in the heavens,” for it is plural, not singular. So, contrary to
popular thought, God dwells in more than one heaven. Paul spoke of a man
who was caught up into the third heaven, and God, our Father, is the God
of all the heavens. God dwells in the heavens. He fills every heaven. He
rules in every heaven. He is above every heaven, beyond every heaven,
higher than all heavens and greater than the reality of each heaven. And
in our journey into God we pass through all these heavens. Jesus passed
through all the heavens on His way into the glory of the Father. How do we
know this? “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far
above all heavens, that He might fill all things” (Eph.
Heaven is also the realm where God is revealed by the Spirit.
Heaven is the realm where God is known by the Spirit. Heaven is the realm
where God can be touched in the Spirit. Heaven is the realm in which God
can be experienced in the Spirit. God is the God of the heavens, and if
ever you will see Him, if ever you will know Him, if ever you will touch
Him, if ever you will experience Him — it will be in the heavens wherein
He dwells, in the realms of His Being. Heaven means “height, eminence,
elevation.” God is in heaven. God is spirit. Heaven is the high and holy
realm of the Spirit where God exists. As the starry heavens are higher
than the earth, so is the invisible realm of spirit higher than the
tangible world. To be in heaven is to be in the Spirit. To experience God
spiritually is to experience heaven. Thus, heaven is the realm of
spiritual experience. To be “caught up” in the Spirit is to be
“raptured” to heaven. The heavens are the various realms or levels of
spiritual experience where we meet and know God. When God is revealed to
you by the Spirit, heaven is opened and you behold heavenly things. In the
lower heavens you know God in a more elementary way.
It is wonderful to know God in His heavens. Each heaven speaks of a
plane of relationship with God by the Spirit. When the Lord unveils
Himself to you on a higher plane, in deeper measures, in richer and fuller
dimensions of His life, wisdom and glory, and you experience Him in it,
you ascend in Him to a higher heaven. As you pass through the heavens you
come to know God in greater and grander measures. When a person dies
physically, they no longer have any part in anything that is done “under
the sun.” Their mortal thoughts have perished and there is no knowledge
in the grave whither they go. But they live unto God in the spirit!
Because they are now conscious only in the realm of spirit we say that
they have “gone to heaven.” They haven’t actually “gone”
anywhere, except that their body has gone to the grave. Their spiritual
consciousness and being which they had in Christ exists still in that
eternal and omnipresent dimension of spiritual reality, in the presence of
the Lord.
So our Father is in the “heavens.” But when you come to the
words, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in
heaven,” there is a significant change. Here the word heaven is in the
singular. It denotes one specific heaven. How wonderful that is! “Thy
Kingdom come” reveals the deep meaning of our Lord’s words. The
There are at least six billion wills on earth, and still only one
in heaven. Out of the six billion and one, only one is holy, pure,
omniscient and divine. Every other is vile, weak, carnal, limited and
stupid. I trust that some of the wonder and glory of this is beginning to
break upon your heart. In this prayer we are shown that our Father dwells
in all the heavens — but as sons of God we want His will to be done in
us upon this earth just as His will is done in heaven, or in the HIGH AND
EXALTED Take
Thy throne, Lord; Take Thy throne. Take
Thy throne, Lord; Take Thy throne. For
our eyes have seen the King in all His glory, Cleanse
our hearts, so Thou canst take Thy throne!
I share the following words from the anointed pen of Paul Mueller.
“Those who shall be considered worthy to rule and reign with Christ must
first forsake their own will and enter into harmonious union with Him who
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. We are now at our
“Jesus taught us to pray that His kingdom would come to earth,
and that the will of God should be done in earth as it is done in heaven.
In the heavenly, spiritual realm all is wisdom, truth, light, love, peace,
and life. The carnal mind does not exist in the heavenlies. There is no
deception, destruction, death or violence there. No carnal kingdoms exist
there. No distorted visions or selfish works are allowed to defile that
holy realm of God. But there, all is in harmony with the Father’s will.
