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Impartation
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Missionary / evangelist esther thornton, oregon
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“Responding”
- Not Reacting To Testing
The book of James
deals with tests and trials. We’re going to look at “Life Lessons from James”.
James deals with tests, trials, infirmities, and afflictions. James deals with
these things because that is the kind of church that he had; that’s the kind of
culture they were living in. They had been pressed in with an enormous amount
of pressure, persecution, unjust treatment by the hands of people; and by the
hands of the government. The book of James deals with practical Christianity
when you are under pressure - on how to respond to that and not to react to it.
James 1:1-5
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes
which are scattered abroad, greeting. [2] My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall
into divers temptations; [3] Knowing this, that
the trying of your faith worketh patience. [4] But let patience have her perfect work, that
ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. [5] If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be
given him. Verse 5 about asking God for wisdom can be used in a general way,
but in this portion James is speaking about trials and misunderstandings.
When we are going
through testing, we have the opportunity to react; to respond; to question. We
have the opportunity to discern - “Where is this trial coming from - God, the
devil, or me. Have I brought in upon myself? Is this a sowing and reaping
thing? Have I actually sinned? Is this chastisement? Have I done something to
provoke God? Have I done something to bring forth the wrath of God (which
really is not meant for Christians)? Is this a generational reaping of
judgment? - A generational curse; problem. Did God allow it; permit it; send it
or use it? What should I do about it? Should I get into a warrior stance and
resist the devil, and fast and pray and fight the good fight of faith? Or,
should I humbly commit myself to the heavy hand of God. Should I humble myself;
should I fight; should I fast; should I pray; should I simply stand my ground
and resist this attack?” Some Christians do all of the above when they run into
any trial. Some say everything is from the devil. To others they say that
everything is from God. Some just say, “It is me; I am the problem.” And, then
condemnation comes in and other things.
James is a pastor
dealing with real people, in a real world, under real pressure - who have come
up with some wrong solutions to their problems. He is saying that they should
know that this trial is producing something in them - They’ve got to know that.
One thing people have done is to apply what other people say in their trials
and many times it doesn’t work. There are times, when you are going through a
fiery trial, that the wisdom that someone else has learned, will not be
sufficient to strengthen you in that trial. Counsel will not be the answer in
that situation but wisdom as to how God is dealing with you. He will deal with
each of you in a marriage at times, or He will deal with you together. He may
be dealing with a flaw that you have ignored for a long time. Or God is
allowing you to go through some things as He knows the future and may want to
use you in a situation that you must be prepared for. Only God knows the
future. We can prophesy in part, but only God numbers our days; knows every
step that we take; and knows where we are going fully. So, God creatively puts
together tests that will help and strengthen me; even though at times I feel
that it is weakening me. When my weakness is exposed, I can be embarrassed; I
can be reactionary; but Jesus said that it is not for our embarrassment, but
for our growth - to save us from some things that are coming our way that we
know nothing about.
Everything in my life
as a believer under the heavy hand of God is for the divine, sovereign will of
God in my life. I’m walking in the will of God so things begin to shape my
life. We need to respond in joyful expectation because we are God’s possession
and He is control at all times. No trial can come without God’s permission. The
devil is not bigger or smarter than my God. And, because I am in God’s hand, I
can embrace life differently than one who isn’t in his hand. No trial will
reach me without God’s specific permission. Even if people mean it for evil;
God will mean it for good.
I must respond with a
faith attitude. The flesh will not like trials, but the spirit will begin to
embrace the will of God because of growth - not because it makes me happy - but
because it makes me pure. We must consider it as a work of God in our lives.
We’re not talking about the things the devil does that we need to refute and
that is what we do with them. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you”. The
things of Satan have to move. But, the things that God is allowing will stay.
Paul prayed three
times and it did not move but it stayed. Commentators say all kinds of things
about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh“. Some say it was blindness; some say a
demonic oppression.
