By Reprint From Brown Gold
When God desires to shake, shock, or shape any age in order to save sinners, He always chooses a MAN not a system, not a plan, not an organization …but a man! Strange it is that this old truth should be so startling yet today. Hyper-organized, super-systematized, psychoanalyzed religion today (fundamental
and otherwise) has shut its eyes to this truth and furnished dark glasses to all followers. They have card-filed us down to the size of pygmies, they have cut us on the bias until we can’t fit God’s plan. They have puckered our lips to the same trite phraseology of mass thinking and divided our brains out till we
all think as one man. They have depleted our initiative for God.
When God foresaw floodwaters, He chose a man. Out of the carelessness of Chaldea, God chose a man. Out of the bondage of Egypt, God chose a man. When will we ever learn that history’s pages are full with God’s glorious accomplishments through a chosen man Joshua, Samuel, Gideon, Samson, Saul, Barak, Elisha, Daniel, Peter, Paul and scores of others?
No crowd ever produced a Carmel victory; a Red Sea crossing; a lion’s den daybreak; a Goliath conquest. God chose men, not machines.
Young man, did our wonderful Lord Jesus choose the Pharisees (the fundamental leaders of that day) or did He find Peter by the seaside? Did Jesus Christ engage the might of Rome (to curry political favor for His cause) or did our Lord walk among humble men? See Him there in those Galilean hills, completely
unperturbed by intellectuality, prestige and political power.
YOU ARE GOD’S POWER
Would that I could get every young man to see that HE is the channel God wants. We are so surfeited with little men whose little hearts are shriveled up with little philosophical drivel such as Money talks, Must play along with the crowds, Contacts are important, Know the right people, Join the biggest team and Be forever agreeable to the important leaders.
Can’t you see God’s plan? God hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth. For thou shalt be His witnesses unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard (Acts 22:14,15). That statement doesn’t concur with common opinion these days. God wants you. God has chosen you. For what? To know His will, to see His face, hear His voice and witness to all men! But other men will not allow this procedure. Satan will not allow that plan. On every hand you will be discouraged in that course. Preachers will advise against it. Church leaders will suggest you be more conservative. Intimate friends will tenderly seek to put you on the more popular track.
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise… the weak things of this world to confound the things which are mighty; the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence (I Cor. 1:26, 29). Yes, God hath chosen you to know His will, see His face, hear His voice and witness to all men.
KNOW HIS WILL
His will is set down in His word. Read it! Its challenge is enough to curdle the thin blood of human effort. It goes beyond the prating of building a better world. It smacks of conquest, battle, courage, power and real victory. God’s will charts a pathway for chosen men. It will not be satisfied with the causes of committees it demands chosen men. The men of faith listed in Hebrews 11 were not party leaders, but men chosen of God for His will in a single purpose.
God has a plan for your life. I believe in prevenient grace that grace of God that prepares us before we ever find our hearts willing to do His will; the glorious foreknowledge of God that shapes man to the task before the man knows the task. Now, God has prepared you for a specific job. Know His will! Don’t let some little mass of men push you off on a side road just because they can guarantee you a pittance to begin with. Shun the pittance and accept God’s ower.
One of the saddest commentaries of our Christian program today is that usually a few dollars doled out by a great society become the determining factor in where a man should serve God. Almost every Bible student I have met in recent years has answered my question concerning life’s plan like this: Well, Rosell, I guess I’ll just get a little church somewhere, if the school or denomination will recommend me. I guess a fellow can’t expect much at first.
That describes a young man who expects little, begs for less, and ignores God’s will. Wake up, man; God has chosen you! You are not beholden to men. You are not limited to the leftovers of somebody’s half-baked effort. Lift up your eyes to the fields and swing your blade in where the harvest is uncut. There’s a world a whole world involved in His will. And when God gets the man, the man gets the provision. I’ve tested this in my life, and it works. In the days when no one would recommend me to preach, thank God I was abandoned to His will. He chose me by His grace!
