For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20).

The believer’s home is in heaven. It is easy to get caught up in the crosscurrents of gentile politics, for truly “the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing (Psalm 2:1; Acts 4:25).

Paul, the apostle, told us our true place in the current course of this world when he wrote, “For our conversation is in heaven.” Interestingly, the word Paul used for “conversation” in Philippians 3:20 was the Greek word politeuma. This is the only time Paul uses this word, which Strong’s Greek Lexicon #4175 defines as “a community, i.e., citizenship.” An example of politeuma being translated according to James Strong’s definition can be seen in the following English versions:

… Our citizenship in the heavens … (Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible – 1868)

… Our citizenship is in the heavens … (Young’s Literal Translation – 1898)

… Our citizenship is in heaven … (KJV – 2000)

J.C. O’Hair (1876-1958) wrote the following in his work Ambassadors of Reconciliation:

The word “conversation” here [in Philippians 3:20] could be translated “citizenship” or even “politics” … The citizenship and politics of every representative of Christ is in heaven … The believer is in the world, but not of the world. Unto him has been committed the Word of reconciliation. To him is given the ministry of reconciliation.

Bill (William) Petri also adds his voice to this discussion in his work Government, War and the Christian (2008, p. 11):

The word “conversation” in Philippians 3:20 is an interesting word. It is the Greek word politeuma and means “the commonwealth of citizens.” It is interesting that in the English language we take our word politic from this Greek word.

Others have also shared the meaning of the word politeuma and its application to Paul’s use to the Body of Christ. As David Pack commented,

The Greek word for citizenship is politeuma. “Politics” comes from this word! Christians do have a “political agenda,” but it is not of this world. Politeuma technically can also be translated another way. It can mean a townsman. It is correct to say that citizens of men’s governments are townsmen – of particular towns on earth.

Do God’s people practice politics? The answer is, “Yes” – in a sense! I have an absolutely deep political conviction. Let me say this more clearly, so you can understand. In one sense, Christians are very political in their thinking. Is God a political being? The answer is absolutely, “Yes!” But His politics are not of this society. He has His Own view of government, His Own view of correct and right politeuma, or politics. His kingdom – His government – “is not of this world,” but He does have a government.

The word police comes from politeuma. So do policy and poll. It is not hard to understand how police, policies and polls are connected, in one way or another, to politics. The large American cities of Indianapolis and Minneapolis derive their names from politeuma. These are large towns with lots of citizens. Minnea(polis) means the major city of Minnesota and Indiana(polis) means the major city of Indiana. Mystery is often stripped away when words are broken down into their most basic meaning.[1]

Dan Haden also observes,

A Greek city-state was known as a “polis.” The original meaning was close to the idea of “town,” but eventually was used to describe the ruling political center of a district or territory. In fact polis became a rather complex word to encompass the whole idea of government, and was therefore a more extensive word than merely “town” or “city.” We get the word politics from this word – the art or science of governing a group of people.

A politician is a person engaged in running the affairs of the polis; a policy is a reflection of wisdom in governing the polis; and police are those who control and regulate the activities of the polis. As you can see, this Greek word is foundational to many of our English words related to governmental matters.

In like fashion the Greek word polis was used by the Greeks as a basis for many other Greek words related to governmental functions. A politarches was a civil-magistrate (Acts 17:6, 8); a polite was a citizen of the state (Acts 21:39); politeia was the word used for citizenship (Acts 22:28); and politeuomai was a word to describe how people were to conduct themselves as citizens of the state. Then there was the word we are considering here, politeuma – a word used to describe the state itself or a commonwealth.[2]

Thus John Nelson Darby translated Philippians 3:20:

… Our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens … (Darby Translation – 1890).

Paul teaches us that as members of Christ’s Body we already have a citizenship, and it is in heaven. Our government is there; our King is there; our politics are there.

We have been called into His Kingdom:

That you would walk worthy of God, Who has called you unto His kingdom and glory (I Thessalonians 2:12).

We have been delivered from the earthly kingdoms and translated into His:

Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son (Colossians 1:13).

He is the only Potentate,[3] the King of kings, and Lord of lords:

… Our Lord Jesus Christ: Who in His times He shall show, Who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords (I Timothy 6:14-15).

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Bible Student’s Notebook
© 2008, 2009

For it is God Who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).

This is one of the most important verses dealing with the life of God in you. Here is what we see in this verse:

Here you can see that Father is at work in you. What a wonderful truth!

You also see He is accomplishing two things:

Allow this astonishing truth to get ahold of you!

