Hi people on SI. I will like to share this with you all...
God bless you
Karen
THE UNKNOWN PATH: THE LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
The Walk in the Spirit is a walk in the Prepared Life. And when we know this we are relieved of any responsibility as to the Way we are to take, or the work that we are to accomplish. We must recognize this, and not seek in any way to get involved with our own strategies, our own thoughts. The prophet tells us that these are as far below God's thoughts, as the earth is below the heavens. Paul tells us that the mind of the flesh is "enmity against God" and that it is "not subject to the law of God." He tells us that the natural man "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God," that they are foolishness unto him.
If we pursue the Life in the Spirit we are pursuing an unknown pathway. Yes, some have travelled it before, but it remains an unknown pathway. I mean, though we read about it and know about it, we must discover it for ourselves. This is what we are to learn in our wilderness walk. It is a way that God prepares in the entanglements of life. We cannot mark out for ourselves a smooth and a plain pathway. But as we learn God's way in this realm, we are going to find that God is by His Spirit seeking to lead us out of the old way of life, and into a new prepared way of the Spirit. It is not in man to know it, or to search it out...
"There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen: the lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it..."
"Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof..."
"Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air..."
"Then did He see it, and declare it; HE PREPARED IT, yea, and SEARCHED IT OUT..."
"And unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." (See Job 28:7-28).
It is a Way that God has PREPARED for them that fear Him... fear Him enough that they will fear to go their own Way or do their own thing.
We come to God as helpless, hopeless sinners and find mercy, and He sovereignly brings us into a realm of New Creation. And then it seems the people of God are encouraged to go their way, and do the best they can with God's help. But Paul exhorts us to walk by the rule of New Creation life. (See Gal. 6:15-16). It is the Rule of the Cloud... the Law of the Spirit... a Law of Life... and therefore it is not in the heart of man to comprehend or understand it.
This was Nicodemus' problem. He was a man of great wisdom and understanding as far as this world goes, and as far as the "Church" of his day was concerned. He was a teacher in Israel; but Jesus would show him a way into a totally new kind of life:
"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" (Jn. 3:8).
Evangelical Christianity has no problem with that. We know it means the Spirit has moved upon our hearts very sovereignly we don't know how... and brought us to new birth in a manner far beyond our ability to comprehend. BUT WE MUST WALK BY THE SAME RULE! WE MUST LIVE BY THE SAME LAW OF THE SPIRIT!
We do not know where the Spirit comes from and whither He would lead us. O yes, we know He comes from the heart of God but here in our daily lives, here in the Land that has to be subdued for God, we fail to recognize this principle. We do not know the course that the Wind of His Spirit will take. We do not know what He has planned and devised. We do not know whither He would lead us. And this causes us to feel very insecure. We want a charted course. But it is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen. And so we would yield so readily to the temptation to chart our own course... or more likely still, to get involved with some kind of religious structure that will do it for us. They are more experienced, so we would find safety under their canopy, under their covering, under their shelter. And so we read their history, how their movement started, and try and convince ourselves that the goals which they hope to reach are valid and scriptural. We think in this way we might discover "from whence the Wind cometh... and whither it goeth." And this may give us a certain sense of security and safety.
But the man of the Spirit Way cannot become fettered with rules and regulations. He must walk in the Spirit. He must find himself in the Wind of the Spirit... in the flow of the River of God. At first, like Ezekiel of old, he will walk hesitatingly into the waters. It is a vast River, and he must tread carefully. A step or two... Then he finds himself in water up to his ankles. The stream is getting more forceful as he moves on, and fear grips his heart. Now the water is up to his knees... now up to his loins. But still he hears the words: "Keep walking... Keep coming to Me... Do not be afraid..." Suddenly he finds he can no longer touch bottom; they are waters "to swim in" and he is swept along in the current.
He has lost control! He is carried along in the current of the River of the Spirit of God! He does not know whence it cometh, and whither it goeth!
But as he is carried along in the flow of the Spirit he begins to lose his fear. He discovers that it is a River of Peace, and that all fears have been swept away. For this River flows out from the heart of God, and will return to the heart of God... and he will return with it. He has found all his springs are in Zion. He has not yet seen the City, except by faith, like Abraham of old, who saw it afar off: a City which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. But though he sees it not, he knows the River is flowing out from the City, and unto the City.
Ezekiel lost his footings when he found "waters to swim in." And so it must be with the people who come into the realm of the Spirit. No longer can we calculate, and plan, and devise, and arrange, and order, and organize, and control...
It is the Way of the Spirit! It is the Way of New Birth! It is the Way of the Wind! We hear the "sound" and that is enough. We know the Voice, and the Voice is assuring. We have not gone this Way before, but He has... and He wants us to walk in the Way that He has prepared.
Do I sense a certain fear in hearts when I say the man of the Spirit has "lost control"? I did not say he is out of control, or that he is not under control. Rather, the Spirit of God is now in control. Is that to be considered dangerous? Or would you feel a little more secure if your carnal mind were to remain in control? Or is some religious organization was to remain in control? Or if some outstanding apostle or prophet was to have the control?
There are so many in the religious world who feel comfortable and secure in the systems of men, and they fear the unknown Way. But the people who have committed their whole way of life to Him, and into the care of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus, shall know the joy and the peace and the rest of the River of God when the heavens and the earth are shaken, and when the mountains are dissolved in the depths of the sea:
"Therefore will not we fear,
Though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried
Into the midst of the sea...
There is a River,
The streams whereof shall make glad
The City of God,
The holy place of the tabernacles
Of the Most High"
(Ps. 46:2-4).
We do not understand all the implications of this. But we do know that when the heavens and the earth are shaken, and the mountains are dissolved in the sea... whether by the devices of men or by the fire of God... there is going to be a people flowing in the River of God, making glad His City, "the Holy Place of the Tabernacles of the Most High."
There is a spirit that controls the course of this world. It is the spirit of Satan, "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in [activates, energizes] the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). He has succeeded in totally captivating the spirits and souls and bodies of men and women, making them to be the "bondslaves of sin" (Rom. 6:17). They think they are FREE but they are not. They are prisoners to the spirit of the world and of Satan. They are totally under his control. Only the Light of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ can set them free.
Let us fear that kind of control; and having been delivered from it, let us "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set us free."
But never let us fear to be caught in the flow of His cleansing, purifying, life-giving River; for it is the River of God, the River of Truth, the River of Freedom, the River of Joy, the River of Wisdom, the River of Knowledge, the River of Life, the River of Love that flows ceaselessly from the heart of God and through the Land of our Inheritance!
From: Beauty for Ashes Series: A way trough the Wilderness Chapter 8
By, George Warnock
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Karen
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