What it Cost to be a True Christian - Part 2

 By J. C Ryle

This also sounds hard. I do not wonder. Our sins are often as dear to us as our children: we love them, hug them, cleave to them, and delight in them. To part with them is as hard as cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye. But it must be done. The parting must come. “Though wickedness be sweet in the sinner’s mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; though he spare it, and forsake it not,” yet it must be given up, if he wishes to be saved. (Job 20:12, 13.) He and sin must quarrel, if he and God are to be friends. Christ is willing to receive any sinners. But He will not receive them if they will stick to their sins. Let us set down that item second in our account. To be a Christian it will cost a man his sins.

(3) For another thing, it will cost a man his love of ease. He must take pains and trouble, if he means to run a successful race towards heaven. He must daily watch and stand on his guard, like a soldier on enemy’s ground. He must take heed to his behaviour every hour of the day, in every company, and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imagination, his motives, his conduct in every relation of life. He must be diligent about his prayers, his Bible reading, and his use of Sundays, with all their means of grace. In attending to these things he may come far short of perfection; but there is none of them that he can safely neglect. “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Prov. 13:4).

This also sounds hard. There is nothing we naturally dislike so much as “trouble” about our religion. We hate trouble. We secretly wish we could have a “vicarious” Christianity, and could be good by proxy, and have everything done for us. Anything that requires exertion and labour is entirely against the grain of our hearts. But the soul can have “no gains without pains.” Let us set down that item third in our account. To be a Christian it will cost a man his love of ease.

(4) In the last place, it will cost a man the favour of the world. He must be content to be thought ill of by man if he pleases God. He must count it no strange thing to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered, persecuted, and even hated. He must not be surprised to find his opinions and practices in religion despised and held up to scorn. He must submit to be thought by many a fool, an enthusiast, and a fanatic — to have his words perverted and his actions misrepresented. In fact, he must not marvel if some call him mad. The Master says — “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20).

I dare say this also sounds hard. We naturally dislike unjust dealing and false charges, and think it very hard to be accused without cause. We should not be flesh and blood if we did not wish to have the good opinion of our neighbours. It is always unpleasant to be spoken against, and forsaken, and lied about, and to stand alone. But there is no help for it. The cup which our Master drank must be drunk by His disciples. They must be “despised and rejected of men” (Isa. 53:3). Let us set down that item last in our account. To be a Christian it will cost a man the favour of the world.

Such is the account of what it costs to be a true Christian. I grant the list is a heavy one. But where is the item that could be removed? Bold indeed must that man be who would dare to say that we may keep our self-righteousness, our sins, our laziness, and our love of the world, and yet be saved!

I grant it costs much to be a true Christian. But who in his sound senses can doubt that it is worth any cost to have the soul saved? When the ship is in danger of sinking, the crew think nothing of casting overboard the precious cargo. When a limb is mortified, a man will submit to any severe operation, and even to amputation, to save life. Surely a Christian should be willing to give up anything which stands between him and heaven. A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing! A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown.

As I was reading this Spurgeon piece, so much came to mind and really I do not want to say too much. I would rather let the words of such a godly man penetrate your heart and let you ponder on them.

This college that Spurgeon referred to, some godly Christian writers call it a University. But whether it is University or College they are all one in the same. The goal is to study and be trained by Him, at His feet so that He can knock religion out of you as you become spiritually real.

As you lay down your life, you find out He takes you on as His pupil and you are shedding this life that you used to know, layer by layer. Anyone who has become spiritually real in Him knows the pain of this process too well. So many great men of the Bible have been to this University. Men like David, Paul, Joseph, Moses and so many more we have before us as examples. But, because I bought into this saying in the Church “God prepares us according to the plan He has in mind for each one of us” Christians just love throwing those words around without understanding what they truly means to God. Sadly, I found the moment you tell someone about spiritual growth and if they know they are not there, especially when they have been calling themselves Christian for a while, they tend to find shelter through those words.

So, even when God took me to the wilderness, I did not expect it to be as intense, painful and long as it has been because I knew “I was nothing” and God’s plan for me is way too small to go through what these people have been through. So, when this harsh reality of His University training came to my door steps, I painfully accepted it and I was truly thinking, since He took me to this harsh path, He must have a big ministry in mind for me. To my surprise, this path where He strips you off of all those layers and brings you to ruin inwardly to rebuild you has nothing to do with anything specific to one person. It is just the beginning of a process to rebuild you and put you back to the way you should have been to begin with, if Adam and Eve did not sin.

The making of the holy man or woman He wants you to be, the making of that being in a close relationship with Him as you walk with Him like a friend, is no less painful than  those men who walked the path before us. Sure He customizes it a little bit. Like David needed to learn to be skilful in battles and leadership to become the King. Moses needed to know the back of the wilderness really well to lead His people, and he also needed time to shed those egotistical years he spent as the Pharaoh’s son, so his training lasted forty years before God calls him to Himself. But shedding the self-life to become holy and start this life that Adam and Eve shared with Him before their sin, is for all of us. It is a training that prepares us for so much that I would need several posts to talk about them. Nevertheless, once you go through this training, you understand fully well what the Scriptures tell us in 1 John 3:6. It is also a training where once you go through it, you can see how easy it is for Him to work out the sermon of the mount within you.

