If we want to serve the Lord,
we must be willing to continuously crucify our fleshly concern about what
others think about us or what others' views may be about our beliefs and
service. If we don’t, our service for Him will, at best, be limited, and at worst,
non-existent because we’ll always think of a reason not to serve based off of how
others may treat us or what present things of this world we may lose. This
self-denial and death to self isn't easy (and often involves suffering), but
it's vital, otherwise we'll never be as effective or fruitful for God as He
desires, or not bear fruit for Him at all.
Even Jesus had times when he
went from being accepted to rejected, popular to unpopular (and vice versa,
often very quickly), and agreed with, to disagreed with--but that never changed
His ministry or service for the Lord. That's because He had a clear
understanding and deep conviction, not only about what true Biblical and Holy Spirit-led service was all about, but also what the exact type, manner, and scope of
His service was supposed to be. The Father made it very clear to Jesus what He
wanted Him to do (think: the Father's work--Jesus only did what He saw His Father do--the work of cross/ the preaching & revealing of
the truth/ the work of being a witness for His Father through miracles
etc.), and His desire is to do that for us as well because He's given us all
gifts and callings--which things the Bible calls 'irrevocable' (i.e. God never recalls them).
It’s true that we need to be
discerning in our use of the gifts. Our use of the gifts should be according to
love and the fruits of the Spirit. We should also take into consideration the
fact that there are often seasons and timings to different types of service. Finally, we should be
led by Biblical truth and the Holy Spirit’s leading in whatever we do for God. So
discernment and a wise operation of the gifts is very important. Having said
all this, we should be careful never to confuse discernment with fleshly fear
or fleshy desires (or simply just natural desires). At times, we can all make this mistake. This can happen simply
because we’re mistaken, we actually want to avoid a kind of service, or simply
because we’re not examining our own heart thoroughly enough. Whatever the
reason, this error is easily avoidable. We simply need to ask ourselves the
following questions: ‘Is our ‘discernment’ stopping us from serving God? Is it
stopping us from operating in our Holy Spirit giftings for the good of His
people? Is it stopping us from shining our light before men? (Spiritual light
is NEVER meant to be hidden under a bushel). Is our 'discernment' stopping us
from doing what the revealed will of God (whether Biblically or by the will,
revelation or prompting of the Holy Spirit) has told us we should be doing?
Finally, is our ‘spiritual’ discernment just a cover for our fleshly fear of
losing something, or a fear of being rejected, ignored, misunderstood, reviled
and hurt by others? Our service of God should be willing to lose and sacrifice
everything for Jesus’ sake:
Luke 18-
20You know the
commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall
not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’a ”
21“All these I
have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22When Jesus
heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell
everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
(*Notice
that God wants more than a moral obedience—He wants a sacrificial service. We
are not following Jesus if we only obey Him but do not serve Him. We are
directed by the Lord first to obey, then to serve in our following after Him
i.e. ‘Then come, follow me.’)
Fleshly discernment’s (i.e.
worldly wisdom) only concern is what will happen to us, or what we will lose if
we stand with and for Christ. It’s main desire is also to avoid any kind of
suffering:
Luke 18-
31He then began
to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by
the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be
killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside
and began to rebuke him. 33But when Jesus
turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me,
Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the
concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”34Then he called the crowd to him along with his
disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must
deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save their lifeb
will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save
it.
The very nature of following
after Christ and serving Him is that we will be called on to LOSE OUR LIVES.
Don’t underestimate just how great this sacrifice is—it’s a sacrifice and willingness to sacrifice which involves
and demands everything we are—our whole lives. If we try to keep anything in
our lives which is reserved just for ourselves (which we won't allow God to have, touch, or use), we run the very real risk that we will lose our
most important life: our spiritual life (v35).
What are other people and
their opinions, views, or treatment worth in comparison to our service for Him,
and just as importantly, our spiritual lives? God is the one who takes care of
us, so He’ll always do just that. No matter what we’re asked to face or give up
in His service, He’ll always give us all things necessary for life and
Godliness (2 Peter 1v3). This should inspire in us a sense of real freedom and
opportunity when we think of serving the Lord. There is no power or influence
that affects us unless the Lord allows it, and so all things work together for
our good when we serve the Lord. Our highest concern in our service, and one
that should cancel all others, is this: what does the Lord want us to do right now in
our lives for Him? If this is the highest concern of our lives, all other
considerations will fall into their rightful place. The sacrificial service of
our lives is the high calling of our lives, and the very purpose of it. Let
nothing stifle or stop this great calling, for as the Luke 18 passage above
shows us, it’s as important as our spiritual life.
No comments:
Post a Comment