Essential Readings for A Godly Living

II. A Day to be Remembered

It is truly a blessing to enter the promised land. "There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you...shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you." (Deut. 12: 7) God's continuous presence is experienced in His promised Sabbath-rest.

In the land, everyone has sacrificed their self-life to be an instrument of the Lord's life and work. And by taking this path of the cross, these children of God are enabled to enter into the good, pleasing and perfect will of their Father. (Rom. 12: 1-2) Everything you do will be a sheer delight! The whole of your activity under the control and power of the Holy Spirit will be bathed in joy!

"You are not to do as we do here today, everyone as he sees fit..." (Deut. 12: 8) That is what they were doing in the wilderness! Every one of God's called out people were still doing whatever was right in their own eyes. There was no sense of the absolute sovereignty of God - His absolute right to control their every step in life. Remember, man was never given the right to direct his own life as an independent god. "I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps." (Jer. 10: 23)

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2: 10)

The flesh-life is still alive and active in the desert wilderness. And so the people continued to do what was right in their own eyes. Even though this conduct was controlled by their own sincere beliefs, and even though it often included a service and worship to God, this life continued to be prompted by the carnal nature, which inevitably promotes its own plans to gain its own praise and glory.

We can easily recognize this carnal nature because it will continue to be "worried and upset about many things." (Luke 10: 41) When we are living by human effort, according to our own will, the flesh will have much to become worried and upset about. Even God interferes with the plans of the flesh.

A man living by his own strength in the wilderness, even though prompted by sincere motives to serve God, is subject to certain patterns of conduct that rise up from the fallen flesh-life. As long as you remain a self-seeker and feed your fleshly lusts {desires} and your pride, the devil will continue to influence your life.

For example, James describes "envy" and "self-seeking" as common traits that will rise out of Satan's work in this world. It comes from the "spirit of the world" (1 Cor. 2: 12) - "This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual{not spiritual}, demonic {of the devil}. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there." (James 3: 15-16) All self-righteous anger, bitterness and fighting flows out of this active work of the flesh, whether it's between nations, among families or in the church.

So, if your eyes are still enviously looking at what others are doing; or if your life is still centered around your own ambitions, including how you will serve the Lord; or if you still find yourself worried and upset about things, including when someone or something interferes with your plans - then you can know that you are still living under the control of the flesh-life in the desert wilderness. There will be no rest for your soul while you continue to live by human effort, as you see fit, in the desert wilderness.

In contrast, a man who has entered the promised Sabbath-rest of God through a supernatural circumcision of the flesh-life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and has thereby begun to participate with Christ in His divine nature, is set free from the power of Satan. The spiritual Christian receives "the mind of Christ." (1 Cor. 2: 16) The Lord, who becomes our life, provides us with His own humble and submissive nature.