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The principle of progress

In coming to the Principle of Progress, we refer to Jesus’ well-known illustration concerning the broad and the narrow ways, Matthew 7:13,14.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate;  for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat;

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”.

A way, or road, has an entry and an end. To get from the one to the other there must be progress. The Revised Standard version gives greater clarity to the above verses so we will re-quote a part of each verse as follows

“The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction” – “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life”.

Because we are considering the Principle of Progress, rather than following an exposition on the “two ways”, and as the “two ways” illustration is self-explanatory, we will proceed to concentrate on the way of progress in the Kingdom of God.

Being “born again” is but a beginning and unless progress is made from that point on, we are not walking in God’s way. It is also important for us to note that this principle does not only refer to God’s way for our lives in general but also for each specific situation in which we find ourselves.

The way of God has to be sought

Remember that in our previous study from the Principle of Recompense, we read Matthew 7:7

“Ask, and it shall be given you;  seek, and ye shall find;  knock, and it shall be opened unto you”.

There is a strong emphasis here on determined seeking. How easily we push onto God the responsibility to reveal his way to us without any effort on our part. Yet God it vitally interested to see just how important it is to us to find his way. He knows when we are determinedly seeking. The way of God is neither found as a matter of course nor can it be found for you. There can be no finding the way of God as a result of blissfully drifting along and optimistically believing that everything will fall into place.

Likewise, we can easily abdicate our responsibility to seek his way by looking to others to find it for us. We do have a responsibility to one another but never to relieve another of his obligation to seek God’s way and to prove by such determined seeking that he does indeed mean business with God.

It is not an honest acknowledgment of pastoral authority if, in going to his pastor for guidance, a person is expecting to be relieved of his responsibility to seek God with his whole heart. That kind of earnest desire to know God’s way is expressed in Psalm 25:7

“Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions:  according to Thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.”

In crying out to God in such a way, we do of course give him carte blanche to do what he will and direct us in whatever way he knows is best  and we may not always find that pleasant or acceptable.

Another well-known scripture in this regard is Psalm 103:7

“He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel”.

This refers to the difference between the relationship which Moses enjoyed with God and that of the children of Israel.  Moses sought above all to walk in God’s ways and God revealed those ways to him.  The Israelites valued God’s blessings and benefits but had no desperate desire to obey God above all and so they became “secondhand believers”.

The sort who are spectators rather than participators in God’s ways.

They saw his acts but did not share the intimate knowledge of his ways. Because Moses cultivated a personal and intimate relationship with God, God could share his heart with him. But God said of the children of Israel “they have not known my ways”. They did not want to walk in God’s ways so they were not revealed to them.

The way of God has to be entered into

Having found the way of God, we are then responsible to enter into it. It is not enough to glory in seeing God’s way. Our responsibility does not end there for neither God nor your pastor can make you enter in because that, too, is your responsibility. The children of Israel in their unwillingness to enter into the Promised Land, are by example, a warning to us of how unbelief can keep us out of God’s will.

“For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest;  although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief”. Hebrews 4:3,5,11.

Even though the Israelites had been lead so clearly by God to the borders of the Promised Land, even though they knew it was the place which God had prepared for them and that it was a “land flowing with milk and honey”, they refused to enter in because they did not believe that God would keep his word to them and give them victory over the people who dwelt there.

We are called to enter into that which God puts before us. To know what God has called us to and to know his promises concerning it, and then to refuse to enter in, leaves us without excuse. Likewise, in Hebrews 10:19, we are encouraged to enter into God’s presence:

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”.

There is no need, nor excuse to dwell anywhere other than in God’s presence. “I’m not worthy”, or “I’m not sure that God will accept me”, are not excuses for he has made the way and if we stay outside we are guilty of nothing less than unbelief. There is to be a kind of reckless abandon in the manner in-which we enter into God’s way.  Jesus said:

“The law and the prophets were until John;  since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it”.  Luke 16:16.

The word, “presseth” here literally means, “entereth violently”. This conjures up a picture of a person seeing the way before him and because he has found the entrance into it, he violently, enthusiastically, and with abandon barges into it and through it. When God has shown us his way, by what justification do we hesitate or even cautiously approach it, let alone refuse to enter it at all? I would much rather have the problem of trying to keep the reign on enthusiasts than that of having to place a bomb under unbelievers!

