The Tug of the World

God has a word for our times that we desperately need.  God always messes with our hearts.  Our carnal nature pulls against God's message and the tug of God's calling.

God's message for our times is this:  The things of this world shall come to naught.  To resist the tug of the world, I must turn my eyes upon Jesus.  What is it that I need?  Is it fame, fortune, and praise of man?  Is it the worldly treasures of Vanity Faire?  You can have all you want... Give me Jesus.  All I need is thee.

The adversary will twist your mind to worship him through the worship of stuff, accomplishments, and self...  the world and everything in it.  However, the things of this world, that which is seen, is temporal, i.e., secular and of this second, but the things which are unseen are eternal.  Therefore, set your affection on the things above, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. 

We were born with an "I" disease that we inherited from Adam.  The cure for the "I" disease is to turn your "eye" upon Jesus.

When we were born again, God gave us a "sixth sense" to see and perceive from a spiritual perspective instead of from a natural five senses perspective.  We can now see dead people walking around who think that they are alive.  Men of the world are dead but they don't know it.  They are alive physically but they are dead spiritually.  Jesus Christ said, "I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly." 

God sanctified us through his son Jesus Christ.  To Sanctify is to set apart for the purpose intended by the designer.  It doesn't mean that the sanctified are "holier than thou."  Rather it means that as we walk in the spirit according to God's divine  purpose:  according to his divine design, his providence, his provision, his allotment; we fulfill the purpose to which he called us as his "poema," his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus unto his work that he has foreordained that  we should walk therein.

In the post modern world where good and evil are not defined according to God's standard, but rather according to man's opinion, we have been called to stand apart from this world, to stand firm upon the standard of the Word of God.  Not to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and by the slight of men and cunning craftiness wherein they lie in wait to deceive, but rather, we are called to stand in firm reliance upon almighty God according to the standard of His matchless Word.  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage (of the law of sin and death.)

My strat-plan will come to naught.  I don't know the end from the beginning but he does.  God says to incline my ear unto him...  to listen to his still small voice.  The word of God is not a head lamp.  Rather it is a lamp unto my feet.  As we walk in fellowship with him, God lights our path and reveals his plan one step at a time.

As we seek God and his righteousness, the things of the world will take care of themselves...  Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.  God is our provision, our sufficiency, our daily allotment.  When our priorities are aligned with his priorities, God will bless the path before our feet and the daily work of our hands. 

The problems of this world are the fruit of worshiping the wrong god...  the god of self:  self actualization and self sufficiency.  The problem is a "leadership" issue.  Whom do you follow?  Your government, your boss, your own wisdom?  A Christian is a disciplined follower:  one who has made a declaration in his heart to change leaders, to change Lords...  from worshiping self to following The Lord Jesus Christ.  It's not about me, it's about him.  Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.

The adversary will say, "we're not worthy."  However, God called us to be "men of God."  God is in the genitive case:  genitive of possession:  God's man.  Genitive of origin:  it is He that hath made us and not we ourselves.  Genitive of contents:  He is my all in all.

God called us to the body of Christ so that we can grow up and mature in community with him.  We have been "fitly framed together" within the body of Christ.  We're interlocking fittings within the body...  each individual contributing to the building up of the body in love.  He has called us to minister and serve one another...  the fruit of the spirit is the result of exercising the spirit...  love activates believing that appropriates the power of God within the body of Christ... that we may grow up unto him.  It's not a wilderness walk.  We're in this together to collectively glorify him.  We're called collectively to his purpose:  walking and working together as one body fitly framed together to the edifying of itself in love to the glory of God.

It's not about me, it's about him.  I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Galatians 2:20 “ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

What is it that you want?  The world and everything in it?  You can have all this world...  Give me Jesus!

Your brother in Christ,

Michael