I have spent a long time considering why professing
Christians have so little experience of the promises of God regarding our new
life in Christ. Just for fun, let’s imagine how my mentors might answer the
question. I will try to put them in order of how God presented them to me, and
see what picture forms.
·
Larry Crabb: because they will be more
committed to self-protection than knowing and doing the will of God
·
Neil Anderson: because they have not come
to Jesus to break their chains of bondage
·
Henry Blackaby: because they are not listening
to God and joining him in his work
·
John Piper: because they don’t desire God
in their innermost beings
·
Jim Cymbala: because they won’t humble
themselves and pray in complete dependence on God for everything they need
·
Jim Wilder (Life Model): because they
prefer living in their sarks to living in the new heart Jesus gave them
·
Sam Storms: because they are denying the
ministry of the Holy Spirit and missing out on significant ways he gifts his
church to build each other up in Jesus Christ
·
Paul: because they don’t want to deny
their sarks and experience the Holy Spirit filling their inner beings so Jesus can
dwell in their hearts by faith
Well, that was insightful!
Now, in my meditation on God’s word, here is what God
ministered to me:
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.[1]
1. Our lives are
now about “the kingdom of God”. If we
don’t get that, that God “has delivered us
from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved
Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,”[2]
we will act as if we are autonomous creatures looking for only what matters to
us. If we are true children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, we have already
been delivered out of the domain of darkness, and have already been transferred
into Jesus’ kingdom. Everything now is about how to live as brothers to the King
of kings and Lord of lords.
2. Life in the
kingdom of Jesus is “in the Holy Spirit”.
Again, if we don’t get that, that everything we have in Christ is in the
Spirit, not in the law, we will keep trying to be good Christians instead of
hungering and thirsting after the Holy Spirit. Life in the Spirit is absolutely
foundational to our walk with God, our life in the kingdom, and how we are
doing. Paul’s prayer that God would grant us to be strengthened with power
through his Spirit in our inner beings is absolutely necessary.[3]
3. It is in the
Holy Spirit, in the kingdom of Jesus, that we find our righteousness. This
gives us our rest, the rest for our souls Jesus promised,[4]
since the righteousness is in the kingdom, and we are in the kingdom, so our
righteousness is secured. It is imputed in justification, worked into us in
sanctification, and perfected in glorification. It is all a work of God so
relax, seek the Spirit. He will get the job done.
4. It is in the Holy
Spirit, in the kingdom of Jesus, that we find the peace we are longing for. Good
works do not give peace because we are never good enough. In the kingdom, in
the Spirit, we rest, because we are at peace with God even while we are not yet
like Jesus.[5] It
doesn’t matter how much we are not yet like Jesus because the Spirit of God in
the kingdom of Christ will complete our peace in Christ.[6]
5. It is in the
Holy Spirit, in the kingdom of Jesus, that we find the joy we are seeking. We
can rejoice in the Lord always[7]
because we are in an eternal kingdom in the abiding presence of the Holy
Spirit. It is in this kingdom, in this Spirit, that we experience the words of Jesus
that fill us with his joy, and bring our own joy to the full.[8]
6. We know that our
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are absolutely secure
because we have received, “a kingdom that
cannot be shaken”.[9]
It cannot be shaken because it is Jesus’ kingdom, filled with the Holy Spirit,
not because we are good kids making it good, or bad kids ruining how good it
is. It CANNOT be shaken because it is God’s kingdom. Simple as that.
7. Because this
unshakable kingdom of Jesus Christ is filled with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, we are told,
“So then let us pursue what makes for peace
and for mutual upbuilding.”[10]
This means that, instead of letting our sarks (flesh) tell us how hopeless this
is (as if it was our kingdom, and depending on us to be righteous, peace-filled,
and joyful), we set our minds on the Spirit and “pursue” the things that would “make”
for peace in our lives and church, and would accomplish the most “mutual upbuilding”.
In other words,
because we are in Jesus’ kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit, we are to “work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will
and to work for his good pleasure.”[11]
God, in Jesus’ kingdom, in the Holy Spirit, is working in us both to will and to
work for our righteousness and peace and joy, so we are to work these things
out with fear and trembling, pursuing what makes for peace in the church, and
what would have the greatest effect in building up the whole body of Christ.
Note: because so
many professing Christians try to hide the true condition of their souls from
their assembly of believers, I must keep reminding us that presenting ourselves
to God as broken people who need everything Jesus’ kingdom is about is
upbuilding to everyone. Holding back because we aren’t good enough has never
built anyone up at all.
Sadly, I have
many scenarios pop into my mind of people tearing down the church by denying
what is going on within them, pretending to be doing better than they really
are, and then attacking anyone who lovingly seeks the reality of Christ in
their inner beings.
Thankfully, I
also have testimonies of when people confessed how they were really doing, often
far more broken than they had ever admitted, and discovered the church banded together
to present their mutual brokenness to God for their mutual upbuilding in Christ.
APPLICATION: the reason we can take whatever steps are required
to deal with unrighteousness in our lives, or our lack of peace, or our emptiness
of joy, is because the kingdom of God is of righteousness and peace and joy in
the Holy Spirit, and God’s kingdom cannot be shaken. We have been delivered out
of the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved
Son, and in Jesus Christ we have all the righteousness and peace and joy we
could ever desire in the personal presence and activity of the Holy Spirit.
© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
Romans 14:17
[2]
Colossians 1:13-14
[3]
See Ephesians 3:14-21 for how Paul prayed for our experience of the Holy Spirit
in our inner beings.
[4]
Matthew 11:28-30
[5]
Romans 5:1
[6]
Philippians 1:6. It is God’s work; he will complete it.
[7]
Philippians 4:4
[8]
John 15:11
[9]
Hebrews 12:28
[10]
Romans 14:19
[11]
Philippians 2:12-13
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