You Can Be Successful!
Roger Forster
In every situation of his life Jesus was both faithful and successful. In this article Roger exhorts us that Jesus' victories can be ours too.
There is a saying going around that as the servants of God we are to be faithful, not successful. I don't want to be scathing or hard, but I do want to repudiate that statement. There is no such thing in the Bible as being faithful without being successful. The scriptures clearly indicate, and the parable of the talents clearly teaches, that to be a faithful leader, worker, or servant of God, there must be success in our hands to present to the Lord when he comes again.
I don't mean success as it's measured by other people's opinions of us, or that which is gained by worldly or unspiritual methods. The success that Jesus is looking for is measured by how much of him is found in his people. How much of him has increased in the earth? For the measure of eternity is that which is of Christ. I want my life to be successful in reproducing Jesus in others.
It's success when we obey the Lord and go out into the world and make disciples of all nations. It's success when we see numbers increase. He doesn't expect us to fail, nor to see numerical or spiritual decline. He expects us to do what he says because what he says is possible. Not only is Jesus the measure of success: he is the model of success. It is Jesus working out who he is in us that will make us truly successful workers.
At his baptism the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus. There is no way that any of us can be of use in the work of God unless we know the Holy Spirit coming upon our lives, anointing us and filling us. At Jesus' baptism, the heavens were literally 'torn apart'. The Father was so excited that his Son was being baptised; the Holy Spirit dropped out of heaven and fell upon Jesus. There is a lovely incorporation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit: 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'
At the heart of Jesus' anointing were the words 'my beloved'. And it is the knowledge that we are God's beloved ones that is at the heart of our being filled and thrilled by the Holy Spirit, and of the anointing rising up in us. No man or woman can be successful for God unless he lives, moves, walks and breathes the acceptance of the love of God. Living in the love of God is the way to start seeing God's hand released in our lives. That takes place as the Holy Spirit sheds God's love abroad in our hearts.
But that anointing led Jesus into the wilderness. We've got to be sensitive to the Spirit, to learn how to be led by the Spirit. That's not learned in a day. It's something we make mistakes in. But we dare not abandon the pursuit of listening and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
Some years ago I was preaching in Taiwan. I was sitting in the conference hall waiting to preach. Being a hot place, the fans were going round. A lovely butterfly came and landed on my Bible. As the moving fan came past me, the delicate butterfly trembled in every fibre. It hung on to my Bible and shuddered. Then as the wind passed, it relaxed. Before long the fan came back and the process was repeated. Finally the butterfly gave up the unequal struggle and it shot off down the slipstream.
The actual power and flow that it moved in was not its own: the wind had taken it up. When John says that. 'Everyone who is born of the Spirit is like the wind', he is not just saying the the Holy Spirit is the means by which we are born again; rather he is saying that you and I have the right and the capacity to move as the wind does. You have the authority to be in the movement of God. There is a right of every born-again believer to be so breathed upon that when we move into situations, it is like the wind of God that pushes us in and enables us to break through.
Paul doesn't say, 'Those that are the sons of God are led by the Spirit.' It's the other way round! Today we say, 'You are a son of God, so you'd better believe that you're being led by the Spirit.' In the early church there were so many being blown around by the Spirit, that Paul had to assure them they were the sons of God!
When Jesus was led by the Spirit, he moved into temptation. That's the second great factor in his life. Luke says that Jesus was 'filled' with the Spirit, 'led' by the Spirit into the wilderness, and when he came out, Jesus was 'in the power' of the Spirit. Power comes when temptation is met and countered by the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of God comes out of the pressures or temptations that make us and mould us and carve us into the kind of people who will minister God's power with Jesus' life. It's as we grapple with such things as 'Man shall not live by bread alone ... I'll give you all these nations if you bow down and worship me' - Power!
Thank God, Jesus refused to join those who have poured blood down the stream of history by military and political power. He came out of the temptation knowing that the power of God was resting upon him moral power, ethical power - power to create holiness. There's nothing like pressure to make a man holy: it drives you to the Lord.
In the wilderness Jesus fasted. Over the years I've learned the value of regular fasting, rather than just when there's a particular problem. I don't think it's legalistic; methodical fasting is a simple discipline that cries out to God and says, 'I'm more interested in spiritual realities than earthly pleasures.' I probably enjoy my food now more than ever!