Of course, unbelievers do not usually go by that title. They often prefer to think of themselves as wise, or experienced, or learned, or cautious. Everything must be carefully examined and reexamined. I have often chuckled at a mental picture of the entrance into God’s way being pored over by our wise, experienced, learned and cautious friends. They are busy checking its location, its size, its “scripturalness” and so on.  Unfortunately their meticulous labours are regularly interrupted by thoughtless and hasty people who keep pushing past them and throwing themselves headlong through the entrance!

These people, blessed “unlearned” and “unsophisticated” have searched diligently for God’s way for them, then having found it they have made a rush for it, crashed through to the other side, sat up, rubbed their eyes and then started to find out what it is all about. And never forget this, you never find out what it is all about until you are in. The people who want to check it all out first never do understand God’s way from out there and merely succeed in staying outside. Was it any different when Jesus walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and called those two young men, James and John to follow him? They were involved in a family fishing business with their father, Zebedee.

At the very time when Jesus called them they were involved in the very important job of mending their nets. Yet we read in Matthew 4:21,22 that they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. How impulsive!  How inconsiderate! What would their father do? How could such a thoughtless forsaking of responsibilities and family ties be right in the eyes of God? Yet it was right and though it must have been misunderstood by many, it is an example of what “entering violently” is all about.

And what of Matthew?  A Tax Collector for the Roman Government. He was sitting right there at his table collecting taxes when Jesus called him. Immediately he rose and followed him.  (Matthew 9: 9). He didn’t even balance his books before he left!   Irresponsible? Many Christians today seem to think so when it happens in a contemporary setting.

It is those who vacillate when God says, “Move!” that are a problem to him. As for the others, at least they are moving and can be directed and can be controlled and even, if they make some mistakes, God is bigger than those mistakes. Jonah the man who knew God’s way but had refused to enter in, finally made it to the place of God’s appointment. He had been given a message but it was a meaningless message anywhere else other than in Nineveh, the place he did not want to go to.

After three days in the fish’s belly and having learned his lesson, he began to enter into Nineveh (Jonah 3:4) and to proclaim God’s message. Because he entered into God’s way, and did God’s will, the people of Nineveh heard God’s word and repented.

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name”. Psalm 100:4.

When the tabernacle and then the temple were built, they were carefully constructed and finished to God’s specifications because everything about them typified certain spiritual realities. The real presence of God was only to be found in the “Holy of Holies”, and was reached from outside the temple only by passing through a succession of three entrances. There had to be a steady entering in to where God was.  It is our responsibility to enter into his gates and to enter into his courts. Some would rather do God’s work than work with God because to work with God means to be in God’s presence and unless they are prepared for the implications of living in God’s presence, they would find that rather uncomfortable.

The way of God has to be progressed in

Having seem the need to enter into God’s way once we have found it, we must then begin to progress along that way. God gives a promise in Isaiah 30:19-21.

“For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry;  when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.

And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers, And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying:  This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left”.

A stationary vehicle cannot be steered and neither can we be directed unless we are already in motion progressing along the way which God has shown us. To stand still while crying out to God for direction is meaningless. We are to move and keep moving in the way he has already shown us and be confident that additional direction will he given as it is needed.

Just as the steering system in a car is intended to steer the car when it is in motion, so the direction of God for his people is only given to direct those who are already moving. We need to move and keep moving for it is sad but true that many who start off moving with God stop along the way and become “spiritual dropouts”.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight”.  2 Corinthians 5:7.

Progress in God’s way can only be made by faith. The way of God is never progressed in by those who seek to understand it by the sight of their eyes, the hearing of their ears and the understanding of their minds. Walking by faith means getting your direction from God and, as C. T. Studd was wont to say, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it”. It is not your intelligence or even the extent of your Bible knowledge that will determine your progress. It is whether you have learnt to hear and in faith obey God. A thing is not necessarily right because it “makes sense” but it is always right if God said it.

There is a difference between “living in the spirit” and “walking in the spirit”.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.   If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”. Galatians 5:16,25.

