I Don’t Have It Together Yet; But I Am On My Way

This past Sunday, I had another opportunity to be in church as our choir rehearsed. I enjoy spending time with these young people I love so much, often having fun at their expense as they work so hard at putting songs together that God may be glorified; which they do because they love God. Our choir is not paid. Every time I watch them rehearse, I see the beauty of God’s handiwork. Every one of them is as unique as their voices are unique. The personalities are so different that it is visible in the way they sing, stand or even respond when they are corrected. It is so beautiful to see the different voices and personalities come together to produce a symphony when the song eventually comes together; but there is so much chaos on different levels before it comes together. The more they work on a song, the more the confusion seems to increase; sometimes to the point where I need to be reassured that they will eventually get it together. Then, it gets even more confusing and then suddenly, symphony/masterpiece.

Ecclesiastes 3: 11 “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.”

Sometimes, as I watch the seeming chaos, I wonder - isn’t this indicative of how God often works in our lives? There are times when one’s life is so mixed up that one wonders – is God confused or has He lost control of this? He seems to start a good work which begins by unfolding nicely and in a way that’s understandable. Then just as one begins to think how great life is, everything begins to go in a troubling direction. Before long, it is going in so many directions that one is confused and struggling to get a grip whilst also trying to keep the chaos, a secret. By this time, you are certain satan has taken over. Then suddenly! The manifestation of God’s word and everything is beautiful. Of course, the secret you struggled so hard to hide isn’t a secret because God has permitted for it “to be shouted on the roof top” and not because it makes Him happy to make you look silly, confused, forsaken, dejected; it is all part of the process. It is evidence that it is God, who works from the inside out, at work. Pride makes us see the process as demeaning so we put all our energy into acting like we have it together and miss responding appropriately. Unfortunately, we don’t realize that it is impossible to demean what/who God has made valuable but God is mindful of that. He knows as He works that our value is not tied to what we are going through; but to the price He paid for us which is the blood of Jesus. Just like the choir puts the chaos behind them when the song is finally done publicly, we must be confident that “rehearsal and/or chaos’ will pass and our lives put on display, as we worship God daily, until we need to “rehearse for another program.” Remember - every rehearsal takes one higher.

Lamentations 3: 31 – 33 “For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.”

Philippians 3: 12 – 13 “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection…no, dear brothers and sister, I have not achieved it.”

As the choir members position for the hard work of rehearsing the songs, I see all the beauty waiting to be tapped; voices with tremendous possibilities, yet some will never be tapped and for the silliest reasons. Some just hate to be corrected because they feel demeaned when corrected all because they feel worthless since they have tied their worth to performance as singers. Some feel embarrassed when people laugh as they sing funny and this is again because they don’t understand the reality of their worth. Do it right or wrong, people laugh or don’t, none of these impact on our worth. Indeed, it is our worth that gives us the standing to do these things we do. Sadly, many believers will never fulfill their destiny because “they feel the need to act like they know it all.” Unlike Paul, we count ourselves to have or desire to be perceived as having “apprehended.” This is a trait we acquired from the world which we must die to. It is pride and pride in any form, destroys. We don’t know everything otherwise we will be God. Indeed, you look silly when you pretend like you do and it is a trick of the devil to make you look silly. Our value was predetermined by God when He paid for our lives with the blood of Jesus Christ. We are not valuable because of what we do or can’t do and gifts we have or don’t have or how knowledgeable we are, but because God made us so. So it is okay to be wrong and everyone laugh as long as you are teachable. It is great to be taught and to accept correction. The confidence that knowing one’s worth brings to their life is amazing; it is beautiful and makes it easy to be teachable.  

