THE HAND OF GOD

THE HAND OF GOD

                “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.  If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if any one serves Me, the Father will honor him.” John12: 24-26

                What is it about a grain of wheat that makes it bring forth fruit? What is it that causes it to produce a hundred fold?

                As long as it is stored under safe, dry conditions it will remain a single grain of wheat for thousands of years. The life is inside of it, but that life is bound up inside a hard outer shell. And in order for the life of that grain of wheat to ever produce life the hard outer shell must be softened and broken so that life may come forward.

                This is also true of every believer. Each of us who has been born again has the life of Christ dwelling in our spirit. But we also have a hard outer shell called the soul with its mind, will and emotions. We may try to act like Christians all of our lives, relying on talent and ability, and good intentions. We fool ourselves into thinking that we are doing so much for God and we are a shining light to others, when in fact we may be relying upon the cleverness of our own mind and the abilities of our soul to deal with people.

                But the only thing that really counts for eternity is that which is produced by the Spirit of God through us. He is there, longing to become a fountain of living water, flowing from our innermost being, but that hard outer shell of the soul remains rigid and unchanged.

                In church we may see various levels of immaturity all around us and it is easy to see it in others, but not so easy to see in ourselves. One person has difficulty with interpersonal relationships, another is constantly being offended, another gossips disguising it as concern, another seems to have a persecution complex and always needs counsel for family problems, or work problems, or what have you.

                After a number of years in a congregation you will begin to notice that the same people have the same problems year after year and they battle with their problems, putting up resistance, defending the self, judging, hating and hurting in the same ways as last year and the year before.

                The Bible identifies our spirit as the “inner man’ and our soul as the outer man. Our soul is of the flesh with its mind, will and emotions. Our physical body is the shell in which we dwell. (2 Cor. 5:1) And through it we see, hear, taste, touch and smell.  So through these five senses, our body feeds information into our soul, and our soul processes this information. This is the natural man, the physical man. But when we are born again, our spirit is quickened by the Holy Spirit and it becomes the lot of the Christian to learn how to be controlled by the Spirit rather than by the soul.

                If we never learn how to be Spirit directed, we will simply react to outer stimuli in the same way the world does, with anger, hurt, lust, hatred and so on. These reactions, of course, make an open display of our spiritual immaturity. We react to life just like the world does simply because we do not see the hand of God in our circumstances. We fail to realize that He keeps running us through the same problem over and over again until we learn to deal with it in the Spirit instead of in the flesh.

                The outer man (Our soul) must be broken. Our pride, our self-love, our self-will, our self-preservation, our self-defense, our self-justification and so on, need to pass through the cross. And it is because we don’t understand what the cross does for us that we continue on year after year, dealing with the same problems not realizing that  these offenses in your life are caused by the outer shell of your soul in areas that you have not yet yielded to God.

                We must be broken, or we cannot release the grace and the fruit of the Spirit to others. We do pretty well in some areas, but whenever we get hit with certain problems, temptations, or difficulties, we clam up and protect ourselves with our hard shell.

                How desperately we need to learn how to release the Spirit in our lives. We need to look beyond people and circumstances and see the hand of God in our lives as He seeks to break that hard shell so that His Spirit can be released in us.

                Do you find yourself having the same problems over and over again? Is it family, friends, fellow church members, work environment, circumstances? What is it that keeps tripping you up? What is that problem that never seems to go away?

                What if we were to see the hand of God in it? What if we were to stop judging situations the way the world does and release it to our heavenly Father? What if we were to stop being hurt by people and things and we started to submit to God in His dealings with us, suddenly realizing that He is working in us to break that hard shell of our soul, so that His Spirit may be released in and through us?

                It is the cross that puts us in the ground where the sun and rain and soil of life can soften that outer shell, allowing life to germinate and come forth from you in resurrection power.

                As Christians who believe in an infinite and loving God, we must begin to realize that there are no coincidences. Everything in our lives can either be seen as an obstacle or as a learning aid. Will we learn to deal with it in the Spirit this time or will we take out our guns and try to deal with it in the flesh once again?

                Look at the life of Jacob He was born fighting his brother, he gained his birthright through fraud, he was cheated on by Laban for 20 years, The love of his life died prematurely, His favorite son was sold into slavery, His next favorite son was taken away to Egypt under false pretenses, He ran from the wrath of his brother, he even fought with God until God finally broke him.

                In the end he prophesied over his sons, with prophecies that are still being fulfilled to this day and he blessed them and then announced that he was about to be gathered to his fathers. And it says: “When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.”  Gen. 49:33.

                In his life we see the progressing of a man who fought against life through many character flaws, but in the end he was broken so that the Spirit of prophecy could finally flow through Him and the blessing with which he blessed his sons. And so he became the Father of the nation of Israel after his fathers , Abraham and Isaac.

                Do you want the Spirit of God to be released in your life? Then realize that God is at work in you softening and breaking that shell so that rivers of living water can flow from your innermost being. John 7:38.

                We are all in this process of becoming and the sooner we can see the hand of God in our circumstances the sooner we will be able to release the Spirit through our broken lives.

                “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:14-21

                Can you see the hand of God in your life? Are you willing to be broken by Him? Do you long to see the Spirit flowing unhindered through your life? I do… and that is why I have given God permission to do whatever it takes in my life to bring forth the fruit of His Spirit in me. I have come to hate that outer shell and I long to see it dissolved by His grace and by His hand.