April 10, 2010

• Half a dozen men: Is that too many to ask for? (from deerlife)

  In my last post "why deerlife?..." I let you know that I started up deerlife, another blog for mutual encouragement, edification and support in ministry.
  
  Today's post is a repost of something I put up on deerlife a few days ago here. I feel this message is an important one for those of us who have prayed and seem to see no visible results of our prayers. It is also a message for those of us who are tempted to believe that God cannot work through a single soul to accomplish great things for His Kingdom.
  
  Over the past couple weeks I've been feeling weak and weary, and I know full well we all face that same temptation. Our spirits are willing, but the flesh is weak. But as we remember who God is and the resurrection power we have been given through the cross by the gift of His Spirit, as we continue to gaze upon Him and His purposes for us and for His Church, we can take heart and run the race set before us – no matter what we see. We can continue to preach the word in season and out of season and to pray without ceasing.
  
  Though I may not be posting here so regularly at the moment, know that my heart is seeking revival and I am continuing to go to the throne of grace as God strengthens me. I know God has given others out there a similar burden to pray for revival. As I have said so many other times, there is no other help or hope for the Church today but through a sovereign movement of God's Holy Spirit. We are poor and needy! May God be gracious to us and rend the heavens and come down and revive and restore us to be a praise and glory in the earth! May our Savior who shed His blood to redeem us, our wonderful merciful, gracious and loving Father, the almighty, eternal, indestructible, immutable and only wise God, strengthen and sustain us by His grace through His Holy Spirit to persevere in the work He has set before us...

  Isaiah 62:
  1  For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
  and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
  until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
  and her salvation as a burning torch.
  2  The nations shall see your righteousness,
  and all the kings your glory,
  and you shall be called by a new name
  that the mouth of the LORD will give.
  3  You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,
  and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
  4  You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
  and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,
  but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
  and your land Married;
  for the LORD delights in you,
  and your land shall be married.
  5  For as a young man marries a young woman,
  so shall your sons marry you,
  and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
  so shall your God rejoice over you.
  6  On your walls, O Jerusalem,
  I have set watchmen;
  all the day and all the night
  they shall never be silent.
  You who put the LORD in remembrance,
  take no rest,
  7  and give him no rest
  until he establishes Jerusalem
  and makes it a praise in the earth.

  * * *

  Half a dozen men: Is that too many to ask for?
  
  I read George Whitefield's Journals last year and have wanted to reread them (I've dabbled in them a bit since that time), but I did take them along with me on retreat last week (see here and here for more on my time away).

  Luke Tyerman (quoted by Iain Murray in the Introduction to George Whitefield's Journals, p. 19) wrote this about Whitefield:

  Half a dozen men like Whitefield would at any time move a nation, stir its churches, and reform its morals. Whitefield's power was not in his talents, nor even in his oratory, but in his piety. In some respects, he has no successors; but in prayer, in faith, in religious experience, in devotedness to God, he may have many. Such men are the gift of God, and are infinitely more valuable than all the gold in the Church's coffers. Never did the world need them more than it needs them now. May Whitefield's God raise them up, and thrust them out!

  After reading those words I wrote the following reflection/prayer in the margin and at the bottom of the page:

  Is He [the Lord] not the Giver of every good gift? Can we not ask Him for half a dozen? Are not half a dozen sufficient – so long as they are animated by the Spirit of God, devoted to the glory of God and driven by the zeal of the Lord of hosts? Matthew 7:7. He can save by many or few. His glory is magnified when it is but few.
  
  He provides workers with an eye and aim to HIS glory first and foremost. He will never provide a single worker more lest it obscure His glory.
  
  Let us rejoice in the workers He has provided.
  
  Let us pray He would send more workers into His harvest.
  
  Let us not question His ways, nor presume to be His counselor. All things are from Him, through Him and to Him and His glory. Romans 11:36.
  
  A worker He will not withhold should that soul in concert with the others work to magnify His Name.
  
  Let us trust His ways > ours.

  Amen.