Ephesians 2: 10 “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Your process is meant to bless someone else. We read all Paul went through including his fears and they encourage us today; please let God make you a blessing as He promised. If your pain encourages someone else and gives them hope, then you are a blessing. Your process does not devalue you; nothing and no one but you can. If Paul said he didn’t know it all at that point in His life, we know you don’t so don’t bother. God is looking for openness and sincerity. Just keep working at it as often as you fail. You are a winner nonetheless. Moreover, if you find that what you are working at isn’t for you, don’t be ashamed to change. Keep working at whatever your hands find to do. One person sings beautifully and other doesn’t but they are all valuable; maybe one person just needs to work harder. Do not envy those doing better please; just work at it.  

We Must Honor The Holy Spirit; He is Our God & Helper

Respect is a major part of any relationship. Without respect, relationships will eventually die no matter how much love the parties profess for each other. Disrespect destroys relationships and it is disrespectful to lie against any one. We cannot claim to love and respect anyone and so easily drag their name “in mud”. The Holy Spirit is the closest friend we can ever have as believers and our God given Helper; if we must keep and grow our relationship with Him, we must learn to treat Him as God that He is. He is given to remain with us, helping in all areas of our lives; it is wise to take advantage of this God given help. Sadly, we may not get the best of this relationship if we continue to treat Him in the way we often do. We ignore Him and when we do acknowledge His presence in our lives, we often just use Him; claiming to have heard Him when we haven’t, we use His name to authenticate and/or justify our position. A lie is a lie and we seem to willfully lie against Him. It is indeed true that learning to hear His voice is a process in the course of which we may mistake other voices for His but to lie out rightly against Him is terrible.

 

Mathew 12: 31 “So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven-except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven. Anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come.”

 

Even whilst in the process of getting familiar with His voice, if we think we have heard Him, we must check what we heard against The Written Word and even going on to get two or three witnesses as we are counselled to do by the bible. To insist we know His voice when we really are only on the way to getting familiar with it, may cost us dearly. It isn’t something we should do for any reason; especially not just to “belong to the spiritual group” or as a joke as some of us seem to think it is. Indeed, those will be sure ways to ensure that one never is able to hear Him since that would grieve Him. It would seem like “familiarity is breeding contempt” in our relationship with Him. It appears a lot of us believe He is the least person of the Trinity so we can get away with just saying anything against Him but it is not so. If there is one person of The Trinity we have to be most careful with, then it would be Him. He is extremely sensitive and His departure from a life may or may not be marked by drama but His absence makes as much difference as His presence does. The absence of the Holy Spirit, is the absence of the Godhead. When He leaves, The Father and Son do not remain. He is the evidence of the presence of God in any life.

 

Ephesians 4: 30ampc “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God (do not offend or vex or sadden Him,) by whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin).”

 

He carries the fullness of the power of the God Head. So when God says we should not grieve Him, It is a warning to be taken seriously. Ananias and Sapphira grieved Him enough to lose their lives. We forget that He is God and no less God. The mind of man struggles with understanding the concept of “The Trinity” and if we manage to accept it, it becomes even tougher to understand that they are all equally God so we tell ourselves that it is a case of “great, greater, greatest” appropriating the least position of “great” to the Holy Spirit when He is indeed God with all the characteristics and power of God. It would appear that our desire to always feel extremely intelligent and/or intellectual and also show that we understand and can explain God to the fullest is posing a major danger to us. This desire is unwittingly causing us to, in our minds, reduce God to a concept that our minds can understand even when scriptures make it clear that the mind of man can never fully grasp the extent of God’s greatness. So all we are doing really is thinking up foolish ideas which is in itself, dangerous.

 

Romans 1: 21b “And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God is like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools.”

 

When we begin to believe that we have God figured out, we have the tendency to think we can outsmart Him or somehow successfully go around His instructions which is what happened to Ananias and Sapphira who for this reason, lost their lives. Undermining God, albeit with good reasons, never produces good results. Lying against the Holy Spirit, is undermining Him. To deliberately use His name knowing that He said nothing, is terrible. We have so trivialized Him that we seem to believe that there are no consequences to lying against Him. Please be advised, we don’t have to use his name for our opinion to be correct and respected. The bible says we have the mind of Christ so that if we have a close relationship with the Godhead, we will think like them and speak their minds. Our mind will think their thoughts so that we will often express on earth, heaven's mind when we make decisions and though it may take a while, those we want so desperately to impress, will eventually find that our decisions align with God’s mind. As we grow in our walk with God, we will make mistakes, it is all part of the growth process, but we do not need to willfully lie against the Holy Spirit.

