The only hope we have as children of the King is that He is successful, without all of our efforts to make Him successful!
His ability is our inability and our inability is our assurance of salvation. God is such a gracious Father, for He waits to glorify His abilities only when we come to the end of our own ridiculous attempts to glorify ourselves. He is a “pedestal kicker” more than all others. When we work tirelessly to put ourselves up on a pedestal, He is quick to kick that pedestal right out from underneath us. As soon as we cease to function in the power of human energy and tap into the unlimited resources of His world through Christ Jesus, we will have supernatural abilities to be successful as children of God -- even if it comes with the price tag of being labeled by the world as unsuccessful!
Lies, lies, and more lies. The enemy is ever so quick to make up a new one every time we get close to renouncing the last. What we all need is a fresh offering of discernment that acts like radar against the lies of the provocative evil one. Even though God does not, Satan is a god that changes with the times. The way he accomplishes changing the face of Christianity is through more lies.
LIE FOURTEEN – To be a successful Christian in the world, you must learn to compromise. To compromise is to agree to give up a part of what you consider to be absolute truth for the sake of the argument, or to avoid rejecting another. To put it bluntly, it is an agreement to lie to one another. If we compromise basic issues in discussions, we will ultimately begin to compromise Biblical Truth for financial gain. Statistics prove that very few Christians choose NOT to compromise, when they are in the position of being able to advance in their careers. Most actually believe it is an active part of true honorable Christianity. One of my favorite preachers said it best:
“If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people's plans are upset, and they will jibe us with it - "You call this Christianity?" We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid.
Our human pride entrenches itself on this point, and we say - I will never accept anything from anyone. We shall have to, or disobey God. We have no right to expect to be in any other relation than our Lord Himself was in (see Luke 8:2-3).
Stagnation in spiritual life comes when we say we will bear the whole thing ourselves. We cannot. We are so involved in the universal purposes of God that immediately we obey God, others are affected. Are we going to remain loyal in our obedience to God and go through the humiliation of refusing to be independent, or are we going to take the other line and say - I will not cost other people suffering? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but we shall be a grief to our Lord. Whereas if we obey God, He will look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our obedience. We have simply to obey and to leave all consequences with Him.True Christianity is costly. When we compromise, we are attempting to regulate God as to how much rejection He is permitted to sanction in our lives.
Beware of the inclination to dictate to God as to what you will allow to happen if you obey Him.” –Oswald Chambers
One of the most used excuses of control for Christians is how they make and spend their money. These “types” of Christians know there is a price for true Christianity and they simply are NOT willing to pay it. The price tag is usually rejection, isolation, and lack of promotions or advancements. Therefore, in order to get those “well deserved” promotions, they close their eyes to the principles of God by not reading their Bibles. In fact, my counseling experience with people of struggle like this is they rarely study the Word of God on any topic, let alone God’s miraculous plan of economy.
God is the One who chooses to advance us in our professions/callings. There are many demonstrations of this in the Word. One of my favorites is the story of Joseph. He was a young man of integrity when his brothers tried to dispose of him by ultimately selling him as a slave. After Joseph was enslaved, he still maintained his integrity and lived in truth. Because of his reputation, God gave Him His favor and advanced him to be second in charge of all of Egypt. That kind of integrity and honor is rare in our society today.
Each of us must accept that God’s standards of living are NOT to advance us, but to humble us into complete dependence on Him. Once this dependence is proven, we then are advanced in our faith – which oftentimes includes worldly advancements.
Compromise is for the deceived or weak.
Each of us must accept that God’s standards of living are NOT to advance us, but to humble us into complete dependence on Him. Once this dependence is proven, we then are advanced in our faith – which oftentimes includes worldly advancements.
Compromise is for the deceived or weak.
May we all be challenged by that statement!
LIE FIFTEEN – In order to get anywhere in this world, you must be a mover and shaker. It’s not what you know – it’s who you know. Yeah, that might work if you’re a bully! I don’t mean to insult those who practice such ideologies, but people who live out this lie are acting as liars. How do I know this? I was guilty of this enough to be hung by my own string of names and influences I self-propagated. I was so insecure as to who I was that I would use the names and positions of people I knew, or wished I knew, in order to stand taller in my little self-made world of pretend. The problem was when I actually got to know some of these “infamous” people, I became disappointed in them due to their level of shallowness. When I realized just how insecure they were, it only made things worse for me. Here I was investing all of my illusive projections into an image that was even shallower than my own pool of discontentment. In fact, in most cases, God ended up having me minister to them even though I was suffering as the “wannabe.”
When another man lives off the reputation of another man, he only can advance as far as the length of that man’s nose. In other words, we suffer God from truly being able to use His full potential in us to live out His true achievements. Attempting to gain love, acceptance, and favor from the rich and famous is not only condemned by God, it condemns God and puts our lives at risk!
“When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are a man of great appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for it is deceptive food. Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, or desire his delicacies; for as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, ‘Eat and drink!’ But his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten, and waste your compliments” (Proverbs 23:1-8, NASB).Hummm – do not eat the bread of a selfish man or desire his delicacies. Well, there goes my “power lunches.” I use to consider it quite odd that God would ask us not to eat with selfish people, but now that I understand the wisdom of identity – I get it. God said that for as he (a man) thinks of himself, so he is. Identity comes from what each person thinks of him or herself. The way you find out what a man thinks of himself is by how he eats and who he breaks bread with. Those who impress with “power lunches” are to be watched closely. Rarely are their hearts with us, but usually are out to further advance their own wealth.
Take it from someone who was a nobody that became a somebody, then was reduced to being a nobody. Wealth and influence have wings, here today and gone the next.
LIE SIXTEEN - There is no true honor in being poor or second place. Really? Then Jesus was a rich carpenter who had a string of furniture franchises peppered throughout the holy land. Better yet, was He a liar when he said that it was best to be in last place?
“Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all’ " (Mark 9:3, NASB).
Ok, let’s read this again. “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” This might give us a window into the agenda of God as we watch “Christians” who have bought into these lies fall like autumn leaves from a tree. I have been humbled by God more times than I want to admit. It seems (or is) that every time I try to be in first place in anything, He is quick to place me at the end of the line. The more I work at being at the end of the “food line,” the sooner I find myself talking to a “king.”
Whether my poverty is a result of violating God’s principles of economy, refusing to learn about God’s character, withholding my tithes and offerings, or simply realizing my need for God – I am discovering God’s control of circumstances is normal, natural, and neutral. Those who fight this Truth fight God, the Author of the Universe. If stupid is as stupid does, then we all self-torment over stupidity. Big things often come in small packages. Since the world views Jesus as a poor poverty stricken nobody, I am strongly reconsidering being a SOMEBODY!
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9 NASB).
“For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself (Galatians 6:3, NASB).
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