"I Will"

   The words "I WILL" are powerful words indeed!  Sometimes very important words.  Especially when we consider the idea of obedience, which incidentally, is a time when many believers quit wanting to say those two words.  Great example?  What we often call praise!   For many, what we call praise is a cloud we hide behind in order to look spiritual.  We are not really praising, we are just putting on a praise appearance. 

   Let me explain:  look at how David said things like, "I will bless the Lord", or, "I will rejoice" and how Paul said things like "I will pray in the Spirit, I will sing will the Spirit".  Those words "I will" point out that an act of the will is involved.  It is not just emotions or mannerism involved, a decision is involved, a decision you consciously make.  The Bible makes it clear that praying in tongues, singing in tongues, rejoicing, etc., are acts of the will, not emotion.  "I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with understanding".    This is what James taught us when he encouraged us not to just be "hearers" of the Word but "doers".  He pointed out that to just hear, and not do, invoked self-deception, the very worst kind of deception from which to break free.

   Maybe this sounds rational to you, but a lot of folks miss this rational and in fact, can become very irrational when confronted with the idea.  Years ago, Bev and I were invited to preach a series of meetings along these lines at a Pentecostal church with membership of about 400. That is when I found out this could really be inflammatory.  We started Sunday morning and I preached from Ps. 34, "I will bless the Lord".  I told them, "You can no longer say you will praise the Lord only if the Spirit moves you".  I told them "Decide to do it. Bring a sacrifice of praise".   That congregation got so mad, all 400 stayed home Sunday night.  The pastor just lay in the altar and cried.  He had just discovered he did not have a praising church, he had a church using praise to hide who they really were.

  You see, this church was perfectly willing to praise if the right stimulant, body movement, spiritual notion, type of song, etc. was projected.  However, they were not willing to will themselves to just praise God.  In typical fashion, they excused themselves with religious words like "I will praise God, lift my hands, etc., if and when the Spirit moves me".  We used that excuse in the church of my youth but the problem was, the Spirit seldom moved anybody.  The only movement we saw was if the right stimulus came.  and usually when there was movement, it had nothing to do with Him.   Now, don't get me wrong, I like emotions!!!!!  I like being free with my emotions.  But, my emotions are not why I minister to the Lord.  I will bring my sacrifice of praise, knowing it pleases God, whether my body wants to or not, whether my soul gets emotional or not.  Obedience adds the flavor God is looking for in our praise.   Think about it:  why should the Spirit move you to do what He has so often commanded you to do?  We are commanded to "praise" God about a thousand times and the same for giving thanks. We are commanded almost that much to worship and we are commanded to "rejoice" all the time.  Together, the commands to do these things outnumber by far any other command to do anything.  What are you waiting on?  Another letter from heaven?  Another book added to the one we call the Bible?  Nah!.....just do it!  

Reasoning away your faith

 
    I was reminded recently of how people reason away their faith. It sounds like this, "Rev. Famous wasn't baptized with the Spirit and didn't speak in tongues, why should I be?"  Or, this one, "Speaking in tongues bothers some members, so surely God doesn't mean for us to do this in church".   This is much like another reasoning "Sister So and So didn't get healed and she had faith so therefore God doesn't heal", or, "Mr. Doodad didn't profess to be a Christian but he was a good man.  You can't tell me he wasn't saved".  This is how people so easily reason away their faith in God's Word.  The reasoning in such statements sounds logical but it really is not, not for a Christian.  What it does is equate human experience with the Word of God, and the two are not the same.  Something is true, something is good, something is right and necessary because God said it, not because human experience, human reasoning confirms or denies it.  God's word is true, whether it seems to work for you are not.  For it to work, you have to accept that fact.  If you don't, you almost insure that it ultimately will not work for you.  You have reasoned away your faith.

   When we began to accept this line of thinking, deciding what is right by human reasoning, what you hear or say may sound logical at first and may get approval from fellow reasoners. However, this approach is like rust.  You don't notice it at first but just let it go uncared for and soon it weakens and eats away at the fiber of your faith.  Soon reasoning becomes doubt legitimized.   Take it another step:  "God would be unjust if all good people were not taken to heaven".  Or, "I've been good, surely I will make it". Or this sad one "if there was a God, why did my loved one die in that accident".  All such reasonings are the testimonies of doubt, not faith.  Or, "We don't want the gifts, the demonstrations of the Spirit in the church, it bothers some people and after all, getting more people in the church is more important than the gifts or manifestations of the Spirit"

   So, Rev. Famous didn't speak in tongues.  What does that have to do with the Word of God in which God expressed a desire for us all to speak in tongues?  NOTHING.  So, Sister didn't get healed?  What has that go to do with the Word?  Nothing!  So, some folks are uncomfortable with speaking in tongues or the manifestations of the Spirit?  What has that got to do with what God says?  Nooooothing!  Once you see the magnitude of what such reasoning has done to the church, across the world, you will see that rust is eating away and has destroyed much already.   It is the corruption of humanism, eating away at our faith.

   To defeat such reasonings, it is important to know the Word and commit to believing and doing it, no matter what.  You should know you have a new and better covenant and therefore be able to say "God said" and know He said it to you, in you covenant.  Then, you can take this position, "If God said it (to me) I believe it and will act on it." Your commitment to the Word should sound like this "Even if God doesn't deliver me, we will not bend nor bow".  Or this, "If God doesn't heal me, I will go to my grave believing in divine healing".  The natural mind rebels against this, but your faith has to been in God's word and God who is true to His word, not matter what you personal experience is.