CHAPTER THREE
Living Out of the Overflow
Charles V. Weber
The
most common inquiry coming from the discussion about living out of the overflow
is “how can I live it?” There is no doubt that “how” is an important word, and
it ought to be repeated by a minister over and over as he prepares to preach.
As I look back on my ministry, I can see that I spent much time telling people
what they ought to do. I really didn’t help them much because they already knew
what they ought to do.
What
they really wanted was to be told how to do it. Telling people what they ought
to do when they already know is like clubbing a person. It is a form of
nagging. I want to put some techniques into your hands, which will show you how
to live abundantly.
Frequently
people tell how they have struggled to live victoriously. If trying should be
the measure by which they lived, they would rate high, but they feel defeated
and know that they don’t rate very far up the scale.
It
will help us to remember that we never can succeed by struggle. We can’t lift
ourselves by our bootstraps. Some people try. They see a higher level of life
and they begin to struggle to lift themselves to that higher level.
Paul
wrote, “God . . . hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace are ye
saved) and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5-6, emphasis added). We do not raise
ourselves; we are raised by the grace of God.
We
must forget this idea of struggle in connection with religious experience. Some
people have the idea that if they can do perfectly enough in time, they may
become the children of God. This is putting the cart ahead of the horse. We
become by the gift of God and not by doing. We do according to the
nature of a Son of God. It all sums up to this: We must put action as the
expression of Christian stewardship instead of a struggle to be God-like. We
are not God-like because of struggle, but because of the divine gift of God.
For
years I tried to be holy. I carefully watched every act of my life and
struggled a great deal with my thoughts. I never experienced any lasting
satisfaction from the results I obtained. I struggled and strained but usually
sensed defeat. One day I realized that if I could be holy by the process of
effort it would be a humanistic holiness. It would be my own righteousness,
which, at the best, would be the filthy rags of self-righteousness.
Religion
is not my own self-righteousness, but the righteousness of God in me. It is His
gift to me. Holiness does not come out of effort, but through a divine
endowment.
Instead
of struggling and straining to be good, then, we should surrender and give up
to God to receive His goodness. Surrender is the word that will lead us to
abundance through God. Usually that is the hardest thing we have to do. The
world lives by the rule of “preserve self” not “surrender self.” Automatically,
people flee to save self whenever anything occurs to disturb the status quo
and there is an instinctive basis for it. However, such a course of action
leads to a false security and will cheat them of life.
Jesus
spoke an important truth after He rebuked Peter for insisting that they would
not let Him die. He said, “Thou savourest (understandeth) not the
things that be of God, but those that be of men . . . If any man will come
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for
my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:24-24, emphasis added).
Peter
understood the way of men. It was to save self, so he quickly insisted the
Master should save Himself. But Jesus knew the secret that brings life, and it
was the way of God. The secret was the way of surrender. He that will “save his
life shall lose it” and he that will “lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
It
is hard for the worldly-minded to see this secret. It is too paradoxical to
seem reasonable. It is foolish to believe the way to have a thing is to give it
up. The whole world believes that to have a thing you must get it in your
possession and hold on to it. They believe the way to get is to grab. But that
is the worldly-minded idea of possession. It is false.
The
only things which are really yours are those which will be yours forever. You
may hold some things in your possession now or hold legal title to them, but
some day you will relinquish them because they are not really yours. The things
that are really yours are those that you give up.
For
many years I used the Promise “Ask and it shall be given you” as the law by
which to receive the things I desired. But now I have found a higher law of
receiving. It is “give and it shall be given unto you.”
It
is a purging law because when you give up a thing you are cleansed from
selfishness. It is the law of the overflow because He said, “Give and it shall
be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running
over, shall men give into your bosom” (Luke 6:38, emphasis added). You
receive more than you give.
Despite
the superficial conclusion of the worldly-minded, the way to abundant life is
by the surrender of self and all of the things of life. “He that will lose his
life for my sake shall find life.”
