Life in the Kingdom

I woke up this morning thinking about sin which is quite frankly, unusual for me. I was wondering why it was so hard for so many believers to stay out of sin when we are freed from sin through the cross. The Bible tells us we are dead to sin. Then why is it so hard?

I then realized that the problem wasn’t that sin had power over us but that the pull of the world is what traps us. We get caught in the earth’s gravity and get pulled along with the rest of this world that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1Jn 5:19). Given that, the key is to stay separate from the world, to love, to be in the world but not of it. In other words, we need to stay in the Kingdom of God, mindful of that.

That becomes impossible as long as we are getting our spiritual cues from this world. As long as we spend our lives reacting to what we hear from the news media, to what is happening in the world around us, we are being controlled by that information source. We have to stay separate from that and stay way over in His kingdom, getting our information, our instruction, our perspectives from Him.

God reminded me that when I was first saved I would sit at home and read my Bible. I would get in my car, dive and pray in tongues. I knew I had discovered something new, something very different from typical life on planet earth. It didn’t bother me that it was different, I knew it was real.

The church should be a place where we help everyone live over in the Kingdom of God. It should be a place where kingdom living is taught, is modeled. Too often, it becomes a place where we try to explain why things are the way they are. That very process is rooted in worldly thinking, in worldly observations. Rather we need to stay in the Kingdom of God and live there.

Years ago I had a vision where I saw myself in a cave. I was sitting on a bench next to a table. There was a Bible, a note pad, a pen and candle. God was telling me that He wanted me to understand that pursuing Him was not a function of intense academic study with twelve translations, Greek and Hebrew word studies and all sorts of other books (not there is anything wrong with that, they have their place). Rather it was a matter of me sitting in His presence, getting quiet and letting Him speak to me.

Today, I’m sitting here with my laptop open and I’m reading the Word using Logos Bible Software. I have the ESV, NASB, NET Bible in separate tabs. I have the Bible Knowledge Commentary in a window along with the information window which displays all sorts of things and the ESV Study Bible. They are all conveniently here, just a click away. This is amazing.

And yet, with all this wonderful stuff, I feel like the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “Not exactly the low tech cave.”

There is nothing wrong with all of this but there is this continual sense I get that what He really wants is our focus. He want us to sit at His feet and listen, transfixed at what He is saying. If Jesus was physically in the room talking to us, what would our posture be? Would we be stopping Him to look up the Hebrew and the Greek? I don’t think so. Would we be furiously taking notes? Perhaps, but I tend to think we would be so overwhelmed with His Presence that we would be afraid to move a finger lest we disrupt the sacredness of the moment.

As I’m writing this, I’m watching iBethel.tv worship and Kris Vallotton is speaking about rhythms, that there is a time to work and a time to rest. Many people are worn out not because they are doing something wrong but they are doing it out of rhythm. Years ago, God spoke to me and told me there was a rhythm to the Spirit, that we needed to be in step with Him.

We need to learn to trust His leadership, His guidance. We need to have enough confidence in His leading that We pursue Him in the way He wants us to pursue Him even if it looks different from what everyone else is doing. That is the only way we will find our rhythm. We can’t walk according to someone else’s cadence. That will result in burnout. Each of us have to walk our walk, at our pace, trusting Him to lead us and guide us. We have to have more confidence in the Holy Spirit inside of us than in what someone else is hearing for themselves.

Much of this comes down to trusting Him that He is actually leading and guiding us. It is a departure from a flowchart based Christianity to a living, breathing conversation. It is daily, moment by moment communion with Him, knowing that He will never lead us astray. The lie is that “we can’t hear from God.” The fear is “what if I miss God.” The truth is, He’s better than that. We need to stop relying on our ability to hear and start relying on His ability to speak. God is fully committed to our spiritual development. He has no problem assuming responsibility for a life totally yielded to Him.

One of the lessons of the Old Testament is that following God is not a passive behavior. It says in Judges 3:2 (NET),“He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war.” In other words, an aggressive faith is healthy. Conflict can be good. Iron sharpens iron. Christianity was never designed to be completely passive where we sit back and passively accept whatever comes our way. No, there is a battle.

