BECOMING ONE OF GOD'S MEN

"Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel" (Deuteronomy 33:1).

The man of God! How much this name means!

He is a man who comes from God, chosen and sent by Him. He walks with God, lives in His fellowship, and carries the mark of His presence. He is a man who lives for God and His will. His whole being is ruled by the glory of God, and he involuntarily and unceasingly causes men to think of God.

In his heart, the life of God has taken its rightful place as the all in all. His one desire is that God should have that place of prominence in men's hearts throughout the world.

We Need Men Of God

Such men of God are what the world needs. God seeks these men that He may fill them with Himself and send them into the world to help others to know Him. Moses was such a man of God that men naturally spoke of him this way - Moses, the man of God! Every servant of God should strive to be a living witness of what God is to him, and what he claims to be in all.

In a previous chapter, we said that man was to have fellowship with God. This fellowship is to be the privilege of our daily life and should be our highest priority during our morning time of devotions. We mainly referred to our personal need and how the power of a happy, godly life can influence others. The thought of a man like Moses leads us beyond our own personal needs. He was so closely linked to God that men by instinct gave this as his chief characteristic - a man of God!

This thought brings us out into public life and suggests the idea of the impression we make upon men. We can be so full of God's holy presence that, when men see us or think of us, this name will come to mind - the man of God.

These are the kind of men and women the world and God equally need. Why is this? Because the world, by sin, has fallen away from God. Because in Christ the world has been redeemed for God.

God has no way of showing men what they ought to be except through men of God, in whom His life, His spirit, and His power are working. Man was created for God, that God might live, work, and show forth His glory in him and through him.

God was to be his all in all.

The indwelling of God was to be as natural and delightful as it is strange and incomprehensible.

When the redemption of Christ was completed in the descent of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of men, this indwelling was restored, and God regained possession of His home. A person can give himself completely to the presence of the Holy Spirit, not only as a power working in him, but as God dwelling in him. Then, he can become, in the deepest meaning of the word, a man of God! (See John 14:16,20,23 and 1 John 4:13,16.)

We Need Complete Men

Paul tells us that it is through the power of the Holy Scripture that the man of God is complete.

This suggests that with some the life is imperfect and needs to be made perfect. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

This brings us again to the morning watch as the chief time for personal Bible study. We must yield our heart and life to the Word, for its teaching, its reproof, its correction, its instruction to search and form our whole life. In this way we will come under the direct operation of God, into full communion with Him, that the man of God will be complete - furnished to every good work.

Oh, to be truly a man of God! A man who knows and proves these three things: God is all; God claims all; God works all. A man of God has seen the place God has in His universe and in men - He is the all in all! A man of God has understood that God asks and must have all. He lives only to give God His due and glory! A man of God has discovered the great secret that God works all and seeks like the Son of God, to live in the unceasing blessed dependence of the Father.

Be A Man Of God

Brother and sister, seek to be a man or woman of God! Let God in the morning watch be all to you.

Let God be your all today. And let your life be devoted to one thing - to bring men to God, and God to men. Let it be our desire that, in His Church and in the world, God may have the place due to Him.

"If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven" (2 Kings 1:10). Thus answered Elijah when the captain called him to come down.

The true God is the God who answers by fire. And the true man of God is he who knows how to call down the fire because he has power with the God of heaven. Whether the fire be that of judgment or the Holy Spirit, the work of the man of God is to bring fire down to earth. What the world needs is the man of God who knows God's power and his power with God.

It is in the secret prayer habit of daily life that we learn to know our God, His fire, and our power with Him. May we know what it is to be a man of God and what it implies.

In Elijah, as in Moses, we see that being a man of God means a separation from every other interest, an entire identification with the honor of God. He is no longer a man of the world, but a man of God.

There is a secret feeling that all this brings more strain and sacrifice, difficulty and danger, than we are ready for. This is only true as long as we have not seen how absolute God's claim is, how blessed it is to yield to it, and how certain that God Himself will work it in us.

Turn back now and look at Moses, the man of prayer and of the Word. See how Moses grew out of these to be the man of God. See the same in the life of Elijah - the harmony between our hearing God's Word and His hearing ours. See the way in which it becomes divinely possible to be and live as a man of God. Then study how you can apply these to your own life.