|
"What Is That to You?" |
||
|
Peter . . . said to Jesus, ’But Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ’. . . what is that to you? You follow Me’ —John 21:21-22 |
||
| One of the
hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from
interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the
danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan
for others. You see someone suffering and say, "He will not suffer, and I
will make sure that he doesn’t." You put your hand right in front of God’s
permissive will to stop it, and then God says, "What is that to you?" Is
there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get
into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find
it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing
things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to
advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise
through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to
maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come
through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else. Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God. |