Will and Do

This is God’s work in your life in a nutshell – “to will and to do.” Your Father is working something into you (“For it is God Who works in you”); He is working into you His Own will (“to will”). He is putting His own “want to” in you. This has always been His plan – to put in the believers’ heart the desires He wills them to have, so that they will “do” His will.

Delight yourself also in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart (Psalms 37:4).

Here in the Hebrew Scriptures we see these same two principles that we have been considering in Paul’s writings. First: “delight yourself also in the Lord” (keep your eyes on Him) and, Second: “He shall give you the desires of your heart” (then, follow your heart).

Someone may ask, “Can’t your heart lead you astray?” Surely, it can; but not while it is set on the Lord and the things that are above.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:2-3).

While you look to Him, setting your affection there, your Father places in you your heart’s desires. Belonging to Him, you are given a willing heart for the details of His life and purpose, making you His very vessel. Trust and acknowledge the in-working of His will. Stay close to Him and then, follow your heart!

You thus honor God and His design by being you.

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies
© 2009

God has made you who you are as a part of His new creation. Any attempt at knowing who you really are must start here.

Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (II Corinthians 5:17).

So, who are you, really? You are a new creature in Christ.

Paul wrote,

For to me to live is Christ … (Philippians 1:21).

In Galatians 2:20 he said,

I am crucified … but Christ lives in me.

Since it is true that we no longer live, but Christ lives in us, let me ask you this question: If you want to get to know who you are, who are you going to have to get to know? Him! In other words, to discover your true identity, you will have to discover Him Who alone is your life.

It is impossible to know who you really are apart from Him – apart from knowing Him. Realizing this one simple truth frees you from the “know thyself” world-view. You are delivered from it by knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom you have your new, true identity.

Hear Paul again,

That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death (Philippians 3:10).

The call of the believer’s life is not some human, self-centered psychology of “know thyself,” but by the divine, Christ-centered spirituality of “know Him.”

E.W. Bullinger wrote,

As to the natural man, all is different. The ancient philosophy had a motto continually sounding in its ears, “Know thyself.” This saying was introduced by Solon, one of the seven wise men of Greece, and the wisest of them all. A lawgiver, a great reformer, and a great patriot, 638 years before Christ, Solon gave this as his most precious wisdom. It was carved over all the schools and seats of learning, its letters may be seen today carved in the marble ruins of Greece. It was good, so far as man’s wisdom went; it was the best that man could do! Oh, but how impossible to obey it! It is the one thing man never could do. It is the one thing none of us know. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). If we could know ourselves thus, what then? When we came to this knowledge, and saw ourselves and our ruin, would it not end in despair? No, we can only know ourselves by the knowledge of Christ.

Christianity came and brought with it a loftier motto, a heavenly wisdom, a Divine truth: “That I may know Him.”[1]

Paul also wrote,

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (II Corinthians 3:17-18).

Beholding and Becoming

Paul tells us that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are changed into His image. This is the principle of what we might call Beholding and Becoming. As you behold Him, you are transformed into His image. This beholding and becoming is carried out and accomplished in the very details of your life. The Father is steadily at work in you, manifesting the life of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus He accomplishes this in the most difficult circumstances that life may throw at you. This is the great plan of God in your life.

Changed

The Father is transforming you, so that you are being “changed into the same image.” This word “changed” is the Greek word metamorphoō from which we get our word “metamorphose,” which Webster defines as, “to change into a different form; to transform.”[2] It appears three other times in the Greek Scriptures.

It is used twice of the Lord Jesus Christ’s transfiguration:

And after six days Jesus takes with Him Peter, and James, and John, and leads them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and He was transfigured [metamorphoō] before them (Mark 9:2).

And was transfigured [metamorphoō] before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light (Matthew 17:2).

This same word is used by Paul in Romans chapter 12:

And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed [metamorphoō] by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:2).

Image

Just exactly what is this “change”? We are being transformed “into the same image” of the Son. The Greek word for “image” is eikōn. Its usage by Paul the Apostle is very telling. He uses this word in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ being in the “image of God”:

… Christ, Who is the image [eikōn] of God … (II Corinthians 4:4).

… Who is the image [eikōn] of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature (Colossians 1:15).

Then Paul uses this same word in reference to believers:

For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image [eikōn] of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29).

And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image [eikōn] of the Heavenly (I Corinthians 15:49).

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image [eikōn] of Him Who created him (Colossians 3:10).

The Lord Jesus Christ is in “the image of God,” and you are being transformed into “the image of His Son.”

The first principle of knowing who you really are is to look to Him, to know Him, to keep your eyes upon Him – for all that you are is “in Him.”

