by Joyce Meyer
There is nothing the devil uses more to keep people out of the will of God than the threat of rejection. In my own case, when I made a full commitment to follow the will of God for my life, many of my former friends abandoned me and some even turned against me. Like Paul, I soon learned I had to choose between pleasing people and pleasing God. If I had chosen to be popular with people I would not be standing in the place of ministry I occupy today.
The followers of Jesus have faced this same choice since the very beginning. In John 12:42, 43 we read:
And yet [in spite of all this] many even of the leading men (the authorities and the nobles) believed and trusted in Him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that [if they should acknowledge Him] they would be expelled from the synagogue;
For they loved the approval and the praise and the glory that come from men [instead of and] more than the glory that comes from God. [They valued their credit with men more than their credit with God.]
Today you and I are faced with a decision. Are we going to go on trying to build ourselves, our ministries, and our reputations, or are we willing to give up all our own human efforts and simply trust God? Are we ready to stop operating in the arm of the flesh and start operating in the arm of the Lord?
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THE ARM OF THE LORD
…to whom has the arm (the power) of the Lord been shown (unveiled and revealed)?
JOHN 12:38
The arm of the Lord is in direct contrast to the arm of the flesh which we discussed previously. While the arm of the flesh is based on the covenant of works, the arm of the Lord is based on the covenant of grace. The first depends upon law, the second depends upon faith.
Under the first covenant we wear ourselves out trying to make things happen on our own. Under the second covenant we enter into the rest of God and depend upon Him to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. To fulfill the first covenant we must be full of fleshly zeal. To fulfill the second covenant we must be full of God.
In Romans 12:1 we are told to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and well pleasing to God, which is our reasonable service and spiritual worship. The Lord revealed to me that in order to be filled with His Spirit and be pleasing to Him, we must be 1) willing, 2) yielded, and 3) empty. We must be willing for God to use us as He sees fit. We must be willing to follow His plans rather than our own. We must be empty of ourselves.
To be pleasing to God, we must give up all our human efforts to build ourselves, our ministries, and our careers and allow the Lord to build them for us according to His will and plan for us. We must learn to be satisfied where we are and with what we are doing. We must quit worrying and fretting and simply allow the Lord to do the work in us and through us that He knows needs to be done.
To be pleasing to God, we must quit looking to the arm of the flesh and start looking to the arm of the Lord.
BUT GOD… WAS WITH HIM
And the patriarchs [Jacob’s sons], boiling with envy and hatred and anger, sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt; but God was with him.
ACTS 7:9
As a young man, Joseph had a dream in which he saw himself being honored by all the members of his family. The mistake he made was telling that dream, because it was one of the things that made his brothers so hateful, envious, and angry that they tried to get rid of him by selling him into slavery.
Joseph was a little overly exuberant. That’s why God had to spend several years doing a work in him before He could use him to fulfill His plan to bless him and his family and many, many others.
Often we are like young Joseph. We make the same mistake he did. When God reveals to us His dream and vision for our life, we share it with others who are not as thrilled about it as we are and who may even cause us problems, just as Joseph’s brothers did for him. As a result of the rashness of Joseph and his brothers, Joseph ended up alone in a prison cell in Egypt far from home and family with no one to turn to but the Lord.
If you and I are going to enjoy the fullness of God in our lives, we must go through periods in which we have to stand alone. Sometimes that is good for us because we get too caught up with people. Sometimes we must be left with nobody so we will learn to depend solely upon the Lord. Like Joseph, with all the people and things we were leaning on stripped away, we will be forced to place our entire faith and trust in God. The Lord wants us to be rooted and grounded in Him, able to stand alone, with Him upholding us.
When God called me out of my job in St. Louis and into full-time ministry, I had to go through some hard, lonely times. I found myself out on the road in a traveling ministry pursuing a dream and a vision which I had not yet really proven was from God. Those were rough years. I went through such hard, lonely times I cried out to God, begging Him to give me groups of people to support me in what I was trying to do for Him.
In my loneliness I would pray, “Lord, I’ve got to have someone to talk to. I have nobody.”
“You’ve got Me,” He would say. “Talk to Me.”
“But, Lord,” I would cry, “I don’t know how to do this. I need to be around people I can ask about it.”
