Knowing God

I have been a Christian for more than sixty years. I suppose I have had as much exposure to Christian churches and people as the average believer. I have come to the conclusion that while there are millions of people in America who profess salvation through Jesus Christ, not many of them really know the Lord. They just know religion and the Statement of Faith of their denomination. In fact, some of them don’t even know what their own Statement of Faith actually says.

(4/27/2008) The emphasis this Sunday was on knowing the Lord; talking to the Lord; listening to Jesus; obeying Jesus.

You might say, “Oh, we all do that.” I don’t think so—at least numerous believers don’t talk as though they are seeking to know God, and Jesus Christ whom God has sent to us. Yet, such knowledge is what eternal life is.

I have exhorted our congregation for several years to ask Jesus about everything they do. That is how I live. I think that many if not all of the believers could learn to listen to Jesus. He doesn’t always speak to us in words; but when we commit our ways to Him, He most assuredly directs our paths.

Being a pastor, I am presented with numerous plans for church growth (which almost always means in numbers, not growth in Christ); for “getting souls saved”; for influencing the community. I have never, that I can remember, been advised to listen to Christ and find out what He wants me to do as a pastor.

When I was in Bible school in 1948 I was fed the usual stuff: “every minute a thousand souls are slipping down into Hell.” Somehow it came out that it was my fault for not “burning out for Christ” (I guess this means having a nervous breakdown from working so hard).

Most of the kids in Bible school had heard this sort of talk all the while they were growing up, and realized no one is doing anything about it, including the pastor. I was not raised in a Christian home, so I was taking all this seriously. What a burden! What an impossible weight on my conscience!

So I said to the Lord, “I prefer to believe You know what You are doing. If You will tell me what You want me to do, and give me the grace to do it, I will do whatever You say, to the best of my ability. But I absolutely refuse to live under the guilt that thousands of souls are slipping into Hell each minute because I am not “burning myself out for Christ.”

How often we are told we must have a “passion for souls.” Another weight on my conscience. I am sure there are intercessors and personal workers who really have a passion that is part of their gift. I myself do not have a “passion for souls” (how awful!), but I do have a genuine passion for doing God’s will. This passion is God’s gift to me, and it is genuine, not something I have been told I should have.

I have come to the conclusion that most religious talk is traditional, and people cannot obey the exhortations because they do not have the grace to do so. All they can do is worry, and hope somehow they will end up on a golden street playing a harp, wearing golden slippers, possessing a mansion and a backyard full of diamonds, and doing nothing significant for eternity except eat candy without getting fat.

We need to stop and ask Christ what we should do. We are chopping with a dull axe. Christ has new and surprising things He will do to overcome the deplorable moral chaos in America of our day. We are to not compare ourselves with the past. We are to make no assumptions, pray, listen to Jesus, and obey Him implicitly. If we do this, the rest is God’s responsibility.

This is my attitude, and I have rest in it.

It has been said that an elephant was employed to haul teak logs to a river so they can be floated down to a sawmill. He asked a little mouse to remain close to him while he was doing this work so he would not be lonesome. The elephant had a yoke on his neck and a chain with which to drag the log. The mouse also had a yoke so he would feel important, but a chain would be too heavy for him.

The mouse felt really enthusiastic, so he began to look for a better way to haul logs. He tried every trick he could think of, until he wore himself out (burned out for Christ).

Meanwhile the elephant continued with his work, hauling logs to the river.

I believe this is a true allegory. For two thousand years the religious organizations, for the most part, have attempted to figure out the best way for preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to every person. But usually they do not ask the Elephant for help. Rather, they ask His blessings on their plans.

We have this option today. We can use computers and determine the most logical approach to getting our message to the most needy people.

Or, we can quit planning and stay before Christ until we are certain we have heard from Him. It may be an hour, or twenty years, before He is ready to bring an awakening to America that has enough power to change what is going on in our country. While we are waiting, we are to continue to do the simple tasks He places before us.

Our nation needs a powerful awakening. Your city and my city need a powerful awakening. Terrible moral horrors are taking place in the schools of our country. Imagine telling little boys and girls to think about what gender they would like to be, and making it happen with an operation, if necessary! This is an abomination so great that no words can describe it. The truth is, because of lustful perversions we have received minds void of judgment (Romans, first chapter).

The media and entertainers, as well as artists, are blaspheming Jesus Christ in an unheard of manner. What can stop this slide down into satanic filth? Only the power of the Holy Spirit. Who directs the Holy Spirit? The Lord Jesus Christ.

But Christ is not going to bless our plans to save our nation or the world. Rather, we are to quit looking for new devices and systems and pursue Him for wisdom. Christ will be no one’s co-pilot!

So we keep swinging with the dull axe. If we dare stop long enough to sharpen it, we will get a lot of criticism and derision because we are “not doing anything for God.” Souls are slipping into Hell by the millions while we are sharpening our axe.

Well, someone has to have enough strength to put his or her faith solidly in Jesus Christ and wait until He tells him or her what to do. It is certain we will have no awakening powerful enough to stop the moral filth in America until someone decides to quite trying this and trying that, and looks to Christ for the solutions.

The decision I had to make many years ago in Bible School involved these question: “Does God have a plan? Does God know what He is doing? Is God willing to share His thoughts with us so we can work along with Him? Or has God dumped the whole thing in our lap while telling us that millions of souls are slipping into Hell, and it is our fault, even though most of us don’t really have the power to do much about it.

For two thousand years the mice have attempted to move logs, believing it to be their responsibility. In the meanwhile, the Elephant accomplishes whatever the Father wants at any particular time.

The moral crisis in America is not going to be solved by politics, money, or education. It will be solved when Christian people cease from their own works, listen carefully to the Lord Jesus, and then obey Him promptly and completely.

But what if nothing gets done while we are waiting on the Lord? If we are willing to wait and listen, and then obey, the problem of getting things done is God’s, not ours.

“On this rock I will build My Church.” Either Christ is going to build His Church, or we are. Who is it going to be?

Do we dare believe that God knows what He is doing?

Pentecost, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was birthed and sustained in prayer. Now we have departed from the Pentecostal way. We are trying to take the Evangelical programs and stick tongues on them. But Pentecost is a way, the way to the rest of God.

Christ has something new for us today. We do not know as yet exactly how it is going to work out, but it is typified by the last three of the seven feasts of the Lord. It will be God’s answer to the in incredible moral filth of America, and it must be birthed and maintained in prayer.

No more guessing about what God wants. Let’s go to Christ today and find out!