

## Living in the Will of God

Published by Gavin Cox at Smashwords

Copyright 2016 Gavin Cox

A SoMuchGoodNews Initiative

www.SoMuchGoodNews.com

(To keep in touch follow the link above and subscribe)

#  Dedication

Thanks for everything Mom!

# Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Intro

Chapter 1 - Why?

Chapter 2 - Established in Grace

Chapter 3 - Good Works

Chapter 4 - Communicating God

Chapter 5 - Led by the Spirit

Chapter 6 - Gifts and Callings

Chapter 7 - When it all goes wrong

Chapter 8 - Moonwalking

Chapter 9 - Are we there yet?

Outro

Publishing Information

Books by Gavin Cox

# Foreword

Revolution is a radical concept. It describes fundamental change, the reversal of condition, or a forcible substitution. It cannot go by un-noticed, but has enormous, comprehensive impact. That is exactly what has happened to me. My sincere, exhausting, relentless, demanding and exacting Christianity has undergone a revolution. Thirty-five years after first encountering the Gospel, this Good News has found me again!

That might seem a strange thing for a pastor's wife to say. Yes, I have known, followed and loved Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit since the age of ten. I have read my bible, prayed, and gone to church. I married a pastor, have been involved in children's ministry, raised our own three, played the piano, and organized, arranged and encouraged the flock as a deaconess. I have taught parents to raise their kids and women to be good wives. I have counselled, led prayer groups, and run moms groups. I've catered, arranged flowers, and hosted conference speakers and delegates. But having worked hard for church and Jesus for decades, somewhere in it all I lost the Gospel.

The Gospel revolution has brought me back to a constant, never failing, unshakable, hope. I am loved, secure, accepted, rock-steady. I am filled with confidence, competence, boldness and power. I have life, peace and joy. I am at rest. I am free. Troubles still come, and the situations that must be faced are not always easy, but righteousness, peace and joy always win. My living in the will of God - being in Him and doing what He says - is a direct result of this revolution. It's all because of what Jesus has done. I just believe! So simple! So easy! So done! I am deeply grateful. Christianity make sense again.

### Estelle Cox

### Gonubie, South Africa

### 2016

#  Preface

Life in the will of God starts out as a gift accompanying salvation, and from then on is a lifestyle that is exclusively by grace and through faith. Anyone can step into it, and anyone can live in the good of it, all because of what Jesus has done.

This book is rubber on road stuff. Page after page is practical application of New Covenant truth. I've not included many cross references to Scripture, but the manuscript is littered with language and concepts that anyone having rudimentary Scriptural knowledge will recognise immediately. Tracking these truths in the Bible for further reflection and study should be no problem at all.

That also tells you who it is I've written for. Whilst almost anyone will benefit from this book, it's been crafted for Christians who love the Lord, but who in all honesty have a Christianity which is not working for them. Perhaps you're someone who has walked away from the overt practice of your faith in despair, or perhaps you're a committed church member, but with nagging questions about the Christian treadmill. Either way, this book is for you.

The reason I asked Estelle to do the Foreword is that I really, really, really believe this stuff. Getting clear on the New Covenant revolutionised our lives, and there's no one better to testify to the authenticity of it all than the life-partner who has shared in the journey.

Our prayer is that this little book will be helpful to many!

###

### Gavin Cox

### Gonubie, South Africa

### August 2016

# Intro

Living in the will of God is not difficult or complicated. As a matter of common sense, living in God's will is God's will. Surely? Why then would our Heavenly Father put it beyond the reach of any of His children? Rather, simple logic dictates that it cannot possibly be the preserve of the spiritual elite, but that living in the will of God is for everyone.

Scripture enlists a wonderful turn of phrase when describing those who did so. The reading makes for epic epitaph material. Abraham "died at a good old age, and full of years". David "served the purposes of God in his own generation". Paul "fought the good fight, ran the race, and kept the faith". We cannot but be inspired. And although we might not be the giants of the faith that they were, each of us has a life to live and a race to run. The thesis of this book is that we can all run it well, at the very least starting now. None of those commended for their faith was any more perfect than we are. Their every success was all by grace, just as ours will be.

What you'll discover is that the only real obstacles to living in the will of God are between our ears. This must be so if the grace of God is always sufficient. Obeying Him doesn't rely on our own resources or abilities. Neither is it dependent on any particular situation or circumstance. The Lord always supplies what He later requires. What obstructs is an amalgam of misinformation, misunderstanding and misbelief. Lodged in our thinking and reinforced by those around us, these keep us bogged down in a veritable quagmire of unbelief. Fortunately there is Good News at hand. The Lord has provided a way out of that swamp. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation. It brings light and life, imparts faith and releases the power of the Spirit. Hence the Bible's confident assertion that those who know the truth are set free by it. The Gospel is not information, but revelation that enables transformation. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation, and it delivers.

This little book is unashamedly a Gospel "how to", with the emphasis on Gospel, because Jesus has already put in the hard yards. Living in the will of God relies on His efforts, and not our own. As the truths of the Gospel are applied, faith arises in hearts and minds are renewed. God is the initiator; we are the responders. He loved first. We love in return because we are loved.

Will there be decisions to be taken and choices to be made along the way? Of course there will! But they'll be taken and made enlightened and enabled by the Spirit. That's not said to console, for it is no special dispensation. That is how Christianity works. Believing into Jesus is not the receiving of life assistance, but the receiving of a whole new life. A new life that lives well if we let it. It's no longer the nature of the born again to be ambivalent towards God. Our new life is born of the Spirit of God, and hidden with Christ in God. There is nothing ordinary about it. It is the antithesis of our original Adamic nature, which was estranged from God and inherently rebellious. But that old nature was co-crucified with Christ when we believed. Dead and buried, our baptism was its funeral rite. The old has gone; the new has come. Everyone who is in Christ is alive to God, dead to sin, and victorious over the flesh and the devil. That is who we are. We just don't live like that because we don't believe it. Or perhaps we don't know it because we've simply never been told. Our new nature pulsates with life and is vibrant with faith, and just like Jesus, is inclined to obedience.

Paul described ordinary Christian living in a wonderful way at both the beginning and the end of his letter to the Romans. "The obedience of faith". That's the Gospel "how to" in a nutshell. Obedience is a fruit of faith. The beauty of it all is that faith is itself by grace. It is the Gospel's first and greatest gift. Faith comes by hearing the message of Christ. A right Gospel produces right believing. Right believing results in right living. Nothing could be simpler. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe.

So do not despair if you find yourself bogged down in unbelief, dominated by your flesh or adrift in purpose. The Gospel delivers from these, and more besides. We're in a day in which many born again Christians feel as if they are being born again again. The Lord is giving His Gospel back to His world. To this end I write. To this end you read. Together we rejoice!

# Chapter 1

## Why?

Let's begin at the beginning. Let's start with the why. Why would anyone want to live in the will of God?

The Bible reveals this to be a necessary consideration. Obedience, it seems, leads to great blessing. There are many examples. But it also seems that obedience can lead to a great deal of suffering and sacrifice. Again, examples abound. We read of followers of Jesus being crucified, flogged and stoned. There were those who were put to the sword, fed to the lions, sawn in two or thrown into the fire. Others found themselves imprisoned, destitute, afflicted and exiled. If we were to single out one fellow, it would have to be Paul. Imprisoned several times, he was beaten with rods on five occasions and received thirty-nine lashes by scourge thrice. He was also stoned once, shipwrecked three times, and endured a host of other deprivations and dangers. Unsurprising in the light of all this, he was eventually martyred.

I don't know about you, but signing up for blessings is easy. Count me in. But not so fast if it includes even a remote possibility of being sawn in two. Remember also that Jesus guaranteed His followers persecution and hardship, assuring them that in this world they would have trouble. It seems then that anyone who accepts Jesus' invitation to follow is likely to experience a mixed bag. It will include unmerited favour, wellness of soul, abundant life and unsurpassed glory. But there will probably also be a whole lot of sacrifice, hardship, forgiving and cheek-turning along the way.

So why sign up? Why live in the will of God? As an advocate, allow me to proffer several reasons.

Worship and Awe

Creation boasts a Creator, and behind its intelligent design is the consummate Designer. The Bible teaches us that this is enough of a basis on which to reckon ourselves accountable to God. His handiwork reveals His nature. Furthermore, we are wired for worship. We all serve something, even if that something is ourselves. Disavowing Him is the pot in its inflated self-sufficiency denying the potter.

Faith, humility and worship are formed in anyone soft of heart becoming conscious of the vastness of the universe. Its sheer magnitude overwhelms, making us aware of our infinitesimal smallness. "What is man that you are mindful of him?" posited the psalmist as he gazed heavenward. The Bible defines faith as recognition that God exists, and belief that He rewards those who seek Him. In other words, faith pleases God for it acknowledges Him as good.

The religio-political leaders of the early seventeenth century pronounced Galileo Galilei a heretic. They did so because he claimed to have discovered that the earth revolved around the sun, and not the converse, as was thought. They were outraged at his suggestion that we are not at the centre of it all. And the same disturbing self-centredness still besets the human heart of the twenty first century. This is the ubiquitous flaw which must yield in order for faith to arise. God cannot possibly be subservient to us. He is by definition the greater, and we the lesser. We revolve around Him; not He around us. The worship is His, and the privilege of worshipping ours.

Ownership

Our world has always been God's world. Many have disowned Him, but He has never disowned us, or the planet entrusted to our care. Even in the darkest of days, the days of Noah, His door remained open to all who would believe. Hence our confidence that, despite accidental pregnancies, there are never any accidental people. The Lord values everyone because we are all His creation, even if some of us are estranged from Him. Realising this is enough to prompt careful thought to our ways. It turns out that even if for no other reason than that He made us, we are our brother's keeper. For that same reason, what we do with our natural resources matters too.

Our Creator is not far away. He has drawn near to us. The Gospel explains the how and why of that. It teaches that the pain and suffering that surrounds us is not of Him, but is thanks to sin and satan. Jesus has revealed Heaven's intent towards us. It is never to harm, but only to save. In love He redeemed us. This use of slave market language is most appropriate because our common ancestor Adam handed us all into slavery through His disobedience. The state of our world reflects this bondage. We are born sinful, subject to satan, and beholden to our flesh. Brokenness of all kinds is in evidence as we find ourselves adrift and helpless on the sea of our shared fallenness. But Jesus!

Jesus lived the sinless life none of us could live. He went on to die the sinner's death we all deserve. This was possible thanks to the virgin birth. He was one of us, but not in Adam. Our fallenness was not His. He substituted for us and purchased our freedom. The wages of sin has always been death, and the cross of Christ paid that price. It was full and final payment. Justice was done. God's wrath at sin was satisfied. Propitiation is the theological term for this. There is now no outstanding judgement for anyone who is in Christ, for He was judged on our behalf. This redemptive act gives Him every right to claim us as His own. Yet, as our new Master, He chose to grant us our freedom. Even so, taught Paul, we do well to recognise that we are not our own. We were bought with a price. We are His.

Christians are those who are born again of the Spirit of God. He has literally made us anew. He did so in the moment we first believed. His story became our story as we were united with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. The Holy Spirit did it. He plucked us out of first Adam and immersed us into Last Adam, Jesus. At the same time He did His unique regenerative work within us, birthing new life. So it is that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. We are God's kith and kin, through and through, born from above. The old has gone; the new has come. Recreated in Him and by Him, we are His.

And as if that were somehow not enough, we are His by adoption also. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of adoption, and thanks to Him we experience the fatherhood of God. This becomes all the more wonderful as we grasp the forensic implications undergirding it. Born of the Spirit, who we are is of God. Adopted, all that we have is His also. Our everything is His - the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is so in a statutory sense. Our adoption has been ratified in the courts of heaven, and sealed by the indwelling Spirit who is the signature of God, sealing the deal. We are His, and legally so, top to toe.

What follows is a matter of simple logic. We were crafted in His image, redeemed by His sacrifice, reborn of His Spirit and adopted by Him. Deferential obedience is the only appropriate response.

Congruence

Living in the will of God is a lifestyle. It is a walk of faith. It is also a place of blessing and an extraordinary adventure. Undergirding any activity is the glorious truth that being trumps doing. Who we are is the defining and enabling precursor to anything we might do. Just like Jesus, we have been placed in time and space for a purpose. Just like Jesus, we fit our mission. And as with Him, our mission fits us. There is premeditated congruence between the two, which is why our lives are at their richest and most full of meaning when we are doing what we were created for.

This is true of everything that God has made. And it is especially true of us who are in Christ. We are able to fulfil that for which we were created in intentional ways. We do so in union with God, and redemptively, giving Him glory. Within this wonderful congruence our work becomes worship and hardships can be endured with joy. "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart", asserted the psalmist. In this we celebrate and emulate Jesus, who "For the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame". Perhaps it is He who best expressed it when He said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work". The same is true for us. Doing the will of God is food that nurtures our soul.

A further implication is that Christians are therefore most true to their recreated selves when living captivated by the Lord. Religiosity would have us trying to be children of God, but the Gospel reveals that this is exactly who we are! Faith in Christ is our docking station with destiny. It brought us into union with God, and it orientates us within redemption history. It made sense of life, marrying worth, work and worship. This is not the self-actualising "live your passion" of the humanist. Defining destiny apart from the governance of God is folly in a fallen world. In humanity's sinfulness we dare not claim to be among the sharpest tools in the shed. Only One is. Let's rather remain on the sure foundation of our Lord and Saviour revealing His purposes for us, rather than purporting to figure these things out for ourselves.

Love

"If you love me, you'll keep my commandments", said Jesus.

Statements like this read like spiritual litmus tests for anyone riddled with condemnation. "Do you really love me?" they accuse, "because if you did, it would be far more evident in your life!" We all interpret things through our belief systems, and a mixture of Law and Grace is never useful. View the same statement through the lenses of the Gospel and the interpretation changes radically. Soon we're relying on Christ's performance rather than our own. In Him, we stand secure in His righteousness, pleasing to God already. Statements like these then read as descriptive rather than prescriptive. They teach that obedience is the fruit of love, not its policeman.

Love is by far the best motivator of all. It was why Jesus obeyed His Father, and no obedience could ever prove more costly than His. Laying aside the glories of heaven, He took to Himself humble humanity, becoming obedient to death on a cross. Little wonder that Father exalted Him to the highest place. Every now and again we get a glimpse into the love relationship that fuels the Trinity. "The Father loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself is doing", said Jesus. "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand". Jesus left us in no doubt that the driving force of His own life was His love for His Father. He loved Him with all His heart, soul, mind and strength. "Not my will, but yours, be done" demonstrated a love that trusted implicitly. Only His Father could retrieve Him from the grave. The lesson for all of us is that love sustains obedience long after obligation has crumbled in the face of adversity.

We have all sampled love's extraordinary power. It manifests most often in those aspects of our temporal lives which reflect the eternal. Marriage is at its most glorious when the partnership is fuelled by love. It speaks to us of the union of the Trinity and of Christ and His church. Similarly, the sacrificial love of parent for child trumpets God's love for us. And who has not been moved by tales of brothers in arms; of lives laid down on the battlefield, as Jesus laid down His life for us. These examples help us to identify with the perfect, unconditional, unmerited, irrevocable love of God. How much more powerful His perfect love than these shadows. How much more does His perfect love evoke a response of love in those touched by it.

