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The Trinity
Although we may have difficulty understanding it, God the Father, Christ the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all three persons of one Godhead. They are not three separate gods. They are all one God. Our finite minds may struggle to comprehend such a majestic and infinite experience.
The Scriptures reveal that whenever God encountered people, He did it in one of three ways: in the person of the Father, the Son, or the Spirit. Whenever God is working, all three persons of the Trinity are involved.
God-Centered Living
Part of the Book of Genesis is the record of God accomplishing His purposes through Abraham. It is not the record of Abraham’s walk with God. Can you see the difference in focus? The focus of the Bible is God. The essence of sin is a shift from God-centeredness to self-centeredness.
| A Self-Centered Life | A God-Centered Life |
| · Is focused on self
· Is proud of self and self’s accomplishments · Is self-confident · Depends on self and abilities · Affirms self · Seeks to be acceptable in the world and its ways · Looks at circumstances from a human perspective · Chooses selfish and worldly living |
· Places confidence in God
· Depends on God and His ability and provision · Focuses on God and His activity · Is humble before God · Denies self · Seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness · Seek’s God’s perspective in every circumstance · Chooses holy and godly living
|
Self-centeredness is a subtle trap because it makes sense from a human perspective.
To live a God-centered life, you must focus on God’s purposes, not your own plans.
God’s Plans Versus Our Plans
We cause some of the wreck and ruin in our lives because we have a plan. We implement the plan and accomplish what we can do. We ask God to bless our plans, and then we promise to give Him the glory when He does. Yet God is not glorified by making our plans succeed. He receives glory when His will is done, His way.
Understanding what God is about to do where I am is more important than telling God what I want to do for Him.
We adjust our lives to God so He will do through us what He wants to accomplish. God is not our servant to adjust His activity to our plans. We are His servants, and we adjust our lives to what He is about to do.
You Need to Know What God is About to Do
You need to know what God has on His agenda for your church, community, and nation at this time in history. Then you and your church can adjust your lives to God so He moves you into the mainstream of His activity before it is too late.
God will accomplish more in six months through a people yielded to Him than we could do in 60 years without Him.
In 1209, Francis of Assisi heard a sermon on Matthew 10:7-10 –
As you go, proclaim this message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts—no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep.
Francis immediately recognized it was God’s word to him to sell all he had and devote his life to preaching the gospel and ministering to the poor. As Francis obeyed, others were soon attracted to his ministry. Ultimately, many thousands of men and women devoted their lives to this cause and blessed thousands of people in need. God’s word to one young man impacted multitudes of people across Europe and around the world.
In your community there are people rushing headlong toward disaster. God wants to intercept those people to bring about His purposes.
The moment you sense God is moving in your life, you give Him an extensive list of reasons He has enlisted the wrong person or the time is inconvenient (see Exodus 3:11; 4:1). God knows you can’t do it! He wants to do it Himself through you.
Brady’s Note – If I’m honest with myself, I see the judgment of God as a distant event, something beyond my lifetime. That perspective can lead to a lack of urgency. I appreciate the Experiencing God perspective to look to God and recognize where He is at work…
God Takes the Initiative
Throughout Scripture, God takes the initiative. When He comes to people He reveals Himself and His activity. That revelation is always an invitation for people to adjust their lives to God.
What often happens when we see God at work? We immediately become self-centered rather than God-centered. We must reorient our lives to God. We should learn to see things from His perspective. We need to allow Him to develop His character in us.
God may reveal His plan or purpose in these ways:
- He lets us see where He is already working around us.
- He speaks to us through Scripture or impresses on us a practical application of the truth to our lives.
- He gives us an earnest desire that grows stronger as we pray.
- He creates circumstances around us that open a door of opportunity.
The last two (3 & 4) must be carefully watched. A self-centered life tends to confuse its selfish desire with God’s will. In addition, circumstances do not always indicate a clear direction from God. Open and closed doors do not always indicate God’s guidance. Check to see that prayer, the Scriptures, and circumstances agree on the direction you sense God leading you.
Learning to Walk with God
George Müller, a minister in England during the 19th century, was concerned that God’s people had become discouraged. They were not trusting God to answer their prayers. They had little faith.
Müller wanted people to learn to God was a faithful, prayer-answering God. He discovered Psalm 81:10, which says, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
See how Müller summed up the way he entered a heart relationship with God and learned to discern His voice:
- I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will on its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be.
- Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
- I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
- Next, I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
- I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.
- Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly.
Watching for God at Work
In the book of Luke, when Jesus passed through a crowd, He always looked for where the Father was at work. The crowd was not the harvest field. The harvest field was within the crowd. As Jesus walked through the busy streets of Jericho, He was intent on reaching Jerusalem where He knew the cross awaited Him.
Although Jesus was only passing by, He noticed Zacchaeus in a tree. So Jesus turned aside and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, because today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5). Salvation came to that household that day. Jesus always looked for the activity of the Father and joined Him. Salvation came as a result of Jesus adjusting His life to the work of His Father.
