Below is a video of an insight I wanted to share with you about love. I suppose this is love week đ Check out my post from Monday, A Lesson in Love from My Cats too.
All my videos can be found at http://www.youtube.com/stirringthedeep
The other day during my quiet time â I gained yet another insight from my cats, a lesson in love.
For over 13 years, it was me and my husband â no children, no pets. Then last October we got Malcolm and Sophie. Their addition has brought so much to our home â much more than I ever imagined. Iâm surprised at the amount of love and care I feel for them. It was unexpected. I mean they are just cats.
As I was sitting there doing my quiet time with one lying on one side on my notebook and the other on the side next to my Bible, a certain characteristic of love came to mind that I hadnât really considered before. With that insight, the Spirit took me into a deeper understanding of our purpose and why we were created.
When Malcolm and Sophie came into our home my love expanded. This is what I learned. Our love is like a land mass and as others come into our lives, and as we grow to love them the territory expands. In addition, the love dynamic between me and someone else is unique to us because we are unique. So with each new addition, our love grows in a unique way, just like no plot of land is exactly like another. Itâs an incredible phenomenon that Iâm finding my words donât justify in sharing.
This expansion idea of love as well as the uniqueness of love between individuals taught me the deeper truth of our purpose. Iâve believed for several years now that we were created with the purpose to abide with God in love. It is our purpose now and for eternity. 1 Corin 13:8, 1 Corin 13:13 But what I realized is God made us to expand His expression of love. Love is only love when there are different parties involved â ones to give love and ones to receive the love. The more giving and receiving, the more love abounds. So He created us; souls with the ability to embrace His love and love Him in return that the territory of love might be vast and rich with each unique dynamic of love. And not only is the love expressed between Him and us, but us and others. Eternity will be incredible. Consider the most powerful experience of love you have had â then multiply that a hundred fold â thatâs eternity with God. Why would you ever want to miss out on it?
Because each one of us has a unique love dynamic with God because we are each unique, we are infinitely valuable and one canât replace the other. Sophie could never replace Malcolm and vice versa. This distinctive value puts a tremendous value on each one of us not only to each other, but to our Heavenly Father. This individual value is why there is so much rejoicing in heaven over one soul who enters the kingdom of God. Luke 15:3-10 We are irreplaceable. We canât compare ourselves to others; we are all unique as our creator made us to be. Now if that doesnât do anything for your self-esteem â nothing will.
Some believe that God created us to worship Him. Worship is a state of the heart. It is the natural response when we are rightly related to Him, including abiding in His love. Therefore it gladdens Godâs heart, because itâs the fruit that we know Him and He is first in our lives. But that is only a reflection of our purpose which is to abide with Him in love. Because, I believe we were created for this purpose, itâs our part to foster a relationship of love with Him â love which consists of intimacy, knowing, trusting â for thatâs why we are here. If we neglect that engagement we neglect our purpose and His will for us. John 17:23-26
Mark 12:30-31 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
One more point about all this. There is a HUGE difference between loving others and God with our corrupted version of love and the pure love of God. Though our love wonât be as pure as Godâs because of the influence of the worldâs perverse idea of love, as new creations in Christ we grow more and more in the love of God. One of the many gifts of being His child is that you receive His love to know and to give. As I seek for His love to consume my life, I am finding itâs incredibly more pure and perfect than any rendition of love I previously had or gave. It often amazes me what I feel for others and how deeply I feel it â things I never had before. They arenât fleeting emotions, but substantive land masses because they are fruit of a new heart created in His likeness.
We settle far too easily for corrupted, perverted, and destructive emotions that we call love. God is offering us a true, deep and real love that is of Him so why settle? We all want love. We all want His love whether we realize it or not. Itâs a driving force in our lives. But until we seek and know the love of God as our own, we will experience a great lack in this area. God is offering us the love we deeply desire because He put that desire in us to draw us to Him and to be filled by Him. And only by being deeply connected to Him do we truly know this love to experience and to give others and are able to truly expand our territory of love including to our cats.
âI love my God, but with no love of mine for I have none to give;
I love Thee, Lord, but all that love is Thine, for by Thy life I live.
