(Notes and quotes from the tape.)
"The striver and the lazy man both suffer the same fate, misery, fruitlessness, futility and ashes to ashes and dust to dust; only a lover enjoys a different fate."
I don't want to be a striver, trying to earn my way into God's favor, but I don't want to be lazy either, we need to be hard workers. Do I have to strike the right balance? NO, the answer is not on that plane or spectrum. The mystery is solved by entering into a different dimension, and finding God there and being connected to the person of Jesus; it's by being a lover, loving God and other people. When there is genuine love, concern and care, your life will find its place and there will be rest and wholeness. My hope lies in the fact that JESUS LIVES INSIDE OF ME!!!!!!!!! When am tempted to be impatient, when I ought to be kind, I either try to be kind or I can turn to Jesus, who is the kindness person in the universe, the only one even capable of being kind and He lives inside of me, turn to Him and say, "Jesus I need You, this situation is getting me frazzled. I know it's not frazzling You, I know you live inside of me. I know You feel something different about this situation, however You would approach this situation, let's do it together. I want the fellowship in sharing with You in kindness, now."
The way off the spectrum is that Jesus lives inside of me. My only hope is that God lives inside of me, He has made His home inside of me and He wants me to know His mind. All the attributes that are in Christ are my inheritance, for someone childlike enough to BELIEVE IT!!!!! I don't bring anything worthwhile to the table, but JESUS brings everything worthwhile to the table.
If we are not turning to God… just winging it, not investing secretly and praying for them and praying for specific people for specific things, if I neglect that, it immobilizes me, I feel like I have nothing, because it would only be coming from me. There has to be a spiritual investment. Love is the alternative but it can't be just a general love for people. It's got to be specific people with names and something tangible.
Love is not a feeling it's an act of the will. Whether the feelings are there are not, the feelings come with the investment. Regardless of feelings, love is an act of the will, love is something you choose to do. You choose to pay a price to get up or carve out a portion of your day to name names and discuss with the King of the Universe specific people and situations so that when you are with those people you can have a confidence that you are not going into it Godless. Don't neglect a consistent, fervent prayer that can avail much.
A storehouse of memorized, quoted truth is not living and active. If it is going to have eternal benefit it has to be something that has been committed to God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and He will direct your path. Make every effort to enter His rest. Surrender to Him.
There is hardly any mention of feelings in the Bible, the issue is will, willing to do His will. It is not striving, it is surrendering your will, the time, your priorities. God is always there if we will surrender and turn to Him. Many times the urgent displaces the vital. Love is not about feeling, but I can lay down my own will and care and bring that person or persons by name before the King of the Universe, in prayer and care and trust that God will give me some supply for them, INVEST, with investment, feelings will follow.
"The striver and the lazy man both suffer the same fate, misery, fruitlessness, futility and ashes to ashes and dust to dust; only a lover enjoys a different fate."
When Jesus summarized the whole thing it was: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength, and love others as well."
The scriptures define God as love so you can see the very essence of why it is that the striver and the lazy man suffer the same fate, and only a lover enjoys a different fate, because LOVE is the place that God is found. You can't be a prophetic person if you are not a lover. God is love and the way into God and exploring all that God is, to stop loving yourself, stop loving all the things of the world long enough to make room in your heart for Him. Allowing the love of God to invade your world and come out through your eyes. If love is that which is overflowing out of your heart, you will know what you need to do. You have enough time to love. And you won't feel guilty about the 10 thousand things you didn't have time to do if you know that you are flowing out of the love of God instead out of the duties of God (striving) or laziness. If God is love and God dwelling inside is the mystery that is revealed, if God is love and God is expressing His love through a vessel that has emptied himself or herself to feel and experience His love and to see through HIS eyes…..we have the mind of Christ… then we can look around the room and feel something of what others feel and understand why they have the weaknesses they do. (Mike tells a story of a really gross man who was being profane in front of some women in a public place and he tells how he felt and worked through how to view that man) If I'm viewing it through God's eyes, through love, a prophetic love that sees and burrows into his existence, how does he feel, what does he think when he is going to sleep, does he have a consciousness of God. Having explored his world, prophetically to see why he is the way he is (God is love) and loving him then perhaps I can pray for him. Through what love I have chosen to experience, which was not a feeling it was a prophetic abandonment of our own feelings, my own thoughts, my own resentments to step out of myself, to not think of myself enough to project myself into his world ...then perhaps I can pray for him and then perhaps God can do something that He would not have done had I not stopped and been a little like Jesus instead of like a mere man. God acts through the prayers of his people. HE involves Himself in a direct way based on our interaction with Him. Those who call on the name of the Lord, shall be delivered. As we plug into Him, vertically as a Person and involve Him and as we humble ourselves to seek His face instead of our own feelings, thoughts opinions, judgments, reactions... If we will stop and abandon ourselves into Him, then HE can act on our behalf or on His own behalf in a supernatural way far beyond what He would have done had we just bounced off of concepts and right ideas… If we will stop and humble ourselves, soften our hearts and allow CHRIST in you, the HOPE OF GLORY to express Himself the way He always has and the way He has always wanted to, if we will get out of our own shallow dimension long enough to let HIM love through us then He can do supernatural things that He wouldn't have done.