God on many occasions and in many ways spoke to the fathers through the prophets. The prophets did not speak to God and tell Him what to do. God spoke to the prophets. It is God who initiates His work.

We need to get all of this religious ambition out of our life. The Lord is not sitting up in Heaven waiting to see if we dare to trust Him by putting ourselves out on a limb. He said He would build His own Church on the Rock that He Himself is. He will do exactly that, but He has to have someone who will wait on Him for as long as it takes to hear His voice—fifty or sixty years if necessary!

But then you will be called down from the wall. "Come down and talk to us. You need to hear our ideas. Come down from the cross. Prove you really are a son of God. Do something—anything—but don't just hang there."

Everybody knows what you should do just like they knew what Job should do.

The truth is, everyone is wrong. They are guessing at God's will; they do not actually know it.

The question is, does God truly have a plan? Is He carrying it out? Does He know what He is doing? Or is He waiting for us to take the bull by the horns and launch out into some kind of effort to save souls from Hell and build His Kingdom? Is it up to God or up to us? Are things at a standstill until we act?

I think many Evangelical leaders and people would answer, "It is up to us to make the first move and then God will respond and help us."

I believe the Bible answers, "Present your body a living sacrifice until you prove God's will, and then be diligent with what He gives you, acting modestly and courteously according to the faith given you."

Sometimes I say to the Lord, "It is Your world, Your Church, Your Temple, Your Bride, Your Kingdom. I am glad to serve You however You direct, but I am not laying my hand on the work. You accomplish Your will, and grant me joy for the day."

Either God knows and cares or He has left the program up to us. Which is it? What do the Scriptures teach? We have to leave the work alone and wait for God if we hope to move past Pentecost to the rest of God, the fullness of redemption. Such patient waiting on the Lord requires faith and trust, and experience in avoiding the traps of passivity and worldly involvement, doesn't it?

The chief priests and elders were not waiting on the Lord for direction. This is why they murdered their Christ.

Sodom is our desire to worship our pleasures. Egypt is our survival and security in the Antichrist world system. Jerusalem is our desire to be our own god, to grasp spiritual power and achieve what we think ought to be achieved.

Satan moves through these three aspects of our personality to attack, overcome, and kill the Divine testimony. That which Satan cannot possibly do by power he accomplishes by tempting us along one or more of these tendencies.

To be continued.