The fire will test the quality of each person’s work. (1 Corinthians 3:13 NIV)
I have no doubt
that you love the Lord. I am not raising any question about that. But, I do
say again, we are involved in a great system which is a very complicated
thing, and a great deal of it is not of the Lord. It is something that man has
brought in. Man has put his hand upon the things of the Lord, and man has made
things according to his own mind, and therefore a great deal has come in which
is of man and not of the Lord. And when we say that, we are not only thinking
of Christianity in general, we are thinking of ourselves. This is true of
ourselves. We have all come into something called Christianity, and we have
all taken on something of Christianity, and there may be a great deal that we
have to get rid of, and come back to the simple fundamental reality. And the
fundamental reality of all realities is the presence of the Lord. We have got
to know that the Lord is with us, and that the Lord is with us in all that we
do, that this did not originate in our mind. It did not originate in our will,
it did not originate in our emotion. It did not come from our soul, this thing
has come from the Lord in every detail, like the tabernacle. Just like Jesus
Christ, in every detail it has to come to us from God.
That ought to send
us back to our knees – to go through all our work. It may be necessary for us,
from time to time, to stand back and ask the Lord about all that we are doing.
'Is this out from God, or is it something out from ourselves? Is this way of
doing things the mind of God, or is it our mind? Is the Lord in this, or have
we come into it?' You see, that is a great deciding matter. Make no mistake
about it! Everything that is only of man is going to perish. Sooner or later
it will be shaken. Every man's work shall be tried in the fire, says the Word
of God.