The Spirit Is Indeed Willing
When Jesus was preparing by prayer and supplication in the garden, and came to the disciples sleeping, He spoke the following words recorded in Matthew to them;
Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.
Jesus was speaking to them of the spiritual warfare or struggle within each of us, and the spirit referred to has a small “s”, since the Holy Spirit had not yet been given. Jesus told them that the spirit God had given them is indeed willing, but is hindered by the flesh; they were told to pray not to enter into temptation.
In Andrew Murray’s The Deeper Christian Life, he declares the following in relation to the spiritual battle; “Do not ask, can I be kept from sinning, if I keep close to Him? but ask, can I be kept from sinning, if He always keeps close to me? and you see at once how safe it is to trust Him.” If you are trying to keep close to Him you are trusting in yourself to be able to do it. If we are seeking Him to keep us, He will be your refuge, your deliverer, your protection, your provision if you flee to Him. We must flee from the things of the flesh, and to Him, that He may frame us in His image.
After God spoke the chilling and alarming words below to us; how many of them have been remembered? How much have they been considered, prayed about, or yielded to? Is He yet in your heart?
SEPTEMBER 30, 2012
MESSAGE AND INTERPRETATION
FOR I AM THE LORD THY GOD AND I WOULD SAY UNTO THEE THIS DAY, I AM SORELY DISPLEASED WITH MY PEOPLE. FOR THOU HAST NOT TURNED TO ME AT ALL.
THINE EYES ARE UPON THE WORLD, THINE EYES ARE UPON EVERY WHICH THING BUT ME. EVEN THOU HAD PREPARED FOR ME TO SPEAK AND WAS LOOKING AT THE SPEAKER AND NOT UNTO THY GOD.
I AM DISPLEASED WITH THEE FOR I AM NOT IN THY HEART ANY MORE THAN IN THE HEATHEN. TURN UNTO ME OR I WILL CUT THEE OFF THIS DAY.
I AM THE LORD THY GOD AND NONE OTHER. I HAVE CREATED THY LIFE, I HAVE CREATED THY PATHS, WALK YE THEREIN. WALK YE AS THE WAY OF MY SON JESUS CHRIST, AND LIVE IN HIM AND DWELL IN HIM.
God, through the Spirit, was speaking expressly to us of that fleshly and worldly desire that is in us and controls us, and that we must overcome;
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Have you been the enemy of God and not even realized it? The Holy Spirit is also indeed willing that we turn from the world unto God, and will be your guide if you will hear. A message preached many years ago on rubbing elbows with the world comes to mind; we often are unconsciously doing this and do not spiritually see or hear the hindrances, or recognize the consequences. God, in His mercy, has continued to deal with us, chastening us, wooing us, drawing us unto repentance and the preparation needed to serve Him; God is not giving anything in writing for this current exhortation to add to that work. What we are to do is look deeper at what He confirms at the closing that He has done for us; I HAVE CREATED THY LIFE, I HAVE CREATED THY PATHS, WALK YE THEREIN. WALK YE AS THE WAY OF MY SON JESUS CHRIST, AND LIVE IN HIM AND DWELL IN HIM.
We think that we have heard this and understand it, but we have only begun to receive what God is telling us. We know that God’s ways and God’s thoughts are as far as the heavens are above the earth than ours. We need to allow God to reveal these promises to us. God, in His omnipotence, in His omniscience, in His omnipresence, in His mercy and pervasive love that fills the earth, has created your life, both physically and now spiritually. That is awesome! If we believe in, and are seeking, the will of God, why do we think our creation and our walk, or paths, were random? Do you think Almighty God, whose ways and thoughts are so far above ours, allows random to occur and then orders it afterward? God created your life, and also your paths! The only thing left undecided is whether you will choose to walk with and for Him, and serve Him. God does not take away your free will, and is now exhorting us to walk in His paths for us. Let us consider closer the scripture that already confirms these facts to us, although we have not fully comprehended it;
Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
God not only foreknew and created you, He created or predestined your path! How many of us are even finding a glimmer of it? God’s predestined path for you is righteousness, and holiness, and fulness of the Spirit unto perfection, that you might be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ! He desires for you to follow Jesus to become His child, one of the brethren, a joint-heir. We know from Ezekiel 33:11 … I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked … and from II Peter 3:9 … not willing that any should perish … that God’s will is that we repent and live; turning unto holiness is turning to His paths for you. This should give a greater understanding of Romans 8:28, and the working of your path and His purpose; He created your paths, and they are for your good. This is the will and purpose of God for you, and if you will become humble and obedient unto it, He will perform it in you;
Romans 8:30, 31 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
The path God created for you, and is calling you to, is a walk of perfection! God will be your sufficiency, and enable you to perform it; grasp these promises for you. The gifts God gives are not random in scope, nature, or recipient; the gifts of God are specific and unchanging;
Romans 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
The gifts that the unchanging God has for you are good, and perfect, and purposed for you;
James 1:17 Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
God, in His omnipotence, in His omniscience, in His omnipresence, in His mercy and pervasive love that fills the earth, has also created a good and perfect path for you. A number of additional scriptures confirm this, including;
Psalm 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.
Isaiah 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
God exhorts us to live in Jesus Christ, and dwell in Jesus Christ; it is here that we can also receive the two immutable promises, that in blessing He will bless us, and in multiplying He will multiply us. This is the path He has for us, and leads to the fulness of the Holy Ghost we have talked of, and prayed, and sought God for! We cannot find this perfect path when we are walking as an enemy of God, but only in the forsaking of our path for His path. If he has predestined, and called, and justified you to the path He has for you, and you have heard and fully answered and yielded to Him, He will then send you;
John 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
We are sent as Jesus was sent; to hear, to speak, and to do the will of the Father; to do always the things that please Him. If He has sent you, you can receive the Spirit the same that Jesus did;
John 3:34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
If the Spirit is not given in a limited measure, it is in the fulness of the Spirit; and it is ours if we find the walk of Jesus Christ! Again, we cannot find this walk or path and fulness of the Spirit in a life of enmity to God. Jesus said we would do greater things; that is not possible if we are not walking as He did, in the fulness of the Spirit. Jesus has chosen and ordained you;
John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
There is nothing random, or perchance, or happenstance in the life and path that the infinite, Almighty God has created for you. The question is whether you will walk in enmity to Him, or seek Him to work His paths in you. The Spirit is indeed willing!