Things Revealed

This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you're not on my side, you're the enemy; if you're not helping, you're making things worse.

Matthew 12:30 (The Message)

On this issue, there are no shades of gray. We are either with Jesus or against him. Whether overturning tables in the temple, speaking to the woman at the well or warning that “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me” cannot be his disciple, the choice is always the same. Joshua put it this way: "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve..."

We tend to forget how significant this choice is. And we can barely comprehend all the life-changing ramifications of choosing Christ. But Jesus knows every one of them, including this one: He knows that not everyone will embrace the choice you’ve made. In fact, many will hate it. And they will hate you for making it. Because for those who are perishing, for those who reject Christ, we are the scent of death. Even if you don't say a word about whom you have chosen, some will be repulsed by you. Somehow, they will know, and they will leave you wondering why they don't like you.

Peter explained it this way: “you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do — living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you.” To your friends, your coworkers, even to members of your own family, you are no longer the same. Now, by the choice you've made, something about your life makes them uncomfortable. It's this: You have become the very presence of God in their lives—a living epistle—and the Holy Spirit in you brings conviction like a two edged sword, piercing their hearts and exposing the choices they have made.

We may think you we can work out our differences with those who continue to follow the ways of the world. That maybe, by compromising with them on some things, by keeping our faith to ourselves, by biting our tongue when we ought to speak out, our relationships won't change and our old friends won’t be offended. It would seem, however, that no such compromise is possible. Jesus so much as told us so with this parable:

Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

We are in a battle to the death. Everything is at stake. And it is the Prince of Peace who will have his way and who is dictating the terms of engagement. We are called to be holy as Christ is holy. We are called to be pure. And we are called to follow Christ wherever he leads, to surrender only to Him. Compromise with God's enemies—even with those who don't realize they oppose Him—compromises us. Jesus demands everything. Compromise means Jesus gets something less than everything, while the enemy gets something in us, something to leverage and use to separate us from God's loving embrace. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy our relationship with Christ. Jesus comes that we may have eternal life by being crucified with him.

Such is the cosmic battle for our hearts and souls, a paradox with eternal consequences: Our enemy wants us dead. So too does Jesus, only he wants us to willingly pick up our cross and lay down our old lives that we might find new life in Him. That is what it means to be on the side of Jesus, to be for Him.

Let the world think it strange that we no longer plunge into the same old flood of dissipation, let the abuse come and let us celebrate that we have been changed into His likeness enough to offend anyone!

Paul says we are the aroma of Christ to those who are being saved and the scent of death to those who are perishing.

Either way, we carry a fragrant offering to those around us.

If they don't know that it's Christ in us, the hope of glory, we owe it to them to say so.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Romans 8:22-24

How can it be that “the whole of creation” which God spoke into existence and certified as "good,” groans—right up to the present time—as in the pains of childbirth? How can God’s perfect creation be so distressed? And what of us? Paul says we "who have the first fruits of the Spirit” are groaning inwardly right along with creation.

In truth, all of creation has been groaning for the Kingdom to come almost from the very beginning.

Adam and Eve were not exactly like us. At least not at first. For they were created innocent, neither of them having been birthed in sin as we were. But like us, both were given free will. They were also given the perfect opportunity to thrive in the most perfect place on earth—Eden—the place where God walked in the Garden with them, blessed them in every way and held forth the perfect plan for their lives. There was just one warning for the man (and through him for the woman): whatever you do, “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” That was God's only law. But like any law, it placed a limit on what they could do. And like anyone with a free will, they could choose to obey or disobey it.

By the fourth chapter of Genesis, the fall of man was complete. Paradise was lost and sin and death entered the world. Mankind was now so far from innocent that his every inclination was to do evil all the time.

In his fallen state, man cannot get out of his own way. Sinful man still has free will, but there have been some drastic changes. Before the fall, he shared the Garden of Eden with the holy and righteous God of the Universe. Since the fall, he shares the earth with, “the god of this world,” Satan, who in his rebellion "was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him."

