Eric's Beijing Diary

"...Thus, the present moment is like a desert in which simple souls see and rejoice only in God, being solely concerned to do what he asks of them. All the rest is left behind, forgotten and surrendered to him. God uses these souls to undertake and carry out his secret purpose, whether it occupies them passively within themselves or actively outside themselves. Their participation in this outward employment is voluntary and tangible yet at the same time innate and mystical. That is to say that God, satisfied that in their willingness he has found all he needs to accomplish whatever he may ordain, spares them trouble by bringing to pass for them what otherwise they would have had to achieve through their own endeavor. It is as though someone seeing a friend wishing to make a journey, were to do him a good turn by forthwith entering into him and going on a journey on his behalf; so that the friend wishing to make the journey has, at at the same time, made it by virtue of this mysterious substitution. The journey will have been free, being the result of a free decision on the part of him at whose expense it was made. It will be transcendental because it will have been accomplished without effort on the part of the friend. Finally, it will be mystical because its origin is unseen."

Hmmm... so who's taking this trip, me or God? But I think I understand what he is saying. Not sure if I would have expressed it exactly this way, but I do commend him for the effort, because the point does have to be made. It is a principle which, if lost, will result in unending frustration for the servant of God who is trying to accomplish God's purpose through human effort. We can never truly accomplish God's purpose except by God's effort. So regardless of how we might express it, there is necessarily a certain transcendence in knowing and doing God's will, because we cannot merely read a manual, follow it in our own strength, and expect to bear fruit that will please God. You can call it different things. I tend to refer to it is God's anointing. So I would say that if we move under the anointing, we will have a much more fruitful and rich experience, because we are sent by God to do the work that He ordains. But, although I pray constantly for the Lord's anointing, it is not as if I can just ask God to pour his oil of blessing on any old plan I come up with. Our prayer for God's anointing can only be honest if we are, at the same time, waiting on Him to show us His purpose. So we wait patiently for God's direction, then began to move in the way He leads, and then we can pray quite freely for His anointing, because God has no reason not to bless what He himself has ordered.