26. Waiting for Orders
26
WAITING FOR ORDERS
Often, in India, in front of office buildings, you will see a messenger boy sitting on a stool, apparently doing nothing. But when he hears a bell ringing inside, he hurries in and asks, “Sir, what do you want me to do?”
Whatever the instructions may be, the boy follows them without complaining. Then he returns and sits, waiting again to hear his master’s voice. This is the kind of commitment God wants from us.
But this is the opposite of the mad, rushing, pragmatic, modern-day evangelical Christianity most of us are caught up in today.
Somehow we assume God is in some big mess, that we should run around and frantically take His side, or He will be in big trouble. On the other hand, I believe God is waiting for those who are willing to become bondslaves, men and women who will wait and watch to hear the Master’s voice and only do those things He asks them to do.
A half hour with God, limited to doing His will in His way, is worth more than a million years doing the best in our own self and energy. All fleshly effort will be burned to ash and will not make it into eternity.
Have you recognized the fact that you are bought with a price, that you are not your own? If so, you have no right to decide even the smallest matters in your life. What kind of commitment have you made to Christ? Are you just “returning a favor” in your Christian service, or have you surrendered the totality of your life and everything in it to His control?
Are you still the one who is running around with brilliant ideas, seeking to do this and that for God? Or are you one who is so committed to Christ that you are not motivated nor persuaded by anything external? Are you dead to the voices of others, your own ego and ambitions, but alive to the voice of the Holy Spirit?
If the life of Paul has any secret for us, it is this, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
There also are several areas in our lives where this truth must make an impact if we are to find the reality we seek.
Your Marriage
If you are a young person thinking of marriage, have you asked the Lord what type of person He wants you to marry? Who told you that you must date everyone you meet to test it out to make sure you are getting the right deal?
Have you ever wondered and asked whether the traditions and voices of men regarding choosing a partner are of God, or are they created by this world’s corrupt system? What are you looking for in that person you want to marry? Education, money, future, abilities and talents? Or are you looking for a person who is totally committed to Christ with his or her whole heart?
You must give up your right to decide on your marriage and your life’s partner. Seek the Lord with all your heart, and keep eternal values in mind as you decide about marriage. Many hundreds of godly young people have destroyed their lives and God’s call upon their lives because they fell in the temptation of marrying someone based upon the external things rather than the call and voice of God in their decision.
If you already are married, what are your expectations from your mate? Have your values shifted to personal comfort, security and the things of this world since your marriage? Do you desire for your mate to do the will of God at all costs—even if it means sacrifice for you? As you pray for your husband or your wife, is the will of God your number-one concern?
Your Education
I will never forget talking to a couple who wept with much regret over the ruined Christian life of their son. He was breaking their hearts. A straight-A student as he finished high school, he at first had wanted to go and serve the Lord on the mission field.
However, his parents had been brought up to worship education. They were good, fundamental/evangelical Christian parents, but they could not see how God could use someone like him without further education. For months, the young man persisted in talking about his vision for lost souls, but his parents would not release him. He was one of those who believed he must do only those things his parents told him to do. In the end, they persuaded him to go to the pastor for counseling. Pressured by the parents, the pastor urged and convinced the young man he must go for higher education.
So, against his own heart and conscience, the boy went off to the university. In the very first year, he fell in love with a girl and married her. Two years went by, and soon he was completely backslidden, ending up divorced. Now the parents were weeping before me, having recognized how they became instruments to keep their son from following the Lord with all his heart.
I am not blaming anyone in this situation, but it makes me ask a critical question: Who told us we must have university degrees?
Millions of young people born and raised in Christian homes are going on for higher education only to discover their missionary vision ends. Rarely do they make it to the mission field. I am convinced this so-called higher education “to serve God and live for Him” is one of the greatest deceptions of our time. God is looking for those who will give their lives completely and totally, even if they have nothing in terms of education or the things of this world. Don’t misunderstand me—I am not against education, nor anyone going to a college or university to get the best education possible. I am only asking, Are you pursuing what God has asked you to do? Have you submitted this area to God for Him to lead you?