Is it any wonder the world groans? Is it any wonder we groan? We live in a world contaminated by sin, populated by fallen men and fallen angels where evil flourishes and truth is nowhere to be found. As a result, the world disappoints. Our families and friends disappoint. And even the church can disappoint. Because none are without sin, and no one is immune from the pain of sin or its grip on their life. The Apostle Paul described it this way: “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Like Paul, we all can say “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”

But Paul also recognized he was no longer captive to sin, “because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” We still struggle, but Jesus has made a way through the Holy Spirit. We still battle sin, but defeat is not inevitable. We may “groan inwardly” when we glimpse the Kingdom of Heaven and see just how fallen our world really is, but “despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

Here in the world, where the fallen live among the fallen, we are nevertheless called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and to be a light in the darkness. We are the redeemed with feet of clay, new creations in the same old body, living in the same fallen neighborhood, battling many of the same old demons. If only believing in Christ and receiving his Holy Spirit would have changed us forever, our struggles with sin and temptation would have come to an abrupt and definitive end. If only. We are profoundly changed, but our fleshly nature refuses to submit or renounce its claim on our desires.

God could have permanently transformed us in all ways at the moment of our rebirth, but he did not. Because had he done so, had he changed our nature in that fundamental way, he would have taken something so important from us that our transformation and our love for God would have lost all meaning by the next day.

Free will.

We have become children of God and are now heirs of the King and friends of Jesus. But we must still make choices when we are tempted; when our faith wanes; when we are wounded, rebellious or just plain tired of persevering. Which is why scripture says "choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." That's not quite as easy as it sounds.

Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” Jesus uses the language of war because a battle for our souls rages all around us all the time, only “the weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world.” Our battle is in the heavenly realms and in our minds, where the choices we make affect not only our own walk with God, but the lives of those who look to us as "Christ's ambassadors." As believers, we see action every day. It is as if every voice we hear, every argument we entertain and every choice we make is the front line of the war. We may be prepared by God’s word, strengthened by his love, armed with His holy spirit and equipped with the mind of Christ, but at the moment of decision it is our free will that determines what actions we take and whose side we choose.

We are constantly confronting the same choice as the first couple. As we battle our flesh, as we battle temptation and false teaching and vanity and the need for recognition, and as we successfully force our will to bend to His will, the Kingdom of Heaven forcefully advances, and forceful, imperfect but saved men and women, struggling sinners all—people like us—lay hold of it.

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. It is also near you, beckoning you home and holding forth the promise of God's ultimate redemption for his wondrous creation. Grasping this truth will energize you. It will lift your spirits and put hope in your heart for this troubled planet. There may be much that’s wrong in the world, but we’ve had a glimpse of the Kingdom to come and the unstoppable power of God's love to bring it to fruition. This fallen world we know is not the natural order our creator planned. Timothy Keller, in his book The Prodigal God, put it this way: "Jesus’s miracles were not so much violations of the natural order, but a restoration of the natural order. God did not create a world with blindness, leprosy, hunger, and death in it. Jesus’s miracles were signs that someday all these corruptions of this creation would be abolished.”

With every choice you make for God, every time you put others before yourself, pray for those around you, step out in faith and share your love for God with the broken hearted and the lost, you are serving as God's chosen vessel to restore the natural order in your corner of the Kingdom. And your obedience to God, even if it sometimes takes the full force of your will to obey Him, is a sign that the Kingdom of Heaven is still advancing, that love never fails and that the corruptions of this creation are much closer to being abolished than any of us can ever know!

Now that is worth groaning about.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

Jesus was not a great fan of religion. Nor was he a fan of what Israel's teachers and the Pharisees had done by turning the law of Moses into a system of rewards, punishments and procedures—a religious system that left the heart unchanged and the Lord unpleased. So Jesus addressed the crowds to show them what they had unknowingly become a part of.

