THE GREAT CATTLE ROUNDUP

THE GREAT CATTLE ROUNDUP

                “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Cor. 10:5.

                We as Christians are quick to admit that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, but slow to understand just what that means. Think about it for a minute: If the actual Spirit of Yeshua dwells in you, then should not some of your thoughts actually be His thoughts? And if we are able to hear our own thoughts, should we not be able to hear His thoughts as well?

                Jesus said in John 7:38, 39: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

                Now follow me here; this is very important: In John 14:15-17 Jesus said to His disciples: “If you love me you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because HE ABIDES WITH YOU AND WILL BE IN YOU.”    

                 Here in this simple instruction to His disciples Jesus is revealing the major difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant consisted of external instructions and the Holy Spirit was WITH them. But in the New Covenant, because of what Jesus did to clear away our sins, our instructions have now become internal because the Holy Spirit is now IN us.

                So now, when Paul talks about taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ we need to understand this from a practical standpoint. We know that our thoughts can be scattered in many different directions. Some come from our flesh; some form the world, some from the devil and some from the Holy Spirit who dwells in our spirit if we are born again.

                If we are Christians then, does it not make sense that we should be able to discern the source of our thoughts and to weed out those thoughts that don’t belong to Christ? Should we not be able to round up our thoughts and to take them all captive to the obedience of Christ? Is the Holy Spirit in us just so much air, or is He the very conscious presence of Jesus living in us?

                In the summer of 1966 after graduating from Cedar Lake Academy in northern central Michigan, I had the privilege of working for a short time on a cattle ranch in southern Colorado. We bucked hay, and road the irrigation ditches on horses, opening the flow of water over the fields in one place and closing it up in another place so that water flowed downward and flooded the seeded fields.

                This was a great experience because we did a lot of this work on horseback and the main source of water was perhaps several miles away at a main irrigation ditch in the hills. This took a good portion of the day and the horses would faithfully carry us from place to place until our work was complete. So when we were finished for the day, all we had to say to the horses was, “Okay, let’s go home.” And we would get the ride of our lives as the horses raced each other at breakneck speed all the way back to the barn for oats and a rub down.

                Then one day, a group of real cowboys showed up. It was time for the cattle roundup as they would bring about three hundred head of cattle from the high country and down to the lower pastures.

                One of the cowboys brought me a special horse and asked me if I had ever herded cattle before. I said “No” and so he warned me saying, “This is a cutting horse. Even if you don’t know what you are doing the horse does know, so be alert and hang on, or you will find yourself on the ground without a horse.

                I was glad for this warning and in fact the horse did know what to do and I did have to hang on for dear life. Whenever a young calf would start to stray from the herd, that magnificent horse would take off like a bolt of lightning… and there were a few times when the horse cared not whether I was on board or not as he plunged under low hanging tree branches and such, or as he lurched this way or that to bring the calf back into line.

                May I suggest that the Holy Spirit in us knows what to do even when we don’t? He does however care more for our well-being than the cutting horse did, but we can nevertheless be in for a wild ride. The Bible is full of the examples of priests and kings and prophets that had to hang on for dear life even though they often didn’t know where the Holy Spirit was leading them.

                This was in the Old Covenant times and we now understand from Yeshua’s words, that in those days the Holy Spirit was WITH them and not IN them. But there were those specially chosen by God to be a priest, or King or a Prophet. They would be anointed with oil and the Holy Spirit would come UPON them (not yet in them, but upon them)and they would do their assigned tasks under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

                What a privilege it is for us today to actually have the Holy Spirit IN us. He breathes life into our dead or dormant spirit and we become new creatures. That which Adam lost in the fall is restored to us through Jesus Christ and we are once again in His image and His Holy Spirit now animates us and guides us. He even makes the Word of God living and active and sharper than any two edged sword able to judge the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Heb.4:12.

                How is it then that we resort to dead traditions and rules and regulations? How is it that we satisfy ourselves that God is in heaven looking down on us when in fact He is right in our “Innermost being” pouring out rivers of living water?

                If we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ will we not come to recognize His voice in us? Will we not learn to follow that voice and to ignore the thoughts that don’t come from Him?

                Why is it then that we feel alone in our struggles? Even if we don’t always know what we are doing, the Holy Spirit knows. Sometimes we just need to hang on for dear life and trust that He knows the way.

                The Holy Spirit rarely leaves us in our comfort zone. When we get too familiar with the routine we are in and we begin to feel like we’ve got it now and we don’t really need God’s help, He will lurch forward like a bolt of lightning to round up those stray thoughts. He may even give us a new assignment that stretches our faith a little more so that we will realize our need of Him.

                 Sometimes we just need to hang on for dear life. He knows what to do even when we don’t.

                Paul says a strange thing in Romans 10:6-11. In essence he is telling us that we don’t need to ascend into heaven to bring Christ down or to descend into the Abyss, to bring Christ up. “But what does it say? ‘The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart…”

                 So again I have to ask: If we are literally temples of the Holy Spirit, then why do we go through life feeling as if God is far away? Why do we spend whole lifetimes never hearing God’s voice if indeed He is right here inside of us?

                “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father and you in Me and I in you.” John 14:18-20.

                You are not alone. He is in you and you do hear His voice. So take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and you will begin to recognize the one voice that always speaks the truth in you.