The Pathway to the Christ-Life (2) - Being Emptied - Part 4

TRUSTING GOD - Contd.

In Part 3 through Abraham's life, we learnt that service which is a result of God working through us will remain for eternity. Everything else will be burnt up. Now, let us learn about...

No confidence in the flesh
In Gen.17:11, we learn that after thirteen years of waiting, when God appeared to Abraham again, He gave him a covenant of circumcision. Circumcision involved a cutting-off and a casting-off of human flesh. It symbolized a casting off of all confidence in self - as Paul explains in Philippians 3:3: "We are the circumcision... who have no confidence in the flesh."

We should notice that, in the very same year that Abraham obeyed God and circumcised himself, Isaac was conceived (Gen. 17:1 and 21:5). There is a lesson for all of us to learn here. God waits until we learn to put no confidence in ourselves and our abilities. And when we finally come to the place where we realize that it is impossible for us in ourselves to serve God and please Him (Rom. 8:8), and when we trust God to work through us, then He takes us up and does an eternal work through us. At the age of 85, the birth of a child to Abraham looked difficult. By the time he was 99 and impotent, that which had been difficult had now become impossible. Then God acted.

Someone has said that in a true work of God, there are three stages - Difficult, Impossible and Done! Human wisdom finds it difficult to follow such reasoning, for spiritual truth is foolishness to the natural mind. But this is God's way.

No flesh will ever be able to glory in God's presence, either now or in eternity (1 Cor. 1:29). God is working to the point where finally Christ will have the pre-eminence in all things (Col. 1:18). If there is going to be some work in Heaven, which lasts for eternity, which has been done by human ingenuity and cleverness, then all through eternity some man will be able to take credit for it. But God is going to make sure that it will not be so. All that ministers to human glory will be burnt up at the judgement seat of Christ. Here on earth, men may receive the credit for something they do, but that will all be reduced to ashes before we reach the shores of eternity. One of these days, God will gather up all things in Christ and then throughout eternal ages Christ alone will have the pre-eminence.

Jessie Penn-Lewis was a woman whose writings have helped many people understand the way of the cross. About ten years after her conversion, when seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit, she tells of how she got a terrible revelation. She saw a hand holding up a bundle of filthy rags and a gentle voice saying, "This is the outcome of all your past service for God". She protested that she had been consecrated to the Lord for years. But the Lord told her that all her service had been merely consecrated SELF - the outcome of her own energy and her own plans. And then she heard one word spoken to her, "Crucified". She had not asked to be crucified, she thought, but to be filled. But she rested on that one word and came to know Jesus as the Risen Lord!!

Self must be crucified, before there can be any service that pleases God. We may serve God with all our hearts and then say, "Lord, please accept these Ishmaels that I have produced." But God will say "No"! He will say "No" now and say "No" in eternity.

Through this lesson let us all learn to crucify our self and everything that gives eminence to our self. Let us seek to glorify God in everything that we do. Let us constantly pray that God Almighty might guide us in our difficult times and let His wisdom guide us. Also to help us not to take credit for everything that happens in our life, but give credit to God for the blessing in our life.

I would like to take this time to thank Zac Poonen for his wonderful book "Beauty for Ashes". The above has been taken from the same book. 

I would like all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ to pray for me so that the Lord Almighty guide me, not in presenting the words from other people but also to open my mind His Holy Words and understand them and first accept those words in my life and then present those words to you all.

Your humble Brother in Christ

Jobin George

The Pathway to the Christ-Life (2) - Being Emptied - Part 3

TRUSTING GOD - Contd.

In the previous part 2, we learned that our self life can be so subtle as well as it can be very deceitful that it can enter the very sanctuary of God and try to serve Him there. Gods's work has to be a work of faith, a work that originates in man's helpless dependence upon God. So now, let us learn about...

Man's extremity - God's opportunity

Isaac, unlike Ishmael, was not the product of Abraham's strength. Abraham had become sterile by then. (This can be understood from Rom. 4:19 where not only Sarah's womb but Abraham's body is also said to be "dead"). Isaac was born through God strengthening impotent Abraham. This is the type of service that last forever. One "Isaac" is worth a thousand "Ishmaels"s. Just like Ishmael was cast out by Abraham on God's saying  (Gen. 21:10-14) and Isaac was allowed to stay with Abraham, all "Ishmaels' will have to be cast out one day.

The lesson here is that service which is a result of God working through us will remain for eternity. Everything else will be burnt up. You may have heard the saying, "Only one life, it will soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last." But it would be more accurate to say, "Only what Christ does through me will last".

Only that which is "from Him and through Him and to Him" (Rom.11:36) will last for eternity.

