Your Father Knows What You Have Need Of - Cathy Morris

 Your Father Knows What You Have Need Of

“For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things” Luke 12:30

We have already been given all that we need…. it is up to us to believe and appropriate it. Quoting from – 'The Blessing of Abraham' by B. Keith Chadwell,

“So, Jesus was really teaching the disciples, who had asked him to increase their faith… that doing “those things which are commanded you was the real lesson to be learned. Jesus was teaching that becoming a faithful servant, an obedient servant, was needful for them... not for Him to increase their faith.” !!!!!!! [exclamation points mine].

The 'it' we need to appropriate, is to believe that Christ is in us, as a reality, and live accordingly.  No longer waiting for 'some day.'  No longer trying to 'imagine' what would Jesus do.  We can become so ensnared in our thoughts, that we become paralyzed.  On one hand we want to be used by God, but when we try to anticipate the how and when, we can inadvertently but very effectively block the spirit within, making us ineffectual.

For me at least, all of my dealings of late have been centered around the 'renewing of our minds'… and I have been really brought down to the very basics.  For years, in vain, I struggled in my own strength and by an act of my own will, to 'bring every thought into subjection' as we are commanded.  I am learning that even our best intentions are still 'flesh'… that our will is incapable of doing the work that belongs wholly to the 'Holy Spirit'.  I think our carnal reasoning equates 'faith' with 'will'… we think if we repeatedly tell ourselves 'I believe'… that it will make it so.  That our confession, if we confess it enough times, will somehow bring about the desired transformation.  

I went back and looked at a short article posted last August, 'Vessels Unto the Lord.'  This share from Sparks is one that we are all in agreement with. 

“I believe and feel most strongly and intensely that what the Lord is after, what the Lord needs, what the Lord is seeking to possess Himself of is a vessel in such relationship to Himself and His throne in the heavens, as will bring that throne and that heavenly dominion and authority very mightily to bear upon the whole spiritual system of His enemy…..

the one thing the Lord puts right at the commencement, which He seeks to bring us to recognize, which He labours in our experience, and seeks continuously to drive home to us, is that the very commencement of our relationship to the heavenlies as a vessel of the testimony of Jesus pre-supposes that we have left a history behind, closed; the history of the old creation, the "old man." That nature is set aside, the natural man is put out, whether he be a good natural man, as men would call him, or a bad natural man; a religious natural man or an irreligious natural man.

May the Lord bring this home to us and apply it in the way in which it needs to be applied to us individually and respectively, and give us grace that we will not allow any kind of association with that which gives the enemy the occasion for destroying the testimony and putting the vessel out of action. May our life continually be wholly hid with Christ in God.”[end quote]

God is working in us, individually and corporately.  The best that we can do is to accept the people and things in our life, right now, right where we are, by faith believing that there is a greater purpose in them than we can understand at the moment.  If we believe that we are His children; His workmanship; that we are on the 'Potters Wheel', being molded and shaped into vessels fit for the Master's use, then we have to accept where we are.  I say this, because for the most part, we don't like where we are, and would 'like' for it to change, in many, many ways.  I was so struck by the statement I read somewhere; that God is the God of NOW!  He is teaching us to lay down our wants, desires, and expectations; of ourselves and of others; depending solely upon HIM.  The situations that arise in our daily lives are ample demonstration that 'we' cannot effect lasting, life-changing, change on our own.  We may be able to put on an outward show to some extent, but our hearts are not in it.  And it is in our heart where Father is operating.  Only HE can change our innermost responses.  I don't know about you all, but I have been made painfully aware of how many times, in any given situation, "I" has risen up in all its despicable, repugnant glory; defending, justifying, judging, criticizing, and how seldom "I" is capable of being humble, and walking in love.  It seems that hourly, "I" is being stripped naked and exposed for all its shallowness of heart.  It is totally humbling to recognize how subtly our thoughts can see only 'good' in ourselves, and our motivations, while turning a blind eye to the fact that our very 'best' is still self-serving.  Left to our own devices, we are indeed most wretched and hopeless.  Thank God, that we do not have to forever 'lean to our own understanding.'  When we finally get fed-up enough with ourselves, we can lay it down at His feet, 'casting all of our cares upon Him,' and stop worrying about what to say or do, and just REST, confident that He has it all under control, no matter how chaotic is looks or feels.  Which is what He's been patiently waiting for us to do all along.

