LIVE ON PURPOSE!
I want to talk about the humanity or the humanness of Paul the apostle. Somehow we other humans seem to get the idea that because someone is greatly used of God to do a work that they are some sort of super-human; like a comic book super-hero. After all don’t the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2Chronicles 16:9a)? Yes, they do; but, that verse of scripture isn’t talking about God looking for the super-saints dotted throughout the planet. It’s indicating God is looking around for the ones whose hearts are loyal to Him. This puts the ball in our court, we’re the ones who choose to be loyal to the Lord, or not.
ELIJAH’S NATURE
The Book of James tells us, regarding Elijah, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:17-18). Did you catch that first part? “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” this indicates he was a man just like you and I (man being the species, not the sex like male or female: mankind). “But, didn’t he do great, supernatural things?” you might ask. Yes, he did. Let me refer you to the law of doctrine (the rules by which one discerns and judges interpretation of Scripture): we must interpret Scripture by Scripture; in other words, find out what God says about something elsewhere in Scripture, His commentary.
JESUS’ WILDERNESS TEMPTATION
That’s what Jesus did in His wilderness temptation. The devil saw that Jesus was overcoming him by speaking Scripture, so he thought he’d use the same tactic and throw Psalm 91 at Him: “‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘“He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’ Jesus replied, ‘It is said: ‘“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ (Luke 4:9-12, NIV). The devil knows Scripture. That’s why it’s so important for us to have an intimate understanding and knowledge of Scripture. Jesus gave us the pattern: He interpreted Scripture (the passage the devil used from Psalm 91) by other Scripture (specifically Deuteronomy 6:16 in this case). [On a side note: did you notice I said Jesus overcame the temptations of the devil by speaking Scripture? – Revelation 12:11 “And they overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (parenthesis mine).]
Let’s look at another example of the Holy Spirits’ commentary of Scripture (what He says is the interpretation of an Old Testament Scripture): “And thus He fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, ‘He Himself took [in order to carry away] our weaknesses and infirmities and bore away our diseases’” (Matthew 8:17, AMP). As Matthew was relating his Gospel account of Jesus’ ministry, he wrote “When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled…” (Matthew 8:16-17a). I said this was a Holy Spirit commentary, because He was the One Who inspired Matthew to write it; “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2Timothy 3:16-17). Peter calls it “prophecy of Scripture”: “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2Peter 1:20-21).
We have established that Scripture was written at the Holy Spirits’ inspiration, and that His referencing prior writings are, in fact, His interpretation of those writings. Paul, earlier in his second letter to Timothy, said “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Timothy 2:15). If the “word of truth” (the Word of God) needs to be “rightly divided” (correctly interpreted), then it can be wrongly interpreted – that’s where all sorts of trouble come in! Notice, it takes diligence; it takes an intimacy of fellowship with the Holy Spirit to correctly interpret (understand) His precious Word to us! Paul’s last words written the the Corinthian church are “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen” (2Corinthians 13:14). The word “communion” here is from the Greek word koinonia, which means “partnership, participation, (social) intercourse, benefaction, and fellowship” (Strong’s, G2842). Paul experienced this Holy Spirit intimacy, and wrote his letters from it!
BACK TO ELIJAH
Now, let’s go back to Elijah (you thought I’d forgotten about him, didn’t you?). James (or, the Holy Ghost through James) said that “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” (James 5:17a). He prayed and got results—supernatural results! But, what does the Scripture say further about that? Well, to find out we have to go back to the reference: 1Kings 17—18; one has to be diligent to even catch it! Here’s the scene, Elijah is having a showdown with all of Jezebel’s prophets (we would call them counselors today, those who give their counsel to government officials…Selah!). The challenge: “If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1Kings 18:21). You know the story; God consumed the offering with fire from Heaven. But, notice, prior to the fire falling what Elijah prayed “‘LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word’” (1Kings 18:36). Did you catch that? “I have done all these things at Your word”; or, ‘at Your instruction’. In other words, Elijah was co-operating with God. He was obeying what God had told him to do!
This ‘co-operation’ comes through doing what God has instructed—the results will be supernatural, of course. Jehovah (God) ‘watches over His Word to perform it’ (Jeremiah 1:12, ASV); and, He ‘stands by the terms of His covenant’ (Deuteronomy 8:18, NIrV). One of the very first prophetic ‘words’ the Lord gave me came years ago while at a prayer-meeting. He said “The reason my children aren’t experiencing my Word in their lives is because they aren’t returning it to Me. I said My Word would not return to me void, but that it would accomplish the thing I sent it to do.” [This wonderful promise can be found in Isaiah 55:11.] So, to enjoy the blessings of God, one has to find out what He has said concerning something, and ‘return’ it to Him in prayer. This is our ‘co-operation’ with God (not to mention, if God has spoken to our heart, then we must do what He says—James calls that being a doer of the Word [James 1:22], he then says, this ‘doer’ will be blessed in what he does’ [v. 25])!
BACK TO PAUL
There’s so much to say about Paul and his supernatural-ministry with God that I simply have to relate only some highlights, and leave the awesome study of it to the reader. I must emphasize, however, that, like Elijah, and you and I, he was just a man (human) walking with God, and obeying what he was called to do! Let’s look at his revealing of just how human he was. Paul spoke of a war that went on within his ‘members’ (his body and inner-man), and the frustration he had to control it:
- “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Romans 7:15).
Paul contrasted two opposing ‘wills’ (desires) here, the flesh and the inner-man. We have the benefit of the entire New Testament and can flip back and forth through each book to compare these things, Paul did not. It was out of living through these trials that Paul was able to instruct us. On a side-note, I believe some of these revelations came to Paul as he was writing. I’ve done that myself—I’ll be writing along and get something to type that I hadn’t thought of. So, I get blessed too reading these writings (as I hope you do!).
