Joseph Ivimey in 1821commented on a section of John Bunyan’s book, Pilgrim’s Progress written in 1678: he wrote, “Our author intimates that God sometimes communicates spiritual knowledge and heavenly joy by “dreams and visions of the night.” The Holy One “works all things after the counsel of His own will,” and employs whatever methods He pleases to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. The effect produced by dreams must be brought to a test. Here is a good, short statement expressing a rule to test concepts and dreams by….that what leads to God, must have come from God” If God has sent us, He will go with us.”
Right there is an observation and insight worthy of a lot of contemplation, “That what leads to God, must have come from God.” It is a good test of what we believe, hear, and dream….does what i hear, think, and believe lead to Christ?, and if it does, then it must have come from God, for the Lord is the only One who can lead us to Himself. Let us think and explore these things not fearing our doctrines will fall apart. And if they do come to pieces in our hands under the inspection of scripture, then they weren’t worthy of being held as the truth.
A lot of folks love to use phrases like, “in the sphere of our influence”, and it’s a good phrase which describes having the power to affect the development of hope and faith in people around us, although it has no formal authority. It’s also a phrase we use to make ourselves sound r-e-a-l-l-y spiritual and well informed, giving us the appearance of high standing, having high dignity and being very influential.
Regardless of the influence we think we have, there is only one path to the Father and that is through Jesus Christ, who is the ONLY path to God….that which leads to God must have been sent by God. John10:1 says the sheep enter by the door and if anyone climbs in any other way they are criminals and will be treated as such. In vs7 Jesus said again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” and vs9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” Jesus is the path to the Kingdom of God and he offers to each person an opportunity to return to their true roots of relationship with God.
After setting the stage, let’s get closer to our topic….A doctrine is a belief or set of beliefs held and taught, it is our internal descriptive theology and ideology from which we operate and continue on. On December 16, 1855, in his sermon titled “Heaven”, Charles Spurgeon spoke of four subtle doctrines which i think are worthy of discussion…..the doctrines of influence, impulse, direction, and of instruction by the Holy Spirit…four very important elements of how and why we do what we do that we would see Christ in us more clearly. This evening’s program is concerning the doctrine of influence….a bit brainy, but i think it’s a worthy discussion to have…..why? Because i don’t think, we the church, know why we do most of what we do nor why we think it’s a good idea…we generally have a fractured world view, and for many, the road ends with get saved and do right. We’re so busy accomplishing this or that, we’ve not explored God’s character in us, or how He operates…. nor are we very aware of how the gears of the Holy Spirit mesh in our heart.
i don’t want to focus on the people who use the doctrine of influence for the wrong reasons, although i must admit it’s difficult to speak of up without speaking of down, or right without speaking of wrong. i believe we need the contrast in order to understand better. Honestly, it’s just too easy to speak of all those who use their influence for evil, but i believe it’s better to look at those who use their influence for righteousness, how God raised them and used them so we may be better at positioning ourselves to walk the same path. i want to catch people doing good, not purposely set out to catch them doing evil. Remember: If God has sent us, He will go with us.