Ready to Do Your Will

Monday, January 10, 2011, 10:42 p.m. – I slept for maybe an hour, woke up and could not fall back asleep. I began praying. The Lord put a song in my mind, which I began singing silently in my mind, then that song led to another and to another, which then stayed with me. I sang in my heart back to the Lord, “I want to be holy, set apart for you, Lord. I want to be holy, set apart for you my master, ready to do your will.”

Refiner’s Fire / Doerksen, Brian

Purify my heart,
let me be as gold and precious silver.
Purify my heart,
let me be as gold, pure gold.

Purify my heart,
cleanse me from within
and make me holy.
Purify my heart,
cleanse me from my sin, deep within.

Refiner's fire,
my heart's one desire
is to be holy;
set apart for You, Lord.
I choose to be holy;
set apart for You, my Master,
ready to do Your will.

I prayed: “Lord Jesus, I come before you openly and honestly and I seek your face regarding what you want to say to your servant this evening.” Then, the Lord brought this song into my mind:

Spirit of the Living God / Daniel Iverson

Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read John 8:12-59, and then I read it again asking the Lord to give me the message he wanted me to have and/or to share this evening. As I read, the Lord had certain verses stand out to me in relation to this subject of holiness. As I examined these scriptures, I realized that they taught what it means to truly be set apart for Jesus Christ. We must:

• FOLLOW Jesus (v. 12)
• BELIEVE he is who he claims to be (v. 24)
• HOLD to his teaching (v. 31-32)
• LOVE him (v. 42)
• HEAR what God says (v. 46b-47)
• KEEP his word (v. 51)

FOLLOW JESUS –

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

The word “follow” means “to take the same route behind another person; to take the same course or go in the same direction as something else; to obey something - to act in accordance with something, especially with instructions or directions given by somebody else; to imitate or do the same as somebody or something” (Encarta Dictionary).

So, to follow Jesus, we need to take the same route as him by first of all believing in him and his salvation by grace through faith, which involves following him in death by dying to our old life of sin, and in his resurrection by allowing him to make us alive spiritually. Then, we are to walk in obedience to his commands and to act in accordance with the belief that Jesus came to set us free from the power of sin over our lives by no longer allowing sin to have dominion over us. And, we are to follow the example set for us by Jesus’ life on the earth. Following someone means being with him and going the same direction as him. We can’t follow Jesus if we are not in fellowship with him or if we are going the opposite direction as he is. Following means not only doing what he does, but doing what he says.

BELIEVE HE IS WHO HE CLAIMS TO BE –

“I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.”

I think that the word “believe” is one of the most misunderstood words ever from a spiritual perspective. The Bible says that even the demons believe and they shudder and that many will come before Jesus on that day and say, “Lord, Lord…” and Jesus will answer back, “I never knew you. Depart from me.” So, it is possible to think you believe but to not truly believe after all.

This next passage of scripture (vv. 31-32) begins by saying, “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said…” Nonetheless, when you read what Jesus said to them and how he told them that God was not their father and that their father was the devil, then obviously their “belief” was not the kind of saving belief required for a relationship with Jesus Christ. So, it is possible, therefore, to believe in one’s mind in the existence of someone or even in some of his teachings yet never have a heart changing kind of belief.

So, to believe in Jesus Christ means to believe that he is who he said he is, and that is more than just believing that he is the Son of God and God who came in the flesh, but that he is our Savior, our Lord, etc. If I believe in my heart that Jesus came to set me free from the control of sin over my life, then why would I allow sin to continue to have dominion over me? If I believe Jesus is my Lord (my master), then why would I allow everything else to be the master of my life? If Jesus is truly my Lord (my boss), then he should get first place in my life and he should be the one deciding the course I take each day.

HOLD TO HIS TEACHING –

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

People say that salvation is not conditional, but it is. It is conditional upon our faith. It is by grace through faith, and this is not of ourselves but is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast, the Bible tells us. I believe even the faith to believe is a gift from God, yet it must be appropriated into our lives by our actions. James talks much about how faith without works is dead. What he means is that if we say we believe, our actions should support that. Faith = repentance, obedience and actions. In I John we learn that if we say we love God but we do not obey his commands that we are a liar. There are many scriptures that begin with the word “if”, showing that this must be present in our lives if we are to claim genuine salvation in Jesus Christ. Jesus could tell that the people’s belief was not genuine, so that is why he let them know one of the marks of a true disciple of his and that is if one holds to his teaching.

So, what does it mean to “hold” to his teaching? – “To take something firmly and retain it; to retain or reserve something for use; to keep a promise or carry out an intention; to continue in a particular state or course; to remain fast or firm and not break or give way” (Encarta). So, to hold to Jesus’ teaching means to retain it in our lives by our actions, to keep to its teachings through obedience, to follow what it says to do, to stay firm on what it says, and to not break away from it or to give way to false teaching.

LOVE HIM –

“Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.’”

Love is another very misunderstood word. We use the word “love” for saying we love ice cream, or we love our dog, or we love to go to a particular place, or we love that song, etc. We use the word love often when we mean lust. We say “I love you” sometimes when our actions say just the opposite. Jesus gave us the perfect definition for love. The Bible tells us that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Jesus is God, so a good definition for love is “giving of one’s self to the legitimate needs of another.” God desires that we obey him. He says that if we say we love him but don’t obey him, then we are lying. So, to love God means to do what he says. This is giving to God what God desires of us.

HEAR WHAT GOD SAYS –

“If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

We often use the word “hear” to mean that we audibly heard the sound of someone’s voice speaking to us, but hearing involves more than just the use of our physical ears. Hearing involves understanding and heeding (doing what we hear). Obviously the people Jesus was speaking to were audibly hearing his words because they responded to them. So, when Jesus told them that the reason they did not hear is because they did not belong to God, he was saying that they did not hear what God says by responding with heart change. So, to belong to God means to do what God tells us to do.

KEEP HIS WORD –

“I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

Lastly, we must keep his word. This is a whole lot like holding to his teaching as the words “keep” and “hold” are very similar in nature. When he says, “he will never see death,” he is not speaking of physical death, as most of us will die one day unless Jesus comes to take us home first. What he is speaking of is spiritual death, i.e. eternal separation from God in hell. If we want to have a relationship with Jesus Christ that demonstrates genuine belief and not just intellectual knowledge, then we need to keep the word of God in practice in our daily lives and never let it go. We need to hear what God says by putting his words into practice. We need to show that we love God by doing what he says. We need to follow him by obeying his commands and we need to believe he is who he says he is by our actions backing up what we say we believe. This is how we can live lives that are holy, separated unto God.

Refiner's fire, my heart's one desire is to be holy; set apart for You, Lord. I choose to be holy; set apart for You, my Master, ready to do Your will.