Jesus
clearly teaches this, and we find it in the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor
in spirit,” blessed are they that mourn” and “blessed are the meek” are three,
which will illustrate what I mean.
The
“poor in spirit” refers to those who have surrendered the material things of
life. Stanley Jones suggests the “renounced in spirit” and another writer puts
it in the “detached in spirit.” It doesn’t mean you have sold your home and
business. You may have them in your possession, but you are detached from them.
You
are not enslaved by them. Some people are slaves to their homes. Some are
slaves to their business or their jobs. Jesus said those who have surrendered
the material things to God are happy.
“They
that mourn” does not refer to a sad faced religious experience as some have
thought because Jesus teaches us that the Gospel is good news. It refers to
those who are living for others--they that are carrying the burdens of others.
They have a soul-burden that is a type of heavy foreboding.
The
meek are those who are detached from self. They do not consider themselves very
important. They no doubt have rights but they do not consider them important
enough to make an issue be-cause of them. They have surrendered self.
Jesus
said those who surrendered things, self, and lived for others, would receive.
What? “Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” They shall be comforted.” “They shall
inherit the earth.” In other words, when we make a complete unconditional
surrender to God we receive the realm above (Kingdom of Heaven) the realm
within (comforted) and the realm without (inherit the earth.”)
The
richest people on earth are not those who have the most money but those who
have received this secret of life. “All things are yours . . .and ye are
Christ’s and Christ is God’s (I Corinthians 3:21, 23).
When
you are frustrated, beaten, discouraged, and hungry, you will find complete
release in full surrender to God.
When
you give up to God and all struggle ceases, the surrender makes you receptive
for the gift of God. The first thing that comes then is a sense of relief, and
the second thing is a feeling of wholeness.
Suddenly
you feel an abundance as if a dam has gone out and the water is rushing over
you. Usually in such an experience God becomes very real to you.
OBEDIENCE
Most
everyone has had experiences of abundance when they realized wholeness, which
they knew, was the gift of God. Then in their thinking they have wished that
life could be like that all the time. Frequently, however, these experiences
have been far apart and the gaps between have been filled with spiritual
dryness and a feeling of inadequacy. The question is how can we narrow these
gaps so abundant living can be a continuous experience in our lives.
I
think obedience is the word that will help us on that point. When we
surrender, the next step is obedience. The analogy of the vine and the branch
in the fifteenth chapter of John indicates the fact that the nature of God will
be in us if we “abide in Him.” He said, “If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love” (emphasis added).
We
receive living water by surrender but we find a continuous stream of it by
obedience. Our obedience to God keeps the stream flowing. If there were
immediate obedience in every instance the flow would hardly be interrupted.
Usually our lives are made up of one struggle after another over this matter of
obedience.
There
is a thing we need to do but it seems difficult so we seek a way of escape from
it. After a prolonged period of struggling to escape, we see we cannot find a
way out so we rather grudgingly surrender and obey. The trouble is the period
of resistance served to choke the channel until even our obedience failed to
renew our abundance.
Instant
obedience to God becomes an important factor in living out of the overflow.
PRACTICING THE PRESENCE
The
man who is conscious of the presence of God will always feel adequate. It is
when we lose the “presence” that we are forced to fall back on human
resources. Actually living out of the overflow means to live in God’s
presence.
Practice taking God with you
wherever you go.
Think of Him helping you decide
every question.
Thank Him for His help.
Seek Him for guidance.
Turn to Him when you are tempted or
weak.
Seek Him when you stumble or sin.
Live as if God is your very breath
of life.
If
you will do this, you will be living out of the overflow. Life will be lifted
to a higher level and you will find a marvelous victory. You can live
abundantly. You can be victorious despite handicaps.
This
is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
asking
God to lift you to a higher level where you too can experience victorious
living in spite of the handicaps.
No comments:
Post a Comment