Paul lved and labored acccording to God's living and working through him (Gal. 2:20 and Col. 1:29). Hence his life and labors were so effective. He lived by faith and he worked by faith.

In Gen. 16:16, we read that Abraham was 86 yrs old when Hagar bore Ishmael. In the very next verse (Gen. 17:1), we read that Abraham was 99 yrs old when God appeared to him again. We see here a gap of 13 years. Those were the years when God waited for Abraham to become impotent, so that He could fulfill His promise. That is God's way with all His servants. He cannot work through them till they recognize their impotence. And in some cases, He has to wait for many years.

Abraham needed to learn what it really meant to trust God. He had to learn that it was only when he became impotent that he could truly exercise faith. In  Rom. 4:19-21, we read that although Abraham knew that hiss body was impotent to produce a son, yet that did not worry him. He was strong in faith and glorified God by believing that God was well able to perform what He had promised. He did not waver in disbelief, for his feet stood firm on the rock of God's Word to him. But when could Abraham exercise such faith? Only when he had come to an end of all confidence in his own ability. We too can exercise real faith only when we reach that state of utter helplessness. This is God's way, so that no flesh may ever glory in His presence.

This however does not mean that we do nothing, for God does not want us to be reduced to a state of inactivity. That is the other extreme of error. God used Abraham to produce Isaac. God didn't do it all by Himself, for Isaac was not born apart from Abraham done his part. NO. But there was a difference between te birth of Ishmael and the birth of Isaac. In both cases, Abraham was the father. But in the first case, it was in dependence upon his own strength; in the second, in dependence upon the power of God. That was the difference - and what a vital difference it was!

Hope you all learnt some lessons from the above chapter. In the next issue, I would be presenting on "No confidence in the flesh" and "Dependence on the Holy Spirit" in the coming parts. I would like to take this time to thank Zac Poonen for his wonderful book "Beauty for Ashes". The above has been taken from the same book. 

I would like all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ to pray for me so that the Lord Almighty guide me, not in presenting the words from other people but also to open my mind His Holy Words and understand them and first accept those words in my life and then present those words to you all.

Your humble Brother in Christ

Jobin George

The Pathway to the Christ-Life (2) - Being Emptied - Part 2

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus

In the previous chapter, (if you want to go there, click here Part 1, I was saying about "Helping God out of a tight spot". We saw that God had promised Abraham a son, but in his desire to make God's work more easier and depended on his abilities and produced Ishmael. But God did not accept him. One thing to remember here is if our service for God originates out of any idea that we are helping God out of a tight spot, we shall only produce unacceptable Ishmaels. That service which has its roots in human energy, fleshly wisdom, human ability and natural talents (even at their very best) is totally unacceptable to God.

Continuing from where I left off...

TRUSTING GOD
Works of Faith

Our self life is so subtle and so deceitful that it can enter the very sanctuary of God and try to serve Him there. We have to watch that and put self to death even when it seeks to serve God.

God's work has to be a work of faith - that is, one that originates in man's helpless dependence upon God. So it is not a question of how effective our work is in the eyes of men or in our own eyes. The important question is whether our work is the result of the Holy Spirit's working, or our own. God is not so much interested in how much is done, as in the question whose power has energized the work. Was the work done by the power of money and intellectual ability, or by the power of the Holy Spirit? This is the real test of a spiritual work, a work of faith. In other words, God is interested in quality than in quantity. God's true work carries on today, as of old, not by human power or might, but by the power of the Holy Spirit (Zech. 4:6). We forget this truth to our own peril.

Hope you all learnt some lessons from the above chapter. In the next issue, I would be presenting on "Man's extremity - God's opportunity". I would like to take this time to thank Zac Poonen for his wonderful book "Beauty for Ashes". The above has been taken from the same book. 

I would like all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ to pray for me so that the Lord Almighty guide me, not in presenting the words from other people but also to open my mind His Holy Words and understand them and first accept those words in my life and then present those words to you all.

Your humble Brother in Christ

Jobin George

The Pathway to the Christ-Life (2) - Being Emptied - Part 1

In the introduction, I mentioned that we would be learning a few lessons from the life of Abraham. We would learn what it means to Trust in God and what it means to Worship Him. 

TRUSTING GOD

Abraham had to learn that trusting God meant not merely intellectual belief, but also being emptied of self-sufficiency and self-dependence.

In Genesis 15 (where the word "believe" occurs n verse 6), the paragraph begins with the words, "After these things..."(v. 1). If we look int the previous chapter, to which the phrase refers, indicates that the time was of great triumph in Abraham's life. With 318 untrained servants, he had gone out and defeated the armies of four kings. And then at the end of all that, if we read further, we see that had conducted himself so nobly before the king of Sodom, refusing to take any reward for his efforts. God had helped him marvelously on both these occasions. Now, in the hour of this triumph, it was so easy for Abraham to feel self-sufficient.