I am as nothing, and rejoice to be
emptied and lost and swallowed up in Thee” (Madame Guyon).
1 Thessalonians 3:12 “And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you,”
2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
This verse is perhaps one of the most encouraging in all the New Testament when you are up against something outside your comfort zone.
As children of God, the limits of this physical world no longer apply to us, yet often in the midst of a physical trial we forget this truth. Fear starts to creep in and our minds and emotions succumb to the worldâs wisdom. We become defeated by the things that in truth have no more control over us.
As a young child, in my room was a door to the attic. My mind concocted all kinds of things that filled that attic and that would creep out in the middle of the night to get me. My imagination often sent me running into my parentsâ bedroom.
Our childhood monsters filled our young minds with terrifying encounters that brought sleepless hours hidden under the covers, and often made us flee into the haven of our parentsâ bedrooms. In reality they didnât exist, but our minds gave them power and we responded to them. We werenât mature enough to realize they werenât real.
Our minds are powerful tools. What we believe and what we give power to creates our reality. Childhood monsters were very real and we reacted to them. In the same way if we believe a circumstance, person or weakness has dominion over us we will react accordingly. We will fear, cower, give up, and run away. However, once a child of God and no longer living without God in this world, our trying situations become powerless childhood monsters. Only our unbelief of who God is and who we are in Him makes them real stealing our freedom, peace, and life.
Two beliefs are essential to overcoming our monsters and moving outside our comfort zones; God is always by our side and who is with us is mightier than anything we will ever face. There isnât a circumstance, person, or personal weakness that can defeat us because God works through us to overcome all – if we trust Him.
Trust is the key to unlocking the power of these beliefs in our lives. We trust God when we know Him. In all our relationships in order to trust someone we have to know them. The same is true with God. When we personally know God, then we trust and the natural result is faith, trust in action. We donât have to grunt out a faithful response, it is what we do as we draw near to Him.
Psalm 9:10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You.
How do we know God? By the combination of His Word and Spirit working in us. He gives us His Spirit and our part is to put His Word in our minds. If we neglect our part we will be defeated. Without knowledge of Him we arenât able to trust to the extent that is required for victorious living. God wants to be known by us. This truth was His desire throughout the Old and New Testament because knowing Him leads to everything else. He is our portion, but how can we trust in what we donât know?
When you know that the monsters arenât real then you move ahead out of your comfort zone following Godâs lead in your life. When we know God then anything we face holds victory. Knowing takes time but it is a journey that brings freedom and peace into our lives. If we seek Him, He will reveal Himself.
We all start out as babes in Godâs presence with irrational fears, anxieties and discomforts. It is normal. If we deeply knew who was by our side nothing would shake us. We have much to learn, and it is to our travesty if we stay spiritual babes when we should be maturing into adults enjoying abundant life. In maturity we know, trust and act on the truth that we have all, all, all always.
Realize the monsters arenât real and they are only powerful because you forgot who is by your side. Take what you know of Him today and believe it and continue to learn of Him that the victory may be yours.
In previous videos, I shared my story of coming out of the church system – not the true church, body of believers, but the system, the institution. I addressed the issue often raised about “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves” and in this video I share some thoughts on another issue raised about young believers needing that “structure”.
You can subscribe to the videos at http://www.youtube.com/stirringthedeep
Someone made a comment on my post Fear of God â Beginning of Wisdom about how though I was blessed with a wonderful earthly father, many arenât. I was asked to address those who havenât been so fortunate. I don’t necessary think I’m most qualified to address such an issue, but I wanted to honor the request and share with you want I have learned from my friends who have had issues with their fathers. I was thankful for the suggestion because many of my friends fall into the latter category. In fact, this past week as I was visiting my family many conversations came up about the impact of fathers. We talked about the effects of no fathers, fathers who neglected, over protected, who loved. Here are my thoughts . . .
Unfortunately, many men have done a poor job as a father. Like the rest of us they are fallen and far from perfect. But the role they have has such an impact in our lives that their actions effect us more than most. Fatherhood is a great responsibility. Itâs a job that reveals a manâs greatest weaknesses and to those he is supposed to love the most. As a result of those weaknesses, some have abandoned, neglected, abused, and overly controlled their children. Among my friends those who didnât have a good experience with their fathers instead had with a relationship of lack that left them with deep wounds, anger, pain, disoriented paths, and vast voids in their lives.