Because the teachers and Pharisees claimed authority in Moses’ name, they were thought to have the word of the Lord and worthy to be followed. Jesus didn’t see it that way and he warned the people about their leaders: “do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders…” “Everything they do is done for men to see” and for recognition. He rebuked them directly, saying, “You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” And he left no room for debate, calling such leaders “hypocrites,” “blind guides” and “whitewashed tombs” full of wickedness within. So unspiritual was the religious system that “the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus.” The leaders knew the rules but their hearts were blind to the Ruler of all creation and his heart for them.

In the beginning, God's heart was to have relationship with man. It's still his heart. He prepared a place for him so they could live together in the Garden. In the beginning, there was no law (except one: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). There was intimacy and fellowship—God, man and woman in Eden living in perfect harmony. But we know how that ended. And ever since then, mankind has been creating ways to make things right with God to win back his love, not fully understanding that God never stopped loving us. Ever.

Those ways are the stuff of religion. Religion creates ways to earn God’s love and his promised redemption. Religion puts all sorts of heavy loads on men’s shoulders by saying God will love you, IF…if you don’t drink; if you don’t smoke; if you dress appropriately, if you pray every day; if you clean up your language; if you give money; if, if, if…

Jesus says this: I love you, NO ifs, ands or buts.

Jesus has never stopped loving us. He gave his life for us. Anyone or any system that says we must do something to earn God’s love rather than receive it, is not biblical. And anyone or any system that says that we must do more than receive his sacrifice on the cross to be restored, has traded redemption for religion.

That’s why James says that pure religion is this: “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Pure religion is about abiding in Christ. It’s about the overflow of a transformed heart causing us to love not as the world loves—with conditions and expectations of reward—but selflessly, “with actions and in truth.” Pure religion is not about a duty to serve. It's about the desire to obey.

God calls us to meet together, to pray, to worship him, to be in his word, to be teachable and to teach and to make disciples of all nations. More importantly, however, he calls us friends if we do what he commands. And his command is this: “Love each other as I have loved you.” Sometimes that calls for small sacrifices. Sometimes it calls for more. And still other times it calls for the ultimate sacrifce. As Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Are we prepared to lay down our lives for our friends? How about just our pride? Or our rights? Or even our guard?

Doing so would be choosing obedience to Christ. It would also be choosing to lay down our lives, at least a little. And it would be choosing religion that God accepts as pure and faultless.

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

1 John 2: 27

Where have we heard this before? And why do we need to be reminded that the anointing we received when we became believers “remains” in us? Because we are mere mortals. Born again, but from worldly stock. Some of us forget names seconds after introductions. Others forget important dates and appointments. And many forget that they have been transformed—filled with the power of God to do great and mighty things, forgiven for past transgressions and equipped in all ways to fulfill God’s call on their lives.

The anointing is for a purpose. One purpose is to bring us into intimate relationship with God himself, to know his love and fellowship. Another is to equip us deep within so we can step out in faith with holy confidence.

John says we received the anointing (an infilling of the Holy Spirit; the oil of God; gifting and equipping; the act of having been chosen by God). He says that it remains in us. When called to step up and step out in faith and speak the word of the Lord to friends or family, our first thoughts are often that we are not qualified. And rather than risk embarrassment, we remain silent. So John reminds us we are qualified because the anointing remains in us. No one has to teach us about it, because the anointing—the Holy Spirit—teaches us about all things. And it’s not just wishful or positive thinking, but the very power of God. Only, we must remain in him. (Jesus himself proclaimed: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”)

Paul put it this way: “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

And even before Jesus walked the earth, God’s radical plan was to pour out his anointing on our lives. It was prophet Jeremiah who told us what to expect:

'The time is coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,' declares the LORD.

'This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,' declares the LORD. 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, "Know the LORD," because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the LORD. 'For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.'

Jeremiah 31: 31-34

(Is this word just for Israel? Not according to Paul, who tells us in Romans that the Jews are the natural branch (the original covenant people of God) while the Gentiles are the wild branch that has been grafted in. Which means both believing Jews and Gentiles are the new covenant people of God.)

