We sing the songs which declare that we have victory in Jesus, that we have been made overcomers and we are victorious over the evil one but act very differently while living outside the church. It isn't that we don't want to be different. We just aren't any different. We worry as much as those who do not know Jesus. We get just as angry at people who slight us. We are just as afraid of speaking up as the person who doesn't know his Savior.
We are being controlled but hardly realizing it. We run from the things that God has for us. The prevalent answer to our timid nature is, "That's just not me." People accept that answer. It's easy to give. The trouble is that it reflects a life controlled by someone or something else. God always asks us to do more than what we are.
2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)
7 for God
gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Our troubles and anxieties may not directly originate with Satan. However, he certainly uses our fallen nature to enhance them. God did not give us a spirit of fear so it had to come from somewhere. I believe they come from listening and being conformed to this world. The world tells us what we should believe, fear and value. Holding onto these things reveal hat we love this world and have bought into its values.
These make us miss what God has for us. We fail to follow Him because we have values and fears instilled in us by the world. Thus, we act like the world and lack victory whenever we are expected to act differently.
Luke 10:41-42 (ESV)
41 But the
Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and
troubled about many things, 42
but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen
the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
The people who think like the world cannot understand why the church doesn't adopt the thinking of the world. It is completely logical to them. They may even run to Jesus to get those who are following Him without regard to the values of the world to change. They see what they are doing as right and those who sit at Jesus feet as wasting their time.They may not recognize the value of God's presence over work. They may not recognize His voice at all.
Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)
12 For we
do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
I used to think that the only place that I ever had to fight Satan was outside of myself. I thought of him as the one who was opposing my ministry with discourage words or attacks from others. I forgot that he was working on me too. He was seeking to conform me to this world. He was surrounding me with people who have fallen into his trap. They may be believers but they are still thinking like the world. Like Martha, they can only see the values of the world. They are full of their own anxieties and troubles.
John 15:19 (ESV)
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own;
but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you.
Satan is always reasonable to the thinking of the world. It is his realm. Those who think like the world oppose those who are not of this world. They may even hate those who think outside of this world. Those not of this world still live in the world but they have not been conformed to its thinking. They are truly those who have overcome the world.
A spiritual awakening comes when the people who call themselves Christians reject the thinking of the world and sit at the feet of Jesus. These believers merely do what the Lord leads them to do. They speak when they are called to speak and remain silent when they are led to be silent. They act like they are going to live in a city built by God that is outside of this world (Hebrews 11:10). They are controlled by their freedom to obey the Lord. It springs out of their love for Him. Nothing else is more important.
We will always be controlled by something until we are freed by the Spirit. We won't have that freedom as long as we listen to the world. Satan will always be able to control us without our own spiritual awakening which releases us from his grip.
He is definitely keeping believers in line by anxieties and worries. What is he using to keep you in line?
1 comment:
This is a very good piece, that you put up. Indeed, it is He had chosen us out of this world, as in John 15:19, yet it is also that you and I have to choose to accept that, be no longer of the world. Recently, I have received that The Lord Jesus has given us one of the most fundamental paradigm of great or greatness! and it is that we are great, great men, when we choose to enter the kingdom of heaven on earth, be no longer of the world. You and I are great men, in the eyes of God.
I further learned that from being great men, we are to be forceful men, men who are committed to stay in the kingdom of heaven on earth. A great man must go on to be a forceful man, or he will be in danger of back paddling into the world, and be ensnared again by the paradigms of the world.
Nowadays, we find many preachers not wanting to give out the Word squarely, but are motivated by such things as "Would the audience like what they hear, and so, they would ...."; and so, are being too selective on what they would say, from the Word. Many would NOT speak or write from the overall counsel of the Word, but would very readily pick a verse or two, and speak of it or them in terms of "it is all God's part".
Who do NOT like such messages or sermons?! Only a weirdo like me may NOT like them. People, of course do NOT mind messages that do NOT cause them to have to consider life-style changes; that do NOT need them to self-reflect to see whether they are doing enough; that do NOT prick their consciences.
Scripture revealed to us that there are such things as milk stuff and meat stuff, and so too, infant believers and maturing believers. Unless they are infants, we cannot be feeding them milk all the time. We got to feed righteousness to them. Scripture said those who fed on milk know NOT or little, about righteousness. Solid food is about righteousness. We have to pace in the solid food or they will NOT grow in righteousness.
If we hold ourselves as no longer infants, we cannot just dismiss it as "it is all God's part, God will take care of it; God will feed them solid food". God provided food (HIs Word) and will provide more, but we have to feed them to the people. Too many people are expecting God to NOT only to provide the food, God is to eat it for them! What kind of great men, we are!
Yes, there is the time where God knows the person is too weak to even feed himself, who can't even go to sleep, to rest, and God may come to attend to the person, "personally" through His Spirit and angel. Even so, it is God's wanting the person to be able to stand on his two feet again, and be forceful men.
That's what I like about your blogging, you don't just keep dishing out milk. Yes, be apostolic, rough up some feathers, cause some conscience to be pricked. They won't come back for more readings, you don't care, do you?! What good if a patient takes the medication if the medication does not help him. Silly, us, it is NOT the taking of medication that is the focus, it is the medication has to do good for the patient.
Anthony Chia, high.expressions
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