Summer 1996
The Lord desires a Willing Heart
Wade E Taylor

When we repent and receive the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus, we become a new creation, a partaker of the Divine Nature through regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Now we are to respond to the presence of the Lord, and to the moving of the Holy Spirit.

"That which is born of the flesh is
flesh; and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Ye must be born again.

The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh,
and whither it goeth: so is every
one that is born of the Spirit" John 3:6-8.

As we begin to seek the spiritual, there are situations we face in which we must choose; and the Lord has not made it easy for us. Rather, He has made it difficult for us to make and obey the right choice. We have an example of this in Gideon's army, which was reduced in size several times. Each stage in this reduction became more difficult than the previous one.

"If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall
eat the good of the land" Isa 1:19.

This "good of the land" which is set before us, is our spiritual inheritance. This does not refer to temporal things, but to the spiritual, eternal things which we are laying up in store. It speaks of our spiritual potential, that which we are becoming.

We have a body, but this is only the house in which we live; we are in essence a spiritual being. There is much talk today about improving our eating habits. It is true that if our body is well nourished, it will function better. So also, if we cater to the inner spiritual being who we are, we will also spiritually do better.

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the
word, that ye may grow thereby" I Peter 2:2.

We grow by eating. As we partake of this milk of the Word, we develop until we are able to partake of meat, and then strong meat. Things come to us rather easily when we are babes in Christ. It is easier to hear the voice of the Lord when we are first saved, than after we have spiritually grown. This is because the Lord expects more from us.

As we grow spiritually, we are to experientially take on the characteristics of the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. Judicially, this was fully accomplished in our behalf by Jesus upon the cross, but it is to become a practical reality in our life experience.

If all that is to be accomplished concerning our spiritual development was concluded upon the cross as a totally finished work, then there would have been no need for Peter to see us as babes in Christ, who need the milk of the Word in order to grow.

Before the world was even formed, God, in foreknowledge, knew that Adam would fail, and therefore it was decreed that Jesus would become our Saviour. Yet He was born as a babe in a manger and learned obedience through the things which He suffered, and He BECAME our SAVIOUR. Judicially, Jesus was Saviour before the world was formed, but He experientially became our Saviour through the choices He made in His life experience.

"Though He were a Son, yet learned
He obedience by the things which
He suffered; And being made perfect,
He became the author of eternal
salvation unto all them that obey
Him" Heb 5:8-9.

Jesus "judicially" was qualified to become our Saviour by imputation due to who He was, but He "experientially" became qualified by a process of testing and proving. The Scriptures tell us that every word is confirmed in the mouth of two witnesses. The will of God is one witness, and our response in obedience is the other witness. The written Word, confirmed in life experience becomes a powerful witness. Thus it was said of Jesus, "The Word was made flesh" John 1:14.

In the early 1950's, Oral Roberts set up his tent in the area where I lived and I attended some of these meetings. One evening, I heard someone say that those who testified of being healed had been paid to say so. This cast a doubt in my mind about divine healing.

Years later, I fell through a ceiling and landed on my back, twelve feet below, on a concrete floor. I spent a week in a hospital and left with an agonizing back problem. While being prayed for in a small Gospel meeting, I watched, with my physical eyes, a red ball of fire move across the room, and I felt heat as it entered into my body. I both heard and felt my backbone move and snap. I came into this meeting on crutches, but I left absolutely healed. Not only had I been healed, but I had both seen and felt the healing.

Now I could proclaim divine healing with authority. It had been confirmed by two witnesses. The Word said so, and I had been marvelously healed. The Word had become a personal experience.

It was said of Jesus, "For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes" Matt 7:29. The Word had become flesh, and His willing obedience to His Father added this authority.

We can spend a lifetime rejoicing about all that Jesus accomplished for us upon the cross, but unless that which He purchased for us has been personalized within our own experience, we have only "positional" truth, and we will arrive in heaven as a spiritual baby.

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If
so be ye have tasted that the Lord is
gracious" I Peter 2:2-3.

The Fall season with its frost comes early at Pinecrest. We pick the green tomatoes in our garden, set them on a window sill within our homes and soon, they become beautiful red tomatoes. But if we have a thirty-fold ear of corn, we cannot place it on the same window sill and expect it to become a sixty, or one hundred-fold ear of corn. It will remain what it was, when picked. Therefore, a good shopper carefully checks the ears of corn being purchased because some are only 30 or 60-fold in their development.

It can be said that we are not like tomatoes, but rather, as these ears of corn. Once we have been lifted from the earth, we will remain as a 30, 60, or hopefully, a 100 fold ear of corn. During our lifetime, if the Word has not become an experiential reality within us, we will eternally fall short of what we might have been.

Jesus counseled the Laodicean Church to buy of Him "gold tried in the fire." Corn, like gold, is golden in color, which speaks of the divine nature. Like us, corn has an outer covering with a tassel on top, as we have hair. We are also either 30, 60, or 100-fold in our spiritual development.

The potential for that which we will "be" for all eternity is being established within us during this life time. However, some feel that somehow we will be placed on the "window sill" of heaven, and then be changed. They expect all that was left unaccomplished in their lifetime, even with the Holy Spirit indwelling their lives, to suddenly happen on the way up. But we are not tomatoes, we are as the ear of corn that does not change on the window sill. It is only as we partake in this life that we are changed.

This is the reason some will weep in heaven. They will realize too late the great value of putting the Lord first in this life. There is a longing in the heart of God for those who consider temporal things merely as tools, or as the instruments that will perfect their inner spiritual lives. The Apostle Paul said,

"If by any means I may attain unto the resurrection
of the dead" Phil 3:11.

This is far more than Paul merely seeking entrance into heaven. He was seeing an out-resurrection from among the living dead, as a "first fruits overcomer" being resurrected into a higher purpose.

The Lord once asked, "Are you one of those who seek My power, but are unwilling to enter with Me into My death?" The Lord further said, "For you to run from the Holy Spirit when He attempts to work difficult things within you, is to flee from Me. How privileged you are to enter into these, My sufferings. I must have a Bride who fully understands. I am allowing you to actually suffer these things, and enter my presence with your mind, your heart, and your body. This is a complete offering unto Me, and it is well pleasing in My sight. I am deeply engraving my Word within you with the pen-point of suffering, burning it in with the brand of divine love."

Paul had received this experience and testified of it.

"From henceforth let no man trouble me:
for I bear in my body the marks of the
Lord Jesus" Gal 6:17.

The willing and the obedient shall partake, but there is first a time of preparation. As we respond to the drawing power of His love, and give the Holy Spirit permission to fully bring us to Jesus as a Bride, He will accomplish within us those things of which we are incapable.

The responsibility is ours. "If ye be willing ..." We are not compelled to do this, but our willingness will open the door of entrance.