Oh, Supreme Moving Cause
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Important messages
"Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a
way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert
in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make
the ground sprout with grass? Job 38:25-27
Synchronized
water ballet
Years ago during the Olympic Games, I walked into the
room of someone watching a performance of synchronized water ballet on TV.
Sitting next to him, he expressed to me that he didn’t like the individual
efforts of the various athletes, because they tended to exalt one person, but
he enjoyed the perfect unity of the team events, such as water ballet. It didn’t
take much discernment to see that he was spiritualizing what he was watching,
comparing it to the intentions of believers to carry out the will of God.
I didn’t respond to the comment at the time, but that
rather poor example gave me much to think about and I really have meditated
over the matter. I would like to share the view that I have of Christians
involved in fulfilling God’s purposes on earth. In doing so, I am considering
Christ’s Church, which He said that He would build (Mt.16:18) and, according to
Paul, Christ would give gifts to men to equip the saints for the work of the
ministry and to build His body (Eph.4:8,12). I will make use of the same water
ballet analogy.
“I
will build My Church”
First we must see what we are dealing with. We are
taking into account the Bride, the Body, the Church of Christ, whom He elected
and is preparing for heavenly marriage, after which she will reign with Him. It
is a body, in which each member has been born from above and has received power
from above, in order to function in a heavenly and supernatural way, preparing himself
for eternity. No wonder Jesus said, “I
will build MY church”, in perfect harmony with the inspired Psalmist, who
stated, “Unless the LORD builds the
house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Ps.127:1). Men may be very
capable of any kind of earthly construction, but for this work… who is
sufficient? Jesus removes any doubt about human capability, giving it a mortal
blow in John 15:5: “Apart from
me you can do nothing.”
Before the discovery of electricity or any kind of combustion engines were invented, there were those who knew about motors… the Puritans
knew God as the one who empowered and moved lives, and their prayers, such as
the following, express this dependency:
O Supreme Moving Cause,
May I always be subordinate to thee,
be dependent upon thee,
be found in the path where thou dost
walk,
and where thy Spirit moves,
take heed of estrangement from thee,
of becoming insensible to thy love.
In these days, I have repeated stories that I arranged
in the last chapter of the book, God
Made the Country, trying to illustrate how members function in the Body
of Christ… about a man in Wisconsin, praying for a church in North Dakota, of
which he knew nothing… about a American soldier in Germany, who I had just met
for the first time, speaking about his home in Wisconsin, in the exact rural
area, where this first man I mentioned lived, and where his father had had
wonderful fellowship with an uncle of mine, who lived there also, before he
died of cancer… about how a man broke through the ice in winter and how his
friends, totally unaware of his danger, spent the night in prayer for him… and
there were other stories.
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| Young Spurgeon |
Now I add one more: On January 6, 1850, a great
snowstorm paralyzed the city of Colchester, England, and a teenager could not
go to Sunday worship in the church that he normally attended. Near to his
house, he entered a Primitive Methodist Church, where a common layman, not very
educated, was substituting for the pastor, giving the Sunday morning message.
His text was Isaiah 45:22… “Look unto
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” For months this young man
had been miserable, under a tremendous conviction for his sin. Although he had
been raised in church (both his father and grandfather were preachers), he had
no assurance of salvation.
The layman, as Peter and John “unlearned and ignorant”, was not a skilled preacher and therefore
repeated the text time and again. He said, “A man doesn’t have to go to college
to look… anybody can look… a child can look!” Then he gazed directly at this visiting teenager, by
himself at one side of the church, and pointed his finger at him, saying, “Young
man, you look miserable. Look to
Jesus Christ!” The young man did look in
faith and that is how the great preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, was
converted… not in his own church, but among believers that he did not know.
A supernatural, spiritual work
Let’s just suppose that in some part of Europe, God
would choose an individual in Christ to serve in His Body… in this “synchronized
ballet” that I wrote about earlier. He gives that person His Spirit, who is perfectly
united with His purpose, as His personal Coach. This one learns movements never
before demonstrated on earth, which are part of the supernatural, supreme “routine”
for the glory of the Father. That same Spirit incorporates Himself in the
participant to give him the capability to do, what he otherwise could never be
able to perform in a human body. Then, the Spirit is sent to South America to
begin to train another person in the same way, so that this one can coordinate
perfectly with the first person, whom he has never met. By the Spirit, it is
not necessary to bring them together to practice (1 Co.5:4).