But the Lord didn’t want me talking to anybody else about what He had told me to do. He wanted me to seek His direction and guidance, not the opinions and advice of other people. As in the case of Joseph, God wanted me to depend upon the arm of the Lord and not the arm of the flesh. It is not wrong to ever seek advice from others, but in my case I was so insecure and fearful of rejection, I would have followed the advice people gave me instead of seeking God’s direction.
God does not want us to be a clone of somebody else. He wants us to be unique and creative. He is looking for something new and fresh in us. He wants us to operate by His Spirit.
One of the things God taught me during that hard, lonely period of my life was the difference between many types of birds and eagles. Most birds fly in flocks, but eagles fly alone. Each of us must decide whether we want to fly along as one of the many birds in a flock or be an eagle. If we want to be an eagle, we must learn to fly alone.
There were many times when Joseph had to fly alone. He had to face hard, lonely times in his life, especially during the period he spent in prison in a foreign country. Yet despite all the adversity that came against him, notice what the Scriptures say about his situation: Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers, but God was with Him. That phrase “but God” occurs several times in this story, as we will see.
IN HIS BUSINESS GOD DELIVERS
And [God] delivered him [Joseph] from all his distressing afflictions and won him goodwill and favor and wisdom and understanding in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
ACTS 7:10
God built Joseph’s reputation and career. He put him in the right place at the right time. He gave him favor with the right people and promoted him when the time was right, just as He will do for us: For not from the east nor from the west nor from the south come promotion and lifting up (Psalm 75:6).
You and I do not have to depend upon the arm of the flesh in our efforts to overcome adversity and opposition and earn favor and win promotion. When God is ready to move in our lives, He will give us favor and promotion — and no devil or person on earth will be able to prevent it from happening: …If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?] (Romans 8:31).
It doesn’t matter what people think of us. Our weaknesses and inabilities don’t make any difference to God. His criteria for using people is not their talents, gifts, and abilities. He is looking for people who are willing, yielded, and empty. Let God build you, your ministry, and your reputation and career. When the time is right, He will deliver you just as He delivered Joseph. Then you will see the fulfillment of your dream, just as Joseph did.
BUT GOD…MEANT IT FOR GOOD
Then his brothers went and fell down before him, saying, See, we are your servants (your slaves)!
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p; And Joseph said to them, Fear not; for am I in the place of God? [Vengeance is His, not mine.]
As for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are this day.
GENESIS 50:18-20
Whatever may have happened to us in the past, it does not have to dictate our future. Regardless of what people may have tried to do to us, God can take it and turn it for good: We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose (Romans 8:28).
Joseph’s brothers meant evil to him, but God meant good to him. They devised a plan to destroy him by selling him into slavery in Egypt. But in the end Joseph became second in command to Pharaoh and was the instrument used by God to save his own family and many thousands of others. That is a good example of the arm of the Lord triumphing over the arm of the flesh.
Sometimes we forget how big our God is. Through everything that happened to him, Joseph kept his eyes on God. He didn’t sit around and gripe and complain and hold a “pity party.” Despite what others — even his own brothers — did to him, he didn’t allow himself to be filled with bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. He knew it didn’t matter who was against him, because God was for him and would eventually work out everything for the best for all concerned.
Joseph knew that whatever happened, God was on his side. He let God build his life, his reputation, and his career. That is what you and I need to do. We need to put no confidence in the arm of the flesh, but rather trust ourselves entirely to the arm of the Lord.
DON’T TRUST THE FLESH
A voice says, Cry [prophesy]! And I said, What shall I cry? [The voice answered, Proclaim:] All flesh is as frail as grass, and all that makes it attractive [its kindness, its goodwill, its mercy from God, its glory and comeliness, however good] is transitory, like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely [all] the people are like grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
ISAIAH 40:6-8
When I first began to follow God’s call into the ministry, there were many people who told me I couldn’t do it, for a variety of reasons. The main two were that 1) I was a woman and 2) I didn’t have the personality to be a minister of the Gospel. But God wanted to use me, a woman, and He changed my personality.
Those people were wrong about my not being able to function as a minister because I was a woman, but they were right about my not having the kind of personality needed to minister. I was not a very nice person. I was harsh and hard, crude and rude, loud and overbearing, rebellious and stubborn. But God went to work on me and began to change me. He will do the same for you, if you will keep your eyes on Him and not on yourself.
NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH
For we [Christians]…worship God in spirit and by the Spirit of God and exult and glory and pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] in the flesh and on outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances.