To live in the Spirit is to have the life of God within you. That is to be a true Christian. The point is that being a Christian is no guarantee of making progress as a Christian. Living in the spirit is taking advantage of God’s gift to you. Walking in the spirit is an active response on your part in obeying God on a continual basis. Without this there is no progress. As verse 16 tells us, if you are busy fulfilling God’s desires you will not be fulfilling your own wrong desires. (The lust of the flesh.) If, however, you stagnate spiritually  you cease to walk in the spirit  you have an opportunity to “do your own thing” even whilst living in the spirit.  A similar emphasis is made in Colossians 2:6.

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him”.

Receiving Jesus is only the beginning, whereas it is often made to appear as the “be-all and end-all” of Christianity.   Having received Jesus we are obliged to walk  to progress  in him. Walking speaks of steady, consistent progress. Hence Isaiah 40:31

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;  they shall mount up with wings as eagles;  they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint”.

This verse speaks of an ascending scale and not, as may appear, a descending scale. Flying is exciting, running seems to get you there faster (and the Christian life adequately includes both “flying” and “running” times) but in the final analysis, it is the steady, consistent, day in day out walking-type progress that God is looking for.

It is often easier to find candidates for the flying and running teams than for the walking team for both flying and running whilst needing effort and exertion, are only for the short term and include an element of the spectacular. But what of the unspectacular moment by moment, determined, obedient walk? That has to be maintained all the time. Without it all of our more spectacular “bursts” of spiritual progress are meaningless and do not impress God. We will not progress in the kingdom of God unless we learn to walk. More important than covering the longest distance in the shortest time, is the development of constancy and consistency for ultimately (as in the race between the hare and the tortoise) that is how the race is won. Paul spoke of his determination to keep going along the way God had called him.

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect:  but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.   Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended;  but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”. Philippians 3:1214.

He uses the illustration of running a race and emphasises his determination to keep going for all he is worth until he reaches the end. An athlete who leads the field all the way and them stops a metre before the tape, does not win.   He must start, go all the way and then finish to even count as having run the race.   Paul realised that he had a goal to attain and that he could not stop progressing until he reached it.

It is good to be encouraged by past achievements and to learn by past mistakes, but a successful athlete does not keep looking back, he puts everything he has into going forward, thus “forgetting those things which are behind”. To either rest on past achievements or to be bogged down by past failures, is foolish and only hinders present progress.

Note the single mindedness of the successful Christian. “This one thing I do”. To know that God has called you and to know that progress in the direction of that calling is your sole responsibility and your sole preoccupation will free you of all else that retards progress and will enable you to keep moving forward in God.

The way of God leads to his goal

In considering this final aspect of the Principle of Progress, we will refer to Hebrews 11:816

“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;  and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and make is God.

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly:  wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God:  for he hath prepared for them a city”.

When Abraham moved out of town at the age of 75 it must have seemed to many a strange and ridiculous thing to do for he did not even know where he was going, only that God had told him to get moving and he believed that God would direct him to the right place as he progressed.

What we read here is that Abraham believed that God’s way is the only way which leads to God’s goal.  This also applies to those who respond to God now in the same way as he did.   We, too, are to be strangers and pilgrims and to realise that we are moving with God toward his goal for us and if along the way we put down roots, or form attachments which arrest or hinder our progress, we risk the attainment of that goal.   God will not force you to go forward.  We read in verse 15 that if you ever want to go back, he will let you, but he only takes pleasure in those who go forward with him (Hebrews 10:38) and he is not ashamed to be called their God.

“He hath prepared for them a city”. Not just a place in heaven, but a place prepared in heaven. That is in the short term as well as in the long. As we obey God in one thing after another in this life, we will find ourselves again and again attaining to his goal in each of those things and in each case, we will see that the goal was prepared by him.

Until after a lifetime of progress with God, we reach the city which he has prepared for us.

To obey God in anything and everything, to progress with him in his way, guarantees the attainment of his goal. That is how the Principle of Progress works: you seek God’s way, you enter into God’s way, you progress in God’s way, you arrive at God’s goal.

Tony Kostas

Tony Kostas was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1941, where at the age of seventeen, he committed his life to Jesus at a Billy Graham Crusade. In 1967 he founded the Melbourne Outreach Crusade, a non-denominational evangelistic outreach. This later grew into Outreach International, which is now a worldwide body of believers, who share a God-given calling and are committed to live in love with Him and with one another.

Tony’s life is a true expression of all that God has revealed to him throughout the years, in its purity and focus on loving God. His passion is for God to have the desire of His hears: a people who truly represent Him because they are His and His alone.