See here the great mystery of the Gospel revealed. God's perfect love demands nothing in return. In so doing it unlocks wholeheartedness, inviting and evoking passionate adoration, unfettered worship, and unqualified obedience. This alone, this loving and being loved, can satisfy. We in Him and He in us; He loving us and we loving Him. Obligation gives way to gratitude and privilege. By its very nature love finishes what it starts, His love most of all. That's why the Scriptures describe us as foreknown, predestined, called, justified and glorified. Reason dictates that we obey, but it is love that compels us to do so!

# Chapter 2

## Established in Grace

Every building requires a solid foundation. Paul used this common-sense metaphor when writing to the Corinthians. His application was unequivocal: There is only one foundation, and it is the one already laid. That foundation is Jesus.

Notice what he didn't say. He didn't say that Jesus is a preferred foundation, the best available. He was emphatic. Jesus is the only foundation. In other words, nothing else is a foundation in any ultimate sense at all. Other passages of Scripture attest to this. All things were created by and for Jesus, and all things find their place in Him. In the broadest sense, when all is said and done, everything that can be shaken will have been shaken. Only that built on the unshakable foundation of Christ's perfect work will remain. Christ and His redemptive work alone will stand.

"In righteousness you shall be established", promised Isaiah as he expounded on the benefits of the New Covenant. The righteousness in question is not our own, but Christ's. It is His right standing with God in which we are established. That is the unshakable foundation into which the Holy Spirit embedded us when we believed. This truth lies at the heart of the Gospel, for in it a righteousness is revealed that is by grace alone, through faith alone, and because of Christ alone.

This is Christianity's bottom line, no ifs or buts. In the instant that we placed our trust in Jesus, a cluster of extraordinary things happened. His story became our story as Holy Spirit united us with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. From that moment onwards we were no longer dead, entombed in our trespasses and sins. From then on we've been alive to God and in Christ, and seated in heavenly places in Him. In that same instant we were also born again of the Spirit of God, and Holy Spirit literally took up residence in us. This was possible because our unrighteousness had been removed from us, and Christ's own righteousness imputed to us. Right then and there our lives were immovably and irrevocably secured into that one unshakable foundation. This is true of every single Christian. There are no exceptions.

Let's say it again. Each and every believer is in irrevocable right standing with God. We are all righteous with the perfect right standing of Jesus Himself. That is the Gospel, and deserves belabouring at every opportunity. Enlist your imagination and look down using the eyes of your spirit. What do you see beneath your feet? More solid than rock, the right standing of Jesus, unshakable beneath your feet.

Wedding clothes and related garb

Many Christians remain unaware of the perfect righteousness in which they stand. We all have it, yet some have just never been told.

This gap in understanding usually stems from confusion about the various covenants of Scripture. At root is confusion about Law and Grace. The result is a belief system that is not that much good news at all. What it amounts to is the misunderstanding that the new birth is little more than a fresh start. After that new beginning, many Christians then mistakenly see themselves as responsible for maintaining their new-found righteousness. This is supposedly accomplished through a number of fine sounding spiritual disciplines. Sin less. Repent more. Confess your sins and show godly sorrow. Get delivered. Be inner healed. Pray. Fast. Make restitution. And add to the list all the other binding and loosing type activities fashionable in church circles at any given time.

This is erroneous Old Covenant thinking. The repetitive shedding of blood of the sacrificial system of old pointed to its inefficacy. These sacrifices covered over sin, but were only effective momentarily. Their beneficiary was only righteous until the next sin, and the righteousness they produced fragile and transient. Even as the faithful made their way home from the altar, relieved and grateful, they knew that they would be back again. The sins they had committed were under the blood, but they would inevitably sin again. Another day another animal would die. They were righteous, but they had no way of staying that way. Clean, dirty, clean, dirty; righteous, unrighteous, righteous, unrighteous; acceptable to God, unacceptable, acceptable, unacceptable. Theirs was a never ending righteousness roller coaster.

Then came Jesus! His sacrifice accomplished what the death of no animal ever could. Fully human, He lived the sinless life no one else could, and went on to receive in His death what all sinners deserve. Justice was done. God's wrath at sin was satisfied, and the wages of sin paid in full. The sacrifice Jesus made was a perfect sacrifice, once for all, and therefore never to be repeated. He died for all sinners, and for all sin, for all time. When He said, "It is finished", it really was. Since then everything has changed. Grateful believers who make their way home from His altar do so as sinners no longer. Their righteousness is permanent not momentary. It is neither fragile nor transient. It is consummate, enduring, and life defining. Those who have visited His altar leave as saints. Theirs does not involve repeat visits to the altar of Christ's sacrifice, but habitation of His throne room. Heaven is their home, where they are ever welcome, for they are one with Him.

A familiar metaphor will help illustrate this difference between Old and New Covenant righteousness very clearly. Saints are those robed in righteousness. This is portrayed in a number of Biblical analogies, including the priestly garments of tabernacle and temple and the wedding garments of the parables. The big idea is holiness, with the garments speaking of the sanctification of their wearers. Approach this with an Old Covenant paradigm, and these garments require careful tending. Even a priest's sweat could corrupt his garment, not to mention contact with the likes of a corpse, leper, Gentile or pig. Or even your wife's issue of blood for that matter. Contact with any of these would render the garment unclean. The resulting dynamic is inevitably the clean, dirty, clean, dirty roller coaster ride. Clean is only clean until dirty again. In Jesus' day this was all quite literal. Consequently the futility of holiness by self-righteousness was observable to all who had eyes to see. Remember Jesus describing the religious leaders of His day as whitewashed tombs and as cups washed on the outside only? Turned out in their religious finery, their attitudes and actions told the real story. They were hypocrites, for they were unrighteousness in spite of their posturing.

But Jesus! Those who visit the altar of His sacrifice receive much more than a change of clothes. They are themselves made new. Nothing superficial, temporary or revocable here. No covering over of sin, but its removal. Christ's righteousness if expressed in textile terms is a super-material provided by a super-Saviour. The garments He gives are incorruptible, non-tarnishable, and eternal. Nothing can dirty, stain or damage them in any way, and they are impervious to all wear and tear. The Bible puts the whole matter beyond dispute. It declares those who are in Christ as having been made perfect forever. We new creations in Christ are more than adequately garbed for every occasion. We are adequate for every occasion. This is who He has made us to be, rather than it being dependant on what we do.

For years I laboured under condemnation thanks to my confusion in these matters. I was sure that it was my repentance that renewed my robes. I'd walk away from these times of contrition feeling clean, relieved, revived and restored to fellowship with God. They were wonderful moments, but they also always included an ill-defined unease. Inherent in the exchange was a promise made that I knew I couldn't keep: "This time would not be like last time. This time I would keep the garments clean". After all, I had the Holy Spirit living within me, I reasoned. He would faithfully point out every blemish as soon as it appeared on my robes. I had the Scriptures too. These taught me the requirements for righteous living. They also assured me that when I confessed a sin, God would faithfully administer His stain remover once again. Plus I had my local church. What more could I want. In my mind the church was a further aid to my staying grime free, as it provided me with all the meetings, teaching and discipleship I could ever need. If there was a problem, it was with me. I was without excuse. With Spirit, Word and church, any wholehearted Christian would keep their garments pristine, so I thought.

Of course it never worked. My flesh, like yours, could never deliver on sinless living. What I hadn't grasped was that I was a legalist, my belief system advocating for just deserts. I didn't understand that the Law had been added to dis-empower self-righteousness, and that it did so by empowering the trespass. It was therefore inevitable that the harder I tried, the more I would fail. Time and again my best efforts were shipwrecked, and with them my hopes of ever being really useful to God. All that I could conclude was that obedience was beyond me!

Water walking, grace and faith

Every Christian is robed in both royal and priestly garments. These are not literal vestments, but speak of the authority and righteousness that are ours in Christ because of what the Lord has done for us by placing us in Him. We are kings and priests. In the New Covenant the efficacy of faith is not reflected in our clothing. We are not governed by what is seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelled. We live by what is unseen. We walk in what Jesus has accomplished, and by His every promise, for His work has qualified us to receive all that they offer.

When Peter walked on water, normally unseen spiritual truths became visible. The incident demonstrates the interplay of grace and faith. Bear in mind that Jesus was always rock-steady when walking on water. He was never tentative, no matter how bad the weather or choppy the surface of the lake. This was so because what He was actually walking on was much more stable than the earth beneath our feet. Step after step was taken standing on the word of God. When Peter first stepped out of the boat to join Jesus on the water, he too stood on the word; "Come", Jesus had said. This one word was enough to buoy the weight of the entire human race had it been spoken to all of us. Full of grace, once spoken to Peter, it was all he needed. We know that God's word is inviolable. It cannot fail. Peter's floundering was not due to any insufficiency on the part of the promise, but thanks to his own unbelief. It is so reassuring that Jesus responded to Peter's frailty by reaching out and rescuing him. They then returned to the boat together, strolling on the promise, secure in the faith of God. How good it is to know that when our faith in God wavers, the faith of God sustains us. He is Saviour; we are the saved.

This account is so helpful because the Gospel is the word of God to all us. It is the inviolable promise of a righteousness that is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ and His perfect work alone. Meanwhile, we are all in the same boat, in Adam, fallen sinners all. The Gospel comes to us all, irrevocable and glorious, inviting us to step out of the doomed vessel of sin. Beyond our fallenness the firm foundation of eternal life beckons. It is unshakable, even if appearing awash beneath the stormy seas of twenty-first century life. As we respond and step into Christ, it is not our faith that saves us, but grace that does the work. And once out of the boat, ever present Saviour Jesus guarantees that there will be no loss of life. No matter how poorly our faith performs when our lives come under duress, because of Him we remain secure. Christ's resurrection guarantees our ultimate conquest of the grave.

But this account also teaches us that faith is an important variable in the equation of life. It goes a long way in determining the volatility of our living. No matter the wind and waves, we can rest confident in our right standing with God. We need not succumb to fear and unbelief as did Peter, but can remain steady by remaining in faith. Jesus taught us that believing will even put us on the offensive in difficult times, because storms can be subdued in His name. As faith matures we're therefore able to go from a life that survives the storm to calming tempests that we encounter along our way. Dominion is a vital aspect of our inheritance as the children of God, and makes us useful in our Lord's colonisation of rebel planet earth.

Established in grace

The promises of God display His utter confidence in His own ability to save. He promises to complete the work He has begun in us. He promises to present us, blameless, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. He guarantees us that we will never be tested beyond our ability to endure, but that He will always provide a way forward. He has put it on record that His grace will always be sufficient, no matter what. He has reassured us that nothing in all creation can ever separate us from His love. He has made it clear that He will work all things together for our ultimate good.

Living in the good of His many promises is only possible for those who are secure in their faith. The great news is that the Gospel gives us every reason for that security. Wise Solomon of old extolled the virtues of a threefold cord. Well, we are held just so, firmly in the grasp of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. We are in Him, and He is in us. As was creation, redemption is a dance of the Trinity. Into this dance we are all invited, even though undeserving of such kindness. This salvation dance is fluid and spiritual, but there is nothing fragile about it, choreographed as it is for the consummate finale. In its rhythms our souls find solace, rest, nurture and strength.

What then shall we say? The Gospel is the Good News about the gift of righteousness. A gift freely bestowed on all who believe into Jesus. A gift that provides eternal security; eternal security in the here and now. This gift is the vital foundation necessary for living in the will of God, free of guilt, condemnation and fear. God Himself is the all-encompassing net below the trapeze of life. He ensures that no matter how often we fail, we Christians can never be failures. We are children of God, and nothing can ever un-son us. We are accepted in the Beloved, and God will never ever reject us. Our sin has been judged - not in part, but completely. The worst possible outcome for us, for the poorest performance imaginable, is a squandered inheritance and a concomitant loss of reward. The cross of Christ has rendered all who are in Him unpunishable. There remains for us no judgement for sin outstanding. He received it all. That is the Gospel! By it He declares that we will be oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.

This is such Good News. And there is more. Beyond the believers, and also thanks to the cross, God looks at sinful men to do them good. In Christ, He has made up His mind about us all, and His will is unequivocal. It is to save! There is only one foundation for this salvation, and it has already been laid. Everyone can be saved, and anyone can be saved. No one is excluded. This outrageous Gospel is the wisdom of God for a fallen world. Rebel planet earth will be brought life by not receiving what it deserves, but by the outpouring of the unmitigated love of God, rich in grace and mercy.

# Chapter 3

## Good works

Christians are all masterpieces, the crafting of the Lord.

We were not just created, but have also been meticulously recreated in Christ's likeness. This is not wishful thinking. The born-again spirit of a Christian is an identical twin of Jesus. As He is, so are we in this world. At the core of our beings, we too are righteous, imperishable, glorious and powerful. Just like Jesus. One day our inner man will be clothed in a body more appropriate than the Adamic one we have now, again just like Jesus.

The true nature of the new nature lies at the heart of an accurate Gospel. We are not those who are trying to be more like Jesus. This is a commonly held misbelief, but a misbelief nonetheless. We are those who have been recreated in His image, and are therefore just like Him. Christians no longer have a sinful nature. His story is our story. We have been co-crucified with Christ, and co-raised with Him. Our baptism was the funeral service for our old nature. (Baptism is a God-given means of definitively distancing ourselves from what once was). The fact that our co-crucifixion with Christ was instantaneous and painless by no means undermines its authenticity. This objective reality was by grace through faith, and will still be an integral part of who we are long after our flesh and blood have yielded to the age to come. Our new lives in Christ are the "real us".

This in turn makes the contrariness of our behaviour perplexing. The reason for our not always appearing to be the saints we are is that our new lives in Christ continue on in the Adam suits that were issued us at birth. These are subject to decay. Our new lives also have the potential to lug along an accumulated lifetime of mental and emotional baggage. The Bible calls the sum total of this vestigial in-Adam-ness our flesh, and it is the spawning ground of our carnality. It's the nature of our flesh to assert itself and usurp control of our living. The result is always unbefitting, unChristlike, sinful behaviour, causing spiritual, righteous people to behave in unrighteous, unhelpful, fleshy and soulish ways.

We all have flesh, which implies a certain inevitability to a degree of carnality. This is not something that we should pander to, for in Christ we have dominion over sin, satan and our flesh. We are in Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and therefore enabled to live godly lives. Paul develops this understanding magnificently in the opening eight chapters of Romans. All in Adam's lineage are born sinners. Jesus alone was born righteous. Like Abraham, our righteousness is by faith, and not through any efforts of our own. We who believe are no longer in Adam, but in Christ. We are dead to sin and alive to God. We are no longer under law, but under grace. We live by the Spirit, and not according to our flesh. Grasping this enables this to be so, for Christian living is identity driven. Those convinced of their holiness will reason accordingly and make choices congruent with whom they are. Being precedes doing.

