Don't Worry About How You Mature……..Really?

There is a saying out there so unscriptural, that it gives me great concerns. If I have to sit one more time in front of a pastor who tells his congregation “ don’t worry about how you grow” or “everybody grow at their own pace” or when you worry whether you are growing or not it is because Satan is playing games with you, I am going to pull my hair out!

One leader of the Church I used to go to went as far as telling me that whatever needs to be done right before we die, Christ will put us right before presenting us to God.  For instance, if you die and you are not holy yet, it does not matter what post you occupied in the Church, you simply won’t see God. As I get to know God for myself, I found out there is only a partial truth to this interpretation. I found out the Holy Spirit wants us to worry about how we grow. The Holy Spirit taught me that my spiritual growth is not concerned with my pace but should be the Holy Spirit pace and it is my duty to keep up with Him. Guess what? The Holy Spirit’s interpretation is actually biblical. Our major problem is making God’s word fit our interpretation of Salvation.

As I explained in my book “Apprehended & Apprehending” God does not show us how far the spiritual road we have to travel. As you mature spiritually, you find out, you see as much road your spiritual knowledge of God and your maturity will allow you to see. You walk with Him so much and grow so much that it feels you have reached the end of the road and bang, all of the sudden, in the blink of an eye you realize there is so much more distance to travel. It is as if there was a wall there, now the wall disappears. I come to understand that God is putting us back to the way things used to be with Adam and Eve before the lost their spiritual sight. This work starts right here on earth. The wall that I used to see, I come to understand is the spiritual veil that was imposed on us after the fall.

God had to get me to the end of the wall at least on four occasions until I learned to give up and stop putting my own understanding of spiritual growth forth. Once I stopped doing that, amazingly I came to see the spiritual growth is like travelling on a highway where you can see as far as your eyes would take you. But, if I have let’s say 100 miles to travel, and I can only see a few miles ahead of me, this does not mean it is the end of my journey. I have come to understand as well, how much road is left is not up to me or anyone else to know it. 

Prior to the Holy Spirit teaching me all these things in the wilderness, I was so confident that what my spiritual blindness and ignorance allowed me to see was just that, because I did not know I was spiritually blind. I was ignorant of the fact that the amount of work that has to be done is nothing that our feeble human mind could grasp. Some of you might say well, Paul already compared this life to a race, so I should have known that. I venture to say that even though we repeat those words, the majority of the Church does not know what they truly mean from God’s point of view, unless He explains things to you.

I will go one step further, if indeed we already knew on a spiritual basis what Paul meant when he compared the Christian life to a race, then we would all stampede forward and stop using excuses. The Church would flourish because spiritual growth would be at an all time high. Christians would be truly walking as the light of the world. The truth is, when we don't see with our spiritual eyes, in our human mind, we see a somewhat short distance as if it was not a big deal. We see a journey of ten thousand steps when in reality, through growing with Him, after we travel ten million steps, we find, there is still an infinite amount of steps left to take. It’s not for nothing those who are going forward with Him spiritually see their lives as being apprehended by Him and we keep apprehending as we charge forward with Him.

Part of God helping us to preserve in this walk is to always examine ourselves to see if we are still walking in His will for us. You will find out the more you grow, the more God makes sure you understand that there is so much to be done that you can never measure up. This is to tell you that I am aware of the ugliness that is still in my heart, I am aware of my desperate need for Him and I am aware that I cannot do anything without Him. However, it seems as you walk with Him, you have some sort of regulator within that propels you to check to make sure you are where you need to be. This is the Holy Spirit’s work. I find that if I spend a few weeks without being aware that I am growing at all, I have a need to talk to the Holy Spirit about it.

Understand that I am not talking about outward growth like learning the Bible. It is a given if I you are in the Word all the time, you are going to learn it. However, I need to examine myself to make sure even if I do not feel I am growing spiritually, I am still in His will for me. I am still walking in accordance with His schedule for my life. My routine is that I examine myself to see how long ago I have experienced some sort of spiritual growth. If I find out it has been a while, then I pray to the Holy Spirit to guide me in a better understanding. Sometimes He takes a week or two before letting me know that I am fine and He always gives me a glimpse of things. It’s almost like an unspoken arrangement. Sometimes, I find out that I have sin in my heart that I was not aware of, for various reasons. And sometimes He shows me a full blown picture of how much I have grown.