What were these two desires? The flesh (which is nothing more than a hunk of meat that is trained in a certain way over time) and the inner-man (Peter calls it the hidden man of the heart [1Peter 3:4]). Where did I get the commentary about the flesh? Hebrews 5:14: “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” The ‘food’ spoken of here is spiritual food (the instruction of Scripture Paul wrote of in Second Timothy). The ‘exercised senses’ would be the flesh (senses are of the flesh). [Notice that spiritual-maturity isn’t measured by how old someone is in the Lord, but by those who have trained their flesh?] The inner-man, then, is the spirit-of-man, the one who became a “new-creature” in Christ:
- “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2Corinthians 5:17).
- “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5, underline mine to emphasize how the new-birth took place—how we became a “new-creature” in Christ).
This “inner-man” (new-creature) has the nature of God in him—that’s what happened when the Holy Spirit ‘regenerated and renewed’ him! Paul said it like this in Romans Five: “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost” (v. 5). First John tells us that “God is Love” (1John 4:8 & 16). Coupling these together we can conclude that at the new-birth (when we were born-again) we became ‘love-creatures’ because we were created in His image—His very likeness, not just what He looks like, but His very NATURE!
- “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image (nature) of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29, parenthesis mine).
So, Paul expressed his dilemma, the battle that he experienced—the same one we all experience on a daily basis—the flesh warring against the spirit-man. He didn’t leave us without the answer to this problem, though; he went on to spell-out how to walk in the victory.
- “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 7:24-8:1, underline mine for emphasis).
Remember I said these truths came to Paul in a progression—meaning as he walked with the Lord and grew (and even as he was writing, possibly). He wrote to the church at Colosse “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2). Paul continued in his Roman letter “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6, underline mine for emphasis).
Allow me to do a Mike Leach paraphrase: ‘The carnally minded person has their mind set on things of the flesh (they are always mentally-concerned about taking care of fleshly things—this is carnality).’ Paul stated that to be carnally-minded is to be tied into the realm of death, but to be spiritually-minded “is life and peace.” Paul wrote to the Galatian church “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Galatians 6:7-8). This is saying much the same thing as what he wrote in Romans—if one sows to their flesh (gives the bulk of their efforts in life to please their flesh), they will of the flesh reap corruption (death); the one who sows to their spirit-man (feeds on the Word of God, and practices what they have read/heard in anointed preaching/teaching) will of that spiritual-nature (remember, that’s God’s nature!) reap everlasting life!! That’s the very Life of Almighty God!! He’s inside every believer, and His Word will nourish that inner-man to grow in His image!! Another way to put it is ‘feeding on God’s Word causes the Christian to grow-up in Him to become just like Jesus!!’
Let me ask you this: do you think Jesus lived a very supernatural life?? Do you think He was ever in want?? Did He have ‘Blue-Mondays’?? Did He go hungry?? Did He lack?? OF COURSE NOT!! Tax-time came around—He told Peter to go fishing!; “Take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you” (Matthew 17:27). He paid His tax and Peter’s! If you’ve been born-again my brother or sister you have that same Jesus living on the inside of you!! [If you’re not shouting yet, you will be!] Paul went on in Romans Eight:
- “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:10-11, underline mine for emphasis).
Did you get that? If the Holy Spirit dwells (that’s another way to say lives) in you, He will give life to your mortal flesh; that body you live in – yeah, the one that’s giving you so much trouble! The one that thinks it wants to hurt, or get sick. Yes, that one! The Holy Ghost lives in there and He will transmit His Life to your mortal body!! He’ll not only give Life to our mortal bodies, He will transmit the Mind of God to us for direction in life: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come” (John 16:13, underline mine for emphasis).
LET’S SHOUT A LITTLE
Paul concludes his narrative of his fleshly war by saying: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
- “whom He predestined, these He also called;
- “whom He called, these He also justified;
- “and whom He justified, these He also glorified
- “If God is for us, who can be against us?
- “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
- “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?
- “It is God who justifies
- “Who is he who condemns?
- “It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
- “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
- “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:28-35).
Then he finishes with “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37, underline mine for emphasis). Hallelujah! “But, Brother Mike, I don’t feel much like a conqueror” you might say. I’m glad you said that! I purposely left out verses twenty-six and twenty-seven: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).
You see, this brings us back to our part—the co-operation with God part. We have something to do. Brother Hagin used to say that the things of God ‘don’t fall on us like ripe cherries falling off a tree.’ In other words, we have our part. Paul said it like this, writing to the Colossians:
- “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:9-11, underline mine for emphasis).
He said much the same thing in his letter to the Ephesians:
- “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:20-24).
Did you catch that? Put off and put on. The “old man” and “former conduct” speak of the flesh—you know, the ‘war-maker’ against your inner-man. These are instructions to the Body-of-Christ, not just those individual churches of that day. I know this doesn’t seem like much to “shout” about. But, if we’ll realize that the ‘supernatural-life’ we’re talking about is available to each and every one of us; and that it simply lies on the other side of our obedience to the Scriptures (the things the Holy Spirit speaks to us as we read and fellowship with Him)! Then we’ll understand that the ‘ball is in our court’ and we all can become a partaker of His divine-nature through the “exceeding great and precious promises” (2Peter 1:4)! That’s right, my friend, it all boils down to our every-day choices—‘to flesh, or not to flesh’ or, walk after the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh!
That’s right! You and I can LIVE (the life of God within us)—ON PURPOSE!!
