December 29th
Deserter or Disciple?
Many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him from that time. John 6:66.
When God gives a vision by His Spirit through His word of what He wants, and your mind and soul thrill to it, if you do not walk in the light of that vision, you will sink into servitude to the point of view which Our Lord never had. Disobedience in mind to the heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of thought alien to Jesus Christ. Do not look at someone else and say—‘Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why cannot I?’ You have to walk in the light of the vision that has been given to you and not compares yourself with others or judge them; that is, between them and God. When you find that a point of view in which you have been delighting clashes with the heavenly vision, and you debate, certain things will begin to develop in you—a sense of property and a sense of personal right, something of which Jesus Christ made nothing. He was always against these things as the root of everything alien to Himself. “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth.” If we do not recognize this, we are ignoring the undercurrent of Our Lord’s teaching.
We are apt to lie back and bask in the memory of the beautiful experience. If there is one standard in the New Testament revealed by the light of God, and you do not come up to it and do not feel inclined to come up to it, that is the beginning of backsliding because it means your conscience does not answer to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of reality. That moment marks you for going on as a more faithful disciple of Jesus Christ or for going back as a deserter.
Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986. Print.
Comments