This point is so foundational that it begs belabouring. All Christians are perfect Christians. We are not so because we believe it to be so, but we are so, for we are a work of God. He is the one who has made us to be Christians. He is the one who has made us perfect. We might not look perfect to anyone else, including ourselves, but we are. Even in the worst of times, when our behaviour is a grotesque misrepresentation of whom He has made us to be, we are in Him. Bad behaviour doesn't change this fact. By His once for all perfect sacrifice He has made us perfect forever. Any other view is rank unbelief, an arrogant denial of truth, and unwarranted criticism of His work. Let's never dare call any Christian a bad Christian. God doesn't make those!

These truths offend religiosity. Soon someone insists that it can't be true because, "you will recognise them by their fruits". But those who are clear on the Gospel know that there are only two kinds of people in this world. Those who are in Adam, and those who are in Christ. Each and every one of us was born the former; all who have believed have been born again as the latter. Which of the two someone might be is not necessarily as evident as we would like it to be. It's perfectly clear to God though. These "by their fruits" statements are more descriptive than prescriptive. (Remember our earlier contemplation around "if you love me, you'll keep my commandments").

The issue here is not whether or not Christians should bear good fruit. Of course they should! And not doing so is to no one's benefit, including their own. But unfortunately not all do. But this does not lessen the efficacy of the salvation worked on their behalf by the Lord. They have been saved by grace. He has made carnal Christians as irrevocably righteous as anyone else who has believed. It's the way they respond to grace that is the cause of the problem. Carnality is not faith in action, but unbelief. For whatever reason, some resist vesting their full confidence in Him. In so doing they jettison the obedience of faith and sadly choose to live as fruitless boughs. Paul likened these to charred sticks plucked from the fire. That is not God's will for them, and we hope for better things for ourselves. We are conscious of being God's work, and as such we are God's will. This is why doing His will is for us.

A good work created for good works

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

Just as there are only two categories of people on the planet (in Adam and in Christ), there are only two categories of works. The difference between them is immeasurable, and this is so even if it is often indistinguishable to the natural eye.

Dead works are not necessarily bad deeds in any obvious way. They are those which are done in self-reliance. The rebel's defiant disobedience is most obviously a dead work, as is the criminal's lawless behaviour. But so are the best efforts of the self-righteous. It's as simple as this: whatever is not of faith is sin. In other words, do it in your own wisdom or in your own strength, and it's a dead work. It's sin. No matter how many pats on the back you get for doing a remarkable job, if it was not done in faith, it was a dead work, and it was sin. What that means is that much praying, fasting and church attendance are works of the flesh. Dead works. Sin. As is every tithe given in fear, and every act of mercy done for others to see.

Good works are the antithesis of dead works. These are works done depending on God. That's the defining factor. Whatever does not come from faith is sin. But whatever is of faith is a good work, and righteous. Remember the little old lady who put the two copper coins in the offering plate? Jesus said that she had given more than anyone else. She did her good work surrounded by folk who appeared to be more righteous than what she was. But appearances don't impress Jesus at all. Hers was the obedience of faith, and that delights Him no end. It's on the same basis that He commended Gentiles for their faith while rebuking the religious leaders of His day for their unbelieving carnality.

See how the Gospel rearranges our paradigms. We tend to think that the opposite of a good work is a bad one, but it's not. Yet deep down inside we know that there is more at stake in life than the way things appear on surface level. We have all encountered those whose behaviour always seems impeccable, yet something indefinable is amiss and we just can't put a finger on it. We've also all met that no-good low-life whose heart challenged our own self-righteousness to the core. This points to the fact that we're well aware that sin is not best defined superficially. So we discover that God's framework is not just a behavioural code of sorts. He doesn't define good and evil by norms and standards, rules and regulations. Patterns and principles have their place, but sin involves the thoughts, attitudes and motives of the heart. The many words the Bible uses to describe it bear witness to this. These include brokenness, distortion, mediocrity, rebellion, insincerity, estrangement, misdirection and indebtedness, to mention just a few. Yet no matter how broad or vague these might sound, they do not make sin a complicated idea. All sin has as its essence unbelief. Walk, work, say and do relying on God, and you'll please Him. Faith pleases Him. Walk, work, say and do in self-reliance, and you'll be nothing but a doer of dead works. No matter whether you are a pastor, plumber, poet, prince or policeman, this is true.

Nothing could be simpler. Even a little child can understand. Everything you do is either a good work or a dead work. Get the Gospel clear and it all hangs together without quandary or contradiction. There were two trees in the garden. Adam and Eve could have chosen to feast off the tree of life. To have done so would have been to trust God. Instead, they chose to feed off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They trusted in themselves, and in doing so rendered themselves arrogant unbelieving sinners. There were also two Adams. Stark are they in contrast. First Adam, who did what was right in his own eyes, and Last Adam, who did what was right in His Father's eyes. We too live either by faith or by sight, just as they did. It's either by God's words, or by our own wisdom; relying on Him, or relying on ourselves.

Christians do dead works all the time of course. Some are in rebellious licentiousness, others in religious self-righteousness. Lawless or legalistic, these are dead works all the same. Other folk, not yet Christians, are moving towards the Lord as He draws them. They find themselves doing good works, in faith, before ever understanding what these are. They show up in a church meeting, drop some money in the offering plate, forgive an enemy, or sign up to serve at a soup kitchen. What they do is done from the heart. These works do not save them, but they are the first stumbling responses to God nonetheless. Of these it can be said that they are not far from the kingdom. That is what Jesus said of the scribe who answered Him wisely. "Getting it" can be a valuable step on the way to "got it" when we share the Gospel clearly and wisely with those such as these. No need to discourage their good works; every need to encourage their faith. Righteousness is by grace alone through faith alone. It always has been, and it always will be.

168 hours a week

Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. He was born at the perfect juncture in time and space. He was begotten of God to do the good works which had been prepared in advance for Him to do. Empowered by the Spirit, He tackled them with faultless precision. Jesus only did what He first saw His Heavenly Father doing, and only said what He first heard Him saying. The same can and should be said of us. We were born again of the Spirit of God. This was at the Lord's appointed time and place. Good works have been prepared in advance for us to do also. Just like Jesus, we too are empowered by the Spirit. And we too should consider ourselves under orders, only doing what we see and hear from Heaven. These are all essential parameters to embrace if we're to live in the will of God.

Beyond that, emulating Jesus as the way to live in the will of God is folly. His mission is not our mission, and His brief not our brief. WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) sounds noble, and it appeals to our religiosity. Yet it is one of the most destructive ideas ever introduced into the warp and weft of modern Christianity. The notion has its origins in an idealistic work of fiction penned in the late 1800s. This was popularised again in the late 1900s. It is so destructive because it reduces Christianity to a moral imperative, undermining the Gospel's saving power, replacing it with a behavioural code. WWJD then serves as a set of Christian rules and regulations. Taken seriously, the only possible outcome is spectacular condemnation. The appropriate question for us to ask ourselves is not WWJD, but WJMD - What does Jesus want Me to Do? We are in Christ, and Christ is in us, but we are not Jesus. Each of us is an authentic original. Each has his or her own good works prepared and waiting. We should learn from Jesus, but be led by the Spirit.

Jesus' mission was also notably atypical. It's not just that what He did only He could do; His sinless life and substitutionary death. It was atypical in a broader sense also. Few Christians are called to live short, laser sharp, martyrs' lives. Some will, but few. Most of us have a mission and brief more reminiscent of first Adam's than that of Last Adam's. In other words, for most of us it's, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it". For most there will be spouses, children, jobs and longevity. We're those whom the King is using to colonise rebel planet earth. It happens in our own hearts and minds first. It starts where our knees bow and our wills bend. From there it expands into all spheres of life in which we have been granted influence. To this end He has given us that glorious prayer, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done". Pray it and see what He will do.

Paul is equally unhelpful as a model for most when it comes to life and ministry. Of course his uncompromising single-mindedness should inspire and challenge us. But remember that he was a celibate, Jewish, Pharisee-trained, cross-cultural church-planting apostolic leader with a significant literary bent. That's a rather unique ensemble of life defining gifts in one extraordinary individual. Emulate Paul without the gifts and grace he had, and the outcome is likely to be pure theatre. Comedy, drama, horror and tragedy. And that's even discounting the context in which he lived, which was one of hostile opposition. We should learn from Paul, but be led by the Spirit. We have our own race to run, our own fight to fight, and have been entrusted with our own stewardship. There is absolute congruence between whom God has made us to be and what He has called us to do. We are in Christ and He is in us. We carry His spiritual DNA and are righteous with His righteousness. But you and I are not Jesus, and so the question we must ask is WJMD (What does Jesus want Me to Do?). The privilege of asking that is all because of WJHD - What Jesus Has Done!

Worth noting is that WJMD is not something that happens best in fits and starts. It was designed for 168 hours per week, fifty-two weeks a year. We have received a glorious, eternal, abundant, meaningful new life. That is who we are. That can never change. It will never be taken away from us. We love Him because He first loved us. All that makes us want to do is love Him well, at all times, and in every way. Thinking this way brings a wonderful unity to our diversified lives. Untoward religiosity has cursed us with a sacred-secular divide. Many Christians live torn between their Christianity and the supposedly secular aspects of life. They are forever trying to prioritise. It's God, then family, then church, then work, but something always seems to suffer in ways that it shouldn't. All the while the challenge is to die to self and put God first. This conflictedness is the fruit of a wrong Gospel. The truth is that we have already died to self, and God is first. We have received Him as Lord. What that means is that when life's demands compete, there is no need for conflict within. The obedience of faith is all that matters. Sometimes that will lead to work ahead of church, or family ahead of work, or a retreat and a time of necessary rest above all else. No matter what, we live in freedom, conscience clear. There is no longer any master to appease. Jesus is Lord! Think this way, and an abundant life beckons bright, and is well within the reach of us all.

# Chapter 4

## Communicating God

Christians are in union with God, seated with Christ in heavenly places, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Based on this, one would think that communication between God and the believer would not be a problem. And it isn't! But unfortunately, lurking in the murky depths of modern Christianity's cocktail of popular misbeliefs is this paralysing lie. The thinking is that hearing God is a difficult thing to do.

This lie has many nuances. Believers are taught to listen carefully for the still, small voice of God. The reality is that God's low whisper is so loud that it trumps wind, earthquake and fire. Elijah had no trouble hearing, recognising and understanding it. That's because God's quietest whisper is not measured in decibels, but by its authority. We're also taught to go to God in prayer. As if God were over there, and we are over here. It is true that we are welcome at God's throne of grace to obtain mercy in our time of need, but going to God is not about geography, but intentionality. It in no way implies distance, or that the so-called journey from where we are to that throne is an arduous one. God is not far away; He is near. Neither is prayer something we go to God to do. It is something we do with Him, for we are with Him, and He is in us.

God is really with us. This must be underscored endlessly. He is not just with us in His omnipresent everywhere-ness. He has personally joined Himself to us, literally. Jesus was emphatic that the promised Holy Spirit would never leave us once He'd come. Ever! And He's come. This is quite different to the Christian tradition I grew up in. We were taught that Jesus would wait in the lobby should a believer go to the cinema. After all, He would never enter a den of iniquity, and had no truck with movies and other worldly pleasures. Discovering a few years back that God would never leave me, no matter what, revolutionised my life. We all have a lot to learn about hosting His Presence in manifest ways. That's important, for our own benefit, and for the benefit of others. But let's never forget that living in His tangible Presence is only possible because we're already in a secure union with Him. It's all by grace and it's all though faith.

Paul the apostle was unequivocal to the point of outrage on this matter. He believed it possible (even if undesirable) to unite the members of Christ's body with a prostitute. He was clear that even a visit to a brothel cannot change a wayward believer's identity. In other words, not even heinous sin will separate us from God. Those who live such profligate lives may well need to be disciplined, and some even excommunicated by the church. This is necessary, according to Scripture, for the protection of the church and the destruction of their flesh. Even then, there is no indication that God separates Himself from them. We believers can grieve the Spirit. We can harden our hearts and sear our consciences. We can wander from the truth, fall from grace, and shipwreck our faith. None of this is a good idea. These things have significant negative consequences. But none will result in God abandoning us. He remains faithful even when we are unfaithful. Through it all, a wayward saint's salvation remains secure in the three-fold grip of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The prodigal may not experience God as near, but He is. Help is always at hand.

Misbelief's hamster wheel of misfortune

Cast it in its dimmest light, churchianity presents in the most disturbing of ways.

A multi-billion-dollar industry has been built around its misbeliefs. The one we're dealing with here is a dual-sided lie. Heads is the premise of a holy God who is far away. Tails is a sinful, inadequate and disqualified people. Around these pivots the vast machinery of a churchianity that promises solutions, but delivers none. What it does deliver is entrapment and then slavery.

Studies (Barna, et al.) show that the primary motivator of church attendance in America is the desire to get closer to God. That's a good desire. What is surprising is that the vast majority of church attendees don't feel close to God at all. The whole setup is at odds with the Gospel. Going to church cannot get anyone closer to God, because every believer is already in inseparable union with Him. It's just that no one's telling, so it seems that no one knows. Instead, pivotal misbeliefs are reinforced again and again. Books are written. Meetings are held. Courses are run, conferences convened and seminars hosted. None is bad in and of itself. Small groups, counselling sessions and discipleship programmes proliferate. But they contribute to rather than alleviate the problem if they further entrench misbeliefs by reinforcing them. To be told that God as far away and that we are sub-standard is hardly good news. No matter, this continues to be proclaimed as the staple, and with gusto at that. Expensive venues and substantial salaries are dedicated to perpetuating the problem. Which, may I remind you, is a problem which shouldn't exist in the first place, because Jesus has already taken care of it all!

Spewing from this exhausting hamster wheel is a steady stream of damaged folk. Burned out leaders. Discouraged, exhausted saints. Many who leave do so dragging their psychological and familial detritus along with them. The "done with church" folk is the biggest congregation in the city. It just never meets. I was on the hamster wheel for years, and just could not see it for what it was. Deep down I knew that something was amiss, but I felt disloyal and disqualified for even having that thought.

This picture becomes all the more appalling as we continue to reflect on the Gospel. It is the Good News of a holy God who has drawn near, and of a people whom He has made right. How ironic that the church spends so much on reinforcing unbelief, given that it exists to nurture faith. What a vicious cycle this is. The far-from-God come to church to get closer to God. It doesn't get them closer to God, because self-effort cannot do so. But the church reassures them that it will if they just try harder and do more. The more they comply, the more successful said church appears. The only snag is that what they're doing doesn't work. So they try harder. Delusional dependence develops, with the whole ecosystem fuelled by guilt and condemnation, and powered by manipulation and control.

In moments, the Gospel dismantles this house of cards, breaking its tyranny. Which is why it is so unpopular in so many church circles!

The turbo of truth

The truth is that we are near to God. The truth is that we are one with Him. And the truth is that we can hear Him.