Suffice to say, when God takes you to this path, you find yourself saying over and over again “oh! This is what you meant?”  It never gets old. That’s when you understand  and you feel like a fool for having tried to work out those little bits and pieces that we set out to throw together to make up our own idea of Christianity, have nothing to do with His plans, if only we would let Him show us and teach us.  I need to stop there because this post is about showcasing the words of Spurgeon. 

Spurgeon In "The College OF Christ"

"Then He opened their understanding—that they might understand the Scriptures." Luke 24:45

Many teachers can bring the Scriptures to the mind—but the Lord alone can prepare the mind to receive the Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus differs from all other teachers; they reach the ear—but He instructs the heart; they deal with the outward letter—but He imparts an inward taste for the truth, by which we perceive its savor and spirit. The most unlearned of men—become ripe scholars in the school of grace—when the Lord Jesus by His Holy Spirit unfolds the mysteries of the kingdom to them, and grants the divine anointing by which they are enabled to behold the invisible!

Happy are we if we have had our understandings cleared and strengthened by the Master! How many men of profound learning—are ignorant of eternal things! They have a veil upon their hearts which the eyes of carnal reason cannot penetrate.

Such was our case a little time ago; we who now see—were once utterly blind! Truth was to us—as beauty in the dark, a thing unnoticed and neglected. Had it not been for the love of Jesus—we would have remained to this moment in utter ignorance—for without His gracious opening of our understanding, we could no more have attained to spiritual knowledge than an infant can climb the Pyramids, or an ostrich fly up to the stars!

The College of Christ is the only one in which God's truth can be really learned. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus, and by earnest prayer call in His blessed aid that our dull wits may grow brighter, and our feeble understandings may receive Heavenly things.

Some useful Quotes:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer    "Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer   "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

 Meaning of a Believer: “A believer is someone who responds by accepting this relationship and binding him/herself to Jesus Christ. In practice this means a voluntary surrender of life to Jesus Christ; it is to completely sacrifice your life to the One who has offered Himself” 

Follow Me ─ How Do You Count The Cost? ─ Part Three

Most of us when we read in the Scriptures that  we have to count the cost to follow Christ, if we do not have any hindrances coming from families and friends because we decide to follow Jesus, the idea of counting the cost seems a little bit futile to us. In our mind, it remains something we read in the Bible. If you live in a country where you don’t have freedom of speech or choices, you understand first hand what it means to count the cost. You know right away that you might be killed for choosing to follow Christ. I have worked with people who have been totally banned from their families back home for having chosen Christianity, simply because God opened their eyes to the truth.

To me, counting the cost was not a big deal either.  A few years ago when God stirred up my heart and I was upset at all that I found in the Bible concerning His demands to live out true Christianity, I did not know it then, but that was His way of waking me up to the reality of what true Christianity means to Him. He knew even before I knew it, that I needed to learn what it means to count the cost and make the decision whether I wanted what He was offering. 

When I first surrendered all to Him I did it with all my heart, yet the Holy Spirit told me that I did not surrender my soul. I could not understand what He meant. I had that goofy look on my face and I was thinking “but, I am so sincere, what else does He want from me?” Then He set out to show me in the span of a few weeks, certain things that I needed to take into consideration before I could make a proper decision to surrender all to Him. These few weeks were so hard and even though I was experiencing Him, I was walking around feeling so sad and I felt I was carrying the world on my shoulders. I knew I had a decision to make but I simply could not say yes right away to Him because this time around, I knew the cost.

I found out there is a whole process and principles in counting the cost to follow Christ.

LOVE RELATIONSHIP: For instance, as you consider the cost, you find that the first commandment is not some light doctrine that we just file away with one of those things you hope to get right one day. It’s the reality of the Christian life and it is a real commitment that demands your whole life. There is a list of subtexts that you need to get acquainted with once the Holy Spirit illuminates you to understand the high standards of God vis a vis the first commandment. As you see and come to grips with His standards, it seems like you are completely annihilated.

COMMITMENT: There is a commitment that you know there will be consequences that your mind cannot even embrace yet, because it is about withstanding one spiritual battle after another and you cannot help wondering “why would I want that in my life?”

VOLUNTARY DEPENDENCE: that takes all your focus away from you and redirected toward Him. There is no room for substitution coming from your own mind anymore. It is as if God is going out of His way to somehow discourage you. Everything He shows you does not say anything about the good side of this relationship, except that you need to believe and accept the fact that, Him alone can sustain you.

The list goes on as you consider His idea of faith relationship and the cost that accompany faith through obedience and trust in Him. You know you are going to deal with the unknown and all you can do is wait, follow and trust. He wants some kind of integrity and this single-eye type of relationship that you have no idea as a human being you can pull that off.

While all these things are hard to take in, and you just don’t want to participate voluntarily in this kind of makeover party He is inviting you to. Strangely, as you go through the process of sorting things out, He sustains your heart to understand your only alternative is to say yes. He also helps you understand that the whole thing is about reaching your full potential in Him, which only Him knows the limit. In your mind, you know that you are embarking in one twisted and unknown adventure and a tiny bit of you, are curious to see where it leads. You are very well aware that it is an invitation to go forward with Him and to get to know Him. You are also aware that saying yes to Him is in itself a form of worship which causes you to be aware of the experience of worship you know so far is kind of hollow and here is your chance to step up and act upon this knowledge.