The battle however, is not what we think it is. It is not a battle against people. It is a battle against the demonic that rules over this present age. And the battle is fought with spiritual,not carnal weapons. Is is fought by faith, in love, in peace, by the Holy Spirit.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. If you study the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, you will see that victory came through miraculous means. God was with the children of Israel and as a result they triumphed over incredible obstacles, incredible odds. He would make the sun stand still, have a choir defeat an army, have walls fall down because people shouted. When we get into the New Testament, the kingdom was advanced by the preaching of the good news accompanied with signs and wonders. When did this change? Why do we think we can do this on our own? We need the miraculous today as much as they needed it back then. Christianity is of the spirit. God is a spirit and we worship, we live in the spirit, by the Holy Spirit.

Intellectual approaches to Christianity all lead to the same place.
They may look different but they are more similar than people realize. They all end up denying the power of God. They all look at the work of the devil and call it the sovereign work of God. They all leave you in a place of non-resistance to the devil. They all breed passive speculation rather than bold acts of faith. They all neglect the Holy Spirit. None of them heal the sick, raise the dead, feed the 5000. Some of them start well but over time they become more concerned with protecting their own doctrine than the world that is in front of them. Those that started well did so because they started a revelation, wisdom from on high. They started with a spiritual reality. In the end they esteemed the revelation more than the Revelator.

Without the Holy Spirit, without His power, His presence, His wisdom, His leading, Christianity becomes impossible. All things are possible with God. Without Him you are without God. You don’t get to choose which part of the Trinity to ignore. It’s package deal. We mistake the mercy of God for His will. The fact that churches still exist while denying His power is a testimony to God’s mercy, His long suffering rather than evidence of His will.

The unpardonable sin is ascribing the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil. The worst sin, according to God is a sin against the Holy Spirit. He is God. He is God in us. We have to stop ignoring Him. To ignore Him is to say that we can succeed without Him which is tantamount to saying that we as human beings can walk the walk without God. This was the sin of Adam and Eve. They forsook intimacy with God for the knowledge of good and evil. They traded relationship for information. And it took the blood of Jesus to fix it.

God is looking for vessels that will abandon themselves to Him, to a person. That is our call. Wineskins that dispense the new wine of the Holy Spirit. It’s so simple. It requires us to lay aside all of our own thoughts, desires, all human wisdom and follow Him. And in following Him, everything else will unfold.

As he went along the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, Simon’s brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen). Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will turn you into fishers of people.” They left their nets immediately and followed him. (Mark 1:16-18 NET)

Self-improvement programs. The mere sound of the phrase makes me cringe. For years it seemed I was always trying to improve myself. You can go to any bookstore and the shelves are lined with books telling you how to be fitter, look younger, find success, be all that you want to be. Within the Body of Christ we spiritualize it by saying, “Be all that God wants you to be.” It sounds so noble, so holy. But if your experience was anything like mine, it leads to frustration and despair.

Why does it seem so hard? The problem with self-improvement programs is the first word: self. The idea that we in our own power we can achieve greatness is rooted in pride. Galatians 3:10 in the Amplified Bible tells us that all who rely on the works of the law (all who rely on their own self-effort) are under a curse, doomed to disappointment and destruction. In other words, trying to achieve greatness in your own strength is futile.

So what’s the answer? Are we doomed to a life of frustration? Not at all. Jesus gives us a major key in this passage In Mark. He tells Simon and Andrew that it is He that will turn them into fishers of men. He, the Son of God, is taking responsibility for their transformation. What is their part? They have to follow Him. They are not doing this alone. As they follow Him, as they submit to Him, humble themselves before Him, He will oversee their development.

Following Him is not a passive activity. It is not sitting on the couch, eating Doritos, watching TV, waiting on the angel of the Lord to appear and zap us. Following Him is something we do daily. We daily sit in His Presence, read the Word, pray, worship Him. On a daily basis we commit ourselves to Him. Our every decision is based on His will. In a very real sense, He becomes our coach our personal trainer. This is a lifestyle of following His leading.

The end of following Him is glorious. The Apostle Paul summed it up by saying, “I have competed well; a I have finished the race; I have kept the faith! Finally the crown of righteousness is reserved for me” (2Tim 4:7-8a). There is no better way to live than to follow Him.

I’m starting to believe that there are two ways to live the Christian life:
1. The way God says
2. The way most of us do it

The way God says to do it is from the inside out. It’s relational, borne out of a place of intimacy. That intimacy is developed in what the Bible calls the secret place or what some call their prayer closet. It is a place where we sit at His feet and spend time in His presence. We then live our lives out of that encounter with Him. It is the life that Mary modeled in Luke 10:38-42. It is a life free from striving, free from man made standards. It is so simple that most of us miss it.

