Christian Living
THE COST OF CHARACTER
It is obvious to see that we are living in a day when the Lord is calling His people back to Himself in order to build in us His character so that we may be able to fulfill His purpose as His “end Time” Church.
A few years ago while my family and I were staying in a seasonal guest house on the coast in a small town in New England, the day after a tropical storm had passed my oldest son had gone out to the forest behind the beach and noticed some trees which had fallen.
What he really took notice of and grew increasingly curious about were that the trees which had fallen by the storm where the bigger trees, and that it was the not so big ones that were left still standing. It would seem that the smaller more fragile looking trees would be the ones to topple over in a storm like this and not the bigger ones.
He then asked the Lord why this was, the Lord spoke to him by telling him to look inside of one of the bigger trees that had fallen, to his surprise as he looked he saw that as big and sturdy as it had appeared on the outside it was yet hallow on the inside. Then the Lord speaking again to him began to reveal that in today’s Christianity there are many Christians and ministries which have grown big, yet still not having a deep personal relationship with God, so never establishing within them the character of the Lord nor having a faithful committed heart to Christ, and so like wise they will have a much more difficult time standing through the storms.
The smaller trees may not have been as big around but their roots had been established deep within the earth. God is looking for a people who allow the roots of their faith to go deep into the soil of His heart building His character into us and having a deep and committed relationship to His Word.
There are many things that we will go through in order to have our character established in the Lord. Not everyone will go through the same things but we all must come to a place where we surrender our own personal agendas, plans as well as desires to take up His.
Let me give you some examples of this from the Word;
Mary left her home, and her reputation sacrificing her own plans in order to birth the plan of God. Perhaps she had some sort of plan concerning how their lives were going to be; Where they were going to live and so on, but when God showed up He required it all of them.
Are we ready to give up our plans, and our dreams for the sake of seeing His?
Ruth is another one who could have gone back to her own home and family once her husband had died back to a place where she knew there would be provision for herself, a safe and familiar place.
Although her sister would return home, Ruth still would not leave Naomi. Ruth demonstrated her faithfulness to a higher purpose.
Are we willing to separate from all that would hold us back from Gods purpose?
Today we live in a generation of believers who think that gifting, talent,and degrees qualify a person for the ministry. However we must not allow ourselves to by-pass the building of His Character in our lives, As the people of God we can walk in the gifts, using our talents and waving our degrees and see great things happen around us as well as through us yet still not walk in the nature of Christ, The Character of the Lord at work in our lives will be the stability of our lives to carry the anointing and the gifts if we don’t have that we will certainly fall, it is as sure as gravity.
The word tells us that the gifts of God are without repentance- However we are choosing to live dangerously if we are not walking in the character of Christ- If we don’t truly know Him in this hour we will not be able to stand the tests of time.
The storms will come and they most certainly will intensify in this coming hour and we need to be able to withstand them, we need to be able to withstand them in order to be as a lighthouse for those who are perishing while they are being tossed to and fro by the winds and the rains, so that they will be able to see the light we hold out to them so that they can come into safety.
Angie Sheets
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Truly God shows so much to us through children. This was beautiful and just what I needed today. May God bless you and your children. Thanks!
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