Since the Garden, God has been reminding us that he provides everything as we abide (remain) in him. But like Adam, it’s in our nature to wander away and forget what we have been given and what we have learned. In fact, much of the Bible is the history of people walking away from God and forgetting what he has done. Many knowingly. Others unaware that they had even strayed.

Maybe it’s time to get our bearings again. Do we remember that we are anointed? Are we moving in it? Are we hearing the voice of God?

If not, we need to ask, Why not?

The anointing remains in you, even if you've forgotten about it. Let the Spirit of God show you where you are and just how far you’ve wandered. Then change your direction, remember the anointing and take your rightful place as competent ministers of the new covenant.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:8-12

It is hard to wrap our minds around the magnitude of God’s grace and mercy. Because it's sometimes so hard to be like him. No matter how much we try, it seems that resentment and unforgiveness can dog us our whole lives. Whoever has wronged us, how ever long ago it happened, we seem built to remember. And even when we have gone through all the steps we know to do as believers, the wrong timing coupled with the wrong moment and the wrong thing said can bring on the wrong response. Some wounds just keep on giving and leave us confronting our own inability to completely forgive. The great irony is that even in the face of our own unforgiveness, we have an uncanny ability to forgive that sin in us. That part of being made in God’s image seems always to function on all cylinders!

But there is a cost to pay for our unforgiveness toward others. While we may forgive our inability to be free of the pain and judgment that comes with old offenses against us, too often we are just as unforgiving about old sins in our own lives.

While fasting in the desert, Jesus could not be distracted from his mission by the twisted words and promises of the enemy. But Satan quickly realized his timing was off and “left him until an opportune time.” That time came later in Jerusalem. The enemy is always waiting for an opportune time to take us down or make us ineffective. And the opportune time is inevitably when we are about to do something for the Lord, something for the lost, or something that advances the Kingdom of God. Until then, why would the enemy bother with us? But when he does, it’s no small matter, for “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

What better way is there to attack us than to use our weaknesses against us. As we step out in boldness, our enemy seeks to destroy us. And it’s almost always the same technique: He reminds us how inadequate we are. What we’ve done. What only we know about our past. How we believe we have been forgiven, but how unforgiving we are to others. And that being the case, how we must not be forgiven either. And if that’s true, how unqualified we are to do anything on God’s behalf because we are no different than the pagans and enemies of God.

Half truths, misquotes and the opportune time. Attempting to devour us right when God is ready to move through us. Could there be a better time for Satan to move against us? And could there be an easier way to do it? To remind us of old sins we have forgotten and to make us believe they are unresolved, even though Jesus was “pierced for our transgressions.”

God has already forgiven the repentant believer. He has already covered us in the righteousness of Jesus. He has already declared our sins white as snow. He has already said “It is finished.” And he has proclaimed that our sins are removed “as far as the east is from the west.”

We can't get any more forgiven than that.

We are free, because who the son sets free is "free indeed." The sin that enslaved us and the guilt and condemnation are gone. That’s God’s promise through the ages. It is the whip he has given us to tame the devouring lion. Our response to the enemy reminding us of our sin must be acknowledgement. Yet in the same breath, it must also be “but God has set me free.” Then, in recognition of his mercy toward us, we must again forgive those who have hurt us. The enemy may prowl around like a roaring lion, but we serve the Lion of Judah, the King of Kings, the compassionate and gracious God who is abounding in love and forgiveness.

Forgive yourselves! God has. And put the matter to rest. “The past cannot be redeemed. What has been and what might have been both bring us to what is." (Odd Thomas, by Dean Koontz). You are here now. Your past cannot be redeemed. It’s over. But you have been redeemed. And you have been forgiven for whatever you’ve done in your past. And more than that, God will use your past to mold you into the vessel of his desire. So close the book on it and don’t let the enemy read you the story of your sin to sabotage the call on your life. Those transgressions are history, but your life in God is his story in you, and it is without sin.

You are qualified. You are forgiven. And you are without excuse. He has put the call of God in your heart. Do you really want to take issue with his judgment? He loves you. And he’s proud of you. Now accept that truth humbly as you step out boldly to fulfill what he has set before you.

