God Does His Work
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 11088 |
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November 23, 2008 |
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 "... He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also... Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do ..." (John 14:12-14)
As all sorts of grains and fruit fill the autumn fields, God desires each of us to receive His answers to our prayers and lead prosperous lives at home, workplaces, and businesses. Instead of agonizingly leading lives restricted by the limit of the flesh as do the worldly people, God wants us to lead joyful lives in which we exploit our privileges entitled to us as His children. In other words, the Almighty God does not desire us to be burdened to solve the problems of life on our own but to resolve them Himself and work in our lives on our behalf.
What, then, should we do so that God will intervene in our lives and grant us the desires of our hearts?
1.God carries out that which He has promised.
If our prayer requests are proper in His sight, the God of love without doubt grants us the desires of our hearts when we ask Him by faith in the name of Jesus Christ. His response to our requests, however, will vary according to the magnitude of our trust in God with which we ask Him (Mark 11:24).
Jesus tells us in John 14:12, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father." According to this Word of promise, countless signs and wonders, the likes of which had been manifested by Jesus, have been shown at Manmin Central Church. For instance, people suffering from a variety of diseases are healed; the mute begin to speak; the blind open their eyes; the deaf begin to hear; and those who had been confined to wheelchairs start walking and running.
Manmin Central Church's beginning 26 years was insignificant but as a result of God's carrying out of His promise, it has grown to a colossal denomination of approximately 8,000 branch churches around the world. The same can be said of the 12 overseas crusades that took place from 2000 to 2006, active mission work through the Global Christian Network (GCN) and literature, and the full-scale mission work in Israel for which we had been praying since the time of the church's founding.
Jeremiah 33:2 reminds us of "the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it." Therefore, we must comprehend the secret to God's carrying out of His promise so that He will work for the desires of our hearts.
2.How to Experience the works of God
a.We must ask the God of faithfulness by faith without changing our mind.
By saying that God is "faithful," we speak of how God grants us the desires of our hearts according to His righteousness and love as He does not forsake our faith and righteousness. As God is blameless and spotless, He will surely answer our prayers according to our faith as long we do not ask Him for our own pleasures. God's "faithfulness" refers to His attributes by which He answers, in His precise righteousness and love, the prayers of His children according to the extent to which they have accomplished whole faith and righteousness of the heart.
When people cling to Him and trust Him without changing their mind, the God of faithfulness makes possible all that is seemingly impossible in the mind of man. The fact that Abraham had a son at the age of 100 is not possible or conceivable in the mind of man. Why, then, did God allow such an event to transpire?
Abraham had accomplished the righteousness in his heart that was pleasing to God and believed in God's Word of promise despite the passing of a long time. At the age of 75, Abraham was promised an innumerable number of descendants but he and his wife Sarah did not have a child during the following two decades. Still, Abraham's faith in God did not weaken and he did not doubt God's promise. God recognized Abraham's faith and righteousness and, as He had promised, gave him a son. As God is faithful, He does not turn away from those who believe in Him (2 Chronicles 16:9).
How earnest was your heart when you asked God for anything? As God does not lie or regret, the fruit of His answers will vary depending on the earnestness of the heart with which we ask Him. Just as Abraham's faith has shown us, when our faith does not waver or shake the fruit of God's answers we receive will be whole.
God's righteousness and love are found in His answering the prayer of a child who has displaying his faith to the end even if he felt God's response was slow in coming or events transpired contrary to what he expected. Therefore, keep in mind that maintaining unchanging, true faith and accomplishing the righteousness of the heart are critical in order for God to answer one's prayer. This is because, if our hearts condemn us as if have yet to accomplish the righteousness of the heart, we will not be confident before Him (1 John 3:21-22).
b.We must strive to magnify the name of God.
When are parents most captivated by their children and are most delighted by them? A troublemaker is sure to grieve his parents. A child who is focused and devoted only to his own work before being called upon to help his parents will not grieve them but cannot delight them, either.
On the other hand, can you imagine how delighted and proud parents would be if their child assisted them without having been asked or when they had not expected? The same can be said of our relationship with our spiritual Father. If we merely devoted ourselves to maintaining our faith while being grateful for the grace of salvation, that will be the limit of God's salvation as well. Yet, if we strove to accomplish anything, in our gratitude of God's grace, that would give glory to Him, God would be pleased with our heart, help us to be successful with our tasks, and pour upon us grace and strength.
For example, God will be pleased with the heart to magnify Him in any God-given duty with which each of us is entrusted by making every effort to bear fruit; the heart to pray and receive the Holy Spirit's guidance in seeking out God's work and striving to accomplish it; and the heart to emanate the fragrance of the Christ at our workplaces in order to give glory to God and strengthen the church, and to cultivate our businesses by faith. When such a child has undertaken a certain task, God will allow him to bear fruit worthy of glory to God and in His delight, God will glorify him in return (John 13:32).
However, there are times when people do not bear whole fruit even though they profess to work for the glory of God. This is because they desire, in a corner of their heart, to have their names shine and recognized as well. When such selfishness is present, people will tend to rely on their own thoughts and experiences over the wisdom and strength God has given them and their fruit thus cannot be whole.
c.We must harbor a heart of obedience.
In preparing to pay the tax, Jesus tells Peter in Matthew 17:27, "Go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me." If Peter had not gone to the sea to catch a fish, he would not have witnessed anything. This is precisely the result of what we find in the Bible: "Faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected" (James 2:22). God recognized Peter's obedience and prepared a fish in which a shekel was to be found.
The same can be said of all the works recorded in the Bible. When a child of God asks Him for something, He in turn commands the child to do something else so that He may grant the desires of his heart. When the child obeys, God will accomplish all things effortlessly.
Furthermore, in commanding His children, God does so according to each one's measure of faith and does not give unreasonable commandments. After one has been obedient and carried out small tasks, he will be given greater spiritual faith and when God commands him even greater things, he will be able to obey.
As we find in Isaiah 1:19, "If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land," even if God does not command us to carry out a particular task, when we delight in obeying all the commandments we find in the Bible – all the "Do's," "Do not's," "Keep's," and "Throw away's" – our spirits will naturally prosper. God allows affairs of all such individuals to prosper and walks alongside them always.
Therefore, may each of you come forth as a blessed believer as you magnify God and receive His abundant blessings and answers to your prayers by delighting in obeying God's Word, in the name of Our Lord I bless!
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