Your Job
The idea that more pay and career advancement obviously must be of God is a common myth. Many believe it, but it is not true.
The real question is, Have you truly and honestly fasted and prayed for God to direct you to your job and the place where you are working?
It could be you would earn much more money elsewhere, but God wants you to be where you are! Perhaps a lower position, with less pay and less prestige, is where He wants you in order to impact that area, those people and that society for His kingdom’s sake. All you do on your job might be incidental. The most important thing is that you are an ambassador, the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
God wants to place us in different places at different times for His kingdom’s sake.
Of course, only those who truly seek the face of God and submit to His authority will know where He is telling them to go. The question is, have you asked Him about it? Or is that career decision, that move, that salary something you are seeking without direction from the Lord Jesus?
Do you plan to give a little bit of “your” money or time to God on the side to keep Him happy? We must destroy this kind of worldly ambition and selfish planning if we are serious about following Christ all the way. We must come back to God and submit this area to Him along with all the others.
Your Buying and Selling
We are living in a society in which new catalogs by the thousands are put out every season. We are enticed to buy the latest fashions and newest products of the day. Sales deceive us into buying bargains we don’t need. Our minds are so gone that we don’t stop and ask God for His will about what we are going to purchase. We think we have a free right to get what we want, when we want it.
That television set you bought—did you ask God about it? Was it His will? Those new fashions, the toys, the car—no, don’t misunderstand me; I am not against you buying things. What I am saying is that God is concerned about the decisions you make with your pocketbook. Is He the Lord of your buying?
Your Children
For my wife and me, even before our children were born, it was our continuous prayer every day for God to save their souls and call them to be missionaries. We pray with them and help them as they pray for themselves.
For those of us who are following Christ, is not eternity more important than time? All that we have, all that we build, all our security—everything about us—is going to be burned up. Truly we are being prepared by the Living God to reign with Jesus forever throughout eternity. We are destined for the throne. If that is the case, what is your greatest wish for your children?
When was the last time you prayed and shed tears, asking God to call your children to serve Him?
Are you willing to give up your children to go to some faraway country, if need be, never to return, in order to serve Him?
What is it you want for your children—the best health, the best education, the best family, the best house?
What about seeking the best for them as God wants it?
But what does God want? Of course, you will never know until you have submitted your children and your life completely to the lordship of Christ, seeking His face and asking Him daily, “Lord, what do You want us to do?”
Your Money
The traditions and wisdom of our society, and our fears for the future, still dictate what most Christians will do with their money and resources. As you look at the material things of this world, have you truly asked God what He wants you to do with these earthly goods? Jesus talked much about wealth and the things of the world. He admonished us very strongly, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt” (Matthew 6:19). He told us to store our treasure in heaven. He told us to use unrighteous mammon to build friends for eternity, that is, to win precious souls.
Many people give their resources to God out of abundance or guilt. Are you one of them?
Or do you seek to live as simply as you can, with as little as you can on the barest of essentials, so you can send more into His work? The average Christian spends more money on dog food and lawn care than for the cause of God’s kingdom because he has completely taken his life and finances away from the Living God’s hand. He is his own master when it comes to money and resources. He has never sought God’s face and has never submitted to Him in this area as His bondslave.
I challenge you to read throughout the New Testament and mark every verse where Jesus and the apostles talk about the riches of this world. Seek to obey the Word, not to explain it. Then see what marvelous changes will come into your life. The miracle of faith will become a reality. Have you submitted this area of your life to God?
Your Time
The amount of time the average believer spends before a television, reading worldly novels and in recreation is amazing.
Even in church, we study our watches carefully to make sure the preacher will not spend one minute more than the 25 minutes allotted for him to preach.
What a travesty! How far we have fallen when giving an hour or two a week to God is a painful exercise. One who has submitted his life to God cannot divorce time from it.