Through Him, I found the strength to say yes to Him and I know there is no adventure on this earth that could ever match the ride that He takes you on as you follow Him with full knowledge of what you signed on for. Perhaps because I have considered the cost and I knew there was pain awaiting me, although I did not know the extend of the pain that I was going to have to cope with, but, having counted the cost, helped me to walk faithfully, even when the pain was unbearable, I could not walk away and through His grace,  I am still going strong.

Follow Me ─Why Do So Many Give Up? ─ Part two

"If anyone would come after Me, he must
deny himself and take up his cross daily
and follow Me." Luke 9:23

A lot of us tend to look at this verse and conclude that it is mainly about the missionaries in the field and about sharing the gospel.  What’s wrong with our view of discipleship is that we equate discipleship mostly with work. But, being a disciple simply means you are a learner and you are learning from Him. We must learn self-denial, waiting, patience, surrender, abide, complete obedience, humility and endure trials, etc, all the while, we are to cultivate a contempt for the world. There is no question that without the inward work done for us by the indwelling Spirit, the workers get easily discouraged and often give up because they are working out of their own self-interests and are unable to renew their strength in Him. 

So, as we focus on discipleship, if all we see is the outward work that can be done FOR God then, there is a strong chance that we have not learned to give up self interest yet. Because, as we learn to die to self, we learn to also get to know ourselves and we have a better understanding of the Holy Spirit’s challenge in making us His true disciples. The point is, Christ had so much more in mind when He told us to come after Him or to become His disciple. If we do not let the Holy Spirit influence the way we live out this life and it make sense that we get stuck and discourage and quit the process.

Christ has given us so much to ponder in verse 23. First we are to count the cost of our decision, second we are to learn to deny self, third we are to take up the cross He put in front of us” (not our own man made idea of what the cross should be) then we follow. Christ wanted to make sure those following Him understand what He was offering. By saying they needed to take up the cross and denied self, He was indeed saying, while at first this life might seems exciting because of the miracles, the word that seemed out of this world, and the power etc, but it would take more than mere curiosity or enthusiasm based on our own self-interests, to truly follow after Him.

Let’s think about it for a moment, any true Christian has one goal which is to follow Christ wherever He leads and where He is leading is none other than His Kingdom of course. A true Christian knows you cannot take your own navigation tools and decide you know a better way. God has never changed and He still wants us to do things, His way and it is only in learning things His ways that we can succeed. Most of the time, His way will not be the easiest one. For instance we see Him taking the Israelites by the longest route. In reality, He could have taken the Israelites by a different route and they would have gotten in the Promised Land in a few days. But that was not His plan and He had a good reason for it too. He needed them to learn to know Him and learn the art of fighting.  

What happened to the Israelites in the wilderness? First their enthusiasm gave in, then, resentment and disobedience set in. What was the result of it all? They were fascinated by the life of Egypt. In the Bible, Egypt represents sin and the world and even though they could not go back to Egypt in person, but God could never have their minds and hearts. Right until the end, in Jeremiah's book you can see the Israelites have never been able to give God their undivided attention, and truly consecrated their hearts to Him.

  

Personally I found when you count the cost of Christianity; the next step is the willingness to die to self. The biggest shock to my system was when one day it dawned on me that Christianity was not like that social club I thought it was. Then I thought to myself why is it this person told me at the beginning that I have nothing to do and I belong to the group going to heaven? Why is it the Bible shows there is much more to it? Even though I did not understand what that much more meant I knew I was lied to and the person who lied to me did not do it on purpose either. He simply never learned to count the cost, or learned to die to self.  Then I began to study the Bible just so that I could see what were asked of me, should I decide to follow. This is when I got upset and stopped making notes from my findings. It felt as if God was dangling something unattainable in front of me. I actually accused Him of being unjust. The only response I got from Him was: “well, surrender to me” That too was a few months of agony to get there.

Later on, I found out, He is the architect and He is the only one who possesses the plan as to what the building is going to look like when it is finished. As workers, all we can do is, to do as we are told and true Christian workers take their leads from the Holy Spirit directly. When we have not learned to count the cost and be led by the indwelling Spirit,   we go around saying that we are Christians, yet we have no idea why other people are making our lives miserable with stuff like higher life, dying to self etc. That is because we convinced ourselves the outward work and appearance are good enough and we have no solid foundation.  

 As for denying the self, books have been written about it but it is a life where you are aware that you are dying slowly as Christ is taking over more and more. (He must increase, I must decrease) My point here is to show you first off, the work that is involved in following after Him is actually harder than being a missionary overseas, or going abroad preaching the gospel. The real work is the inward work we are called to let the indwelling Spirit do with us in order to get us where Christ intended for us to be. The more we keep insisting on doing things our way, we only set ourselves up for disappointment. 

Follow Me ─ Why Do So Many Give Up? ─ Part One

As I was comparing Oswald Chambers’s devotion for June 12 and June 13, I grinned with a pain in my heart knowing full well, those two little words “follow Me” are jam-packed with unexpected surprises and detours. I don’t think you will ever meet a true Christian who has decided to follow and was not shocked at finding out what Christ’s standards of “follow Me” meant.  When we find out what “follow Me” truly means to Him, we find we have two options. We either keep going through the toils and the snares or you let the tiredness of the journey gets to you, and you stop walking with Him.   As we chose the last option, we never realize that the next step is backsliding. Although, it makes sense that we backslide when we stop following, because true Christianity is a journey where we have to keep going forward with the Holy Spirit.

