Holiness...striving in frustration or joyful intimacy?

Have you ever felt like your pursuit of God is missing something? Do you ever feel like that you are never "doing enough"...that you will never measure up to the expectations of God? What about feeling like your walk has become about nothing but sacrifice and difficulty, which you are "supposed" to subject yourself to in order to measure up to the standard set by those that have gone before you or even those who are currently in your life? Do feel like you are striving for acceptance from God and other believers?

I am convinced that as Christians begin to get dissatisfied with the status quo religion they have been involved in (possibly their entire walk), they begin to desire the "real thing". They begin to seek out holiness which is very pure at first. Somehow along the way, they begin to compare themselves with other Christians and the measures that they see these other Christians taking. They feel as though they will never live up to "that kind" of devotion.

After going through a very difficult season of this in my own walk, the Lord began to, and continues to, teach me and grow me in truth in this area. I finally realized, once I discovered the secret of entering into the secret place of communion with Him, that the simple answer to what I was desiring was right there all along. He taught me that seeking Him in lieu of seeking holiness would produce the holiness that I desired. At first, I had a hard time accepting the notion that it was this simple.

Before I go any further, I would like to state for the record that I DO believe it is very important to our growth to starve our flesh from the things that distract us from the presence of God. There is a fine line here though. Fasting, extended times of prayer, removing things like:TV, Internet, etc., are things that will produce incredible fruit IF they are done with the right motives. Have you ever noticed that you get a completely different result in your heart and spirit when you do something for a loved one out of a desire to bless them rather than doing it out of a guilty conscience? God is more concerned with our heart than He is the sacrifice. If you fast, do it with the purpose of drawing near to Him. If you shut off the TV, do it once you have truly come to the place that you see the harm it is causing and don't want to pollute your mind. Do it because you actually believe that what God has to say to you is more exhilarating than any tv show or spriting event could ever be. You see if you do some thing like stop watching TV because others tell you to, your heart is in the wrong place...the motive is wrong...and what you will get as a result is a resentful heart towards God. It will also leave you feeling like you must be a masochist in order to be a "real" Christian.

Here is the wonderful truth that I pray will set you free if you are struggling with a performance mentality in your walk.

SEEKING HIM WILL PRODUCE WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!

Think about this with me. If you spend all of your energy in your pursuit of God in the area of intimacy, you will begin to see things change without feeling like you are striving. I know this from personal experience. The more time you spend in the presence of God...the more time you spend listening to Him speak to you...the more time you spend in His Word allowing him to speak to you...the more you will see the character flaws effortlessly melt away! As you begin to know Him...to know His voice...to know His heart, you will begin to take on His character. You start removing the impurities in your life with a joyful heart because it is the Spirit of revelation that has revealed to you the availability of a deeper relationship with Him. When we have His heart, the things that grieve Him will grieve us. The things that break His heart will break ours. The things that bring joy to Him will bring joy to us. As long as our desire remains on Him, the pursuit of holiness will be the area of our life that brings us great Joy instead of feeling like a never-ending maze of frustration.

John 15:4 - Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

WOW - Jesus said so himself. If you desire holiness, then abide in Him.

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Is the Bible sufficient?

Do we need the ways of the world to reach the world. Do we need anthing more than the Word of God to accomplish what he has called us to do? I came across an interesting commentary tonight while studying 2 Corinthians 10 (especially verses 3-5)

The following is by R. Torrey -

4. The Bible is the Christian's Armory.

The Christian's calling in the world is that of a soldier. He must fight the good fight of faith. (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7). Sinners are to be won from the power of the devil to God. Their intelligence, their wills, and their affections, are to be stormed and carried for Him; they are to be turned from the power of darkness to light; their prison-houses of sin are to be broken into; their chains knocked off and the captives set free (Acts 26:16-18). We also, in our own Christian life and pilgrimage, are set upon by the powers of darkness; by the fiery darts of the devil. Doubts, infidelity, temptations, evil imaginations, unclean, unholy, and vain thoughts assail us, poured in upon our souls by Satan, the lusts of the flesh being thus set on fire of hell, if by this means the child of God may be overtaken in a fault or overcome by sin. But this warfare is not carnal, or after the manner of the flesh. "For though we walk in the flesh [have our lives as other men do in fleshly bodies] we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds); casting down imaginations [reasonings] and every high thing [lofty edifice] which is being raised against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought in obedience to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). Just as Joshua went up against Jericho, and took its strongholds and high towers, and cast them down and made captive the city, not with carnal weapons, but with trumpets of rams' horns (Joshua 6), so we, proceeding against the strongholds, imaginations, and infidel arguments of men, are to take the Gospel trump. The sword we are to wield is the "Word of God, the sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17) which makes him who wields it invincible. The Bible itself must be brought out, not only as the best defense against all the assaults of infidelity from the lofty towers of human reasonings, but also as the mighty weapon to overcome and bring the enemies of God into captivity to Christ. "They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony" (Revelation 12:11). "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God; having your loins girt about with truth; and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; and above all, taking the shield of faith, whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Ephesians 6:13-17). We have only to recall how our Saviour overcame the devil with the all prevailing weapon, "It is written," in order that we may be furnished with the secret of successful warfare for Him.

