by Joyce Meyer
3. DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE DAY
Now while they were on their way, it occurred that Jesus entered a certain village, and a woman named Martha received and welcomed Him into her house.
And she had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Lord’s feet and was listening to His teaching.
But Martha [overly occupied and too busy] was distracted with much serving; and she came up to Him and said, Lord, is it nothing to You that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me [to lend a hand and do her part along with me]!
But the Lord replied to her by saying, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things;
There is need of only one or but a few things. Mary has chosen the good portion [that which is to her advantage], which shall not be taken away from her.
LUKE 10:38-42
In this passage we see one sister, Martha, upset and distracted because she is overly occupied and too busy, while the other sister, Mary, is happily seated at the feet of Jesus enjoying His presence and fellowship.
I can just imagine Martha in this scene. I am sure that as soon as she heard Jesus was coming to her house, she started running around cleaning and polishing and cooking, trying to get everything ready for His visit. The reason I find it so easy to picture Martha in this situation is because I used to be just like her.
One time the Lord said to me, “Joyce, you can’t enjoy life because you’re too complicated.” He was referring to a simple barbecue I was turning into a major production.
My husband and I had invited some friends over on Sunday afternoon, telling them we would throw some hot dogs on the grill, open up some potato chips and a can of pork and beans, make some iced tea, and sit around on the patio visiting or playing games.
Of course, once I got to making preparations for the occasion, everything quickly got out of hand. The hot dogs turned into steaks, the potato chips became potato salad, the barbecue grill had to be cleaned, the lawn had to be mowed, and the whole house had to be spotlessly prepared for guests. Besides all that work, the six people we had originally invited had to be increased to fourteen because I was afraid of offending anyone who might feel left out.
So all of a sudden a simple barbecue with friends turned into a nightmare. All because I had the “Martha syndrome.” I had “Martha” written all over me. That’s what the Lord meant when He told me I couldn’t enjoy life because I was too complicated.
I needed to learn to be more like Mary and less like Martha. Instead of worrying and fretting, I needed to learn to simplify my plans, lighten up, and enjoy life!
3
THE ARM OF THE FLESH
Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man, making weak [human] flesh his arm, and whose mind and heart turn aside from the Lord.
JEREMIAH 17:5
The Bible speaks of two vastly different arms: the arm of the flesh and the arm of the Lord. One of these is “our deal,” the other is “God’s deal”; that is, one is based on human ideas and effort, the other is based on God’s plan and power. One is of the flesh, the other is of the Spirit.
In John 3:6, Jesus told Nicodemus, What is born of [from] the flesh is flesh [of the physical is physical]; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. What is begun in the flesh must be maintained in the flesh, but what is begun in the Spirit is maintained by the Spirit. When we try to operate in the arm of the flesh we end up frustrated, but when we operate in the arm of the Lord we end up victorious.
It is hard work to carry out the plans and schemes we ourselves have devised. But when God starts something, He carries it through to completion without any struggle on our part.
Many times when we face struggles, we assume the devil is causing us problems, so we try to rebuke him! Sometimes it is the devil trying to stop God’s plan for our lives. But often the problem is not the devil but ourselves. We are trying to accomplish our will and plan, not the will and plan of God.
No amount of rebuking the devil will do any good when we are operating in the arm of the flesh rather than the arm of the Lord. If the work was begun by the Lord, He will finish it.
OPPORTUNITY BRINGS ADVERSITY
For a wide door of opportunity for effectual [service] has opened to me [there, a great and promising one], and [there are] many adversaries.
1 CORINTHIANS 16:9
It is true that whenever we do anything for God, the adversary will oppose us. But we must remember that greater is He Who is in us than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4.) According to the Word of God, if we are operating in obedience to His will and plan, although the enemy may come at us one way, he will have to flee from us seven ways. (Deuteronomy 28:7.)
We should not have to spend our lives struggling against the devil. Sometimes we spend more time talking about Satan than we do talking about God.
In His earthly ministry, Jesus did not spend a great deal of time fighting against local demons. When Jesus appeared on the scene, they either fled in terror or were driven out by Him with a word. When we minister in His name, we have the same power and authority He had. Instead of wearing ourselves out trying to fight spiritual enemies, we should learn to stand strong in the authority given us by Jesus.
The best way to overcome the devil and his demons is simply to stay in God’s will and plan by operating in the arm of the Lord and not the arm of the flesh. James 4:7 KJV says: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Many people try to resist the devil without submitting themselves to God! We should submit our will to God’s will.
Without recognizing it, we sometimes have a problem with lusting after something we think should be in the plan for us. This is not sexual desire — I am talking about a desire for what we think we must have in order to be happy. It is possible to lust after something that is good, even something God Himself wants us to have. In my own case, there was a time when I lusted after my ministry.
