Character of Gods Workman: by Watchman Nee & Herbert L. Fader & Stephen Kaung

Author:Watchman Nee & Herbert L. Fader & Stephen Kaung
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780935008692
Publisher: Christian Fellowship Pub.
Published: 1988-06-01T22:00:00+00:00

7

7

Be Stable

One

A workman of the Lord requires still another

character feature. This we would call stability—a

workman needs to be emotionally stable. Many before God are truly solid and firm, whereas many others are careless, unstable, and double-minded, and who oscillate according to their environment.

This undependable nature does not stem from any lack of a desire to be trustworthy but from an unreliable character. Such individuals change with the weather. They are not solid. Yet God requires those who would serve Him to have a firm, reliable, and unshakable constitution.

In the Bible we can find one particularly easily shaken man. We all know that man to be Peter. But before examining in detail the weak, vacillating, and unreliable nature of Simon Peter’s character, let us first consider a number of encouraging passages of Scripture that can give us all some hope in this area of concern now under discussion. First of all, we read:

Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. (Matt. 16.13-16)

Now on the basis of 1 John 5.1a (“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God”) and 5.13 (“These things have I

written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God”), we can assuredly say that Peter would not have known those things he uttered in his confession to Jesus at Caesarea Philippi unless he had 106

The Character of God's Workman

touched the life of God; for note the very next verse: “Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is

in heaven” (v.17). Please be aware of the fact that people may be with Jesus, even sitting with Him and walking with Him, but they will never know who Jesus is until such inward knowledge as Peter received is revealed to them by the Father who is in heaven.

Now let us pay close attention to verse 18a. Jesus continued by saying: “And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter [Greek, Petros, stone], and upon this rock [Greek, petra, rock] I will build my church.” We ought to realize that the true Church of God is not a shaking entity. For the Church, as our Lord declared here, is built on the rock. Let us keep this rock in mind as we pursue our discussion further.

Here in Matthew 16 the Lord would seem to be touching indirectly on what He had spoken about on another occasion as recorded in Matthew 7. There He tells us that a person had built his

house upon the

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