To Live Is Christ

Your Choice

Speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23,24). This is the hour of God's visitation, the hour when He is building His church. The Father is bringing everything to a climax in Christ Jesus, to a oneness in relationship and fellowship that far surpasses everything that natural man can manufacture in his mind. If you want to follow those who have a mind religion without the reality of the power and presence of God in their midst, governed by man's control and man's ministry, you have that choice. God never removes that choice from you.

Paul said it in this wonderful way at the end of his life: "I press on to know the Lord" (Philippians 3:12). Although he had experienced God in many wonderful ways, at the end of his natural life Paul still pressed on to know God, even in the power of His resurrection. We need to know the resurrection power of the Spirit of God in our daily lives, and we need to press on to know His resurrection in reality at the end, when we will have new bodies. But God has quickened and made alive what we have right now, if we have believed Him. That is sufficient, so that His will may be accomplished in and through His body.

Let us not look to man's teachings, as good or as bad as they may be. Let us look to God, who will lead us into all truth. Just knowing a doctrine will never give you the ability even to do that doctrine! Only the Spirit of God can give us the ability to be sons of God. This is the time we choose. Will we let God be God, or will we settle for our own understanding? Will we know God in the power of His indwelling? As we hear the truth, we choose.

We cannot be satisfied by just knowing about God; we must experience God, having fellowship and a relationship with God. That is why God made man, and that is why He redeemed man by the great sacrifice He gave. May we move on to know God, using the scriptures as God has designed them to be used, and worshipping God in spirit and in truth.