In that heavenly realm of His dominion, no foreign entity can ever
interrupt the constant and continuing praises of the Father, as His will
is being done in perfect and total harmony and peace. And as it now is in
the heavenlies, so shall it be on this earth. We have prayed that His will
shall be done in all the earth as it is being done in the heavenlies, and
our prayers are being answered. Everything in and of this earth shall be
blessed with the peace and harmony that can only come when the will of the
Father is done everywhere, and for the benefit of all. It is His will that
is being imparted to us now, even as we become the will of God in the
earth.
“The purpose of the tests and trials of our wilderness journey
has been to strip us of all self, including self-seeking, self-glory,
self-exaltation and self-will. By the mind of Christ, we also may
confidently affirm that the feet of the Christ body have been thoroughly
tested just like all the other members of this Christ body have been
tested. Though the elect are a small remnant in the earth, their numbers
are sufficient for the task. Jesus Christ was the first of many brothers
in this brotherhood of sons. He was only one at the time of His
manifestation, but He alone was all that was needed to do the will of God
and bring about a change in ages. When Jesus came to do the will of God,
the former dispensation ended and a new age began. Today, more
brother-sons have come forth with no other purpose than to become the will
of God in the earth. Though somewhat small in number, they are sufficient
to fulfill our Father’s purpose for this new day. And now, with our
expressed desire and purpose to do only the Father’s will, the old age
is passing away and a new one is dawning.
“There is no greater truth for this hour than the wonderful truth
that we are now becoming the will of God in the earth. All who are
‘beheaded’ for Christ have received His Headship, and have become His
will on earth. As the old age is dying and evening time has come, a people
is coming forth to do only the will of their Father. And the Father’s
will is the foundation of the new order of the
“In the midst of all the worldly confusion and the pursuits and
ambitions of man, the Spirit of God has been calling out a people for His
name. He has stripped them of self-interest, purged them of self-will,
removed from them all personal ambition and self-seeking, and is causing
them to despise the works of the flesh and of the carnal mind. From within
them, out of their innermost beings, comes the joyful, liberating,
age-ending cry of the spirit of the kingdom, saying, ‘Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O God! Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in
heaven!’ All who express this holy desire have become His will in the
earth. And we have also become the firstfruits of His kingdom. The will of
God is the foundation of the
There is indeed a time to resign ourselves to the will of the
Father who knows what is best for us, accepting all that comes from His
hand. But this prayer reaches beyond that. This is a higher, grander
theme. It is the cry for the release of creation from the bondage that
brings corruption and death. It is the prayer for the triumph of light
over darkness, of righteousness or unrighteousness, of love over hate, of
health over sickness, of life over death, of Christ over Belial. I adjure
you, sons of God, pray this prayer — Thy will be done! Bind it upon your
heart as a vow. Bear it upon your spirit as a passion. See it written in
the sky above you and on the earth beneath your feet. Breathe it
everywhere! Let life have no other grander meaning that this that vibrates
in our living prayer. Thy will be done! IN us, BY us, THROUGH us, AS us
— our Father, Thy will be done! IF IT BE THY WILL
No prayer, to be a true prayer of faith, can contain the
expression: IF it be Thy will! But let me make one thing very clear —
there is a vast difference between the expression, “If it be Thy
will,” and the declaration, “Thy will be done.” The latter is the
form our Lord has taught us to pray, to desire and petition God’s will
to be accomplished. It is a positive confession. This may be prayed in
utter confidence, expectation, and faith.
One there is who, in the sphere of manhood, has done the Father’s
will on earth even as it is in heaven. The will of God was the lodestar by
which Jesus’ life was lived. What had He come down to earth for? To do
the will of God. Why did the firstborn Son of God set foot on the stage of
human history? To do the will of God. Why did He condescend to be born in
a stable, to be raised among the commonest of men; to grow up as a man,
the son of a carpenter in a remote Galilean village; to minister as an
itinerant preacher; to preach, teach and heal wherever He went; to die the
ignominious death of the cross, to be buried in a borrowed tomb, to rise
again the third day, to ascend back to the Father? All this was just to do
the Father’s will. From childhood to manhood He was evermore about His
Father’s business, having it for His food to do the will of the Father
who had sent Him, to finish the work which His Father had given Him to do.