By regular fasting every week. I find my spirit being limbered up and conditioned. In a big meeting where we've been worshipping, the power of God will be around; anything can happen. But when you go alone into a house where there's a dying person or somebody needing help, your spirit needs to be tuned in. There's a difference between tapping into the power of God in a meeting, and actually carrying that power within you. Fasting helps to remove the unbelief that an easy-going, affluent kind of existence tends to produce. Some spiritual exercise removes the flabbiness and gives you the grip to be able to get into spiritual situations.
The next great event in Jesus' ministry that is recorded in all four gospels is the feeding of the 5000. There are only three things apart from the crucifixion and the resurrection that are recorded in all four gospels. The feeding of the 5000 is one of them and is therefore highly significant. The miracle that Jesus performed was overwhelming. Your hands could carry the loaves and fishes, yet in faith Jesus was going to break them and expect to feed 5000 people. Even those who had to distribute it had to act in faith. What a colossal risk!
There is an important element of risk in faith. You have to step over the great chasm of unbelief. Some time ago I was preaching at a conference, and I gave an illustration about cutting off someone's ear. I pointed at someone out of the blue and asked, 'What would you do if I cut off your ear?'
He replied, 'I'd say, "Thank you very much"!' That ruined my illustration, and everyone roared with laughter. It dawned on me eventually that he must have something wrong with his ear. Should I stop preaching and pray for him? I decided that was too risky; someone else was leading the meeting. At the end of the service I asked about the person and was told he had suffered from ear trouble for 23 years. And all the great prayers had laid hands on him - without success!
During the next session we were praying for people; I kept leaving Nigel out! Finally I laid hands on him and stepped across the wide chasm of unbelief. The only faith I had was that of obedience. A little later we received a letter from him: his hearing was perfectly whole!
But there's a sequel. Two years later Nigel was sitting in our church; the disease was returning and he'd come for prayer. You can imagine how I felt. It was risky enough the first time; now it was going wrong again. It's often the second time that the devil hits us and we give in. We laid hands on him and prayed. The following week the doctor pronounced him completely clear. We're never going to get anywhere unless we're doing it 'in faith'.
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass: not a white charger or a war horse, but an ass. According to Zechariah, it symbolised Jesus' meek and lowly heart. How do we maintain humility? If you try to be humble, you can end up being proud of your humility! It's not a bad thing to try and be humble, by taking the lowest seat as Jesus said. Even if you sit there thinking, 'How humble I am' at least it's a start!
The model that came home to me some years ago was that of Mary: she took her glory, which was her hair, and wiped the Lord's feet with it. She was saying in effect, 'My glory is all for you.' I remember a brother who exercised a powerful ministry in South Africa. He was asked whether he ever felt tempted to become proud. He replied, 'Oh no. When people say, "Thank you for your wonderful ministry", I just bow my head, say thank you very much - and Jesus standing behind me catches it!'
Let me move on to Gethsemane. The struggle there was to taste of what was to come, and so accept what lay ahead on the cross. There Jesus had to pray, 'Not my will, but your will be done.' Most of the time it was very sweet for Jesus to do the will of his Father. It is the same with us. But there come crisis moments when God asks us to do something which is very difficult.
When we come to the place of saying, 'Your will be done', it becomes easy; but getting to that place can be hard. At such moments great drops of blood-like perspiration fell from his brow. Surely a father wouldn't be as heavy on his son as that? A first century father could ask his son to do anything, and he would expect it to be done. It's a bit different nowadays. But we can be sure of this. At exactly the same level as the Father expects absolute commitment from the Son, so the Son can expect the same degree of commitment and faithfulness from the Father! Whatever God asks you to do, he is 100% with you!
At Calvary Jesus stretched out his hands, saying, 'Father, forgive them.' If Jesus could do that for sinful men and women, there are going to be times when we have to put our arms out - perhaps to other members of your fellowship. Our service for God is meant to be a success. How dare we say, 'I've been faithful, but not successful'? In every situation of his life Jesus was both faithful and successful. And he is in us. His life is in us. His victories can be ours. |
Roger Forster, 20/01/2009 |
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