Or would you rather forgo God’s assignment for your life and give the benefit of your doubts to the enemy of all that’s good, holy and righteous.

That is not God’s plan.

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?'

Jesus replied, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Matthew 22:35-40

Not only do all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments, so too does the true nature of our relationship with God. Once we grasp the magnitude of what Jesus did on the cross, we begin to appreciate who he is. The more we understand, the more we respond. And the more we pursue God, the more likely we are to love him. But it is not enough to simply profess our love for Jesus, however wonderful that may be, because the idea of loving Jesus is both alluring and deceiving.

It’s easy to proclaim love for God, to read and attend meetings in pursuit of the object of our affections and to be genuinely enamored with the Him. And who would dare to question the depth of our relationship with the Almighty, for who really knows it? Certainly a changed life can be proof of a changed heart. But not always. Sometimes the outward changes are just that, the first and last fruits of our encounter with the Eternal One. Which is why John identifies a more reliable standard by which to measure a life transformed by God:

If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:20-21

To this he adds the following: "This is love for God: To obey his commands." 1 John 5:3. And this: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:18.

Professing love for God is the easy part. The true measure of your love for him comes down to obedience and to this: If you do not love your brother, you cannot love God.

But we do love you Lord, we protest. Can't you see how our hearts are toward you? Yet his command to love the brethren exposes our own unwillingness to yield and reveals a heart steeped in worldly ways. After all, there are so many people who have done us wrong. Unthinking people. Selfish people. Dishonest people. Manipulative and unfaithful people. And not just people we read about. But people we know! People with names and with common history. People who were once part of our lives. Surely there’s room for us to claim an exemption from the requirement of loving those people, or at least room for us to merely tolerate them from a distance. The Lord must know our feelings are justified—he's seen what they've done. Yet Jesus, who suffered fools and evil men, who hated their arrogance, rebelliousness and religion, loves them still and said even of those who nailed him to the cross, “forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

There's no getting around it. God loves the brethren. So too must we.

Brotherly love is one thing. But loving your brothers—real people in your life who push only your blood pressure heavenward—is the measure of your love for God and your willingness to obey his commands. Because loving someone is way harder than loving everyone.

Dean Koontz describes the difference in Odd Hours:

To love all the world at once is pretense or dangerous self-delusion. Loving the world is like loving the idea of love, which is perilous because, feeling virtuous about this grand affection, you are freed from the struggles and the duties that come with loving people as individuals...

Loving actual people is a never-ending struggle. It is the place where flesh bows to Spirit. Where anger and resentment yield to obedience. Where we choose to love and forgive rather than respond in kind. That’s what loving with actions and in truth is about.

Love with actions is an effort. To love those who hurt us is incredibly difficult. To forgive those who persecute and defame us doesn’t seem fair. To hold one’s tongue when there’s so much to say and defend and set right feels like injustice. And to love those who mock and hate Jesus is painful. Nevertheless, lovers of God are called to love them anyway—to love them supernaturally. Because supernatural love is the lifeblood of the Body of Christ. We are told that “God is love.” And on this side of Heaven, we who are transformed by the Spirit of God must translate that love into action. Such love takes care of the poor and the widows. It encourages both the lowly and those in high position. It is selfless. It is forgiving. It seeks no recognition. No reward. And most of all, it seeks no vengeance or retribution. Instead, it grows and multiplies through obedience to God and through the struggle to love those who hate or hurt us.

Love with actions and in truth is a spectacle to behold. Praying for those who see us as enemies, forgiving them, releasing them—not to God’s judgment or Satan’s plans—but from the icy grip of our own heart’s bitterness toward them, is a supernatural act without equal.

Don’t underestimate how profoundly freeing and life changing supernatural love is. And don’t be surprised when what you do in obedience to God’s commands gets more attention and has more impact than the words of love you share with those around you. Love with actions and in truth does that. For many, it’s the only evidence they can see that the transforming power of Jesus Christ is more than mere words and wishful thinking.