The alternative is to live a works based Christianity with a list of all of the things we must do (and not do) to please God. This method has us constantly wondering if we are doing enough. It is based in human effort. In this method we are driven by guilt, shame and self-induced pressure. This method results in burn out, disillusionment. Why we fall prey to this religious system is beyond me, but most of us have at one time or another.

It’s a new year. And once again I have committed myself to the One Thing lifestyle. A life where I live from the deposit of the presence of God that I nurture out of my time with Him. It’s not that good works don’t matter. It’s that I do them out of my love for Him rather than doing them to gain His approval. You see I already have His approval. I’m already His beloved child. There is nothing more He would rather do than spend time with me. It is in that place that I learn to sense His heart, His love. When I leave that place I carry that love to a world that is in desperate need of that same love. I go as His delivery boy, dispensing His love to a lost and dying world. That is the life I’m called to lead. And it’s a great way to live

Luke 9:23-24
And He was saying to them all, ” If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.

The word translated “save” in this passage, is the Greek word sozo. It not only means saved but it also means to be healed, delivered, restored. When the woman with the issue of blood was healed in Mark 5, Jesus said that her faith had healed her (the KJV says her faith made her whole). The word He used there was sozo. In James 5 where it says the prayer of faith will heal, or restore the sick, once again the word used was sozo. Sozo carries with it the idea of being fully restored, wholeness. When you study the Word, particularly the ministry of Jesus, it becomes evident that God’s will for us is to be fully restored, to be made whole to be sozo’ed.

What is not obvious is how to reach that place of wholeness. The are all sorts of religions, philosophies that have a method for reaching that place of wholeness. They all have one thing in common. Being whole is something you achieve through some effort, some ritual, some sort of spiritual gymnastics. Christianity is different. In Christianity we have a Savior who already fulfilled the requirements for us. In Christianity, you gain by letting go. Jesus said that if you try to save, hold onto your life you will lose it. The only way for your life to be whole is to let go of it, to release it to Him. Another way of saying this is that the key to wholeness is to be lost in Him.

God offers a full, whole life. In John 10, Jesus says that He came that we might have an abundant life. The Amplified Bible says that He came that we might have life to the full, till it overflows. How do we get there? We give Him our life, and He gives us His in return.

The very thing you are holding onto is the very thing that is standing in the way of your receiving the abundance that God has for you. God is not looking to withhold. Ps 84:11 says, “no good thing will He withhold from those that walk up rightly.” I encourage you to make the exchange. Give Him all of you. In return He will give you all of Him. It’s the best deal ever.

When I was growing up, my first hero was Willie Mays. I read everything about him I could find. His rookie year was 1951 with the then New York Giants. When Leo Durocher, who was the Giants’ manager called Willie to tell him to report to the Giants, Willie told Leo he wasn’t ready, despite the fact that he was hitting .477, playing minor league baseball in Minneapolis.

Willie’s first hit was a home run off of Warren Spahn, the winningest lefthanded pitcher in baseball history. He had a good rookie year and was named National League Rookie of the Year. A little known fact is that Willie was on deck when Bobby Thompson hit his famous home run, “The Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff”, off of Ralph Branca to win the National Leauge pennant.

Willie spent most of the 1952 and all of the 1953 seasons in the service. When he returned in 1954 he led the National League in hitting (batting .345) and was voted the leagues’ most valuable player. In the 8th inning of the first game of the World Series, Willie made what may be the most famous catch in the history of baseball off the bat of Vic Wertz of the Cleveland Indians. The catch, in the deepest part of center field at the Polo Grounds, saved the game which the Giants later won.

Willie finished his career with 660 home runs and a .302 batting average. What many people don’t know is that he also led the National League in stolen bases 4 different years. He is considered the prototypical “5 tool” baseball player meaning he hits with power, hits for average, is a good base runner, a good fielder and has a good throwing arm. Willie Mays is considered one of the greatest, if not the greates baseball player who ever lived.

I wrote all of this without doing any research to illustrate the point that I know a lot about Wille Mays. However, I’ve never met him. Frankly, Willie wouldn’t know me if he tripped over me. I have no idea what kind of man he is, how nice he is, etc. My knowledge about Willie Mays is interesting, it may impress a few people, but it is all impersonal.

