Luke
18:27 says, “The things which are impossible with men are possible WITH
GOD.” We like to hear about man’s possibilities with God, but what
exactly does the phrase “with God” mean? “With God” can certainly mean
being born again. In the New Birth, He is not only with us but in us.
However, there’s more to receiving God’s blessings and experiencing His
greater glory.
In
the New Birth, we become qualified to be partakers of God’s divine
nature and heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus. But how do we
actually partake of the blessings and glory of God? How do we receive
and experience them for ourselves?
So
many people accept Jesus Christ as Savior, and then that’s that. They
don’t receive Him as Lord of their lives. They don’t go any deeper in
their walk with Him. They go back to living their lives the best they
know how and waiting for the Sweet By-and-By when they’ll walk those
heavenly streets of gold. But the “with God” that makes man’s
impossibilities possible also means that we’re following Him. In other
words, our being “with God” is a lifestyle, not just an event.
Let’s look at further at Luke 18:27 and the verses that follow.
LUKE 18:27–30 (NIV)27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”29 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.
Talking about himself and the other disciples, Peter told Jesus, “We have left everything to follow You.”
Did
you know that to follow God sometimes means giving up some things or
making a sacrifice? It may mean leaving a group of friends you’ve been
associating with who don’t want to wholeheartedly follow God. It may
mean moving to a certain place in obedience to Him and giving up the
comfort of familiar surroundings. It could mean any number of things.
But if you will follow God with your whole heart, He will give you more
than you ever had before.
When
Peter said to Jesus, “We’ve left everything to follow You,” notice
Jesus’ reply: “…No one who has done these things will fail to receive
many times as much in this age and then, in the age to come, eternal
life” (vv. 29–30).
You
never give up anything for God that He won’t prosper and bless you many
times more as a result. Sometimes people want to see the blessing
before they do the giving up. That’s where faith comes in. You have to
believe Luke 18:27–30: that the God who does the impossible will
increase you in every area of your life as you follow after Him. So
don’t just sit around and try to figure out with your head, your natural
human intellect, whether or not God will bless you. Just follow Him
with all your heart. Obey Him in everything you do, and the blessings
will come.
We
know that if we’re “with God,” we’re following Him. But let’s break
that down further. What does it mean to follow God? It means that if
we’re “with God,” we have priorities—not our priorities, but His.
If
you were to take a course in time management, one of the first things
you’d learn is that you need to prioritize your activities, tasks, and
goals so you can get a clearer picture of the things that are most
important in your life. Then you could devote more of your time to those
things.
When
God’s priorities become your priorities, you will put Him and His Word
first in your life. And it’s not an option; it’s a necessity. You won’t
put friends first. You won’t even put listening to tapes, reading
teaching materials, and attending special meetings first. You will put
Him first! Those other things can help you, but they can’t take the
place of the Word and of your fellowship with God.
You
can always tell when a person is putting God and His Word first in his
or her life. It’s not the absence of tests or trials that determines
whether a person is putting God first. It’s what that person does in the
midst of a test or trial that shows where his or her priorities lie.
When you’re putting God first, you won’t wring your hands and worry,
saying, “Oh, God, what am I going to do?” No, you will have already
armed yourself with the Word of God, and you will begin to speak it out.
What you have put in your heart will eventually come out of your mouth.
When
a sponge becomes saturated with some kind of liquid, it’s not easy to
recognize what liquid is in the sponge until the sponge is squeezed.
Then whatever is in that sponge comes pouring out. In much the same way,
when the pressures of life come against you, whatever your heart is
full of will come pouring out of your mouth.
Another
aspect of putting first things first is not only putting God and His
Word first, but putting His will first. If we are going to follow God,
we are going to have to put His desires above our desires and choose His
will for our lives over our own.
The
choice to put God’s will for our lives first is a decision that we will
have to reaffirm throughout our lives. The decision to do the will of
God takes continual dedication and consecration; it’s not just something
we say to the Lord one time, and that’s it.