  So there I was praying in faith for half a dozen workers, trusting God to work through that small number...I thought that was a pretty strong prayer of faith...

  But God showed me otherwise...

  During one the services I attended while I was away, Scripture was read from Isaiah 51...

  1  “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
  you who seek the LORD:
  look to the rock from which you were hewn,
  and to the quarry from which you were dug.
  2  Look to Abraham your father
  and to Sarah who bore you;
  for he was but one when I called him,
  that I might bless him and multiply him.
  3  For the LORD comforts Zion;
  he comforts all her waste places
  and makes her wilderness like Eden,
  her desert like the garden of the LORD;
  joy and gladness will be found in her,
  thanksgiving and the voice of song.
  4  “Give attention to me, my people,
  and give ear to me, my nation;
  for a law will go out from me,
  and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
  5  My righteousness draws near,
  my salvation has gone out,
  and my arms will judge the peoples;
  the coastlands hope for me,
  and for my arm they wait.

  I had been asking the Lord for a half a dozen men and had been thinking that was a bold step of faith since in the big scheme of things half a dozen men is not very many, yet God rebuked and humbled me and reminded me all He needs is a single man. He doesn't need half a dozen men! He needs but one!

  Look to Abraham your father...
  for he was but one when I called him,
  that I might bless him and multiply him.

  Aren't God's ways and thoughts are higher than ours?

  for he was but one when I called him,
  that I might bless him and multiply him.

  We think (I think, anyhow) we certainly need more than one. We think (I think, anyhow) we need half a dozen men (or more, often many more). I continue to fall into the trap that we need more, more, more. More people to pray. More people to preach the Word. More. More. Grrr!

  Is anything too hard for the Lord? No, of course not!

  Can the Lord save by many or by few? Yes and yes!

  Is not the Lord among His people wherever they go? Certainly yes!

  Is the Lord's arm shortened or His power diminished because the numbers of men He chooses to enlist in His work are small? No, of course not!

  On a retreat last spring God pretty much reminded me of this very same thing as I read Joshua 3 and reflected on His call to Israel to step out in faith:

  There God is saying to the priests and the people (and us) (my paraphrase, see also Psalm 78):

  "Yes, the Jordan is ahead of you. Yes, I see the Jordan is overflowing its banks because it is harvest time. Yes, I have eyes to see that. I see that. Of course I do. I see all things. Do you not know I created the Jordan River? But do you not also know I am the God of the Jordan River? Do you not remember that I created the seasons and control them all? Do you not know? Have you not heard? Have you forgotten I am the living God? Have you forgotten all things exist because of Me and all things were created through Me and for Me and that I am before all things and in Me all things consist?
  
  "Do you not see Me high and lifted up? No, you may not see me with your naked eye but do you see me with the eye of faith? Will you not trust in Me, the God who is invisible, but the God who abides in and with you? Will you trust me with a heart of faith? Do you not see that I am going before you and beside you and behind you? I am with My people whithersoever they go. You are My people. I have redeemed you and I have set my love on you because I loved you. I have promised to never leave you or forsake you. The Jordan is flooding now. But I command you to go on, to begin. "How can we go on?" you ask. "How can we begin?" you ask. I tell you, you go on by faith in Me and My promises to you. You begin by faith in Me and My promises to you. Don't limit me as your fathers did in the wilderness did.
  
  "Do you not remember My power, on the day I redeemed you from the enemy with the precious Lamb's blood and worked signs and wonders in Egypt and made you to go forth. Did I not guide you like a flock and lead you safely through the Red Sea? Will you not remember I am your Rock and I am the Most High God, your Redeemer? Will you be like your fathers? Will you limit the Holy One of Israel? Remember My power! Remember the day I redeemed you from the enemy. I am the God who did wonders then and I am the God who does wonders today and I am the God who will do wonders among you tomorrow. I am the same yesterday, today and forever. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty God."

  Once more I've been reminded of how small my view of God is, how puny my faith is, and how I continue to limit God.

  Did not God's Spirit move and bless and multiply through a single soul like Abraham our father?

