Breaking Through To The Heavenlies # 5

Breaking Through To The Heavenlies # 5

I remember many years ago now, the Lord talking to me about certain areas of my life: "When it's all in order, then I will do."

There is an old legend from Italy that tells about an old lady taking care of a sick person. After many days the fever finally turned and the person was starting to get better. So she was going to give this person to eat. There was an open fireplace and there she had the big black pot preparing the food over the fire. She put everything there, all ready, then sat down while she waited and fell asleep. The time went by and she woke up with a shock. Her first thought was that everything was going to be burnt and ruined. But according to the legend, there in the glow of the fire stood Jesus. And the moral of the tale says that, "He finished all that she failed in." I am sure the legend is not true, but I am sure there is a truth there.

God will finish all that I cannot do. In other words, I can reach so far and I have to reach that far. My obedience must be fulfilled, but when I reach as far as I can reach then He will take it from there. He'll never leave us - His presence will be there. He'll never forsake us - His abundance and provision will always be there.

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."

It's a big thing to have the heart changed to such an extent. That the only thing that flows from me to other people is positive. That I do not have hurt that I close up inside. That I don't have a debt with people in my feelings or in any other realm. That toward them I give as God gives.

"And lead us not into temptation...deliver us from evil."

Somebody said, "There are two parts to this: Keep me from the moment of temptation, because I am going to fall, but farther TRANSFORM me so that evil will not touch me." Remember Jesus just before He died said, "The enemy will come, but will find nothing in Me." It is a great thing to get to a place where the enemy can't tempt me. You know, I'm not tempted to take something I don't like. A little while ago I seem to have developed an allergy to chocolate and today you couldn't tempt me with chocolate. I don't want it. I know what will happen if I take chocolate. It's no temptation to me to see a box of chocolates. I do not want it!

Our trouble is that so many times we give a mental assent to certain things. With that we think that they are done and they are not. I think many times of the mystics, some of the old saints who for years and years sought God, went through anguish and suffering to come into faith. Our tendency in the twentieth century is to read about those lives and think, "Oh, poor so and so, he sought for years and years to come into a real peace with God. He could not just trust in God, and believe in the love of God."

Think of Martin Luther fighting there until he finally came to believe that he was justified by faith. Or John Wesley striving and disciplining himself and doing every conceivable thing until at last he reached through to salvation. BUT when they did reach through, Wesley changed a nation, and Luther changed the course of history. If it takes 15 years, better fifteen years of darkness preparing me to see the Light than a 15 minute experience which can't even keep my nose above the water when the enemy comes to condemn me or to tempt me or to confuse me. We cannot see the Light until we have seen the darkness. We cannot see the positive until we have seen the negative. We cannot see the fullness of God until we have seen our need of that fullness. We cannot - it's impossible. We need some frame of reference.

Have you ever seen a photo, maybe a beautiful picture of a water fall? You looked at it and said, "Well, how big is that waterfall?" There are some ferns up close.. "is it no bigger than those ferns? Is it a lot bigger?" There is no reference. Sometimes in technical books they will put a ruler there beside the photo. We need a perspective.

One of the mystics, Pascal, used to talk about the disproportion of mankind. The disproportion in man's thinking. The disproportion of everything human. We got it out of proportion. Only God can put it back into proportion. Only God can show us where it's at.

It ends up saying, "For Thine is the Kingdom." - The authority, the rule. "Thine is the power." -The ability to transmit that authority and that rule. "Thine is the Glory." Not just for time, but forever.

~Paul Ravenhill~

(continued with # 6)