The scientific world asks, “what do we know” when seeking to establish accurate results. The Law Enforcement community asks, “what do we know” when trying to examine evidence and find the truth. The same question can be asked when seeking to establish God’s Word in your heart.
“What do I know to be true about God” is an excellent question to ponder when you pray. Start with what you know is true, then pray about the things you need to pray.
You must be sanctified to encounter the presence of God
Coming in contact with the presence of God will kill you if you have not been appropriately sanctified. Sanctification means to be cleansed or purified in a specific way. Once something is consecrated, it is holy, or fit for use by God.
Under the Old Covenant, you sanctified yourself, under the New Covenant, Jesus is your sanctification. Under the OC, you cleansed your outer man. Under the NC, Jesus cleanses your inner man.
To be sanctified under the Old Covenant, you took a bath, washed your clothes, and abstained from sex for two days.
To Jesus, judgment is when you “look at the speck of sawdust in another person’s eye.” He says STOP IT! Don’t do that! When you look at the speck you no longer see that person, you only see the speck. The speck is whatever issue or behavior you are judging about that person.
His remedy is to remove the plank in your own eye so you can see clearly to help them remove the speck from their eye. The plank in your eye is your judgment of that person. Your judgment is clouding you from seeing the person apart from the speck, you only see the problem. Remove your judgment and you will see clearly to help them.
Notice he doesn’t say to ignore the speck. Jesus wants you to address the speck, if you see someone caught in sin you are to help restore them. But if you only see their problem, it will blind you from helping them in a healthy way.
God is not holding our sins against us, we should not hold people’s sins against them either. Love keeps no record of wrong. Does that mean they get away with it? No way, they’ll reap what they sow, but you’re not the judge, jury, and punisher.
Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
— Dr. Stephen Covey
Most people just want to get their point across. We often ignore the other person but pretend we're listening. We selectively hear what we want to respond to but often miss their meaning. Most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. We prepare in our mind what we're going to say while they’re still speaking. WE FILTER EVERYTHING THROUGH OURSELVES. Consequently, we decide prematurely what the other person means before he/she finishes communicating. This is called judgement, more on that next week.
Let’s look at a few passages and get some insight from God on how to listen. These are wonderful promises about the character and faithfulness of God but we can also learn some universal principles about communication from these passages.
I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. Psalm 116:1-2
This message brings my Becoming Limitless series to a close, This series is about eliminating those internal limitations that keep us from following God. This series is not about getting rich and living your dreams, this series is about living FROM purpose and fulfilling those God given assignments in your life.
You are complete in Christ, doing things for him do not define you, but God does have things he wants you to do for him and his kingdom, and the fulfillment of those assignments increases his kingdom and brings great joy and fulfillment.
So what does he want you to do?
I personally think you can discern those assignments in an environment of love for others. In this series I suggest that you define who you love for your own understanding, and then take practical steps to act out that love for that people group, bringing the Gospel, meeting practical needs and prayerfully affecting them in such a way they turn to Jesus.
Assignments from God are completed FROM identity, not FOR identity. Once you know that you are already a child in his kingdom (by grace through faith), he equips you as an ambassador to complete assignments.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
An assignment from God has to do with those good works you were created unto. An assignment has to do with those works God has prepared for you to do. An assignment is something God wants you to do as an ambassador of his kingdom. God may have multiple assignments for you throughout your life, some are fulfilled in a day, some are walked out over a lifetime.
God has things he wants you to do, don’t you want to do them?
You are transformed as you renew your mind (Romans 12:2). There is no better source for mind-renewal than the word of God.
There are several methods and applications to root the word in your heart. You can read, pray, meditate, confess, incorporate into art, listen to, and sing songs about the word of God, but in all of those you must hold the word in your heart to give it time to root and bear fruit.
I want to focus on the power of confession in this article. For a little more context, I am discussing confession in light of renewing your mind and developing confidence in the area of your assignment from God.
When you remember that you’re forgiven and God has cleansed you from your sins, you are free to live untethered. The strength of sin of the law but the strength of righteousness is freedom. (See last week’s article for more on this idea).
From there on you have to guard your heart against the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world, as well as not yield your body to sin. You do so to keep your heart and conscience clear to hear and follow God’s instructions.
There is a responsibility to freedom. True freedom does not seek permissiveness, it seeks righteousness.
Insecurities, past failures, things said to you by parents, fear about money - all kinds of things may rise up in your thinking and attempt to derail you from growing and moving forward. The key is to know who you are in Christ, remember that you’re forgiven, and be honest with yourself. What do you do when you try to move forward and face internal opposition?
Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8
Peter says if you do these things it will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful.
I think we’d all agree these are good qualities that every Jesus follower should have in their lives. So what does it mean if you do not have these qualities, what should you do? Does it mean you need to work harder to be a better Christian? Let’s see…
