Thursday, October 8, 2009

Why Wait on God?

Waiting on God…The Purpose

I am posting my past Pastor's Perspective for Sunday, September 27, 2009.

I’m taking a “rabbit trail” in this week’s Perspective to explain the conflict of “wait on God.” Last week, I discussed the need to let God be the Light that illuminates your pathway. But what do we often do? Get ahead of God’s light! Have you ever taken children on a hiking trail, bike riding, or maybe to the store and they wanted to run ahead. They soon discover they’re lost and get scared. Fear grips their heart. Our son, Robert likes to run ahead or play around while we are in a store, but one thing I’ve noticed is that he keeps us in view at all times. When he looses track of us, that’s when he gets scared. Oh, that we would be that way with God. It’s not that God is lagging behind and we’re too “fast” for Him. It’s that we are too prone to operate by the flesh and not by the Spirit. As a mater of a fact, the Bible calls it a warfare of flesh against spirit.

To understand this warfare, think about the three parts of man: the body (flesh), the soul, and the spirit. The body is only a shell or a house for the soul to live in. The soul is the part of man that never dies and will spend eternity in heaven or hell. The spirit belongs to God. When we are sinners, the spirit man is dead to God. But when we’re saved, the spirit of man comes alive. Jesus said, “…you must be born again…Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) He was talking about a spiritual birth. We are born again in our spirit man. Jesus goes on to say in verse 6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” These two are very different and opposed to one another.

When our spirit man is born again, God can start to communicate through it. In contrast, we perceive things of this physical life through our five senses. The information we gather goes to our mind which is the seat soul. The soul is made up of three basic areas: will, intellect, and emotions. These three determine what we do in the flesh. They compute information and tell the flesh how to react. God doesn’t communicate through the flesh or the soul. He communicates through the spirit by the Spirit (Notice the different sizes: “s” is the spirit of man and “S” is the Spirit of God). Our flesh wants to react in a certain way especially when there is outside stimulants. And sometimes that’s good when we’re in obedience to God’s will. But the problem comes when we are in disobedience. Consequently in order to live in the Spirit and in obedience to Christ, the flesh must be crucified with Christ continually.

The reason we must wait on God is simply to discern what God is speaking to our spirit and what our flesh is saying to the mind. How does the flesh talk? Through sensual stimulants (feelings and emotions), logic, and reasoning. How does the spirit talk? Through the voice of the Holy Spirit. Our soul is the processor of the flesh and the spirit. Worldly information comes from the outside to the inside. God’s leading through the Holy Spirit comes from the inside (spirit) to the outside. Therefore, it is impeditive that we wait on God to know the difference.

How am I going to know the difference between the flesh and the Holy Spirit, Pastor?

  • You’re going to know because you have the God’s Holy Spirit within you, which comes at salvation (1 John 4:13).
  • You’re going to know because you ask God to help you walk in the Spirit not in the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
  • You are going to know because you are nailing the flesh to the cross daily; so that evil desires are kept under the Spirit’s control (I Corinthians 15:31, Galatians 2:20 & 5:24).
  • You’re going to know because though God’s Spirit you can test these impressions to move in a direction or not (1 John 4:1-3).
  • You’re going to know because you can ask the Holy Spirit to help you to discern (tell the difference) between what is of God and what is not (I Corinthians 12:10, 31 & Philippians 1:9-10)
  • You’re going to know because you are renewing your mind daily by a steady diet of God’s Word (Romans 12:1-2) and prayer (I Thessalonians 5:17).

Are you learning anything about “Waiting on God?” I guess the next question that I hear more than anything while on this subject is “How do I hear the Spirit?” That question I’ll deal with in the next Perspective.

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