I truly care about the Bride of Christ. We are in a time in church history that is full of syncretism. We have simultaneously embraced the leaven of the pharisees and the doctrines of demons. These are one and the same, just at different sides of the spectrum. We have this holier than though self righteousness or this self-centered apathy that imagines that grace allows all men to be "accepted" by God. Neither of these things are true nor do either of these stances acknowledge God. God delights in those who honor Him. We honor Him by delighting in Him. If we read the words of Jesus we get a picture that is very explicit. He explicitly states that we must die to ourselves and follow Him. If we do not forsake our lives we will not enter the Kingdom. If we try to find our lives we will loose them. This is where we err.
We are currently being bombarded with really shallow theology that is essentially promoting that you seek to find you life. It suggests that if you dare believe that God will offer you the things of life. I think it requires discernment to discern what God is saying and may be saying through me right now. I am a man and my words are my words. I ask for grace in the humanness of my words. The spirit must understand the Spirit. The anxieties of the world and riches are the two things that characterizes the seeds that fell among thorns and were choked out. This is where we are in this time. I am not promoting a certain "lifestyle" per say. Money is not the issue. The heart is the issue. Our hearts really obsess over finding comfort of our idol of mammon. We must seek God to find what His word is in this time. This is an important time. This time is the Present. We must beware of the present. We are presently determining the trajectory of our lives. Make that trajectory be to find yourself at the bottom of humility. It is a race to the bottom! This is where we are honored by God.
Jesus is not concerned with your comfort. One could make a case that His aim is to disrupt your comfort. His desire is that we would give Him our comforts because our hearts have a revelation of the joy of doing so. God does not want us to be miserable. We are only miserable to the degree that creature comforts, idols, and doctrines of demons that we embrace are pitted against His call on our lives. To state that another way: We are miserable when we are unwilling to let go of our ways and ideas to follow Christ. As soon as we let go and follow there is true joy. If you are feeling guilty or condemned it is because you do not have a proper understanding of what is going on. This is in fact the nature of the gospel. Jesus came preaching freedom and love. It didn't go over very well. Jesus even said, "how long do I have to contend with you? You unbelieving and perverse generation!" We get the idea that God wants to make us into marketplace christians. You unbelieving and perverse generation!
Really my aim in this is to bring up the notion that God's love for you has very little to do with your feelings. God wants your feelings to come into line with His word. God wants your heart to rejoice in truth. If your heart is bound to untruth then it is grace that you feel anxiety and frustration. These things are indicators that something is wrong. These indicators do not specifically state what is wrong, just that there is something wrong. It is for us to seek God and find out what is wrong. I have a suspicion that if we do seek Him we will find that there is something that is within our hearts that He wants to address. With Abram, He wanted to divide the soul from the spirit as He led Him to a place of trust. This act of following God into the uncomfortable places if we let Him lead will lead us to true peace. Our lives are a series of tests. God tests us by refining our hearts. In order to refine them He must be allowed to add heat that brings the impurities to the surface. This is incredibly hard for us prideful humans to allow or accept. When the impurities come to the surface He can clear them away if we will allow. We cannot be purified if we do not "feel" it. We will always feel it. It will feel bad. When we know the heart of God then we can trust it.
The fundamental point is that we need to know the heart of God. If we do not know His heart we will interpret His actions in a manner that distances us from Him. We may interpret that His actions are not His actions. Any unbelief brings division and can create strongholds in our lives. We must believe that His judgement and correction in our lives comes from a heart of love. In the end of the age this will be very important. The church will be divided. The church will think that it is honoring God when it will actually be killing the true servants of God. We do this to a degree now. If you harbor ideas about God's people that are not true and motivated by God's heart then you are harboring hate. There is either love or non-love. That is it. No middle ground. Please seek to humble yourself before God and ask Him to show you His judgements in your life so that you can honor Him and get on board with it. We need to ask Him to purify us now so that we can be those who seek treasure in the heart of God to share with others. I hope that you are able to discern the love of God in your life. It may not always look or feel like we imagine love should look or feel like. God has never ceased to love any of us. It is a matter if we will open our eyes and ears to hear and see what He is actually accomplishing in our lives. May the peace of God fill your heart with Joy. May you enjoy the calling of God to let your heart be His. May you enjoy the pain of tearing idols away from the flesh of your heart so that you can be only His.
No comments:
Post a Comment