Thoughts for the week - 2/14/07

It's Valentine's Day - sorry about that! I am not going to gush all over you with Hallmark greeting cards. In fact, I wanted to share some thoughts with you from our current study we are doing at 737 on Wednesday nights. If you have never studied Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby, you simply have to find the time. It is one of the best studies I've done in my life!

Last week, I discovered that Jesus Christ, Son of God, equal to God, fully man yet fully God, did NOTHING on His own. He only did what He saw His Father do. Let me share some verses with you...

So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.”
~John 7:16

So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
~John 8:28-29

“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”
~John 10:37-38

“For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”
~John 12:49-50

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”
~John 14:10

“…for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.”
~John 17:8

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazerene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know – 23this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”
~Acts 2:22-24

So here we are - all through the book of John, Jesus repeated over and over that He doesn't do anything that He doesn't see God doing. He told the disciples at the beginning of his ministry, in the middle of his ministry and at the very end of his ministry that he does nothing on his own initiative. Then today, I ran across this verse: "But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak..." (John 16:13). It applies to everyone! Even the Holy Spirit waits on God the Father.

God is the initiator. He is the one who does the work. We should never do anything except that which God told us to do. When you are sharing your faith with a friend, classmate, neighbor, whomever, don't be afraid of rejection. They are not rejecting you. You are only doing what you have seen the Father doing. You are only saying what the Father told you to say. It all happens according to His initiative, not our own.

What a great reality - Jesus did nothing on His own initiative. The Holy Spirit did nothing on His own initiative. You and I should do nothing on our own initiative. My prayer for you is that you recognize God at work around you and to obey when He calls you!

Blessings!

Jerry