My Utmost For His Highest...

Below, is one of my all-time favorite entries in the devotional "My Utmost For His Highest". It comes from May 15th, and is summarily the grace message of the Gospel, in that "we work out what God has already worked in". What happens, when you don't functionally believe (Meaning: the way you actually function, versus your mental and verbal assent) in the Finished Work? You have nothing to set your feet on...nothing to work out, save your own behavioral modification...which always turns into the modification of others' behavior...which puts relationships at risk of control and manipulation.

Every person I know, who refuses to let go of the law as even a small means of relating to God, is a person who, in many obvious ways, are at the "same miserable cross patch, set on their own way."

How can you tell? The Son is not manifested in their mortal flesh. Specifically, they do their own will (do not recognize authority), and they have no love for the brethren. Two things that characterized Christ were His refusal to do His own will. He submitted to God without debate or complaint. And oh, how He loves us.

And I love how Oswald said that God never has "museums". This speaks to the fact that "now" is the only acceptable time to respond to God. You are not who you were in years past, and you are not who you intend to be...you are who you are, right now. You better get the revelation that you are the righteousness of God in Christ, or you'll consistently revert to the same old chains of self will. A chain is a chain is a chain...just because you've developed such elaborate means to cope with it, doesn't make it not a chain. Just because you are completely accustomed to life with that chain, doesn't make it not a chain.

You can be free. You can work out what God has already worked in.

Don't stop short of full manifestation of the life of Christ. Work out what God has already, by grace through faith, worked in.

It's quite the adventure. No other way to live!



"That ye may know what is the hope of his calling..." Ephesians 1:18



Remember what you are saved for—that the Son of God might be manifested in your mortal flesh. Bend the whole energy of your powers to realize your election as a child of God; rise to the occasion every time.

You cannot do anything for your salvation, but you must do something to manifest it, you must work out what God has worked in. Are you working it out with your tongue, and your brain and your nerves? If you are still the same miserable crosspatch, set on your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.

God is the Master Engineer, he allows the difficulties to come in order to see if you can vault over them properly—"By my God have I leaped over a wall." God will never shield you from any of the requirements of a son or daughter of his. Peter says—"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you." Rise to the occasion; do the thing. It does not matter how it hurts as long as it gives God the chance to manifest himself in your mortal flesh.

May God not find the whine in us anymore, but may he find us full of spiritual pluck and athleticism, ready to face anything he brings. We have to exercise ourselves in order that the Son of God may be manifested in our mortal flesh. God never has museums. The only aim of the life is that the Son of God may be manifested, and all dictation to God vanishes. Our Lord never dictated to his Father, and we are not here to dictate to God; we are here to submit to his will so that he may work through us what he wants. When we realize this, he will make us broken bread and poured out wine to feed and nourish others.