“To reveal (unveil, disclose) His Son within me so that I might proclaim Him among the Gentiles (the non-Jewish world) as the glad tidings (Gospel),…” Gal 1:16
As Thanksgiving dawns on the horizon before us, and as the age of the church waxes into maturity – I perceive a threat that is so subtle and precarious I must call out a warning!
We are enveloped in a time where it appears appropriate, even savvy for believers to press in for “more of the Lord” in every way possible.
More experiences,
More depth,
More of Him,
More anointing,
More power!
We are in danger of being “more” aligned with the heart of Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:9-24) and the heart of Herod to witness a sign (Luke 23… than the heart of Christ.
We are forgetting our constant need for consecration … to be separated to God — not to show what miraculous things can be done, or what wonderful people God can make us, but so Jesus can be revealed in us and through us! (Gal 1:16)
This is the witness He calls us to be. We witness of Him not of ourselves!
Now in the current press and desire to “have more” of Jesus, there lurks this unrecognized danger. The danger being that we have been led astray, moved into a spirit of error, and believe we are desiring more of Him, but secretly we are desiring more of ourselves. Like Paul says, “our minds have been corrupted and seduced from whole-hearted and sincere and pure devotion to Christ,” and instead we have been moved to a more insidious and secret devotion to self.
How smart and cunning is our adversary Satan, to take desire for more and turn it inwards upon our soul! He cannot preclude us from salvation, but in corruption he can make us polluted beyond recovery.
Like Jude 1:11 describes, “they have run riotously in the way of Cain, and have abandoned themselves for the sake of gain [it offers them, following] the error of Balaam, and have perished in rebellion [like that] of Korah!”
So my warning is this! Beware of your own soulish notions of “wanting more!” Do not trust they are pure! But rather trust the Lord that as you continue to turn towards Him in pure devotion to Him alone, He will fulfill the desires of your heart.
Proverbs 30:8-9 contains great wisdom for us all:
Remove far from me falsehood and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, Lest I be full and deny You and say, Who is the Lord?…”
Here is an important fact… John the Baptist never performed a single sign or miracle, but everything he said about Jesus was true… (Jn 10:41)
We are rapidly making our Christian walk about us, and how we are used of the Lord and our experiences (which is all self-centered), rather than what the Lord desires.
The Apostle Paul made an insightful comment about this attitude and focus of the heart when he revealed in Philippians 3:12 that he was pressing on to lay ahold and make his own that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of him!
He wasn’t laying hold of more of the Lord, or more of the promises, nor more anointing! But rather for the Lord’s purpose to be accomplished in his life!
While he did desire to know the Lord in the power of His resurrection, in the fellowship of suffering, and in obedience unto death, these came after the consecration in Phillippians 3:7-8. This is consecration as a protection against rampant self indulgence!
Now, this is my own understanding that I relate here…
In each of our hearts lie ideas, concepts, perceptions, hopes etc… some known but some secret, hidden in darkness even to ourselves. It is in continually consecrating ourselves to God and before God that unholy desires and notions are purged.
Proverbs 16:6 says that by mercy, love, truth, and fidelity [to God and man—not by sacrificial offering], iniquity is purged out of the heart….
My brothers and sisters, it is this kind of purging that each of us needs, especially as the age winds down and the deceptions of the enemy attempt to snag us from devotion to Christ.
Matthew 6:21-23 discuss the issue of treasure (what captivates our heart), and the light of our soul. I believe with all my heart that the quantity and quality of light in our soul and heart is directly attributable to a giving over of self and devotion to God. So when it refers to the body being full of light, it is really saying the body can only project the light in our hearts and soul born of complete devotion to the Lord. Where our hearts are mixed (desiring the Lord but the things of self as well) light is dimmed. And where the light of devotion is sorely compromised towards self, the light becomes darkness! How great will that darkness then be!
I pray this season for a heart of light for the Body of Christ! Eyes that are sound and not evil, and for a whole-hearted devotion to Christ unhindered by self, or the deceptions of the enemy!
May the dominion of the Lord in His Body be full!
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