In our case, it could
be an unsaved husband or wife who is a drunkard or someone who is oppressive
spiritually. What do you do? Other than legal protection, there is also a side
of our lives that allow God to work with what we would never choose for Him to
work on in us. I don’t pick the people to irritate me. I don‘t say, “Lord, I
want to be with these people who irritate me; talk about me; and take advantage
of me. Maybe I call for a burnt offering to consume them! (No, I really don’t!)
Responding with a
supernatural joy has to be something that is beyond the natural. Trials become
the basis for a release of joy. How can people dance before the Lord or rejoice
when they have just been going through trials? They have chosen to have an
attitude toward the trial that works in them with an attitude of joy.
Responding with a
mature perspective - When I face trials, crises, fire, unjust and unfair
situations - I have to KNOW that God is going to use it for my good. Joseph was
under trial for thirteen years, but there came a time when God used all of
that.
Romans 5:3-4
And not only so, but
we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; [4]
And patience, experience; and experience, hope: We also rejoice in suffering
because we KNOW that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance produces
character; and character produces hope. You want character? You must love
trials. Do you want patience? You must embrace the suffering side of the cross
and of life. James talks about knowledge of personal experience which enables
the trials for deepening my character. Why do I rejoice? Because I see the end
results.
At one time in my
life I was so hungry for God and God gave me this verse:“That I may know him
and the power of his resurrection, being made conformable to his death.” I went
through a number of trials after that time but remembered this verse - that I
might be willing to be conformable to his death.
Requesting godly
insight and wisdom:
James 1:5-8
If any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not; and it shall be given him. [6]
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave
of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. [7] For let not that man think that he shall
receive any thing of the Lord. [8]
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
The worst attitude in
a trial is double mindedness. The devil will use trials to change your attitude
toward bitterness. The same trial can be used by God or by the devil. He can
move in like he tried to do with Job - no children, no possessions, no animals
- what do you say? Are you going to serve God when He has done this to you? The
devil used this trap to provoke him to unbelief, murmuring, and bitterness.
Carnal minds produce carnal reactions. This is an attitude. “God you owe me.
I’ve served you all of my life. I deserve better treatment than what I am
getting.” God says for us to look at the end, but I don’t like to look at the
end when I am in the middle of it. “In due season I shall reap if I faint not”,
but how long is “the due”? He will in due season reward you in the trials that
you go through. God’s seasons are mysterious. Every man or woman that I have ever
known have two sides to their lives - there is the public side where things
look right and a hidden broken world that you never see - a broken part of
their life that you know nothing about. A fiery trial that did within them only
what a fiery trial could do - but you never see that part.
In England, years
ago, one of the best preachers ever, was Charles Spurgeon. People wanted to
hear him wherever he spoke. When he was a boy of nineteen, he filled a
tabernacle of 5,000 people in England, when the church was not prospering at
all in the country. He was an awesome man but there was a broken side. He
suffered from chronic depression; chronic overweight; ill health; elephantitis
in his feet; and he smoked big, black cigars. Many times during the last five years
of his preaching, he would take months off - he never showed up. How would you
like it if you went to church and your pastor didn’t show up? They would say -
“He is not dead; he is not on vacation; and he will be back to preach pretty
soon.” You can say that you are walking closely with God, but you cannot get
out of your bedroom because you are so depressed, or in a panic attack of life.
Spurgeon took his
offerings for three months and put them under his bed because he was afraid
that someone would steal them. Then, the deacons would come and pray him back
and he would preach some of the most awesome messages on how to live in the
shadow of God’s hand. The brokenness of Spurgeon came out in his messages -
Psalm 23 - “Though I walk through the valley“….He had so many valleys; he had
been broken so much; so many ills in his own body - but, it all went back to
one thing that happened in his life.