I remember one Sunday after service I was talking to an elder of the Church and he was also the past chairman. I guess because he did not see me as a threat, he was telling me how he got tired on the road with no courage left to pick up and follow after Him. Since he knew I was part of the prayer team, he told me to pray for Him. But, as he kept talking I found out this man stopped following so long ago, even before he became an elder. He knew exactly which event took place in his life that caused him to stop. Yet as he was talking he kept saying, it was other people’s fault that caused him to be discouraged. In the meantime he had no idea that I was shocked beyond beliefs. 

This happened after I just started the wilderness path with God, so I did not have enough knowledge and the boldness that comes from walking with Him, to respond to him.  As I assessed what I was being told, I realized this mild mannered man knew the Scriptures well enough and carried himself in a manner that would make anyone who is not walking in the Spirit, to appreciate and trust him enough to make him chairman of the Church. Yet, from what he told me, even though I was not mature enough, I knew he did not get to the place where he stopped following after God, because of other people. His problem was only his need to follow while holding onto his own self interests. He wanted both at any cost.  

In my limitation of God way and knowledge, I could see one of his major problems was learning dependence on God.  In all the leadership positions he held, he could not understand why it was so hard to get other Christians to do things as they are told and to understand they were working for the Lord. Ironically, he could not see this was exactly what he was doing to Christ. By then I was a Christian for about seven years and I just started the process of following Him in the wilderness. Not knowing what those words “follow Me” fully entails, I kept asking myself how did this man manage to get to this stage with God?

You see, in my mind, I had a good idea what it meant to follow after Him, I knew I needed to die to self and I knew I needed to depend on Him. What I did not know was, thinking and reading about dying to self was not the same thing as experiencing it. Even though we read some of the apostle’s stories in the Bible, along with people like David and Joseph, they do not come close to preparing us to go through Christ’s demands as we follow wholeheartedly. When God decides to deal with you so you can shed the self-life, you find out, what those people endured over two thousands years ago, is still going on right now because God, being in the business of making holy people one by one, He is still acting in the same way today. By the same token, we have no idea until God shows us who we are, that our self interest has a life on its own, so much so it seems bigger than life. And in the eyes of God this self interest life got to go.

I don’t think there is one of us who has not found out the hard way at our own expenses the meaning of those words “follow Me” Through finding out at my own expenses, I know, as the Spirit of God works in us, we can see that the path forward is so not appealing that we are not looking forward to it. Yet, God has a way of burning the bridges right behind you and you find out you cannot go back. What I find interesting about God, is that He would burn bridges which prevent you from going back, but He will not force you to go forward because the only way you can keep going forward is through dependence on Him. Because your measure of dependence on Him will depend on your faith in Him, to some extend, it make sense that He cannot force you to go forward with Him.

Letting go of our self-interests, is soooo painful and the pain does not seem to end because there is always something we are holding onto that needs to be surrendered to Him.  

A Daily Prayer For Freedom - Part 3

Holy Spirit, I sincerely receive you as my Counselor, my Comforter, my Strength, and my Guide. Thank you for sealing me in Christ. I honor you as my Lord, and I ask you to lead me into all truth, to anoint me for all of my life and walk and calling, and to lead me deeper into Jesus today. I fully open my life to you in every dimension and aspect-my body, my soul, and my spirit-choosing to be filled with you, to walk in step with you in all things. Apply to me, blessed Holy Spirit, all of the work and all of the gifts in Pentecost. Fill me afresh, blessed Holy Spirit. I receive you with thanks and give you total claim to my life (and my spouse and/or children).

Heavenly Father, thank you for granting to me every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

I receive those blessings into my life today, and I ask the Holy Spirit to bring all those blessings into my life this day. Thank you for the blood of Jesus. Wash me once more with his blood from every sin and stain and evil device. I put on your armor-the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation. I take up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and I wield these weapons against the Evil One in the power of God. I choose to pray at all times in the Spirit, to be strong in you, Lord, and in your might.

Father, thank you for your angels. I summon them in the authority of Jesus Christ and release them to war for me and my household. May they guard me at all times this day. Thank you for those who pray for me; I confess I need their prayers, and I ask you to send forth your Spirit and rouse them, unite them, raising up the full canopy of prayer and intercession for me. I call forth the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ this day throughout my home, my family, my life, and my domain. I pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, with all glory and honor and thanks to him.

AMEN

My Dear Lord Jesus, I come to you now to be restored in you ---to renew my place in you, my allegiance to you, and to receive from you all the grace and mercy I so desperately need this day. I honour you as my sovereign Lord, and I surrender every aspect of my life totally and completely to you. I give you my body as a living sacrifice; I give you my heart, soul, mind, and strength; and I give you my spirit as well. I cover myself with your blood—my spirit, my soul and my body. And I ask your Holy Spirit to restore my union with you, seal me in you, and guide me in this time of prayer.