A third person
is chosen in North America and that one must go through the same process and
training. In the Far East of Asia, a fourth person enters the school of the
Holy Spirit to carry out divine purposes, and by the thousands from all parts
of the planet, the participants are chosen and trained. Some are in solitary
confinement in prisons, some are in exile on islands; other are among
multitudes, but no one understands them or knows why that are going through so
many rigorous trials.
Once the Spirit-led training and practices have been
completed, the day comes for the performance. God takes His place on the throne
and the participants arrive from all parts of the world, uniting and
synchronizing for His glory in one great event. Beings, who are more worthy
than human beings, observe those who “have
obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of
him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we… might
be to the praise of his glory… so that through the church the manifold wisdom
of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly
places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in
Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph.1:11,12; 3:10-11).
God
does as He pleases
The Lord has eternal plans and all of His works corroborate
in order to carry out those purposes and no other. He does it all through the
instruction and power of His Spirit, above any training or programs that men
might try to enforce, joining together in human effort. In this work of grace,
no one may consider himself to be the teacher or the father; no one is anything
more than a brother. One is the Teacher, Christ, and One is the Father, the
heavenly Father (Mt.23:8-9).
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| Ants preparing a nest |
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| Ant nest... click to see this enlarged |
The ones, who He places in His positions, have
observed the ant, have learned her ways and have acquired her wisdom. “Without having any chief, officer, or
ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest” (Pro.6:6-8).
God unites, where there is no captain to order. He takes the individual
efforts, done in the Holy Spirit, without man being aware of it, and unites
them. The result is the same as in the case of the three Hebrew boys: “The king spoke with them, and among all of
them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they
stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about
which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in
all his kingdom” (Dn.1:19-20).
I want to point out that we know well
both the Hebrew and the Babylonian names of these young men. We also know the
names of almost all the Psalmists and those who form part of this great plan of
God in the Bible, from the Old Testament, as well as the New. The one, who
surrenders everything to Christ, also gives his name over to Him, so that God
can use it, or not use it, as He sees fit. A proud person can remain anonymous,
but he continues to be proud; a humble person can have his name publicized and
yet he remains humble, just as Jesus, meek and lowly, though He had a name,
which is above every name. It all depends on the condition of the heart.
(please read the note below the article)
God does all for His own pleasure and receives glory
from beings, who are much worthier than men. He does not need praise or
worship, nor does he need the people who offer it. However, He does receive it
all, because He is worthy. There is no celebration, in which men and angels are
involved, that gives created beings more joy and satisfaction, as there is in
giving God that, for which He is worthy. The Lord rejoices in the pleasure that
we receive in giving it.
We see an example in the woman… the apostle John
reveals that it is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus (Jn.12:3)… who
benefitted by giving her all to Christ. She poured out her expensive perfume
and asked nothing in return. She only worshipped, while her joyful tears fell,
and considered it a privilege to give to Jesus the honor and glory that He
deserved. As in the case of Rahab in the Old Testament, she was given
universal, eternal fame: “Truly, I say
to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has
done will also be told in memory of her" (Mt.26:13).
God is God and He does whatsoever He pleases. “All the inhabitants of the earth are
accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or
say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Dn.4:35).
What He has done in love for mankind is revealed in sublime beauty in the
gospel, yet it goes far beyond what human tongues can express. God does unspeakable
wonders for men and also, as He showed to Job, he does wonders unseen by men,
working in uninhabited places, where no one can observe Him. What I am trying
to say is that God in no way subjects himself to the wisdom and knowledge of
human beings. He takes pleasure in all His creation, in plants and animals. The
growth of the most lowly grass is important to Him and He supplies its needs.
No one can limit God in any of His works; no one can corral Him inside the
confines of the ideas and understanding of men.
NOTATION: I want to clarify a certain theme, about which there
might be confusion in the minds of some. I think that it is not correct to
conclude that all Christians should consider themselves “eunuchs”, of which
Jesus spoke in Matthew 19. If you read from verse one to twelve, you will see
that the context has to do with matrimony. The disciples have just commented, "If such is the case of a man with his
wife, it is better not to marry." It is at this point that Christ
spoke of a special calling and limited it: "Not
everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given”
(v.10-11). He is speaking of becoming a eunuch in the literal sense of
remaining unmarried. Paul, for example, had this calling, but as we know, Peter
did not. Perhaps we all know some people, who did have the same calling as
Paul, but this is not a rule for all Christians to follow. Every one of the commentators that I have are in agreement
over this issue.
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