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The next example of condemnation I want to
consider is when we think that there is something wrong with ourselves
personally. Let me explain this by way of an example of what we might be
thinking:- What I am saying is that although it is good for us to desire to see the Lord using us we should not condemn ourselves when we don't see Him using us. Just the same as condemnation is not the starting place to cause us to do more for the Lord so condemnation is not the thing that motivates us to be used more by God. Condemnation is not one of Gods own devices which He uses to make us better. The ways that God uses are grace, love and encouragement. There is a difference between having a burden to see God moving, which comes from the Holy Spirit and feeling condemned because we are not seeing God moving. When we feel that there is problem with
ourselves (and that we are not in Gods will) we may turn to heavy
self-examination in order to find the problem in us and sort it out.
Let us not try to sort ourselves out. Let us not try to reach the place where the Lord wants us (so that He can use us) without the help of the Lord. Let us not try to beat God in dealing with sin in our lives and areas in our lives where we need to change. Let us rather let the Holy Spirit do it. We can just rest and allow the Lord to chasten us and correct us and work in us for His good will and pleasure (Philipians 2 v 13). We should not lean on our own understanding
(Proverbs 3 v 5), the Lord will show us what He wants us to see:- God has given us brains which He wants us to use, but we should allow Him to lead us in our thinking, rather than run ahead of him. The Lord would say to us that we are 'alright',
until He tells us of an instance where we have gone wrong. The following is a
nice quote:- He is well able to show us when we step out of His will. The Lord keeps us (Jude v 24), He keeps us in His will…..if we are willing to be kept. And if you are concerned that the Lord is not able to use you to do mighty things, have patience. Wait on the Lord and He will strengthen you to do His will. Once again I'd like to finish with an illustration, this one is about self-analysis… you may have heard it before:- A man was sitting in his house one day and the Holy Spirit said "come on lets go down into the cellar." The Holy Spirit led the way holding a torch into the pitch-black cellar. The sharp beam of light from the torch picked out some bags on a shelf, one bag at a time. Each bag had a label on it. The beam remained on one particular bag which was the one the Holy Spirit had decided to pick. The Holy Spirit lifted it off the shelf and carried it up the steps and into the light. The bag was opened and the Holy Spirit showed the man what was to be done with the contents inside. The man enjoyed the episode and so the next day decided to pay another visit to the cellar. The Holy Spirit wasn't around, but rather than wait the man decided to go down on his own. He didn't have a torch so he took a candle. Unlike the torch the candle did not have a sharp beam that shined on one bag brightly, however it did allow him to see lots of bags at the same time, albeit only very dimly. He saw a bag which he wanted to investigate and so started to carry it upstairs. But the bag was too heavy and halfway up he fell backwards off the stairs and the bag fell on top of him and pinned him down. We can be like this man. We can go down into the cellar of our hearts without the Holy Spirit, but if we do so we will only get into a muddle. Who Condemns Us? / Perfect In
Christ / Striving To Do More /
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