We first heard Him when we were separated from Him. We were dead in our transgressions and sins, living in our carnal passions, and by nature objects of His wrath. We heard Him then, when hearing Him was altogether unlikely. His word imparted faith to our hearts and granted us the grace to respond. When we were least adept at hearing Him, we heard Him clearly enough to heed His call. We stepped out of the sinking boat of fallen humanity and flung ourselves into an ocean of grace. At our most deaf, we heard. At our most deaf, we heeded. At our most deaf, He saved us. Can we hear Him? Absolutely!

Many are the means by which He speaks to us. There is His infamous still small voice. There are dreams and visions. He uses a host of other voices also. These include the voice of the prophet and voice of the Scriptures, the voice of the preacher and the voice of a friend. No matter the means, the outcome is always the same - the witness of His Spirit with our spirit. That is always how we know that we have heard Him. It is how we knew that we had become children of God when we were first born again, and it is how we know that still. It is how we know that He is speaking to us, and what it is that he is saying. The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit. Our spirit is our "knower". More than a thought or a feeling, it's deeper. It is spiritual. Spirit to spirit. Yet we know. In fact, our spirits are the centre of operations of all of our spirituality. What happens there spills over into our thoughts or emotions, or even into physical sensation. No matter what or where the overflow, the epicentre is always in our spirit. That's where the tears come from in times of tender intercession. That's where the worship comes from, and the praise. That's where the laughter comes from when there is an explosion of joy. From there our prayer language bubbles up and we speak out in tongues. There we hear Him. There we know, and know that we know.

The Gospel connects directly with our "knower". That's how it works, Spirit to spirit. From that beachhead it renews our minds and permeates our souls. From that beachhead the Gospel imparts life to our physical bodies, to the degree that the renewal of youth is a thoroughly Biblical idea. From our spirits we are borne on the thermals of the Spirit and buoyed in the victory that is ours in Christ. Our born-again spirits, new in nature and indwelt by God, are irrepressible. This is how we live as more than conquerors, not just theoretically, but experientially, irrespective of situation and circumstance. It is through this dynamic of grace and faith that we lay hold of our inheritance as children of God. By the Spirit, and from our spirit, increasingly we enter into the fullness and freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation. Constant exposure to the Good News transforms our lives. Even when our own hearts condemn us, writes John, we are reassured in our union with Him. All by the Spirit, whom He has freely given us.

When you know and when you don't

God is a communicating God, and when He chooses to communicate with us, we hear Him, and know it! Jesus put it this way, "My sheep hear my voice". Nothing ambivalent there at all. We hear His voice. This is true when we are walking in close, conscious fellowship with Him. In times like these it's as if we are basking in a continuous flow of conversation with Him. The with-God-ness of the New Covenant makes this the norm, and is what the Christian life should be. But we also hear His voice when life is not like that at all. We hear Him when we are in turmoil, our minds distracted, and when we don't sense His nearness at all. The dynamics might not be the same, but He is equally able to communicate with us in the bad times and the good. We heard Him when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and we can hear Him now, no matter what.

The point is that there is no need for insecurity when it comes to hearing God. Our full confidence is in His ability to speak, not in our ability to hear. It's the same with all aspects of the New Covenant. It is all by grace and through faith. None of it relies on our own efforts.

This brings us to one of the greatest lessons in practical Christian living imaginable. A seasoned saint put it this way to me many years ago, "Because you know that you know when you know, you also know when you don't know!" Now that might not sound like much, but let's think it through. When we're under orders, the obedience of faith has us doing exactly what we're told to do. We're conscious of living under God. We know that nothing we do is ever apart from Him, but being under orders makes His involvement tangible. On assignment like this, we know exactly what to do, and where, when and how. There is as much detail in the instructions as necessary. Sometimes these include being given the names, birth dates or phone numbers of total strangers. There's no need for second guessing. Faith obeys. It's do first; ask questions later.

But then there are the other times. Times when we're not conscious of being on any specific assignment. This may well be so more often than not. Here there is far more latitude for manoeuvring. It's more a matter of our living with God than under His direction. Our heart attitudes are still as submissive as always, but the dynamic is different. There is place and space for our own initiatives. Guidance is still the Lord's, and is just as clear, but things don't operate in quite the same way. Here we're not obeying instructions, but remain under the government of His peace. All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial. Dead works may beckon, but God's peace keeps us in faith and good works. It was of these times that Paul described God's peace as our internal umpire. He encouraged us to let it govern our actions from within.

Let's draw on two Biblical examples to illustrate. The book of Acts is the best place for us to look, for there we see the believers in action under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, just as we are today. Our first example is the Council of Jerusalem at which important doctrinal conclusions were reached. News was sent to the Gentile believers. The record suggests that the guidance system in operation was the governance of peace. It "seemed good to us" and "seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us". The second example is from Paul's second apostolic journey. Paul and those with him were probing for a way forward. The Spirit forbade travel into Asia. He would also not allow them to go into Bithynia. Suddenly Paul had a vision in the night. In an instant the guidance system changed from in peace to on assignment. Under orders once again, they meandered no more, but obeyed and headed for Macedonia immediately.

A charming little story brilliantly illustrates the difference between these two dynamics. It did the rounds a few years ago. I have no idea where it comes from, or whether it is true or not, but it serves our purposes well either way. A young pastor, zealous to please God in all things, enquired of the Lord as to which tie to wear for the day. "Choose one", came the reply. "I'm your Father, not you mother".

Insecurity in hearing the Lord can be paralysing. Those who discipled me were metronomic in their repeated call to faithful obedience. This is a good thing. "Jesus only did what He first saw the Father doing". "Jesus only said what He first heard His Father saying". They reiterated this tirelessly, underscoring the necessity for obedience again and again. This is sound discipling. Unfortunately I lacked the foundation of grace, and so my obedience was often the striving of self-effort, rather than the obedience of faith. All was well when I was under orders, but it was in those other times that things were difficult thanks to my insecurities. Fearful of disobeying, my default was immobilising anxiety. The sensation was one of my vehicle (life) standing stationary at a red traffic light. Any initiative would be rebellious independence. All I could do was to wait for my next set of instructions, because only on assignment did the signal turn to green. This is an unpleasant way to live for anyone who wants more than anything else to be used of God. The Gospel and grace create the exact opposite dynamic: Now when under orders, I know that I am at a red light (not my will, but yours). The rest of the time the light is green. All I need to do then is ensure that I stay in the place of peace as I exercise my God-given will with great liberty and joy.

New Covenant Information Technology

To conclude, here's a helpful computing analogy. The New Covenant is a well-designed, simple, efficient, effective (in fact, flawless) operating system. Everything is by grace and through faith. Get that clear in your heart and mind, and it really, really works! Page after page through this book, all we're doing is applying these foundational Gospel tenets over and over. It's these same things again and again. God is near. Those who believe are born again, new creations, united and in right standing with Him. Christianity is all about Jesus and what He has done, and not about us. This is the Gospel.

Integral to the New Covenant operating system is that we Christians are no longer fleshy or carnal. We have flesh, but we are spiritual. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. This defines us. It's primary. It consequently also describes us. Because we are of the Spirit, we are also those who follow the Spirit. As a wise friend so aptly put it, "the Incarnate Christ was Emmanuel, God with us. Now the Spirit is Emmanuel, God with us. He is within, never to leave". We are in Christ, and He is in us, and this makes us His disciples. But on a moment by moment basis, it is the Spirit who is leading us. It is He whom we are following as we walk the walk of faith. The Word and the church also have an important place in our lives. But we are not book-led, person-led, or institution-led people. We're not without principles, but our principles do not lead us either. Our obedience is the obedience of faith. It is doing what Jesus, by His Spirit, tells us to do. God speaks, we know it in our knower (spirit), and obey. All else plays a supportive role. WJMD!

More about this in the next chapter.

# Chapter 5

## Led by the Spirit

Christians are led by the Spirit. This defines us. We are no longer of the flesh, but of the Spirit. We are Spirit birthed, Spirit adopted, Spirit-indwelt and Spirit-empowered. Spirit led is who we are.

Watch any Christian. What you'll be watching is someone who is actively being led by the Spirit every step of the way. This will be true of every moment of every day. Sometimes they'll be on assignment, under orders, and receiving specific directions from the Spirit. At other times the governance of His peace will be providing the guidance.

Did you notice the confidence in my assertions? Pick any Christian and this will be true of him. There is no risk whatsoever of being mistaken when making these claims. Of course I cannot guarantee that said Christian will be obeying the Lord. But I can be unequivocal about the Spirit leading him. He may or may not be walking in faith. But he will always be living in grace. Because the New Covenant is inviolable, its benefits are a constant for everyone who is in Christ.

It goes without saying that the best way to live is in the obedience of faith. I mention this qualifier because those who proclaim the Gospel accurately are often accused of condoning sin. This is simply not true. The obedience of faith is where our lives are most meaningful and fruitful. Jesus even described us as those appointed to bear good, abundant, lasting, God-glorifying fruit. That's the objective of grace. And, perhaps even more importantly in this context, the only way possible for that to happen. Law cannot produce life or godliness. It is a ministry of death, and it can only exclude and disqualify. No matter how hard we try, we cannot save ourselves. What Galatians teaches us is that if we keep in step with the Spirit, virtues concomitant with salvation will show up in our lives. Only He can do that in us. It is for this reason that there is hope for everyone. Only God can save, but He can save anyone. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe, from guttermost to uttermost.

Faith is trust

Christians the world over agree that the Lord should be in charge of our lives. He should be leading us. "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done". That's our prayer for sure. No problem there.

But from that point of departure onwards unbelieving religiosity reveals itself in spades. It turns out that many who acknowledge the need for the Holy Spirit's leadership regard it as weak or fragile. It's as if the software in the New Covenant GPS (Global Positioning System) is poorly programmed and bug ridden. Or perhaps it's that the battery is faulty or flat and the whole operating system could fail at any moment. I say this because few Christians seem willing to entrust themselves to the Holy Spirit's guidance. And if you don't trust it yourself, it comes as no surprise that you're unlikely to encourage others to trust it. This mistrust is nothing other than gratuitous unbelief. It's just that we've learnt to disguise it by overlaying it with impressive pseudo-spirituality.

The primary misbelief in this instance is an underlying premise that our vestigial old life (our flesh) is more powerful than our God-given new one. The thinking has its roots in the Old Covenant. Law proved beyond doubt that sinful man is unable to please God. Self-righteousness has always been inadequate, and when confronted with the demands of the Law, could produce only dead works. What is not of faith is sin, and so the perfect Law as given through Moses was rendered weak and useless by the inherent sinfulness of our flesh. That is why something so good and perfect had a ministry so unenviable. All the Law could produce was condemnation and death.

The New Covenant is a totally different matter. The grace released through the substitutionary work of Jesus overrides the sinfulness of those who believe. It does so by uniting us with the death and resurrection of Jesus. This puts the Adamic nature to death, and recreates us perfect in Christ. The Old Covenant failed because it was between a holy God and the sinful sons of Adam, who could not keep its requirements. The New Covenant cannot fail because it is between a holy God and His sinless only begotten Son. The reason Jesus took on human nature was to secure this salvation on our behalf. We are therefore those who have been included as beneficiaries in a covenant the cutting of which we had absolutely nothing to do with. Not of our making, it is extraneous to us and cannot be undermined by our frailty. The New Covenant cannot fail because God cannot fail, and our salvation is infinitely greater than our sinfulness.

Thanks to Jesus the requirements of God's perfect law have been fulfilled in us. We are no longer sinners, but saints. We are birthed of the Spirit and made perfect by the imputation of Christ's perfect righteousness. Our flesh no longer defines or (dis)empowers us in any way. The Christ-life within does both. Were it not for the work of Christ for us and in us, the proposition of leadership by the Spirit would be untenable. If our flesh could not obey the Law, on what basis could we place any confidence in it to obey the Spirit? But we are no longer carnal, but spiritual! We are alive in Christ, recreated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Through the new birth we have been ideally reconstituted for Spirit-led-ness. Our GPS is in fact a Gospel Positioning System, and it is the ultimate in guidance technology. Reading Paul we must conclude that as we follow the Spirit we will tend inadvertently to fulfil the Law. That's not because we must, but because Christ has. As we follow the Spirit, it is His nature that assumes dominance and increasingly controls our lives.

The misbelief we're addressing has many a face. Small God; big flesh. Small God; big devil. Small God; big bad fallen world. This is all wrong thinking. These are all part of unbelief's slippery slope into confused, condemned, defeated Christian living. Fear replaces faith. Inadequacy and expectation of lack supplants confidence and anticipation of supply. Continue in this vein and soon the Spirit of sonship is displaced by an orphan spirit. Skulking behind a defensive shield of false humility and pseudo spirituality, unbelief all too easily perpetuates itself. It undermines the Gospel, neutralises our faith, confuses our identity, undermines our potential and obstructs our mission, opposing us on every front.

If not Spirit led, then what?

The Old Testament saints were at a significant disadvantage compared to us. Fullness (Christ) was yet to come. Jesus Himself made this plain when He taught that the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than John the baptiser. This is not because any of us are better than he was, but because we stand in an altogether superior covenant. Because of the cross, the least of us is to be envied above the best of those who came before. David of old helps us think this through. Firstly, David received from God what his sins deserved. Read the repercussions of the Bathsheba affair. Take a fresh look at the horrific choices Justice presented to David for conducting the census. God was merciful to David, but He punished him severely nonetheless. Justice had to be served because David was under Law. We also note that David knew the Holy Spirit, and that God spoke to Him directly. Nevertheless, his primary guidance came from Law, prophet and priest. That was the nature of things in his day. The sacrifices of old covered over sin, but did not take sin away. We even see from his writings that one of David's greatest fears was that God would abandon him.

How different the New Covenant. Our sins have been removed. We have God's written Word, but we have much more. We have His Living Word, Jesus. We also have the Spirit in fullness, indwelling and empowering, and the guarantee that He will never leave us. Let's be ever so grateful for Bible and church, but let us not foolishly live in an Old Covenant understanding, relying on these in ways reminiscent of David. Ours is a better covenant, and in our covenant, men and women are spiritual people, and Spirit led. Our New Covenant GPS is not still under development. The software is not incomplete, poorly programmed or bug ridden. The system is powered by Life itself; there is no battery to wane or fail. The Holy Spirit will never give erroneous information. He can never become outdated or be confused by change. He is utterly reliable. Let's rely on Him.

Should we leave our GPS (Gospel Positioning System) neglected on the console or dashboard of life, we will inevitably turn elsewhere for guidance. And it's typically to that outdated map book of yesteryear (the Law) or to others (the church) that we turn. All too soon we're no better off in the living than David and the other Old Covenant saints.

A misplaced trinity

Those who follow book ahead of Spirit in effect follow a misplaced trinity. Instead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, theirs is Father, Son and Holy Bible. The result is always the same: Legalism. The Spirit authored the Scriptures through those who wrote, and unless it is He who applies them for us, we will end up under the governance of rules and regulations. Those who do so cannot but live rigid, conflicted, judgemental and condemnation-riddled lives.

We can be sure that the Spirit will never contradict Scripture. We can be equally sure that He will always uphold the Jesus Covenant. He will never take us back under Law, condemn us, or lead us to exchange faith for fear. He will always exalt Jesus and establish us in the unquestionable efficacy of His work. He will always treat us as saints, and will always teach us to treat ourselves and others so also.