The moral of the story, it is our job to keep up with Him, not the other way around. Our lack of spiritual growth could be because we are not walking in His will. We are not walking in the Spirit, not abiding and perhaps our hearts are plagued with sin that we have gotten comfortable with. The inward spiritual maturity takes us from the baby stage as we slowly become someone like the apostle Paul, or John, or maybe someone like Spurgeon, or Moody or John Edwards, or Oswald Chambers etc. We come to resemble these people in their knowledge of Him and His Word. I insist on saying inward spiritual maturity because there is a practice out there, as soon as we have some activities under our belts, we have been Christians for a few years and are able to understand few Bible verses whether through our own interpretation or through a little growth, we tend to put ourselves above others and all of the sudden we get ourselves an “apostle” title after our names where we are nowhere near one of them, inwardly.

Ironically, the more you grow spiritually, the more you know God, the more you understand spiritual things, the more you are not interested in those titles. Perhaps because I come from a family that is so vain, so shallow, so caught up in money and status where everything is about displaying the outside beauty, God, through His grace is watching me so closely. In fact, He made clear to me that I have to do His work in the shadows where the glory will be all His. I conquered with Him because I know I am a corrupted being with vanity in my heart. Even though I know Him so well it is easy for vanity to take over and before we know it, we steal His glory as we put the focus on us. 

2 Peter 3:17-18 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

The Opened Sight by Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers devotion for today has a boat load of information, we need for the Christian life. In fact, it is not stretching it if I say we have a lifetime of true Christianity in these few words and could be subject to several posts. One of the reasons I am so excited about this devotion is because it is so close to home. As I have shared with you before, my ministry is directly associated with these people who are in the Church, professed that they are Christians but have never made it to received true Salvation. Hence, my gifts of discernment and wisdom as well as the ability to judge according to the knowledge and leadership of the Holy Spirit in my life. If God felt that I needed these things in order that He can use me, can you imagine what He is able to bestow on those He truly called to occupy leadership and teaching positions in His Church?

Whether you are a pastor, an elder or evangelist, any kind of teaching position that He calls you to, there is no doubt that you will be equipped to see what needs to be seen through wisdom, discernment and more. The job is to open up other people’s eyes to the truth they do not know, to help them walk the walk. Why would He not do it for you first before He sent you? Why would Oswald Chambers able to see all these things and through his writings you can tell they are like natural abilities to him. He was not exceptional, he was just walking the walk.

His devotion today contains some truths that cannot be mere word that comes out of our mouths i.e receiving forgiveness of sin… This brings you face to face with a Holy repentance that you have never known in your life. This repentance could happen the same day you receive Christ in your life, but it could also happened few months down the road. Either way, you have to have the capability to receive this holy gift from Him. Too many people say they have received Christ but go on never knowing what it means to repent. Yet, this repentance is needed to make a 360 degree turn. Failing that, we live as people who are saved in their sins and not from sins. As long as you do not know the difference of what I just said, in your heart and in the quality of your life with God, well, you are not saved yet. Christ did not come to save us in our sins. This is not the real Salvation that He died on the cross for. The irony is that we keep saying salvation is through grace but we do not understand that getting there to the point where we know and compute that we have been saved from sins and we can see the ugliness of it and how and why God is disgusted by it is a MAJOR work of His grace in our lives.

Another truth in this devotion that must be considered very carefully is the fact that Oswald said “when a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God…” Do not take the word knows lightly. This knowing happened with an encounter with the Holy One that brings you to a place where you own that truth. You do not just repeat like a parrot that salvation is by grace, but it is your truth that is in the depth of your identity in Him, so deep within, that no one can take it away from you.

Another major truth in this devotion is that Oswald also said: “their eyes are open, but they have received nothing” this simply put you in the category of the seed that falls where there are rocks, and not much soil.

Another major truth is that even though our job is to open people’s eyes, we cannot do it by ourselves unless the Holy Spirit is allowed to move freely in our lives, with no hindrances to impede His work in others through us. That is a big responsibility that we learn the sacredness of it through being prepared by Him for service. This is where service to God becomes an extension of who you are in Him.

