The Disciples Requests

1 July 2012

Dear Phyllis,

Friday night I was invited to speak at an all night prayer meeting. The prayer meeting turned out to be a fellowship meeting until midnight, but they did sit through a thunder storm of a message. At first they asked me to restrict my comments to 30 minutes. Then it was doubled to asking me to speak twice for 30 minutes. Fortunately, I didn't look at my watch, and – praise the Lord – neither did anyone else. In a five hour meeting I wound up speaking for three hours. That was just as well, because the total prayer was about 30 minutes, and from 11:00 o'clock on, many were horizontal – literally.

I have no idea what happened. I prefaced my remarks by saying , “This will probably be one of the most important messages you will ever hear in your life, but I doubt seriously that it will have any impact in changing your life.” I say that because there are extremely few messages that are life-altering, pivotal, moments. But I do know that I had one of the most intense anointing by the Holy Spirit that I have ever had. What the Lord laid on my heart was so intense that it was almost inexpressible. I was encouraged that as the evening progressed, the interest factor of people leaning forward, seriously listening to what I was saying, continued to escalate. When I finally quit, everyone was stunned when we looked at our watches to discover that it was 11:00 o'clock.

In the gospels, we read that the disciples only asked the Lord to do two things for them. The first one is in Luke 11:1 where they asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” That was one of the most significant topics that has greatly refocused my life. The second request was in Luke 17:5 where they asked, “Lord, increase our faith.”

There is no need to discus the importance of faith. There is nothing more vital in the spiritual life than faith. Faith is everything. What oxygen is to the body, faith is to the spirit. Who doesn't want to have more faith? There have been untold thousands of messages on how to increase faith. If you ask ten people, you will get ten different answers, but I have never heard anyone discus the answer that Jesus gave to that issue. From Luke 17:7 to verse 10 you have Jesus' answer on how to have more faith.

Basically there are three points. But before He got to discussing how to have more faith, Jesus set forth the kind of heart that a person must have. He talked abut servants. If a person does not have the heart of a servant it is pointless to talk about faith. Big men, powerful guys, empire builders, religious politicians; don't need faith. They can do all right on their own; maneuvering, and pushing their way through the crowd to get to the top. Faith doesn't work that way. God gives faith to the poor. The reason we need faith is to serve. Jesus didn't talk about masters or kings here. He talked about servants.

He said that servants were out all day doing two things. Some were plowing and some were feeding cattle. Watchman Ni suggests that this is the two aspects of Christian service. Plowing is evangelism, and feeding cattle is taking care of believers. He may be right. Everyone's gift is different. Some are better at evangelism, and others are better at teaching. But the first requirement to having more faith is DO YOUR DUTY.Do the task the Lord has given you. If the Lord has given someone a gift in evangelism, and they spend all their time making model airplanes, it is pointless to ask the Lord for more faith. It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful (1Cor. 4:2). How is it possible that a person is irresponsible in doing what he is supposed to do and then expect the Lord to increase his faith. Forget it! Do your duty!

But the second point is huge. In todays labor relations environment Jesus' remarks are down right offensive. It difficult for the Holy Spirit to explain to us what is so important. In todays world, if a servant is out in the field putting in a hard day doing what he is supposed to do, and comes in at 6:00 pm the day is over. For a master to demand that servant fix supper for him before the tired servant can get a bite to eat himself, that master would be in court. But the point that Jesus is emphasizing is that the most important issue in life is waiting on the master. It is His needs first. I told the folks Friday night that I wished I had three hours to discuss this point alone, as there is nothing that is more vital. To what degree the Holy Spirit was able to get that point across to them, I don't know.

When I was a young man in the Air Force, I attended a Joe Carrol conference. I was considering leaving the Air Force to become a missionary, and asked Joe what was the most important thing for a missionary? Instantly he fired back, “The establishment and maintenance of a strong devotional life”.That was probably the greatest advice anyone ever gave me in my life It has become the corner stone of my life ever since. For a Christian, there is nothing more important than devotions. If we go to the dinner table three times a day, how much more vital is it that we spend a significant amount of time with the Lord? A person can just as well attempt to skip meals, and stay healthy; as they can neglect their time with the Lord, and expect to be in good shape spiritually. What kind of insanity is this, that a person can spend three minutes a day reading Our Daily Bread and saying a now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep prayer; and expect the Lord to increase their faith? This is a huge problem with most Christians. I challenged the folks Friday night, “Get a sheet of paper and write down your daily schedule. How many hours a day do you spend looking at TV or on your computer? And how much time do you spend with the Lord?” I doubt that most people give Jesus 5% of their time. It probably is more like 2 or 3%, if they are especially spiritual.