  Did not God's Spirit move and bless and multiply through a single soul, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ?

  Cannot God's Spirit move and bless and multiply through a single one of us today?

  I confess I find that hard to believe at times. ("O, Karen, ye of little faith!")

  Yesterday on my other blog I was reflecting on Kingdom vision and posted some quotes from David Livingstone (from Rob Mackenzie's biography "David Livingstone: The Truth behind the Legend"). Here's one of them:

  
  

  A quiet audience today. The seed being sown, the least of all seeds now, but it will grow a mighty tree. It is as if it were a small stone cut out of a mountain, but it will fill the whole earth. He that believeth shall not make haste. Surely if God can bear with hardened impenitent sinners for 30, 40 or 50 years, waiting to be gracious, we may take it for granted that His is the best way. He could destroy His enemies, but He waits to be gracious. To become irritated with their stubbornness and hardness of heart is ungodlike.
  

  I know Livingstone meant this in a different way, but my friends in Christ, aren't we are that seed being sown, aren't we that small stone...

  John 12:24  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26  If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

  Yes, it's true that we are the least of all seeds now and we are a small stone now...seemingly insignificant in the eyes of men (and in our own eyes)...

  However, because we are called by God and because we are filled with the Spirit of God ... Will we not grow a mighty tree? Will we not fill the whole earth?

  Has God not called us like He did Abraham ... so He might bless and multiply us?

  We see how we are so much like Abraham. Abraham was weak and powerless, his body was as good as dead and Sarah's womb was barren (see the last part of Romans 4) and yet we see how he trusted God's word and was justified by faith and lived by faith and God wrought through him a great nation, of which we are now a part by faith in Christ.

  Romans 4:18  In hope [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20  No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

  This is the same type of faith we're to have in God and in the promises of God. Yes, we are as good as dead. Yes, we are the least of seeds now. Yes, we are the small stone now ... Yes, that's us. But what do we know about God? Is not our God is the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Romans 4:17.

  Just as the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, died, was buried and rose again from the dead to be the firstfruits of many creatures, so too we have been buried with Christ and raised by His resurrection power and filled with His Spirit so we might bear fruit to God – much fruit, fruit that will last (John 15). As we put to death our fleshly desires and live the life by His Spirit He intends, as we die to our own interests and live to His Kingdom interests, to seek to serve rather than be served, there is no doubt the Lord Christ will bear fruit through us (e.g.- see Romans 6). That is God's intent for each of His children, not just the George Whitefields of the world, not just the ordained pastors, not just the worship leaders, etc., etc. If we are Christ's joint-heirs, we cannot help but bear fruit like our Brother because we have His same fruit-bearing Spirit dwelling within us.

  

  As Abraham was but one, we are but few when He calls us, but God's intent has always been the same for His people: to bless us and multiply us and bear fruit through us throughout the whole earth! Was that not Jesus' commission to us? Has our Lord not given us all we need to bear fruit as He commands?

  Luke 24:46  ...“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47  and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48  You are witnesses of these things. 49  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

  Matthew 28:18  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

  Returning back to the title of this post...

  Half a dozen men: Is that too many to ask for?

  Perhaps it is too many. Perhaps not. No matter. Let us ask our Lord first and foremost to circumcise each of our hearts by His Spirit so we might die to self to live to Him, to hate our lives in this world so we might keep them for eternal life, so we might bear much fruit to His glory. By His grace, may we trust His ways and His timing, knowing that He is working all things for His glory, whether it takes 30, 40 or 50 years or more, for we can be assured that He waits only so He might be highly exalted (Isaiah 30:18)! And, by His grace, may we (I) not limit Him but leave the numbers to Him! For indeed He doeth all things well, does He not?

  Never did the world need them more than it needs them now!
  May Whitefield's God and our God raise them (us) up, and thrust them (and us) out!
  Soli Deo Gloria!
  
  * * *

  Brothers and sisters, please add your prayers as God's Holy Spirit leads you.

  • 10:10 AM
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