Our Bibles are an unparalleled source of information and revelation. Let's love them much and read them often. They help us see and understand the Lord. But they have their limitations. For example, we know from the Scriptures that to marry is a good thing. We even know that a believing husband or wife is the better option. But only by the Spirit can we know which potential spouse to marry. Similarly, we know from the Scriptures that we are always to forgive, no matter what. But it is by the Spirit that we will be empowered to do so. The Scriptures teach us to live at peace with all men, as far as is possible for us to do. But the Spirit is the One to lead us through tricky relational territory. The Gospel is simplicity itself, even if life is not. It is the Spirit who transforms the latter for good by infusing it with the former.

Let's put it this way. Take from you your Bible, and you would be impoverished. Take from you the Spirit, and you would have lost Life itself. The Bible is important, but the Spirit is indispensable.

A priesthood by every other name

My wife preaches about one sermon a month to me. It is normally part of our pillow talk. I'll never forget the one that went something like this. "How dare we? How dare we! The curtain in the temple was torn from top to toe and the Levitical priesthood dismantled. There is now only One mediator between God and man. In Christ we are all priests. We have all received a faith of equal standing, and we all have equal access to God. How dare we put men on platforms and imply that they hear God better than everyone else? How dare we have leaders who tell people how they should live, what they should do, and where they should go? How dare we? The Lord dismantled that inferior priesthood. How dare we resurrect it by every other name? How dare we!"

Great sermon! And more than just a great thought. This is an essential point.

God uses people to heal and deliver. He even uses them to reveal His will and impart His wisdom. The church is not some sort of chaotic free-for-all without order or discipline. Neither is it a giant spineless amoeba sans skeleton or vital organs. It is ingeniously engineered and under the headship of the only perfect King. It is He who appointed apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Holy Spirit appoints the elders and deacons at His behest also. The church is Jesus' bride, and she has embedded in her DNA all that is necessary for her to mature into the most beautiful of women. The end of the Book reveals her so. A glorious bejewelled city of divine design and unsurpassable beauty. No one is advocating for anything haphazard here.

Yet there is absolutely no place for manipulation and control in the church equation. If God never manipulates or controls, why should we? And God, not men, should be in charge. We love one another, receive from one another, and have a heart attitude of submission one to another. These we do while we follow God together. Jesus did not entrust Himself to men because He knew what was in them. The wise do likewise. Love everybody. Trust only God.

An incident from yesteryear sums it up for me nicely. One of our Bible College students preached a devotional series. His theme was Christians as living stones. A Biblical notion that. But unfortunately he developed his theme in line with our belief system at the time. Which, incidentally, was contradictory to the Gospel. His point was that leaders needed to "kill" these living stones by teaching them to "die to self". This was because living stones that were not dead were of no use to leaders. In his experience those who were not dead simply refused to do as they were told. Put them down, and no sooner had you turned your back, and they would wander off. We applauded his message. It articulated our daily struggle in building the church. The story remains humorous, but the misbelief it represents is tragic. The import is that leaders have to bring their congregations under their undisputed control. That is the only way for them to be of use to the leader. To add injury to insult, this approach suggests that people be brought to heel by misrepresenting the Gospel and misusing the Scriptures. May I make the counter suggestion that the only way in which dead stone syndrome can be achieved is by leaders invoking the Law's ministry of death.

We are living stones. Gloriously so. And works of God all. The truth is that God alone can build with these living stones. Truth is that we were never meant to be built together by men in the first place. Local churches are gathered communities, and God is at work in and through them, but the church He is building is a single universal spiritual reality. The local church should never be a place to set aside the vision God has given each of us. We do not exist to resource the leader's vision. There's much more to us than that. Our lives should not be given to achieving someone else's dream, unless the Lord so specifies. Our lives should always be devoted to doing what God has put in our own hearts to do. If He tells us that our place is to serve and strengthen another, well and good. But my strong conviction is that this will not be the norm as ubiquitously portrayed. Collaborative effort should be the norm, and not always under the dictatorship of some visionary leader, or all that often within the confines of the local congregation. Little wonder we're having so much trouble evangelising the globe. We've exchanged Christianity for churchianity. Instead of living fruitful lives we've settled for engineering successful churches. Our world is so much poorer for it. And so are we.

Maps and men default to self

Love your Bible. Embrace it as a plumb line for living and reference it constantly. Surround yourself with those to whom you are significantly and comfortably accountable. The Christian life is designed to be lived in interdependence and wisdom is to be found in a multitude of counsellors. Independence and rebellion are folly. But don't for a moment exchange the leadership of the Spirit for any of these nor surrender your freedoms by conforming to the patterns and persuasions of others. Give generously, but be wary of leaders who make demands. Nothing more than a request is ever legitimate, and a "no" should not be attended by unpleasant consequences. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Neither our legalism nor our leaders should ever impose upon or constrict that.

When coming amongst a people, watch carefully for the symptoms that indicate that the leadership of the Spirit may be a doctrine but not a practice. Keep an eye out for that false Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Bible. Beware of churches in which the people only do what the leaders say, and where the wives only do what their husbands tell them to do. The issue is not the heart attitudes of submission, or deference to one another, but whose will is being done. The members of a congregation should do what God wants, and so should wives. Unless that is actively encouraged and practised, the environment is likely to be one of control to some degree or another. Avoid it at all costs!

Unless we rely on the Spirit's leading, we will rely on something else. And that something will ultimately be self, be it yourself or others. As we've learnt, self-reliance equals dead works, for anything that is not of faith is sin. Relying on anything other than the Spirit undermines faith and reinforces unbelief.

Thank God for your new nature in Christ Jesus. Praise Him for the indwelling Holy Spirit. In the light of these, consider for a moment just how arrogant trusting anything other than Him actually is. "I can't trust the God of heaven and earth to lead me. He is my Lord, my Saviour and my Redeemer, but I'm not so sure about Him as my guide. The Lord is not really my shepherd; He only says He is. So I'll just have to trust the book or the brothers more than I trust Him. After all, they are far better equipped to help me than He is". How farcical! We cloak it in religious gobbledygook. "It's me I don't trust", we say. "It's my flesh that will lead me into trouble." What that screams is, "Small God, big self".

Let's entrust ourselves to the One who loves us and who gave His life for us. He is well able to lead us, despite the frailty of our flesh. Let's walk in His ways, and do so in His way. He is omniscient and omnipotent, and has promised always to do us good. Surely any wise man or woman will trust Him at the helm without question.

Lord, may we be numbered amongst the wise!

# Chapter 6

## Gifts and Callings

There is congruence between gifts and callings. Man and mission match for all believers, just as they did for Jesus. We too have been (re)created in time and space for prepared good works. Each one of us has been sovereignly and purposefully placed to take our place in redemption history. We have been appointed to bear good, lasting, abundant and God-glorifying fruit. Implicit in the analogy is congruence between tree and fruit; between being and doing.

For anyone schooled in a mixture of law and grace, this too is counter-intuitive. Law focuses on inadequacy; Grace revels in the Gospel and its adequacy. Law underscores the sinfulness of our old selves and stumbles over the corruptness of our flesh. While these are an obvious mismatch with our destiny in Christ, the Good News is that the old is gone. Our old natures have been crucified with Christ, and our new selves are just like Him. We still have flesh, but we are no longer of the flesh, or rely on it for anything. Our flesh is no more able to follow the Spirit than it was able to obey the Law of Moses. But we are no longer carnal, but spiritual. We are Spirit born, Spirit indwelt, Spirit led and Spirit empowered. This is precisely what makes it possible for the Gospel to be God's great one-step solution to all of the problems associated with humankind's fallenness. He is making all things new, and it starts with us.

A religious mind set finds this very difficult to embrace. It's all too easy. The objections fly, fast and furious. "Surely this is comfort zone Christianity. There must be more to it than that, and surely we must be responsible for more. What about all those ministries and programmes? They exist because of the shortcomings in the people of God". That's a big thought right there. How many Christian activities would be defunct if we all believed that Christians are born again free and full, already holy, and fit for the will of God? My point exactly! The truth is that Christianity is not about what we should do, but about what He has done. The Good News is that the DNA of the mature is already in the seed. We see this reflected everywhere around us in the natural. The oak is in the acorn. This is the genius of God. We can trust the smallest of seeds, because they are the bearers of fullness. How much more is this true when it comes to spiritual seed. The born again believer is of heaven, born of God, one with Him, and indwelt by Him. The Bible describes us as literal partakers in the divine nature. That is not to say that we are God, but the life we have been given is eternal life. It is Christ's life. The Gospel seed is an incorruptible seed, and its worst case scenario is dormancy.

I'm not suggesting that there is no process of transformation necessary in the life of the believer. Increasing Christlikeness should be evident, showing itself in thought, word and deed. But this transformation is only possible because of the essential nature of the Christian as a result of the new birth. The fundamental transformation was accomplished once for all in the moment the person believed into Jesus. No amount of righteous behaviour can increase his or her righteousness one iota, because perfection in righteousness was a gift to him or her, and is inseparable from their new nature. Their growth is growth into maturity, with the seed moving from germination to fruition.

As with any other seed, good fruit is neither inevitable nor automatic. There is need for nurture. But the all-important issue here is the underlying premise. The premise of the Gospel is freedom and fullness; that everything necessary has already been given. The journey to maturity is thus the most natural of developments imaginable. Even in the most hostile of circumstance, there remain no great obstacles to maturity other than unbelief. Jesus has removed them all. The Christian life is by grace alone, through faith alone, and because of Christ alone. The life within is eternal and abundant, and the water of the Spirit beyond sufficient. The only true obstacle is internal. Earthly wisdom can and will only complicate, dilute, hinder, detract and distract from development. Spiritual wisdom facilitates growth by declaring the work of the cross complete and all-sufficient.

Uncomplicated tools of the trade

Let's not permit our thinking to default into unbelief in any way. In the Gospel we find no need whatsoever for complexity. It is simplicity itself. Even a child can understand. As the Gospel renews our minds we can then interpret pertinent Scriptures on any subject with a New Covenant paradigm. Do so, and progress comes quickly. Herewith then a broad, brief overview of what that might look like as applied to gifts and callings.

Did you know that all Christians are priests and kings? We're a royal priesthood. As priests we have access to both God and men, and as such have the privilege of ministering to both. At its sweetest this involves facilitating reconciliation. As kings we are those who have been given dominion in Jesus' name. That dominion is over demons and disease, wind and waves, and even death. It extends into all spheres of life in which we have been granted stewardship privileges. Let's not be confused by poor thinking regarding some sacred and secular divide. There is no dichotomy between church and marketplace, and the like. The issues informing our dominion are not where and when, but access and authority, reconciliation and rule. We only have one life, with 168 hours in every week. We are priests and kings for all of those hours, wherever we go, whoever we meet and with whatever we are occupied.

All Christians are also anointed. The Incarnate Son was the consummate prototype when it comes to anointing. "Christ" means anointed, and as such was not Jesus' surname, but a defining description of His being and doing. He was and is the Anointed One. The Christ. His anointing was all Holy Spirit. Nothing more, less, or other. And as it was with Him, so it is with us. Though He manifests as wind, water, fire, oil, seal or dove, it is the same Spirit who was within and upon Jesus. Learning to discern His ways helps us to better cooperate with Him as He works, but all anointing is Holy Spirit. Some of us facilitate and flow in anointing more effectively and at noticeably greater intensity than others. But we are all still anointed. We are all spiritual, "of the Spirit" and "by the Spirit" people. Great may be the increase of that which we experience and impart, and may this be for each and every one of us. There is always more to receive, embrace and experience in the infinite goodness of our God.

Calling is an equally straightforward idea. Every believer is called, and every believer's calling is unique. That calling is simply the sum total of all the good works that God has prepared for us to do. Some of these good works are ours and ours alone. Others are team efforts in which we play only a part. No matter, they're all our calling, and all part of the bigger picture of God's redemptive work. Paul was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, and he and everyone else was well aware of it. But he was also called to write half the New Testament. It's most unlikely that this was something that he consciously set out to do, even though he made a great job of it. The point is that no matter whether we are able to articulate our call or not, we are all called nonetheless. Thinking in any other way creates unhelpful class distinctions within the kingdom. This is not in accordance with the Gospel, for we have all received a faith of equal standing. Although we obviously don't all have the same placement, and are not of equal influence in our local church, we do have equal standing in Him. To this end the Lord has granted special honour to the least, exalting the humble, thereby ensuring that honour flows in all directions amongst the people of God, and that no pecking order develops.

Which leaves us with one more big idea to explore, and one which is as easily brought to ground as priests and kings, anointings and callings. We also all have gifts. Scores of books have been written attempting to categorise these. But how do you compare the pianist and the prophet? What is the difference between prophecy (Romans 12:6) and prophecy (I Corinthians 12:10). Many a framework has been proposed, but few suggestions seem really to hit the spot, and this for good reason. Gifts are better understood by acknowledging their giver than by exclusively analysing the nature of the gift itself.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

The first giver of gifts is our Heavenly Father. He is Creator God. It is He who wills, and Son and Spirit align themselves with His decree. His gifts are all of grace, and we have them because we are His creatures. We are the products of His genius. As such we are a unique blend of characteristics, talents, abilities and inclinations. These are part of our make up from the womb onwards. That these come to us through our natural bloodline in no way circumnavigates His involvement. He is the scriptwriter into whose production we were born.

Some develop the Father's gifts more than others do. Some completely neglect theirs through ignorance or sin. Still, these gifts remain His grace extended to our world, and are a blessing to others whenever they function as intended. Some suffer misapplication and abuse. A leader who uses his gift to coordinate a drug cartel squanders his gift. Another who uses his similar gift to govern well uplifts a nation. The latter does so as the goodness of God to this world. This is true, believer or not. The Scriptures make this plain. Every good gift comes from God, and it is He who we are to thank for every good thing.

This is invaluable revelation for those of us who are in Christ. Our natural talents, redeemed and adopted, are there to serve God and others. These gifts are not natural, non-spiritual or ordinary. They are God's grace to us and through us, and were given us for His glory. By using them we glorify Him. Romans 12 and I Peter 4 list these Father-given gifts. Those who do not understand might well refer to the gift of prophecy in this context as intuition or sixth sense. This gift serves well wherever life requires an uncanniness of insight, albeit in ill-defined ways. Redeem this gift and harness it for King and kingdom, and it unlocks great grace as penetrating insight and helpful anticipation follow, rich in the wisdom of God. In a world becoming less and less predictable, gifts like these have the potential to be a great blessing to many.

The second giver of gifts is our Lord Jesus. He is the Head of the church in every sense. He is its source and He is its Master. As such, He appoints some men and women to nurture and mature His body in particular ways. These He equips and appoints as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Ephesians 4). Two analogies help us to understand their function. Both analogies also help us to apply and embrace the authority vested in these gifts in useful ways.

