The Ministry Of The Inner Life - Part 2

Not long ago, I was talking to an older Christian lady who has been a Christian for about fifty years. She then told me proudly about a prayer and a deal she made with God. When she finished her story, I did not say a word simply because I did not know what to say. My mind was vacillating between, her stupidity, her stubbornness, and her ignorance that is larger than life. I also felt pity for her and her obvious need to have Jesus come into her heart. Her prayer was exactly the way Oswald Chambers described it. Which means her prayer was pitiful, self-centered with lack of belief in the atonement of Christ and so on.  The prayer she was so proud of, I can sum it up for you in this way “God do this favour to me and I will do this for you” Yet, this was not the worst part. The worst part was when she told me what she wanted to do for God, it was so juvenile, like saying to God, give me a million dollars and I will say thank you to you. She was so proud that her prayer has been heard that I asked myself, where am I supposed to start with this person?

 We would be wrong to ignore what Oswald said in the first paragraph of June 20 devotional and jump into the second paragraph while thinking that it will all work out like by magic, if we learn to pray for our friends.  Here is what Oswald said in the first paragraph: “The fact that I am trying to be right with God is actually a sign that I am rebelling against the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I pray, “Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer— I will walk rightly before You if You will help me.” But I cannot make myself right with God; I cannot make my life perfect. I can only be right with God if I accept the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to surrender all my rights and demands, and cease from every self-effort. I must leave myself completely alone in His hands, and then I can begin to pour my life out in the priestly work of intercession.” Through these words, he is telling us to learn cultivate the inner life before we learn to intercede for others.

As you learn to cultivate the inner life, you have no need to make deals with God anymore because you know His role along with yours. Also, His atonement has magnified in your life in more ways than one. Oswald is also saying that apart from learning to cultivate an inner life you need to change your attitude toward God, you need to change your motive and your reason for doing good deeds and walking with Him.  

He is telling you to learn to humble yourself before Him by understanding first of all your need for Him and who He is, then accept and embrace your new found knowledge in Him and incorporate it all  in your life. Then, lay down your life at His feet. Actually, if you pay close attention to the chapter of the Bible that Oswald based his devotional for June 20, you will find that, Job 42:10 tells you “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.” But, once again, it would be wrong to take verse 10 of Job 42 and run with it by claiming it for your life without putting into context what has happened in Job’s life.

I have to be honest here. When God moved in, to change my life by turning it upside down and inside out, as if it was not enough, He then shattered it into millions of pieces, I read Job and I was strengthened when I read partly  verse 42”10. I kept living with the hope that one day I will be like Job and God will be giving me much of what I have lost. As time went by, this idea or this presumptuous faith was a hindrance in my walk with Him and He had to deal with me because I was stuck. And because it was presumptuous faith, it caused me so much anxiety and I was messing up the waiting process He put me in, to work through me.

But, if you have ever gone through a wilderness time or dark nights with Him, you know for yourself, of all these emotions Job has gone through. One of them was his attitude toward his life and the fact that he felt he was dealt with unfairly. From a human point of view it is true. You also find, that  God broke the silence and finally answered Job’s many questions and it was not at all what Job was expecting but it was sufficient. From chapter 38 to chapter 42 the conversation is between God and Job where God did most of the talking and basically you can sum up God’s answer in few words, “who do you think you are Job?”

Then, you find the beauty in chapter 42. If you take a look at verses 5-6, you will see Job’s response to God “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” After this treacherous time in his life, before he prayed for his friends and before God restored his wealth and everything Job lost, he found out the ministry of the inner life and he could see God with his spiritual eyes. He experienced his creator in a way that he had never before, he found out being His bondservant is awesome, but when you pass from bondservant to friend, it is more awesome than your heart can take.

Look at the awesomeness of knowing God in the inner parts. Job asked for forgiveness and repented in verse 5-6, yet he was still suffering because of his health and with all the losses he incurred in his life. God had not restored things for him yet. But, when you meet with Him face to face, none of it matters. This moment he was experiencing with Him that led him to ask for forgiveness and to repent, meant the world to Job and it was more precious than silver and gold. Of course, God always takes the sweetness of those moments away from us because it would give us an edge and this life would be easy as we would be floating all the time.

