I listened to this again tonight and realise I need to post it afresh! Someone needs to hear this!
this is part four of failure is God’s classroom you know our flesh hates failing we hate failure and failing we imagine that God hates it as well we don’t understand that God looks at things far differently than we do remember Moses he failed didn’t he he thought it was time to step out in his great call of God to lead the people of God and he took things into his own hands killed the Egyptian buried him in the sand and uh then he ran away into the wilderness for 40 years where he learned in the wilderness that he couldn’t do anything he couldn’t even talk properly anymore and so he was a broken man the most humble man the Bible says and that’s how God prepared it 40 years in the wilderness learning what he didn’t learn when he was living in the palace in Egypt and really that’s a story all its own about the western church with our prosperity gospel living in our palaces compared to what people live in in Uganda say in Ginger on the banks of Lake Victoria in Ginger j I N J A They live in mud huts barely the size of my bathroom and yet we live in a house that is 150 square meters which is quite small by Western Australian standards we rent the house we don’t own it but nevertheless we live in a palace and Moses never learned what he needed to learn in order to be the leader of Israel the shepherd of Israel while he lived in the palace of the Pharaohs oh yeah he was very learned in all the teachings of the Egyptians but none of that profited Moses when it came to walking with God all of that had to die and so that initial failure of killing the Egyptian breaking up the fight in the book of Exodus was the beginning of his wilderness wanderings where he wandered in the desert from age 40 to age 80 before he would lead Israel 40 years in their wilderness teaching them the same lessons
and I’ve had the same journey and I guarantee that anyone who well I don’t like to say used by God but that’s what God does that’s what the Lord does because we come in thinking that we can do the job just like Moses Paul the Apostle he gets born again he gets filled with the spirit when Ananias a certain disciple came and laid hands on him and he received his sight again and he was filled with the spirit and then he immediately went into went into uh Damascus and began preaching and it caused quite a stir and the church was scattered because um of his seal going in and preaching the Lord Jesus Christ and then what happened the disciples took Paul took him out of there because they were going to kill him he had to be let down over the wall in a basket secretly to get away and he went away for years into Arabia to be dealt with in the desert so to speak where he would learn the same lesson Moses learned that it’s not by might it’s not by power but it’s by my spirit it’s according to the inner man and not according to all the learning and knowledge you have it’s not according to your genie genealogy in your family background it’s not whether you sat under the great teacher Gamelial or not but God is going to reveal Christ Jesus in you Paul said in Galatians 1 when it pleased the Lord who called me from my mother’s womb to reveal his in me in me when it pleased the Lord you see it’s up to the Lord when he releases a servant of his to preach but the way it is done in the church is “Oh well I think I’ll go to Bible college.” and someone else says “Yes you can speak.” Well why don’t you go to Bible college and become a pastor and so off they go to their Bible college they do their couple of years or whatever their divinities get a few letters behind their names study a whole heap of books and other men’s teachings and then they’re a pastor well they get hands laid on them and ordained and everything but they don’t see any fruit they don’t even have the baptism in the Holy Spirit a lot of them they might become a missionary go overseas and give their life on the mission field and not see a single convert in 20 years or 30 years as is common i’m not saying God doesn’t do anything what I’m saying is perhaps they went out in the zeal of their flesh and not when it pleased the Lord to reveal his son in them and I’m speaking to myself as well this is this is common to all of us and God has to take us out of the picture hide us away in his quiver and cause all the other arrows to rub against us and and keep us confined in a narrow straightened place and he will not release us from that place until the Lord is revealed in us to our inner inner eyes and to our hearts and especially what needs to be revealed to us is that we in and of our own self can’t do nothing we cannot help the church we cannot win souls we cannot heal the sick we cannot teach even a little child anything it’s all of God and we have to thoroughly fail before the Lord will enable us and give us eyes to see to walk in the spirit with him and I’m still learning we’re all still learning so but this is what he does and so the flesh the old nature the old man it hates the spirit of God it doesn’t like God’s ways and it will bristle it will chafe against it it will kick against the goats or the pricks as it was said of Paul when Jesus came to him and so all of our zeal has to die all of our dream and of being a great man or woman of God has to die it all has to die
friend the Lord once showed me it’s like when you when you have wine in a bottle and the wine the new wine is all fizzy and and u in the bottle and the person buys that wine or perhaps the wine maker and he goes and puts it in his cellar in a cool even temperature even humidity he lies that bottle down on a rack in the cellar in the dark and he forgets about it and that’s you and I and the Lord the Lord allows you to sit there for years and years until he is ready until it pleases the Lord to take you out of the wine rack and pour out that wine in the way he wants it poured out and he knows how to brew each bottle he knows how to make each bottle with its own flavor according to each person’s personality and calling so we need to rest like wine on the leaves we need to rest like that wine bottle lying down in the cellar and trust that the Lord is working in us and he will bring us forth as gold the Bible says to use a different metaphor than wine he will bring us forth just as they brought forth the water in those large cisterns to Jesus and he turned it to wine and they said “You’ve saved the best wine until last.” Until last and that’s what the Lord does with us he saved the best wine until last or last we want it to be yesterday and the Lord is in no hurry because he knows he there’s still any bitterness left in that wine he wants it to be sweet he wants it to minister the right message with the right tone the right flavor on the pallet he wants people to be able to receive that wine and not reject it not spit it out because of a bitter taste in that wine Paul spoke about how God called him and said “We are not those who pedal the word of God.” Pedalling the word of God he said “We have despised the hidden things of shame not dealing craftily with the word of God he spoke about people who preach out of selfish