Ingratitude Is A Destiny Destroyer

Recently, I have realized more than ever before, the need to be grateful especially to God for all His goodness to us. Indeed just who He is to us is enough reason to be forever grateful. Gratitude to God is not just for God, it also helps us to be who we ought to be that we may accomplish all He has ordained for us because one has to “stand to accomplish”. It is possible to “accomplish” a lot in life and yet accomplish nothing that God made one for; and in God’s eyes, such persons have accomplished nothing. Of course that isn’t God’s plan for any of His children but I have found that ingrates will not accomplish their God established purpose except such persons repent of ingratitude. The root cause of a lot of challenges we have, may very well be ingratitude; a selfish or self-centered person is very ungrateful because “you never do enough for them” and that is also their attitude toward God so that eventually such persons are given over to a reprobate mind though they attend every church service and may even be ministers with great knowledge of scriptures and even spiritual gifts. Unappreciative persons often make themselves tools for use by the enemy.

Romans 1: 18 & 21 “But God shows His anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness … Yes, they knew God, but they won’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.”

So many unbelievers want to enjoy what we have as believers. They look at believers and see the joy and peace we enjoy whether rich or poor. They see the calmness around believers even when they may be going through challenges and these unbelievers want those things; yet, we who received grace to receive salvation are so ungrateful for what we have that we long for what the unbeliever would prefer to give up for what we have. Since we don’t appreciate what we have, we are unable to see the beauty of it. We came to Christ and then lost appreciation for and interest in what He provides; some of us even dare to be disappointed in Him because we claim He is too slow to deliver on His promises and all because we are a generation of people who want instant gratification. We hate to wait for anything so we don’t see or even appreciate the things He does whilst He is working to fulfill His promises at the appointed time. We lose patience mostly because we lose sight of our inheritance in Christ and see nothing happening that we ought to appreciate and all because we want what the others have. Gratitude will help us hold on whilst God is working.

Genesis 25: 32 “Look, I’m dying of starvation! Said Esau. ‘What good is my birthright to me now’?

Ingratitude is really destructive and I would like to suggest that it may have been the root cause of Esau’s problem. It would appear like the young man had no appreciation for his role as first born so he gave it up easily. He did not see the immediate benefits of it and was too blinded to see even the future benefits of the role. I suspect that he may even have envied the way his mother treated his younger brother with fondness which is not unusual with mothers and their last born, so that his position lost its appeal to him and he probably hated being the older one at that point in his life. Unfortunately, by the time he realized that there were benefits for which he should be grateful, he already lost the right to those benefits for his initial lack of respect and gratitude for that role. He wanted what his brother had and when he got it, he found he wanted it and his too but we often have to choose one because God does not allow us all. We can’t be believers and yet be unbelievers. We often lose our right to the benefits of our inheritance because we “sell our place for pottage” just like Adam and Eve did in the beginning. If only we appreciate what we have enough to hold on to it and delay gratification which shall surely come.  

Hebrews 10: 35 – 36 “So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.”

Isaiah 1: 17 “Learn to do good. Seek justice.”

I have heard people argue that it comes to some others more easily to be thankful or appreciative because they were taught by their parents to appreciate everything they get. Though that may be true, it is never too late to learn good and good can be learned at any point in our lives because the bible instructs us to learn good. We have to learn to be appreciative so that we can accomplish our God ordained destiny. The cost of ingratitude to us is too high. It could even cost us heaven because an ungrateful person will end up Lord of their own lives and that notwithstanding that they are church going Pentecostals. As my Pastor often says, learning to be appreciative is “enlightened self-preservation”. You are not too young or old to learn to be thankful.