I have to stop in order to keep the length of this post to a reasonable document, but another truth that is devastating the Church is the fact that today’s preachers are not able to recognize which is which and how to deal with the lack of conversion in the pews and the pulpits. Please understand that I know there are some awesome pastor and teachers out there who have been called by God, took His personal training and walk in the Spirit with Him. They are the elite that God referred to in Jeremiah 3:15 “Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding”. These shepherds after God’s own heart did not and will not become such just by taking a few courses in college or university. They are aware that after they are trained by man, they have to go through God’s university and curriculum before they are ready to lead His flock. This makes the difference between leading and leading.

The problem is that we are living in a time where anyone can be a pastor or teacher, because they feel like it or they want to work for God, notice the emphasis is for God not with God. We also have greed; the need for status, insecurities, resources at their disposal, being well connected which was the practice of the Pharisees (blind leading blind) etc. You can understand why they are not equipped to deal with dires strait situations in their congregations that require an abundance of God’s grace.

I can understand that you might be offended by my writings, but do not stop there. Do not make it about you or me. Know that if you stop there and make it about you and me, there is a major problem in your walk that Satan does not want you to know. Examine yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to help you, to get your pride and bondage out of the way so that you can see what needs to be seen and know for sure where you stand with Him. Ask Him to save you, not because you deserve it, but for His glory. Keep praying day in, day out until He answers you. If you truly ask Him with a sincere and open heart, you will be amazed at His response.  

Here is Oswald Chambers devotional

The Opened Sight

01

10

2013

I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . —Acts 26:17-18

This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament.

God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “. . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . .” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people’s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion-only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.

This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “. . . an inheritance among those who are sanctified . . . .” In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God’s ministry to others

This Oswald chamber devotion is the courtesy of http://utmost.org/

Salvation is a Gift from God….Not From Us!

There is a late Christian television show, I do not usually watch it, but once in a while I will check it out hoping it will be that day the host will have a nugget to share. It has not happened yet. A few weeks ago a young man called his show; he was upset with the direction of his life i.e., drugs, women, late parties, lots of personal problems etc. He mentioned he just came home where he is living alone, he was flipping channels and when he saw the show on television he decided to call in too. It is usually infomercials or his show if you do not have a good cable package.

While the caller was going on and on about his problems, the host mumbled something like Christ can take it all away. The caller continued talking, while wallowing in pity as if it was someone else’s fault. There was no awareness of his sinful nature. I have to give the host credit for saying something to the effect that we are all sinners but the caller did not hear him. In the meantime, the host not paying attention that the caller was talking his head off already started to say the sinner's prayer. The pause from the host came when he wanted the caller to repeat after him and the caller was still going on about his problems and loneliness. The host had to interject more than once with those words “I need you to repeat after me” Finally the caller realized the host wanted to say something. Before he even had time to breathe he was repeating the sinner's prayer so badly with a question mark and disappointment in his voice.

It was really bad to watch. The caller did not find what he was looking for, a sympathetic set of ears. So, to wrap it all up the host told the caller that he was now a Christian and he has been sealed with the Holy Spirit and he is now a child of God and can never lose his salvation. It was horrible! This host was satisfied with himself. You could tell he is totally blind to the fact that salvation is a gift from God but not from us. He was clueless to the fact that he jammed his salvation idea down the caller’s throat in less than 2 minutes. It was clear to anyone with an ounce of the Holy Spirit that the caller did not call because he was prepared to receive salvation from God.

The whole thing was sad. The Church is so corrupted with false doctrines and hollow rituals that it is painful to watch how we are destroying ourselves along with other people. We misunderstand the word grace and how it works from God’s viewpoint. We are spiritually ignorant and blind. We think just because the word of God says “call onto me and I will answer thee” this gives us the right to make a mockery out of the Gospel. When we are manipulating people (knowingly or not) to say the sinner's prayer, they are not calling upon God. Beside this verse has many implications that there is more than one sermon written about it. Even when we do not fully understand what we are dealing with, we can call on Him and He will answer. But, we call on Him because we have the desire to call and we are done with idolatry and worshiping false gods. We call on Him to deliver us because we are aware to some extend that He alone and no one else can help us. We call because He has given us some sort of light to see our spiritual need. Etc.

