“I tell you the truth, a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die to make many seeds. But if it never dies, it remains only a single seed.25 Those who love their lives will lose them, but those who hate their lives in this world will keep true life forever.”
John 12:24-25, NCV
Often believers are attempting to ‘hear God’ only to bolster their position, reputation, ‘connections’ and prestige. There’s no talk about falling down and dying as Jesus revealed in John 12. If I’m extremely occupied with knowing God’s will it will maneuver me into a completely wrong position. Discipleship was never meant to be a celestial self-improvement plan.
When I get over-concerned about ‘my’ discipleship, acquiring the praise of men and achieving a modicum of honor, I end up ‘missing the boat’. Life was not meant to profit from, but ‘to fall and die.’ There is a deadly danger of becoming self-aware and self-absorbed. And this is ‘the spirit of the age’.
Nothing will ever go right if we try to hear the Lord while we avoid falling and dying. To put it another way. There can be no resurrection without a crucifixion first. We must die if we are going to live. We must become weak before we can understand power.
Will you realign your life to include ‘falling, and dying?’
Do you really want to hear Him? Will you realign your life to include ‘falling, and dying?’ Will you begin to readjust the way you approach yourself and others?Modern popular versions of our faith will almost always lack this ‘death-life’ component. These versions are often designed to reflect our society. And we are terribly self-centered. We will not ever grow and mature unless we consent to ‘falling and dying’.
Beware of the church whose leaders do not ‘limp.’
Beware of the church whose leaders do not ‘limp.’ Dying to self is a challenging and vital component to our faith that will bring us into an astonishing fruitfulness. That is what happens to those who die–they bring life to others.
Each of us who are broken believers will take the following steps. This is simple discipleship. These four will be at the root of everything we do. Our mental illness may influence this walk, but it can’t derail the process. Because it is a supernatural one, everyone starts at the same spot— whether we’ve an illness or not. Each of us must take these four steps and engage them:
Come to Me
Learn of Me
Follow Me
Remain in Me
Disciples will build their lives on these. They are solidly basic but extrapolated out into different unique variations. Each one will be uniquely yours.
COME TO ME:
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28, ESV
The source is Jesus, and his presence is sought. Our heavy issues are relieved by his nearness.
LEARN OF ME:
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29
Jesus shares his yoke with every disciple. We are to learn at his feet, and it’s there we learn of his humility. Rest is your evidence of his proximity.
FOLLOW ME:
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
A cross awaits every disciple. Self-denial is critical for every believing disciple. Jesus will show us how it’s to be done.
REMAIN IN ME:
“Remain [abide] in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.” John 15:4
This involves drawing and extracting life from him. We are a branch that pulls its life essence from its core, he is our vitality and our strength.
“Whatsoever one would understand what he hears must hasten to put into practice what he has heard.” –Gregory the Great
“The glory of God is a person fully alive” said the church father Irenaeus.
Psalm 18 shows David exuberantly alive with the life of God. It is filled with rich imagery of God’s deliverance and blessing upon people the people of faith.
I want Psalm 18 to become my story! I want it in my heart so it can stir my spiritual imaginations and strengthen my confidence of God and his kingdom in my midst all the time – in stress and disappointment and injustice and waiting for prayers to be answered.
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Psalm 18
1-2 I love you, God— you make me strong.
God is bedrock under my feet,
the castle in which I live,
my rescuing knight.
My God—the high crag
where I run for dear life,
hiding behind the boulders,
safe in the granite hideout.
3 I sing to God, the Praise-Lofty,
and find myself safe and saved.
4-5 The hangman’s noose was tight at my throat;
devil waters rushed over me.
Hell’s ropes cinched me tight;
death traps barred every exit.
6 A hostile world! I call to God,
I cry to God to help me.
From his palace he hears my call;
my cry brings me right into his presence—
a private audience!
7-15 Earth wobbles and lurches;
huge mountains shake like leaves,
Quake like aspen leaves
because of his rage.
His nostrils flare, bellowing smoke;
his mouth spits fire.
Tongues of fire dart in and out;
he lowers the sky.
He steps down;
under his feet an abyss opens up.
He’s riding a winged creature,
swift on wind-wings.
Now he’s wrapped himself
in a trenchcoat of black-cloud darkness.
But his cloud-brightness bursts through,
spraying hailstones and fireballs.
Then God thundered out of heaven;
the High God gave a great shout,
spraying hailstones and fireballs.
God shoots his arrows—pandemonium!
He hurls his lightnings—a rout!
The secret sources of ocean are exposed,
the hidden depths of earth lie uncovered
The moment you roar in protest,
let loose your hurricane anger.
