SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/14/2021 9:58 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: “Chosen Sovereignly” and “Chosen After Prayer”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:1a
Message of the
verse: “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and
gave them authority”
I mentioned in our last SD that we
would try to look at two short sub-sections today, as I named these two on the “focus”
part of this Spiritual Diary. We will
begin with “Chosen Sovereignly.” I know
that people have trouble with that word and the word predestination, but they
are in the Word of God and as one thinks about that these words bring tension
in the lives of people, but the fact is both are true, and the fact is that we
with our puny human brains will never understand this while on this earth. Also this shows that man did not author the
Word of God, for if he did then there would be no tension in it, but there is
and this shows us that God wrote it and when we come to problems in the Word of
God we must go to Deuteronomy 29:29 “GOD, our God, will take care of the hidden
things but the revealed things are our business. It’s up to us and our children
to attend to all the terms in this Revelation” (The Message).
We have been studying the fact that
Jesus was training the Twelve and want to look now at several foundational facts
as we begin to look at this sub-section.
The first one is that these men were chosen by God as none of the twelve
initiated the idea of following Jesus and becoming His disciples, much less His
apostles. Mark 3:13 states “And He went
up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to
Him.” John 15:16 tells us “’You did not choose Me but I
chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that
your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He
may give to you.’” MacArthur adds
“The men themselves were not consulted nor were any other men. Jesus’ only consultation was with His
heavenly Father. Like Abraham, Moses,
David, Isaiah, and all the prophets, the ‘twelve disciples were chose by God’s
sovereign will and for His sovereign purpose, being foreordained to His service
before the foundation of the world. That
has always been God’s way. He divinely
chose Israel, He divinely chose His prophets and His apostles, and He divinely
chose those today who become the leaders of His own body, the church. Acts 13:1-4 and 20:28 clearly teach that the
Holy Spirit sovereignly places men in leadership in the church.” The next
foundational fact is the next sub-section “Chosen after Prayer.”
Some
may wonder why this was at all necessary if it was for-ordained before the
world began. Here is another thing that
we cannot understand, that is what prayer has to do with getting God’s
sovereign will accomplished, but we see here that Jesus Christ is the One
praying to His Father about these men and as we have seen these men were Christ’s
choice and His choice was the Father’s choice as He sought His Father’s will in
everything He did, doing exactly nothing independently or on His own initiative
as seen in John 5:19 and 30; and also John 8:28, verse we will now look
at. “19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to
them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is
something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these
things the Son also does in like manner.”
“30 “I can do nothing on
My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because
I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” “28 So Jesus said, "When you lift up the
Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak
these things as the Father taught Me.”
In the sixth chapter of Luke’s gospel we see that Jesus spent a whole
night in prayer before choosing the twelve disciples. “12 It was at this time that He went off to
the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. 13 And
when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He
also named as apostles.” The following
verses gives the names of those He chose.
Jesus chose those 12 because it was the Father’s will that this be done,
the Father’s gift to the Son as we see something like this in John 17:6 “"I
have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they
were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” MacArthur concludes “This same pattern of
prayer in choosing servants of the Lord can be seen in Acts 13:1-4. Those were very special men, not because of
who they were in themselves but because they had been sovereignly chosen by God
the Father to be disciples of God the Son.” Acts 13:1-4 “1 Now there were at
Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas,
and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been
brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were ministering to
the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and
Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3 Then, when they had
fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent
them away. 4 So, being sent out by the
Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I stated earlier I don’t know all the
answers to what we are writing about here, but I do know that in January of
1974 I had no intention of receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior, but I do know that
God’s desire at that time was to save me, and for that I am forever thankful.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am trusting the Lord to bring whom He
desires to be at our prayer meeting this evening for revival.
7/14/2021 10:36 AM
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