WE have started new chapter titled Preparation, having looked now at the topics of Faith, Time, Acceptance, and Purpose in Principles of Spiritual Growth (Part One of the Complete Green Letters).
ONE of the things to understand in our spiritual growth is that it is continuous and on-going. It is also seasonal; there are periods of rest and renewal, times of slow growth, rapid increase, fruit bearing and sometimes apparent no growth that may even seem like a reversal (in fact may be). All this reality will confront each one in a different way as the Lord brings each along their own path and journey. One of my fallback verses is John 21:22 where one asks about the path and plans the Lord has for another. The Lord’s response was, “What is that to you? You just follow Me.” Each needs to see to their own walk and dealings with the Lord with a consistent attitude of “What would you have me to do (Acts 9:6) in pressing toward the mark in their individual calling in Christ (Phil. 3:13-14).
A NECESSARY process in all of this is preparation. Even before coming to the Lord, a heart properly prepared and made ready will be able to accept the seed of the gospel, and allow deep roots to hold firm for a good start. But after that, the necessary work for further growth continues. Again, there are lessons from the garden. A plant will not grow beyond its root structure, and if left in a small pot it will remain small, but as the roots are allowed to expanded and grow so shall the plant, along with its flower, fruit, and seed-bearing ability. The soil for the roots needs to be prepared, much care needs to be taken to nurture patiently for healthy results. Even time and timing are a factor.
WELL, I could go on with this metaphor, but the point to be noted is that preparation is not a minor topic. It is important not only for initial life but for on-going healthy development and maturity in Christ. So, let’s see what our author has to say about it below.
In the wondrous blessings of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa. 30:15 & Job 2:10
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Chapter 5—Preparation – Part 2
We must face up to the fact that without spiritual hunger, we cannot feed on the Lord Jesus Christ. From our personal experience Matthew 5:6 should mean much to every one of us: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” All too often believers are exhorted and even pressured to grow before there is an acute awareness of need, before there is true spiritual hunger. And, sad to say, in most instances when there is real heart hunger, very little spiritual food is offered. One of the main reasons why so much evangelistic effort and personal witnessing comes to little or nothing is that truths are forced on the “victim” to be saved before he is aware that he is lost. The work will soon come to naught unless an overpowering conviction of sin causes the lost to reach out with the grip of personal faith and find their need fully met in the Saviour.
In preparation, there is a tearing down before there can be a building up. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up” (Hos. 6:1). This applies to both growth and service. J. C. Metcalfe faithfully writes: “It is more than comforting to realize that it is those who have plumbed the depths of failure to whom God invariably gives the call to shepherd others. This is not a call given to the gifted, the highly trained, or the polished as such.
“Without a bitter experience of their own inadequacy and poverty they are quite unfitted to bear the burden of spiritual ministry. It takes a man who has discovered something of the measures of his own weakness to be patient with the foibles of others. Such a man also has a first-hand knowledge of the loving care of the Chief Shepherd, and His ability to heal one who has come humbly to trust in Him and Him alone. Therefore he does not easily despair of others, but looks beyond sinfulness, willfulness, and stupidity, to the might of unchanging love. The Lord Jesus does not give the charge, ‘Be a shepherd to My lambs … to My sheep,’ on hearing Peter’s self-confident affirmation of undying loyalty, but He gives it after he has utterly failed to keep his vows and has wept bitterly in the streets of Jerusalem.”
Yes, there is going to be deep, thorough and long preparation if there is to be reality—if our life is to be Christ-centered, our walk controlled by the Holy Spirit and our service glorifying to God. Sooner or later the Holy Spirit begins to make us aware of our basic problem as believers—the infinite difference between self and Christ. “There are other laborers besides those who are seeking for pardon—for justification. There are laborers for sanctification—after personal holiness—after riddance of the power of the old Adam; and to such, as well as to those who are seeking after salvation, Christ promises, with this great ‘I will’ (Matt. 11:28–30). It is highly possible for a man, after having found justifying rest in Christ, to enter upon a state of deep need as regards sanctifying rest. We think we shall not go far wrong if we say that this has been the experience of almost every believer that has ever lived” (P. B. Power).
Much of His preparation in our lives consists of setting up this struggle—our seeing self for what it is and then attempting to get free from its evil power and influence. ….to be continued.
