Deny Self?
There is confusion about the importance of self in today’s world. As disciples, we are all called to deny self as we take up our cross.
This is not talking about self-hood (being an individual) God has made you with a personality and you are uniquely you and you should be grateful for what God has done. We call that self-acceptance.
The self we are to deny is the selfish desires that put ourselves before God and others. The self that wants to be the boss and be in control. It must be denied. All of its little outbreaks of self centred-ness, selfishness, self-protection and self-promotion.
Too many believers think the only one dying in the gospel is Jesus. We have proclaimed loudly the death of Jesus to gain us but speak with less conviction about our death to gain him. Like the song says “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.” He died for our sins but we are to die to our sins.
Friend, Jesus is perfect and doesn’t change so it is us that need to adjust. “Can two walk together unless they are agreed? Let’s take up the cross and imitate him
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Receive
Imagine that tomorrow the family lawyer rings you up and says a relative has died in England and has no close relatives. We tracked you down and you’re the closest survivor and will inherit her wealth. With your mind racing, you enquire “How much?” 10 million dollars is the reply. Now that is an inheritance! But when you inherit the money, did you work for it or receive it? You received; you don’t deserve you didn’t work, you just received and was very thankful. We are co-heirs with Jesus which means we get to share in His inheritance. In the world, people try to get things. To get a blessing, get ahead, get a wife and get a child, but it is really an unbiblical way of thinking about life. Every good thing comes down from heaven as a gift. That’s Christian thinking. We’re not trying to get things from God; we are learning how to receive things from God. Everything we receive from God we receive as a gift. Father wants to give you an inheritance. He gave you the gift of salvation and you received it. Success is the Christian life is about who can receive the most from God. The more you can receive of God’s grace and gifts the better you live as a Christian. The moment you stopped receiving from God today, was the moment you decided you didn’t need grace; didn’t need Gods power or His help to stay walking in love. Those that do exploits for God are those who keep receiving from God all the time.
Friend, we will always be receivers, so that way He gets all the credit. All we can do is become better at receiving grace. That’s the difference between a believer and a more mature believer; they have learned to be better receivers of grace.
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Be weak?
One day, I felt the Lord say to me "Any real success in life is proportional to the Life you have drawn from God in prayer and relationship with God”. The greatest weakness of the flesh is its own natural ability. O yes, it has strength and the flesh has power. It can build, run, think and contrive, but it all ends in the natural world. Nothing of the flesh goes through into the spirit realm to move men eternally or to move Gods hand on behalf of sinners. The flesh has no ability to affect men's heart for good. The flesh finds it hard to do nothing in its physical world? Jesus asked his disciples “Could you not watch one hour?” Just waiting can seem like a waste to the natural person. Gal 5.17 The flesh is at war with the Holy Spirit of God. The flesh is smart, conniving, determined, self-sufficient and that’s what makes it dangerous. Our flesh’s strength is our weakness! God says “Cursed is the man who trusts in a man who makes flesh his strength..... but blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord”
Friend, if you know that the flesh is dead and therefore determine not to rely upon it, you have a weakness that God can turn to strength. Strong people are people who know they are totally weak to do His will in the flesh so they know desperately that they need Him to do His will through them.
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Legend in his own mind
King Nebuchadnezzar thought he had done it all by himself. Pride gets us imagining something of ourselves, which is not true. Nebuchadnezzar thought “My own power has gotten me this wealth.”
And it manifests in our attitude to others too. We become obsessed with disputes and arguments, or maybe we won’t listen to others advice. Some people are unteachable, they think that know best. Pride enters into their heart and instead of receiving grace which leads to success, they blunder into the darkness alone, making all the mistakes the unaided person is prone to make.
But worse, if we are proud we will be resisted by God. It’s just a law. It’s not that God wants to resist you, it’s that He must. He doesn’t want his children to hurt themselves, but He knows if they seek to break the law of gravity they will and similarly the laws of the kingdom can never be broken. The way up is down. The only way to know success in life is to have Gods grace upon us. Success is to become a servant. To serve your wife; to serve your husband; to serve your parents.
Friend, it is the law of humility. God gets behind the humble and pushes them but He gets in front of the proud. We either lose our pride or we lose our possible destiny, it’s our choice.
