THE PROOF OF POWER TO ACT FOR THE LORD
THE PROOF OF POWER TO ACT FOR THE LORD
In the time of a divine movement, many are acted upon by it who are not able to act in it. Many receive grace who do not become witnesses of the grace. “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” are words which describe the result of the grace of God to man. Many are cured of dangerous maladies who cannot cure others, or attempt to do so; and so it is with too many of the recipients of mercy. But to the true heart it must be in a time like this a question of deep interest, What course must I pursue in order that I may be able to act for the Lord?
There are, I may say, three qualities necessary for the one who shall act for the Lord in a time of difficulty. The first is the power to deny oneself voluntarily. The second is the ability to view or to judge of man and of everything as they are in the eyes of God, or in relation to Him; and the third is patient dependence on God when everything is against one. The power to deny oneself voluntarily is the first, because when I am truly set on the work and service of Christ, self-consideration [p. 369] must be in abeyance. It proves that I have His interest primarily at heart when I can overlook what personally concerns myself. A man cannot serve two masters. When the Lord’s interests are paramount, then my own interests must be secondary, and hence the proof of power is when I can voluntarily set aside my own for His. It is not only that I do not anxiously seek my own interests, but that I can turn away from the very mercies of God’s hand to me in order that I may give myself to His. Thus the ten thousand men of Gideon’s army in Judges 7 were tested. They were neither fearful nor afraid, but the Lord said, “Bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there”. Now water represents what refreshes and cheers one in the earth, earthly mercies. The water was a distinct favour from God, but while even the three hundred owned that it was a mercy, they showed in the manner in which they partook of it that they had deeper and greater interests at heart. And this is therefore the first qualification for a true servant in an evil day. Thus Moses proved himself to be such by “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season”. He forgets himself in order to serve, risks his life to deliver an Israelite; and when weary and sad at heart, a lonely stranger by the well of Midian, he forgets his own troubles and delivers the women and waters their flock. The one who has a heart really set for service, and fit for it, always thinks how he can serve others, regardless of himself. He proves by his ability to deny himself, like a well-drilled soldier, that he is qualified for service. Daniel and his fellows refused the king’s meat and the king’s wine, and thus proved that, being masters of their own appetites, they were qualified for great service. Paul declares, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest ... when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway”; and again he says, “I endure all things for the elect’s sakes”. He is not only comforted by the [p. 370] Lord, but he is able to comfort others, as he himself has been comforted of God; 2 Corinthians 1. Many a man is cured or relieved of maladies or sufferings and yet has no ability to cure or relieve another; for in order to be able to relieve the suffering of another, I must study the course and nature of the suffering, as well as enjoy the relief from it myself.
In the journeyings of Israel through the wilderness, Amalek represents the flesh which opposes their onward course. “Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel”, Exodus 17: 8. By birth they were Syrians, and they were bondmen in Egypt. After their deliverance from Egypt, they are opposed by Amalek. Now Amalek is in type anyone, either ourselves or those nearest to us, who oppose our course. To such we must not yield; and there will always be open and palpable victory according as we wait on God in our hearts. Thus in the conflict with Amalek, it was when Moses’ hands were kept up that Joshua prevailed. Henceforth the ability to fight against Amalek becomes the test of real power. Thus Saul was tested in 1 Samuel 15; “Go and smite Amalek” was the Lord’s word to him. Now in the way in which this injunction is observed does every one prove his power for service. Saul failed under the test. He only destroyed the vile and the refuse, that he “utterly destroyed”, but he spared Agag, and the best of everything. This in principle is what many a servant does in the present day. While destroying the refuse, he spares the best; he has regard for that which man regards; he savours of the things which be of men, and not of the things which be of God. It was thus that Saul proved himself incompetent for the throne. “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king”, is the word of the Lord to Samuel. Joseph, on the contrary, proves that he has the qualification for a true servant; he refuses in Potiphar’s house to be anything else but a bondman. God is more before him than himself. Saul could not refuse the best; the best [p. 371] of the spoil was to him what the water was to the nine thousand seven hundred who set out with Gideon — too much for him; he thought of himself and he was disqualified for the throne. He was given there the finest opportunity of proving his fidelity to the Lord, and he failed; while Moses proved his ability for service in one so small and unseen as helping the women who were oppressed by the shepherds.