Well did the hymn writer pen,

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (II Corinthians 3:17).

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him (Colossians 2:8-10).

Does it seem at times that you have lost your way? Does it seem like you don’t even know who you really are? Perhaps this is because others have been attempting to fulfill the role of God in your life. Maybe for years you have given way to their endless pressure and manipulation; but manipulation is not God’s method. God’s way is freedom, and He wants you to enjoy the freedom to know and be who He has made you to be.

How do you find the real you?

It may be quite different than you think.

It is not to be found in the methods and systems of man. Knowing who you really are doesn’t come from self-analysis, psychotherapy, counseling or self-help books and seminars, etc. Since God made you who you are, any attempt to “find yourself” – apart from Him – is simply futile. He alone knows who you really are. You must find yourself in Him.

Paul warned the Colossian saints of worldly philosophy, vain deceit, human traditions and worldly rudiments, which all distract you from being able to see clearly who and what you really are – “complete in Him.”

There are two simple principles given to us by Paul the Apostle that are key to knowing who we really are:

Look to Christ.

Follow your heart.

In our next two installments we will consider these crucial truths.

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies
© 2009

He who is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep.  The hireling flees, because he is an hireling, and cares not for the sheep (John 10:12-13).

Noah Webster defines “hireling” as “one who is hired, or who serves for wages.” Truly, religious hirelings are the respected order of the day.

As believers, we are to regard our “secular” employment as divine – “as unto the Lord” (Ephesians 6:5‑8; Colossians 3:22‑24; Titus 2:9-10). Thus, each believer’s vocation is indeed a high calling of God (Ephesians 4:1). As William Carey (1761-1834) would say, “My business is preaching the gospel, and I cobble shoes to pay my expenses.”

Often the man who teaches God’s Word is disdained, as if he were not genuine, if he is not religiously “salaried.” It is amazing how the tables have turned. The fact is that Paul was not for “hire;” rather, he was the bond-slave of Jesus Christ, making his living as a humble laborer – a “tentmaker” (Acts 18:1‑3).

Witness Lee brings his own testimony,

Paul worked with his hands at making tents (18:3) in order to support both himself and those who were with him. He worked in order to help his young co-workers. This indicates that Paul’s way was not that of today’s clergy who make a profession out of preaching.[1]

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies
© 2008, 2009

Paul, our apostle (Romans 11:13), made his living as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). He conducted his life and ministry outside of the religious system. He taught the divine value and purpose of work.

Many believe that to serve God, really, one must be religiously “employed,” but the truth of the matter is that every believer is called to “full-time” ministry (I Corinthians 10:31; II Corinthians 5:18) in the context of their individual daily lives.

“Tentmaking” will find its own unique form in how we make a living. We may be a construction worker, or a computer technician. We may farm, or do electrical work. Perhaps we are a physician, salesman, or teacher. It matters little in the eternal perspective of things what the details of our “tentmaking” involves. The important thing is that we are “tentmaking.”

No matter what the circumstances of life are around us, regardless of what earthly occupation we may use to supply our needs and those of others, we each have a divine vocation to which we have been called. Yet it is not “tentmaking” that defines us or our lives. Paul was not “Paul, the tentmaker.” No, he was defined by heaven in light of his divine calling and vocation; he was “Paul, the apostle.”

We live our lives for the Lord, serving Him, and we do so in the context of “tentmaking.” More often than not, this context can have the appearance of a monotonous, daily routine; but the very Life of God running its full course in our day-by-day circumstances will make our lives anything but monotonous and routine.

We must not confuse what we do to make a living with the purpose of our lives. Our occupations are just the contexts in which we carry out our divine calling. The circumstances of our earthly labors are the backdrop for God’s working in our lives.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies
© 2009

I will praise You; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).

We are God’s wonderful creation; but we are frequently imitators of others. We, often unconsciously, pattern our lives after those whom we admire, or those who are close to us. We adopt their likes and dislikes, their habits, their viewpoints, even their routines.

This is not necessarily a bad thing for you. Those in your life are there for a reason – God uses them, both positively and negatively, as part of His molding of your life. Positively, He uses aspects of someone’s life to awaken your heart to something lacking in your own, and then He steadily develops it in you. Negatively, He uses something in the life of another to move your heart away from a certain trait, character or lifestyle – to purge something out of your life.

You are also in the lives of others as God’s influencing agent in them as well. He uses this divine placement of our lives reciprocally. Like stones in a rock tumbler; the stones actually being used as a part of the polishing process – mutually to each other in the midst of agitating circumstances, until a smooth, beautiful stone appears from an otherwise ruff and ordinary rock.