For years, Dave Martin was one of the top missionaries in Japan. He was a fantastic evangelist, and a man with gigantic faith. His heart was so bad he was supposed to be dead before he was 30, but he lived to be high 80s. One time he was having special dendo kais (evangelist meeting) with Peter Kobabe in Nagoya. Early one morning his wife, Jackie, called from Tokyo. Peter staggered to the phone, and told Jackie that they had been up late the night before. Dave needed his rest, and he was reluctant to call him. Jackie laughed and said, “He has been up for hours.” Peter quietly knocked on the door and was surprised to see Dave fully dressed sitting at the desk spending time with the Lord. Dave later told another friend of mine that, from the first day that Jesus came into his heart as His savior, he had never missed a day in his time meeting with the Lord. That was his secret. His devotional life was basic.

But what are our devotions like? Are we waiting on the Lord, or do we expect Him to be waiting on us. In Jesus' parable, the servant is waiting on the master first. Do you want more faith? Make His concerns more important than your own. Tragically, most of our prayer time is little more than a wish list asking the Lord for things that we want Him to do for us. But it is when He is seated, and we are attending the things that concern Him the most, that He can increase or faith. Really, what is our game plan? Are we out to promote our cause or His? Why have more faith if it is only to make our own program front and center? It is exhausting to try to grunt harder, to have more faith, to believe God for the things that we want so badly. If we only had more faith, then we could move this mountain or that tree. But if we forget the mountain or the tree, and focus on the beauty of who Jesus is, and devote ourselves to joining forces with Him – rather than trying to get Him to join forces with us – then we relax and are more satisfied. This is a lost message among the prosperity people whose basic concern is self-promotion.

The third point of the Lord's instruction how to have more faith is equally surprising. He talks about these servants who have been out all day putting in a hard days work; then they come in and fix supper for the boss before they can eat themselves. My goodness these are five star servants! But after all this, they are supposed to say, “We are unprofitable servants. We have only done that which we were supposed to.” What does this have to do with having more faith? Humility. Humility is one of the most important ingredients in the walk of faith. For one thing, pride is terribly onerous to God. God resists the proud (Jm. 4:6). Jesus said to the Pharisees, “How can you believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not that honor that cometh from God only?” (Jn. 5:44). Pride is a terrible barrier to faith but humility is the gate.

I believe the two greatest people that Jesus met in His life here on earth were gentiles; and we don't even know their names. The first one was the Roman centurion who had a sick servant (Mt. 8:5-10). He sent word asking the Lord to heal his servant. When he heard that Jesus was coming to his house he rushed out and said, “Lord, You don't need to do that. Just speak Your Word.” He didn't go himself, but sent someone else to Jesus with the message. This man was a high ranking Roman soldier. They were occupying Israel. No Jew was bigger than a Roman soldier. But he didn't consider himself worthy even to speak to Christ – much less have Him in his house. Jesus said of him, “I have not found so great faith in Israel”. That is some testimony that Christ gave of him. He was the greatest man of faith He had ever met. Jesus marveled at his faith, but I marvel at his humility.

The other hero was the Canaanitish woman of Tyre (Mt. 15:21-28). Jesus went with His disciples for a vacation way up north. This lady heard that Christ was in the area, and knew He could fix her demonized daughter. She sought Him out, and caused a terrific ruckus. At first Jesus ignored her, but she got on the nerves of the disciples so badly they begged Him to tell her to split. Finally Jesus said to her, “I'm sorry, lady, but I am only sent to help the Jews.” That didn't slow her down. She came and worshiped Him pleading, “Lord help me!” Then Jesus said, “It is not right to take bread away from the children and cast it to dogs.” That has got to be the most insulting remark in the Bible! It is one thing that the Jews looked down on the gentiles and there was strong feeling between them; but after being ignored so long, and such a serious rebuff – to be called a dog, and be considered like, to help her would be taking bread from children to cast to dogs – that would blow out the breaker box of the most gracious humble person. It is safe to say that, to get a remark like that, 99.999% of all people would turn on their heels and storm out of the building. That is as crushing a blow as it is possible to administer. And yet her response has got to be the greatest word in the Bible; “True, Lord, but the dogs get the crumbs which fall from the masters table”. That remark took the breath away from Jesus more than anything He ever heard in His 33 years on this earth. He was just floored; and remarked, “O woman, great is thy faith! Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”Jesus knew what was inside that woman, and His insult brought it out. That enabled her to take the highest pinnacle of faith in the gospels. Humility and faith are inseparably joined together.

In response to the request for more faith Jesus told the story about servants and said the path to more faith is by doing your duty, making devotion to the Lord primary, and humility.

Gomen nasai. I know I have written you about this before. I know this is not a new message. But it certainly was the Lord's word to us Friday night. I nearly went crazy trying to share with the people there the truth of these three things. Pammy was the interpreter. I don't know how it came out, but she seemed to do reasonably well in keeping up with me. I am not a candidate for more faith, but I certainly plead with the Lord to make these three things to be more functional in my life every day.

See you next week. Have a good one, for Jesus' sake.

bill