When God formed man and breathed
life into him, He placed within man an objective for his life.
This objective is like a prize that is placed before
us as a goal to be reached.
Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things
which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14.
Some people make heaven their
goal; others make a ministry their goal and focus all their prayer
and efforts on their work. Whatever we may do or accomplish
in life, all this is never to be the goal to which we
are to attain. Rather, it is the means by which the Lord
causes us to come through to the objective that He has
placed before us. As a present reality, this objective for
our lives is calling out from deep within us, to stir us to attain
to it. Thus, Paul prayed,
But I follow after,
if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12b.
All of the things we
do for Jesus are splendid, but we are not to become so involved
in them that we loose our perspective and sight. These things
will eventually pass away, therefore, we must only become involved
enough to get from them that which the Lord intends.
In a schoolroom there are many
books to study. But these are not the education we seek;
they are merely the collateral that helps to produce it.
We receive our education by becoming a reacting agent, and allowing
all these factors to play upon us. It is like our ministry,
for through it, the Lord is doing something creative within us.
He will never ask us how much
work we have done for Him, but He will ask what has that work
done in us. All this will be registered upon our immortal
spirit, and will do something within these marvelous beings that
we are so we will not be the same as we were when He first saved
us. There is to be within us a progression; our spiritual
development and growth toward spiritual maturity. I am saved,
but how far have I come into this process of becoming
that which He desires me to be?
If heaven or my ministry is
not to be an objective, then what is to be held up before me,
toward which I can focus my living?
"Whether therefore
you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory
of God." I Corinthians 10:31.
"And whatsoever
you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him."
Colossians 3:17.
If any man speak, let
him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him
do it as of the ability which God gives: that God in all things
may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and
dominion for ever and ever." I
Peter 4:11.
The Lord has placed before us
the Glory of God as the objective that will
require all that we are and have to be submitted to Him.
To glorify the Lord fully was the first vocation which was placed
upon man when God created him. He never made Adam and placed
him in the garden so he could be a help to the Lord.
We are to Glorify God
in all we are and do. God made man and placed him in a garden,
set apart to bring glory to Him, not to help Him do something.
Man was made to glorify God. But we are born sinners and
come short of this. Sin comes from a Greek word which means,
to miss the mark, the failure to do that for which it
was made.
The arrow (man)
was made, and pointed to hit the bulls eye (the Glory
of God), but it has missed the objective for
which it was designed. This is sin. For all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans
3:23). Why are we sinners? Because
we have come short of the glory of God, the thing for which we
were made.
Whenever God does not receive
the glory that should come to Him, we sin. Man was made
for a mark called the glory of God. How
then are we to glorify God? If we are willing to
abandon ourselves in the very root of our being to Him, God will
take us into His possession. He will cleanse us
and bring us into an orientation around Him, instead of around
the ego, I. We are born egocentric; therefore,
He has to bring us into a new orientation. He says, Bring
all that you are to Me; I desire a fresh, unhindered possession
of the totality of your being.
After God formed Adam, He placed
the benediction of His approval upon him, because He was well
pleased with the arrangement, which He had made, our being limited
and dependent. But, Adam was innocent and had not yet
functioned. The instrument was there, but it had not yet
moved out where it could glorify God.
The Lord says, I
will now push you out into an arrangement here on earth, and make
a new law in the realm of your spiritual living (Genesis
2:16-17) - the law of testing and proving.
This is the only way to develop and bring you to a place where
My glory may be released.
Our nature is a gift.
We become a partaker of the divine nature purely on the basis
of a gift. He gives me salvation, but He cannot
give me a Christian character. I have to build
it; I am to grow and learn to subject my ego continually
to all the arrangements, which God has placed in my life activities,
to release me and set me free for the real thing that He desires.
As we do the will of God, He
is automatically glorified, for He is glorified whenever His will
is done. Whenever God acts in a creative mood, it is to
His glory. He made the heavens, and these declare His glory.
What is our objective in living? It is to glorify God.
How can we do it? By accepting the will of God in our life
pattern. Therefore God, knowing who and what we are, places
within that pattern all the material necessary to reshape, recast,
and make over that which He desires in us
And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28.
He can take the most
disturbing thing in our lives and turn it to praise God
and make it become the means of glory.
For whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son. Romans 8:29.
Gods objective is that through
all the things He subjects us to, He is conforming us to the image
of His Son. He is approaching us because of His Son and
what He sees in Him, He is tracing upon our spirit, that we may
be conformed to His image. For one day He will
take us, not just to heaven, but to be eternally associated with
the Son.
When we see this, we will be
able to accept the trials, the discipline, the testings and provings;
for we see that this is the will of God, and through it, He will
trace upon our immortal spirit, the image and likeness of His
Son.
Only then will we find the satisfaction
and fulfillment for which we were created, and only then can we
render the Glory that is due Him.