So if the experience with your father left a huge void or vaults of pain in your life, how can you draw near to a God who says He is your father? How do you know really what that truly means? How can you trust God to be your father, when your only experience of a father was none at all or crappy?
Initially how we view God is related to how we viewed our father. We carry over the framework given to us from our father to God. But this obviously isnât where we are to stay mentally or emotionally â whether our experience was good or bad â we each need to seek God as He is and if we do He will teach us and show us who He is. He is able to give us what we never had in our earthly relationships, if we seek. John 14:21
Talking to one of my friends about her experience with her dad, she said, it’s true he left a big hole in my soul, but it provided a larger place for God to fill. Because of that lack it pushed me closer to God seeking from Him what I didnât get from my dad. I have been blessed to know and depend on God in this way.
This is the treasure in broken relationships; God comes into the brokenness in such intimate way. Wounded souls gain a special relationship that is nourishing and rich with God because of the lack they had. They deeply connect with Him in a way they otherwise wouldnât.
Often itâs the void, in whatever area of our lives that drives us to seek God with passion with our hearts, souls and minds. The wound, the pain, and the emptiness are powerful drivers. God uses these driving forces to turn something deeply painful into something amazingly blessed. Our fathers have a big impact in our lives, how much more our heavenly Father if we let Him in into the depths of our pain and sorrow? It’s about perspective. We can either see our past experiences as a never ending wound in our lives or we can see it as an opportunity to experience the presence of God in a very intimate and personal way. Where do you want to be? Which one are you fostering in your life?
Our earthly fathers, whether good or bad, are to point and drive us to our heavenly Father.
A mistake often made is getting caught up in looking to our earthly fathers to repair the damage they left behind. We arenât to look to them but God. God is our eternal Father; our earthly fathers are but a vapor Psalm 39:5. We need to be careful not to put too much focus on the temporary because then we neglect the eternal. We are to seek God to complete and fill us, to heal and restore us. As for our earthly fathers we have to abandon the hold they have on us, or we will remain living out our lives in a reaction to theirs. We are called to live in the spirit in the newness of life, not the past. With Godâs grace we can. Only God can truly enable us to move forward. Though, I havenât had to do with my father, I have in other areas. Freedom comes from Him, and He is able to set us free from whatever binds our souls. As long as we look to our earthly fathers to play a part in delivering us from the pain we are looking in the wrong place and often will be greatly disappointed.
You canât wait on them to change, to apologize, to make good for the damage they did. Because many never will due to blindness to their own lack. The truth is we are fallen. We cause others pain. We damage with our actions and our words. We all fall short. God is offering freedom from that bondage of pain caused by others. It is a process no doubt especially with our fathers, but is a journey that in the end will fill you with gratitude for the earthly father you had because of what it brought to you in your relationship with God. It may be hard to believe, but God loves you more than you know. He wants to give you what you never had if you will open yourself up to Him. He wants to go into the reservoir of that pain and abide, and turn it into rivers of love.
Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
If you are Godâs, you have a new Father, embrace Him.
Some time ago, I read a secular book on writing and attended a Christian writers conference within weeks of each other. Iâm going to share with you something that greatly impacted me at that time to remind us of who we are in God and what we have.
What struck me was that the advice from those at the conference and from the author of the secular book was basically the same. Everything about becoming a successful writer stemmed from you and your strength, not God. Why was there no difference? Arenât Christians to be living in Godâs strength, not manâs? Then why was the counsel the same?
Many Christians are living like mere men. God calls us to live in His strength and that shouldn’t look the same as the worldâs ways, should it? I speak to myself as a reminder as much as anyone else. There is a better way to live, so why settle?
When you dive into the Bible, what you find is a description of a life with God that varies from what the world offers. Below are some elements of our lives when we are living in His strength:
I’m sure there are many more but these came to mind. Each scenario above creates an opportunity for the power of God, not man, to be displayed. God revealing Himself to the world through us is what our lives are about. And that means we will be living beyond our capabilities in many ways â it is uncomfortable and glorious all at the same time.