Conversely, maybe you have allowed others to overstep this mutual influence, and to actually attempt to live your life for you – or at least parts of it. In your relationship with them you have not been free to follow your own heart; thus creating apprehension, tension, anxiety, stress and heartache. Maybe your desire for “peace” and “harmony” with certain people close to you; your dread of the potential “drama” and “displeasure” that they can create; or even your fear of losing their “friendship” and “love,” or your desire to be “accepted” or “approved” by them has caused you to give way to them and to lose yourself in the process.

You must never forget that you are not only God’s handiwork by your own entrance into the first creation (your birth), but you are even more so His masterpiece-in-progress through His new creation (“in Christ”). God intends His crafting of you to be a unique expression of Himself, even in the smallest and seemingly insignificant matters of life. There is no detail of His creation that is too small for care and concern.

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows (Matthew 10:29-31).

Refuse to allow anyone but God to be God in your life. Decline the attempts of others to live their lives in you – this is God’s place alone. Resist the outside pressure to conform.

God does not need two of the exact same person. Even seemingly “identical” twins are not exact mirror images of each other in every way. You are designed to be a unique manifestation of some wonderful aspect of God. Some of this may presently be in the “rough,” but He continues His steady, faithful work in you, at His Own pace as it pleases Him. God’s plan of redemption includes “rescuing” who you really are – your unique personality – from the original creation; of “cutting” and “polishing” His “diamond in the rough” until it radiates His glorious reflection, which is all His work and timing.

You are unique. You have a unique purpose. You uniquely belong to Him. Honor Him by being who you are.

For none of us lives to himself, and no man dies to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living (Romans 14:7-9).

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies
© 2009

On our journey through this life, you and I may be at different places. Being at different places does not necessarily mean that either of us is “ahead” or “behind” of the other spiritually. It just means that the Lord needs to take us on different (and yet at the same time similar) paths due to the uniqueness of our personalities, upbringing and influences, as well as His own unique purpose in our lives – all as it pleases Him.

But now has God set the members every one of them in the body, as it has pleased Him (I Corinthians 12:18).

In our diversities, He works all in all!

And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God Who works all in all (I Corinthians 12:6).

Miles Stanford aptly wrote about this process:

So many of us, after having entered into some of the deeper realities of our Lord, seek to immediately pull or push others into this wonderful advancement; and then we wonder why they are so slow to learn and seemingly apathetic in their understanding and concern. We so easily forget the many years it took, and by what wandering wilderness ways our Lord had to traverse with us in order to bring us over Jordan and into Canaan.

God is active in your life, and in the lives of your brethren. You do not need to live a life filled with care, frustration, discouragement and guilt concerning where the Father has you on your journey. You can by faith lay hold of the reality of His Own unique and personal workmanship in your life. Rest in His great workmanship. Be content with what He is accomplishing.

Paul reminds you of what your walk with the Lord is all about:

As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him (Colossians 2:6).

You are to continue walking in divine life the same way your received it! How did you receive it?

For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).

But to him who works not, but believes on Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness (Romans 4:5).

You began the divine life by grace through faith, without works, and Paul says this is the way you continue to walk in it. “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”

The Galatian believers had fallen into the trap of believing they were somehow their own workmanship – that their life was of their own making, that they were somehow in control of their own small universe.

O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:1-3).

Again, Paul brings us to this basic principle of life: “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”

Rest, look and wait upon your Father. Let your only expectation be from Him, and you will never be disappointed!

My soul, wait only upon God; for my expectation is from Him (Psalm 62:5).

But they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).

For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19).

Being confident of this very thing, that He Who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

Have complete confidence in God, your Father. Your journey is as unique as you are. What He began in you, He will see to its full completion. He will do it!

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies
© 2009

Oscar Wilde wisely said, “Be yourself: everyone else is already taken.”

The fact is, you are uniquely special; God made you that way. His fingerprints are all over you. You are His distinct handiwork, as unique as the individual snowflakes.

God makes no two snowflakes alike – yet each one is a genuine snowflake. You are a genuine original as well; He did not stamp you out by some uniform template. He made you an original, and it is important for you to simply be who He has made you – your own unique self.

Don’t waste your precious life trying to be someone that you are not – someone other than who God has made you. The world (often including family and friends, and even members of Christ’s Body!) will often try to mold you into someone other than who you really are. Dare to be that special person that God has made you in Christ – regardless of what anyone else thinks about it!

There is a definite reason that you are who you are. There is a reason that God has made you distinctively different. God has created you the way you are for His Own special purpose and pleasure.