Some say well the Gospel say “believe and you will be saved” It is true the gospel says believe and you will be saved, I know it first hand. But, not when someone else is doing a bad job of believing for you. How convenient, when we quote this verse in Acts 16:31, we completely dismiss the unbelievable job that was done by Him to prepare the jailer for the Gospel. We missed out on the fact that the jailer had acquired a repentant heart because he could see his need for God, and we miss out on the fact that he became aware of his own depravity. This jailer had an encounter with God that was so powerful that he did not care what the Romans would do to Him if they found out he went with the prisoners. He did not even care that he left his post and did not bother about the state of the jail. – Because we miss the work of God in the process, we are not giving Him His glory back. But, then again, it makes sense we cannot see all these things if we are not walking with Him and never have an encounter with Him.

One can only believe when God gets involved and it does not take a genius to see in many cases God is nowhere to be found in our transactions. We are so deep into cheap grace we bestow on ourselves we are sharing it with others with no clue of the abomination of our acts. If we could learn to examine ourselves better, we would learn to deal with our need to bring people to Christ as if we don’t do it, Christ will not find them. Salvation is not a numbers game either. Our job is to make sure we are walking with God so closely and so unhindered that we are there for each one who is ready to accept Him. He alone prepares their hearts for us. How can we not see the difference between our shoddy jobs and the Spirit’s job is beyond me. Yes we do not know the heart, but where He is leading we do not have to worry about anything.

Some of our problems are the fact that we are not even aware that He is not leading. We are living fabricated lives with a man made understanding of righteous living and commitment to His truth. We are not aware that we are not living out His purpose for our lives. We are not aware that we are saturated with our sins, our disobedience and stubbornness and we are not aware of His life in us.  Yet while this life is completely elusive to us, we are happy in our assumptions that we must be okay. We have to get to know Christ a little bit better for ourselves first; we have to learn to walk with Him as our Master, not just as a savior before He can use us to save people through us. If you ever experienced God working unhindered through you to get to other people, you would never do anything in your own power anymore. Furthermore, you would repent for having done so in the past when you did not know Him well enough. The element we are missing out is “Him doing the work through us”

If the Holy Spirit ever showed you what the Word of God means by “being saved by the skin of your teeth” you would first of all shiver and remain speechless for a while. Instantly you would get out of your system, the idea that a shoddy salvation job is better than nothing. And you would make it your goal to stop working for Him and stop living out your own desires, goals and purposes. It is such an abomination to God when we are living out our own wishes and desired goals that we would never take our surrender to His will for our lives, lightly. This is more so for people who put themselves in teaching and leadership positions in the Church, this includes those who built their empires through television.  

If you believe that God called you to be in some sort of teachings or leadership position in the Church, yet, after years and years you are still spiritually blind, this should be an indication that you have moved forward with your own understanding without waiting for Him to make things clearer for you. Sadly, our pride won’t let us accept easily that we have messed up.

May God have mercy on us!

IF YOU HAVE THE TIME, CHECK OUT OSWALD CHAMBERS DEVOTION FOR TODAY

Claim The Christian Life Through His Grace!

Having been part of a Church where I was taught to learn to mimic godly behavior and I was also taught to pray for this Christian life, I could not reconcile what was going on in my life when God decided to move in and suddenly, inwardly, this life had become such a dynamic life. I was conscious of the fact that I had something alive in me; something was new inside of me. If it was not for the incomparable gentleness of the Holy Spirit, I would have been more apprehensive thinking that I was on my way of becoming schizophrenic. I simply could not understand why I was living literally with someone inside me.

It was only after I stumbled on A.W.Tozer book, “The Pursuit of God” that this Christian life made sense to me. Through it, I understood the realness of this life. I also understood, having surrendered my life completely, with no conditions and no reservations, few months back meant that I stopped praying for this life to happen to me. Instead I moved in to claim it through believing so that I could become part of it. Through reading Tozer’s book it felt as if my Christian life thus far was like I was holding onto half a dozen pieces of a puzzle, then someone came and said here is the box with all the other pieces. When I opened the box to put the half a dozen pieces I was holding onto, I found the puzzle was so big with millions of pieces. While the half a dozen pieces I was holding onto were important to complete the puzzle, but I would have never known what this puzzle was about with my few pieces.