At such a time, God spoke to Abraham and told him that he was going to have a son. And not only that, but God also said that through that son would come a seed that would be like the stars of the heaven for number. It looked almost impossible, but Abraham believed the Lord (Gen. 15:6). The Hebrew word translated "believe" here is "aman" which is the word we use at the end of our prayers: "Amen". It means, "It shall be so". When God told Abraham that he was going to have a son, he replied with an "Amen", meaning in essence, "Lord, I don't know how this is going to take place. But since You have said it, I believe it shall be so."

God's promise looked difficult of fulfillment because Sarah was barren. Of course, Abraham himself was still fertile. So there was some hope. In other words, the promise was not exactly impossible, but certainly difficult.

Helping God out of a tight spot

After Abraham heard God's promise, he must have reasoned with himself and said, "Well, I suppose, I should help God out in this situation, since Sarah is barren". And so he readily accepted Sarah's suggestion to unite with Hagar her maid. He sincerely desired to help God. He felt that God was in a tight spot, having made a promise that could not, humanly speaking, be fulfilled. And so, to save God out of this awkward situation, Abraham united with Hagar and produced Ishmael! But God rejected Ishmael as unacceptable, for he was the product of man's self-effort.

Today, so much of our motivation for Christian work in our day arises out of the same reasoning that Abraham had. Many believers are led to believe that God is depending on their efforts and that if they let Him down, His purposes will not be fulfilled! Things apparently have not worked out as God planned and as a result He is in a tight spot now! Some exhortations to Christian service gives us the impression that the Almighty is now at His wit's end and is desperately in need of our help!

Of course God uses human agency for the outworking of His purposes. He has voluntarily accepted this limitation because He wants us to have the privilege of cooperating with Him in His work. But that does not mean that if we disobey Him, His work will remain undone. We should understand that He is a Sovereign God. There is certainly a work for Jesus that wee can do; but if we don't do it, He will just pass us by and get someone else to do the job - and we shall miss the privilege of being God's co-workers.

We need to realize this fact that God can carry on His work very well without our help. If our service for God originates out of any idea that we are helping God out of  a tight spot, we shall only produce unacceptable Ishmaels. That service which has its roots in human energy, fleshly wisdom, human ability and natural talents (even at their very best) is totally unacceptable to God. Ishmael may be smart and impressive and we might even cry out to God just like Abraham did, "Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee" (Gen. 17:18). But God's answer to our Ishmael is "No. He was born through your strength, Abraham. So I cannot accept Him, however good he may be".

And so it is with the service that originates from ourselves. God did not accept it then, and He certainly will not accept it today! If there is any human explanation for our Christian service - be it be merely the result of excellent theological training that our sharp minds have brought together, or made possible because we have access to enough finances to support ourselves in the Christian work - then however impressive our work may appear in the eyes of men, it will be burnt up in the day of reckoning as wood, hay and straw. That day will reveal the multitude of "Ishmaels" produced by well meaning Christians, who were never emptied of their self-sufficiency. 

The only work that will abide for eternity is that which is produced in humble dependence upon the power of God's Holy Spirit. May God help us to learn that lesson now, instead of having regrets at Christ's judgement seat.

Hope you all learnt some lessons from the above chapter. In the next issue, I would be presenting on "Works of faith" and "Man's extremity - God's opportunity". I would like to take this time to thank Zac Poonen for his wonderful book "Beauty for Ashes". The above has been taken from the same book. 

I would like all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ to pray for me so that the Lord Almighty guide me, not in presenting the words from other people but also to open my mind His Holy Words and understand them and first accept those words in my life and then present those words to you all.

Your humble Brother in Christ

Jobin George

The Pathway to the Christ Life (2) - Being Emptied

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

If you follow my previous topics, my main focus was on being broken and the person depicted was Jacob. We learnt many from Jacob. But the way of the cross involves not only being broken but also being emptied.

"It is no longer I", said Paul. He had allowed himself to be emptied of the "I", so that Christ might live and rule in him. Even Jesus emptied Himself when He came down from the Throne of God Almighty to the awful depths of the cross (Phil. 2:5-8). The cross will mean the same in our lives as it did to Jesus and Paul.

In the current series of "Being Broken", we shall look to the life of Abraham - Father of the Believers, to see what it means to be emptied. In James 2:23, Abraham is called "the father of God". He was a type of those who, in the New Testament age, would be called the friends of God. Jesus told His disciples, just before He went to the cross, "You are My friends if you obey Me (as Abraham did). I no longer call you slaves, for a master does not confide in His slaves; now you are My friends, proved by the fact that I have told you everything the Father told Me" (John 15:14,15).