To me, this is faith.  Believing that His faithfulness is immoveable, and is in no way dependent upon my acceptance or rejection of it.  It stands alone, unshakeable.  It is up to me, whether or not I will exercise it; practice what I say I believe.  And lo and behold, in the process, I am discovering a steady change in the focus of my thinking.  My perspective is being altered.  I want to see others from HIS perspective, not mine.  Mine is worthless.  I no longer want to speak what seems like a good thing to say in a situation; even if remaining silent makes me look stupid or uncaring.  So what?  He is the Great Physician, and when words spoken are from His Spirit instead of my flesh, that is when they will have worth and make all the difference.

We are admonished to 'work out our own salvation, with fear and trembling'... and it is in and through our daily life experiences that this happens.  I had never before realized how carnal my perspectives were, until He started showing me another way to view things.  I see things as they appear in this reality, while God's point of view is quite different.  Of late it has come to me many times, I feel like Elijah's servant must have felt, looking at the host arrayed against them… I daily need to have my eyes opened... to see from God's perspective, from the viewpoint of the Spirit.  

And speaking of God's perspective, have you ever thought about how Paul was there at the stoning of Stephen? (before his encounter with the risen Christ). God had a purpose in it all, and His purpose is far greater than any one individual. He sees the big picture, while we see through a veil dimly. Stephen preached an anointed sermon under the unction of the Holy Spirit, and was stoned for it. Now our flesh sees that as an awful thing to suffer, and we hope never to have to face anything like that. That is a normal, carnal reaction. Our flesh wants to reap the rewards given to those of whom it is said, “Blessed are ye” (Luke 6:22)... but it does not want to actually experience the rest of the verse... “when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.” Our flesh wants to be liked, to be seen as wise, admired, respected. Suffering is contrary to everything natural in us.

I can imagine how difficult it must have been for the believers who undoubtedly were present and witnessed Stephen's death, as well as Saul's approval of it, when Saul later came amongst them as Paul, a 'changed' man... how hard it must have been for them to trust and receive him as a brother in the Lord? It has been painfully brought to my attention, that this is not so far removed from us as we might assume. How do we receive brothers and sisters in Christ? Especially if they have a different perspective than ours? Or are in a different place than we are? If they have a different vision; or don't speak the same language we do?

There is good reason why we can have no dependence upon our flesh; Because our flesh will always give us convincing, irrefutable evidence why we should believe contrary to the Spirit.  'After all, everyone knows (whatever).'

“For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9)... This includes ALL of our thoughts, and ALL of our ways, ALL of the time. What we may 'see' as being righteous, God may see as being a whited sepulcher. I become a whited sepulcher, full of dead mens bones, when I try to 'clean up my own act.' And if I think I have made myself a better person by my own striving, I am deceiving myself.

We all have a history that we are dragging along with us. For some of us, that history is pretty sordid. We cannot go back in time and change the past, nor can we jump ahead and instantly be anything more than we are at any given moment in time. It is what we are doing with the now we are in that matters. Accumulating religious/spiritual knowledge is useless to us and everyone we meet, if we cannot practically apply it in our daily lives. We are not called to say or do what we think needs to be said or done. We are called to be vessels, just as Stephen was, to speak what the Spirit wants said; nothing more, nothing less, with no thought given to what repercussions might come from doing so. We can only do this when we are in the relationship in God that He is calling us to. He is driving home the lessons we need to learn in order to be... “a vessel in such relationship to Himself and His throne in the heavens, as will bring that throne and that heavenly dominion and authority very mightily to bear upon the whole spiritual system of His enemy”. Everything that we suffer, everything that happens in our sometimes mundane daily lives, happens for a purpose. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” Phil 3:10. Our 'old man' has to die; our mind has to be renewed, no longer thinking our own thoughts, or doing our own thing.

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” Phil. 3:13-14.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” 1 John 3:2.

Strong's concordance for appear:

1) expose to view, make manifest, to show one's self, appear
e) to become known, to be plainly recognized, thoroughly understood
1) who and what one is

May we continue to exhort and encourage one another, vessel to vessel, to keep reaching forth and pressing in. May our eyes be opened to see HIM as HE IS... “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ” Phil. 1:6.

Amen & Amen

Cathy Morris 

Recommended reading:
The Rules and Regulations Kill; Only
Christ's Spirit Brings Life and Righteousness