Do not rejoice in this, that the
spirits are subject to you . . . —Luke 10:20
Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap
we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success
measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which
we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always
be willing to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:13).
In Luke 10:20 , Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in
successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us
do rejoice. We have a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been
saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right.
Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is
not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the
work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple
others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted
to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply
awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind
spiritually, and those lives will be God’s testimony to us as His workers. God
brings us up to a standard of life through His grace, and we are responsible
for reproducing that same standard in others.
Unless the worker lives a life that “is hidden with
Christ in God” (Colossians
3:3), he is apt to become an irritating dictator to others, instead
of an active, living disciple. Many of us are dictators, dictating our desires
to individuals and to groups. But Jesus never dictates to us in that way.
Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced His words with
an “if,” never with the forceful or dogmatic statement— “You must.”
Discipleship carries with it an option.
(Taken from Oswald Chambers – “My Utmost
for His Highest” April 24)