If you look at the characters in the Bible (Peter, Paul, Daniel, David, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, the prophets) they had one or more of these aspects. Their lives showed the strength of God, not the power of man. Often times they got scared, doubted, questioned, but they pushed forward with God.
Makes you think . . . what does your life show? What will be the story of your life? What would it read if it was in the Bible? What does it tell the world about who and what you REALLY trust?
For the child of God, there is a new way of life. Often God puts us in situations beyond our abilities so we can learn to trust Him. Our trust isnât in our talents, skills, or gifts, how many extra hours we work, or if we did all the necessary preparations. Itâs in Godâs ability, power, and strength, because we are here for His glory not ours. In Him, we do what we never could. That is our life.
Running the rat race like the rest of the world isnât for us. Nowhere in the Bible do I find that to be the case. Look at the Israelites. God established their life full of celebrations and feasts. I have never seen a group of people rest so much and yet accomplish what they did. God provided for their physical needs. He defeated enemies far stronger. He guided them and instructed them in every facet of life. They were living a life that was impossible in their own strength and God was glorified. However, our lives also aren’t about sitting around – but following His lead and moving forward in His strength.
Striving, toiling, and living by the same rules as the world â what is the difference then? What is the abundant life that God brought to us in Christ? His life consumes ours and that means everything changes. Yes we work but it is in a different strength. It isn’t our work, but His in us.
I know it can be extremely uncomfortable living beyond yourself. You arenât in control so at any moment it feels like things could turn for the worse. Because of this discomfort, we often give into the fear and hold back from moving forward into what God has laid on our hearts. Like Moses, we are full of buts and what ifs. Exodus 3:11, 4:1, 4:10, 4:13. It isnât easy to live in His strength, to make that leap and let go of what we have always trusted in. It takes time. If it was easy we would all be there. But God is offering us a much better way to live. I’ve tasted it. If we feast on His pure Word and seek to do it His way, then He will show us the way and give us the faith to live as He ordained – in abundant life, in His presence. If this life is your desire, then step out and follow Him beyond your strengths into His. Pray to let go of the control and to have a peace about it â God is driving now.
Psalm 21:13 “Be exalted, O Lord, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power.”
Recently our house was invaded by tiny little creatures who absolutely amaze me in their focus, determination and perseverance. They do a lot of work for their size. Their work is organized and fairly efficient. There are some who stray off the trodden path. I found wanders climbing on the stove, swimming in the honey, and exploring the tub. But for the most part the majority is disciplined in their efforts to gather food and carry it back to the colony. They are an impressive creation.
As these little guys started to take over, we decided to intervene â though they were proving to be captivating entertainment for my cats. After being carefully observed, some ants would meet their demise under a furry paw poking and prodding at them.
We strategically placed traps, which looked like little houses, for them to crawl into full of tasty sweet liquid. One then two would find this magnificent oasis then tell the others. Before long the traps overflowed with feasting ants. Little did they know it was the drink of death despite its tasty flavor swirling in their mouths. Proud in their discovery, they carried this sweet death back to their colony. The next couple of days the number of ants tripled, quadrupled, sextupled into these little houses. But as the days passed, the black lines traveling back and forth began to wane and day by day more and more disappeared until there were none.
Truly I donât like killing these little creatures, but when they start climbing over the keyboard, on my hand, in my tea cup, it is time to put an end to the madness. I wish I could become on of them for a just a day to tell them to go find food somewhere else, but we have our limitations.
As I watched these ants this past week in their diligent pursuit, it brought to mind a far more serious image.
Sometimes our intentions can be quite good but we are loyally headed on a path that leads to death. We are focused, diligent, and faithful and believe we are gathering the best food for ourselves and those we love â but it is the food of death. We are trying to do our best but we are on the wrong path. Proverbs 7:25-27
Let me explain. In these days, the last days, the Word vehemently warns us that deception grows worse and worse. Matthew 24:11. Deception is what we hold as truth, which is really a lie. False prophets are deceiving many. Their deception is becoming so extensive and sly that if given enough time even the elect would be deceived. Matthew 24:24 Think about that for a minute.
