The Counsel of the Lord
The Counsel of the Lord
The Old Testament speaks of the Lord’s counsel.
Proverbs 19:21:
There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless
the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.
Jeremiah 10:23:
O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself:
it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Proverbs 16:9:
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth
his steps.
How desperately revealing these truths are! A man in
his heart thinks many things yet all the plans of a man’s
heart are worthless. It is only the Lord who can truly
direct a man’s steps, and it is only the counsel of the
Lord, the Word of God, that shall stand.
How these men of God of old laid bare the natural
man’s heart and how bare and impotent is the carnal
Christian to direct his own life! We need the Lord to
direct our steps according to the revealed Word of God.
Of a necessity the internal anxiety and hostility of the
natural man is raised and even the thoughts of the carnal
Christian are roused to indignation to learn these
truths for they are very humbling. It is the very last
thing the natural man or the carnal Christian wants to
admit, for each man thinks he is right in his own eyes
and each man thinks he can direct his own way. If you
will notice the prayer life of most Christians, you will
see that they try to direct the Lord as to what He ought
to do. They even imply that if man had the direction of
the affairs of the world and of the Church, he would
soon have things very different from what they are, and
the Kingdom of God would come to pass upon the earth
in spite of or without God. The carnal Christian needs
to humble himself before the Lord Almighty. The old
nature, even in the child of God, is not easily overcome;
but the Lord alone brings us to the realization of knowing,
“I am astray, save me. I am empty, fill me. I am
ignorant, teach me. I am perplexed, counsel me. I am
weak, strengthen me. I am deceived, deliver me.”
The one great work of the Spirit is to direct the heart.
Man’s work always begins at the wrong end to accomplish
things. Man always begins on the outside hoping
to work toward the inside; man cleanses the outside of
the pitcher while the uncleanness remains within. Man’s
aim is always to reform life; so he sweeps, garnishes
and polishes it. This is the way of religion frequently
called Christianity. But this is truly not Christianity for
Christianity is not what man does; Christianity is what
God has done through Christ. The object of religion will
always be to direct the flesh, and by rules and regulations
try to make the flesh bring forth spiritual fruit. All
man’s effort is in vain because it is man’s heart that is
at fault.
Matthew 15:11, 19, 20:
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man;
but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth
a man.
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
These are the things which defile a man: but to eat
with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
Man consistently endeavors to direct his own way,
and for the most part he does his best to direct the ways
of all others. Religion is made up of ordinances for the
flesh like “touch not, taste not; handle not. . . ,” which
are nothing more or less than “. . .commandments and
doctrines of men,” as Colossians 2:21 and 22 tell.
How truly opposite is the working of the Holy Spirit.
All man’s forms of godliness are simply the doctrines
and commandments of men which begin with the flesh
and continue in fleshly corruption ending in death. But
the Holy Spirit makes known unto us through The Word
the condition of ourselves. The Holy Spirit shows us our
sins and follies, our frailties and our infirmities, our weaknesses
and our errors, our faults and our failings. The
wisdom of Christ in doing His Father’s will rules our
walk, and the spirit with which we are filled—that power
from on high which energizes us—will bring forth newness
of life.
The Word of God directs the renewed-mind Christian
to the work of Christ—a work begun in grace, which
continues in grace in this life and terminates with Christ
in His glory. Our completeness in Christ in our renewed
mind is the measure to which we will manifest the power
of the gift of holy spirit.
One of the big questions always is: Do our works
glorify Him? Those who are walking in the spirit will
constantly keep glorifying God with their actions, while
man’s works will ever turn our thoughts to man and
direct our attention to man’s walk or to man’s acts or to
man’s experiences. Man’s work is always the end for
those who glory in themselves. It is the spirit’s work*
which glorifies God and enables man to do God’s work.
The question we must continue to ask ourselves day
by day is: Does our walk glorify God? This is the one
and only test we may apply. This test tells us whether
our walk is under the direction of the Lord or whether
we are simply acting by our self-centered senses, diverted
from God’s Spirit by another spirit. The church in Corinth
was specifically warned against “another spirit,”
namely, a different spirit which they had not received
according to II Corinthians 11:4. This tells us that there
is specifically another spirit who is at work to misdirect
and to deceive. This spirit from Satan would try to control
and deceive us today, even as II Corinthians 11:3
says, “. . .as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty.”
When we are under the influence of “another spirit,”
we can be ever so “religious” while totally out of alignment
and harmony with God. One spirit is from the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The other spirit is
from the god of this world, who is the devil. So many
things are said and done as the work of the Holy Spirit
of God which are wholly different from anything recorded
in the Word of God, and yet religion maintains
that they are truth. In reality there is only confusion,
and “God is not the author of confusion,” as I Corinthians
14:33 says. So then, whether enemies abound,
Satan assaults, days be dark with doubts and fears
increasing, even then we are “more than conquerors”
through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. It
is the Lord God who must direct our hearts unto His
love to the end that we will make the same confession
as recorded in Psalms.
Psalms 73:22-25:
So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before
thee.
Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast
holden me by my right hand.
Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward
receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none
upon earth that I desire beside thee.