In the New Testament, God does not call us just to be His slaves, but to be also His friends -best of friends. Friends who enter into secret counsels and hidden mysteries of His Word. Abraham was such a friend. God revealed His secrets to him (Gen. 18:17-19).

Abraham was mightily blessed by God, and we are told that "all who trust in Christ (can) share the same blessing Abraham received" (Gal. 3:9). But what was the blessing with which God blessed Abraham? God's promise to Abraham was, "I will bless you" (Gen. 12:2). We saw in the previous series what it means to be blessed of God. But God's promise to Abraham did not end with "I will bless you". He went on to say,"...and you will be a blessing to others." This was God's full purpose for Abraham and is His purpose for us today. We are not only to be blessed but also to be channels through which that blessing is communicated to others.

Galatians 3:14 makes it clear that the blessing of Abraham for us today is connected with the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One Who communicates the abundant life of Christ to us and then ministers that same life through us to others.

In James 2:21-23, where Abraham is called God's friend, two incidents from Abraham's life are mentioned:

(i) His believing God when God told him that he would have a son (v. 23 referring to Gen. 15:6)

(ii) His offering up Isaac when God asked him to (v. 21 referring to Gen. 22)

These two incidents are brought together in James when Abraham is referred to as being "God's friend". These two chapters in Genesis describe two important periods in Abraham's life. Moreover, in these two important chapters we find the first occurrences in the Bible of two important words - "believe" (Gen. 15:6) and "worship" (Gen. 22:5).

All Scripture is inspired by God, hence there is obviously a significance attached to the first time occurrence of an important word in the Scripture. These two passages of Scripture therefore will have much to teach us concerning the true meanings of faith and worship.

And these are the two lessons that Abraham had to learn - what it meant to believe God and what it meant to worship Him. Both of these are possibly only as we accept the cross as the instrument of our self-emptying.

With this introduction, I now start a new series. Hopefully, I will be able to complete it within a month's time. Hope you all would learn the lessons that Abraham learnt and be blessed of God and be a blessing unto others. 

Please do keep me, a sinful servant of Christ in your prayers as I type down the lessons.

Your brother in Christ

Jobin

The above extract has been taken from the book "Beauty for Ashes" by Zac Poonen.

The Pathway to the Christ-Life - Being Broken - 7

THE SUN RISES - Contd.

Honest with God

Finally, Jacob was blessed in the place where he was honest with God. God asks him, "What is your name?" Twenty years earlier, when his father had asked him the same question, he had lied and said, "I am Esau" (Gen.27:19). But now he is honest. He says, "Lord, I am Jacob" - or in other words, "Lord, I am a grabber, a deceiver, and a bargainer." There was no guile in Jacob now. And so God could bless him.

Years later, when Jesus looked at Nathaniel, you remember what He said: "Behold an Israelite - a true Israel, a genuine prince of God - in whom there is no Jacob', no guile" (John 1:47). This is what God waits to see in us too. Only then can He empower us.

God blessed Jacob there - when he was honest, when he did not want to pretend any more, when he confessed, "Lord I am a hypocrite. There is shame shame and pretense in my life". I tell you, it takes real brokenness for a man to acknowledge that from the depths of his heart. Many Christian leaders say words like that with false humility - to gain a reputation for being humble. I am not referring to that type of abomination. What I mean i an honesty that comes out of a truly broken and contrite heart. That is costly. There so much guile in all of us. May God have mercy on us for pretending to be so sanctified when we are not. Let us covet sincerity and honesty and openness with all of our hearts, and then there will be no limit to God's blessing upon our lives.

The Ascending Sun

Jacob was broken and thereby he became Israel. The sun rose on his life at last. This did not however, mean that Jacob had become perfect. There is no once-for-all experience that guarantees perfection. God had to discipline him further, for he still had plenty to learn. In Genesis chapters 33 and 34, we read of some of Jacob's disobedience and blunders.

But the sun had risen on his life and he had entered into a new spiritual plane. The light had to increase in its brightness, no doubt, but that would come as the sun continued to ascend in the sky to its noon-day position. The Bible says, "The path of the just (the justified man) is like the shining light (of the sun) that shines more and more (from sunrise onwards) unto the perfect (noon) day" (Prov. 4:18).

So it was with Jacob and so it must be with us. If we submit to God's dealings with us, as Jacob finally did, the light of God will continuously increase upon our lives. And as it does so, the shadow of our self-life will continue to decrease until finally when the sun is overhead (when Christ returns), the shadow will disappear altogether and Christ will be all in all.