Allow me to contrast that with my knowledge of my wife of over 34 years, Joanie Wattoff. Joanie was born in New Jersey. She’s 5′ 1″ and her weight is perfect (that’s how you stay happily married for 34 years – even though her weight really is perfect). I don’t know what her SAT scores were, what she wore to the prom, or the color of her first bicycle. If someone wrote a book about Joanie, it is plausible you could learn those facts and you would know things about Joanie that I haven’t learned after 34 years together. But you still wouldn’t know Joanie like I know Joanie.

After over 34 years together we can look at each other and tell what the other is thinking. I can speak to her on the phone and tell how she is doing, just by the inflection of her voice. I can sit with her at dinner and sense her love for me, without any words being exchanged. She can walk into a room and brigthen my whole day, because she means that much to me, and I know that she adores me (and I her). You can’t know someone like that by studying them from afar. You have to spend time with them to develop that level of inimacy but it is well worth it. My knowledge of Willie Mays is intersting, but my relationship with Joanie is life giving.

Religion would have you know God the way I know Willie Mays. You could study Him, learn about Him, possibly impress people with your inderstanding, but in the end you wouldn’t really know Him. Jesus came however, that you might know God personally, intimately, even better than I know my wife. In the Bible, Jesus said, “This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

You can know about God or you can know Him in a very real, personal, intimate way. Which you choose is the difference between religion and relationship. What’s amazing is that as much as God loves you, the choice is yours. Which will you choose?

God has a way of causing everything in your life to work out for His glory The Bible says that He will give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that we may be called trees (NASB – oaks) of righteousness.

God has promised that He will work all things after the counsel of His will, that He will cause all things to work together for your good. As He lives outside of time, when He gives a promise, He made that promise already knowing how you were going to spend the rest of your life. In other words, your destiny is not dependent on you not screwing up.

For years I lived with a fear of missing God, thinking that while He had a plan it was up to me to know the plan and follow it closely to see my destiny fulfilled. While I didn’t have to be perfect, any significant mistake would cause me to delay the fulfillment of that plan. As my days on earth were finite, it was possible to make enough mistakes to cause me to miss the plan or simply run out of time. There were two huge errors in that mindset. The first was that my destiny was at a point in time, when I reached a particular station in life. Until I reached that place I was heading towards my destiny but still not living in my destiny. The second error was that my destiny was primarily dependent on me not making too many mistakes.

I have now come to realize that my destiny isn’t a place, isn’t at a point in time. It’s not even the journey itself. My destiny lies in who I am. The Bible says that we are, “predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son”. In other words, my destiny is to live my life as a beloved child of God, to learn to live as Jesus lived. I can do that now, regardless of where I am or what station I am at in my life. While it is true that I will mature over time, I am a son of God during that whole maturation process which means that as I am maturing I am in my destiny. I don’t reach my destiny when I become mature, anymore than I become a son after I reach a certain level of maturity In fact it’s the converse. Maturity comes from already living in my destiny as His beloved son or daughter as I go through this life.

Destiny is not a place, a point in time. Your destiny is lived out as you walk with God each and every day.

When I was growing up I played tennis. At that time the number one tennis player in the world, and possibly the greatest of all time, was a 5’8″ lefty from Australia named Rod Laver. Being left handed and short (I also eventually grew to the towering height of 5’8″), Rod Laver was not only my idol, he was the one I patterned my game after.

What I did wasn’t unusual. That is what kids do. We emulate people we admire in the hopes of becoming like them. There is nothing wrong with that. In many ways it is a good way to learn. Eventually though, we run into a problem. We are not the people we are trying to copy. I have come to realize that while I’m a good Geoff Wattoff, I’m a lousy Rod Laver.

The same thing happens in our walk with God. When we first come to know the Lord we tend to emulate those we admire. Again, this is not a bad way to learn. But once again, the time comes when we need to learn to have our own walk, a relationship with God that is uniquely yours.

The Bible tells us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”. It says in Ephesians that we are His workmaship. One translation says we are His masterpiece. You are in fact unique because that’s the way the Father wants it. There is a unique place in His heart that is reserved for you alone. But you will not learn to experience that place on a regular basis trying to emulate someone else, no matter how much you admire them. That place is reserved for you, the real authentic you that God created.

Over the years I’ve heard many people talk about becoming the man or woman that God wanted them to be. The truth is if we are His workmanship, then who He wants us to be is who He created us to be. You will never fulfill your destiny by trying to be someone else. Your destiny is found in being who God made you to be, no more and no less. How do you do this? You simply trust the one who made you. You truly are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are God’s workmanship, His masterpiece. He wouldn’t have it any other way.