God Is Always Active
Right now, God is working all around you. One of the greatest tragedies among God’s people is that even though they long to experience Him, they do not know how to recognize Him at work in their midst.
God Speaks to His People
God has not changed. He still speaks to His people.
If you have trouble hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the heart of your Christian experience.
The key to knowing God’s voice is not a formula, nor is it a method you can follow. Knowing God’s voice comes from an intimate love relationship with God.
A formula is not the way to recognize God’s voice. How many other burning bushes did God use besides the one with Moses? None. God does not want you to become an expert at using a formula. If there was a formula to hearing from God, you would not have to seek God with all your heart. You could mindlessly use the formula and neglect your relationship with God. He wants an intimate love relationship with you. He insists that you depend on Him alone. Hearing God does not depend on a method or a formula but on a relationship.
God Speaks with a Purpose
The moment God speaks to you is God’s timing. That is why He chooses to speak when He does. He speaks to His servant when He is ready to move. Otherwise, He wouldn’t speak. As God enters the mainstream of your life, the timing of your response is crucial. When God speaks to you, you need to believe and obey Him.
Do not assume, however, that the moment God calls you, you are prepared for the assignment. How long was it from the time God spoke to Abram until Isaac, the child of promise, was born? Twenty-five years (see Genesis 12:4; 21:5)! Why did God wait 25 years? Because it took God 25 years to make Abraham a father suitable for Isaac.
How long was it after God (through Samuel) anointed David king before David mounted the throne. Maybe 10 or 12 years. What was God doing in the meantime? He was building David’s relationship with Himself. As goes the king, so goes the nation. You cannot bypass character.
How long was it after the living Lord called the apostle Paul until Paul went on his first missionary journey? Maybe 10 or 11 years. The focus was not on Paul; the focus was on God. God wanted to redeem a lost world, and He wanted to redeem the Gentiles through Paul. God took time to prepare Paul for the assignment.
Focus on the Call, Not the Gift
It is important to understand that a spiritual gift is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit working in people’s lives to enable them to obey what God asks them to do. Biblically, God always gives the assignment first. Then God equips the person by the Holy Spirit to accomplish what He assigns.
Focusing on identifying the gifts instead of determining what God’s assignment is can also be severely limiting for believers who base their future usefulness for God only on their past effectiveness.
When you recognize that God is inviting you to join Him, and you respond obediently—even when it is to do something you believe is outside your giftedness—you will experience God working in and through your life in an entirely new dimension than you imagined possible.
The common approach to spiritual gifts can easily become self-centered rather than God-centered if you are the one who is taking the initiative to decide on a ministry that you think suits you.
A spiritual gift is a manifestation of God at work through you. God works in and through you to bear spiritual fruit. Your focus should be on God living His life through you to accomplish His purposes. When you concentrate on a particular gift you receive in order to do something for God, your attention is usually on self rather than on God.
When a person takes a spiritual gifts inventory and it identifies a particular gift in his or her life, the reason may well be because God previously equipped this person in that area to accomplish a divine assignment. This does not mean, however, that this is the only means by which God expects the person to serve in the future. If God gives a different assignment, He will provide an equipping to match the new task. That is why there are people, who over the years, have discovered that their ‘spiritual gift” seemed to change. The reason? Their assignment shifted, so the Holy Spirit equipped them to accomplish their new task.
Focus your attention on hearing God’s call to assignment which is His invitation for you to join Him. When you adjust your life to Him and obey Him, the Holy Spirit will work in you, enabling you to accomplish what God desires.
The Old Testament Pattern
God knew exactly what He was doing when He called Moses. Moses’ success did not depend on his skills, abilities, likes, preferences, or past successes. First, God gave Moses an assignment then equipped him with His Holy Spirit to administer and to lead. When Moses obeyed God, God enabled Moses to do what He had commanded.
Here is the pattern we see in the Old Testament:
- God gave an assignment to a person.
- The Holy Spirit equipped that person to perform the assignment.
- The proof of the Spirit’s presence was that the person was able to complete the assignment effectively through the enabling of the Holy Spirit.
Character Matching the Assignment
When God called Abram, He said, “I will make your name great” (Genesis 12:2). That means “I will develop your character to match your assignment.”
You may wish you could experience God working through you the way He works through other people. But every time God goes to them, they adjust their lives to God and obey. When they have been faithful in little assignments, God has given them more important assignments.
If you are not willing to be faithful in a little, God will not give you larger assignments. God uses the smaller assignments to develop character. God always builds character to match His assignment. If God has a great task for you, He will expand your character to match the assignment.
Experiencing God Today
Take some time to reflect on the ways God has enabled you to serve Him in the past. Has it always been in the same way, or has He given you a variety of assignments? How have you come to rely upon Him as a result of the way He has led you?
Trust the first reality: God is always at work around you.