Dear God, holy and victorious Trinity, you alone are worthy of all my worship, my heart’s devotion, all my praise and all my trust and all the glory of my life. I worship you, bow to you and give myself over to you in my heart’s search for life. You alone are Life and you have become my life. I renounce all other gods, all idols, and I give you the place in my heart and in my life that you truly deserve. I confess here and now that it is all about you, God, and not about me. You are the Hero of this story, and I belong to you.

Forgive me for my every sin. Search me and know me and reveal to me any aspect of my life that is not pleasing to you. Expose any agreements I have made with my Enemy, and grant me the grace of a deep and true repentance. Heavenly Father, thank you for your loving me and choosing me before you made the world. You are my true Father--- my Creator, my Redeemer, my Sustainer, and the true end of all things, including my life. I love you; I worship you. Thank you for proving your love for me by sending your only Son, Jesus, to be my sacrifice and my new life, I receive Him and all his life and all his work, which you ordained for me. Thank you for including me in Christ, for forgiving me my sins, for granting me his authority, and anointing me with your Holy Spirit. I receive it all with thanks and give it total claim to my life.

From: The Ransomed Heart

A Melancholic Day With Him! - Part 2

I found out my post on Tuesday April 2, 2013 has reached an all time high. The reason seems to be that it is being downloaded by the same people as they revisit the site to read the post again.  While I am happy, the post got some people thinking, I would not want you to be ill-informed by reading too much into what I wrote.

Let me explain what I mean. Remember this life is a long journey and constant battle. Personally, the more I am growing in the Lord I am finding out Christianity is truly serious business and cannot be a past time even for a moment. So, what we learn from God, as blogger we write about it, often time it is what you would call a “to be continued” type of thing. Because by the time I wrote the blog on April 02, God has been talking to me on this issue, leading me to understand better and directing me in how He wants me to handle the situation. I am now at a point where I found peace about it because I know my will is not my own, it belongs to Him to do as He pleases, and also the fact that I was at fault in sinning big time.

I would not want you to misunderstand the idea behind it all. While it is true God wants us to understand and apply His Word as it is in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 but, understand that my motive to want these people in my life was not right with God. Every time I met with them I offended God in more ways than one because not only I was being disobedient to His Word, I also break my union with Him on purpose. This attitude was one of disrespect, offensive and ungrateful on my part. Furthermore, I failed on purpose to capture my selfish thoughts and bring them into captivity for His glory. I failed to fulfill His desires to cultivate the mind of Christ because you will find that once God sets you apart inwardly, it is exactly what happens. All of the sudden you know a life where I am tempted to say the Spirit takes control of your mind as He keeps injecting his thoughts in your mind to the point that sometimes it feels like you are flooded. I am sure some of you know what I am talking about; you find your mind 24/7 focusing on God no matter what you are doing. The strange thing is, when you sit and think about it, you are aware it is not you doing it, but the Holy Spirit’s work in you. 

To make matters worse, I have been in that frame of mind for years, and I was somewhat blind to my sin. I said somewhat, because deep in me I knew it was wrong to want to break the union with Him especially in this manner, but I minimized the sin, so it gave me an excuse to commit it over and over again. While God allowed it to be an ongoing thing in my life for years, but He also knows what is best for me and I know now that I have reached a place with Him where I cannot keep committing the same sin over and over again without affecting His plan for me. 

Through reading Leviticus, I understood God patience, mercy, grace, faithfulness and so on. But He is clear on the fact that we are not to mistake these attributes and take advantage of them, which is exactly what these Christians in 1 Corinthians 5 were doing. So, I have failed God because I used my own judgement in the flesh and put away righteous judgement as I was taught by the Holy Spirit while I was in the wilderness.

I needed a reminder from Leviticus because God could clearly see that I used righteous judgement to deal with some people in my life, as a result they never have the power to affect my relationship with Him. Yet, because it suited me, I did not use righteous judgement for another group and I allowed them to affect my relationship with God to the point that I dishonoured Him every time. God did not miss a thing in what I was doing. I really minimized those friends careless attitude toward God to suit my purpose.

When I had a chance to put it all into perspective (after my pity party) I realized my melancholy came from the fact that I was losing what I consider good friends but really behind it all, I knew I was found out and called into accountability by God. The other thing that caused my melancholy was also the fact that I needed to put away something that was pleasing to me.  It is really an amazing thing when we put God first, the angle we view what is happening to us changes completely.   

When we decide to apply those verses in our lives such as 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, and cut off people who are considered toxic to our relationship with Him, we better make sure we find balance through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Before we cut ties with them, put it all in the hands of the Holy Spirit, remain willing to do as we are told with an open heart and He will come through for us (which is what I was supposed to do to begin with.) In fact in the past week, God showed me even though I sort of cut ties with these people, meaning the idea behind the friendships and the visits have stopped,  He still wants me to be available to interact with them, but  only whenever He sees fit. However He also made it clear that my relationship with them moving forward, will take the tone of a teacher for lack of a better word. 

Secondly, I questioned God because I have a couple of people in my life that are as bad if not worse (spiritually speaking.) He made it clear to me that He had His reasons for not including them. First, I am in a different frame of mind when I am with them. While I see these people often enough because I do not have a choice, but knowing who I am dealing with, I never let my guard down spiritually. So right then and there you can see how the motive and attitude matter to God. In my interaction with them, I never allowed their attitude toward God affect my relationship with Him and I can see a mile away, when Satan is using them to talk to me. The second reason He gave me for not including them is that He wants to use me in their lives, every time I see them.  

