Faith
You cannot go forth on God alone. The closer to Him you get, the more He expects you to trust in and act like the Christ within you. (1997)
When the statement above was recently read to me, (I wrote it down for someone several years ago) the first part caused me to stop and listen. When the statement was finished I still had to ponder what I had written. God has revealed to me the truth in this statement in the past few weeks.
I have been studying the Old Testament, specifically through 1st Samuel. In this study God speaks to His people in many ways. Sometimes when they don’t expect it and other times when they cry out to Him. His people are not always obedient but He does speak clearly to them. Over and over this is seen in the Old Testament, in good times and bad, God speaks to His people. This has caused me to ask “God, do I hear you? Are you speaking to me?” I have repeatedly asked this question of myself and God. Somewhere deep inside, God spoke a truth to me. I have to trust in and act like the Christ within me. I know that may sound silly to just now get understanding but many times in my past I have seen God speak something to my heart and take time to reveal the depth of it to me. I believe He is now revealing some depth to me. I don’t know that I can adequately explain but I will try.
The Holy Spirit dwells within us as believers in Christ under the New Covenant. When I said “The Christ within You” I should have said the Holy Spirit. We can be saved by accepting Christ in to our hearts and repenting of our sins. That is only salvation though. Our walk with the Lord only starts with salvation. We cannot go forth with Christ alone. We can be saved and go to heaven with Christ alone but to go forth with only Christ is to go unprepared or unarmed. We need the Holy Spirit and we need to trust the Holy Spirit. So what I was trying to say so many years ago is: We cannot go forth with Christ alone. The more we desire to draw close to God the more He will expect you to rely on and act like the Holy Spirit within you.
That brings me to my next concern. How do we hear and learn to rely on the Holy Spirit.
As people, even Christians our lives are torn between the physical world and the spiritual world. We live in a tumultuous carnival with distractions all around us and God’s kingdom sits like a beautiful mansion on a hill overlooking the carnival. The mansion is completely surrounded by an impenetrable fence with a gate at the front. The gate is never locked and doesn’t even have a lock, it is however very small. There is only enough room for one person to pass at a time and they must not carry anything with them. As you approach the mansion there is beautiful music hanging in the air. It can be heard all the way down to the outskirts of the carnival but the resonances of the carnival sounds consume the music as you enter the carnival. Two worlds, diverse in nature but alluring to all. The carnival is teeming with people, all drawn in by the action and excitement. There is so much to see and do, so much to experience. Some are drawn to the fancy shows and funny clowns. Some like the more sinister acts of the fortune tellers and the magicians. Many enjoy the dog and pony shows. Some things are more harmless than others but the collective festivity drowns out the beautiful music flowing out of the mansion on the hill, causing it to seem so distant. There is a constant trickle of people moving back and forth, to and from the mansion. Some stay at the mansion longer than others but very few remain for any real length of time. They each have their issues and frustrations. They realize that the noise of the carnival magnifies their problems and they seek God and His ways to overcome them. They pass through the gate to the mansion and find peace in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The wisdom and love of the Holy Spirit overcomes all that burdens them and they are left with the peace of God. Their spirits are nurtured as they join in the ongoing chorus of praise to the Most High. However, the physical nature of man is torn in this place. It seeks the constant excitement and interaction of the carnival. Everyone no matter who they are find themselves back at the carnival. Some may remember the journey back, others may not. Sometimes they don’t even realize they have returned.
If in our desire to grow in the Lord we truly desire to allow the Holy Spirit to not just dwell in us but to live and thrive in us, we must subdue the physical man. We must humble ourselves before the Lord and seek His face. Spend time reading God’s word and applying it to our lives. We cannot expect to live our lives wasting time with things of the world and still clearly hear the leading of the Holy Spirit. “Things of the world” can mean many things, bad and also good. Because of the age we live in it is imperative to seek God in ALL that we do. We live in an age of tearing down.
Ecclesiastes 3
A Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
This country has lived under God’s blessing since its inception. It was built up and prospered for many years while God watched those He blessed turn from Him. They found more joy in the blessings than the Blesser. They have even turned the New Testament church into a bureaucracy bound by laws. His people are so caught up in the details (law) of His word they have ceased to be unified in Him. We have done to the modern church what the Pharisees did to the Old Testament temple. The Pharisees were God’s priests. They were the anointed ones. They too were caught up in the physical man and although still served as priests stopped seeking God and giving God their worship. We have many people and pastors in church today doing exactly the same thing. There is nothing new. We only have to read the Old Testament to see what happened then and that it is happening again today. We say we are Christians but are we Disciples of Christ? Do we seek the Lord, that we might not be trapped in the cycles of the past? Do we even recognize these cycles? We need the leading of the Holy Spirit desperately in our lives.
In this age of tearing down we need to seek the Holy Spirit in all that we do so that we may recognize the physical from the spiritual. Our surroundings are so worldly, even in the church many people including myself don’t recognize the spiritual from the physical, not only our activities but our beliefs. Our core beliefs should dictate the things we participate in. Are your core beliefs of man or of God? Are the beliefs you feel are from God, a result of your diligence in seeking God or letting someone else read and interpret God’s word to you?
Darren Jones
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