The church system is like the poison liquid traps. For some that analogy may be overwhelming to consider. But after reading, asking and praying over Godâs Word for years this message has only grown stronger and others are hearing the same thing. The time is upon us where the enemy is taking over the sanctuary, the house of God, the church system. Lamentations 2:7, 4:12, Jeremiah 7:30. Satan is smart. The traps donât look evil but good, nourishing, fulfilling â the worst kind of evil and deception there is because people believe they are on a good path.
I feel this message strongly upon me and out of my love for others I am sharing it but . . . it is hard. I know how much the church system means to many of you. But if you were enjoying a great time visiting with friends and I knew there was a fire consuming the building I would tell you. Iâm compelled to repeat the warning that Jesus gave us â look out for the deception it will be extensive and the ultimate ruse because it could mislead even the elect! Matthew 24:4 Get out while you still can. Matthew 24:15-17, Rev 18:2-4.
What the church system offers seems wonderful, good, tasty, healthy, but it leads to death because it is putting a barrier between people and God and His truth. People go to church thinking they are drawing closer to God but the institution erects itself inbetween a deep relationship between them and God. Though they speak of God and the Bible, the truth is twisted just enough to make it a lie â a lie that kills. Not all do this intentionally. But regardless if the intention is good or bad â the result is the same. People look to the church to provide and protect â not God. They look to the church to be fed â not God. They lack a real love for the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:10 And this misplacement of trust leads to their downfall. Many have good intentions, but they are headed down the wrong path. Over and over God tells us what is to come. We need to start seeking truth and get out of our habitual ways of walking the well travelled path.
I wonât mislead you â it is hard, very hard to leave what has been engrained in you that you should do. And there are additional reasons it is hard â some Iâll talk about in my video to follow where I share part of my story. Unfortunately, easy was never a word used by Jesus, the prophets, or apostles to describe these times. There are hard choices we have to make â some which will bring persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12-17
The GOOD NEWS is God is calling out to His people. He is gathering them together under His wing through His Word. He is revealing Himself in powerful ways to those who seek Him. He is connecting believers outside of the church system. He is providing and protecting those who come to Him. He is feeding from the greenest of pastures â out of His hand. He is the Great Shepherd. He is the sanctuary that canât be corrupted. He is doing something new and those who seek will find it. It is a tremendous time to be cultivating a real and deep relationship with God.
Many are faithfully committed to their church because that is what theyâve always done. It is the trodden path. Have you gotten into the habit of thinking you must go to church because that is what a good Christian does? Now is the time to deeply question and seek Godâs truth about where He wants you. We are so quick to rationalize, justify and excuse – but what does His voice say? His Word tells us what will become of the house called by His name. Listen to His Words, heed His warning.
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.â
In my previous post on Monday, I talked about the “good people” aspect of this question. Today I address the “bad things”. To subscribe to my videos go to my Youtube Channel, Stirring the Deep.
1 Peter 1:6-7 “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ”
God, I did it again â I was pushover and let others walk all over me. Why do I have to be so weak? What am I afraid of? Change me! I donât want to do this anymore! It hurts me and others so why do I still struggle with this? Why, why, why?
Have you ever felt like this? Wondering why you continue to struggle with a certain part of you particularly when it hurts you and others? These unwanted aspects of us are of our flesh nature (our self-will in rebellion to Godâs will). When we are born into this world we are spiritually dead because of sin that separates us from God. When God breathes eternal life into us, a new spirit is born in us. With a new heart, not a changed one, the flesh and spirit co-exist.