And in that obedience of Christ the Head is the prophecy and firstfruits
of the many-membered Christ body — even that pulling down of
strongholds, and casting down of reasonings and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, which shall be achieved when
every human thought and intent shall be brought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ. Then indeed shall earth see heaven opened and the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
“Thy will be done,” is the deep cry of sonship. But the
expression, “IF it be Thy will,” is a confession of doubt,
uncertainty, hesitation, weakness, and lack of understanding and faith.
Furthermore, it calls into question the nature and purposes of God. Many
Christians begin their prayers boldly only to end with this absurdity,
“If it be Thy will.” “If” is the weakest word in the world. I do
not doubt that millions of prayers have gone unanswered because they were
rendered impotent by the word “if” in the middle of them. The secret
to praying according to God’s will is to discern the will of God ahead
of time, before you attempt to pray the prayer of faith. If there is a key
to answered prayer it could certainly be nothing other than praying as God
would have us to pray. It is only as our prayer corresponds to God’s
purposes that there will be any hope at all of their being answered by
Him. Prayer — the soul’s sincere desire offered unto God — must be
then according to the way that God would want us to pray. That is why the
disciples came to Jesus and said, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
The reality is, no one can pray the prayer of faith apart from the
clear knowledge of God’s will. If you are uncertain about the Father’s
will in a matter, you certainly cannot pray in faith for it to happen. But
when you have positive assurance of His will the prayer of faith evoked by
that assurance will certainly be answered. Precious indeed is the promise
given in I John 5:14: “If we ask anything according to His will, He
heareth us...and we know that we have the petitions that we desired from
Him.” If we ask anything — no exceptions — no limit to God’s
confidence in His sons! And why? Because He trusts them to ask right
things “according to His will.” He is guiding them, even in what they
ask, if they are truly sons after His own heart; so God sets no limit to
His power. If anyone is doing God’s will let him ask anything. It is
God’s will that he ask anything. Let him put His promise to the test.
Notice here what the true basis of sonship prayer is. The prayer
that is answered is the prayer after God’s will. And the reason for this
is plain. What is God’s will is God’s wish. And when a man does what
God wills, he does what God wishes to be done. Therefore God will have
that done at any cost, at any sacrifice. Thousands of prayers are never
answered, simply because God does not wish them! They have absolutely
nothing to do with His plan, purpose, promise or desire. If we pray for
any one thing, or any number of things we are sure God wishes, we may be
sure our wishes will be gratified. For our wishes are only the reflection
of God’s! And the wish in us is really equivalent to the answer! It is
the answer casting its shadow backwards. Already the thing is done in the
mind of God. It casts two shadows — one backward, one forward. The
backward shadow — that is the wish before the thing is done, which sheds
itself in prayer. The forward shadow — that is the joy after the thing
is done, which sheds itself in praise. Oh, what a rich and wonderful
reality, this!
Asking anything, getting everything, willing with God, praying with
God, decreeing with God, praising with God! Surely it is too much, this
great promise. How can God trust us with a power so deep and terrible? Ah,
He can trust His sons with anything! He is teaching us. Patiently. We are
learning. Are you still asking for all the petty, selfish, carnal things
you used to demand from God? If not, you are learning sonship. “If we
ask ANYTHING ACCORDING TO HIS WILL.” Well, if we do, we will ask nothing
amiss. If we do, we will ask nothing to consume it upon our lusts. It will
be God’s will if it is asked. It will be God’s will if it is done. For
they are come, these sons, TO DO GOD’S WILL! May God grant that you and
I may learn to live this great and holy life, remembering the solemn words
of Him who lived it first, who only lived it all: “Not everyone that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but HE
THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER which is in heaven.” DOING ONLY WHAT WE SEE THE FATHER DO
When I pray for God’s will to be done in earth as it is in
heaven, I bring myself into harmony with the infinite mind of the Father.
When my will is harmonized with the Father’s will His omnipotence
becomes active in the sphere of my praying. How awesome the thought! What
I do, He is doing. It is just as the Pattern Son has taught us, “My
Father abiding in me is doing the works,” and again, “I assure you,
the Son is able to do nothing from Himself — of His own accord; but He
is able to do only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father
does is what the Son does in the same way” (Jn.
