To See - As I Have Seen # 3

To See - As I Have Seen # 3

Okay, how do we get there? Well, we get there by this commitment. There is no such thing as a response in measure. Somebody said that there's nothing worse than somebody who does the Lord's work, giving himself to God in a measure. Of course, we don't consciously do this; we unconsciously do this. It's called taking care of our health. it's called being practical. It's called our responsibility to our family. I've seen people that were going to go to the mission field but said, "Well, we're just going to stay here for a time and we're going to get married...and when our baby's born then we'll go down to the mission field. Forget it! That kind of people never make it! Cause the first baby's born and then the second baby and then the third baby and then they start to school and ... You know, if God calls me today, when does He expect me to respond?

If you hear God's voice, it's always today with Him. He never tells me what He is going to be asking or demanding of me next year or six months from now or even tomorrow. The only way is to say, "Yes, Lord. Lord, it doesn't matter what anybody says." There's a lot of seeking counsel which ends up asking people's advice when we already know what they're going to tell us.

Someone talked about life being like playing checkers and you say, "Well, I know I can win. So, I let my opponent, take this piece, and that piece, and another piece, and then I'm going to win." But, suddenly you realize you don't have enough pieces left! You know, that happens to us all the time spiritually speaking. God doesn't want children! He wants men!

A man is somebody who is not dreaming of the future. A man is somebody who can take the day and face the decisions and the demands and step into life.

"My flesh," David says, "longeth, longeth, longeth." If it's just a mental thing it won't go very far. It won't go very far at all. "My flesh longeth." It's something that goes beyond my mind. It's something that I can't contain. It's there, and I can't get away from it. My flesh longeth... God, I've got to see, as I've seen in Your promises, as I've felt in my spirit, as I've heard You quickened it through a message in the church, as I've heard it through the mouths of your servants.

As You've made it real to me. "My flesh longeth." Not my soul longeth, my my spirit longeth, but my flesh longeth. This earthly part of me wants to see the eternal God - see the eternal God doing His works.

God wants a people that have got a vision and say "God, as I've seen, so would I see" in this earth a manifestation. Jesus came to do the works of God. The early church did the works of God. It's not the book knowledge of God that's missing today. It's the works of God that are missing. This is what God wants to led us into; this is what God has got before each one of us. He has a purpose. He knew us all since before the foundation of the earth. There's a calling. And it's not just somebody else. Thee have still got to be great renunciations if there are going to be great careers in God.

"Lord, as I've seen." I think I've said before and I'll close with this. After Francis of Assisi died, his disciples mechanized the process and set up the structure of the Franciscan Order and there was one man that couldn't see and he wouldn't come under the discipline they were trying to put on him. And finally the one who was in charge said to this person, "Brother John, comedown from that mountain." You know what Brother John said? He said, "But I've heard another voice." Man can say what he likes. Circumstances can say what they like. The only thing God's interested in is people that have heard "another voice," and who hear and obey it to the exclusion of all else!

~Paul Ravenhill~

(The End)

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