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STRENGTH WITHIN
We have heard considerable talk in Christian circles in recent years of what is supposed to be a reliable prophecy: that soon there will be a "born-again, Spirit-baptized President" in the White House, who will turn the nation to better things. Some feel that this prophecy has already been fulfilled. Others are looking for further evidence of spiritual power to flow from the White House, either from the man who is there now, or from one of his successors.
Here is a little prophecy which won't be so popular. Time alone will tell which prophecy is right. Perhaps not in the next election, (but who knows?) perhaps one or two elections from now, (if we have that long), a man comes to power in this land who appears to be everybody's dream. He claims to know God and to be filled with God's Spirit.
The nation responds with enthusiasm to this President.
"We've had enough crime!" says the leader. "Amen!" And amazingly, crime recedes. "We've had enough unemployment!" "Amen'" Imaginative new projects open and soon every one is working.
Patriotism increases. Mass rallies are held from one end of the country to the other, and wherever the President comes to address them, the people cheer and raise their hands in salute. The President goes on weekly television---30 minutes a week---and everything in the land stops while the beloved leader addresses his people.
Everyone is so grateful for this new order, this wonderful sense of national purpose that they fail to notice that every dissenting voice is strangely silenced. A newspaper takes a stand against certain policies of the President. In three days that newspaper is shut down. Midnight arrests begin to occur at the homes of people considered uncooperative.
By the time the nation wakes up to the fact that it has been taken over by a dictatorship, it's too late. Secret police are everywhere. Our Sunday gatherings are now visited by informers who report every evidence of disloyalty. Speaker after speaker is taken off to jail as inconspicuously as possible.
You say this sounds far-fetched? My friend, unless there is a swift and genuine cleansing of the spirit of this land, such things are already on their way. And what disturbs me most is that the very ones who should be the salt of the earth to preserve this land from the now-spreading spiritual rot, represent the growing edge of the disease. I'm talking about large numbers of apparently committed Christians ... Christians who, perhaps without realizing what they're doing are giving up the control of their minds and spirits to other men, letting their wills be ruled from outside.
It is bad enough that the general populace is letting its values be warped, its sense of reality twisted by the mind manipulators who sell makeup, mouthwash, cars and beer. But that is tame compared to the mass hypnosis which is practiced at these giant gatherings of Christians which have become so popular.
Of course it doesn't matter whether it's thirty thousand in some huge arena or a handful of unstable people playing with spiritual fire in someone's living room. When the leader tells the people to raise their hands, and every hand goes up, when he commands them to say "Amen" every three minutes during his talk, and they respond, this man is teaching their wills to submit to his. Whatever experience they have---spiritual or emotional---is going to be tied to him. And unless by the grace of God they quickly make the transfer from this leader to Jesus, they will be in bondage for a long time. Perhaps forever.
"But why talk about all this in the context of our fellowship? We don't operate this way!" you may say.
Yet is it not true, that many of us are far more dependent on people around us for our sense of purpose than on the Spirit of God within us? And if you depend on people around you for your strength instead of the Spirit of God within you, your life will be directed from outside by men and women instead of from the inside by God.
Yes we are to bear one another's burdens, encourage, exhort, rebuke, speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, neglect not the assembling of ourselves together.
But we are to do these things as people who are being directed from within by God's Spirit.
If your life is directed from within by God, you will never blame your spiritual condition on those around you...... "No wonder I'm dry, I'm not getting fed! My brothers and sisters don't love me as they should! My husband is a slob!"
If you're dry, it's because the spring which Jesus Himself opened up within your heart has been neglected.
Because the gift which is within you through the laying on of hands or through the prayers of other saints has been allowed to stagnate. And the only one who can get that spring flowing again is you----by presenting your inner soul, your heart to the only one who is able to touch it with healing: JESUS.
"I will put my law within them and I will write it upon their hearts....."
".....that he may grant you to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith....."
