God’s been teaching me several things this year:
– His redefinition for things that I have experienced in life: that He does not think like we do, and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55) and that means that we all have definitions of things that do not align with the truth that He desires us to have. – We are all having experiences defined by our situations (broken world influenced by) and the (broken) people in it that he never meant for us to experience that way, and that we come out of those experiences with our definition of things and He wants to heal and restore the original definition intended for our lives.
Because of the lack of truth in our definitions, we also struggle to communicate with others – because all of our definitions for things are skewed to different degrees from each others.
Two years ago, if you told me that parents were such a gift from God – I would have theologically understood, but I would have scoffed inside a little – “so nice you think so! you must have had a great set of parents!” * cue ugly face expression*.
Now, two years later, having experienced what God intended parents to be like, I stand in awe and gratitude and thanksgiving at that statement; parents are such a gift from God.
So we struggle to see eye to eye with each other because of our lack of Kingdom redefinition/God’s original intent being experienced and thus redefined for us by Him.
And the hardest thing?
In order for God to redefine things for us/in order for Him to bring healing, He often has to take us back into the same scenario that created the definition in the first place – so that we can retaste it correctly this time. So that we can receive the redefinition.
– Obedience is all that matters: despite scripture, despite opinions, despite enabling or whatever, obedience is the only thing that matters.
Ok, don’t get hung up that I threw ‘scripture’ in there. If you know me you will know that I hold the scripture as a pretty strong authority.
I don’t mess around when it comes to scripture and I don’t like it when people want to disregard or misuse/quote/translate it. I don’t put up with that nonsense. So don’t misunderstand me. (I also believe that there is no substitute for being more confident of the spirit that you believe and follow than the testimony of the scriptures – and there is no substitute for reading it all yourself and thus having something to allow the HolySpirit to remind you of! [john14:26])
What do we do with commandments like “Thou shalt not lie” and then Rahab lying for the spies sent into Caanan…and then being called righteous/right before God for what she did??? [james2:25]
What do you do with churches who say you can’t be a christian – yet Jesus’ first miracle was making 120-180 gallons or 680 liters of wine for a wedding feast?
What do you do when you’re coming out of Wallymart and some homeless person with alcohol reeked breath asks you for a couple of dollars (whatever their reason may be), and you’re with someone from church who regularly talks with you about how the government enables people to live in poverty and never get better?
What happens when at that moment, you hear HolySpirit whispering to you, “give him the $100 you just got out of the atm earlier.”
“when we were with you, we gave you this command: if someone won’t work, he shouldn’t eat!” 2 Thessalonians 3:10
Now what?
– you dont want to enable him…
– you dont want to make your Christian friend think less of you or judge you…
– you dont want to go against scripture…
But actually, none of the reasons you dont want to do it matter.
Obedience is the most important thing.
You have no idea what God is doing in that man.
Once you obey, now it is the mans job to obey what HolySpirit is saying to him. And it is now none of your concern. HolySpirit is not powerless. HolySpirit is not disengaged.
It could be that the mans been wrestling and in rebellion to the Lord for years, months, days, or hours. And he walks up to the Walmart and grumbles – “You dont see me! If you saw me then you’d have the next person who walks out of the store give me $100!”
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And you can’t tell me that HS doesn’t talk with unbelievers.
Because He does, and that’s how you and I are saved.
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– Children have nothing to prove to be children:
How much do you criticize others?
How much do you claim things about yourself? Compare yourself to others?
Put other people down in order to make yourself look good?
Look for ways to be better at things than other people – rather than just working your best?
Accuse others of things you actually do yourself – yet find justification why you doing it was ok – but them doing it wasn’t?
Where is your heart when you serve others?
When you claim things?
When you criticize?
The other morning when I sat with the Lord, he so kindly leaned towards me and spoke to me about my self righteous heart problems.
He showed me that even when I would work or work-out that I’d even do it harder and beyond what I should until I was in severe pain in order to be able to feel like I was worthy. That when I compared my work with others later I could then justify my godliness, goodness, and deserving of something.
He showed me that He desired LIFE for me and that’s why He doesn’t want me to live like this. – Criticising and robbing the atmosphere of the very oxygen I myself need to breathe!
He showed me earlier this year that Sons can be servant of all because they have nothing to fight to have. They are free to kneel and wash feet because everything is already theirs. [luke 22:25-27]
All you have to do is read Proverbs 27, or 1 Peter 5, Luke 12:13-21, James 4:12-14 in order to see the direction of God’s heart on these things!
God’s desire is not to oppose us – and He opposes the proud. That’s a magnetic law of God. Our pride will repel His presence! So He begs us to be humble and love others as we love ourselves.
When we love God with everything – [draw near to God and He will draw near to you – james4] we receive the affirmation and identity from God and thus can see ourselves for who we are. Then, having nothing to prove, we can see and serve others for who they are, and we will live in a favor with God and man in a way that is only Kingdom produced!
Galatians 5: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!
He did not die for us so that we could set others straight. That’s the HS’s job – to convict and convince [john16].
He died to set us free so that we could love and serve others as He did. So that we could bring His restoration. [2corinthians5]
Also, I want to clarify. There is a distinct difference in bringing correction, versus criticizing. We can share with people what’s on our hearts or what we feel the Lords asking us to share with them. And then our job is to partner with the Lord in prayer/intercession, and leave the results and the timing up to God.
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So my rebuke, my question, my challenge:
Where are you being self righteous with your opinions, thoughts, comments, actions?
I challenge you to stop reinforcing your self-righteousness with comments about peoples swearing, opinions, choices – etc. -(are they even necessary? Most of the time they are not!)
I challenge you to allow people to be people. We all mess up, we all are stupid at times – do you really need to point it out?
I challenge you to check your heart – what posture does it stand in in those moments? If you’re attributing that fault to them as “that’s just them!” – I would say that you are mentally separating yourself from them. That you think you’re better and less fallible. …that’s self-righteousness.
I challenge you to acknowledge your own humanity, your own faults. And to embrace His love for you that paid for your humanity and faults. A love that doesn’t tolerate you withholding that love from others.
Don’t forget Jesus’ parable in Matthew 18:21-35
[…“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’…]
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There’s more, but these are the core things that He has been teaching me! I hope that they encourage you and stir you up to living a free and radical life in the Lord!
“And if on some point you think differently,
that too God will make clear to you.” [philippians3]