Consider any parent and child. Every parent has some ideal or idea
in mind about what he wants his child to grow up to be. He has some ideal
for their education, their physical well-being, their sleep habits, their
character and their destiny. Consequently, when a child comes to a parent
and makes a request, this request, consciously or subconsciously, is
filtered through the ideal the parent has in mind. If it is contrary or
detrimental to what the parent has as the ideal for that child, if the
parent has any backbone at all it will be denied. Children need to
understand the parental ideal for their lives. They not only need to
understand it but they need to conform to it, because as long as they are
in rebellion to that plan and that ideal their requests are going to be
ignored or turned down. As long as they do not understand what it is, they
are not going to make requests in accordance with it. Often parents may
have an ideal for their child and yet be mistaken. They may try to force
the child to become an engineer when he is better suited to be a plumber.
But our Father is infinite wisdom and infinite love, and therefore, when
we submit ourselves to His ideal and His plan for our lives, it can be
nothing other than that which is good and perfect.
There is the wonderful secret to Jesus’ praying and Jesus’
ministry! He did only what He saw His Father doing. His whole life was an
apprenticeship to the Father. If He did not see the Father at work, He did
nothing. He rested with the Father, and He worked with the Father. That is
the mark of sonship. A son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the
Father doing. That is why Jesus always had 100% results! He never spoke a
word that didn’t come to pass. He never prayed a prayer that wasn’t
answered. He never touched a sick person that wasn’t healed. He never
failed. He never lost a case! And that is why we often have such poor
results, and so few prayers answered.
In this connection George Wylie wrote: “There is nothing wrong
with praying for the sick, God has commissioned us to do this, but
sometimes we pray for the sick when it is not God’s will for us to do
so. The only prayer that we can pray that is effective is the one that is
prayed in the Spirit. When we pray by the Spirit we pray according to
God’s will, but when we pray from our own understanding and desires, we
often pray contrary to God. From ourselves we know not how to pray as we
ought, but, ‘the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses; for we do not know
what is right and proper for us to pray for; but the Spirit prays for us
with that earnestness which cannot be described. And He who searches the
hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, for the Spirit prays for the
saints according to the will of God’ (Rom.
People ask me sometimes to pray for things which I discern are not
the Father’s will. Other times the Father reveals nothing to me about
the matter. He is silent, He hides His purpose. I cannot see what the
Father is doing. I cannot hear what the Father is saying. The things I am
requested to pray about are often good things, seemingly desirable things,
but they are not what the Father is doing. He has another plan, a
different design and time schedule. When I do not see what the Father is
doing, or when I see the Father doing other than what I have been
requested to ask for, I cannot pray. I do not pray. It would be foolish to
pray. It would be rebellion to pray. It would be a terrible waste of time
and energy to pray. When my own father lay in the hospital dying, the Lord
spoke to me in a dream and I saw him lying in a gray casket. I knew the
Lord was going to take him. The saints called an all-night prayer meeting
to seek God to raise him up. But I could not pray. I had already received
the word of the Lord in the matter, and within two days he passed away,
the all-night prayer meeting not withstanding.
Ray Prinzing has shared some valuable insights into God’s will in
prayer. “‘If two of you shall AGREE on earth as touching anything that
they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered IN MY NAME, there am I in the midst of
them’ (Mat.
“It has been well stated that before we pray for mountain-moving
faith, we do well to pray for understanding of His will — does He want
it moved? And when? And where does He want to put it? There is so much
more to this walk with God than just claiming miracles and demonstrations
of His power. Oh, to know the mind and purpose of God, that we might be
one in His will. ‘The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth
the Father do.’ A true son of God does not minister because he is
‘need conscious’ but ‘WILL-OF-THE-FATHER-CO
“‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much’ (James
“Yet beyond all this — we find an increased longing deep within
to be able to pray in such a way that we become a part of the birthing of
a new moving of His Spirit that will establish His righteousness in the
earth, bringing forth His holiness among men, and a lifting up of the
Christ, who will draw all to Himself. Even while we write these words,
there is an inner sense that this deep prayer, inexpressible in words, is
rising from the hearts of countless numbers of men and women. It is a
‘SPIRIT CRY’ which has proceeded from the Throne, into our hearts —
to become an expression of His will in the earth, and now it flows back to
Him from our spirits. It will be answered, because it is HIS OWN PR
George Hawtin adds these words of wisdom: “If God’s dear
children would turn the searchlight within, they would see that the
multitude of their spoken prayers are nothing more or less than the
desires of their own hearts, which they, alas! imagine to be the will and
plan of God. I have seen people almost beat their heads against the wall
in their determination to pray a revival into their church, but no revival
came. ‘Well,’ you ask, ‘why did not God answer prayer?’ The answer
is simple. The people were praying for something that it was not God’s
will to do. ‘But,’ you reply, ‘was it not God’s will to revive His
people? Was it not God’s will to save souls?’ The answer to that is
simple also. God always does the things that are His will. Therefore, had
it been His will, He would have done it, for if we ask anything according
to His will we know that He heareth us and we have the petition that we
ask of Him. The thing that many fail to see is that the people who pray in
this manner are very often more concerned about seeing their prayer
answered than they are about God’s will and purpose. They are concerned
that a revival should come, a revival after their own liking, that they
might have a thriving church and a real spiritual boom. But the idea never
enters their minds that God, having now called His elect, may now choose
to scatter the flock as He did in Jerusalem long ago (Acts 8:1,4).