… You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created (Revelation 4:11).

Remember that ultimately you have only one Person to please; the One who has made you after His Own design. To attempt to please others is a vicious trap that actually disqualifies you from being Christ’s servant.

… Do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10).

Why is this so? Because you can’t possibly “please” everyone. If you seek to please men (i.e., trying not to “hurt anyone’s feelings,” or “upset anyone,” or “insult anyone,” or “rub anyone the wrong way”; or trying to “make everyone happy,” or “do what everyone wants,” etc.), then you will end up not pleasing and serving God. Obviously this doesn’t mean that you should deliberately seek to displease others; but ultimately, no matter what you do or say, it will meet with someone’s disapproval and displeasure, and if you are always worrying about pleasing everyone, the result will be that we will not please God.

If your goal and object are to try to please others you will be held in the constant bondage of their ever-changing opinions, demands, suggestions, likes and dislikes. It is tiring to be trying always to be what others want you to be – to live up to their endless expectations and visions of what they think you should do, and of who they think you should be. The good news is that there is no such pressure with God. God loves and accepts you just as you are; after all, He is the One who made you that way.

Maybe there are things that you don’t like about yourself. No worries; you are God’s workmanship – His work-in-progress. This leaves no place for self-improvement or self-effort. Rest in Father’s wisdom and ability, and learn by faith in Him, to be comfortable in your own skin. This divine process was something about which Paul became confident.

Being confident of this very thing, that He Who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

Don’t let anyone – even yourself – try to push you around. Don’t let others try to live your life for you. Everyone has been given their own life to live. No one has the right to live their life and then turn around any try to live your life for you as well. This is not fair to you, nor is it fair to God and His design and work in you. Stop worrying about what others think of you. Stop being anxious about the approval and acceptance of others. Enjoy being who God made you to be.

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies
© 2009

Spiritual growth does not occur at the rate, or in the methods that are traditionally accepted. Instead God works steadily and effectually for His Own purpose. He is in no rush by human schedule. He works to bring us to a place of spiritual quietness, which along with assurance, is the genuine effect of righteousness.

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever (Isaiah 32:17).

His divine work may not be done in accordance with your time tables, or by your predetermined methods or standards. Nonetheless, He is the Creator, and you are His creature. He is the Potter, and you are His clay. He molds and fashions you according to His own will and design.

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our Potter; and we all are the work of Your hand (Isaiah 64:8).

“Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My Words.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the Word of the LORD came to me, saying, “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?” said the LORD. “Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel” (Jeremiah 18:2-6).

Even Paul the Apostle echoes these important thoughts:

Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? (Romans 9:21).

The Master Potter is faithfully and steadily at work in you. Make no mistake about it: He works all things after His Own will.

In Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who works all things after the counsel of His Own will (Ephesians 1:11).

His hand in your life leaves no place untouched. Even that which seemingly is working against you is used by your Father to fulfill His Own good purpose in your life.

And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

This truth can be seen in the life of our Apostle. Paul wrote to the Philippians from prison. The circumstances of his life had the appearance of working negatively – extremely negatively. Yet, he wrote with such confidence that the opposite was actually true:

But I would that you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel (Philippians 1:12).

Another powerful example is demonstrated in the life of Joseph. The same was true with him. His brothers had sold him into slavery. This had been, upon the surface, a very sad and unfortunate turn of events; but Joseph saw a divine purpose:

But as for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good (Genesis 50:20).

At times God will even lead you through “the valley of the shadow of death;” but as long as He is with you, even the darkest, lowest valley is really the higher ground!

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me (Psalm 23:4).

Paul experienced such gut-wrenching hardness, that at times he even “despaired of life,”

For we would not, brothers, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life (II Corinthians 1:8).

However, he was quick to add,

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God Who raises the dead (II Corinthians 1:9).

The fact is simple – you can trust God. He alone is truly trustworthy; and He has a definite goal in sight for you! Your Father is taking you on a journey that has as its final goal conformity unto Christ.

For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29).

To be conformed to the image of His Son is your predestination. To take you on this journey will mean many years of wilderness and valleys. His current goal is to bring you to a place where you find your completeness, satisfaction, contentment, glory, thanksgiving and rejoicing in Him alone, and not in your circumstances. This is what a walk of faith is all about: not saying, “Look, look …” while you point to the circumstances all around you, but saying, “Look, look …” while you point to your Lord and His cross. For Christ and His finished cross-work are the very object of the Father’s eye; and so He is working to make them the object of yours as well.

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Bible Student’s Notebook
© 2000, 2009