G
gideons300
Guest
It occurs to me, that in thinking about my oft repeated statement that we, as a collective whole in the west, are exhibiting string Laodecian tendencies, I realized how our "heat"needs to be measured.
It cannot be measured by sins committed, if followed by true repentance and renewal. It cannot be by exhibited fruits, for that is maturity and does take time. That is the progressive workings out of the inner pure heart...... once it is made pure by the reckoning of faith. So what is it?
It can only be the state of the heart itself. In relationship to God, are we hungering after more and more of Him, and for His nature to be imprinted on our nature? Do we increasingly long to be WITH Him, just because? In relationship to sin, does it bother us, and deeply, when we fall into sin? I am talking willful sin here, where we know it is wrong. I am referring to when the Spirit is telling us no, and we disobey and do it anyway. Does it crush us? Do our hearts break for our rebellion? NO hashing here. Let's call it what is. Do we still hunger and thirst for His righteousness, longing for it as our way of life? Or have we so accepted the modern teaching that we are only human and falling is a part of life and long ago abandoned any hope for a truly holy and Godly character here on earth? Have and made a peace treaty with sin, that if it stays "within reason", we will let it hang around because we don;t want to get all radical?
You see, my friends, we are all, I suspect, exhibiting some measure of culpability in regards to our heart not being "a heart after God." And now the hard fact, and one I share not to condemn any of you but to offer you hope for a true change. To the extent our heart is not seeking God with diligence, with hunger, with passion, that is the measurement of our "heat". There are three options.
1) Hot with God filling our hearts, or with an intense hunger to BE filled with such passion.
2) Cold, with no desire to walk in light, and no longing for God to intervene at all in our life.
3) Lukewarm with some degree of closeness with God. Tears can be shed, with times of real joy, but no real desire to "jump off the deep end" in seeking more of God and a deeper hatred of sin.
When do we finally "get it"? With rare exceptions, we are the Church addressed in Revelation 3. We are Laodecia. Before you get offended or angry, I beg you, please listen to this really close. When I say "we", I speak not in judgement of any personally. God knows my heart. We all, the hot ones, cold ones and lukewarm ones comprise the body of Christ.... together... and overall, it is...no, no, we are... sickly. I pray none rest content that they are doing great, so it is no biggie if the health of the rest of the body suffers. Nor can we be satisfied that we found the perfect church when the overwhelming majority of saints are more often than not running on empty, partially un-surrendered, at times rebellious and worst of all, possessing no hunger for it to be different.
Brother, God has an answer for us all, but until we see we are indeed lukewarm and in need of broken hearts, we will hear the answer and get mad at the audacity to judge us, but we will be unable to hear what God is saying.
Awake to righteousness. Mine, in you. Light your lamp.
And therein lies to crux of the problem. We do not believe any can truly walk a righteous life and thus, we believe we have enough light already, thank you. We are satisfied with positional holiness with no deep longing for holy character to drive out the old us. "...cause after all, grace makes up the difference Right?"
It does with our sin, if we turn away from it each time we slip, and go back to God and receive forgiveness. It does in our weakness and failures in spite of our trying to resist temptation. But I pray you hear these words.
It does not when it comes to our hearts. Our hearts must be His. Our whole hearts. We are to love our God with ALL of our hearts. HOT love. And if we do not know how, we are to be HUNGRY for that whole hearted committment..... seeking till we find.
So we see the valley of decision open up in front of us. If a part of us is reserved for us, for our rule, we cannot seek Him with our whole hearts. We want to see this as a minor point.... a nicity, not as necessity. It is not. In the end, we MUST know that it will come true what Jesus told us.
If we try to save our lives, we will lose them.
Let not this be bad news for any of us, or a negative in any regards. For just as surely, he who will consent to lose his life so Christ can live in him? He WILL experience the full joy of His salvation. He will be adorned with a new nature where obedience is he will always say yes to God. He will be changed from glory to glory. He will stand amazed as Christ begins to grow His fruit in him. This is the standard being lifted up in these last days.
