And I besought Thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not. Luke 9:40
Missionaries in the Senegal region of Africa detected some unusual behaviour among the chimpanzees that they encountered during their travels from one village to another. The chimps would gather nearby and watch as the missionaries would set up camp for the night. They paid attention to the way in which the missionaries gathered the wood for a fire, and placed the wood in order. They also watched as the missionaries started up the fire and cooked their supper. The next day, the missionaries, as they moved through the area where the chimps lived, would discover that the creatures had copied the actions that they had witnessed the evening before. The chimps would have gathered firewood, and would have placed it in order, just as the missionaries had. But there was one big difference: the chimps would have not started a fire. They did not have the ability to do so. They were like the disciples who could not cast the evil spirit out of the boy in Luke 9. There were some things that only the Lord Jesus could do. And there are some things that only He can do today regardless of how we might try to imitate Him.
The great commission that the Lord Jesus gave His disciples, and that has been passed down to us is a major part of what our Lord has committed into our hands. Preaching and baptizing, and everything that goes along with them, are our responsibility, and we are urged to carry out this responsibility to the best of our abilities. But there is a limit to what we can do. No preacher, no witness, no prayer warrior, no distributor of tracts and invitations can bring a lost soul to repentance and faith in Christ. Only the Holy Spirit can do that because salvation is of the Lord, and not of us.
We are given other instructions as well, and with all of them, there is a limit to which we are able to go. Like the chimps who were able to gather firewood but who were unable to create fire, we can follow the instructions but we are able to produce results. We are told to read our Bibles, but it is the Holy Spirit Who uses the Scriptures to bring us into conformity with our Lord and to produce spiritual growth and maturity within us. We are told to be zealous of good works, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit to use those works to produce glory to God. We are told to be working, waiting, and watching for the return of our Lord for His own, but it is the Holy Spirit Who produces patience and hope in us. Much as we appreciate the ministry of godly men at our conferences, none of them are able of themselves to produce a difference in the Lord’s people.
What do you and I have to be proud of, regardless of how faithful and holy we strive to be? It is only our Lord Who can bring forth blessing. Let us pray that He will do so. -Jim MacIntosh