I hope I was able to shed some light on the first post and that while God is God and expects certain behaviour from us, we have to make sure He is leading before we get rid of some of our friends because we do not know who He wants to use us to help reach out to them. We find the right balance in Him alone. 

Complete & Effective Dominion

I had no intention of touching Oswald Chambers subject this morning. But during my time with God, the Holy Spirit had decided otherwise. I found myself learning through Oswald Chambers and the Holy Spirit something that I did not realize at the time I wrote my book “Apprehended & Apprehending”.

When I wrote my book “Apprehended & Apprehending” which by the way is not for people who are interested in sampling Christianity but rather for those truly yearning to know Him personally, those who already know Him personally and those who have reached the stage in their Christian walk with Him that Oswald talked in his devotional of April 11 & 12. Otherwise, the book would be meaningless to you.  By the time I had written the book, I had experienced that true Salvation will always lead us to find the “Pearl of Great Price” which to my surprise I found is God the Father. Believe me every bit of this verse is true and it is so GRAND that when you find the pearl of great price in Matthew 13:46 your life will never, ever be the same again. And whether we like it or not shoddy Christianity is left behind and you can only go forward with the Father.  “Who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”   

In my book, my writing was based on what the triune God taught me and my experiences of it though Him. This is one of the beautiful things about learning directly from God. I was taught what Oswald Chambers teach today in his devotional where he used Romans 6:9-11.  In my book I used the same analogy but I learned it from Philippians 3 as God set out to impart to me what He meant through Paul in verses 10-12. 

I don’t know about you but I am excited as I see the beauty of God’s Word and how everything stands by itself yet everything is intertwined together. Oswald said today that eternal life is not a gift from God but it is THE GIFT OF GOD. My dear friends, it is about possessing God Himself, that’s what Oswald means. While it is true eternal life is a gift from God but the gift is HIM.  You see, when you make the decision to leave it all behind, meaning intellect, pride, sin, knowledge, understanding etc and go forward with God to find out what those annoying people keep going on about, as if they know God better than the average Christian, you find God the Father, in the process. (Actually to a certain extend it is the story of the great C.S Lewis)

It is only when you find God the Father, you realize the goal of Salvation, the whole idea behind Salvation which God showed me is as big as the ocean, is in effect about finding God the Father. He is the endless gift behind it all.  Oh I wish you could see the beauty of it all with the eyes of your heart. I wish you could go on to experience the depth, the length, the strength, the width and so on, that is involved in finding the Father.  Make no mistake, I did not find Him when I was standing by myself under the law, and doing my things apart from Christ. He revealed Himself to me while I was inside of Christ. Understand what I am saying, we were both, inside of Christ. I found out He was always there all along, but could not reveal Himself to me until I was ready, because as much as it is a friendship and relationship with our father, it is also a process. This process it is the reason Oswald Chambers is pleading with us in his devotional to go forward apprehending what Christ had apprehended us for. The strange thing is, once you apprehend the reason why Christ apprehended us for which means possessing God the father, you are driven by that ambition to apprehend more and more of Him. It is so strange, you find that you can never get too much of Him and you cannot be quenched.

In my book I explained how the life that is in Christ is imparted to us. It is as if God is changing your very own DNA with His life. He feeds it to you slowly as if you were an infant in the mother’s womb, Christ becomes the mother here. I still find it mind boggling the idea of me being in Christ, Christ being in me, Christ being in God and God being in Christ. While in my walk with Him I have experienced it, but it still gives me a headache to think about it. I cannot wait for God to take away the limitation when I die so that my little pea brain does not explode with this beautiful truth.

While we sit there like a dog with a bone claiming one or two verses here and there to stand our ground and make excuses not to go forward, if we only bothered going forward, God would show us that all those things we tend to think are made up by other people to rock the boat, and our enjoyment of complacency. We would learn the depth of certain verses that escape us in the Bible. What I mean by that, some people would say, well, we do not need that and it is apostasy. This is why we have to test the spirits. We do not gobble up everything people say because we like them, or that they look good, or perhaps they agree with our idea of Salvation which keeps us in complacency with God to begin with.  If we do that, we are no better than unbelievers trying to decipher the Bible to make fun of us and show how stupid we are and how bad our God is. When we do not test the spirits first through the Holy Spirit, we are nothing less than fools. We give Satan’s ammunitions and he tightens up the chain that keeps us in bondage and in ignorance of the true God.

What Oswald wrote today, in the same way I concluded in my book that we need to go forward to claim the life we have in Him we can find one instance in the Bible where Paul said the same thing as well. Galatians 4:19 expressed so nicely why Paul was suffering like a pregnant woman about to give birth. He knew they were missing a big component which was needed. Hence “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,” this is a beautiful verse pregnant with meaning directly related to our eternal life. You are free to see this verse as the word of God and admit and commit to it. Or, you are free to see it as Satan wants you to. The choice is yours. Be forewarned that choosing Satan’s side by minimizing the meaning of this verse does not change God’s truth and does not let you and I off the hook.