16-19 But me he caught—reached all the way
from sky to sea; he pulled me out
Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos,
the void in which I was drowning.
They hit me when I was down,
but God stuck by me.
He stood me up on a wide-open field;
I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!
20-24 God made my life complete
when I placed all the pieces before him.
When I got my act together,
he gave me a fresh start.
Now I’m alert to God’s ways;
I don’t take God for granted.
Every day I review the ways he works;
I try not to miss a trick.
I feel put back together,
and I’m watching my step.
God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.
25-27 The good people taste your goodness,
The whole people taste your health,
The true people taste your truth,
The bad ones can’t figure you out.
You take the side of the down-and-out,
But the stuck-up you take down a peg.
28-29 Suddenly, God, you floodlight my life;
I’m blazing with glory, God’s glory!
I smash the bands of marauders,
I vault the highest fences.
30 What a God! His road
stretches straight and smooth.
Every God-direction is road-tested.
Everyone who runs toward him
Makes it.
31-42 Is there any god like God?
Are we not at bedrock?
Is not this the God who armed me,
then aimed me in the right direction?
Now I run like a deer;
I’m king of the mountain.
He shows me how to fight;
I can bend a bronze bow!
You protect me with salvation-armor;
you hold me up with a firm hand,
caress me with your gentle ways.
You cleared the ground under me
so my footing was firm.
When I chased my enemies I caught them;
I didn’t let go till they were dead men.
I nailed them; they were down for good;
then I walked all over them.
You armed me well for this fight,
you smashed the upstarts.
You made my enemies turn tail,
and I wiped out the haters.
They cried “uncle”
but Uncle didn’t come;
They yelled for God
and got no for an answer.
I ground them to dust; they gusted in the wind.
I threw them out, like garbage in the gutter.
43-45 You rescued me from a squabbling people;
you made me a leader of nations.
People I’d never heard of served me;
the moment they got wind of me they listened.
The foreign devils gave up; they came
on their bellies, crawling from their hideouts.
46-48 Live, God! Blessings from my Rock,
my free and freeing God, towering!
This God set things right for me
and shut up the people who talked back.
He rescued me from enemy anger,
he pulled me from the grip of upstarts,
He saved me from the bullies.
49-50 That’s why I’m thanking you, God,
all over the world.
That’s why I’m singing songs
that rhyme your name.
God’s king takes the trophy;
God’s chosen is beloved.
I mean David and all his children—
always.
“When you pray, go into a room alone and shut the door. Pray to your Father in private. He knows what is done in private, and he will reward you.”
Matthew 6:6, CEV
“We are to be shut out from men, and shut in with God.”
Andrew Murray
Prayer is a deep and awesome thing. And yet in a sense our physical life must have cheeseburgers and spaghetti. Food powers us, and we are fueled by it’s energy. Prayer is also necessary to propel us, for it is our spirit’s nourishment.
We cannot survive without food. We see pictures of emaciated children in some African country, and they are just skin and bones. It is a sick evil. But there are Christians who are like this spiritually. They are starving because they are not praying.
Jesus told His followers, to go into a room alone. Then shut the door. We must learn that God is in the secret. If we should meet with Him, we must be as secretive. “Shut the door,” what happens in there is not for public display. We must be quite discrete in our times with Him.
When I was at in my first year at Bible school, I heard a guest speaker teach from Matt. 6:6. I was pumped up by it, praying with the door shut was a new idea for me. When I got to my dorm room, I went straight for my closet to put this new revelation into action. Kneeling there in the closet, with the door slid shut, I tried to pray. And after a bit I fell asleep, still on my knees.
About an hour later I woke up with a start. I had no idea where I was, and in my disorientation I slid open the closet door with a loud bang. I tried to stand, but my legs couldn’t support me. I lurched out in the room and fell in a pile. My roommate was startled to say the least. He had been in the room studying quietly by himself, when suddenly this ‘wildman’ burst out of the closet and immediately collapsed. It was hysterical!
So much for my first attempt at praying in secret.
The quest for spiritual growth will have to lead us into the closet.
The injunction to close the door can be understood in a variety of ways. The act of isolating ourselves is a physical one. But we must understand we need to shut up all our social entanglements and obligations. We isolate ourselves so we can be intimate with Him.
We just need to figure out just how we are to do this. We shouldn’t give up when it doesn’t bring wondrous results. We are all students in this, we will advance at times, and then retreat. But every second in the closet can be an intimate blessing to our souls.
“He that loveth little prayeth little; he that loveth much prayeth much.”
Broken Believers 