How To Get To Him

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, dear radio friends, how in the world are you? Doing alright? Bless your heart. Yes, it’s your good friend, Bob Cook. You and I are back together again for a little while looking at Ephesians chapter four, verse 16. Christ is the head of the body, and that word body means his church, all of the blood-bought Spirit-indwelt believers all over the world constitute the Body of Christ. And so it says, “From Him… ” Now, what of it is he? Christ is the body, the believers are the body of Christ, I should say. And now so what? Alright, verse 16, “From him, the whole body fitly joined together.” That means God has a special place for you. You think you don’t have any special equipment, any special gifts? Listen, God has a special place for you that no one else can fill. Fitly joined together. You are part of His plans. And then it says, “Compacted by that which every joint supplieth.” That word compacted actually means coalesced, the flowing together. How can I illustrate that? You’ve been to the dentist and you see him put some powder in a little container, of some sort, and then add something else. When I was a boy they used to use powdered silver and mercury, as I remember.

And I said “Now, what happens… ” I remember as a boy asking the dentist, “What happens when you do that and you stir that around and then you pack it into… ” “Well,” he said, “When I add the mercury, that forms what we call an amalgam, it joins together.” Well, I still don’t understand exactly what happens. You chemists, you geniuses who dwell in the laboratory, you could tell me all about it, I’m sure, but this is the sense of what you have here, compacted. God fits you together with other believers so that you actually belong to each other. You are joined, you are coalesced, you are mixed together in something that is, that is other than if you were all separate. The oneness of the body of Christ. Now, of course, you will experience that anywhere you go, in the world, you meet a believer, someone who knows the Lord Jesus. You may not be able to speak his or her language, you may not have very much in common culturally, but oh, the oneness of heart there is, as you realize that you both love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Compacted. But then it says, “Compacted by that which every joint supplieth.” There is something in you that answers the hunger of somebody else’s heart.

Have you thought about that? Most of us are naively self-centered, we think of what is our need and how we feel and what others may do that will affect us. Isn’t it true? But have you thought of the fact that there is something in your life that answers to the call of other people’s hearts? And that as you live the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as He lives his life through you, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, beloved, there is something in your life that answers the heart hunger and the call of another believer. Somewhere as you meet him or her or them in the course of the day, by that which every joint supplieth. You have a special source, you are a resource person for somebody today. Would you be on the look out for that? Now, don’t make a performance of it. You spoil everything if you do. Just be yourself full of the Spirit of God, and you’ll find that what you are satisfies the heart hunger of somebody else who needed just what you could give.

There was a man who died back in the 1950s, in ’55, I guess. I was at his funeral, he was a famous man and I was pretty good friends both with him and with his wife, and so I spoke with her at the time, extended my sympathy, said I’d pray for her, went on home. A month later it struck me. Well, people forget, the funeral is over, the world rolls on and people forget and I thought, “I’m just gonna send a card.” And so I picked out a card that says something like, I’m thinking of you, I haven’t forgotten about you and so on, and I wrote a few personal words and signed with the words, “just because” and then signed my name, Bob Cook. Well, do you know I got a letter back? And said, “Your card came just at the right time. I was having such an awful time, and was so burdened and so lonely. And your card came just when I needed it.” Well, I didn’t know that it would get that reaction, but I was obeying, evidently, the prompting of the Spirit of God and that’s how it worked out.

I’ve lived long enough, and I guess some of you have as well, to realize that the spontaneous actions that you take under the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit oftentimes turn out to be God’s provision for somebody else. You wanna remember that? As you live in the Spirit, as you live in the Spirit, the spontaneous actions that you take under the guidance of the Spirit of God turn out to be God’s provision for somebody else at the time. Oh, make much of that, will you? It is so important, that which every joint supplieth. You, beloved, can be God’s supply to some needy heart today.

Then it says, this is a long sentence, Paul is the master of long, involved sentences, isn’t he? “According to the effectual working in the measure of every part.” Now, before it said, “There is a supply from every joint.” Now he says, there’s something working in every part that makes what’s happening, happen. According to the effectual working in the measure of every part. Now then, the amount of usefulness you and I will have depends upon the amount of God’s power working in us. Peter Deyneka used to say, “Little prayer, little power; no prayer, no power; much prayer, much power.” It is true, that the more you wait on God and the more you experience His presence, the more you’ll be a blessing to other people, that’s the way it is. So it says, “According to the effectual working of God in every part.” You go back to Ephesians 3:20 and you see what he’s talking about that that, “Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh,” where? “In us,” see?

Paul said, “I labor according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.” I have to tell you that the index, the measurement of whatever blessing you may bring to others, depends upon the measurement of God’s working in you. The more he works, the more you’ll bless. That’s how that works. “The effectual working of every part.” How does God work in me in a way that’s gonna bless others? Well, the first thing he does is to humble me. Maybe you’ve discovered it, have you? Pride stands in the way of blessing. Pride stands in the way of blessing, and the first thing God does if he’s going to work in me to make me a blessing to other people, is to humble me. “Humble yourselves therefore in the sight of God and he shall lift you up. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven.”

That’s the first step, the effectual working in every part. How does God work? As I read His Word, and when I pray, the Holy Spirit of God convicts me of my pride and my tendency to want to manipulate God. God reduces me to the place where I say, “Lord, you’re God and I worship you and I’m not gonna ask any questions of you, I’m just going to worship you and obey you.” To humble yourself before God. That’s the first thing, if he’s gonna work the effectual working in every part, how is he gonna do it? He humbles us.

Then second, He reveals himself to us. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show them His covenant, you read in the 25th Psalm. He reveals himself to us. What a satisfying, although almost devastating experience that is. Daniel records it when he had an experience with what we would call a revelation of God to him. He said, “I was on my face, I retained no strength.” Then he said, “He touched me and set me on my feet,” and he said, “O man of God, fear not.” The revelation of himself is the next thing he does, if we’re really seeking Him. First He humbles you, second He reveals himself to you, until your heart is so full, you can scarcely contain it, until you’re not asking for anything, you’re just pouring out worship and adoration and love. Do you know about that? In the secret place. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will save the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust.” And that’s the 91st Psalm as it starts and then at the end, it says, “Because he hath set his love upon me.”

You know, as God reveals himself to you, your heart just fills with love for Him and you’re not presenting a little laundry list of things you want Him to do any longer, you’re just worshipping and loving Him, and praising Him because of all that He is and all that He is revealing Himself to you to be. “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore I deliver him, I will, he shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble, and with long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” God reveals himself to you.

Then we’re talking about the effectual working in every part. First He humbles you, second He reveals himself to you, then what? Then He enables you for His will. “I can,” said Paul, “Do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” He said, “I take pleasure in my infirmity.” He was very realistic, he knew his limitations, he said, “In order that the power of Christ may rest upon me, for when I am weak, then by God’s grace I’m strong,” He enables you to do what he wants you to do. Anything God wants you to do, He’ll help you to do. Well, we’ll get at this the next time we get together.

Precious Father, humble us and reveal yourself to us and enable us, I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!