Matthew Henry’s commentary is my favourite. Here is what he said about it 4:19, 20 “The Galatians were ready to account the apostle their enemy, but he assures them he was their friend; he had the feelings of a parent toward them. He was in doubt as to their state, and was anxious to know the result of their present delusions. Nothing is so sure a proof that a sinner has passed into a state of justification, as Christ being formed in him by the renewal of the Holy Spirit; but this cannot be hoped for, while men depend on the law for acceptance with God. The truth is every single time we walk without Him,  provide explanations and decipher the Bible on our own apart from the Holy Spirit, all we do is put ourselves right back under the law.

The beauty of all this captivates me so much that I could go on deciphering Oswald’s devotional because I lived it all out with Him in the wilderness. But, I want to make something clear. My comparing myself with the same deductions that I came up with Oswald has nothing to do with me thinking that I am close to walk in Oswald’s shoes. On the contrary, one of the reasons I got excited is because I can see that God can teach me in the smallest and the biggest things. I got excited because I learned something new today through the devotion and I am happy because I am learning from the same God who taught Oswald His Word. I am well aware that I have a long way to go and one will never arrive in this life.

The Way of Permanent Faith

As I was reading Oswald Chambers today, I realized I would have been very excited if it was not for the fact that I have gone through the process of what he is talking about and know the inward pain that your soul has to endure to get through this process.

Indeed during this period of time, we are so scattered inside, so hollow, so depressed by the darkness that surround us. As you go through this process, you also understand why the word wilderness suits it so well. Your pain comes from the dryness, the sun, the win and everything that encompasses the wilderness. It is so desolate all around you, in your heart, your soul and your spirit that the only thing that makes sense to your senses is the depression that the whole process is calling you to.

But, if you can keep focusing on Him while you are there, even though there is no excitement and no joy during this period, you will get through it and joy will come back again when you see how much you have grown. Through this period there is a long waiting process in between that is very discouraging. Another major point of this process is that God needs to take you to a place where you learn to abide in Him and you learn to depend on Him moment by moment for your life.

As you learn to abide in Him, you realize, the reality of you abiding in Him is so that the next part of the verse (abide in me and I in you) could take shape in your life. The whole doctrine of abiding in Him is so that He can reveal Himself to you, Christ can be formed in you as you learn to possess His mind, His likeness and all those substances that we need to take from Him. There are ways for sure you know you have gone through the process exactly the way He wanted you to.  First, you get out of it knowing full well what Paul meant when he said “for me to live is Christ”.

Another way you know you are pleasing to Him is that you realize you have become the protagonist of song of the Solomon 8:5 “Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?” Because now, you not only have learned to get to know Him, you know you can depend on Him. So, your faith is solid and your understanding of Him is on a whole new dimension which is the spiritual one as you left behind the man made idea of Him. In fact, you look back to what you knew of Him and where you are now, and you are ashamed of what you made out Christianity to be. You also make a transition from knowing about Him to knowing Him. The thing is, you find you are now ready to look at this Christian life, His way. Another thing you will discover as well is that you are in the process of being made right with Him. This process takes you beyond spirituality into your way of right living in His sight. Righteousness is being restored. (Mathew 5:6)

So, if you are depressed and your life is upside down and you feel you are fenced in, look up to Him through the pain, the sadness, the emptiness, the scorching sun of the wilderness, the coldness that is eating your body, focus on Him and lift up your soul to Him. You do not have to make lengthy prayers because He knows already. Just the fact that you can remain focused on Him and in your heart letting Him know, no matter what you want to make it about Him and give Him glory for whatever is going on right now, then, He will be pleased. Don’t make it about your feelings because joy already escaped you, He is nowhere to be found and it is all messy and scattered inside you. – But, be patient however long it lasts, remain committed to seeing it through His ways and do not allow doubt to enter your mind.

When I went through my process, even though at times I could not pray, I would make it a point to pray in my heart. At times He was so absent I felt He was not hanging onto me at all. I did not let the enemy get the best of me. I did not confer with anyone that would discourage me or prescribe some sort of diversion.  I resolved to make it about Him even if I had to die. Once in a while, He would show me that even though I could not feel His presence because of the state of my soul, but He was right there with me and actually never left me for a moment. Those tiny glimmers of hope helped me a great deal. – Be still and know that He is God!

Here is Oswald Chambers devotional for today!

The Way to Permanent Faith

04

04

2013

Indeed the hour is coming . . . that you will be scattered . . . —John 16:32

Jesus was not rebuking the disciples in this passage. Their faith was real, but it was disordered and unfocused, and was not at work in the important realities of life. The disciples were scattered to their own concerns and they had interests apart from Jesus Christ. After we have the perfect relationship with God, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our faith must be exercised in the realities of everyday life. We will be scattered, not into service but into the emptiness of our lives where we will see ruin and barrenness, to know what internal death to God’s blessings means. Are we prepared for this? It is certainly not of our own choosing, but God engineers our circumstances to take us there. Until we have been through that experience, our faith is sustained only by feelings and by blessings. But once we get there, no matter where God may place us or what inner emptiness we experience, we can praise God that all is well. That is what is meant by faith being exercised in the realities of life.

“. . . you . . . will leave Me alone.” Have we been scattered and have we left Jesus alone by not seeing His providential care for us? Do we not see God at work in our circumstances? Dark times are allowed and come to us through the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of in God Himself. The sense of God’s blessings is fundamental

“. . . be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Unyielding spiritual fortitude is what we need.

