Author: Pastor Sam Pack

“And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer. . .”—Judges 3:9.

I often receive requests to help someone whose life is in a difficult place. After a few questions I am able to discern if the Lord has called me to get involved. More often than not, I am not to be involved. Many times I find this person has not experienced enough pain to want to do anything about their situation. Until they are really ready to cry out to the Lord for a solution to their situation, they will simply talk about desiring change but never take the necessary steps needed for change.

If you invest time into someone who has not yet come to the place of wanting a spiritual solution to their problem, you will become emotionally exhausted. The apostle Paul understood this principle when he actually turned such people over to Satan for the destruction of their flesh (I Corinthians 5:5).

The people of Israel were finally in enough pain to cry out to God for relief from their oppression. Like so many times throughout the scriptures, God answered by raising up a deliverer. “But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.”—Judges 3:8-11.

Are you in a difficult place in your life? Are you only talking about changing or are you really ready to cry out to the Lord for a solution? Start now the process of changing your situation for the better and asking for help if needed.

“You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.'”—Deuteronomy 8:17.

We’ve all heard someone say, “He’s a self-made man.” What are they saying in this statement? Are they saying that this individual achieved success by his hard work and sweat? Many a person has achieved success through honest hard work. There is a danger for any of us who may have achieved significance through our work.

That danger is the belief that we achieved it through our own efforts apart from God’s grace and mercy. When we live in this belief, we assert that we are entitled to certain rights and privileges because of the position we have earned and feel we deserve.

The prodigal son’s brother who refused to celebrate the wayward son’s return was a man who felt he was entitled to certain rights. He saw himself as one who had been faithful to his responsibilities and deserving of more attention. He could not appreciate his brother’s failure and the pain of falling into a sinful life because, in his mind, he had never failed. This pride kept him from experiencing God’s real grace. This is how legalism develops in believers. It grows into a cold heart and an insensitive attitude toward others who may have stumbled in their lives. This same brother did not truly understand the love of his father apart from works; for he felt he gained acceptance only by doing his job. Do you feel accepted by God, regardless of what you do? Have you wrongfully viewed your works as something you alone have achieved? These are the minefields of which each of us must be aware. God has gifted us to accomplish anything through His grace, not by our works.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”—Matthew 11:28.

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Christ Jesus, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer. Say, “Lord, prove Thy consciousness in me”, and self-consciousness will go and He will be all in all. Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awake self-pity, and self-pity is a destroyer. “Well, I am not understood; this is a thing they ought to apologize for; that is a point I really must have cleared up.” Leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ consciousness, and He will poise you until the completeness is absolute.

The complete life is the life of a child. When I am consciously conscious, there is something wrong.

It is the sick man who knows what health is. The child of God is not conscious of the will of God because he is in the will of God. When there has been the slightest deviation from the will of God, we begin to ask—“What is Thy Will?” A child of God never prays to be conscious that God answers prayer, he is so restfully certain that God always does answer prayer. If we try to overcome self-consciousness by any common-sense method, we will develop it tremendously.

Jesus says—“Come unto Me and I will give you rest,” i.e., Christ consciousness will take the place of self-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself.

“Whatever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.”—John 14:13.

Am I fulfilling this ministry of the interior? There is no snare or any danger of infatuation or pride in intercession, it is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit whereby the Father is glorified.

Am I allowing my spiritual life to be frittered away, or am I bringing it all to one center—the Atonement of my Lord? Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest in my life?

If the one central point, the great exerting influence in my life is the Atonement of the Lord, then every phase of my life will bear fruit for Him. I must take time to realize what is the central point of power. Do I give one minute out of sixty to concentrate upon it? “If ye abide in Me”—continue to act and think and work from that center—“ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Am I abiding? Am I taking time to abide? What is the greatest factor of power in my life. Is it work, service, sacrifice for others, or working with God? The thing that ought to exert the greatest power in my life is the Atonement of the Lord. It is not the thing we spend the most time on that molds us most; the greatest element is the thing that exerts most power.

We must determine to be limited and concentrate our affinities. “Whatever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.” The disciple who abides in Jesus is in the will of God, and his apparently free choices are God’s foreordained decrees. Mysterious? Logically contradictory and absurd? Yes, but a glorious truth to a saint.

“Did not our heart burn within us?”—Luke 24:32.

We need to learn the secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, the fires are kindled, we have wonderful visions, then we have to learn to keep the secret of the burning heart that will go through anything. It is the dull, bald, dreary, commonplace day, with commonplace duties and people, that kills the burning heart unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.

Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test as to whether we ought to allow an emotion to have its way is to see what the outcome of the emotion will be, push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, allow it no more to have its way. But if it be an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level. That is the way sentimentalities are made.

The higher the emotion is, the deeper the degradation will be, if it is not worked out on its proper level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many things inevitable as possible, let the consequences be what they will.

We cannot stay on the mount of transfiguration, but we must obey the light we received there; we must act it out. When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs.

“And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state]. . .And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always].”—Colossians 3:15.

You are waging spiritual warfare when you give radical praise to God in the midst of your need. When you are thankful to God for all He has done and is doing, you are demonstrating your victory over the enemy. When you hold your peace in the midst of the storm, you are warring with spiritual weapons—“(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”—2 Corinthians 10:4-5.

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. . .[Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled]”—John 14:27. Jesus has given you peace! Put it on, and wear it everywhere you go.

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.”—I Peter 4:17.

The Christian must never forget that Salvation is God’s thought, not man’s; therefore it is an unfathomable abyss.

Salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is only a gateway by which Salvation comes into our conscious life. Never preach or teach the experience. Preach and teach the great thought of God behind. When we preach or teach we are not proclaiming how man can be saved from hell and be made moral and pure; WE ARE CONVEYING GOOD NEWS ABOUT GOD!

In the teachings of Jesus Christ the element of judgment is always brought out, it is a sign of God’s love. Never sympathize with a soul who finds it difficult to get to God, God is not to blame.

It is not for us to find out the reason why it is difficult, but so to present the truth of God that the Spirit of God will show what is wrong. The great acid test in preaching and teaching is that it brings EVERYONE INTO JUDGMENT. The Spirit of God locates each one to himself.

If Jesus ever gave us a command He could not enable us to fulfill, He would be a liar; and if we make our inability a barrier to obedience, it means we are telling God there is something He has not taken into account. Every element of self-reliance must be slain by the power of God. Complete weakness and dependence will always be the occasion for the Spirit of God to manifest His power.