THE INSPIRATION OF SPIRITUAL INITIATIVE
Ephesians 5:14
Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and
Christ will shine on you.
All initiative is not inspired. A
man may say to you – “Buck up, take your disinclination by the throat, throw it
overboard, and walk out into the thing!” That is ordinary human initiative. But
when the Spirit of God comes in and says, in effect, “Buck up,” we find that
the initiative is inspired.
We all have any number of visions
and ideas when we are young, but sooner or later we find that we have no power
to make them real. We cannot do the things we long to do, and we are apt to
settle down to the visions and ideas as dead, and God has to come and say –
“Rise from the dead.”
When the inspiration of God does come, it comes with such miraculous
power that we are able to arise from the dead and do the impossible thing. The
remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life comes after we do
the “bucking up.” God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we
overcome. When the inspiration of God comes,
and He says – “Rise from the dead,” we have to get up; God does not lift
us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand – “Stretch out your
hand,” and as soon as the man did so, his hand was healed, but he had to take
the initiative. If we will do the overcoming, we will find we are inspired of
God because He gives life immediately.
My Utmost for His
Highest by Oswald Chambers, February
16.