You would make a mistake to think that this is no longer Salvation by grace. Because while I was sitting in the pews, learning to put into practice some sort of man made Christianity, I had never heard a sermon on surrendering to God, I had no idea that Christians could surrender to God either. I knew nothing of God, yet He stirred my heart. He provoked something in me that demanded an answer. In fact, I was so far from Him that even His stirring seemed unreal.  What God provoked in me was so faint I was still looking for help to understand, so, I talked to pastors and elders. In every case I was dismissed. Only one of the elder dared to say something and it would have been better not to have said anything at all because the answer I received was to make fun of me with my surrendering idea.

When I share with you how spiritually blinded people in my Church was and how stupid I was, I do not do it because I take pleasure in it. Not that I want to belittle people that I love dearly. I share because it is not about me or them. I top the cake when it comes to stupidity. In fact, when I examine myself and see how deep I was in my stupidity, and how deep the depth of my spiritual darkness was, I cannot help but being grateful that He got hold of me in spite of me. When God delivers us from certain situations, He intends for us to share the blessings. At the end of the day, it is not about me or the ego of the leaders of the Church I used to attend. It is about Him!

Through going with Him and living my life in Him, I have learned, each step I took in surrender, claiming the holy life to make it my own, claiming oneness with Him, learning to be a disciple, beholding the truth, grow in spiritual maturity etc, are all One Blessed  Continuous String of Grace. All the after effect of Salvation that I have received and continue to receive from Him, are the product of the work Christ has done on the cross. I was not aware of them, nor that I knew how to get anyone of these blessings to be inwardly mine. When we say “the old has passed away and behold everything new” this newness of life is deeper than we can possibly imagine and it continues daily throughout our earthly pilgrimage. 

Beloved, at one point, we have to stop praying this life in us, stop hiding behind excuses, stop blaming our leaders, and stop trying to corner God to make Salvation fit into our neat little boxes. I can tell you without a doubt that God will not hold our religions against us. But, He will certainly hold against us the fact that we have not found Him was not His fault but our sins of pride, stubbornness and laziness.  BELIEVE! This is the difference between the first “follow me” Christ said to Peter in Mathew 4:19 and the other “follow Me” in John 21:19. You cannot deny that Peter had become a new man to the point He was given to the Master completely and followed boldly His footsteps with no fear for his own life. He was not perfect, but work in progress.

It is all Salvation by grace through faith. We are saved! We are being saved! We will be saved! Oh! The beauty of it all. – I cannot wait to see Him!

The Law of Surrender!

By A.W. Tozer

The Bible says that we are to present our bodies "as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." Of course, if you give your body, you give everything it contains. That means giving yourself wholly to God, and the idea of giving yourself wholly to God contains three laws. The first law is the law of surrender. If you do not surrender, it will be totally impossible for the Lord to do anything for you. Surgeons have to have the surrender of their patients. If I went to a surgeon and insisted that I was going to tell him how to do the job and not only that but stay awake and resist him, the surgeon could not work. It would be impossible. Surgeons must put their patients to sleep so they cannot resist, so they are in a state of surrender. That is the law of surrender.

A more beautiful and biblical description is the story of the potter and the clay, which illustrates the law of surrender further. The potter has soft, yielding clay, but if the clay does not surrender, the potter cannot do a thing with it. If there are burnt places, hard places or unsurrendered places in the clay, though the potter be a genius in making vessels, the artist still could not make anything useful and beautiful out of an unyielding blob of clay. It is possible for an object to be useful but not beautiful, like a garbage can. It is also entirely possible to be beautiful and not useful, like the lily. The lily has no utilitarian place in the world. It is possible to have a vessel that is useful without being beautiful. 