“Oh, that men would heed the words of Jeremiah! ‘The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?’ (Jer.
17:9). So, you see, it is never safe to ask God for anything that proceeds
from the natural mind, for the natural mind will hide its true ambitions
behind a cloak of fervent prayer, availing itself of the subtle suffix,
‘We ask it in Jesus’ name,’ or, ‘We ask it all according to Thy
will.’ But the natural mind cannot ask anything according to God’s
will and it may as well not try. Paul the apostle further demonstrates the
unfruitfulness of our human understanding by saying, ‘We know not what
we should pray for as we ought’ (Rom.
“The coming of the will of God into a believer’s life is a
personal experience far, far greater than the receiving of any spiritual
gift. The coming of the will of God into your life is in truth the coming
of the mind of Christ. It is the beginning of the very spirit of the
kingdom within you. It is the crowning and enthroning of Jesus Christ in
the throne room of your heart. As long as self sits on the throne,
carrying out its private ambitions and ordering your life according to the
human will, Jesus is still rejected, still despised, still crucified. The
world is full of men and women who proudly boast that they want God’s
will and only God’s will, yet they spend their whole lives carrying out
their own ambitions and trying to fulfill their own purposes.
“At this trysting hour we cannot possibly emphasize too strongly
the need to seek to become one with the will of God, to cast off the
carnal mind and let the mind of Christ dwell in us. As it is impossible
for the oak that fell last winter to uprear its shattered stem, so also it
is impossible for the natural mind to attain sonship. Only the indwelling
mind of the Father can bring us to sonship, for as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. It is the Spirit of His mind that
brings us into unity with the Father, unity with the Son, and unity with
each other. Those rejected men who will come to the Lord, saying, ‘Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name and in Thy name done many
wonderful works?’ were not liars nor even deceivers. They were
self-willed men who preached and performed miracles because that is what
they wanted to do. They were not doing it because Christ had either called
them or sent them. Therefore their works, though wonderful, amounted to
nothing because they were done after man’s own will. The existing church
system has an endless variety of this type of men and women who lay claim
to being great servants of God, but who in reality are serving their own
bellies” — end quote.
Jesus had 100% results in every aspect of His ministry because He
ministered only to those the Father showed Him. On a particular day the
Father showed Him to heal all who came to Him. At other times Jesus
withdrew and could do no mighty miracles. When He saw nothing, He did
nothing. When He heard nothing, He spoke nothing. Preachers today,
however, are disposed to pray for every request they hear and lay hands on
everything that moves. They even solicit “prayer requests” and
suggestively attach the prayer request form to the offering coupon. And
the results are very poor. God will only do what He purposes to do
regardless of how many times we ask, how forcefully we command, or how
subtly we use the name of Jesus. Evangelists will pray about anything.
Faith preachers will command everything. Men with gifts will minister to
anyone and everyone at all times. But in the end it will be seen with
absolute and inviolable certainty that only what the Father was doing was
done. All they plead for, all they command, all they rebuke, and all they
prophesy to, apart from what the Father is speaking and doing, bears no
fruit whatever. What an incredible waste! Many years ago, in the heyday of
his ministry, Oral Roberts confessed that he felt fortunate indeed if one
person out of five that came through his healing line received anything
from the Lord. What divine wisdom is taught in the pathway of sonship
where the Son does only what He sees the Father do, where the Son speaks
only what He hears from the Father! This is the way of sonship.
