Arise from the Dead!

'Arise from the dead' (Eph 5:14)

All initiative is not inspired.
A man may say to you, 'take your reluctance by the
throat, throw it overboard, and walk out into the
thing!' That is ordinary initiative. But when the
Spirit of God comes in and says, in effect, 'Buck up,'
we find the initiative is inspired.

We all have any number of visions and ideals when
we are young, but sooner or later we find that we
have no power to make them real. We cannot do the
things we long to do, and we are apt to settle down to
the visions and ideals as dead, and God has to come
and say--
'Arise from the dead!' 
When the inspiration of God does come, it  comes
with such miraculous power that we are able to arise
from dead and do the impossible thing. The remarkable
thing about spiritual initiative is that the life comes
after we do the 'bucking up.'
God does not give us overcoming life; 
He gives us life as we overcome. 
When the inspiration of God comes, and He says--
'Arise from the dead,'
we have to get up; 
God does not lift us up.
Our lord said to the man with the withered hand--'stretch
forth thy hand,' and as soon as the man did so, his hand
was healed, but he had to take the initiative. If we will do
the overcoming, we shall find we are inspired of God
because He gives life immediately.
(Oswald Chambers)

Dear reader, what an encouragement this is to respond
to God immediately, to even hear his still small voice.
This past week we received some news that threw us
into crises. Did we stop and pray? No! We talked, and
talked It was soon repeating itself. Wasted hours of
sulks. Suddenly, I opened my mouth and said to Glen,
'We both feel terrible, come kiss me.'
He did. He then spoke saying,
'That is the nicest thing you have said to me all evening!'
Both of us moved under the inspiration of God.
Immediately the situation was defanged.
The situation has not changed but we have!