ambition hoping to do him harm in Philippians he said that he said we don’t come with a cloak of covetousness so he speaks about how God dealt with him and refined him in the fire so that there was no longer this zealous brother who was so eager to please God as a Pharisee that he said he was more zealous than all of his contemporaries that he wanted so much to be the best Pharisee no doubt he had his eyes set on being some kind of great sage or rabbi who would write scrolls and teachings like some of the famous rabbis we hear about today that are quoted in the Talmud so uh but God had to deal with Paul and he said “All those things that were gained to me as a Pharisee all of that learning all of his pedigree as a tribe of Benjamin a Benjamite a Hebrew how he was perfect concerning the law.” He said “I count it all as done that I might um find Christ that I might gain Christ.” He said “What was profit to me i counted as dung that I might gain Christ.” So what was profiting him was all of that stuff to do with his old life that was propping up his self story the story that he was telling himself about himself I’m a great preacher i I love God i keep the word perfectly i study the word i I am not afraid of man i this and I that and all of that was profiting him amongst his peers and giving him a great self-story a great resume
they sent people to John the Baptist and said “Who are you tell us who you are.” And he said “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make the crooked places straight.” So John didn’t speak of himself what he his own self story but it had been revealed to him who he was and that’s what he connected his identity with who God said he was i am he hallelujah who goes before the Lord Isaiah chapter 40 John found his identity by the Holy Spirit and that’s who he was well he could have said “I’m a Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin and I’ve got all these credentials and that’s who I am so you should listen to me.” No john wore camel skin and ate locusts and honey and a leather belt he was dealt with by the Lord dealt he knew that he could do nothing of himself but unless God gives a man something he can do nothing that’s what John said so this is the lesson that the flesh does not want to go near it’s called the fire of the Lord the Lord is a consuming fire Hebrews 13 tells us or the last verse I think and this is follows on after Hebrews 12 talking about the father chastening us that we might share in his holiness now holiness is not so much about not doing sins holiness is devotion that we might share in his devotedness that we might be devoted to God the result will be a life without sin for sure but that’s not what God is concerned about he’s concerned about revealing his son in you because it’s only the son of God in you that can withstand the fire and as God brings the fire on our lives in the wilderness and in his dealings preparing us for greater things as that fire comes upon us all that is of the old man and the old mindset uh comes under submission to Jesus and we learn his ways and we learn who we are and we walk according to the inner man hallelujah and it’s an effortless thing because the Lord does it we don’t have to try to be like him but he is revealed in us to us and then through us and this is how the Lord deals with each of us he takes a hold of us when we’re just flesh creatures who think we’re right and fit for the job sufficient for the job and Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2 or 3 or 4 he said “It’s not that we’re sufficient in ourselves to do anything but he has made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant.” And so God will take you brother he’ll He probably already is he’ll take you because I had no idea I was going to preach this that’s the same with every message i have no idea what I’m going to say and he’s speaking to someone through this message certainly speaking to me and he is taking you and shaping you he is making you lie down in green pastures like that bottle of wine he is making you rest he is taking you out of the picture and hiding you in the wilderness he is putting you in the quiver he is sharpening you he is refining you like fine wine on the leaves he is making something good of your life and you are learning to cooperate with him though you have fought against him and resisted him many times and you have stepped out and tried to minister the gospel in your own zeal and the Lord he is patient he is kind and he did things through you for the sake of the ones listening but then back into the refiner’s fire you went and God continued to deal with you as he does with you son because he loves you and yes he does have great plans and purposes for you and yet if he were to show you them the fullness of them you would get too far ahead of him and run off again to try and do it yourself but God has it all in hand he has you in hand and when it pleases the Father to reveal his son in you then you will come forth as shining gold and he will set you on a hill and you will shine brightly for a time and a season because this is what he intends to do with you so rest in it friend rest and rejoice that your father is strong enough to withstand your tantrums to withstand your hissy fits he is strong enough with a strong hand enough to restrain you to restrain the man of sin the son of perdition lest he come forth and he will restrain you so that only the son of God will be seen in and through your life hallelujah god bless
Part 1,2,3 are further down the blog !