No more we that live, but Christ who now lives in us.
It is time. It is OUR time.
Blessings and much love,
Gideon
It cannot be measured by sins committed, if followed by true repentance and renewal. It cannot be by exhibited fruits, for that is maturity and does take time. That is the progressive workings out of the inner pure heart...... once it is made pure by the reckoning of faith. So what is it?
It can only be the state of the heart itself. In relationship to God, are we hungering after more and more of Him, and for His nature to be imprinted on our nature? Do we increasingly long to be WITH Him, just because? In relationship to sin, does it bother us, and deeply, when we fall into sin? I am talking willful sin here, where we know it is wrong. I am referring to when the Spirit is telling us no, and we disobey and do it anyway. Does it crush us? Do our hearts break for our rebellion? NO hashing here. Let's call it what is. Do we still hunger and thirst for His righteousness, longing for it as our way of life? Or have we so accepted the modern teaching that we are only human and falling is a part of life and long ago abandoned any hope for a truly holy and Godly character here on earth? Have and made a peace treaty with sin, that if it stays "within reason", we will let it hang around because we don;t want to get all radical?
You see, my friends, we are all, I suspect, exhibiting some measure of culpability in regards to our heart not being "a heart after God." And now the hard fact, and one I share not to condemn any of you but to offer you hope for a true change. To the extent our heart is not seeking God with diligence, with hunger, with passion, that is the measurement of our "heat". There are three options.
1) Hot with God filling our hearts, or with an intense hunger to BE filled with such passion.
2) Cold, with no desire to walk in light, and no longing for God to intervene at all in our life.
3) Lukewarm with some degree of closeness with God. Tears can be shed, with times of real joy, but no real desire to "jump off the deep end" in seeking more of God and a deeper hatred of sin.
When do we finally "get it"? With rare exceptions, we are the Church addressed in Revelation 3. We are Laodecia. Before you get offended or angry, I beg you, please listen to this really close. When I say "we", I speak not in judgement of any personally. God knows my heart. We all, the hot ones, cold ones and lukewarm ones comprise the body of Christ.... together... and overall, it is...no, no, we are... sickly. I pray none rest content that they are doing great, so it is no biggie if the health of the rest of the body suffers. Nor can we be satisfied that we found the perfect church when the overwhelming majority of saints are more often than not running on empty, partially un-surrendered, at times rebellious and worst of all, possessing no hunger for it to be different.
Brother, God has an answer for us all, but until we see we are indeed lukewarm and in need of broken hearts, we will hear the answer and get mad at the audacity to judge us, but we will be unable to hear what God is saying.
Awake to righteousness. Mine, in you. Light your lamp.
And therein lies to crux of the problem. We do not believe any can truly walk a righteous life and thus, we believe we have enough light already, thank you. We are satisfied with positional holiness with no deep longing for holy character to drive out the old us. "...cause after all, grace makes up the difference Right?"
It does with our sin, if we turn away from it each time we slip, and go back to God and receive forgiveness. It does in our weakness and failures in spite of our trying to resist temptation. But I pray you hear these words.
It does not when it comes to our hearts. Our hearts must be His. Our whole hearts. We are to love our God with ALL of our hearts. HOT love. And if we do not know how, we are to be HUNGRY for that whole hearted committment..... seeking till we find.
So we see the valley of decision open up in front of us. If a part of us is reserved for us, for our rule, we cannot seek Him with our whole hearts. We want to see this as a minor point.... a nicity, not as necessity. It is not. In the end, we MUST know that it will come true what Jesus told us.
If we try to save our lives, we will lose them.
Let not this be bad news for any of us, or a negative in any regards. For just as surely, he who will consent to lose his life so Christ can live in him? He WILL experience the full joy of His salvation. He will be adorned with a new nature where obedience is he will always say yes to God. He will be changed from glory to glory. He will stand amazed as Christ begins to grow His fruit in him. This is the standard being lifted up in these last days.
No more we that live, but Christ who now lives in us.
It is time. It is OUR time.
Blessings and much love,
Gideon
thank you.