When he was 23, he
was preaching at the metro tabernacle, packed by 600 people, and it caught
fire. Hundreds of people were trampled to death in panic of the fire. Children
died; young people died; men and women died. Several hundred people were lost
as the building burnt to the ground, and he had raised almost every cent for
that building. Something happened to him. The guilt of that crisis took months,
years, - and basically, he never recovered. He preached out of that fear and
hurt that his building would catch on fire and people would die or something
else.
Kathyrn Kuhlman was
preaching one time and a whole section of bleachers went up and people were
dangling by their toes. Sirens were sounding and people were taken away to the
hospital. But, she didn’t bat an eye, but continued on as though nothing had
happened. Why? Because she knew the people were being taken care of and that
this was an attack of the devil to interrupt her anointing. Some of the best
prayer books were written by people who were the most broken in life.
It follows suit with
a man in the Bible, the Apostle Paul, who was in prison and wrote 14 of the
Bible books; who was shipwrecked; beaten three times almost to death; in the
deep floating around; robbers and thieves pestered him all the time; and he had
some physical problems. There seems to be some persistency here.
Frank Damazio said
that one of his friends and great preachers he met when he was a young man of
17 years old was James Beal. He was the one Frank watched on TV and read his
books. He had the biggest church and he was listed in 50 of the largest churches
and growing churches in America in one year. With 300,000 churches, that is
quite a list.
James Beal was tall,
good looking, talented, and never used notes. Frank said we should look at all
his own notes and he said that he had to print them in different colors. With
James Beal, you never knew if he had finished his message or not. When he was
at the pulpit he would just throw words off the wall. He was 6 foot two; strong
and athletic. He had a good looking wife and family; good success and increase.
Frank, when he was 19
and an Ex-Jesus freak, was invited to preach at Jim’s church and even to go to
his home. When Frank went to his house, he found out something that he didn’t
know. Jim had four beautiful children but one of them was born defectively deformed,
physically and mentally. When Frank sat at the table with this one, he was
almost embarrassed in this atmosphere of perfectiveness, strength, health,
wealth, good looks, and success. Jim cared for that child until he had to bury
him at 30 years old.
Frank asked Jim how
this came about. And, Jim said that there was the night that his wife gave
delivery to this child, Jimmy, named after Jim. Jim had a contract in his back
pocket to pitch for a major league baseball team. When he went to the hospital
as this child was born, he had asked for a private room and got one. “I put the
contract on the chair and made a deal with God.” he said. “If you heal this
child, I will preach the gospel,” because at this time Jim was going the other
way. He did not want the pastorate up until then; he wanted nothing to do with
it.
He was on his way to
making money, playing football and so forth. But, after His promise to God, he
became a preacher, but his son was never healed. Jim’s son worked something in
him that only that instrument could work. There was time, humiliation, and
sorrow involved. Many prophecies, words of knowledge, and letters came. Frank
said that many Christians can be air heads about this. They can be rude and out
to lunch. Be careful what you say to people when they are in a trial.
Jim’s trial released
in him a brokenness, a humility. His values changed and he let some things go.
Would you and I, if we were in a bad situation such as this, allow it to be
used of God, or would we use it as a fist in God’s face to threaten. God is not
a God that you make deals with. He is a God that you serve. His way is higher
than our way.
Spiritual wisdom is
to trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.
Proverbs 2:3
Yea, if thou criest
after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; God will give it
to you. The Lord gives wisdom and godly knowledge to those in these situations.
Man’s wisdom sees things only from a human plain with human intelligence and a
human time span.