The first analogy is the eunuch the aristocracies of old would appoint to take charge of the harem. Such a eunuch, serving a king, would have authority over the royal wives, always to edify, and never to abuse. Accountable to king Jesus, John the baptiser cast himself in just this role. His pleasure was in yielding to Jesus, the Bridegroom, as soon as He appeared on the scene. Great wisdom is necessary in the application of the analogy, however, because the church is the bride of Christ. We are not just His betrothed. His bride is also not separated from Him. We are with Him even as we await Him. The five-fold ministries are therefore not some kind of New Covenant John the baptiser. They are not Jesus' place holder. We're all in the Lord and we all have the Spirit. These ministries should therefore never regard themselves as being in control, or ever take it upon themselves to get the bride of Christ into shape. One far greater than they is responsible. He, Holy Spirit, is at work. Those who hold Christ's gifts should administer them humbly and with the lightest touch. They too are part of Christ's body, and while carrying considerable authority, remain brothers amongst others. There should never be heavy handedness of any kind.

The second and more modern analogy is that of a trainer or coach of a sports team. This is helpful because the church's works of service belong to the saints. Everybody is on the field of play. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers were not given by Jesus in order to do the stuff, but in order to help others do the stuff. These gifts should therefore not get stuck on display or in demonstration mode, as is often the case. They should work themselves out of a job from the start. Those that are most effective are those able to render themselves redundant and irrelevant. The apostle who is "apostling" best is not the one who is becoming more and more important, but he who is needed and noticed less and less. The same applies to prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. They are all poetry in motion when in action equipping others. Perhaps an even better analogy is that of a playing coach, or perhaps the captain of the side.

Because all receive the Father's grace gifts, and as we shall see, all in Christ qualify for the Spirit's gifts, those who receive the Son's gifts need to walk in great wisdom. Relatively few of the saints receive these. They could easily be exalted above the rest of us, which is not the Lord's intent. Just like all other gifts, these are given for the benefit of others. Appointments are by grace, and so their placement should never be thought of as any sort of reward. Those who carry these mantles are not as much special in the church as Christ's servants to her. Their authority is not for lording it over His people, but for serving them in the goodness of the Gospel. In environments where Law and Grace mix, a great deal of damage can be done by those with authority functioning as over others rather than with and alongside them.

The third and final giver of gifts is the Holy Spirit. He distributes His gifts as He wills, but to anybody and everybody who believes. These are best understood as in the original Greek, as "charismata" or "gracelets". The word used for them is the same one from which we get the term charismatic. These gracelets are Spirit-enablings that allow us to partner with God as He works in the spiritual realm. They are by definition supernatural, and by them Christians of all shapes and sizes, ages and stages, get to join in the working of God beyond the bounds of human ability. By these gracelets we get to speak His genius (tongues, interpretation and prophecy), see situations from His penetrating perspective (wisdom, knowledge and distinguishing between spirits), and channel His power (faith, healing and miracles).

The doorway through which we receive these gifts is Jesus baptising us in the Holy Spirit. That immersion is unapologetically for the impartation of supernatural power. It was to this end that Jesus instructed His followers to remain in Jerusalem until Pentecost. They needed this power to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, as do we. This same baptism remains available to all who are in Christ today. Ask Jesus to baptise you in His Spirit, and when He does you'll know it. You'll experience an unmistakable empowering, and will also be given a prayer language that will greatly enhance your ongoing fellowship with God. What folk are doing when they speak in tongues is using their prayer language. It's nothing weird, but wonderful direct communication, spirit to Spirit.

Unity in diversity

Paul did an excellent job of drawing the threads together in I Corinthians 12 through 14. He began by expounding on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but soon drew the gifts of Father and Son into the discussion as well. He reminded us, as he did in the Romans gift passage, that Christian unity is in diversity. Just as with our own physical bodies, the body of Christ is a spectacular assemblage of bits and pieces. The parts are notably different one from another, even though they are all interdependent. Nothing complicated here. Ears don't walk and noses don't hear, but the body as a whole does both, and much more besides.

Paul wasted little time in moving the discussion onto its all-important foundation. Gifts are not about our giftedness, but about our loving and serving one another. The greater gifts are those that best edify others. It is these gifts that we are to hold in the highest regard and desire most keenly. That is why Paul's incomparable dissertation on love forms the kernel of his teaching on gifts. The bottom line is clear. Get it together with your gifts but lack in love, and you've missed the mark. This is true of all the gifts, of Father, Son and Spirit.

His concluding comments on the administration of gifts in the corporate context are crucial. It's all about intelligibility. This is nothing but logical if our gifts in God exist to serve others. Of what use could they be if those for whom they were given cannot understand the goings on. Let's heed the caution. If we view our gifts as rewards or merits, they will result in posturing and pecking orders. That kind of thing is always anti-Gospel. Remember how opposed Jesus was to the taking of titles or to lording it over one another. It will serve us well to remember that He who has the highest place carries the most hallowed title. Father calls Him Son. And Father calls us sons too. Why accept a demotion from such a lofty exaltation, which is exactly what we do when we take on board religion's ecclesiastical appellations.

And let's always remember: Christianity is not about what we do, or even who we are. It is about who Jesus is, and what He has done. Revel in Him in all things, gifts and callings included, and it will be well with our souls, and well with the church.

# Chapter 7

## When it all goes wrong

Things go wrong! That's life. We all live under the shadow of the fall. Sin and satan are to be found lurking behind all suffering. I'm not suggesting that every hardship is a direct result of some personal misdemeanour. It might've been the fault of the drunk driver coming the other way. The point is that God is not the author of our pain. It's all ultimately thanks to Adam's sin, and to satan's killing, stealing and destroying. Against this backdrop our own sin contributes, as does the sin of others, and all the while the overarching problem compounds as it is exacerbated.

Much more important is the light of the cross. This is what we live by. We are rooted in the perfect, eternal and altogether superior reality of Christ and His redemptive work. We Christians have been anchored into a foundation extraneous to ourselves. The New Covenant is between God the Father and God the Son. Its cutting was facilitated by God the Holy Spirit. Established through their actions, and ratified by Christ's resurrection, it is fully endorsed by the Trinity's witness. Their testimony is inviolable and true. For that reason no Christian can ever be unrighteous again. Our salvation is secure, and we are prisoners of hope. The new birth births the indestructible. Not even the most repulsive debaucheries of our flesh can tarnish it in any way.

The Gospel is responsible for a form of irrepressible optimism. Only true faith can produce this. The believer on his death bed, vital organs shutting down, praises God as Healer without any contradiction in terms. The brokenness of this age has been invaded by the wholeness of the age to come. Future's perfect government is colonising our broken world today. He is doing so, one heart at a time, one situation at a time, one day at a time. Darkness seems to be on the increase, and Scripture's comment on the end of the age confirms that this indeed will be so. Yet the increase of His government and peace will know no end. The New Covenant is a glory to glory arrangement. It was established in eternity past and awaits consummation in eternity future, but it has never been in doubt at any point in between. Things are not as they seem, but things are as they are, and Jesus is Lord!

There is no place for idealism in all of this. That would become a breeding ground for condemnation. Different days, different outcomes. Every funeral is a reminder that the last enemy to be placed underfoot will be death. It is already under Jesus' feet, and soon it will be under ours also. The great cloud of witnesses urges us on. Resurrection awaits them. Glory indescribable together with us. Some of them stumbled and fell. So do some of us. The church of our Lord Jesus is guts and glory, heartaches and hallelujahs, us and Him. That's why it's always better when we do what we can to keep church as all about Him.

When it's all gone wrong

Some lose their way. The reasons are many. The weakness of the flesh. The brokenness of the situation. The ferocity of the enemy's attack. Perhaps all of the above.

Let's go with the worst case scenario. No mediating factors. Pure, arrogant, self-centred, foolish, wanton sin. Remember the younger brother? He declared himself an adult and demanded that his share of the inheritance be paid out. His older sibling watched aghast as land and stock were sold off and a full third of the estate handed over in cash. But the storm in the family was only the beginning. Squall moved to squander and squander to squalor. Back at the homestead the older brother lived bitter as the profligate prodigal worked his way from victory to defeat, wealth to pig pen. We know the story so well. The boy then returning home, whipped by life. The father running out to meet his boy. The celebration; the restoration; the outrageous grace of it all.

But what about the inheritance? The father seems to imply, and rightly so, that all that was left was now the older brother's inheritance. "All that is mine is yours", he reassured him. The outcome for the youngster was still a good one, all things considered. He got his father back, his old room back, and a ring, new shoes, a great jacket, and a welcome home party to boot. He probably even got his brother back over time. But what about his future? What about the land and the stock and the other aspects of the business? These were surely forfeited forever. We could never imagine the father penalising his eldest boy by redrafting his will and redistributing the remaining assets.

Our speculation goes well beyond the boundaries of responsible Biblical interpretation. Parables each teach one big idea, and in this parable it is the love of God. The lesson here is not about sin and its consequences, and so this is not the place to learn about these things. Yet allowing our minds to drift in this way reveals what we do believe about sin and failure. What do we believe about consequences, and particularly those consequences determined by the Lord? We see our Heavenly Father's heart in the parable, but our limited perspective inclines towards fairness also. When all is said and done, we want to see the pie divided equitably. But from God's infinite perspective things look very different. He does not share the same restrictions that earthly fathers do. His is no predetermined piece of real estate; neither does He suffer any financial constraints. The Lord never has to rob Peter to pay Paul. He can always make more pie. Which means, in the economy of God, that loss is never irrecoverable.

The old has gone; the new has come

It seems that Moses allowed divorce for just about any and every reason. The Bible tells us that he did so because the hearts of the people were hard. Yet this undeniable lowlight provides us with a delightful insight into God's future-orientated thinking. Even under the loosest matrimonial legislation imaginable, remarriage to a previous spouse was prohibited (Deuteronomy 21:1-4). The certificate of divorce was a thorough severing, without any possibility of recourse. It protected the dowry, which the innocent party kept. This meant that assets apportioned in the settlement were safe, no matter what transpired in the future. But this irrevocable severance also carried a significant moral undertone. A past marriage was behind, once and for all, which in turn made for security for the current spouse. In effect, no spouse was a second spouse before the law. Every spouse, even a second spouse, was the spouse. Theirs were the full rights and privileges of the marriage covenant. The old had gone; the new had come.

Losing our way can have the "ex" factor. Ex-wife, ex-family, ex-job, ex-ministry. Once back walking with the Lord - and remember that He never leaves us, even though we've wandered off - regrets can dominate living. Folk get consumed by what was; what could have been; what should have been. Past rules present. At this point what needs to be settled is that God's mercies are new every morning. Every day is a new beginning in Christ Jesus. God really can make more pie! There might have been significant loss and much pain, but the plans that God has remain good, and He is well able to action them. There might be every reason for regret, but God! He saves; He redeems; He recoups; He recreates. His grace is overwhelming, and He will overwhelm the overwhelmed. Hope remains, irrepressible.

God only has one will

Mix Law and Grace and you'll likely conclude that God has two wills - a perfect will and a permissive will. Consistent obedience results in walking in the perfect will of God, and being blessed in every way. Lesser obedience results in living in the tolerance of the Lord. There is love and blessing, for God is good, but in measure. Those in His permissive will therefore do not enjoy the full benefits of salvation, as do the spiritual elite who are in His perfect will. This misunderstanding produces unnecessary anxiety at every turn. "Is the girl I'm in love with the perfect will of God for me? Should I accept the promotion, because more money may distract me, and a change of city might even remove me from His perfect will?" How unhelpful, whichever way it is phrased! Let's obey God, all the time, in everything. Let's remember that we can hear Him. He speaks in ways that allow even the deaf to hear. But let's not buckle under the pressure of a poor belief system and live anxious and insecure.

God only has one will, and it is perfect. He only has one will, and we know full well what it is. It is Jesus. When He placed us in Christ, He placed us in the very centre of His will, and is committed to favouring us unconditionally. Sin remains undesirable. We beneficiaries of the New Covenant will still be punished by our sin, but we can never be punished for our sin. Jesus received that punishment on our behalf. That's why the Scriptures teach that all things are lawful for us, even if not beneficial. We need to be mindful about how we live. Of course we do. But in Christ we need not for a moment live as victims. Not of our own sin, nor of the sin of others.

Let's illustrate this with another marriage example. Imagine a godly young woman who marries in faith. Her zealous young husband is appointed as pastor of a student congregation. Soon our gifted young couple is on a meteoric upward trajectory in their denomination. Blessed and a blessing, not too many years on and the family is an inspirational model, the sky the limit. Until he is caught with his hand in the till, and as if that were not enough, with the other arm around another man's wife. It's crash and burn, and in her late thirties our girl finds herself living hand to mouth as a single mom. She is wounded, shamed, bitter and broke, and all through no fault of her own. If she is confused in her thinking, the perfect will of God is now unreachable. Even if it turns out that she somehow married the wrong guy, mister right is also long gone, and with him the hope of being in the perfect will of God ever again.

Fortunately she is not confused. She knows that she is in Christ. Sin and satan have plundered her life, and she and her children are at a low ebb. But this low ebb is not what God has for her. He is the God who makes more pie! The old is gone; it is time for new to come in a fresh way. God has plans for her, for good and not for evil. He is her hope and He has a future for her. Disappointment and bitterness need not overwhelm her. Even if the church neglected or rejected her, she can forgive, for God will help her to forgive others as He has forgiven her. It might take her a while to heal up and bounce back, but she is a new creation in Christ Jesus. She is Spirit born, Spirit indwelt, Spirit led and Spirit empowered. None of this was her fault, and neither was it God's. He has been, is, and will be faithful to her. All God's promises are yes in Him! This is good news, and this is the Good News!

And what of her man? Well, we've spoken to his situation already. He might never get the wife of his youth back. The opportunities of his prime are probably equally irretrievable. But there is as much hope and future in Christ for him as there is for her. And the kids? The goodness of God has a way of seeing people through the worst of times. Our Heavenly Father is not untouched by the things that touch us. The Gospel confidently reveals that the children too can go through life established in Christ's righteousness. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but Christ came that we might have life, and abundant life at that. This Good News is for them as much as for anyone else.

Grace is truly outrageous (in a good way)

Let's use another well-heeled matrimonial analogy to draw this chapter to a close. Imagine a kingdom in which prostitution was pardoned on a particular day by decree of the king. All related criminal records were expunged. The reason was that one of the girls had won the king's heart, and it would be unbecoming for a woman with such a record to become queen. What an opportunity for that girl, from prostitute to queen in a day. How exquisitely this speaks to our journey from sinner to saint, we who were once imprisoned in our transgressions, and are now His bride. The Gospel is, all things considered, a marriage proposal as well.

This story is often used to illustrate the appropriate motivation for holy living. Would our queen, if in her right mind, ever exchange the palace for her old life? Of course not. This well illustrates how the Gospel transforms behaviour. "The perils of prostitution" might be a somewhat fitting address for a prostitute in rehab, even if diatribes like these are of little help to those trapped in sin, but it is not a message best befitting a queen. More appropriate is a reminder of the privileges of royalty. She should be reassured of the king's love and kindness and encouraged by increased exposure to the benefits of marrying into royalty.