Oswald's devotion for today is courtesy of: http://utmost.org/

A Melancholic Day With Him!

Today I am having such a melancholic day that I felt the need to change the post.  On Easter Sunday I was having dinner with my son and his family and he asked some questions that I felt were hard for me to answer. I went on explaining to him that God is working in my life now in a way that I have no idea how to follow. I recall giving him an example of a dear friend of mine whom I know for more than twenty years. In the flesh I am trying so hard to hold on to this friend of mine, but in my heart and soul I could feel there was a work being done by another party and I am being told to take a different path. Granted, my friend is very stubborn when it comes to God and has never taken one step forward with Him. Sadly, this friend is one of those who believe once you say the sinner’s prayer whether you were pushed, bribed, intimidated, or because you wanted to err on the caution side, just in case there is a hell, then you get baptized and get yourself into a Church, well you are saved and you have a spot for you waiting in heaven no matter what.

I am the first one to be amazed at how when you are walking with God, even the trivial conversation God does not let go to waste. Since the conversation with my son, I felt so melancholic; I could not explain it and I tried my best not to ruin our time together. Little did I know God set out to make things clearer to me since yesterday. I spent the whole day where He was teaching me about 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. While I felt the study made me icky, because you cannot get into these things without being harsh, but this is one of those things that you do not choose with God because it is not about you. I had an understanding that I was being separated further which increased my melancholy because I have in place something that is more like my personal support system in the sense, when I am with these people, even though we can touch a conversation about God but I am not as absorbed with Him. These friends make me feel that for a moment I can take a break from God. To some extend I feel, I need this support because it allows me to be in the flesh and stop being so absorbed by God every minute of my life. Believe it or not when I am with these types of friends, it makes me feel like a simple human being.

This morning to my surprise I found out God is not finished with me. First of all, I was urged to go to Leviticus 17 -20 as I read these chapters, all He confirmed to me there is that He is still the same God and has never changed. Then I read Oswald Chambers devotion for today that cemented it all because of the part that He wanted to drill in my head. Oswald said: “Never allow anything to divert you from your insight into Jesus Christ. It is the true test of whether you are spiritual or not. To be unspiritual means that other things have a growing fascination for you. Since mine eyes have looked on Jesus, I’ve lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit’s vision, Gazing on the Crucified.”

I cannot help being sad because one more time I am relieving the time when He took my right hand in His left hand to lead me to the wilderness. I knew I was leaving it all behind, Church friends etc. Times like that, you cannot help mourning because of the lost. It is like part of you is dying. Now, I know God is good but for now my heart is heavy and I need to mourn.

As I am writing this blog, the Holy Spirit made me understand that although I am sad because of what I am leaving behind, but there is something deeper going on. He then let me see how my heart is also heavy because I understand through my support system, I have sinned against Him and thwarted the work He needs to do in and with me. So, my need to be in the flesh to feel like a simple human being has to go.

“Since mine eyes have looked on Jesus, I’ve lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit’s vision, Gazing on the Crucified.” – This is where I failed Him and this is where I need to pick up the pace.

Surrendering on a case by case basis

First of all, I have to give credit where credit is due. While I like using the phrase "surrendering on a case by case basis", but I did not coin it. I read it in Pastor’s Stanley “Intouch magazine” on Tuesday September 2^nd 2008. The devotion was titled “choosing an obedient lifestyle and the verse was Romans 6:16-18. Pastor Stanley said:

“Though God is sovereign and omnipotent, many believers don’t trust Him to guide them. Instead they think about obedience on a case-by-case basis, evaluating how the consequences of various choices might affect their life. But the Lord desires followers whose lifestyle is submissive—in other words, people who've made a deliberate decision to surrender to His will in every circumstance.

When confronted with the idea of absolute submission, many of us are assaulted by anxious thoughts: What if the Lord wants me to do something I can’t? Or, What if I don’t want to do what He asks? We fear we wouldn't have the strength, wisdom, or faith to carry out commands He might give. And we’d be right—if we relied upon our own resources. But if we commit to obedience, God equips us at the right moment to follow where He leads.”

Last time I posted about this, I talked more about the surrendered life. Today, I am using the same quote from Pastor Stanley, but this time to talk about how the surrender on a case by case basis affects us.

When we surrender on a case by case basis what we are really doing is living a Christian life where we fluctuate between God’s plan for our lives and our own plans. Inwardly, we are unstable we are like those people who practice double mindedness, and we are also plagued by doubt in Him. (James 1:7-8)

The consequences of living this double life are unimaginable. It is not like we will not grow spiritually, but the Holy Spirit is limited to work in us only when we are on track with His plan. Once we jump on the other side where we live independently of Him, we are on our own and block the Spirit’s work. Furthermore, every day becomes a battle of the mind because there is a fight between the need to live independently according to our own plans and the need to live out God’s plans. This battle of the mind is ideal for Satan to perform his work and gain more and more ground to establish himself in your life and influence your thinking pattern and behaviour.

Another danger of surrendering on a case by case basis is that you forfeit your daily walk in the Spirit and replace it with a life of daily illusion and most of the time you are striving through your own abilities. May God give us the strength we need to get out of Satan’s claws and place ourselves under His direction and leading.