Advanced Home Page
Needed
School Material
Weekly
Assignments
Sections & Chapters
 |
Textbook Illustrations
Certificate of Achievement
_________________
Basic
Evangelism
Training Program
Author
Contact
Order
Books
Bible Internet
Quick R
Topical
Scriptures
1 Corinthians 9:11
"If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it
too much if we should reap material things from you?"
Relationship
With Jesus
The Key
To Effective Ministry
Section 4, Chapter 8
Jesus-Dependence Is
Walking in the Spirit
Page 2 of
Pages 1,
3,
4
Study
Questions
There was one time in my life that the Lord had wanted me to train a group of Christians to do Evangelism. There was one man in particular in this group who was not interested in Evangelism, so he spread false rumors about me. The end result was this group decided not to receive the teaching God wanted to give them through me. Anger in a situation like this would be normal, but several days went buy and no matter how much I prayed I could not get released of my anger. I then prayed about it with a brother. The answer I got in prayer was to read the book of Jeremiah. As I read through this book I saw that God was extremely angry with his people so much so that he told Jeremiah not even to waste his time praying for them, that he would not hear his prayers.
The Lord then said to me, "Dale, what do You see in this book?" Lord, you are really angry and ticked off at your people’s hardness of heart and unbelief so much so you didn’t even want Jeremiah to pray for them." The Lord then said to me, "The reason you cannot get released of this anger is because the anger you are feeling is not your anger but Mine." The Lord is very grieved over the hardness of heart and unbelief of His people in America who instead of focusing on using their free time and resources to share the Gospel with others, instead they use their free time to do what any unbelieving American is doing and that is doing all they can to make money so they can buy and maintain their toys. They won’t take even two hours a week to go out and share the love of Jesus Christ with men. America is in the state of condition that Israel was in Jeremiah’s day. After the Lord revealed this to me the anger subsided. I share this story to show you that normally, yes, the sun should not go down on our anger, but there are times when extended anger in God’s will has a purpose.
Do you sense the Lord’s goodness in what you are doing, or are you striving to accomplish the Lord’s will or work in your life? The Psalmist states,
"Rest in Yehovah and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret, it leads only to evil doing." (Ps 37:7-8).
Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew 11:28-30,
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."
Jesus plainly says in this passage that He is gentle and humble in heart, and that His yoke is easy and His load is light. That is who Jesus is. If what your doing or trying to minister is not being done or ministered out of that kind of attitude and spirit, it probably is not coming from Jesus. If Jesus moves us to do something or minister something it will be done in gentleness and in a spirit of humility. Its yoke will be easy and its load light. James states, "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering and without hypocrisy." (James 3:15).
Paul says that the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness. If Jesus has led us to do something in the past and we have not finished it yet, and something else comes along to disrupt this, unless it is outside of our control, chances are it is not coming from Jesus. The writer of Hebrews states, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and yes forever." (Heb 13:8). The Apostle John writes in the book of Revelation 3:2-3,
"Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. If therefore you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you."
Jesus wants us to follow the light He has given us before He will give us new light to lead us on to the next step.
This would probably fit under the fruit of self-control as well. Jesus wants us to finish what we start before moving on to something else. The Lord states through the Psalmist,
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they will not come near to you." (Ps 32:8-9).
Jesus said in Luke, "And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?" (Lk 6:46). Being led of the Spirit and Jesus-dependent involves obeying Jesus and finishing the tasks He has called us to do by exercising self-control in our daily life styles to be able to accomplish that task. When You are obeying the Lord in Your life you are walking in the Holy Spirit.
If we are being led of Jesus by the Holy Spirit to do something, we will experience His grace and power to exercise self-control and faithfulness to see it accomplished. The writer of Hebrews states,
"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." (Heb 12:11).
In review, Paul states the way we discern whether we are being motivated and controlled by Jesus through the Holy Spirit according to Galatians, and thus under the Lordship of Christ and being Jesus-dependent, is when what we are doing in relation to God, ourselves, and others is out of a motivation of love. We determine that our motivation is truly from love when it is surrounded with the fruit of the Spirit. If we are not being motivated and controlled by the Holy Spirit through our spirit, we can know this, Paul says, when we are manifesting the fruits of flesh.
Paul states in Romans,
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." (Rom 1:18-23).
In this section of Scripture the Apostle Paul deals with the issue of the claimed athiest. Basically Paul states that there is no such thing as an athiest. Paul proves this by stating that God reveals Himself to man in three ways: First, from faith to faith According to Rom 1:17 which is one on one aggressive evangelism. The Apostle Paul writes,
"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’"
Second, inside of man himself apart from man according to verse nineteen:
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them."
Finally, outside of man through what has been made so that man is without excuse according to verse twenty.
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."
The fact of this statement by Paul I document completely in Section 10 titled, "The Literal Historical Reliability of Genesis." Paul states clearly in verse twenty-one that the claimed atheist knows God. This is why the claimed atheist is called a fool in the Bible. The Biblical definition of a fool is someone who professes a lie, knows it is a lie, but proceeds to profess and live out the lie anyway.
One never needs to argue over the issue of the existence of God, because Paul clearly tells us in Romans that every man is separately aware of this reality. To argue with someone over the issue would be to waste his time, your time, and God’s time because in truth it is never really the issue, but rather an excuse for a deeper issue of the claimed atheist's heart.
In the rest of the chapter of Romans one, Paul goes on to talk about what will happen to a person if he refuses to acknowledge Jesus in his life any longer. Besides leading to perversion in such forms as homosexuality, other qualities of the flesh will also be manifested as follows,
Back to Page 1; Continued on Pages 3, 4Bibliography & Notes
Section 4 Chapters
Top of page