Forty-seven times in the Gospel of John, Jesus says that He was
under the Father’s orders, and that He never did anything, never said
anything, until He received a command from His Father. He was listening
every moment of the day to the inner voice of His Father and always
saying, “Yes.” This perfect obedience was what made Him one with the
Father and what gave the Father perfect confidence in the Son. This
perfect obedience is the reason that now “God also hath highly exalted
Him, and given Him the name that is above every name: that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). Notice
now the words of Jesus again and again: “The Son can do nothing of
Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever the
Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (Jn.
Into that glorious realm of sonship we are called. This is what
Jesus says again and again. It is what He came for. He came to bring many
sons to glory. The glory He is bringing us to is the glory of the Father.
This incredible calling is to be more than angels, it is to be a son of
the Most High, a son of our heavenly Father, a member of the God family,
as Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me,
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us...I in them, and Thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one...Thou hast loved them, as Thou
hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be
with me where I am, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in
them, and I in them” (Jn.
“I do only those things that I see my Father do.” It not only
means that He did what He saw the Father doing, it means that He didn’t
do what He didn’t see the Father doing. When He saw nothing, He did
nothing. How different from the way we are prone to be! Oh, yes, we all
profess a zeal to do the will and works of God. If only God will show us
we will do it or burst! Our problem is not with doing what we see the
Father doing — it is in not doing what we don’t see the Father doing.
If we don’t see God moving then we try to move God. If the Spirit
isn’t moving, we want to move the Spirit. We can’t stand to be still
and quiet. It sets us on edge to do nothing. We are possessed of a
spiritual nervousness when something isn’t happening. So — sing a
chorus, clap your hands, stomp your feet, have a “Jericho march,” pray
for needs — let’s do something and get the show on the road!
But Jesus wasn’t this way. That’s what held Him in DEATH COULD NOT HOLD HIM
In the light of such truth as this I draw your attention to the
deeply meaningful words of the apostle Peter, spoken on the day of
Pentecost to the amazed multitude that gathered to witness the wonder of
the mighty works wrought at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Standing up
with the eleven he said to the assembled crowd, “Ye men of Israel, hear
these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you,
as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have
crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of
death: BECAUSE IT WAS NOT
The thrust of Peter’s message was that God raised Christ up from
the dead. He loosed the pains of death. And there was a glorious reason
behind this event. The reason is stated in these words: “Because it was
not possible that He should be holden of it.” In plain language that
means that it was an utter, total, absolute IMPOSSIBILITY for the grave to
hold Jesus Christ! Why? It is my deep conviction that it was impossible
for death to hold the firstborn Son of God because NOTHING
One day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus, His mother
and His disciples were bidden to the wedding. In all likelihood the family
was closely related to, or very friendly toward, the family of Jesus. At
least, we notice that the host had acquainted the mother of Jesus with the
embarrassing situation that had arisen when the wine had run out too early
in the festivities. Mary went to her son and told Him the terrible secret.
She said, “They have no wine.” The answer she received was both hard
and strange, at least it seems so to us. Jesus answered, “Woman, what
have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.” She was given a hard
answer, a very hard answer. That it was hard was due to the fact that her
request was a strong temptation to Jesus, and that from His own mother.
How He loved His mother! He would do anything humanly possible to please
His lovely, holy mother. She had come and spoken to Him of the
embarrassment that was about to confront their beloved and bewildered
host. Quick action was therefore necessary in order that none of the
guests might discover that the wine was giving out. This was the next
temptation to Jesus — to act before His hour had come, apart from the
direct command of His Father.
But Jesus lived in such a bond of obedience and dependence upon His
Father that He could “do nothing of Himself.” In doing the will of the
Father He had to wait for Father’s hour. Jesus was obviously pressured
by His love for His mother and respect for the host to take some action
for her sake, and before the Father’s time. He recognized the wily
tempter at once even though he came in the garb of His own mother; and He
cut him off at once with the harsh word, “Woman.” Jesus let His mother
know that when it was a question of the Father’s will, or the Father’s
timing, her position as His mother could not be allowed to even enter into
consideration. Neither could Jesus be pressured by circumstances. “Mine
hour is not yet come.” That is the same as saying, “I cannot do
anything until I hear it from my Father, until I see my Father doing
it.” Nothing could hold Jesus — not even His mother!
How Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus! When Lazarus became
gravely ill the two sisters sent word to Jesus, saying, “Behold, he whom
Thou lovest is sick.” When Jesus received the urgent message He tarried
two days longer in the place where He was. He then started the journey to
Go with me now into that long ago when Jesus walked the dusty
streets of Caesarea Philippi with His disciples. He had asked the twelve
who they thought He was. Peter promptly answered, “Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God!” Then Jesus said to him, “Peter, flesh and
blood did not reveal this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven.”
In other words, “This understanding didn’t come from your fleshly
mind. You didn’t think this up by yourself. This is not the result of
your own reasoning and logic; this came to you from my Father.” So
remarkable was this revelation to Peter that the Lord said to him,
“Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona!” So here we have an instance of the
Father working in Peter, imparting His thoughts and understanding to
Peter.
Only minutes later Jesus began to introduce to His disciples the
subject of His approaching suffering and death on the cross. The
possibility of the death of their beloved Lord was a prospect so foreign
to the thinking of the disciples that they were hardly able to comprehend
His presentation of this unspeakable fate. Was He not the Messiah? Was He
not the Son of God? Did He not come to establish a great Kingdom? Were not
they, His disciples, to reign with Him in that Kingdom? With these
questions in mind, they could barely endure the dark foreboding that grew
in their minds as Christ talked about the future. Then Peter, who had just
been pronounced blessed, took hold of Him, and began to rebuke Him,
saying, “Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee!” Ah,
when Jesus mentioned the cross and dying, Peter became very agitated and
began to rebuke Him. Where did he find the senseless courage that would
dare to rebuke the Lord? The answer is disturbingly evident — far, far
too clear to be a comfort to any of us! The Lord Himself gives us the
answer, for, He turned and said unto Peter, “Get thee behind me, SATAN!
thou art an offense unto me; for thou savorest not the things that be of
God, but those that be of men.” What a shocking way to talk to the great
apostle Peter, the one possessing the revelation of the Christ’s
identity, the one called Blessed, the one to whom the Lord had just given
the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven! Atrocious to say to this man of keen
perception and deep revelation, “Thou savorest not the things that be of
God, but those that be of men!” Indeed, “Get thee behind me, SATAN!”
How unthinkable!
Hearing Peter’s entreaty to the Lord, which of us would not have
said that this was the language of genuine affection, tender solicitude,
and loving concern? No doubt we would have chimed in and said, “How
kind! How true! How good! Peter is right, Lord! Amen!” But Jesus
replies, “Get thee behind me — Satan!” And our Lord was not merely
on a name-calling spree when He uttered these words, either. He never
uttered words in vain, without a definite meaning. Jesus did not speak
merely to Satan in Peter, neither did He say, “Peter, you are acting
like the devil; your words sound like the words of Satan.” He simply
addressed Peter AS SATAN. Peter as Satan — on what basis? That he was
demented, insane? That he was a medium, raising familiar spirits out of
the spirit world? No — merely that he SPOKE AS A MAN! He was speaking as
Peter, not the word of the heavenly Father. Jesus rejected the words of
Peter for He spoke only those things which He heard from His Father. The
message is clear: Nothing could hold Jesus — not even His disciples!
Have you noticed how strangely Matthew and Mark speak of Jesus’
temptation? “And immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness to
be tempted of the devil” (Mat. 4:1; Mk.
Do you suppose the devil came to Jesus there as a weird-looking
figure, with little evil-looking horns protruding from his temples, and a
pointed tail? How often with our childish and distorted understanding,
have we pictured Jesus confronted by that legendary personage in the red
suit, with a pitchfork in his hands! This is nought but foolishness, for
Satan is invisible spirit. Let us see how Jesus was tempted, for He was
tempted in all points like as we are. Have you ever seen that devil in the
red suit carrying a pitchfork? Have you been tempted by that devil? Come
on, now! The record states that after fasting for forty days, Jesus
hungered. When you’re hungry, what kind of desire do you have? You want
to eat! In that crucial moment the Tempter came to Him. He began to feel
the physiological pangs of hunger, and then the thought occurred to Him.