Furthermore, during the time of hardship especially when we experience lost beyond measure, it is extremely important to understand that we cannot expect the outcome of our lives to be the same as Job. We can always expect to grow and to be more intimate with Him, but the rest is up to Him. As God dealt with me to help me get rid of my presumptuous faith, I found that I had to come to a point where I was satisfied with Him whether He restores my life back to what it was before or not. As time went by, I learned from the Holy Spirit that sometimes the wealth we received in terms of experiencing Him and the knowledge of Him we accumulate as we walk those dark nights, should be enough to make up for what we lost in terms of materials and health. 

One thing we learn as we learn the ministry of the inner life is that, prayer is a big part of this ministry. Prayer becomes sweet to our soul and you find out that you have lost that narrow mindedness where you concentrate on you all the time. Personally I find when I am praying for everybody else which is every day, it is like I have a constant need to ask daddy for a favour for one of my friends, a family member, someone you see on the street etc. Except, in this relationship, your earthly father could get tired of you coming day in day out but, the oneness in your heavenly relationship with the Father calls for you to keep asking and He simply enjoys that you take it onto you to keep coming with those requests. The ministry of the inner life is indeed a delightful one.

The Outer and Inner Life

The Outer and Inner Life

By J. R. Miller, 1895

In every man there are two men. There is an outer man that people can see; there is an inner man that no human eye can see. The outer man may be hurt, wounded, marred, and even destroyed, while the inner man remains an untouched, unharmed, and immortal. Paul puts it thus: "Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day." He is referring to his own sufferings as a Christian. His body was hurt by scourgings, by stonings, by exposure. It was worn by toil, and by endurance of hunger, of hardship. But these things which scarred his body, leaving marks upon it, making it prematurely old—had no effect on the inner man. His real life was not wounded by persecution. It even grew in strength and beauty as the outer man decayed.

There is quenchless life within our decaying life. The beating heart, the breathing lungs, the wonderful mechanism of the body—do not make up the real life. There is something in us which thinks, feels, imagines, wills, chooses, and loves. The poet lies dead. His hand will write no more. But it was not the poet's body that gave to the world the wonderful thoughts which have so wrought themselves into the world's life. The hand now folded shaped the lines—but the marvelous power which inspired the thoughts in the lines was not in the hand. The hand will soon moulder in the dust—but the poet is immortal. The outward man has perished; but the inner life is beyond the reach of decay, safe in its immortality.

The inner spiritual life of a Christian is not subject to the changes which come upon his outer life. The body suffers; but if one is living in fellowship with Christ, one's spiritual life is untouched by physical sufferings. The normal Christian life is one of constant, unchecked, uninterrupted progress. Unkindly conditions do not stunt it. Misfortunes do not mar it.

The inner growth of a Christian should be continuous. The renewal is said to be "day by day." No day should be without its line. We should count that day lost, which records no victory over some fault or secret sin, no new gain in self discipline, in the culture of some virtue, no enlargement of the power of serving, no added feature of likeness to the Master. "The inward man is renewed day by day."

This does not mean that all days are alike in their gain. There are special dates in every spiritual history which are memorable forever for their special advance—days when decisive battles are fought, when faults are discovered and conquered, when new visions of Christ are granted, when the heart receives a new accession of divine life, when one is led into a new field of service, when a new friend comes into the life, when one takes new responsibilities, or enters into new relations.

Then there are days in every life, when there would seem to be no spiritual advancement. We all have our discouraged days. We have days which are stained by folly, marred by mistakes, blurred and blotted by sin; and these seem to be lost days. There are days when we appear to fail in duty or in self-control, or in struggle with temptation. The inner man would appear to be crippled and hurt in such experiences as these; and the days would seem to be idle and useless, without profit or progress. We come to the evening with sad confessions of failure, and with painful regret and disheartenment. But even such times as these are really gaining times, if we are living near the heart of Christ. We are at least learning our own weakness and frailty, the folly of self-dependence, the feebleness of our own best resolves. Often times our defeats prove our greatest blessings. No doubt many of our richest gains are made on the very days on which we weep most sorely over our mistakes and failures.

Then there are days that are broken by sorrow. The lights go out in our sky, and leave us in darkness. The friends of many years are taken away from us. Prosperity is turned to adversity. Misfortune touches our interests. Our circumstances become painful. Is not the growth of the inner life interrupted by such experiences? Not if we are truly abiding in Christ, and receiving from him the grace he has to give. No doubt many of the best, the divinest blessings of spiritual life come to us on just such days. The photographer takes his sensitive plate into a dark place to develop his picture. Sunlight would mar it. God often draws the curtain upon us—and in the darkness brings out some rare beauty in our life, some delicate feature of his own loveliness.