What was Jacob's testimony in later years, about his Peniel experience? He did not keep telling everyone that on such-and-such a date he had received a second blessing. No. His testimony was something different. In Hebrews 11, we are given an inkling as to what Jacob's testimony was.There, we are given a record of some of the exploits of great men of faith in the Old Testament - shutting lions' mouth, raising from the dead etc., Jacob's name appears in the list too - and what do you think is recorded of him? "He worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff" (v.21). It looks quite incongruous to include something like that in a chapter full of spectacular events!

What Jacob did, certainly does not look like a "miracle of faith". But it was. It was perhaps a greater miracle than the other miracles recorded in the chapter. The staff had become necessary to Jacob, because his thigh had been dislocated at Peniel. Leaning upon his staff, he would always remember the miracle that God had wrought in his life, in breaking his stubborn self-will. His leaning upon his staff now symbolised his helpless, moment-by-moment dependence on his God. He worshipped God now as a broken man. He gloried in his weakness and infirmity - and that was his daily testimony. So it was with Apostle Paul too. And so it has been with the great men and women of God in all ages. They rejoiced in their limitations and not in their achievements. What a lesson for proud, self-confident 21st century Christians!

Towards the end of his life, we see Jacob as a prophet. He prophesies concerning the future of his descendants (Gen. 49). Only a man who has been under God's hand and who has submitted to the Divine disciplines is qualified to prophesy. Jacob had learnt through experience. He was no seminary-qualified theoretician. He had been through the grill and qualified in God's University. He knew the secret counsels of God. Truly he was a prince of God. What a wonderful thing it is to be purged by God. What fruitfulness it results in!

Notice finally, a word of encouragement that runs through the Bible. God calls Himself, "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (not "Israel, but "Jacob"). " This is wonderful indeed! He is the God of Jacob. He has linked His Name with the name of Jacob, the grabber, and the deceiver. This is our encouragement. Our God is the God of the man with the warped personality. He is the God of the woman with the different temperament. What meaning there is in the psalmist's words, "The God of Jacob is our refuge" (Psa. 46:7,11). He is not only the Lord of Hosts, but also the God of Jacob. Praise be to His Name!

What God has begun in us He will complete. As perfect as was the work of the Father in creation and as perfect as was the work of the Son in our redemption, so perfect will the work of the Holy Spirit be in our sanctification. God is faithful.

"He Who began the good work within (us) will keep right on helping (us) grow in grace until His task within (us) is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns" (Phil. 1:6). He will complete His work in us, as He completed His work in Jacob. But we must respond as Jacob did at Peniel. If however we do not cooperate with Him, but frustrate His workings in us, we shall ultimately stand before Him with the tragedy of a wasted, fruitless life. God wants to be fruitful, but He won't compel us. He wants to transform us into the likeness of Christ, but He will never override our free-will.

The pathway to the Christ-life is via the cross - being broken thereon. What power is released when an atom is broken. What power can be released when a child of God is broken in God's Hand!

With this I come to an of the series "The Pathway to the Christ-Life (1) - Being Broken". From next week onwards I will be posting on the next series on the same line... "The Pathway to the Christ-Life (2) - Being Emptied"

Hope you all enjoyed reading. The above extract has been taken from the book "Beauty for Ashes" by Zac Poonen. Please do keep me in your prayers so that the Lord Almighty may guide me and break me to glorify Him always.

Your Brother in Chris Jesus

Jobin

The Pathway to the Christ-Life - Being Broken - 6

The Sun Rises - Contd.

Hungry for God

Thirdly, Jacob was blessed in the place where he was earnest and hungry for God. "I will not leave you", he cries out, "until you bless me" (Gen. 32:26). How God had waited for twenty long years to hear those words from Jacob. He, who spent his life grabbing the birthright, women, money and property, now lets go of them all and grabs hold of God. This was the point towards which God had been working in Jacob's life all along. It must have delighted God's heart when Jacob at last lost sight of the temporal things of the earth and longed and thirsted for God Himself and for His blessing. We are told in Hosea 12:4, that Jacob wept and pleaded for a blessing that night at Peniel. What a different man he was that night compared with his earlier years when he desired only the things of this world. God's dealing with him at lat bore fruit!

Before God blessed Jacob fully, He tested Jacob's earnestness. He said to Jacob, 'Let me go," testing whether Jacob would be satisfied with what he had got or whether he would yearn for more. It was just as Elijah tested Elisha in later years. Elijah said, "Let me go", again and again, but Elisha refused to be shaken off - and so got a double portion of Elisha's spirit (2 Kings 2). Jesus, likewise, tested the two disciples walking to Emmaus (Luke 24:12-31). When they reached their house, Jesus acted as though He would go further. But the two disciples would not let Him go - and they got a blessing as a result.