As soon as we start wanting anything so much we try to take matters into our own hands to get it, we are asking for trouble. It takes a mature individual to be patient and wait on the Lord to work out things according to His perfect will and timing. Immature people rush ahead of God and end up frustrated. They don’t realize that nothing is going to work out right unless it comes from God and is carried out in the Spirit in accordance with His divine plan and purpose.
Many people are frustrated and unhappy simply because they are trying to operate in the arm of the flesh rather than in the arm of the Lord. I spent many, many years in that state because I was trying to do things my own way and in my own power. I was out ahead of God, giving birth to Ishmaels instead of Isaacs.
ISHMAEL OR ISAAC?
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.
And Sarai said to Abram, See here, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. I am asking you to have intercourse with my maid; it may be that I can obtain children by her. And Abram listened to and heeded what Sarai said.
GENESIS 16:1,2
In Genesis 15:1-5, the Lord came to Abraham (“Abram” at that time) and promised him that He would bless him and give him an heir from his own body so that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens.
Just one chapter later, in Genesis 16:1,2, Sarah (“Sarai” at that time) came up with a plan to produce an heir for Abraham by having him take her handmaid Hagar as his “secondary wife.” (v. 3.)
In Chapter 17, the Lord appeared to Abraham and again promised to bless him and make him the father of many nations. (vv. 1-6.) He then went on to bless Sarah and promised to give Abraham a son by her in their old age. (vv. 15-19.) It was through this promised son, Isaac, and not through the natural son, Ishmael, that God’s covenant of blessings was to be fulfilled.
Isaac was God’s idea and plan; Ishmael was Sarah’s idea and plan. One was the child of promise, the c
hild of the Spirit; the other was the child of human effort, the child of the flesh.
Abraham had to wait twenty years for the fulfillment of God’s promise to him that he would have the son through whom the Lord would fulfill His covenant promises. When Isaac was finally born, Ishmael caused problems in the household, so Abraham had to send Ishmael and his mother Hagar away. (Genesis 21:1-14.)
Many times the reason we are having problems is because we have produced Ishmaels rather than Isaacs. We are reaping the consequences of trying to carry out our own ideas and plans rather than waiting for God to bring forth His ideas and plans. When things don’t turn out the way we expect, we get angry at God because He is not making everything work out as we want it to.
But the problem is not God’s doing; it is ours. What we fail to remember is that what is born of the Spirit is spirit, and what is born of the flesh is flesh.
THE SPIRIT VERSUS THE FLESH
It is the Spirit Who gives life [He is the Life-giver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it].…
JOHN 6:63
Jesus has told us it is the Spirit Who is important, not the flesh, because the Spirit gives life while the flesh profits nothing. The apostle Paul went even further when he said, For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh… (Romans 7:18).
If you and I are to fulfill God’s will and plan for us in this life, the flesh — the selfish, rebellious sin nature within us — has to die.
Often we are not aware of what is on the inside of us because we are so caught up in the outer life. It is from within us that the energy of the soul comes forth to cause us all kinds of problems on the outside.
Paul testified to having this same problem when he went on to write in that same verse, …I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.] In that passage, he described how miserable he was because he failed to practice the good deeds he desired to do, but succeeded in doing the evil deeds he did not want to do. In his misery and frustration, he ended up crying out, O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death? (v. 24).
I know that feeling. I used to work hard all day trying to do right and then go to bed at night frustrated and depressed because I had failed again. I would cry out to the Lord, “Father, I just don’t understand. I tried hard all day, Lord. I did my very best — and it was all in vain.”
My problem was that I was operating in the arm of the flesh, and the flesh was profiting me nothing.
I lived that way for years and years. I would get up in the morning all ready to “plan my work and work my plan.” I was determined to make my ministry grow. I wanted so much for doors of opportunity to open for me, just as they had for Paul. But I was convinced that, like Paul, I was being confronted with “adversaries.” I rebuked them until my “rebuker” was worn out. I cast them out until there could not have been a demon left in my entire town. Still the doors were not opening.
I fasted and prayed, alone and with others. I commanded crowds to come to my meetings from the north, south, east, and west. But nothing worked. I was still holding meetings of fifty people in basements or banquet halls where we had to clean fried crab legs and chicken bones off the tables and floor before we could begin our services. Sometimes there would be no heat or the air conditioning would not work properly. It seemed no matter how hard I tried to make things work, everything that could go wrong would go wrong.
All of that was a testing ground, one which we all must go through. Do you know what the purpose of the testing ground is? To teach us to deny the flesh and depend on the Spirit in order to build character in us as we go through the hard times and refuse to give up.