The second quality necessary for a servant is viewing or judging of man, and of everything, as they are in the eyes of God, or in relation to Him. As the first is the virtue of the ‘forlorn hope’ who counted not their lives dear unto themselves, in order that they might secure the interests of Christ; the next is, that as I see Him in His glory, so am I able to judge of everything of man as in relation to Him. It is in proportion as I see Him thus that I can judge of what is of man; but if I only see the height partially, I can only judge of the depth partially. In the epistle to the Ephesians we get this contrast. When we are set in the highest elevation, as in chapter 1, then the greatest disclosure is made of the corruption of man in the flesh, in chapter 4. It is only as the servant knows his connection with God that he can refuse what is contrary to Him, and be really and truly for the Lord among men. Moses was pre-eminently qualified for being the Lord’s servant, at the time when in answer to his own request, “Shew me thy glory”, his face shone from the effect of it. He had witnessed many a wonder from the hand of God, and had been the instrument of many; but now, when Israel worshipped a calf, he for the first time requests to see the glory of God; and the effect is that his face shines, and thereby the distance is exposed which is morally between man and God. They “could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance”. Thus too with Isaiah, in chapter 6; he is not fit to be a prophet in the lowest state of things in Israel until he has learned that before the King, the [p. 372] Lord of hosts, his iniquity is taken away, and his sin purged. The servant’s ability to judge of things here depends on the height of his personal and conscious connection with the Lord. The Lord presents this in Luke 9, when after the transfiguration, the highest elevation for a man on earth, He descends from the holy mount, not only to encounter the worst form of Satan’s assault on man, but to announce the momentous tidings, “Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men”; there will be a close of His history in a fearful death. How can I know what man is in himself, or what he is in relation to God, but as I know God? One may, like Job, hear of Him by the hearing of the ear, but what a change when one sees Him! “Now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself”. The servant who is not high up consciously can never judge largely or fully of what man is in relation to God at the time. Stephen is consciously connected with the glory of God and Jesus, and then he is personally qualified, not only to announce where the Son of man is, but to endure the worst of sufferings without swerving from serving those from whom he suffered. Paul is introduced into the full elevation of a man in Christ, and he learns in himself the weakness of man and the sufficiency of grace, so that he takes pleasure in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon him. In the knowledge of the good, he can refuse the bad. As possessor of the highest things, he can refuse all inferior things. He can maintain the standard because he knows it, and is of it. Gold remains gold, however it may be abused or defaced.
The third quality or proof of power to serve is patient dependence on God when everything is against one. There is no way in which our capacity for service is so tested as by being placed in circumstances where we have no door of escape but from God. Joseph in prison — “The word of the Lord tried him” — is [p. 373] prepared or fitted for service by his patient dependence on God. Many a servant does not understand why he is subjected to imprisonment, any more than Job understood why he was deprived of everything. Every competent servant is imprisoned in some way or other, in order to be tried in the balances as to whether he has patient dependence; whether he can be, as it were, steady under fire. David at Ziklag is a very striking example; everything was against him at that moment. His conscience must have reproached him for being in the Philistine territory, his heart was bereaved, for his wives and children had been carried away, his property was destroyed, and his friends spake of stoning him. In such an accumulation of distress he proved to be God’s servant, for “David encouraged himself in the Lord his God”. When Joseph was suffering from the irons in prison; when Job was scraping himself with a potsherd; and when David was at Ziklag, none of them had any conception of the high service for which they were being proved competent; and this is very instructive. We see this patient dependence in Paul and Silas at Philippi. He had been called by a man of Macedonia to come and help them. He had been at Philippi for “certain days”; no man had come forward. Satan had offered to countenance him; and when Paul refused it, the power of the world endeavoured to crush him; his feet were made fast in the stocks, but his patient dependence on God continued. At midnight they prayed and gave thanks, and when they little expected it the Lord appeared to them, and the jailor is at their feet seeking salvation. Thus the true servant waits patiently on God when everything is apparently against him, and thus he is proved competent for serving according to the Lord’s mind at the time.