The old cream crocks in our spring house on the farm were useful all right. You could pour the milk in them, wait for the cream to rise and skim it off. They were not beautiful, but they were quite useful. Everybody has in their home beautiful little knickknacks. They are utterly useless, simply to be enjoyed for their beauty. But God wants His vessels to be both useful and beautiful. If God is going to make those kinds of vessels out of us, however, we are going to have to yield to the law of surrender. Give yourself to God as a living sacrifice and let Him have you--all of you

My Heart Needs Thee, O Lord!

Devotion from George Matheson

My heart needs Thee, O Lord, my heart needs Thee! No part of my being needs Thee like my heart. All else within me can be filled by Thy gifts. My hunger can be satisfied by daily bread. My thirst can be allayed by earthly waters. My cold can be removed by household fires. My weariness can be relieved by outward rest. But no outward thing can make my heart pure. The calmest day will not calm my passions. The fairest scene will not beautify my soul. The richest music will not make harmony within. The breeze can cleanse the air; but no breeze ever cleansed a spirit.

The world has not provided for my heart. It has provided for my eyes; it has provided for my ear; it has provided for my touch; it has provided for my taste; it has provided for my sense of beauty--but it has not provided for my heart. Provide Thou for my heart, O Lord!

It is the only unwinged bird in all creation; give it wings, O Lord! Earth has failed to give it wings; its very power of loving has often dragged it in the mire. Be Thou the strength of my heart. Be Thou its fortress in temptation, its shield in remorse, its covert in the storm, its star in the night, its voice in the solitude! Guide it in its gloom; help it in its heat; direct it in its doubt; calm it in its conflict; fan it in its faintness; prompt it in its perplexity; lead it through its labyrinths; raise it from its ruins! I cannot rule this heart of mine; keep it under the shadow of Thine own wings!

The Life & Power to Follow!

I was reading this devotion today and I realize I ought to include it in today's post for various reasons. If you are a true Christian stucked in a rut never knowing the power of true Christianity, trying to guess whether you are holy or not, wondering why some people seems to talk about things that beyond your understanding. You need to read an Oswald Chambers devotion today with special attention. If you do not feel the Spirit talking to you, then put it aside and keep coming back to it until you are convicted.

The second “follow me” is brutal, it is painful, it is real, it is for all of us Christians and brings power, spirituality, authority and spiritual maturity. In short, it transforms us. It is the narrow gate that separates mediocre Christians strong in lip service and those prepared for heaven’s businesses.

 Once you read it, pray that God would help you see when He brings you to this point of the second follow me through the circumstances in your life, you do not miss out on it. In your prayer ask Him to give you strength and the courage to choose Him inspite of the uncertainties and the pain of choosing to go with Him. Remember, within a few months only Peter was transformed from a man who could not own up to the simple fact that he was his follower before the rooster crowed three times (Mark 14:66-72) to a man with boldness and with no fear for his life after Christ ascended into heaven.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others around you!

In His Agape love,

M.J Andre

The Life of Power to Follow

Jan

05

2013

Jesus answered him, ’Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward’ —John 13:36

“And when He had spoken this, He said to him, ’Follow Me’ ” (John 21:19). Three years earlier Jesus had said, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19), and Peter followed with no hesitation. The irresistible attraction of Jesus was upon him and he did not need the Holy Spirit to help him do it. Later he came to the place where he denied Jesus, and his heart broke. Then he received the Holy Spirit and Jesus said again, “Follow Me” (John 21:19). Now no one is in front of Peter except the Lord Jesus Christ. The first “Follow Me” was nothing mysterious; it was an external following. Jesus is now asking for an internal sacrifice and yielding (see John 21:18).

Between these two times Peter denied Jesus with oaths and curses (see Matthew 26:69-75). But then he came completely to the end of himself and all of his self-sufficiency. There was no part of himself he would ever rely on again. In his state of destitution, he was finally ready to receive all that the risen Lord had for him. “. . . He breathed on them, and said to them, ’Receive the Holy Spirit’ ” (John 20:22). No matter what changes God has performed in you, never rely on them. Build only on a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit He gives.

All our promises and resolutions end in denial because we have no power to accomplish them. When we come to the end of ourselves, not just mentally but completely, we are able to “receive the Holy Spirit.” “Receive the Holy Spirit “— the idea is that of invasion. There is now only One who directs the course of your life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Courtesy of http://utmost.org/