Know His will and you will
SEE HIS FACE
Amid the welter of important people in Christian society’s circles, it is hard to find the face of the Lord Jesus. But you’ll see HIS face when you shut your eyes to other faces. You’ll see His face when the important things of this world grow strangely dim. You’ll see His face, but not behind the painted mask of
religious rigmarole.
His face is turned away from the superficial systems of the pseudo-saints to the wide sweeps of earth where forgotten men wait for His glory. His face is turned from politically-planning pulpiteers to lonely men who cut trails along the extended pathway of His will into the dark corners of this world. His face is turned from the sham and shame of perverted programs that travesty His testimony and deny His deity. His face is turned full upon YOU, man, if you are in His will.
Watch the lips of command move, and
HEAR HIS VOICE
His voice demands obedience. His voice requests separation. His voice instills faith. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven. Make sure the voice that commands your footsteps is out of Heaven not the decision of men. His voice demands instant action. His voice pronounces the direction. His voice describes the exact place of service. His voice predicts success by His power. Men, if you have ever heard the voice of our Lord, you will become witnesses. Each chosen man is not to be a monastic recluse but a burning torch. God’s fire
was never meant to be boxed in by church walls, but to enflame a world with His Gospel. Each local church group is not to be a self-satisfied entity, but rather only a vortex from which circulates the far-reaching fire of God. The New Testament action was concentrated in the word go the New Testament direction, to the regions beyond. The New Testament procedure was multiplication and addition… breaking bread from house to house and the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved. They did not build perpendicularly but rather horizontally. The Church was not purposed to be a circumference of people
looking in, but rather a little center of people here and there looking outward. God’s voice moved Abraham out; led Moses out; called Paul out. God is everlastingly commanding men to move on and out to regions beyond. Action prevents stagnation. Young men, don’t be satisfied with four walls, 60 saints and security when you can have a whole country for conquest to His glory. It is said that there are 10,000 retired servants of God in southern California, as against a few Jaffrays that jog the jungle for Jesus. We have missed His voice of action, direction and procedure.
His voice sings into your soul with nostalgic loveliness of an intimate friend; wings into your heart with the compassionate grace of God; and yet it rings into your ear with the authoritative blast of a General’s command. Men, we cannot escape it. We must become
HIS WITNESS UNTO ALL MEN
Think of it! His witness to all men of what we have seen (His face) and heard (His voice). Ambassadors! Representatives! Advance men! What an honor! God give us the faith of Abraham; the courage of Elijah; the audacity of Samson; the utter trust of David; the death-defying determination of Daniel; the stark
submission of Stephen, and the tradition-shocking aggressiveness of Paul, coupled with the Holy Spirit stature of Simon Peter.
God fully equips the man He chooses. He can say, His Word was in my mouth as a burning fire. He is filled with the Spirit; led by the Spirit; taught of the Spirit fully equipped by God through His Spirit, our Holy Guest. I have often wondered why God did not plan to use mighty organizations to accomplish His will in the world. Knowing first that many men are seldom unanimously open to God’s will, and knowing, second, that God does not need many men to assist His power, we conclude that God would certainly rather have one man single-purposed, utterly yielded, unfettered than a mass of mighty men organized to skim off a portion of His glory.
God wants YOU. Be not discouraged because the crowds of men have forsaken Him. He is not looking for crowds of leaders to conquest for Him. He always chooses a man. Organizations, systems, assemblies all have a place; but when God leads out to new victory, He chooses a man. Be that man!
It is said that when Cromwell’s empire found itself so short of silver that they could not make coins, he sent out men to search for any available silver. The men returned to the empire, explaining that the statues of the saints in the great cathedrals were made of silver. It was then that Cromwell issued this order: Let us melt down the saints and put them in circulation.
Let Him put you into circulation, for thou shalt be witnesses unto all men.
(Reprint from Brown Gold – by Merv Rosell)