Of course Jesus talked to large numbers of people at certain times. He fed five thousand. Who could count the number of healings which occurred as those thirsty multitudes drew near seeking life? But Jesus made clear that when it comes to following Him, you must do it as an individual.
If any man (or woman) thirst let him come to me and drink.
If any man (or woman) would come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me... (How many will get under that yoke? Just you and your Lord.)
And when people make that choice of their own free, uncoerced will----to become His disciples, Jesus deals with them as individuals----always!
"I am the vine, you are the branches." (The branch does not draw strength from the other branches, but directly from the vine)
Moreover Jesus makes clear that this connection with the vine, this relationship with Him, is an inner thing.
Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within; and behold everything is clean for you.
If someone says to you, "Lo, here is the Christ!" or "Lo, there!" don't believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show you signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.....
Don't go out into the wilderness or into the secret chambers. What you need, the God your heart thirsts for.....is right there.
The Spirit who will open your eyes to see Jesus and know Him afresh is closer to you than the air you breathe.
And the only one who can open the door of your heart so that He will come in afresh to you today, is you. no preacher can do it no evangelist no spiritual heavy no exorcist
Your brothers and sisters are praying for you, and God is answering their prayers by sending His Spirit to the door of your heart,
but you have to open the door.
THAT HE MAY GRANT YOU TO BE STRENGTHENED WITH MIGHT BY HIS SPIRIT IN THE INNER MAN..... The prayer is being prayed for you by believers on both sides of the grave. Nor is there any question about God's desire to answer that prayer.
But will you let God strengthen you with might by His Spirit in the inner man? It will never happen as long as we draw all our strength from Brother So-and-So or Sister So-and-So. "Oh, I don't know how I could make it without Brother So-and-So to show me the way!"
Nor will we ever be strengthened with might by God's Spirit as long as we sit around blaming other people for our problems.
A blame-filled heart is a prayerless heart. And a prayerless heart is a barren heart.
Nor will we ever be strengthened with might by God's Spirit in the inner man as long as we insist on taking things into our own hands.
Aaron took things into his own hands when he made the golden calf. If he had waited on God he would have been given help to deal with the unruly mob.
Saul took things into his own hands when Samuel delayed to come and offer the sacrifices in Gilgal. Saul offered the sacrifices, which he had no authority to do.
When the pressure increases we are always tempted to resort to our old ways, to run to our old unreal escapes. We need to wait for the only strength which can hold us in the storms: the Spirit of God.
And if we stop and turn our hearts to the living God, wait upon Him.... ask,
the Spirit will come.
He has been promised. There is no such thing as asking and not receiving. Line up your heart with the prayer which the Church in glory now prays for you, "Lord, that I might be strengthened with might by your Spirit in the inner man," and it will be done.
THAT CHRIST MAY DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS THROUGH FAITH. This prayer is being prayed for you right now. The answer is sent by God to the very door of your heart. Will you say, "Yes"?
Many of us have wanted Jesus as a kind of traveling companion, someone for company along the road.
But to dwell in our hearts?
The only way we will ever know His companionship and His mercy and love is if we let Him dwell in our hearts. And He will dwell in our hearts only by faith. If we believe Him. If we listen to the things He is trying to tell us. If we trust the things He has already told us. If we obey Him.
As many as received him, as believed on His name, to them He gave power to become sons of God.....
He who believes on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.....
This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.
Countless men and women down through the centuries have said, "Believe in me!" and left behind them a trail of ruined lives. Whole nations have placed their implicit trust into the hands of some unstable man with a swollen ego and a silver tongue.
The only man in all creation who has the right to say, "Believe in me," is the Lamb who laid down His life for this wayward race. Those who have put their trust in Jesus and not in some warped doctrine or some grandiose dream have remained sound and whole through all storms.
No man can do your believing for you. No angel.
You have to do it for yourself. You have to open the door of your heart and say, "Lord, come in."
If you do this afresh right now, Jesus will indeed come into your heart and be your strength within.
And because you have strength within, no storm outside will ever blow you around.
And from within, out of your heart will come rivers of living waters to bless those around you. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen"
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