Want and Willing

The difference between the word "want" and "willing" must be secured in our souls so that we might see ourselves in light of what the Spirit is teaching. How many of us would say that we do not "want" to walk in the Spirit? But the greater question is how many of us are "willing" to walk in the Spirit in light of how that will radically change our carnal walks.

Just as Adam and Eve in the garden desired to be their own gods, thus rejecting the rule of God in disobedience to His only direct command, we too love being our own gods. Walking in the Spirit is an outright surrender to the rule and reign of God and a simultaneous giving up of every right that we have in ruling our own lives. The ironic thing is that we really do not have any rights apart from a Sovereign God and need Him for even our most base existence.

Jesus taught that it was impossible for us to serve two masters and the life of the carnal man is a picture of this struggle. As much as I would like to go on with this post I think I will end it today and pick it up tomorrow...but I will allow Oswald Chambers to so eloquently and succinctly state the point I am attempting to get across.

Feb 6 - Are you ready to be poured out as an offering 2Tim 4:6 - Are you ready to be poured out as an offering? It is an act of your will, not your emotions. Tell God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consequences as they come, without any complaints, in spite of what God may send your way. God sends you through a crisis in private, where no other person can help you. From the outside your life may appear to be the same, but the difference is taking place in your will. Once you have experienced the crisis in your will, you will take no thought of the cost when it begins to affect you externally. If you don’t deal with God on the level of your will first, the result will be only to arouse sympathy for yourself.

"Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar" ( Psalm 118:27 ). You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents-burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose-the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But you don’t eliminate it, God does. You "bind the sacrifice . . . to the horns of the altar" and see to it that you don’t wallow in self-pity once the fire begins. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble or depress you. When another crisis arises, you will realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What fire lies ahead in your life?

Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.