Workers for God - Chambers, Oswald
The worker for god must live among the common- sense facts of the natural world, but he must also be at home with revelation facts.
Be a worker with an equal knowledge of sin, of the human heart and of God.
Never take it for granted because you have been used by god to a soul that god will always speak through you, he wont. At any second you may blunt your spiritual intuition, it is known only to god and yourself. Keep the intuitive secret life clear and right with god at all costs. Never pray for the gift of discernment, live so much in contact with god that the holy spirit can point out through you to others where they are wrong.
Our confidence is to be based on the fact that it is god who provides the issue in lives; we have to see that we give him the opportunity of dealing with men by ceasing to be impressive individuals. Beware of allowing the discernment of wrong in another to blind you to the fact that you are what you are by the grace of god. How do i deal with a sinful soul? Do i remember who i am, or do i deal with him as if i were god?
Never say, that truth is applicable to so-and-so, it puts you in a false position. To know that the truth is applicable to another life is a sacred trust from god to you, you must never say anything about it. Restraint in these matters is the way to maintain communion with god.
How many people have you made homesick for god?
The value of our work depends on whether we can direct men to jesus christ. Lovest thou me? . . . Feed my sheep. That means giving out my life-blood for others as the son of god gave his life-blood for me.
Christian service is not our work; loyalty to Jesus is our work.
Whenever success is made the motive of service infidelity to our lord is the inevitable result (cf. Luke 10:20).
The curse of much modern christian work is its determination to preserve itself.
This fundamental principle must be borne in mind, that any work for god before it fulfils its purpose must die, otherwise it abideth alone. The conception is not that of progress from a seed to full growth, but of a seed dying and bringing forth what it never was. That is why Christianity is always a forlorn hope in the eyes of the world. The element of faith that enables us to experience salvation is less than the faith required to make us workers for god. We have to bring into harmony all the strayed forces of our nature and concentrate them on the life of faith. Beware of the temptation to compromise with the world, to put their interests, their needs, first they have kindly become interested in our christian work, given so much time to it, now let us winsomely draw them inthey will winsomely draw you away from god.
We constantly ask, am i of any use? If you think you are, it is questionable whether you are being used by the holy spirit at all. It is the things you pay no attention to that the holy spirit uses. Your dead-set determination to be of use never means half so much as the times you have not been thinking of being used a casual conversation, an ordinary word, while your life was hid with Christ in god. As a worker, you must know how to link yourself on to the power of god; let the one you are talking to have the best of it for a time, don’t try to prove that you are in the right and he is in the wrong. If we battle for a doctrinal position we will see no further spiritually. Never interfere with gods providential dealings with other souls. Be true to god yourself and watch. Individual responsibility for others without becoming an amateur providence, is one of the accomplishments of the holy spirit in a saint.
As workers for god, feed your heart and mind on this truth, that as individuals we are mere iotas in the great purpose of god. Every evangelical craze is an attempt to confine god to our notions, whereas the holy spirit constrains us to be what god wants us to be.
The greatest service you can render god is to fulfill your spiritual destiny.
Where would you be if god took away all your christian work? Too often it is our christian work that is worshiped and not god. We rush through life and call ourselves practical, we mistake activity for real life, consequently when the activity stops we go out like a vapour, it has not been based on the great fundamental energy of god.
Beware of christian activities instead of christian being. The reason workers come to stupendous collapses is that their work is the evidence of a heart that evades facing the truth of god for itself i have no time for prayer, for bible study, i must be always at it.
The lives that are getting stronger are lives in the desert, deep-rooted in god; they always remind you of god whenever you come in contact with them. Never shrink from dealing with any life you are brought up against, but never go unless you are quite sure god wants you to, he will guide. Gods permission means there is no shadow of doubt on the horizon of consciousness; when there is, wait. God never guides by fogs or by lightning flashes, he guides naturally. Dont insult god by despising his ordinary ways in your life by saying, those things are beneath me. God has no special line, anything that is ordinary and human is his line.
Any worker following pauls advice to timo- thy preach the word; be instant in season, out of season . . . (2 timothy 4:2)will be continually sur- prised with new discoveries of truth, and there will be a perennial freshness about the spoken word. You cannot be too severe with self-pity in your- self or in others. Be more merciless with yourself than you are with others.
Remember, weariness in work which is attended by spiritual weakness means you have been using your vital energy without at the same time witnessing. Natural weariness in work while you witness, pro- duces steady and wonderful rejuvenescence.
If you obey god his order may take you into a cesspool but you will never be hurt.
If my life as a worker is right with god i am not concerned about my public poseusing discreet terms that will impress people; my one concern in public and private is to worship god. When a worker jealously guards his secret life with god the public life will take care of itself. Remember, in estimating other lives there is always one fact more you don’t know. You dont know why some men turn to god and others don’t, it is hidden in the inscrutable part of a mans nature.
If we realise the intense sacredness of a human soul in gods sight we will no longer romp in where angels fear to tread, we will pray and wait. Never talk for the sake of making the other per- son see you are in the right, talk only that he may see the right, and when he does see it you will be so obliterated that he will forget to say thank you. Notice carefully by what you are hurt and see whether it is because you are not being obeyed, or whether it is because the holy spirit is not being obeyed. If it is because you are not being obeyed, there is something desperately wrong with you. In the majority of cases we don’t care a bit about a soul rebelling against Jesus Christ, but we do care about his humiliating us. Nothing hoodwinks us more quickly than the idea that we are serving god. The last lesson we learn is hands off, that gods hands may be on. When you are brought face to face with a case of happy indifference, pray for all you are worth, but let him alone with your tongue the hardest thing for an earnest christian to do. It is much easier to do christian work than to be concentrated on gods point of view. Beware lest human pity pervert the meaning of Calvary so that you have more compassion for a soul than for the saviour. As workers together with god we are called upon not to be ignorant of the forces of the day in which we live. God does not alter, the truths of the bible do not alter, but the problems we have to face do alter.
Never allow anyone to confess to you unless it is for his own souls sake, make him tell god. The habit of confessing tends to make one person dependent on another, and the one who confesses becomes a spiritual sponge, mopping up sympathy. The judicious weighing of what you should allow other people to tell you and what not to allow them to tell you, depends on two things: your experience of life among men, and your experience of life with god.
Never give a soul the help god alone should give; hand him right on to god. Keep your mind stayed on god, and i defy any- ones heart to stop at you, it will always go on to god.
Our duty is to present god, and never get in the way even in thought. My business as a worker is to see that i am living on the basis of the atonement in my actual life. When you come in contact with the great destructive sins in mens lives, be reverent with what you dont understand. God says, leave that one to me.
We then, as workers together with him . . . The one referred to is almighty god, the creator of the ends of the earth. Think of the impregnable position it gives the feeblest saint to remember that he is a fellow-worker with god.