What does he mean? Like many of us disobeying
God, he is disobeying his master because of what he perceives are his
gifts. But the gift follows obedience. The gift always follows the
assignment. When God gives an assignment and you obey Him, He equips
you to do what He has assigned. Jesus says in the Scripture that you are His
friend if you do whatever He commands you. Yet, there are a lot of
people who want to be a friend of God within a very narrow range of
obedience. Are you ready to do whatever He tells you? Jesus says,
"You are my friends if you do what I
command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not
know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for
everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."
John 15:14-15 God is the one who is on mission, and it is
critical that you begin a relationship with God starting with an
encounter that surrenders everything in your life to follow Him. That
is the beginning. Then comes the process where He
begins to develop your
character to match your
assignment. And He begins to take you through real life experiences. Your heart is true though your actions often are not.
David was called the man after God's own
heart. And you may say, "Well, how is it possible to be a man after
God's own heart when he committed such sin?" God knew that David's
heart was absolutely true. Whenever David sinned, he immediately
returned to God and never complained at anything that God did to him
because of his sin. A friend is one whose heart is steadfast toward
God. God entrusts to His friends the deepest treasure of the
Kingdom. This was said of David in his earlier years.
However, David did not get an assignment to be the spiritual leader
of Israel or to be the Worship Leader. Rather, when Israel rejected the Word of God
and demanded a human, visible king be set over them it was so that
they could worship like the nations. God turned them over totally to
"worship the starry host" even as he had conditionally at Mount
Sinai. The kings were civil leaders but the path they were on was to
Babylon: How glorious you were, O
Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! And who has the right to boast which
you have? Ecclesiasticus 48:4. You who raised a corpse from death and from
Hades, by the word of
the Most High; Ecclesiasticus 48: 5. who brought kings down to destruction, and famous men from their beds; Ecclesiasticus 48: 6. who heard rebuke at Sinai and judgments of vengeance at Horeb; Ecclesiasticus 48: 7. who anointed kings to inflict
retribution,
and prophets to
succeed you. Ecclesiasticus 48: 8 What an awesome friendship
with God has been entrusted to you! He is placing into
your hands the keys of His Kingdom. The Master does
not entrust such treasures to those who are not trustworthy.
He reads your heart. Jesus
said, "You didn't choose me, I chose you. O Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself; but in me is
thine help. Hosea 13:9 I will be thy
king: where is any
other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom
thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? Hosea 13:10 I gave thee a
king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. Hosea
13:11 Blackaby is trying to take
Apostle-specific promises and make them available today. However, you
could not comprehend the context and really believe that you too can
be an apostle: This was at the Last
Supper. However, earlier: Then said Jesus
unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? John 6:67 Jesus answered
them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? John 6:70 He spake of
Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it
was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. John 6:71 At the Passover Jesus makes
it clear that the Apostles had been with Him from the
beginning: Ye have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should
go and bring forth fruit, and that your
fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he may give it you. John 15:16 But when the
Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even
the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall
testify of me: John 15:26 And ye
also shall bear
witness,
because ye have been
with me from the beginning. John 15:27 Luke began to write Acts as
his collected history which included: Until the day in
which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given
commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: Acts 1:2 To whom also he
shewed himself
alive after his
passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and
speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: Acts 1:3
Peter spoke of Judas and
said: For he was
numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. Acts 1:17
Wherefore of these men which
have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and
out among us, Acts 1:21 Beginning from the
baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us,
must one be ordained to
be a witness with us
of his resurrection. Acts 1:22 If there are
apostles And
these signs shall
follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; Mark 16:17 They shall
take up
serpents; and if they
drink any
deadly thing, it shall
not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Mark 16:18 If you cannot do those
things then you have not been chosen as an apostle. And since the Apostles believed that
their writings were Scripture and intended to remind us of what
happened once in time, if you believe that God is speaking into your
ear then you may be listening to the wrong spirit. After being seen by up to
500 people at one time, Paul said: After that, he was
seen of James; then of all the apostles. 1 Corinthians 15:7 And
last of
all he was seen of
me also, as of one born out of due time.
