Week One Through Six of Oswald Chamber Questions

If you are new to this journey, let me invite you to come along. Every week for the next year, I will post a question posed in Oswald Chamber's devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. I have indicated the original date of the entry in the question for reference.

Post your thoughts, your questions, and your prayers.  God bless you as you answer the call to go deeper.

Week One:
If the Son of God is born into my mortal flesh, is His holy innocence and simplicity and oneness with the Father getting a chance to manifest itself in me? Is the Son of God praying in me or am I dictating to Him? Is He ministering in me as He did in the days of His flesh? Is the Son of God in me going through His passion for His own purposes?

“What was true of the Virgin Mary in the historic introduction of God’s Son into this earth is true in every saint. The Son of God is born into me by the direct act of God; then I as a child of God have to exercise the right of a child, the right of being always face to face with my Father.” – Chambers – August 8

·         My response to Week One question:

Innocence. Simplicity. Oneness. Jesus in me – manifesting the life He led on earth through my life. Of the three, I’d have to say my great lacking is simplicity. Seems that the older I get in the Lord, the more complicated I make it. I find that strangely enough my comfort zone has become the “do’s” and the “do not’s” of performance and formula instead of the freedom and the “It is finished” of grace.

What does it mean to exercise the right of a child? A child of God, no less. Complete confidence in the ability of my Eternal Parent to protect, provide, and guide. What does it mean to exercise the right of a child? A child of God, no less. Complete confidence in the ability of my Eternal Parent to protect, provide, and guide. What does it mean to exercise the right of a child? A child of God, no less. Complete confidence in the ability of my Eternal Parent to protect, provide and guide.Complete access – any time for any reason. And complete peace in the purposes of His hand.

Father-God, as this new year begins I give over my plans, my comfort zones, and my heart – again. I know that in You all things become new.

Week Two question:

What is my dream of God’s purpose?

“God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process - that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God” - Chambers (July 28)

My Response to Week Two Question:

God’s purpose played out in the purposes of my life. Do I dream of the big when God desires to grow me through the small? What happens when the purpose I thought was God’s plan seems to either take a detour or change direction completely? How do I handle the shift? Gracefully? Fearfully? Impatiently?
My eyes seem to only focus on the end, not the process. Sometimes I want to hurry through it to get to some abstract goal that only makes me feel further away than when I started.

God speaks to my heart now through an old book I am reading, All Through the Night, by Grace Livingston Hill. (late 19^th early 20^th century writer). One of the characters has just responded to a question about assurance when plans change: “How do you know?” “Because my Heavenly Father is managing it all, and I have trusted my life with Him. I know He will work it out for our best good. You see what He wants for us all is to make us like His Son, Jesus Christ, and if He sees that hard things will accomplish this for us in a better, quicker way than anything else would, then that is what He will do for us. I know for I have told Him I want to rest my life with Him – entirely.”

Simply – the truth.

Father-God, I see You walking on the waves and all I want to do is step out on the deep and come to Your side.

Week Three question:

Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God…Are we so worshipping God that we rouse ourselves up to lay hold on Him so that we may be brought into contact with His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship to God, or are we hard and dogmatic?

“When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.” – Chambers (March 30)

My response to Week Three question:

What is my prayer time like? If I am honest, there are more “petitions” than praise lately. Not that bringing my needs or the needs of others before God is bad. But are my petitions “flavored” with my opinions of how I think the prayers should be answered or am I seeking the mind of Christ?

What is the posture of my heart when I come before God? We are told to come boldly before the throne of grace come boldly before the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16: Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need) “Boldly” literally means free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, [and] assurance.

Father-God, I have free and fearless confidence in Your grace. May my time before Your throne be a time of worshipful praise and petition that brings my heart and mind in alignment with Yours.(Heb. 4:16- Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.) “Boldly” literally means free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, [and] assurance.

Father-God, I have free and fearless confidence in Your grace. May my time before Your throne be a time of worshipful praise and petition that brings my heart and mind in alignment with Yours.     

·        Week Four

We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to have the vision “batter’d to shape and use” by God?

“The battering always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people . . .whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends upon us, not upon God. We have to learn to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision, not in ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but to live in actualities in the light of the vision until we get to the veritable reality. The little ‘I am’ always sulks when God says do. Let the little ‘I am’ be shriveled up in God’s indignation-‘I AM THAT I AM hath sent thee.’” Chambers - October 4

My Response to Week Four Question:

We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to have the vision “batter’d to shape and use” by God?

“The battering always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people . . .whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends upon us, not upon God. We have to learn to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision, not in ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but to live in actualities in the light of the vision until we get to the veritable reality. The little ‘I am’ always sulks when God says do. Let the little ‘I am’ be shriveled up in God’s indignation-‘I AM THAT I AM hath sent thee.’” – Chambers October 4

What are the actualities of my “battering”? What or who does God use to mold and shape my heart? Am I pliable as clay in the hands of the potter?

Father-God, I lay my heart down as a living sacrifice and yield to the movement of Your hand.

Week Five:

Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?

“The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes.” – Chambers  August 31

My Response to Week Five Question:

Godly joy-absolute self-surrender. Not “Am I happy today?” or “What have I got that completes and satisfies me” but joy through surrender. Not exactly a popular definition. However, it is absolutely necessary for me to understand the joy of the Lord because it is my strength. Could it be that if I have no strength that I have no joy?

Father-God, You have told me that Your joy is like a rushing river that will nourish my roots, that Your joy is like Your voice – sometimes quiet and small, sometimes thunderous and mighty. You have told me that Your joy is like Your fire, consuming, yet sustaining, and You have said that Your joy is like the wind of Your Spirit, a gentle breeze and a cleansing force. Lord, You give me the assurance of Your joy to be my hope, and You give me the strength of Your joy– to be my strength.

 Week 6:

Has the way in which you have been serving God betrayed you into exhaustion? …Where did you start the service from? From your own sympathy or from the basis of the Redemption of Jesus Christ?

“The process of being made broken bread and poured out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other souls until they learn to feed on God…Be careful that you get your supply, or before long you will be utterly exhausted.” – Chambers  Feb. 9

 My Response to week Six Question:

Why do I do what I do? For God? For others? Or simply for myself? Am I exhausted tending an unauthorized fire that God did not ask me to build? Does my gender affect not only my expectation of service but others’ opinions as well? Women should do this. Men should do that. What is the starting place of my service? And am I feeding His sheep in a way that encourages and allows them to become independent and able to then feed others?

Father-God, I know I am invited into Your restful presence. I come to You first for rest and nourishment. I pray that the level I seek to know You is always the level at which I serve You.