A great artist was
sitting with a woman and the woman pulled an ink pen out of her purse. The pen
pulled apart and a huge amount of ink went onto her beautiful, French
handkerchief and it ruined the whole thing. She was so upset, she was about to
ask the waiter to take it away, as it was so filled with ink. But, the young
artist asked if he could have it. She said, “Sure
you can have it.” He went home and, using the blot as a central piece, he
created a beautiful, awesome picture on that handkerchief. He gave it back to
the woman. Some years later, she sold the handkerchief for 200,000 pounds. What
was ruined and looked like a mistake, put in the hands of the right person
looked very nice. Some things in our life look like that blot of ink - we say
“they ruined a part of me; they should not have happened“. What should you do
with them? Put them in the hands of
the greatest artist who can take mistakes; faults and failures;
disappointments; and broken dreams. He can take those things in your life that
were so bad, hurtful, and unfair and draw a beautiful destiny on it and give it
back to you. He knows how to use it all.
All of us have a
position in life that cannot be known by whether we are rich or poor. It can
only be known by the depth of Christ in us. It can only be known by how God
values us and what we are in Him.
The fire department
says that everyone should make a list in case of fire - which things or boxes
to grab first, and so forth. Frank Damazio said his list would be: His wife,
Sharon and the children; studies and notes (every child would have to carry a
file out before they left the house!). Sharon would probably want the kids’
pictures and her recipes
This is a true story:
A dad was talking to
his daughter who was 6 years of age. He went up to her room and said he wanted
her to give him something out of her room. She asked him what he meant and he
said for her to give him something that she really, really loved. She offered
him the present he had given her for Christmas but he didn’t want that. She
offered him the teddy bear that she slept with every night, but he didn’t want
that either. So, she asked then what he wanted and he said, “The pearls that
are on your neck”. She said that she couldn’t give him the pearls. He said he
wanted something she really loved. So she offered him her doll but he didn’t
want it. She tried five or six things but he didn’t want them. He said he
wanted the pearls. She said that he couldn’t have the pearls.
About a week later,
back up in the room, she was crying and she lifted up her hands, sobbing, and
handed him her pearls. So, the father reached into her little hand, and took
out the string of pearls. He then reached into his pocket and put a blue box
into the little girl’s hand and told her to open it. In it was a true, real,
expensive string of pearls. He said that he wanted her to remember this. Your
pearls are from the dime store; they’re worth about 19 cents. These pearls are
worth hundreds of dollars.
Any time that God
takes the fake pearls out of your life; he has a way of putting back the real.
God has a string of pearls for every person but some go to the grave with only
dime store pearls.
You ask God for a
relationship or a job and he says that they are only dime store pearls. Then,
He brings the fire on you, takes them away, and gives you a brand new authentic
set of real pearls.
Trials do for us what
that father did for that child. They offer us a time of careful evaluation that
is really important. True values surface after testing. What is eternal is what
comes out of the fire. Relationships are real. Reputation can come and go. But,
Character comes out of the fire and will go with you and be with you in
eternity. People can do harm to you by lying about you, but they can never do
anything to your character. It’s real; it’s here to stay. Testing removes the
wrong things in life.
Someone who endured
many trials wrote the following about being in the center of God’s will: In the
center of the circle of the will of God I stand, as I launch from sheltering
harbor to obey his last command. Let the waves overwhelm my vessel and grim
fears my faith assail. So, I stay upon his promise, for that can never fail.
In the center of the
circle of the will of God I stand, where the welfare wages fire to the place that
he has planned. Though dread foes may storm my castle and the battle seems to
be lost, I will claim in Him the victory and hold on whatever the cost.
In the center of the
circle of the will of God I stand, there can be no second causes, all must come
from his hand. When dark clouds obscure my vision and the way I may not see, I
will trust in the darkness for I know he pilots me. In the center of the circle
of the will of God I stand, though the universe around me shows small trace of
his dear hand. Yet, in darkness as in daylight, and the gloom as sunshine, I
will trust him for his presence for I know he’s always near.
So, I would say that
in the center of the circle of the will of God I stand. Even if my body goes to
the grave there is the resurrection; if the devil comes in like a flood, the
Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him. I have a standard.
Even though life throws many curves, I’m going to stay in the center of that
circle.
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RE: “Living an Overcoming Life” by Frank Damazio
