TEST YOURSELVES

 

• Choices, Part 16
  Rick Joyner

This week we will continue studying how to comply with II Corinthians 13:5: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith…” Last week we saw how we can evaluate where we are in the faith by the fruit we produce. As the Lord said in John 15, if we abide in Him, we will bear fruit. So, what fruit are we bearing?

A fruit tree does not stress about how much fruit it must bear. It naturally bears fruit simply by being what it is. Likewise, if we abide in the Lord we will bear fruit. If we abide in Him, He will do His works through us. So, our job and focus should be to learn from Him, get closer to Him, and see Him magnified in our lives. If we abide in Him, He will do His works and bear fruit through us.

Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light, and if we take His yoke, we will find rest and refreshment for our souls. No one puts on a yoke to relax but to work. However, if a little ox gets yoked to a big ox, who will do the work? Using this metaphor, there is no bigger “Ox” than the Lord. Therefore, to be yoked with Him is like getting a free ride to see His extraordinary works. If we are striving and growing weary, we are carrying our own yoke or someone else’s yoke, not His. We will bear far more fruit by abiding, resting, trusting in Him, and watching Him do His works.

Jesus still does everything today He did when He physically walked the earth, but He does it through His body. Growing in the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord and His ways will help us mature and letting Him do His works through us will yoke us even closer to Him. To see Him do His works is one of the most exciting and wonderful things we can experience in this life. For Him to use us is one of the most fulfilling and exciting things we can experience, yet He would not have told us to take His yoke if there was not work to do.

That being said, the Lord Himself is far more interesting than even His greatest works. Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.” If we abide in Him, the fruit will come naturally, but the fruit should never distract us from seeking to know Him better. By seeking to know Him better, we come to abide in Him; then comes the fruit.

         One primary way we abide in Him is to find our place in His body, the church. By this we grow in our gifts and ministries. The body of Christ is the most awesome, glorious, difficult, and trying entity on earth. Being part of it is one of the most fulfilling yet one of the most challenging things we can do. But this is how we grow in Him—by experiencing both His glory and the difficulties of His people.

         In Ephesians 4:16 we are told, “the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies …” A joint is not a part but where two parts come together. It’s not enough for us to attend services; we must be joined to His people. There is a place where we will fit and function as the part of the body for which we were made. We must find our place, get in it, grow in it, and begin to function as that member of the body we are called to be. As we do this, the whole body grows.

         I John 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship (koinonia) with one another ...” Koinonia in Him is a fellowship deeper and richer than any other we can experience in this life, even in our natural families. True New Testament church life is far more than attending services. It’s the greatest community and society on earth, and together, we can be engaged in the greatest adventure on earth. Nothing we can experience is more exciting than true koinonia. On the other hand, few things are more boring than the counterfeit church life based on religious performance rather than Christ living in and through us.

We have been called to reflect God’s kingdom functioning in the power and glory of the age to come. That is what the body of Christ will be before the end of this age. That is what we have been called to, and we must not settle for anything less.

As we see in the writings of the early church fathers, until the fourth century, any so-called “believer” who did not believe in the present-day working of miracles or believed that God no longer spoke prophetically to His people, could not be included in the fellowship of the church. Paul warned in II Timothy 3:5 (NKJV) about those “ having a form of godliness but denying its power” saying, “from such people turn away.”

To deny the power of Christ to do His works through His people is to deny Christ, because He has not changed. He is the same Christ today He has always been. Is this not what we see in Revelation 3:20, Christ knocking on the door of His own church to see if any would “hear His voice” and open to Him?