If
you haven’t already done so, I challenge you to put God’s desires for
your life above your own. He made you and has created you for a very
special purpose. You can trust Him to cause that purpose to be fulfilled
in your life. And it will be better than anything you could have
planned on your own.
We’ve
seen that if we’re really “with God”—if we’re really following
Him—number one, we’re putting first things first; we’re putting God, His
Word, and His will first. And number two, we’re learning to be led by
the Spirit of God.
You
can train yourself to be sensitive to the Greater One within you, the
Holy Ghost, and to follow His leading even if your mind wants to do
something else. For example, have you ever been in a situation in which
your heart, your spirit, was saying one thing, but your mind was saying
something else? Sometimes your mind can scream at you, especially when
the pressure is on. But when you get quiet and begin to listen to what
the Holy Spirit is saying to your spirit, you will know what to do. Your
mind will argue, Yes, but I can’t figure that out. I just don’t see how
that can work out.
But,
friend, you don’t always have to have everything figured out! Follow
the Spirit of God, and He will always lead you in line with the Word to
victory and success.
In
review, how do we know we’re really following God and positioning
ourselves to receive His blessings and walk in His greater glory? Number
one, we’re putting God, His Word and His will first. And number two,
we’re learning to be led by the Spirit of God.
Now,
number three, following God means we are committed to following Him as a
lifestyle. We are committed to putting Him, His Word, and His will
first on a continual basis. And we are committed to following the
leading of the Holy Spirit.
We
need to have the attitude that we are going to wholeheartedly commit
ourselves to following the One who knows more about us than we know
about ourselves and who cares more about whether we prosper and succeed
than we do! He has our best interests at heart; we can trust Him with
our life!
These
things are what it means to be “with God” and to follow Him. If we are
“with God,” we are putting God, His Word, and His will first; we are
learning to be led by the Spirit of God and we are committed to doing
these things despite the sacrifices we think we may have to make to do
them.
Whatever
you think you may be sacrificing to follow God is nothing compared to
the rewards of following Him. Whatever you leave behind in order to obey
Him is nothing compared to what you will receive from Him, both in this
life and the next (1 Tim 4:8).
Someone
might argue, “Well, you sound so certain, but I’m just not sure.”
People like that often find themselves feeling dissatisfied and
unfulfilled. They’re questioning rather than believing. They haven’t
reached the point in their walk where they can say with full assurance
of faith, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it!”
When
the pressures and tests and trials of life come to try to steal from us
and to make us doubt, we have let the infallible truth of God’s Word be
our rock and the foundation on which we stand. We have to maintain our
commitment to following God, His Word, and His will for our lives, no
matter what. And we have to steadfastly follow the leading of His
Spirit.
Many
Christians will start out believing God when they’re in a test or
trial. They study God’s Word just a little bit, but when the
circumstances don’t improve, they give up. They’re not committed to God
and His Word.
But,
to receive the full measure of God’s blessing—to partake of and
participate in His greater glory—we’re going to have to do our homework
spiritually. We’re going to have to dig deep into the Word and obey what
we find that He has told us to do. Then having done all to stand, we
must stand and then stand some more (Eph. 6:13)! We must stand our
ground, no matter how badly we may be hurting on the inside, knowing
that God will not let us down.
Your
heart may be broken and your mind may be shouting at the top of its
voice, You’re not going to make it! There’s no way out of this! You may
have to bite your lip to keep from giving in to hysteria and
desperation. You may have to just close your eyes and cling in faith to
the Master, because all you can see is hopelessness with no way out! But
if you will hold to the truth that the answer to your problem is
possible with God, you will make it through! You’ll come out of that
test or trial and experience the fullness of God’s blessing.
As
you trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own
understanding, you’ll begin to get a new mindset, a new way of thinking.
Then when your mind screams at you, Impossible, out of your spirit, a
different cry will arise: Possible with God! Obstacles will be moved and
you’ll receive the breakthroughs you need so that the plan of God can
go forth in your life, and you can experience greater manifestations of
His glory.