In previous posts, Where to Focus – A Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Why Do Christians Seem Two-faced?, Iâve written about the spirit and flesh dynamic. I promised to talk about why we still battle the flesh, when weâve been given a new spirit. So why does our old nature remain with a wicked heart? Why couldnât all traces of our old life be gone forever now? Though the source of our old life is dead in Christ its lingering stench remains in our life, why? Galatians 5:24, Romans 7:15-20
There are several reasons. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul was pleading for his weakness to be removed, but God let it remain so that he would learn Godâs grace is sufficient. That is one of many reasons. Here are a few more Iâve been thinking about:
Reason 1: God is Glorified
It is Godâs purposeful design to have His Spirit in our fallen bodies. 2 Corinthians 4:7 Living with this duality, God shows His power and mercy in the expression of the fruit of the spirit through our lives. God is to be glorified, not us. Aware of our fallen state, when we experience the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, it is truly a glorious thing. It is clearly not of us and to sense the power of God working in us is an amazing gift and testimony to others. Hence, God receives praise and honor for what He as done.
Reason 2: Magnitude of Godâs Love
Despite our frame, Godâs love is boundless to the extent of making us His children. Romans 5:8 The carnal mind canât comprehend the things of God. We can only know God if we are born of the spirit. Our flesh remains once we have the spirit of truth so we can clearly see what we were in the flesh. Without the spirit of truth we are blinded to our own depravity. But when we see in the light our wretchedness, His love becomes overwhelming. He loved us so much that He wanted us to be a part of His family so we could spend eternity with Him. He loved us despite how we acted, thought, and rebelled. If we were only spirit we couldnât understand the magnitude of His love that loves us despite who we were.
In addition, in plainly seeing our wretchedness, we learn His love isnât based on our actions. His love is unconditional because that is who He is. This lesson is critical to learn in order to have an intimate relationship with Him. Otherwise we think His love is based on the extent of our goodness. With our flesh lingering which deserves no love, His love astounds us. We have never experience unconditional love like we do with Him.
Reason 3: Dependency on God
Without God we can do nothing, but with Him we are complete and perfect. John 15:5 As we live with the two lives in contradiction, we realize how much our flesh is helpless, destructive, and full of death. We start to see the lies we lived by and the death they brought to us and others. Our emptiness and lack becomes undeniable. Along with this new perspective of our old life, we begin to learn about the new life we have in Him; its purity, love, completeness, holiness, peace and joy. The contrast in our lives fills us with gratitude and praise for the tremendous gift He has given us. We begin to comprehend the extent of Christâs sacrifice, its power and love to give undeserving broken souls beautiful new lives so they no longer have to live in the misery of the old.
Reason 4: Submission to His Lordship
We learn first hand anything that comes from our will leads to death, therefore with each new awareness of the depravity of our flesh we freely submit to His Lordship. With eyes wide open to the contrast of the flesh verses the spirit, each one of us experiences that His ways are better. Learning these truths in the presence of our fallen flesh moves us to choose to yield to His Lordship. God wants us to submit freely, not forced, because that is what true love does. The contrast draws us closer to God; loving Him more for all that He has done and given us. We have to understand the truth of who we are or arenât and who He is so without reserve we will surrender to Him in love.
There is nothing good about the flesh, but it lingers to teach us many important lessons.
Bit of encouragement
Sometimes we succumb to the rule of our old nature because of spiritual immaturity. We donât recognize the flesh for what it is, or we are taken off guard and a flesh mindset sets in and takes over. The good news is one we are covered in Christ’s righteousness every moment of every day and two God always provides a way out â prayer. He has given all we need to overcome the flesh â a new spirit, His Word, prayer, and His power. We need to nourish the new spirit, abide in His Word, learn to recognize the flesh, and use the power of prayer given to us in the moment the flesh starts to take over.
When the flesh starts to dominate, we can call upon God and He is faithful to deliver us from ourselves. Sometimes in these moments we might not feel like praying, because the flesh is in rebellion to it, but do it anyway. Prayer is very powerful because through prayer we shift to trusting in His power instead of our own. If we try to overcome our weakness by ourselves weâll fight a losing battle. God always provides a way out of our temptations. We wonât find the strength in us, but we will in Him, every time.
Scenario One:
A married Christian friend, Sarah, vehemently expressed her disbelief about how a mutual friend of yours could cheat on her husband and claim to be a Christian. The next week you are out with some friends and Sarah starts flirting with another man.
Scenario Two:
Youâre out one night with some friends, and your married Christian friend, Rebecca, starts flirting with another man.
These two women, Sarah and Rebecca, represent the two definitions of being two-faced.
