For too long, I thought that anything I was "doing for the Lord" was honorable even if it adversely affected my relationship with God Himself and/or my relationship with family, friends, and strangers.
I thought that my only concern in life was to "share the truth about these end times" and anything that "threatened" to get in the way of that pursuit was just a "snare from the devil" who was trying to stop me. Ridiculous! As if spending time in God's Word, and being the spiritual leader my family needs was somehow a "roadblock" to my ministry. Are you kidding me? How sick and twisted is that!?! Boy was I wrong! My ministry suffers because my priorities are out of whack! More on that in a moment.
Looking back, it's so bizarre how spiritually blind I was. It's ironic too in a sense because as God graciously revealed certain things to me that had prophetic significance, He never revealed the sorry state I was in. Then again, maybe He did and I was just so far gone and wrapped up in "my work" to see it.
There it is. That was the problem. I was seeing it all as "my work" when it is always "His work" that's being done. Do you see how the Subtle Serpent deceived me? He had me believing that I was somehow integral to God's plan for humanity as if the whole thing either failed or succeeded to varying degrees based on what I did (or didn't) do.
Please don't misunderstand me here because I'm not saying that we're not important -- that I'm not important -- and that God doesn't (isn't) using us/me. He does (He is). I'm just stating how I somehow flipped the script without even realizing it and allowed myself to succumb to pride. In essence, I failed to recall what we're told quite clearly in the Bible:
1 Corinthians 3:7 (KJV) So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
I stopped realizing that God doesn't need me to fulfill His purposes and plans for humanity, but He will certainly use me especially if I humble myself and ask Him to. He has for some reason determined that He can use me to plant seeds of faith that He will grow into a decision for Jesus Christ one day all in His perfect timing. Again, 1 Corinthians 3:7.
So, how do I get my priorities in order -- the right order -- so that God can use me in such a way that anything I do or say will be for His highest glory and honor? The way I see it? My priorities need to be as follows:
1. Relationship With God; Strengthening My Faith
2. Family, Friends, Strangers
3. Ministry Work
See, I can never be the success that God intends for me to be in #2 unless I am making an honest effort to be my best at #1. Likewise, I can't be successful in #3 unless I am being the best I can be at both #1 and #2. So, it's all connected.
Yet, make no mistake, that I can't reverse the order or think that if I'm doing well in one I'll automatically be doing well in the other. In other words, I can't throw everything I have into number #3 and expect that #1 and #2 will just fall in line effortlessly. It will never happen.
Earlier, I mentioned my need for more "solid food" than "milk". Ironically, while many of the topics presented in this forum were for the spiritually mature, the one introducing them and writing about them (Yours Truly), was hardly spiritually mature himself. I intend to make a concerted effort to change all of that once and for all from this point forward.
Not surprisingly, today's daily devotional from The Berean spoke to this very subject. Let's take a look at the appropriate Scripture verses:
Hebrews 5:12-14 (KJV) For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The Berean's commentary is succinct and powerful:
These congregations were not equipped to feed themselves -- to discern sacred or spiritual from profane or carnal. If we are in a dependent state, it would be to our advantage to learn how we can wean ourselves spiritually from the bottle. Some of us over the years have seemingly lost our appetite for solid, spiritual food and need to be fed intravenously.
All of us need to become less dependent on spiritual milk and instead become more capable of profiting from solid food. For those who are losing the capacity to enjoy solid food, there is a way to revitalize our spiritual appetite for the weightier matters.
Most of us would agree that the state of spiritual dependency described by the apostle Paul in Hebrews and Corinthians seemed lamentable and disgusting. Yet, how many of us during the last ten, twenty, or thirty years in the church became conditioned to wait for the minister to prepare our weekly formula of Enfamil rather than ravenously devour God's Word every day?
Perhaps we have developed "baby-bird syndrome" in which we, in a helpless "take care of me" posture, open our beaks to get our weekly or bi-weekly worm. If weekly church services were the only times we were spiritually fed, we would eventually starve to death.
Sometimes late in life, after leading a full life, people for no apparent reason lose their will to live and must be fed intravenously. Actually, when we all think about it, without an overriding purpose for our existence, we have no reason to eat or sustain our life. After the belief system was altered in our prior fellowship, people indeed started to lose the vision of their purpose for existence and eventually lost their capacity to endure solid food. Hopefully, most of us have passed the stage of the milk bottle, or God forbid, the need for intravenous feeding.I'd keep writing about this, but I'm hungry! And in case you haven't heard, I'm on a new spiritual diet, which surprisingly makes me hungrier the more I eat!
More to come...
Origin: witch-selena.blogspot.com
