The Twisted Truth

Most Christian believers know this verse well. I remember seeing it on a billboard outside the small rural town where I attend church. The verse is certainly true (it is quoted from scripture) and a very powerful truth at that. However, in the opinion of this unschooled ordinary guy,  this application is far from the truth.

There is no modern nation, no matter how much it may need to repent, to which God would address, "if my people, who are called by my name". This is not a verse for America. I hope you understand that. This is a verse for the people of God. That is where we go wrong first of all, straight out of the box with this verse. We seek to apply it wrongly. We seek to expend our energies Christianizing the pagans when the verse calls us to get to grips with ourselves. We think this verse is a mandate for asking those that have not known the grace of God to somehow live as if they did. This is a call to the people of God to live as the people of God. if my people...my people who have been redeemed by my blood, sustained by my Spirit, who are committed to my law. If these people will do certain things...like stop making the priority the confrontation of the enemy on the outside and instead deal with the enemy within, which is ourselves. When we take the fight to our own sinful lives then we will start to make progress.

What do we have to do? Well, #1 we have to humble ourselves. It is pride at the heart of all of our obstinacy and our disobedience. God's word speaks so powerfully to this in Nehemiah chapter 9 when God says in the 16th verse, you are arrogant, stiff-necked and disobedient. I don't like to see myself like this... but I need to. Only when I come before God will I be humbled. Only when I see myself as I really am before God and his glory does true humility happen. My great need is to know him and then to know myself. Not as we are told everyday as we live our lives that we should know ourselves then go look for God. We will never know ourselves until we know Him and when we know Him we will all know we have far too much to say for ourselves. This reminds me of a famous quote by an unknown author.

Lord, I renounce my desire for human praise, for the approval of my peers, the need for public recognition. I deliberately put these aside today, content to hear you whisper, "Well done, my faithful servant."

Here's the deal.
Those words are easy to read.  Light to carry on a notecard.
This is tough to live. Because everything within me cries out for affirmation, cries out for recognition, cries out for approval, cries out for accolades, but God says he will not share his glory with anybody else. Humble yourselves.

#2 you need to pray. These go hand in hand. See you never pray when you're proud, because proud people never pray. They are self-sufficient. They see no need to pray. Remember, prayer isn't just talking to God.  I love the following word's of Tozer.

“More spiritual progress can be made in one short moment of speechless silence in the awesome presence of God than in years of mere study. It is only when our vaunted wisdom has been met and defeated in a breathless encounter with Omnisience that we are really permitted to know, when prostrate and wordless the soul receives divine knowledge like a flash of light on a sensitised plate. The exposure may be brief, but the results are permanent.”

#3 Seek His face. This is not a mystery. Read and study and apply his Word. This is where you meet God and learn more of who he is. In all actuality it is primarily a heart condition. A passion...a  desire...a hunger or thirst for more of God. These following words from my early post describe it well for me.

I want to know something of the genuine experience of Christ in my life. I want an awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit. I want to know Christ,  not just know of him or about his Word, but truly know him. I know my faith is not based on emotions, nor does it rest on feelings, but I want a passion for the mind of Christ. I want conviction of the truth of his Word, I want a deep sense of his abiding with me. I want to know you Lord, I want to see your face. I long for a spiritual revival within myself, within the church.

#4 Turn from our wicked ways. Repentance. To go against the grain. To go against what I want to do most of the time. We have God's power to enable us and God's word to direct us but he demands from us to turn from all we know to be wrong. We don't want to be like the people of God in the following psalm.

Psalm 106:43 Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin.

Some of us are nowhere near to being as useful in our Christian life as we could be, we do not know the blessing of God on our lives as we might, we do not know the joy of his abiding presence as we can. We must humble ourselves, pray, seek his face and turn from our wicked ways. When the people of God get this right, the pagans' desires will become God's desires.