How are you spending your leisure time? Who told you to take so many weeks for vacation here or there? Who told you to read every conceivable magazine article and watch television in order to be informed? The world and its system are still run by the prince of this world, and Satan is seeking to get every minute he can out of your life.
Satan has laid a hundred little time traps to keep you from being effective for Christ.
We need to be praying for God’s guidance about our vacations and Christmas and other holidays. Can this time be used for the kingdom instead of wasted selfishly?
How much time do you spend in prayer each day? It is shocking to know that the average choir member who sings in our churches spends more time practicing his or her voice and instruments than in reading God’s Word and in prayer.
If we were submitting our time to the will of Christ, how would our lives differ? Who is lord of your time? Do you consider it your own, or do you ask the Lord for His plans for your minutes, hours and days?
We find in the lives of Jesus and Paul—and those who follow them today—that every minute is submitted to doing the will of God.
Your Private Life
One of the greatest tragedies of this civilized, modern society is that people are told—and they have come to believe it—that no one has anything to say about his or her private life. No one should intrude, and no one should disturb.
But there is no such thing for the Christian. So my question is simple: Have you submitted your so-called private world to the lordship of Christ?
What about the places you go, the things you read and the people you talk to, your telephone conversations, the Internet sites you visit, the movies you watch, the friendships you keep?
For so many Christians, their inner man has been destroyed and lays in shambles—all because it has never been submitted to the authority of God. Such believers insist they are their own masters; hence, they live this earthly life defeated and destroyed by the powers of darkness. What about you?
I believe Paul was a man who looked at each area of his life and said, “Lord, here I am. What do You want me to do?”
Again and again, as the Lord put more light on his life, we see Paul repenting and walking the way of the cross. After 20 years of preaching, he confessed he was the chief of sinners, the least of the least of the brethren. In Philippians 3:12–14, he says boldly that he considers himself “not as though I ... were already perfect. ... But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
How did Paul and others like him keep going with this kind of life?
I believe it is only possible through continuous self-examination and confession. We need to compare our lifestyles repeatedly against Scripture. Then, seeing where we need to be, we repent, get up and go on!
Often I have to get on my face and say, “Lord, again I have failed. You are right, and I want to go on. Please forgive me and cleanse me.”
This must be a daily practice. And I have to do it in so many areas of my own life.
The beautiful thing is this: When Jesus died on the cross, He forgave all the sin you ever committed, are committing, and will commit.
Before the prodigal son came home, his father had forgiven him. His agony and the memorized prayer he recited were not what motivated his father to forgive him. It was the very nature of the father to forgive. If, when we were enemies, God loved us this much, how much more does He love us when we have responded to Him and now are His children?
Some of the greatest verses in the New Testament for me are Romans 8:32–39.
Read this slowly and prayerfully.
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
His Grace Is Sufficient
As we have come to the end of this book, let me say that the most important key to remember in such a life of following Christ is continuous repentance when we fall short. Keep a short account with God; and His grace is sufficient.
Remember, only those soldiers who go to the battlefield get shot at and wounded. Those who stay home and take it easy never know the struggle of fighting with the enemy. As you launch out now by faith to follow the Lord in His footsteps, you are to take up the armor of God. You have plunged into the very heat of the battle. You are in the Enemy’s camp, and you cannot turn back.
One of the most subtle tactics the Enemy tries is to make you ineffective by discouraging you and causing you to sin.
In the Old Testament, when the enemy of God’s people wanted to defeat Israel, they asked Balaam what to do. Balaam told them to entice God’s people into sin. That is exactly what they did, and of course, Israel was defeated.
The deceitfulness of sin will keep you from achieving a committed life. When you recognize this, you must immediately repent, take God’s grace and forgiveness already given to you and then thank Him for His goodness.
Remember, we are called to be soldiers. He is on our side. He loves us always, in spite of all our failures, and He wants to make us into the image of His Son. For this He has called you. Don’t give up.