PHILIPPIANS 3:3
You and I are going to lean either on the arm of the flesh or on the arm of the Lord. Either we will spend our lives trying to take care of ourselves or we will let go and let God take care of us as we put our faith and trust in Him.
Through Isaiah the prophet, the Lord has told us not to trust in the flesh, because all flesh is as frail as grass. Like the flowers of the field, it is here today and gone tomorrow.
We can put no confidence at all in the flesh. Apart from the Lord, we can do nothing. We must humble ourselves under His mighty hand and wait upon Him to exalt us in His good time.
ACKNOWLEDGE GOD
In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
PROVERBS 3:6
Do you know what it means to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways? It means to submit all our plans to Him to work them out according to His will and desire for us. And what He wants is for us to come to know Him in the power of His resurrection and to behold Him in all His beauty and glory. (Philippians 3:10.)
We need to seek after one thing, and one thing only, and that is to dwell in His presence, because only there can we experience the fullness of joy. (Psalm 27:4; 16:11.) It is a sign of maturity to seek God for Who He is, not only for what He can do for us.
If my husband returned from a long trip away from home, I would meet him at the airport thrilled to see him. Because I care about him, he delights in giving me things to show me his love. However, if I met him at the airport excited, not over his being home, but over finding out what gift he had brought me, he might be hurt and offended.
I have found that when I seek God’s face (His Presence) to get to know our wonderful, loving heavenly Father better, His hand is always open to me.
As His children, God is waiting for us to grow up in all things unto the stature of His Son Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 4:13.) Babies cry every time they don’t get what they want, but not adults.
The Bible teaches that a child should be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, promising if he is trained in the way he should go, he will not depart from it. (Ephesians 6:4 KJV; Proverbs 22:6 KJV.) God is training us up, His children, in the way we should go — not the way we want to go, but the way we should go.
THE LORD KNOWS THE BEST PLAN!
Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money.
Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air].
You ought instead to say, If the Lord is willing, we shall live and we shall do this or that [thing].
JAMES 4:13-15
It took me a long time to learn to want what God wants more than what I want. Now I want God’s will more than my own will. I know if I want something and God says no, it may hurt my feelings and be hard for me to accept, but it will be better for me in the long run.
One time I was sitting in my golf cart with my husband Dave making plans for our next vacation. We were having such a good time where we were, I was already planning our return to that same spot the next year. Suddenly the Lord spoke to me the words of James 4:13-15. I didn’t even know they were in the Bible until I searched them out for myself.
The Lord was not telling me I shouldn’t plan for the future. He was telling me not to get ahead of myself or to think too highly of myself and my schemes. He was letting me know that all my bright ideas are not worth two cents; it is His will and purpose that really matter. That was what I should have been seeking, not my own wants and desires. I had to learn the flesh profits nothing. Frequently, we make our own plans and expect God to bless them. I was showing Him disrespect by not acknowledging Him in my plans.
My problem was I had a haughty spirit. In Proverbs 16:18 we are warned: Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. The key to the abundant, joyful, peaceful life Jesus died to give us is humility. We need to learn to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt us in due time. One way we humble ourselves is by waiting on the Lord, refusing to move in the energy of the flesh. We need to learn to live one day at a time, being content where we are and with what we have until the Lord leads us to something better.
It is not wrong to plan a vacation, but it honors God when we acknowledge Him. When we honor Him, He honors us — and frequently gives us our heart’s desire!
The real issue here is attitude. If my attitude had been right, I would have begun with lifting my heart up to the Lord and saying something such as, “Lord, if it is a
ll right with You, I would really like to come back here next year. We are starting to make plans, but if You don’t approve, we will be happy for You to interrupt our plans anytime You want to. We want Your will!”
EMPTY OUT AND BE FILLED
Now the wife of a son of the prophets cried to Elisha, Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. But the creditor has come to take my two sons to be his slaves.
Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what have you [of sale value] in the house? She said, Your handmaid has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.
Then he said, Go around and borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels — and not a few.
And when you come in, shut the door upon you and your sons. Then pour out [the oil you have] into all those vessels, setting aside each one when it is full.
So she went from him and shut the door upon herself and her sons, who brought to her the vessels as she poured the oil.
When the vessels were all full, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel. And he said to her, There is not a one left. Then the oil stopped multiplying.