With fascinating, compelling power the idea swept through His mind and
emotions. He said, “I know who I am; I know the power that is now mine;
I can turn these stones into bread.” And in His consciousness the voice
cunningly suggested, “If you are the Son of God, go ahead and do it! Use
your sonship to fill your belly. Use it to satisfy your own needs and
desires! You can do anything you want!” But Jesus quickly discerned that
subtle devil and knew how to nip that idea in the bud, before it had time
to blossom. He got to it before it could conceive, before it could start
making a baby of sin, the devil’s own child. Jesus answered out of the
depths of His spirit, “It is written — man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Mat.
4:4). If a man can live by the eternal and incorruptible word of God, why
should he need to create bread to satisfy a temporal need? By the spirit
of His Father He saw a higher law, a higher life. And that ended the
temptation! And with that victory it became everlastingly evident: Nothing
could hold Jesus — not even Satan!
When His ministry began, Jesus’ irreverence to religious
traditions was startling to the scribes and Pharisees. His violation of
the Sabbath norms was His most irritating and flagrant act. The Sabbath
rest was instructed by the law of Moses, the ten commandments, and the
Oral law. From the day of God’s rest from creation it symbolized the
respectful fear and worship of the Creator. Except for circumcision, it
was the most distinctive feature of Hebrew faith which set the people of
On a certain Sabbath day Jesus in spirit saw the Father healing a
man with a withered hand. Later that day He entered into the synagogue and
taught. There in the synagogue He saw the man with the withered hand. The
Father said, “Heal him!” The scribes and Pharisees were there watching
Him that day for the express purpose of seeing whether He would heal on
the Sabbath day as He did on the other days. They were looking for some
grounds of accusation against Him. Jesus perceived their thoughts and
plot, so He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come, stand here in
the midst.” The man got up and stood there. Jesus fastened His eyes on
the scribes and Pharisees and said, “I ask you — is it lawful to do
good deeds on the Sabbath day? Is it permissible to save a life on the
Sabbath day?” Then He glanced around at them all, and said to the man,
“Stretch out your hand!” The man stretched out his hand and it was
restored like the other one. The Pharisees went out and immediately held a
consultation with the Herodians against Him, how they might put Him to
death.
You would think that Jesus had made His point. He could let it
rest. No need to further infuriate His enemies against Him. But He went
out of the synagogue and did no miracles for a time. Then on another
Sabbath day He again attended Sabbath services at a synagogue. And there
was a woman there who for eighteen years had an infirmity, she was bent
completely forward and utterly unable to straighten herself or to look
upward. When Jesus saw her He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman,
you are released from your infirmity!” Then He laid hands on her and
instantly she was made straight and thanked and praised God all over the
synagogue! “And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation,
because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the
people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore
come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then answered him
and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose
his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought
not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo,
these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (Lk.
13:14-16).
Why is Jesus so audacious? Why does He continue this disrespectful
behavior? Why does He play with death? Why does He strike out at the heart
of the law and traditions, jeopardizing His own life? When people were
sick for eighteen years why didn’t He politely wait at least one more
day to heal them? What’s one day compared to eighteen years? Rather than
waiting courteously, He deliberately offends all the religious leaders
with these outrageous acts on the Sabbath. I will tell you why! Because He
was doing only those things He saw the Father doing. He saw the Father
healing on the Sabbath, so He healed on the Sabbath. He didn’t see the
Father healing for a season between Sabbaths, so He healed no one between
the Sabbaths. What religion or religious leaders thought about it was not
even up for consideration. That is the perfect obedience of sonship. That
is the way of one who says with Jesus, “I come only to do those things I
see my Father do.” Jesus knew full well the penalties of the law, yet He
mocked the scribes and Pharisees in spite of their warning, and continued
to heal. Oh, the wonder of it! Nothing could hold Him — not even
religion!
That, precious friend of mine, is why death could not hold Jesus
— NOTHING [ENTER TEXT OF WRITING / SCRIERE HERE] |
Other Writings in This Series:
|