Very often Christians, young and old, come to us in the "inquiry room" and say, "Won't you come and talk with this friend of mine?" "Why don't you talk with him (or her) yourself?" we reply. "Because I don't know what to say to him, and, besides, you know more of the Bible." "Well, why don't you know more of the Bible?" To this, various answers are given. At any rate we meet here one grave mistake. An ignorance of the Bible, which not only furnishes us with our spiritual weapons, but "thoroughly furnishes us unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:17), leads many earnest Christians to the doubtful use of their own argumentation in dealing with their own and others' souls. It is a hopeless task to pull down the strongholds of the unregenerate mind and heart with anything less than these Divine weapons. But all may equip themselves from this great armory. The Bible contains ideas which no philosophy or human theory can furnish, and therefore puts us in possession of weapons which the enemy cannot withstand when hard pushed by them, re-enforced as they are by the invisible and mighty presence of the Holy Spirit, and which renders us impregnable to the assaults of the adversary. Of this mighty power of the Word and Spirit of God we have a splendid example in the case of Stephen, and other early disciples, whose words, drawn from the Scripture, the Jews could not withstand. We have never yet met an infidel or atheist whose arguments we could not turn aside when depending simply on the Word of God. Nay, more, we have never yet met one in the "inquiry rooms" who has been able to withstand God's Word and the mighty facts of the Bible, when, in humble, dependence upon God we have set them in array before him. If you know God's thoughts and seek to be guided by the Holy Spirit, He will say out of your mouth the right word at the right time, both to ward off an assault and to strike a telling blow for the truth. And amidst all this warfare, the light and love and gentleness of Jesus Christ will so shine out in your bearing and manner that they will be convinced of your sincerity, and God will give you the victory.

To read the rest of this commentary, follow this link.

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Consecration

God is calling us to be consecrated.

At our recent prayer meeting, the Lord spoke and the word was the following:

He started out with the parable of the two sons (Mat 21:31) and explained that we can say all types of things but it is of no use unless we actually "do" it. He would rather us say no first and then repent and do his will in lieu of saying yes and doing nothing. We ask for anointing and spiritual authority. We want to see the kingdom of God come in such a way that the spiritual authority is so strong that people will repent by our walking in the room.

The Lord desperately wants a people that will carry that kind of authority, but he is waiting for us to die to our flesh and live a radical (normal) Christian life. We want Apostolic anointing, but we don't want to live like the apostles did…it is too counter-cultural. We tolerate the things that the early Christians and the men & women of God would have never tolerated (TV, gluttony, apathy are just a few that are so commonly tolerated).

We want the power & authority without paying the price.

Living a resurrected life requires that we die first. If the "old" has not died, then what is there to resurrect. We think we can die to a few things and the authority is going to come in its fullness. No actually, as we die, our authority increases, but to have the kind of authority that we so desperately want requires holy, consecrated living that we can't even bear to imagine because our flesh cries out "NO!". It requires us to give up our temporal pleasures and to set our mind and our vision on the joy of the Lord and eternity.

Oh, to have a pure unadulterated eternal mindset would change it all. If all we cared about was what mattered in eternity and to the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, we just might hasten the day of the Lord's return.

Well the truth is that at some point in time there will be a people that will do just that. They will read the bible and believe it…not by vocal agreement, but by the radical and supernatural power that surrounds their lives. They will be scorned by other believers and labeled as a "cult" and "legalistic"…but the fruit will be undeniable. This will fuel the hatred by the pharisitical heart. The beautiful result however will be the incredible harvest. The broken, destitute, lost, hopeless, forgotten, etc will find hope when they see the pure bride of Christ.

They will see people that were just like them that now walk in a supernatural power and peace that they can physically see. They will realize how blessed they are to not have all of the distractions of financial blessings to distract them from the love of the Father. They will experience biblical revival in their own hearts, Godly sorrow, and true repentance through the impact of the witness of the Kingdom of God being manifested through the body of Christ on earth.

May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!