LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
God Is Going On
“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11, KJV).
We need to recover an assurance and confidence and conviction that, however things may seem – through all things, over all things, behind all things, God is pursuing His counsels – He is going on. Ceaseless in action, undeviating in course, with tremendous energy, He is working all things after the counsel of His own will.
Sometimes, as we look out, we wonder if God is doing anything, and in our prayer times we try to get God to do something. What we need is to realize that God is doing, and we need to get into line with His doings.
Perhaps He is not doing what we want Him to do, or what we think He ought to do, and in the way in which we think He ought to do it; He is not employing the means that we think He ought to employ – our bit of means, our bit or work. He may not just be coming that way, but He is pursuing His purpose, relentlessly, persistently, undeviatingly; and the need for the people of God is to be brought right into the straight course of His goings from eternity.
For He is going, and He is going in our day; it can be seen – more or less – in the world. But, seen or not seen, the fact remains -or our Bible is not right, and Paul was mistaken! And I am glad always to recognize this: that when Paul stopped travelling about the world and had all his tremendous activities among the nations curtailed, it was then that he saw the goings of God from eternity, it was then that he wrote this letter to the Ephesians, containing the eternal counsels of God.
It is a wonderful thing, is it not? When we are taken out of our work, when we cannot run about and do all sorts of things, when we are perhaps physically unable to do anything, God is going on.
Sometimes we think that, when we stop, God has to stop, and if we do not go, well, God will not be able to go! Oh no, He is going on – He is going on! May we be helped to understand His goings, and to get into His goings. (T. Austin-Sparks).