It's proof that the Kingdom of God is real.

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."

But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

The man asked him, "What is your name?"

"Jacob," he answered.

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Genesis 32:24-29

How many rounds have you gone with God?

There’s a misguided biblical view that to argue with God—to wrestle with him—is to lack faith. According to this train of thought, people of faith simply accept their lot in life no matter how confusing or disappointing things get. For them, it should be enough to know that God has a plan and can always work things out for good. If he wants to.

It's true that James said “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” because "the testing of your faith develops perseverance” and perseverance “must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Clearly then, we are instructed to consider trials a joy. But no one says that the testing of our faith which produces perseverance is fun. Or something wonderful to behold or experience. It isn’t. If anything, it can be a spectacle of emotions gone wild.

Sickness and death, economic hardship, broken relationships and every other manner of testing that comes our way, including stepping out in faith only to be disappointed or frustrated, all challenge our understanding of God and can undermine our confidence in his plan for our lives. It isn’t only unbelievers and agnostics who cry out “Why!?” in such moments; believers can be just as mystified and deflated when God doesn't meet our expectations or intervene when we think he's most urgently needed. Is the correct response a dejected "oh well?" or are we called to something more confrontational.

God wants us to wrestle with him. To engage him. To seek understanding. To work through why he heals one person and not another or answers some prayers and not others. He wants us to come to the place of obedience and trust, even when we think God is wrong (Watchman Nee, the prolific Christian writer, puts it this way: "We ask that God's will be done. But do we actually like it?"). Getting to that place of obedience and trust does more than make us strong, it makes us mature and complete. Struggling with God is the way to get there. Maybe the only way to get there.

Jacob was a man like any other. He had belongings. He had problems. He had family issues. He was in the middle of a move. He was a coward and a conniver. He was afraid his brother was going to kill him and he was in the midst of executing his own plan to buy him off to deal with that possibility. Jacob had everything under control and had worked through all the contingencies he could think of. Except one.

He didn’t know he was about to have an encounter—a hands-on, no-holds-barred wrestling match—with God incarnate. And Yahweh, the undefeated and undefeatable, let Jacob have at it all night long. It says that when the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip “so that it was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.” Now surely the man could have overpowered Jacob before throwing a wrench in the works, but something else was going on here. A battle of wills, a contest of strength and endurance. Jacob could have gone on contending with the Lord forever if something didn’t happen. So God made something happen and the battle shifted from fists to faith, from the ring to the King.

After wrestling with God on Jacob's turf (given all that was going on in Jacob’s life at that moment, one can only imagine the thoughts that raced through his mind) and having the physical fight wrenched from him, there was only one thing left that Jacob wanted.

To be blessed.

To the natural man, it looked like Jacob was beaten and defeated. Not to God. For in the end, he said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

When our own strength is gone, when our plans come up short, when we have surrendered our will, when we are changed by our struggles with God and accept that his ways are perfect no matter how mysterious they are or inadequate they appear, we no longer demand an explanation. Instead, we desire his blessing. It is at that moment that he says, “now you have overcome.” And it is at that point that we become new creations. For Jacob, the change warranted a new name: Israel. It means "God prevails."

Moses wrestled with God about his call to lead the people out of Egypt. Elijah wrestled with him about Jezebel and how Israel and the prophets had abandoned their God, leaving only Elijah to defend his name. And Peter wrestled with Jesus about almost everything. Even Jesus himself wrestled at the most difficult moment in his life, crying out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" — which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)

It’s OK if we wrestle with God when we’re tested, as long as God prevails in the end. We are not the first ones to do it and we won't be the last. Moreover, we’re in the extraordinary company of those who wrestled before us. The victory comes not when we cry “uncle,” but when we cry "Father...not my will, but yours be done.” It is at that moment that the Lord says, “you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

Becoming mature and complete is a life-long process. It is punctuated by spiritual growing pains and the voice of our Personal Trainer in Heaven cheering us on to both greater heights and to the fulfillment of our destiny in God.