Two-faced (adj)
1. The first definition is hypocritical or double-dealing; deceitful. It is the definition we most commonly associate with this term and is represented by Sarah. She claimed one thing then did another.
2. The second definition is literally having two faces or surfaces. True Christians have two conflicting natures â one driven by their flesh one driven by their spirit â in a sense two faces. This is represented by Rebecca. She didnât claim one thing then do another, so she wasnât being hypocritical. What we saw was the face of her flesh.
Christians who are two-faced in regards to the first definition are those who arenât Christians and say they are or those who think or claim they are âgoodâ.
We all understand hypocrisy, but what we often misunderstand are those who fall under the second definition.
This post touches upon an area that is often misunderstood in Christianityâ even among Christians. How often have we heard from other Christians something like- “I canât believe she did that â and she is a Christian!â
Battle between the flesh and spirit
In a previous blog, Where to Focus â A Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I talked about the battle authentic Christians face between the flesh and spirit. The more I abide in Godâs Word the more the dissonance between my flesh and spirit becomes apparent. It is a strange phenomenon living with this duality. And one that people canât understand if they have never experienced it. This is why many non-Christians canât understand why Christians are so faulty. How can we talk about this new life and yet do things so contrary? How can we talk about the love of God in our lives and yet do something so utterly unloving?
The reason is we are living with two wills â one of the flesh and one of the spirit. (flesh being our self-will and spirit being of the will of God) Sometimes the one we donât want, the flesh, is the one that shows up in situations. Romans 7:15-25 We do what we donât want to do. When our self-will takes over, then bam weâre critical, inappropriately judgmental, complaining, hurtful, selfish, passive, prideful, arrogant, and so on.
If you are truly a Christian you donât want to do these things, but you do and a lot more often than you want to. Growing in the spirit life takes time. It is a journey. God designed it this way for several reasons that Iâll address in a later blog.
In the beginning, Christians understand their corrupted nature. It is this awareness that helps them to grasp the meaning and purpose of Jesusâ sacrifice. However, immediately after the awareness of a new life â sometimes it’s assumed that they are supposed to be immediately good. I donât believe it works that way. It is a process.
The spirit starts small in us like a baby â it takes time for the spirit to grow. It takes time abiding in Godâs Word, which is the nourishment for our spirit. (Which few truly do.) If we donât abide, then our spirit stays weak and the flesh dominates. It takes years for our spirit to grow even with proper nourishment – like it does a child. As we learn and grow throughout our entire physical lives, so do we in our spiritual lives. We will never walk perfectly in the spirit while living in these physical bodies. So there will always be a falleness about us. But if we nourish our spirit, it will grow stronger and over time we live more in the spirit than in the flesh. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
No One is Good
Usually our judgment of goodness is based on each other. Well Iâm better than him! Iâm better than most! Iâm a pretty good person! But God views goodness from His goodness. And that is the goodness Iâm talking about. No one is good against the standard of a holy, pure and perfect God. That is why God gave us Jesus Christ to stand in our place. He judges our goodness against true goodness â not our definitions which vary person to person. And His judgment is the only one that matters.
We would do ourselves a huge favor by removing this misnomer of goodness. Any true goodness is of God and God working in us. It is all Him. John 15:5
Being Hypocritical
If we accept the praise of goodness from others or call ourselves or anyone else good we are being hypocritical and fall under the first definition. Then we are being a poor witness to the truth that no one is truly good but God.
Matthew 19:17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
I love this verse because it lays it all out. We arenât good. We enter eternal life not by our goodness, but by Christâs. One of His commandments is to trust in His righteousness not our own. If we trust in our own, we will be judged by our own, and in the eyes of a holy God we donât have a chance of standing for a second.
When you see Christians acting âout of lineâ â donât be so quick to judge. We are to help one another not stand pointing a finger. It is a struggle for all of us. And the closer you draw near to God and His purity the more you see yourself as you are without Him, wretched, and the more understanding and compassion you will have for the struggle of others. God is judge. We are to encourage and exhort each other not because it is about being good, but when we walk in His commands and wisdom we walk closer with Him and experience more of the abundant life He came to give and His power is shown to the world.
Living Light 