1 Corinthians 15:8 [He was chosen "out of apostle season."]
For I am the
least of the
apostles, that am not
meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
1 Corinthians 15:9 Paul was clearly the last
apostle and he qualifies his choce by saying that he saw the Lord
long after the resurrection. And the Lord in Spirit said, "I am Jesus
of Nazareth." Therefore, Blackaby cannot
apply this promise to himself or anyone else. And I'm waiting for your
obedience. But, obedience will never follow unless you love me and
know me. My Father has been working in your heart all this time to
bring you to the most thorough
understanding of me. I am the risen,
triumphant, reigning Lord." The way God prepares you is to deal
with your heart, not your skills and activity. The key to serving God
is not your knowledge of everything; it is your knowledge of Him. He
can transcend anything, anywhere, at any time, as long as He has your
heart. Because you obey Him, He will
bring forth fruit. If you abide in the vine, which is Christ, you
will produce much fruit. (See John
15:5) When Jesus faced the most significant burden
of His life, He called three friends to join Him. It began
significantly on the Mount of Transfiguration, because He had just
announced that He was going to the cross. God was now moving His life
with His disciples to that moment that would change the course of
eternity. There was no moment that equaled that. And the intensity of the Mount of
Transfiguration is seen in the fact that not only the Father Himself was
there, but He brought alongside the Lord Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
When you get your own
assignment you tend to minimize the power of God. Here is what
happened: When people refused to speak to either Moses or Elijah and
there was no man, God "sent His own Arm" to intercede: The Lord thy God
will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy
brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; De.18:15 When Moses and Elijah
appeared it was for the purpose of showing that God Incarnate was
there as Jesus and HE NEEDED NO HELP: Then answered
Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if
thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one
for Moses, and one for Elias. Matt 17:4 While he yet
spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice
out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased; hear ye him. Matt 17:5 The intensity of carrying
the load of a world was so heavy the Father brought His resources,
but Jesus brought three of His
disciples. There were three that He
could take farther with Him than He could take some others.
Jesus went aside a stone's
throw and bore the emotional burden: none of the Apostles did or
indeed could help God Incarnate redeem mankind. This puts Jesus in the same
role of just another man who had "his assignment like we have
ours." I wonder if today because of the burden of a
broken world that is nearing the return of
the Lord Jesus, the intensity of the heart of God
is at such a point that He is looking for those that He could
take aside with Him and be with
Him while He carries the load of a broken
world? The new charismatics believe
that as musical worship teams "we are mediators between man and God."
This says that Jesus could not redeem or mediate without the help of
week mortals into whom "Satan could come." Let me suggest to you there will never be a
place that you ever go that He is not carrying the load of those
people. He asks you simply to go with Him. You will never have the burden that equals
His. But for each of us, there can be that intense moment when we
realize Jesus is carrying the redemption of a world; that He is
looking for those who have not been side tracked, whose hearts have
developed where He can call them His friends. Those are the hearts
that He takes just a little farther than the others. This symbol (idol)
was never intended to convey Man and God as Co-Pillars of the Cross.
Rather, the image means that man has absolutely no power to redeem
himself. Therefore, Jesus who died on the cross without us bridged
the gap between the weak and sinful and the sinless God. Now, someone has said that at that intense
moment on the Mount of Transfiguration, we look at the men. We focus
on the fact that the three men fell asleep. We'll spend a whole
sermon talking about the three that fell asleep, and we'll not talk
about the intensity of that moment in world redemption. I wonder if
it's possible that the Lord Jesus let them sleep, because they were
not able to carry what they would have seen and heard. If they had
overheard that conversation it may have been too much for them
because there were times when Jesus said, as in John 16, "I have so
much more to tell you, but you couldn't take it now. That's going to have to wait until after the
cross and resurrection and the ascension and the Holy Spirit is going
to have to open your understanding." And, so there at that moment
when the burden of a world was being carried, He looked for three who
would at least be there with Him. Would He invite you? Well, let me ask it even
more significantly. Has He already invited you? He is going to go
into the world where the redemption of people is at stake. It is as
if He is taking you to the Mount and there the Father and the law and
the prophets are saying, "I'm about to redeem and set loose people
enslaved in sin. But I don't want to carry that load alone. Will you
go with me?" Do you believe God wants to bring revival to
America? There is a picture in the Old and New Testaments that you
need to be aware of. In both the Old and New it says
until the birth of a
child there is sorrow and pain, but
afterwards there is rejoicing. Many of us want to live in the realm
of rejoicing before the birth of revival. Are there not some who will carry the pain
and the sorrow required to bring it to birth? Will we not go with Him when He carries the
load of a broken nation on His heart? Could He trust us to stay with
Him just a little while; to go just a little farther than the others
will go; to hear what others don't hear; and to experience what
others will not experience? He needs us
there because that is the moment when He gives birth to the
redemption of the people. Are you
God's friend? 