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"It is GOD which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Phillipians 2:13
As we mature in Christ I believe we come to see that all that comes our way comes by the hand of God. All the events of our life are pre-destined and divinely appointed for our perfection. and the perfection of the corporate Christ. If God has raised you up to become a mature son and an overcomer (Romans 8 & Rev 2, 3 and 12) you will be overcome by the Spirit of Christ as you learn to surrender all that you have and all that you are to God. This is the method of our overcoming and where we find His rest.
Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led about by the Spirit in the Desert for forty days, Luke 4:1
Just as Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to the wilderness to be tested so will all of God's sons. If it is good enough for Jesus it is good enough for us as He is the "Pattern Son." God tests our faith and then by the indwelling Christ we pass those tests. "I can do nothing of myself" is the purpose and the rightful conclusion of all His testings ........... and it is "His faith" that is tested. These may seem like deep things but they are true things that must be grasped before Christ be fully manifested in your life and mine.
I'll leave you with a short message by Paul Mueller, that I have probably had more cause to share than any other writing over the last year. This message points to a more mature understanding of our testing and the responsibility for such.
I have copied and pasted the conclusion of this message as a preamble that it might echo in the heart of any that God has prepared to receive it.
"We have grown spiritually beyond the doctrines of the old order. Now, we no longer see the devil in our lives. The Lord has taken the devil out of our minds, out of our doctrines, and out of our lives. Now we know the truth! Now we know "It is GOD which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." "
.................................................Paul Mueller
There is another rod of God that concerns us: it is the Lord’s rod of discipline and correction. Job referred to this rod when he said, ‘Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them (Job 21:7-9). As we look about us in the world today, we can see that the wicked live just as Job said they did, without the rod of God in their lives. The wicked enjoy wealth and the power which that wealth brings. They live the so-called ‘good life,’ for their lives are free of the Lord’s rod of discipline and correction. But it is not so with the chosen saints of the Lord! Our lives are wondrously and strangely predestined of our Father to attain to the fullness of sonship in Christ through the discipline of our trials.
Throughout our journey in this life, with every step we take, we will see the rod of God in our lives. At times, our lives will be interrupted by a strange set of circumstances that are unique and unexplainable. But we must know that our loving Father predestined us to the adoption of sons, and His rod is that set of disciplinary circumstances in our lives designed to lead us to the fullness of the life of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Others may live in abundant prosperity and health, enjoying the things of this world, but we are being disciplined by the rod of the Lord, and are separated unto Him for His holy purposes. If we are truly called and chosen of our Father to become manifest sons of God at this time, we must experience His strange and unique rods, including the rod of selection and separation as well as His rod of discipline.
The chastisement of Father’s rod is unique to true sons. All the sons of God are now going through some form of chastisement, or will soon experience it. The prophet declared, ‘The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city (the heavenly Jerusalem): hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it’ (Mic. 6:9). When the Lord applies His rod of correction to our lives, it is an indication that He wants to teach us something wonderful and important. The Lord’s rod brings a message to us, therefore we should hear the message of the rod. In every trial, He is doing something wonderful in our lives! When a strange form of discipline unto correction comes our way, we will then reply to our Father, ‘Abba, Father, what lesson do you want me to learn through this experience?’ Father has a rich, new message for us in every application of the rod, a message we could not receive in any other circumstance, so we are admonished to ‘hear ye the rod.’
Furthermore, we should not only hear the message of the rod, but we also should understand ‘who hath appointed it.’ The rod of correction, that must come into the life of every true son, is that experience that will perfect us and bring us into the fullness of the life of Christ. By the wisdom of the mind of Christ we will recognize the chastisements in our lives as the rod of God, and not Satan’s works. The devil would rather keep us living in constant ecstasy, and our minds thus dulled to the voice of the Lord. Satan does not want us to be perfected and would not send these tests and trials into our lives! But God is applying His rod to our lives to keep us alert and aware of His voice and leadings, and to perfect us and conform us to His image and likeness. We have grown spiritually beyond the doctrines of the old order. Now, we no longer see the devil in our lives. The Lord has taken the devil out of our minds, out of our doctrines, and out of our lives. Now we know the truth! Now we know "It is GOD which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Mueller)
God calls us and gives us His gift of salvation through Christ Jesus and a week later we want to earn that gift and our salvation. With our earnings we slowly "edge God out" (EGO). For about two weeks I was overjoyed with the gift of Christ and then for thirty years I tried to earn my keep in the Kingdom before I gave up.
Today I say, "Overcome me my Lord and reveal within me your rightful eternal throne where I can rejoin You as part of the Elohim. I acknowledge my absolute dependence on Your Grace."
Jack
Note: For further reading, a couple links
Paul and Emily Mueller writings
http://sigler.org/mueller/
"Where Did the Devil Come From?" by J Preston Eby
http://www.kingdombiblestudies.org/serpent/Serpent.htm
When that doctor slapped my little new born fanny the testing began and I cried ........ and today I am still crying.
How long O Lord, how long ..............
(that's a joke but not far from the truth. LOL)
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We cannot contain the overflowing cup of His love thus we share with you these messages of the Life of our Lord as lived out in His saints.