Outrageously, though, the Gospel is even better news than this. It includes the rider that even if the queen is unfaithful to her husband, he will remain faithful to her. Should she return to life as a prostitute, she would still be welcomed back at the palace. Unfortunately, not too many pastors tell their congregations this. When we were included in the New Covenant, its benefits became ours unilaterally. That isn't fair, and it doesn't make sense to our natural minds. We also know that a part of us, our flesh, returns like a dog to vomit all too easily. We know that we have the potential to be the queen who hits the streets again for the most convoluted of reasons. So it is that we don't believe the Gospel in its fullness. And in not believing, we also decline the unmitigated deluge of God's outrageous love for us. But this is the Gospel! In fact, should the queen repeatedly return to her life of prostitution, she would be repeatedly welcomed back at the palace. How many times? Seventy times seven, said Jesus.

Please note that I am not suggesting that the local church equates to the palace in our story, or that church discipline should never be invoked. What I am being is emphatic about the Gospel. The local church neither confers nor repudiates salvation. Church discipline is at times a painful necessity. Yet the transforming power of the Gospel rests on this vital fact: A queen can never return to being a prostitute, nor a saint become a sinner once again. If our queen returned to prostitution, she would be a queen engaged in prostitution. Her royalty would not immunise her from disease, disgrace or abuse. The streets would not be any safer for her, just because she happens to be queen. In a worst case scenario, her poor choices would probably hasten her death, along with any number of other consequences. According to the Gospel, even if she died prostituting herself, she would still die a queen, albeit in tragic humiliation. In this Gospel the wisdom of God is revealed. It is a wisdom infinitely superior to ours. It does not prevent queens from indulging in prostitution. It carries no such guarantees. But it turns prostitutes into queens when nothing else can. That is why, proclaimed in fullness and freedom, it will see more queens in residence in the palace than any number of lectures on the perils of prostitution ever can. It is unbelief, not faith, that leads to waywardness.

It is God who does the saving

To the uninitiated, this chapter can be mind bending. Could the grace of God really be this outrageous? But this is only contentious to those confused about exactly who does the saving. Our redemption is not some sort of team effort between us and God. It is something that the Lord has done on our behalf in its entirety. Descendants of Adam are born so sinful that we are unable to contribute towards our own salvation in any way. It's not even as if our own righteousness falls short of God's standards. The Scriptures reveal that our righteousness is so corrupt that it is abhorrent to God, and what can masquerade as pure and holy is as repulsive as excrement or a used menstrual aid to Him.

If it is God who saves, and it is, and if anyone might be saved, and they can, then the blood of Christ is sufficient for the forgiveness of any sin. John, in recognition of Jesus, proclaimed Him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Quantifying that is beyond us, but it points to the superlative efficacy of the blood of Christ. The irony is the ease with which we believe this to be true for those who are yet to come to Christ, yet not so for those in Christ already. We're quick to affirm that Jesus is able to save even the worst of sinners, yet reluctant to assert that the same blood is as powerful for the wayward believer. We somehow think that if we reassure Christians of their justification that we'll unleash a tsunami of sin into the church.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. It's earthly wisdom that says that if you give a finger, they'll take the hand. Godly wisdom says that if in love you give all, and unconditionally so, that love will conquer all. Jesus is the proof of that.

# Chapter 8

##  Moonwalking

"One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Those were Neil Armstrong's iconic words as he stepped onto the surface of the moon in July 1969. More than half a billion people watched on television. Without his literal stepping off the landing module, there would have been no man on the moon. That small step was essential. But that step was just an infinitesimal part of the giant leap.

So it is with our salvation. Even in our believing, we use equipment issued to us as a part of the bigger picture. Using the faith we've been given, ours is an Armstrong shuffle. The giant leap is the Lord's. And in the instant that we take our Armstrong step of faith, we are on the moon as it were, in the centre of the will of God. This is because the will of God is not a set of behaviours or a mission to accomplish. It also has nothing to do with finding God; He found us. The will of God is that place where faith engages grace. It is a place of yielding. It's a place of rest. It's a place in which we remain through no efforts of our own. It is that place where trust in Him abandons us to God. It is our conscious embrace of the Father's unfathomable love and the Son's all-sufficient grace. It happens by the Spirit's power, and is thanks to His leadership. Believing is our only contribution. And while our believing is a definite, essential action, it is much more cooperation than contribution. It is our response to His initiative, and our receiving of His provision. We are saved. We have been saved; are saved; and will be saved. He alone is the Saviour, and He alone does the saving. The success of the mission is Heaven's responsibility, not ours. Redemption is His giant leap. His is the master plan. He is mission control, and He is everything else besides.

We are secure in Christ, having been immersed into Him at the point of our salvation. Nothing changes that. But right believing then enables us to orientate ourselves in Him. We are already in the One who is the perfect will of God, but ongoing faith gives us our bearings in the outworking of it all. Inclusion in Christ docked us with destiny, and continuing faith simply ushers us into that future. Get that straightened out in our thinking and navigating is easy. He leads; we follow. The man in a jail cell can well be in the will of God and know it. That he is in prison is irrelevant, as is whether he is guilty or not. He might have very few options, but that isn't important either. He may even start out spending much of his time tossing and turning on a narrow bunk, estranged from his wife and family, and battling anxiety and depression. None of that is primary. What is of first importance is whether he is convinced that there is a way ahead, and that it is in dependence on Christ. If so, peace will triumph, joy will rise within him, and soon he will be well of soul. Believers are prisoners of hope. His brother, ironically, might not be as well of soul at all. Even if on a platform preaching to multitudes, his brother relies on his own efforts, the state of his inner world will be less enviable than that of his incarcerated sibling. It is a well-documented fact that many in full time ministry are in crisis of soul and floundering under severe duress. This testifies to the truth that spiritual health is not circumstantial. Every Christian is in Christ, but not every Christian is in faith. There is a vital distinction between the two.

Remember that what is not of faith is sin. Everything changed for the prodigal in that moment in which he came to his senses. It just so happened that he was in a pig pen at the time. He also had no idea of how his father would receive him. But these are irrelevant details. All that is relevant is that he came to his senses, arose, and went to his father. Our returning to our Heavenly Father is exactly the same although our journey is not confined to the realm of time and space as in the parable. We come to our senses when we believe, and return to our Father in a heartbeat, knowing by the Gospel how He will respond. Living by faith is not towards or for the will of God, but from it. It is in response to revelation. We are established in His will by confidence in His efforts, trusting them above our own. Living in His will is a gift received, not a goal achieved.

This cannot be overemphasised. Living in the will of God is through faith alone. This was true when we first came to Christ. It is equally true when we return to Him from wilderness or waywardness. At first we came as sinner, and in coming became saint. Any subsequent return is as a saint already, and to recognise afresh that we are in Him. This is not repentance unto salvation, but unto fellowship with God, and to submission and obedience. Faith obeys; unbelief rebels. It's as simple as that. Turn or return, both are Armstrong steps. Both are infinitesimal steps within redemption's giant leap. Any number of painful issues might remain unresolved. These will likely need to be faced in due course, but their outworking is in peace and joy, and from within our secure union with God. There, in the will of God, Holy Spirit is the one who sets the agenda. Holy Spirit dictates the pace. There, in the will of God, it is He who provides the wisdom and strength for the journey, whatever the twists and turns in the trail.

A place called grace

I've loved the Lord all my life. Apparently I asked to be taken to church at preschool age, and this in an unchurched family. Such is the grace of God. Along the way I was educated into a mixture of law and grace. I lived burdened by condemnation, and inflicted it on others. For many years the will of God was illusive. This was because I felt that my daily struggles and failures disqualified me. Now I know that I was in unbelief, and that this cheated me of many of the rich benefits that were mine thanks to God's unmerited favour towards me.

From time to time something extraordinary would happen. I would find myself caught up in the Presence and Glory of God. Sometimes it would happen when I was ministering and at other times when I was receiving ministry. Many times it was when I was on my own. It was also not unusual for it to happen in the middle of the night. Some encounters were brief. Others were for extended periods. A few even straddled significant blocks of time, lingering over days or weeks. Each encounter was unique, but all were intensely God-saturated. In them I felt immersed in Life Itself. How does one describe being enfolded in and infused with glory? Nothing else matters in those times. On one occasion I confided in my wife that I'd rather die than move out of what I was experiencing, such was its effect on me.

The incredible thing is that these encounters never involved condemnation, even when they were significantly corrective or re-directive. Some all but demolished me emotionally. Others left me marvelling at my blindness and ineptitude. But they were always times of unconditional love and unmerited favour. They were always steeped in freedom and fullness. These things I've now come to recognise as characteristic of the Gospel. The rest of life was something of an antithesis. The sensation was one of a journey through dank, dense and hostile jungle. It was as though I was slogging through impenetrable foliage, muscles aching as sweat poured from my furrowed brow. My belief system urged me on. Those who loved God gave Him their best. Jesus sacrificed for us, and loving Him was our sacrifice in return. "All for Jesus", I would soldier on. Then, suddenly, unexpectedly, I would burst into one of these bright clearings of encounter. It was as if they were portals to heaven that would appear and disappear without pattern or warning. I would be swept into them, and then out again, all beyond my control.

No matter how I tried, I could never seem to close the gap between my jungle life and my clearing life. I longed for the clearings; for their glory, their life, their revelation, their affirmation, and at times their sheer respite. I also discovered that I was not the only one living in a jungle without a map to the nearest clearing. In fact, the church proffered any number of maps for those of us who were hungry: prayer, worship, fasting, yielding, faith, giving, serving, retreat, being filled with the Spirit, revival, Word, community, meditation, breakthrough praise, anointing, impartation, mercy, mission and spiritual warfare, et al. I think I tried them all, and quite a few more than once at that. Some seemed more successful than others. Some are still part of my life. But looking back, I must admit that I never found my way into encounter through any of my own efforts. In the final analysis, these encounters always found me.

Today I understand. Our efforts can at best precipitate fading glory. This is the nature of self-effort. Hence the Old Covenant, which also came with glory, at best had a glory that faded. Were this not so, the Lord would in effect be rewarding self-righteousness, which He doesn't. But He is gracious, and He does respond to faith. So it is that our efforts can appear to yield measured results on occasion. I also understand that all God-encounters take place in the same clearing. Each encounter is unique, for our God is infinite, but there is only one portal to encounter. That portal is the work of the cross, as appropriated by the Spirit. It is in a place called grace. That is why it'll never be found by anyone hacking through the jungle of unbelief, no matter how hard they try.

Today I still experience these times of extraordinary encounter. They still find me. They're always in grace and of grace, just as they've always been, and I love them. But it is the whole dynamic of encounter that is so different now. Living is condemnation free. Fellowship with the Lord is deep, rich and constant, His Presence accessible in an entirely different way. I know that He has qualified me to fellowship with Him. No longer is the day-to-day a taxing passage through dense foliage. I live in a spacious place of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This is not because I've found the formula. On the contrary, it's because I now know that no formula exists. It's not because I'm more spiritual than most. It's by grace. And it's through faith. It's a lifestyle of relying on what Jesus did, once for all. I don't live in it perfectly, and life is not always easy. Challenges come and difficulties arise, but the Gospel is a sure foundation. Believing it keeps anyone who does so in the place of consciously receiving its already dispensed benefits. In faith, the next encounter feels imminent. In faith, it is well with my soul. This is all of grace. It is so in the best of times, and it is so in the worst times. His grace is always sufficient. Selah.

Living by faith

Living in the will of God is by grace through faith. The Gospel is God's one step solution to all of life's issues. Grace is the giant leap; faith the Armstrong step. Stepping into the will of God is accomplished by taking a single stride. Grasping this interplay of grace and faith is tantamount to grasping the Gospel. Our Triune Lord is the what, why and how of our salvation. Life in God is the Father's will. Life in God is only accessible thanks to Jesus. Life in God is only possible by the Spirit. Believing is receiving. Believing is living in the good of it all.

The rich young ruler asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Can you see the contradiction in terms in the question? Wages are earned; inheritances are received. Jesus discussed the demands of the Law with him, knowing that only perfection would suffice. The young man walked away sad as Jesus drew his attention to his lack. The price of eternal life was just too high for him. It was unattainable. Fortunately, Jesus was already living the perfect life which the young man couldn't. He then went on to substitute for him as well in receiving what sin deserved. This account reveals so clearly that life in the will of God can never be achieved. It can only be received.

Jesus made the same point by telling us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Do that, He taught, and all else falls into place. Unfortunately so doing is as much beyond us as was perfection beyond that rich young ruler. Only Jesus could do what we cannot, and He fulfilled this injunction on our behalf as well. That is why He also reassured us that giving us the kingdom was the Father's good pleasure. We still get to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness as a priority. But we do so subjectively and imperfectly, which is the best any of us is capable of doing. We do so in Christ, and with Christ in us. The giant leap has been taken on our behalf, putting the kingdom at hand for us. It is no more than a minuscule Armstrong stride away. We can because Jesus did. We will always be able to, no matter what, thanks to Him. Express it any way you like, it will still boil down to the same thing every time. It's all about Jesus and what He has done.

One of the ubiquitous condemnatory clichés of the church is, "If Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all". That much is true, but true objectively. Our universe and everything in it belongs to Him. He is Lord. But that is not what is typically intended by the phrase. It is used to challenge our performance. The import is that if Jesus is not in control of all our lives, He is not in control at all in our lives. This sounds good and spiritual, but it begs the question, "How much is enough?" Can anyone other than Jesus ever claim to have surrendered control in the fullest sense. Paul taught that the greatest sacrifice, even martyrdom, was of little consequence without love. Does that then mean that Jesus is not Lord of anyone who does not love perfectly and obey faultlessly? If so, Jesus is most certainly Lord of none. Challenges like these are not the Gospel, but pure law. Jesus is Lord, but it is not we who make Him so. The Gospel in this parlance declares, "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him". Jesus is Lord, and we receive Him as such. The kingdom is God's gift to us, and we are under His governance by grace. We begin to walk in the good of it when we deem ourselves so. That is faith.

Jesus as the vine is a familiar Biblical metaphor. In it, His Father is the vinedresser, and we the branches. There we have been appointed to bear good, abundant, lasting and God-glorifying fruit. This in no way suggests that the branches are fruit bearing due to their own initiative. They are so because they are in the vine. The vinedresser grafted them in, and it is His ministration that maximises their fruit. To that end their abiding cannot possibly be a fragile on-again off-again arrangement. This is God's farming operation after all. If He went about hacking off branches as some preachers would have us believe, there would hardly be a grape come harvest time. What the Gospel reveals is that Jesus was the branch cut off. He was the Son rejected so that no other branch needs to be removed. The very context of this teaching is important in understanding it. It was the Last Supper. Jesus knew that His disciples would scatter. He was reassuring them, not threatening them. They were in the vine, and would be secure. Great turbulence lay ahead, but they were safe and could be at peace, assured of a fruitful destiny. Fruit bearing is ultimately the vine's responsibility. He was telling them this so that they would believe. Believing is the Armstrong step. Taking it leads to the obedience of faith in the fruitful vineyard of His giant leap.

