THE REAL BLING
Will the real and true treasure, please (for the life of us all!) stand up! I know the popular thought for this day is that God wants me to have it ALL now, in this life and I don't have to wait for an eternal reward. All that we need to do is "ask" or "speak" our desires into the atmosphere and God is obligated by His Word, to fulfil them--whatever they are. There are at least two major things wrong with this thinking (and teaching--the very popular Prosperity Movement, Word of Faith Movement both propagate this message, and many of us have embraced much of its message, too). The first problem is: it does NOT line up with God's Word; and the second is: it causes us to focus on distractions--earthly ones, rather than on God and His Kingdom.
"And he went on to say to them all,
Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be." (Luke 12:15,GNT)
Those among us who advocate "Name it and claim it" have a tendency to leave out the fine print. Context is EVERYTHING" in God's Word. To read, teach or preach "And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." [1 John 5:15, KJV] without reading 1 John 5:14-16, would give the hearer an impression that is not accurate, of God's will for our lives. Alone, 1 John 5:15, says, if God hears us, whatever we ask Him, we KNOW that we will have it (period, and without question). In context, we understand that our asking must be according to His will, first and most importantly. Secondly, we see that the petition described in this passage has nothing to do with the earthly, temporal desires of our hearts, but seeking God on behalf of my brother who has fallen in sin--a spiritual, eternal desire. This is but one example. If we would go through the entire Bible and extract every Scripture passage used to propagate the message that God wants us to be healthy, wealthy and whole--in this life, we would be able to shoot a hole through each false message preached, taught and shared on all of them (including the greeting to Gaius--which many have misused to build the whole premise of the movements on. It is a simple greeting, much like our saying, "Be Blessed!". If I could, I would list every one of them, right here.
We know that God never meant for us to go through this life completely unmarred by trial and difficulty, because He told us so! Jesus told us, (as well as the disciples who were present) "take up the cross" [Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, 10:21, Luke 9:23]. In Matthew 16, Jesus is explaining to His closest followers how He must be taken and suffer the death of the cross, and Peter rebukes Jesus, wishing the "hardship" away. (We do this, too--even though it is the hardship, the buffeting, the trials that make us strong and build spiritual character, in us). Just like Peter, we want things to be easy and comfortable--and to stay just like that, always. But, if we want the glory that is to come, we have to experience the "cross" to obtain the glory--in other words, "No Cross, No Crown". Jesus immediately rebukes Peter harshly for his immaturity--and dangerous thinking. Jesus goes so far as to say, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." The life of the follower of Christ is spiritual--not natural. Our riches are spiritual, not natural--for those who have natural riches, the spiritual life is that much harder, because it is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." [Matthew 19:23-25, KJV]. Certainly, our focus must be spiritual, not natural. Our desire should continually be for more of God, not things. Psalm 27:4 says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart." This is key. To delight in the Lord is to crave Him and to be insatiable for Him--never satisfied or filled up with Him. When we are so driven for more and more of Him, then and only then will He write the blank check to give us whatever we want--because He knows that we will only want more of Him! He is thrilled to satisfy that check. As long as our desires are for the earthly, and temporal things of life, He will never trust us with this "check". We can obtain millions, but it has nothing to do with the will or desire of God--simply our own drive or covetousness.
God simply is not in the business of making His people millionaires, billionaires or trillionaires. He is in the business of making us rich in Him and the things of His Spirit. His focus is not on the things that satisfy our flesh--He promises to see to our basic needs, as we take care of His Kingdom. He wants us to be givers and not receivers--none of us should ever be rich--because after our basic needs are met, the extra should be invested back into His Kingdom to care for those whose basic needs have not been met (the New Testament way of life see Acts 2), and to provide for the dreams and visions of the upbuilding of His Kingdom, not our personal ones. The Kingdom's progress has been held up because we are buying selfishly and building bigger barns for ourselves to house what actually belongs to God's Kingdom (now, ask "will a man rob God?"). It is the time to build spiritual treasure--Kingdom treasure, that will last for eternity, that which is incorruptible and gives life.
When Jesus appears, I pray that we have more to show for our time on the earth than things that vanish away and will be no more.
"And he went on to say to them all,
Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be." (Luke 12:15,GNT)
Those among us who advocate "Name it and claim it" have a tendency to leave out the fine print. Context is EVERYTHING" in God's Word. To read, teach or preach "And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." [1 John 5:15, KJV] without reading 1 John 5:14-16, would give the hearer an impression that is not accurate, of God's will for our lives. Alone, 1 John 5:15, says, if God hears us, whatever we ask Him, we KNOW that we will have it (period, and without question). In context, we understand that our asking must be according to His will, first and most importantly. Secondly, we see that the petition described in this passage has nothing to do with the earthly, temporal desires of our hearts, but seeking God on behalf of my brother who has fallen in sin--a spiritual, eternal desire. This is but one example. If we would go through the entire Bible and extract every Scripture passage used to propagate the message that God wants us to be healthy, wealthy and whole--in this life, we would be able to shoot a hole through each false message preached, taught and shared on all of them (including the greeting to Gaius--which many have misused to build the whole premise of the movements on. It is a simple greeting, much like our saying, "Be Blessed!". If I could, I would list every one of them, right here.
We know that God never meant for us to go through this life completely unmarred by trial and difficulty, because He told us so! Jesus told us, (as well as the disciples who were present) "take up the cross" [Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, 10:21, Luke 9:23]. In Matthew 16, Jesus is explaining to His closest followers how He must be taken and suffer the death of the cross, and Peter rebukes Jesus, wishing the "hardship" away. (We do this, too--even though it is the hardship, the buffeting, the trials that make us strong and build spiritual character, in us). Just like Peter, we want things to be easy and comfortable--and to stay just like that, always. But, if we want the glory that is to come, we have to experience the "cross" to obtain the glory--in other words, "No Cross, No Crown". Jesus immediately rebukes Peter harshly for his immaturity--and dangerous thinking. Jesus goes so far as to say, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." The life of the follower of Christ is spiritual--not natural. Our riches are spiritual, not natural--for those who have natural riches, the spiritual life is that much harder, because it is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." [Matthew 19:23-25, KJV]. Certainly, our focus must be spiritual, not natural. Our desire should continually be for more of God, not things. Psalm 27:4 says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart." This is key. To delight in the Lord is to crave Him and to be insatiable for Him--never satisfied or filled up with Him. When we are so driven for more and more of Him, then and only then will He write the blank check to give us whatever we want--because He knows that we will only want more of Him! He is thrilled to satisfy that check. As long as our desires are for the earthly, and temporal things of life, He will never trust us with this "check". We can obtain millions, but it has nothing to do with the will or desire of God--simply our own drive or covetousness.
God simply is not in the business of making His people millionaires, billionaires or trillionaires. He is in the business of making us rich in Him and the things of His Spirit. His focus is not on the things that satisfy our flesh--He promises to see to our basic needs, as we take care of His Kingdom. He wants us to be givers and not receivers--none of us should ever be rich--because after our basic needs are met, the extra should be invested back into His Kingdom to care for those whose basic needs have not been met (the New Testament way of life see Acts 2), and to provide for the dreams and visions of the upbuilding of His Kingdom, not our personal ones. The Kingdom's progress has been held up because we are buying selfishly and building bigger barns for ourselves to house what actually belongs to God's Kingdom (now, ask "will a man rob God?"). It is the time to build spiritual treasure--Kingdom treasure, that will last for eternity, that which is incorruptible and gives life.
When Jesus appears, I pray that we have more to show for our time on the earth than things that vanish away and will be no more.
Comments
Post a Comment