Then, when the time is right, he gives us a new name which translates: "I am His."

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

Peter had just healed a well known man crippled from birth, telling him, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." When the man arose on his newly restored legs, not only was he shocked and ecstatic, jumping and walking and praising God, but the people who knew of him were equally amazed (well, maybe not equally amazed, but amazed nonetheless). Everyone was caught up in what happened, and there was a great commotion. Peter seized the moment: he reminded his fellow Hebrews that they had disowned “the Holy and Righteous One,” had rejected him as Messiah and had been party to his death on the cross, only to see God raise him from the dead. And he told them “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.” Basically, Peter told them, it wasn’t me—it was Jesus. And he called on his people to repent and acknowledge that Jesus was Messiah.

The Book of Acts reports that 5000 men became believers that day.

Now this was troublesome to the rulers, elders and teachers of the law. Jesus had already been crucified, and now—after his death—thousands decided he was the Messiah. These same rulers, elders and teachers had already rejected that claim. They had already discounted his miracles. And they had treated his teachings as blasphemy. But the people were not so sure, and apparently, not so hard hearted. In fact, Peter said they all acted out of ignorance and his message hit home with 5000 of them.

Nothing Jesus had done astonished the rulers, elders and teachers of the law because they were not open to see with the eyes of the spirit. What he had done provoked them. It infuriated them. And it challenged their authority. Now, however, what really astonished these same men wasn't that the crippled man had been healed—that was just an inconvenient fact—but something that hit closer to home. It was the boldness of Peter and John and that they were “unschooled, ordinary men.” Why? Because men without title, men who had not been trained in the proper religious schools, men of no importance, fame or reputation, men who did not have a birthright claim to be part of the priesthood, men who were not rabbis or part of the ruling council, men who did not pay their dues and advance by proper channels—such men simply did not go about preaching with authority to the people, or even more outrageously, to the Chief Priest and the Sanhedrin.

This was just not how things were done. There was an established order and Peter and John were out of order.

But Jesus had changed the way things were done. And when those 5000 came to Christ, something became apparent to those paying attention. Jesus had not only overturned the tables in the temple courts, he overturned the existing order of things. He made us all priests (not just the Levites), he proclaimed that he would destroy and rebuild the temple in three days, he made us the temple of the Holy Spirit and he became our Sabbath rest. He commissioned tax collectors, fishermen and tent makers to preach the Gospel. He sent out the twelve Apostles on his behalf, and 72 others who were nameless, positionless, without fame and without title, all of whom returned proclaiming “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He broke down the religious barriers and commissioned ALL OF US to act and speak on his behalf.

For the leaders of Israel, they had already made a decision, like many of our family members and friends, and they were not ready to reconsider it: they had already rejected Jesus. For them the miracles weren’t important. The message wasn’t important. That Jesus was crucified wasn’t important. But something still got their attention. It was that ordinary, uneducated men spoke boldly to the crowd and had the courage to take a stand before the Sanhedrin. Since the leaders had already rejected Jesus, all they could do was “note that these men had been with Jesus.”

Maybe that’s the first witness we have. People notice us. That’s what it means to be salt and light. They should note that there’s something different about us. Something special. Something that sets us apart—something supernatural. Which is why, like Peter and John, we must spend time with Jesus.

We are called to learn the word of God. To pray about all things. To worship. To fellowship with one another. To lay hands on the sick. To speak about Jesus. To proclaim his Lordship. To "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” To be transformed.

We are ordinary and uneducated people, changed by the Spirit of God. That's what the Lord has ordained through Jesus Christ. A new order! Not only have we been given Kingdom authority, but we have been given boldness in God. We are priests called to proclaim the Gospel, to heal the sick in the name of Jesus and to lead others to repentance and salvation. With all that has been given to us, something ought to be different! And it ought to be obvious to those around us.

Our friends and family should note that we have been with Jesus. That’s the first step for them. To see something new. Something other than what they see in everyone else. For us, being with Jesus—abiding in him—is the only thing that will ever set us apart and make us noteworthy. And it is often the very thing that will lead our friends and families to Christ.

