Summer
1994
Two Realms
John Wright Follette
The eternal attitude of God toward humanity is that of a
seeking God. We may think we are seeking Him, but rather,
He is seeking us. As we expose our hearts to Him, He responds.
At times, we may even feel as though He is invading us; that
He has taken the initiative and is pushing in from every angle
to find, or discover us.
We become acquainted with one another; but as for the real
inner person, we know very little. In fact, we know little
about ourselves.
The Lord desires to fully possess us, to shape and mold us
into the image of His Son. As we advance in God, the Holy
Spirit will keep projecting before us unexplored territory
in our lives that we have yet to move into, and over which
He seeks domain. We say He reigns and rules in our heart,
and that may be true. But have we given Him absolute and perfect
control and possession of all the realms within us that are
yet to be possessed?
We are but little cells within this mystical Body of believers
that has been developing and projecting itself down through
two thousand years of history. In His time, He will lift this
Body out of time and present it to the Ancient of Days. This
is the great desire of His heart. Therefore, He desires that
He will have something worthy to present to His Father.
There is no experience into which God leads us, no matter
how profound or revolutionizing that experience may be, that
will of itself mature us. Many are deceived because they think,
"I have received, now I have." Never allow yourself
to come under the power of an experience and then build your
life around it. This is not a question concerning the fact
of our salvation, but of how we allow God to move and work
within and through us while we are within this present condition
of time and sense.
Whatever there is of spiritual value within us - that which
we will carry into the next age - must be acquired in the
here and now. Therefore, we must ask ourselves, "Has
the Lord been able to accomplish within us all that He seeks
to accomplish?" After we have been released from this
present realm of temporal life, we cannot come back to choose
or decide.
We should not be disturbed if the Lord is not using us as
a missionary, or in some ministry. Unless He has given this,
He is not expecting it from us. He had one Paul, and one Wesley.
He has one of you, and you are the only specific edition of
who you are. Since this is true, He is desirous to bring forth
all that the potential within us will allow.
Thus, our "works" are the technique, or the method
which He will use to accomplish this miracle of changing us
into the image of His Son and equipping us for a higher purpose.
If He has called you to be a preacher, then preach; if He
has called you to be a plumber, then be a good plumber.
Whatever we are called to do, we are to do it to "The
Glory of God" and sing while doing it. Why do we sing?
Because we are to say, "Thank you Father, this is what
You asked of me, and I am doing it for Your glory with all
the strength I have."
We often become entangled in the mechanism and forget the
objective. We must be careful to not lose sight of our objective.
We are to keep it always before us, our life surrendered and
our whole being moving back again to the heart of God. We
are being disciplined, educated, trained, and conformed by
the thousand and one things that the Lord throws into our
pattern of daily life experience.
We may say, "This is sacred and that is secular."
To one fully committed to the Lord, everything should be holy
and sacred; there is nothing secular about it. That is common
talk among people who do not know the things of God. Therefore,
they have categories into which they place certain experiences
of life. We never should do this. If I am called to be a good
plumber, this is a sacred calling. What makes it sacred? Plumbing?
No, it is the will of God.
None of us have arrived; we are in the process of "becoming,"
and we will be in that process until the Lord takes us home.
When we were saved, the Lord dealt with our sin nature. He
can do that in very short order, but it takes a life time
to deal with our character.
After we have gone through several dealings, we may feel
we have arrived. Then the Lord will say to us, "I have
been dealing with your sins. I dealt with all that externally,
now I want to come within, and get a hold of you."
Truth has a two-fold way of disturbing and moving. If allowed,
truth will slay us, yet it is the truth that resurrects us.
There are two opposing forces, and we swing back and forth
between them. The Lord talks about death, but He also speaks
of life. He not only talks about crucifying, but about resurrection
and life also. We are to keep them together, not separated.
"He entered a certain village: and a certain woman
named
Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister
called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His
word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and
she approached Him and said, Lord, do you not care that
my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her
to help me. And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha,
Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.
But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good
part, which will not be taken away from her" Luke 10:38b-42
NKJ.
We should never separate Martha and Mary. They are sisters
in the same family, having different vocations.
Martha has a valid place within us. She represents our activities,
our ministries, all the things we do. But Mary has a place
also. She represents our spiritual aspirations, our moving
toward God.
But all we receive at the feet of Jesus must descend and
find its place in the daily activities of our lives, where
it is to become a practical reality. Otherwise, we will become
unbalanced. Thus, we are not to remain detached in even the
most magnificent revelation of life and truth.
Whenever "Martha" gets up within us and busily
hurries around, we know that we will not receive a revelation
from the Lord in all that activity. We must let "Mary"
arise within us and sit at the feet of Jesus. Each has their
proper place and time in which to function.
Up - Mary - Revelation.
Down - Martha - Demonstration.
Both are essential parts of our spiritual development and
growth and must be maintained in the right balance.
"And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a
mountain: and when He was set, his disciples came
unto Him: And He opened his mouth, and taught them,
saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven" Matt 5:1-3.
"When He had come down from the mountain, great
multitudes followed Him. And, behold, a leper came
and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if You are willing,
you can make me clean. Then Jesus put out His hand
and touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed.
Immediately his leprosy was cleansed" Matt 8:1-3 NKJ.
Jesus went up into the mount and sat. His disciples came
to Him and He taught them, but He did not stay there. Afterwards,
He went down into the valley among the multitudes, where He
was met by a leper seeking help. Here in the valley of life,
the revelations of the mountain top became a practical reality.
The Lord may wait for years for us to come into this balance
between our "devotion" and our "works."
Only then will we come into the balance of "being"
and "doing" that He desires for us.