The teaching of the Scripture is that, whatever the experience of the outer life, the growth and enrichment of the inner life should never be interrupted or hindered. This is the divine purpose for us. Provision is made in the grace of God for this continuous work. We need never be harmed by anything which breaks into our life. Indeed, there is nothing which touches us in any way that may not be made to minister good to us. Woundings of the outer life—may become pearls in the soul. Losses of earthly things may become gains in the spiritual realm. Sickness of the body, may result in new health and increased vigour in the inner man. It is the privilege and the duty of the child of God—to move upward and forward day by day, whatever the day's experience may be.

This is the meaning of the promises of peace which are found so frequently in the Bible. We have no assurance of a life without strife, trial, trouble, earthly pain, and loss; but we are assured that we may have unbroken peace within, while the outer life is thus beset. "In the world you shall have tribulation." "In Me you shall have peace." The blessing of such a life in this world is incalculable. It becomes a source of strength, of shelter, of comfort, of hope, to many other lives.

We can be truest and best blessings to others only when we live victoriously ourselves. We owe it therefore to the needy, sorrowing, tempted world about us, to keep our inner life calm, quiet, strong, restful, and full of sweet love, in whatever outer turbulence of trial or opposition we must live. The only secret is to abide in Christ.

The lesson has a special application to sickness. Sickness is common. Not always does it prove a means of grace. There are some who are not spiritually benefited by it. Yet it is the duty and the privilege of every Christian so to meet the experience of illness or invalidism as ever to grow in it into Christlier character. The secret is a living faith in Christ. Restlessness or distrust will mar the divine work that Christ would do in the heart; but quiet submission to the will of God and peaceful waiting for him will ensure continual renewal of the inner life, even while the outer life is being consumed.

It is well, therefore, that those who are called to endure sickness should learn well how to relate themselves to it, so as not to be harmed by it. Sickness is discouraging. It is not easy for one with life broken, unable longer to run the race with the swift, to keep his spirit glad, cheerful, and wholesome. It is hard not to be able to do the heroic things which the unquenched spirit longs to do. Life seems now to be useless. They appear lost days, in which no worthy service can be done for Christ.

Too often those who are called to invalidism lose out of their heart the hope, the enthusiasm, the zest of living—and become depressed, unhappy, sometimes almost despairing. But this is to fail in true and noble living. When we cannot change our conditions, we must conquer them through the help of Christ. If we are sick, we would better not fret nor chafe. Thereby we shall only make our illness worse, retarding our recovery, while at the same time we shall mar the work of grace going on in our inner life. The captive bird that sits on its perch and sings, is wiser than the bird that flies against the wires of the cage, and tries to get out, only bruising its wings in its unavailing efforts. The sick-room may be made a holy of holies instead of a prison. Then it will be a place of blessing.

The lesson has its application, also, for those who are growing old. Old age ought to be the most beautiful period of a good life. Yet it is not always so. There are elements in the experience of old age which make it hard to keep the inner life ever in a state of renewal. The bodily powers are decaying. The senses are growing dull. It is lonely. There is in memory a record of empty cribs and vacant chairs, of sacred mounds in the cemetery. The work of life has dropped from the hands. It is not easy to keep the joy of living in the heart, in such experiences. Yet that is the problem of true Christian living.

While the outward man decays, the inward man should be renewed day by day. This is possible, too, as many Christian old people have proved. Keeping near the heart of Christ is again, as always, the secret. Faith gives a new meaning to life. It is seen no more in its relation to earth and what is gone—but in its relation to immortality and what is to come. The Christian old man's best days are not behind him—but always before him. He is walking, not toward the end—but toward the beginning. The dissolving of the earthly tabernacle is a pledge that the house not made with hands is almost ready.

The lesson has its application also for death. That seems to be the utter destruction of the outer man. The body returns to the dust whence it came. What of the inner life? It only escapes from the walls and fetters which have confined it on the earth. It is as when one tears a bird's cage apart, and the bird, set free, flies away into the heavens. Death is not misfortune; it is not the breaking up of life; it is growth, development, the passing into a larger phase of life. We need death for life's completing.

"Death is the crown of life;
Were death denied, poor man would live in vain;
Were death denied, to live would not be life;
Were death denied, e'en fools would wish to die.
Death wounds to cure; we fall; we rise; we reign;
Spring from our fetters; hasten to the skies,
Where blooming Eden withers in our sight.
Death gives us more than was in Eden lost;
This king of terrors—is the prince of peace."