The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 1 Corinthians 15:46

Our biggest problem as believers is that we are human. Certainly, God has blessed us with five senses to fully appreciate his marvelous creation. He has also given us such a wide range of emotions that we feel and experience everything in high-def-surround-sound-dolby-blue-ray-holy-cow-did-you-see-that reality! But being human frequently results in sensory overload, constant exposure to temptation, enormous mood swings and spiritual nearsightedness. And each of us has the same valid excuse: I was born that way!

The Spiritual is new to us. The natural came first. We’ve had so much time to learn what it means to be flesh and blood, to react in our senses and to accept what we see with our natural eyes, that when spiritual transformation does come we are like new-borns, “new creations” who have been “born again.” We recognize that something’s different about us, but we instinctively draw on our prior experience for understanding. Unfortunately, our prior experience is of no real value because it comes from the natural and has not prepared us to grasp or unravel spiritual things.

Look at the twelve spies Moses sent into the land (Numbers 13 and 14) shortly after the Lord miraculously delivered his people from Egypt. God tells Moses to send men to explore the land which he was giving to the people of Israel. They cross the border, see the wonder and riches of the promised land, but still bring back a bad report of powerful cities, giants in the land and a people that Israel could not conquer. What they didn’t see was that God was handing Canaan over to Israel, that he had already shown what he would do on Israel’s behalf and that he would conquer the land through them. Only Caleb and Joshua had spiritual eyes to see because there was something different about them. Something that caused them not to lean on their own understanding but to view things from God’s perspective and embrace it as truth. The rest of the scouting party—men of fear and flesh—paid for their lack of spiritual vision and trust with their very lives. A harsh result that gives us a clear insight into the nature of God’s Kingdom and the risks of continuing to walk, see and respond only in our flesh, like the natural man we all once were.

The Psalmist gives us another perspective (Psalm 73). After observing and complaining about how the wicked prosper, how they seem to be trouble and burden free and how they not only appear to succeed, but arrogantly claim their success is God’s blessing, the psalmist comes to this realization: “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.”

A brute beast responds to what he sees in the natural with emotions and instincts: Fear. Greed. Envy. Desire. Anger. Hatred. Murder. It is a snapshot of man in all his fleshly glory, the exact opposite of the spiritual man enveloped in all of Christ’s holy glory.

Paul puts it this way: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But since the new—the spiritual—did not come first, no matter how long you’ve been walking with God, you still need to train yourself at being spiritual. At thinking spiritually. At seeing the world from God’s perspective by letting Christ live in you. The world challenges the new creation every day with the same old temptations. Virtually every moment, virtually all the time—from corner newsstands to billboards, from songs to DVDs, from video games to TV commercials and from politics to the stock market—our natural man is enticed to respond like it used to. Like a brute beast, senseless and ignorant to the spiritual realm, and unaware or indifferent to the fact that these worldly snares can trap and injure the spirit within us.

Has your flesh succumbed recently and had a “victory” at the expense of your spirit? Sometimes it happens. In fact, it will happen from time to time for the rest of your life, because the natural came first. Think of it as a flesh wound. It’s personally painful, but it does not disqualify you from God’s service or result in your dishonorable discharge from the battle. Want confirmation? Just look around you. No one is perfect. No one is without sin. If your flesh wound disqualifies you, then no one is qualified to serve God. Not one.

There is a maxim in the legal system that says “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Like the person in court, we too have no excuse in spiritual matters. We can feign ignorance in a moment of weakness, but God has made us new creations who can find no sanctuary behind closed eyes. The spiritual may not have come first in our lives, but it has come nonetheless! And it has opened our eyes and minds to the Kingdom of God and has given us the power to be a spiritual people—Ambassadors of Christ among the lost.

You are a new creation. Don’t forget it when you fail. God doesn’t. He only forgets your sin. And he knows that as his new creation, you’ll get better at it with practice and perseverance. And with his help.