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The power of weakness
Luke Skywalker, Batman and other superheroes are the icons of our day. We like the idea of people just like us having great supernatural power. God promises us a great power too through His spirit but there is one step before being strong and that is weakness. Heb 11 tells us that out of weakness many Old Testament heroes were made strong and became valiant in battle. The hall of faith gives the list of hero’s names and gives the secret of their admission to the list. They were all weak, first. There are two parts to Gods' economy; first weakness and secondly strength. Only after weakness, they became valiant in the battle. We must understand today the power of weakness. I say that because weakness is not something we have to gain it is something we have to recognize! It is something we have to embrace. I'm talking about of course a weakness that is recognition of our actual weakness. Jesus said to Peter “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. That was not a criticism that was and is a fact. It not that Peter can do anything about it. The flesh was going to be with him and us till the day we die. Jesus wasn't saying Peter "how could you have flesh? If you’re human you’ve got it. But he was saying how come you didn't recognize when it began to influence your life and you dropped back to natural from the supernatural.
Friend, God has not left us in the flesh without God. In fact, you are not merely in the flesh any more if the Spirit of God dwells in you. We are not just human flesh without God now we are new creations who have supernatural DNA.
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With Him
The disciples are in the boat and Jesus is there too. When the storm stills He wonders where their faith was. He never said have you any faith but where is it? Your faith is misplaced! Our faith is sometimes focused upon us - Can we be sunk? Instead of on Christ can he be sunk? No! Our faith is in whether He is in control of the storms in our life. The question should be... “ Is God in control of the storms that are coming against Him? Of course! He is in control over all the storms that are coming against Him and His purpose. Against His boat and against anyone in His boat. If no weapon formed against us can prosper it certainly is not going to prosper against the Lord of hosts. He is the Ruler of the universe. Waters winds storms and devils are nothing to Him.
Friend, when a storm from the enemy comes into our life, freshly submit to God. Say “Lord, I'm on the mission with you. You are in the boat and this is your storm!” Matthew 28 tells us that as they went the Lord worked with them because it was His work they were on.
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Self pity
The ten spies returned to the camp from the Promised Land, focused upon the giants and forgetting the promise. As the talked about what they couldn’t do but there were two who talked about what they could do. The difference was how they saw themselves. Sometimes we don’t realise the problem is with us. We may not get on with other people but not realise it’s not them, it’s us. Were unable to love them or relate to them and connect with them because we don’t love or like ourselves. When someone is insecure it’s hard to talk to them. If they feel bad about themselves, it conveys to everyone around them. “I don’t deserve God’s blessing because I am too unworthy; I don’t think He wants to bless me.”
It won’t be the size of the task before us or the lack of experience but it will be how we see ourselves that stop us from touching our world. When you have a bad attitude about yourselves, everything is too hard. We have to see ourselves in Christ! In Christ, we are everything to God. Not only do we have everything in Christ we are everything to God in Christ.
We are not worthy of any kind of blessing but Jesus is worthy of every blessing. Christians do not get what they deserve they get what Jesus deserves. We deserve punishment but we get a blessing because Jesus deserves it.
Friend, you are going to be a great leader in the house of God. You will make a difference in the kingdom of God. He’s not looking for people whose upbringing was perfect. He’s not looking for people who have a lot of money but He’s looking for people that can believe that in Christ they can do everything God desires them to do and be.
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Don’t just sit there
God uses His power not to interrupt free choice but to turn evil for good. He uses the tribulation of the world and the temptations of the devil all for good. We know all things work together for good to them that are called but does that mean we just accept them all blindly? No, we don’t just accept it or give in to it. Joseph didn’t say well it Gods will for me to be in prison forever so here so I won’t take any opportunity to get out. When the apostles ended up in prisons they didn’t say it is the will of God, no they prayed till there was an earthquake. When troubles come or we lose our job, we don’t say Que - sera sera - instead, God wants us to rise up in faith and trust Him for the new job. Sometimes you have to fight the devil off. This builds our character, forges perseverance, opens our understanding and grows us into the mighty image of Christ.
Friend, if the enemy is seeing to depress you or sap your strength, rise and fight him off by declaring God goodness and His promises.
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