If we are committed to doing what God has told us to do, we will succeed despite our adversaries and their devices. Our problem is that instead of getting God’s plan and being obedient to Him as He works it out, we try to make up our own plan and get Him to bless it. If He doesn’t do that, we get angry at Him; we get confused and often very negative in our emotions and conversations.
There is no telling how many frustrated, depressed people there are in our world who have basically given up on God because He didn’t make their plan work. I used to be one of them.
One time a friend of mine and I cooked up an idea to increase my ministry. We decided to write every pastor in St. Louis, where my ministry was located, informing them I was called of God and had a strong teaching gift. We were going to suggest to the pastors they have me come to their churches to minister. Fortunately the Lord stayed our hand, and for that I am so grateful. Just imagine how I would feel now if we had carried through with our plan instead of waiting for the Lord to work out His plan.
What my friend and I were planning was a work of the flesh. As is often the case, we were trying to kick doors open and make our own way. Instead, we needed to wait on the Lord, believe and trust in Him, and enjoy where we were and what we were doing until He opened the doors for us.
As Christians, we all have a work to do. Our work is to believe, not to cook up all kinds of plans and schemes to try to make things happen. All of that kind of conniving and manipulating comes from the flesh and profits nothing. If God is not in our work, it will be frustrating and depressing. We must learn to discern between what God is truly leading us to do and what we are “trying” to do.
For years I had a work — or so I thought. It was changing my husband Dave. I tried everything in my power to manipulate, coerce, pressure, and force him to do what I thought he needed to do — which was basically to give up sports and pay more attention to me and the things I was interested in.
I was convinced Dave had a problem. It never occurred to me I might have a problem. That was out of the question. It was not even in my thinking.
One day as I was praying I said, “Oh, Lord, You have got to change Dave!”
Suddenly the voice of the Lord came to me, saying, “Excuse Me, Joyce, but Dave is not the one with the problem.”
“Well, then, Lord,” I asked, “who is?” since there were only the two of us, Dave and me. I thought, Surely it can’t be me! My foolish pride had me judging Dave while I was blinded to my own faults.
Proverbs 21:2 says, Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs and tries the hearts. That is true for all of us. We all think we are right. It was a great revelation to me to discover I was wrong sometimes.
I was trying so hard to change Dave, change my children, change myself, change everything in our lives. I was trying to prosper, get healed, make my ministry grow, and on and on. I was wearing myself out trying to change everything and everybody, and feeling miserable about it. I was constantly praying, trying to get God to bless my plans and efforts and make them successful. What I was doing was what the Galatians were doing in Paul’s day: I was trying to live by the flesh, by works, rather than by the Spirit.
THE TWO COVENANTS
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondmaid and one by the free woman.
But whereas the child of the slave woman was born according to the flesh and had an ordinary birth, the son of the free woman was born in fulfillment of the promise.
Now all this is an allegory; these [two women] represent two covenants. One covenant originated from Mount Sinai [where the Law was given] and bears [children destined] for slavery; this is Hagar.
Now Hagar is (stands for) Mount Sinai in Arabia and she corresponds to and belongs in the same category with the present Jerusalem, for she is in bondage together with her children.
But the Jerusalem above (the Messianic kingdom of Christ) is free, and she is our mother.
GALATIANS 4:22-26
The Bible speaks of two covenants. We know them as the old covenant and the new covenant, but they can be called the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.
The first covenant is based on man�
��s doing everything on his own, struggling, striving, and laboring to be acceptable to God. That kind of covenant steals joy and peace. That was the kind of covenant the Galatians were trying to return to, and Paul had to write to them to remind them of the futility of trying to live by their works rather than by the grace of God. (Galatians 3:1-7.)
The second covenant, the covenant of grace, is based not on what man can do, but on what Christ has already done. Under this covenant, we are justified not by our works or our righteousness, but by our faith and confidence in Christ. That takes the pressure off of us to perform. We can give up our outward efforts and allow God to work through us by the power of His Holy Spirit within us.
One covenant brings bondage; the other covenant brings liberty. Under one we give birth to things of the flesh, because what is born of the flesh is flesh. Under the other we allow God to give birth to things of the Spirit, because what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Under the first covenant, we believe we have to do it all; under the second covenant all we have to do is believe, and as part of our believing lifestyle, act on what God tells us to do.
As we saw in the introduction, Romans 15:13 tells us those who believe are full of hope, joy, and peace. The problem is that today, as in Paul’s day, so many people in the Church are not believing. They are trying to live by their works rather than by God’s grace. Therefore, they have no hope, peace, or joy.
As we saw, the Word of God has promised us if we will operate in simple, childlike faith, we will be bubbling over with joy. We will also see much more positive results in our lives.