God tests us too. He can never bless a man fully until the man is in dead earnest for God's best. We need to thirst like Jacob, saying, "Lord, there is more to the Christian life than I have experienced thus far. I'm not satisfied. I want all Thy fullness at any cost". When we come to that point, it is but a short step to the fullness of God's blessing.

Notice in the incident at Peniel, that it was when Jacob was in a state of weakness (after his thigh had been dislocated), that he said, "I will not let you go, God." God could have easily left him and gone, but He didn't. For it is when a man is most weak in himself that he has greatest power with God. As the Apostle Paul said, "I am glad to boast about how weak I am; I am glad to be living demonstration of Christ's power, instead of showing off my own power and abilities... for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:9,10). God's power is most effectively demonstrated in human weakness.

And so with Jacob, it is when he is defeated, broken and utterly weak, that God tells him, "You have now prevailed". One would think that God should have said, "You have at last been defeated." But no. The word is, "You have prevailed. You shall henceforth have power with God and with men" (v. 28). We prevail, when God has shattered us of our own strength and self-sufficiency - as the words of the hymn say, "Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free." This is the glorious paradox of the Christian life.

If ever there was a picture of weakness, surely it is seen in a man hanging helplessly on a cross. Beaten and buffeted and finally nailed to the cross, Christ died as a weak and exhausted man. But there the power of God was displayed in the overthrow of the Devil and the deliverance of men (Heb.2:14; Col.2:14,15). "Christ crucified is the power of God," Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "He was crucified in weakness, but He lives by the power of God. We also are weak with Him, but shall live with Him by the power of God' (1 Cor. 1:23,24; 2 Cor. 13:4). The Corinthian Christians were mistaking the gift of tongues for evidence of being endued with God's power, and so Paul had to correct their error. In essence he tells them, "Brethren, the power of God is not seen in the gift of tongues. Thank God if you have that gift. But don't make any mistake. The power of God is manifested only in and via the cross. It is in human weakness that the might of God is seen."

The way of the cross is the way of power. In the measure in which we walk that pathway we shall have God's power in our life, and people will be blessed through our life and our ministry. When the five loaves are broken, then and not until then, will the multitude be fed.

To know more, please await the next portion in the series. The above extract has been taken from "Beauty for Ashes" by Zac Poonen. Hope you all enjoyed reading it.

Please keep me, a sinner in your prayers

Your brother and friend in Christ Jesus

Jobin George  

The Pathway to the Christ-Life - Being Broken - 5

The Sun Rises - Contd.
Alone with God
First of all, Jacob was blessed in the place where he was alone with God. He sent everyone else away and was alone (Gen. 32:24). 20th century believers find it difficult to spend much time alone with God. The spirit of the jet-age has got into most of us, and we are in a perpetual state of busyness. The trouble is not with our temperament or our culture. We just don't have our priorities right - that's all.

Jesus once said that the one thing needful for a believer was to sit at His feet and listen to Him (Luke 10:42). But we don't believe that any longer and so suffer the disastrous consequences of disregarding Jesus' words. If we are always busy with our various activities and do not know what it is to get alone with God in fasting and prayer, we shall certainly not know God's power or blessing - His real power, I mean (not the cheap counterfeits that many are boasting of)...

Broken by God
Secondly, Jacob wsa blessed in the place where he was broken completely. At Peniel, a Man wrestled with Jacob. God had been wrestling with Jacob for twenty years, but Jacob had refused to yield. God had tried to show him how everything he had put his hand to had gone wrong, despite his cleverness and his planning. But Jacob was still stubborn. Finally God struck Jacob's hip-socket so that his thigh was dislocated (v.25). The thigh is the strongest part of the body, and that was the part that God struck.

The strong points in our life are what God seeks to shatter. Simon Peter had once thought that his strong point spiritually, was his courage. Even if everyone else denied the Lord, he would never do so. And so God had to break him there. Peter denied the Lord before any of the others did, and not just once but thrice, and that too when questioned by a weak little servant-girl! That was enough to shatter Peter. In the physical realm, Peter's strong point was fishing. If there was one thing he was an expert at, it was fishing. And so God broke him at that point as well. Peter fishes all night and catches nothing. And that happened not just once but twice (Luke 5:5; John 21:3). God broke him at his strongest points to teach him his total inability to serve God.

It took 3 and half years for the disciples to learn, that without Christ they could not do anything. It takes even longer for some of us. But it is only in the measure in which we learn the truth of those words that we can know God's power. When Peter was shattered at his strongest points - when he had been struck by God in his "thigh" - then he was ready for Pentecost.