While on the subject of fruit, this is a perfect opportunity to remind ourselves of what Galatians teaches on the subject. The fruit of the Spirit is indeed His. We are facilitators, but it is Christ within who bears the fruit. This analogy is in perfect parallel with vine and branches. We are Spirit born, Spirit indwelt, Spirit led and Spirit empowered. Faith simply yields to the superiority of Christ's work above our own. It glories in the indwelling Spirit who makes all things possible. He produces in and through us what we could never produce in and of ourselves. He works in keeping with our new life and nature. Ours is the small step of relying on Him. All we do is to keep in step as best we can. His is the lead. We relax into His embrace. The dance is a joy. Fruitfulness flows. And Jesus is the star of the show.

To move to a modern metaphor for a moment. A cell phone is of little use without power. It carries a power source within, and is also dependant on an external source of power to remain charged. No electricity, no phone. Just a useless appliance. Similarly, the unbeliever is a disconnected appliance, as such lifeless, or as per Biblical parlance, perishing. Every believer, then, is a reconnected appliance. Christians are in the Lord, and have the Spirit within. Wrong believing keeps them unproductive because it leaves them treating the power source as unreliable, insufficient, inaccessible or intermittent. These it is not. The bug is in the device's software. Re-programme to spec, and all is fine. That said, one of my great privileges in life is helping folk reset their belief system defaults. The journey is a short one. It all happens internally. The Bible refers to the process as repentance and mind renewal. Because the Lord took the giant leap, we recalibrate in seconds. It takes no longer than the time needed for the penny to drop. The Gospel gives revelation and faith, and as we believe, everything changes. It's a moment of coming to senses, and as we do, of discovering the goodness and glory of God. Christ's work is the defining factor. One small step and sinners become saints, rebels become sons, the selfish become servants, and the wayward or despairing surrender into the obedience of faith.

We all have good works prepared in advance for us to walk in. These are done by grace through faith. Doing them is only a small step away from anyone and everyone. Jesus made this possible, so none of us can boast.

# Chapter 9

## Are we there yet?

Sophisticated computer technology allows for realistic virtual world experience. Watch a bunch of kids gaming and you'll be watching folk living in two worlds at the same time. Living in faith brings us into the same kind of dualism. Our small step of faith was a giant leap of redemption, planting us into a whole new world. Our lives are new, but with vestiges in the old. Heaven's people now, but we still wake up on earth every morning. Defined by the age to come, our daily pilgrimage continues in this present age. We are future people. We are those who are of the not yet, but we're not yet right now.

An important difference between us and the kid on the computer is permanence. The kid lives in the natural world and visits the virtual one. We are eternally in Christ, but continue in the natural. There is no logging on and off again. Switching between the two is not an option. We have no option but to work it out in both.

That said, the spiritual is primary. Christ is Himself a self-contained universe. All things have their source in Jesus, and all things find their fulfilment in Him. He, together with Father and Spirit, were all-encompassing reality before creation ever took place. They will remain as such once life as we know it no longer exists. This natural world and its mortality are temporary. This age will yield to the age to come. That which is will cease to be as it is engulfed in Him. Christian traditions disagree about how this will happen, but all agree that it will. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:15–17).

Although the spiritual is primary, in our overlap of worlds, we easily default to the natural. There we become proficient at expressing spiritual matters in natural terms. Many an eternal spiritual truth even reflects in the natural by God's design. This helps us comprehend the things unseen. Navigating in this way comes easily to us, because the natural world is where we all started out. Taste, touch, see, smell and hear. Nothing wrong with that. Even single minded, wholehearted, consistent in obedience, spiritual giant Paul expressed the spiritual in natural terms. He did so by gift. He was an apostle; a sent one. He did so by people group; his call was to the Gentiles. He even did so geographically; he knew precisely where his field of labour in the Gospel lay. He later described himself as having "fought the good fight, run the race, and kept the faith". Remember that there are no apostles, Gentiles or Roman provinces in heaven. These are all beacons in the natural world, but are meaningless in eternity.

The disadvantage of defaulting to the natural is that it can create an identity crisis. This happens when we slip into thinking that we are who we once were. It can also be a source of condemnation and discouragement. Paul's track record was an impressive one, and he left us a role model to admire and emulate. Unfortunately not too many of us are Pauls. Our records show too many detours, distractions or disasters. A good look at our lives in the natural causes hope to dissipate and faith to dwindle. In the light of where we've been, what kind of future do we really have?

An anecdote from yesteryear helps make the point with a smile. A road had to be blockaded thanks to a sinkhole. A motorist asked the attendant traffic official for alternative directions to his destination. "You can't get there from here", replied the officer. A long philosophical debate ensued. The motorist pointed out that this was where he was. If he couldn't get there from here, then he couldn't get there at all. What the officer had intended to convey was that a detour would be necessary. The motorist would have to go elsewhere first. That's just not what he said. When it comes to the will of God, we can only start where we are. But unfortunately the officer's statement is valid at face value. All things considered, we can't get there from here. What could've been and should've been will never be.

Recalibration

When our children were little and we travelled we'd leave home with every inch of the vehicle jam packed. It would typically be in the early morning. Three drowsy little people would be bunked down on the back seat. Our hope was always that they would go back to sleep, but they seldom did. It was usually a road as long as the day that lay ahead. Just a few minutes into the journey, a little voice would pipe up from the back, "Are we there yet?" I'm sure many a parent will identify with that one.

Quantifying a journey in time or distance is of little use to a toddler. Rather than going round and round unhelpful, "Are we there yets", we'd recalibrate things. The trick was to move the focus from distance to destination, and from hours to highlights. We'd talk about how much fun it was going to be at Grandpa's house. The walks and the games and the rides through the lands on the tractor. Granny's cookies. The snuggling under blankets at the fireplace in the evening. From there we'd throw in the major landmarks between here and there. The large dam we would be driving past. The farm stall and its fresh bread. Windmills and giraffes. Our lunch stop with its milkshake promise. You can see that we're a rather culinary orientated family.

All that we were doing was establishing an alternative approach to charting our course. It was the same journey; it just didn't feel like it. The new map was more heart than head, and with hearts happy and engaged, hours and miles seemed to fly by. In the same way, we can learn to chart our course in spiritual terms, rather than natural ones. The natural is from our perspective. Let's dub that our Paul or Gavin map. The alternative is a Jesus map. The Jesus map is from His perspective. His perspective is obviously the preferred option. Christianity is all about Jesus, and a healthy head is focused on Jesus, period. The Jesus map is a thing of extraordinary beauty. The could'ves and should'ves, and His is, are and will be, are all in perfect sync. They're failure and condemnation free.

His map is redemption's master plan. The cross is a perfect, finished work. That's not to imply that Jesus has nothing to do. Apropos what we're on about, the Father decreed that all things in heaven and earth be united in Him. It's all part and parcel of the atonement. Jesus must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. His map documents all that. The Jesus map is a very big map indeed. It is broad enough to encompass all things. He will yet redeem everything redeemable. Rebel planet earth, and all involved with her, is being brought back into submission to God. The really extraordinary thing is how the Godhead has decided to do this. They're recolonising the planet in love. It's all by grace and through faith. They're not slapping it into shape as it deserves, even though that would have been a much easier option. God's nature and preference dictate that none should perish if possible. They ultimately took this difficult option for our sake. It will make them go the extra mile again and again. The reason they're so committed to doing so is that this allows them to fix things without destroying us. This is all so humbling.

One of the limitless privileges of the New Covenant is this invitation to plot our lives on His map. We get to put our X on redemption's master plan. When we start tracking our lives in that way, what we are doing is eclipsed by what He is doing. Our little tale becomes pleasingly irrelevant. And because we are in Him, we notice that when He moves we are moved. And He never retreats.

Charting our course on the Jesus map is a very practical thing. Let's start with the example of healing. If I chart healing on my Gavin map, the probabilities are that I'll veer off course into unbelief. That might happen through discouragement because the folk I lay hands on stay sick. If not, a similar detour might be precipitated by pride. If many are healed, the temptation will be to conclude that I'm better at this than most other people, and oops! Either way, not a great result. Chart the same events on the Jesus map and I'll stay in faith either way. I'll be rejoicing because Jesus is healing so many people. And because He is healing so many, I won't be able to stop myself laying hands on people. Sooner or later He'll use my hands as His hands as I keep at it. Why stop before that happens.

Another example. Imagine your daily drive takes you past a house ceded to the bank through folly. Or, what if the picture on your desk is of a son from whom you are estranged. Plot these on your Gavin map and you're likely to veer off into discouragement and despair. Conversely, what if your drive to work is from your amazing mansion, or the photo on the desk of your model family? Well, then the ditch of self-righteousness will beckon. But plot either of these on the Jesus map, and the outcome is most likely to be intercession or praise. Matters will find their context in His doings, and not in yours.

Why it works

Progress plotted in the natural has the backdrop of the old, onto which the new is overlaid. Progress plotted on the Jesus map is against a bright future, which is always in the foreground. There they find context in hope, redemption and celebration. This is not some sort of mental game, but mind renewal. I'm not advocating a self-help think-thing, but a God-help faith-thing. Jesus is the source and consummation of everything. All things were made by Him and for Him. This has been hard-wired into our new natures.

Animal migrations in the natural world help us understand. From salmon to swift, examples abound. Scientists are yet to understand fully how it all works. Fish or fowl, mammal or insect, these animals all navigate with pinprick accuracy. They return to spawning grounds, hives or warmer climes, and seem to do so effortlessly. Their proposed navigational aids include sun, sea, barometrics, sounds, smells, and magnetic fields. Perhaps these all play a part in one way or another. Even though we are not sure how they do it, we defer to the genius of the Creator. They are His masterpieces, and embedded into each is the technology needed to get the job done.

In the same way, the Lord has embedded sophisticated homing devices into us. Our Spirit-born Spirit-indwelt new natures are Gospel Positioning Systems pre-programmed with Jesus as destination. Their technology is grace and glory based, which are to one another what heads is to tails on the coin in your pocket. The only way to connect with glory is by grace, and grace is glory extended to the undeserving. It's as if having the Dove within has transformed us all into some kind of homing pigeon. The Presence of God is the loft to which we fly. None of us is home yet. Our pilgrimage is through this age; our destination is the age to come. We're headed for the fullness of Him who is all in all. Deep calls to deep. The Spirit within bears witness even as glory beckons. Now we know in part; then we shall know fully, just as we are fully known. What we have tasted we shall then possess. Death will be under our feet, even as it is already under His. The "It is finished" of the cross will become the "It is done" of the Revelation. Faith shall be sight, No promise will remain unfulfilled. Still en route, faith is now convinced that by grace glory is inevitable and ultimate. This is our hope for He has deemed it so. His love reassures us, and our hearts yearn and burn within us. This is why all Christians have such a persistent yearning for His Presence. It's inbuilt.

The Jesus map delivers us from the dominion of the past. Any homing pigeon can finish strong using it. How far off course we find ourselves when we come to our senses is irrelevant. When our Gospel Positioning System recalibrates, we locate ourselves in Him in the blink of an eye. The Gavin map might show us as irretrievably lost. The Jesus map will always show us to be within redemption's plan. Such is the sufficiency of grace that even when there seems no hope getting home in the natural, there remains every possibility in the Spirit. Some speak, as I have, of our finding ourselves in Him. Others speak of our losing ourselves in Him. We're saying the same thing in different ways. When grace locks into glory, the Spirit within reassures that there is help at hand and good things ahead. In a flash we find ourselves in hope once again.

Someone put it this way: "Find where God is at work, and join in as best you're able". Another encouraged us to ask ourselves the same question God asked Moses: "What is in your hand?" His answer was "a staff". Once put to work in the purposes of God, that staff confounded the magicians of Egypt and parted the Red Sea. The lesson is that ordinary stuff can do amazing things when deployed in the purposes of God. Start anywhere. What matters is that you're Gospel clear. That will orientate you in redemption's bigger picture and get your X clearly marked on the Jesus map. The Life within will set course for Life Itself. From there we move ahead, jettisoning junk, setting in order, and adding meaning as we go. And it all unfolds in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. What's not to love about the New Covenant.

We didn't see that one coming

Worth a mention is something we gleaned in the living out of it all. When we first heard the Good News, it was all joy unspeakable and full of glory. It didn't enter our minds that challenging times might lie ahead. The Gospel was the answer, and we didn't anticipate any of the questions living in it would pose. Looking back I still shake my head. We just didn't see coming what we now understand as all but unavoidable.

Once into the flow of grace, it was as if we spent a few years lurching from crisis to crisis. Righteousness, peace and joy were thankfully a constant. Grace was also always sufficient and more besides. But it did seem as if no area of our lives was untouched. We now know that this was not something random, or a demonic attack, or the result of our own folly in some way or another. It was the Lord taking us through a systematic process of setting things in order. It unfolded little by little, line upon line, and as fast as we were able to cope with it. It largely pivoted around relationships, as life always does. We had been in a mixture of Law and Grace, and that always defaults to legalism. We had been judgemental, manipulative and controlling. As the Lord established us in grace, so we stopped lording it over others. We also stopped others lording it over us. The boundaries we put in place were not always well received. Neither were the reappraisals of expectations always appreciated either. We had changed and were still changing, and the turbulence was considerable, with more than a little dust. Some relationships did not survive.

In the midst of it all, I heard an impactful address. The brother pointed out that we need not allow abusive relationships in our lives. He made his point with a great deal of humour, illustrating it by using the trials and tribulations of an imaginary abused wife. She, with the help of her church friends, did just about anything to see the situation change. They Jericho marched around the double bed. They anointed every door and window of the house with oil. Over time, binding and loosing of every imaginable description took place. Her efforts even included a shofar or two, and a tambourine imported from the Holy Land. She tried everything except confront the abuse; anything but the necessary ultimatum. That brother helped me a great deal.

# Outro

Can it really be that simple? Really?

The answer is a resounding yes! Living in the will of God is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone. It has its genesis in what Jesus has done for us. It is then further precipitated by what He does in us (by the Spirit). When it manifests, it does so as that which He does through us once we're established in it. Most simply put, living in God's will is the New Covenant applied.

Christianity is all about Him, and He is well able. A good tree can only bear good fruit, and He doesn't cultivate bad trees. His seed is indestructible, making good fruit (character) and good works (usefulness) inevitable. He does this for all who believe. The only question is, will we believe?

Right there, grace steps in again. Grace's first gift is faith. Faith in turn is self-conscious. It only has eyes for grace. The woman with the issue of blood helps us here (Mark 5:25-34). She was ceremonially unclean, broke and desperate. But she could see Jesus. Eyes on Grace, she pushed through the crowd. Faith knows that Grace is all that is needed. "Who touched me?" asked Grace. "Power has gone out from me". "I did", said the woman. And when Jesus turned to her, all that He could see was faith.

And that's how it works. The way ahead is always to be found in Jesus.

# # #

Thank you so much for reading this book!

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Every blessing!

Gavin Cox

# Publishing Information

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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

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# Books by Gavin Cox

The Not Confused Series

How to read the Bible and not get confused

Why the Gospel is the Best News Ever

Living in the Will of God

Bringing the Bible to Life Series

Welcome Home

Rahab's Place