Moses' strong point was his leadership potential, his eloquence and his training in the best academies of Egypt. He thought he was well qualified to be the leader of the Israelites (Acts 7:25). But God did not stand by him until, forty years later, shattered in his strongest points, he said, "Lord, I am not the person for a job like that ...I'm not a good speaker ... please send someone else" (Exod. 3:11; 4:10,13). Then God took him up and used him mightily. God has to wait till our self-sufficiency and our self-confidence are shattered, and we are broken and no longer think highly of ourselves or our capabilities. Then He can commit Himself to us unreservedly.

To know more, please await the next portion in the series. The above extract has been taken from "Beauty for Ashes" by Zac Poonen. Hope you all enjoyed reading it.

Please keep me, a sinner in your prayers

Your brother and friend in Christ Jesus

Jobin George

The Pathway to the Christ-Life - Being Broken - 4

THE SUN RISES

We have seen how the sun set upon Jacob's life and how the darknesss deepened through the ensuing twenty years. He was indeed an ordinary man just like us. And so such a man the sun rose one day. God met with him a second time and changed him into an "Israel"- a prince of God.

Only God could have seen any good in such a useless person as Jacob, and followed after him patiently, without giving up hope. There we see the grace and greatness of our God. And this is what encourages us. In spite of all our self-centeredness, God does not throw us on the scrap-heap. He is patient with us.

We may  not believe in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, but we cannot but believe in the perseverance of God. "I will not leave you until I have done that which I have promised," was His promise to Jacob at Bethel - and His promise to us. How wonderful and how humiliating it is to know the long suffering of God in His dealings with us. If He were not like that, none of us would have any hope.

At Peniel, God dealt a final blow to Jacob. He had been disciplining Jacob and breaking him, bit by bit, over the previous twenty years. But now the time had come to finish the work with one final blow. If God had not done that here, it might have taken twenty more years for the sun to rise on Jacob. God knows the right time to shatter our self-confidence once-and-for-all.

Blessed by God

And when God finally broke Jacob, then he was truly blessed. The record reads, "God blessed Jacob there" (Gen.32:29). The word "bless" is perhaps the most frequently used word in the prayer of the Christians. But few understand its real meaning.

What is blessing? What was the blessing Jacob got? It is described in verse 28 as "power with God and power with men". This is the blessng we all need and that we should be seeking for. And this alone can make the sun rise upon our lives. Nothing less than this is what God desires to give His people. Jesus referred to this blessing when He asked His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. He said, "When the Holy Spirit is come upon you, you shall receive power" (Acts 1:8) - power with God and power with men. Jacob would be transformed by the Spirit's power into Israel. This was what made the sun to rise upon Peter's life and upon the lives of the other disciples that day in the upper room at Jerusalem.

And this alone can provide the answer to the crookedness of our self-life. It is not a question of reformation or of good resolutions or even of our determination. It is the a question of the Holy Spirit possessing us fully and governing and ruling our lives.

But where does the Spirit lead us? Always to the cross. It is only when we are crucified, that Christ can live in us in His fullness, it was when Jesus was baptized, buried under the waters - symbolically accepting death to Himself - that the Holy Spirit came upon Him (Matt.3:16). It was when Jacob was broken that he was blessed. It was only after Moses' self-confidence had been shattered through 40 years of looking after sheep, that he was ready to deliver Israel. The rock had to be smitten before the living waters could flow. The Israelites had to go through the River Jordan (symbolizing death and burial) before they could enter Canaan (symbolizing life in the fullness of the Spirit). Gideon's army had to break their pitchers before the light inside was visible. The alabaster vial had to be broken before the odor of the ointment could fill the house. Peter's boastful self confidence had to be shattered before he was ready for Pentecost. We find this truth throughout the Scriptures.

It would be dangerous for God to empower an unbroken man. It would be like giving a sharp knife to a 6-month old baby, or like handling 20,000 volts of electricity without proper insulation. God is careful. He does not give the power of His Spirit to those in whom self is still unbroken. And He removes His power from a man when he ceases to be broken.

Jacob was now blessed by God Himself. Earlier, Isaac had laid his hands on Jacob and blessed him, when Jacob brought him the venison (Gen.27:23). But that had brought no change in Jacob's life. The real blessing came at Peniel. And this is the lesson we need to learn too. No man can ever give us this blessing, A man - even a saintly man like Isaac - may lay his empty hands on our empty heads and pray for us. Yet we may get nothing. Only God can really empower us. When Isaac put his hands on Jacob's head, the sun merely set on Jacob's life. But when God blessed him, the sun rose! Power belongs to God and He is the only one who can ever give it to us.

The record says, "God blessed Jacob there" (Gen.32:29) - there, where Jacob fulfilled certain conditions and came to a certain point in his life. There were reasons why God blessed Jacob there - at Peniel.

To know more, please await the next portion in the series. The above extract has been taken from "Beauty for Ashes" by Zac Poonen. Hope you all enjoyed reading it.

Please keep me, a sinner in your prayers

Your brother and friend in Christ Jesus

Jobin George

The Pathway to The Christ-Life - Being Broken - 3

THE SUN SETS - Contd.

Divine Discipline
In order to fulfill His promises to Jacob, God had to discipline him severely. And so we see from this point in the story up to the second meeting at Peniel, twenty years of Divine chastening in Jacob's life in order that Jacob might come to the point where he would accept God's highest for his life.

First of all, God placed Jacob alongside another shrewd person. Laban was as smart as Jacob, and as they lived together and came into close contact with each other, plenty of friction was generated and some of Jacob's rough edges were rubbed off. God knows whom to place us with in order to purge us of our crookedness. God measures out His disciplines to us, according to our individual need; and He makes all things work together for our good, even when He places us alongside someone like Laban - provided we don't rebel against God's providences. Many people have learnt sanctification through God leading them to marry someone just like themselves. "The sparks fly when iron strikes iron" (Prov.27:17) - but it sharpens both pieces of iron!

Jacob, at last, begins to reap what he had sown. All his life he had been cheating others. Now he gets cheated himself. He goes through his wedding ceremony, thinking he was marrying Rachel, but discovers next morning that he has actually married Leah! He had met his match in Laban! He now gets a taste himself of the bitter medicine that he had  been doling out to others. God does not discipline without a purpose or arbitrarily. He knows what dosage each person needs and gives the medicine accordingly. With the merciful, God shows Himself merciful; with the stubborn, He shows Himself stubborn (Psalm 18:25). He knows how to deal with every Jacob.

Jacob's problems were not yet over. After fourteen years of hard work, he obtained Rachel, only to discover that she was barren. God was merciful and finally gave Jacob a child through her, but even this brings no change in Jacob. He still cannot trust God, but continues to scheme.

He next plans to rob Laban of his property. Jacob was clever. He knew all the tricks of the trade, and he knew how to get the best of Laban's cattle. How long God had to wait before Jacob learned to trust in Him and forsake his own human ingenuity. It is the same problem that God has with many of His children today. He is not impressed by our cleverness. He waits for us to see the folly of all that, before He can use us to fulfill His will.

We find Jacob finally scheming to run away from Laban. He is tired of living with his father-in-law and wants to go away. But when he does run away, he finds that he has only jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. He learns that Esau is approaching him with a large army and that Laban is pursuing him from the rear. The one who tries to escape God's disciplines finds that it is not an easy task. If Jacob had left the matter in God's hands, God would have released him from Laban in His own way. But Jacob had not learned to trust God yet.

Finding himself hedged in and his life in danger, Jacob now begins to pray. He is quick to remind God of His promises made at Bethel (Gen. 32:9-12). But prayer alone is not sufficient for Jacob. He has to scheme too. He thinks up a clever plan of saving part of his company at least - just in case God lets him down. How very much like those who talk of trusting God and "living by faith", but all the time have some earthly source of security to fall back upon just in case faith in God alone does not work! Jacob was indeed very much like us.

And how often we have seen, as Jacob realized when he met Esau, that our fears were unfounded, that there was no need to have schemed and worried and doubted God. Esau's heart was in God's hands, and God could turn it (as Proverbs 21:1 says) in whichever direction He chose. "When a man is trying to please God, God makes even his worst enemies to be at peace with him" (Prov. 16:7). God had told Jacob clearly that He would take care of him. But Jacob could not believe God's promise.

Jacob had twenty long and painful years of chastening under God's hand. We are not given all the details of what Jacob underwent - but he must have had a rough time. It must have been physically exhausting too - working and sleeping out in the open, exposed to the sun and the dew and the rain. But all this discipline was necessary, in order to shatter Jacob's self-sufficiency and self-confidence. Only in later years, when he looked back, would he be able to appreciate what God took him through -not now. "God's correction is always right and for our best good, that we may share His holiness. (But) being punished isn't enjoyable while it is happening - it hurts! But afterwards, we can see the result, a quiet growth in grace and character" (Heb.12:10-11).

As the well-known hymn says:

"With mercy and with judgement, my web of time He wove,

And aye, the dews of sorrow were lustered by His love:

I'll bless the Hand that guided, I'll bless the Heart that planned

When throned where glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land."

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The above extract has been taken from the book "Beauty from Ashes" by Zac Poonen. Hope you all enjoy reading it and inculcating the teachings in your life and learn to trust God in all you do. Please do keep me, a sinner in your prayers.

Your friend and brother in Christ Jesus
Jobin George