Life in the Kingdom

Our theological understanding, while at best heuristic in nature, is sufficient to fulfill the Bible’s intended purpose. I have been thinking about all of this, and I was struggling with the idea of how accurate does it need to be? The goal is not theological precision but heart transformation. However, sloppy exegesis has often led to error which has derailed moves of God both at an individual and a corporate level. Surely, sloppy theology should not be embraced. Accuracy is good, but how accurate can we be, and does it ever become counterproductive?

I think it may be helpful to think of this in terms of manufacturing tolerances. When something is manufactured, there is a certain allowable tolerance. This is necessary to achieve acceptable yields. While perfection (the nominal value) is ideal, it cannot be consistently achieved. Tightening the tolerances beyond existing technology makes it impossible to produce good products. Widening the tolerance too much produces products that do not work properly. The goal is a tolerance that allows for the variations that exist in manufacturing technology yet still produces acceptable working products.

While achieving nominal sounds like a noble goal, it is theologically impossible. Nominal would mean that we had a perfect, complete understanding. This would effectively reduce God to our understanding and make truth (which is infinite) finite. It would remove the mystery, the awe out of our walk with God. It would also eliminate the need for further study, and exploration, as we would have arrived at the truth. It would allow us to live from a formula, rather than a relationship. Nominal is not only impossible, it is also undesirable. The wonder, the awe, and the mystery of God and His kingdom motivate us to know Him better. It helps us to stay humble and maintain childlike wonder.

We must remember that the goal of Bible Study is never intellectualism. 1 Timothy 1:5 says that “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” The Bible is a mystical book and should be embraced as such. As we hear God speak through His Word, faith comes. As we continue to meditate on His Word, He speaks. This is crucial, for the Bible says that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:17). Hearing comes from the Word. As we hear God through the Word, it not only brings faith but it trains us to hear His voice. Faith, hope, and love, not perfect understanding, is the goal, for these are kingdom attributes that manifest His goodness. We must guard against questions that move us away from the faith and towards a place of doubt. Doubt carries with it the idea of hesitating, of being of two minds. This stands in opposition to a life of bold faith that God desires for us.

So how can we move forward safely without perfectly knowing the truth? We can move forward by knowing He who is perfect. His grace allows us to move forward relationally even when our understanding is imperfect. This is not an excuse for sloppy theology. Rather it is a call to freely and boldly venture into the depths of His love knowing He is watching over us.

Walk up to any Christian and ask them what the Bible is. Ninety-nine percent of the time they will respond by telling you that it is the Word of God. You can walk into a Baptist Church, an Evangelical Church, a Charismatic Church, a Methodist Church, etc. and they will all tell you that their pastor preaches the Word of God.

If we all believe the Bible is the Word of God and if all our pastors are preaching it, then logic dictates that we should all be hearing and believing the same, or similar truths. However, that clearly is not the case. Some churches believe that miracles are for today while others believe they have passed away. Some believe God sends sickness to teach you, while others say that it’s all from the devil. Some believe in a rapture, some don’t. Some baptize in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit while others baptize in the Name of Jesus (that wouldn’t be a big deal except for the fact that churches have split over that issue).

Years ago I was a church elder and there was another elder whose theology was very different from mine. It seemed that he disagreed with everything I said, which often resulted in a spirited debate. I finally looked at him one day and said, “You believe Jesus is Lord. I believe Jesus is Lord. You love God. I love God. You believe the Bible is God’s Word. So do I. But we are reading two different books.“ He agreed. But how can that be?

My friend saw the Bible as a book of doctrine. I saw it as first and foremost a love letter from my Heavenly Father. Which one is it? A book of doctrine? A love letter? Both, neither or something else?

If you walk into a car dealership looking for a vehicle to haul cargo, you are instinctively going to go right past the really cool looking sports car and stop at the pick up truck. Why? Because when something is designed properly, the purpose of that item is inherent within the design. If I handed you a hammer and a screwdriver and told you to do nail something you would pick up the hammer even if you had never seen either tool before. Again, purpose is revealed by design.

In the same way, the Bible is perfectly designed for its intended purpose. It that were not true then it could have been improved upon which means that God didn’t do as good a job as He could have. That conflicts with His nature, His omniscience, His omnipotence and clearly cannot be true.

What this means is that we can determine the main purpose (there can be other secondary purposes) of the Bible from its design. So when I look at the Bible; when I pick it up and read it, what do I see?

I don’t see a book on systematic theology (even though the Bible is the basis for what we believe). I don’t see a self-help book or a book of principles or formulas (although there are principles within its pages). I see an invitation from God to walk through His world with Him, an invitation to see the world from His perspective. And when I see it like that, the Bible takes on a different perspective. That changes not only the way I view the Bible, it changes the way I read it. Instead of looking for hidden meanings, I let it speak to me. I rely on the Holy Spirit (He isn’t called the Spirit of Truth for no reason) to lead me, teach me, guide me. When I read the Bible like that it is an entrance into an adventure where God is not only revealing His world, He is teaching me, empowering me to step into that world and experience what the men and women in the Bible experienced. It teaches me, corrects me, brings hope to me, builds faith and love in me and motivates me to live this life as He intended me to live it. And that is what I mean when I say that the Bible is the Word of God.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The Bible tells us that. I used to wonder why God bothered. He had to know that Adam and Eve would sin.  He had to foresee all the evil that would ensue.  Despite all that, the all knowing, infinitely wise Creator saw fit to create the world in which we live. So why would He do that?

There is an order to creation.  It was not haphazard.  He created the trees, the vegetation before the animals.  Had He done it the other way around, an elephant could have ended on top of a tree.  Not a pretty sight.  Everything He created during the first five days was good.  It had to be.  He is incapable of anything less.

On the sixth day, He created mankind, the crowning of His creation.  He created mankind to rule over the earth, to be its caretaker.  Mankind was to multiply, to be fruitful.  This was the beginning of God’s co-laboring with mankind.  Mankind was created after His image, His likeness. Why was mankind created after God’s likeness?

I live with my wife and our dog Sparky (we also have three grown children and three grandchildren).  While I love Sparky and talk to him frequently (he is not a sterling conversationalist) there is no deep fellowship, no heartfelt interchange between us.  That is reserved for my wife.  After thirty-eight years of marriage we understand each other pretty well.  We have a level of understanding that is only possible because my wife is also a human being.  Only human beings can relate to other humans on both an emotional as well as an intellectual level.  If we were two different species our ability to understand each other, to love each other, to empathize with each other would be severely hindered.

God is the ultimate lover.  The Bible tells us that He is love.  The most natural expression of love is to give, to share with others.  For God to have the deepest level of fellowship possible with mankind, they would have to be in His image.  Nothing else would suffice.  And while we are not God, understanding that we are truly in His image gives us a dignity that would not otherwise be possible.

It is vital that we understand God’s purpose in creation.  When mankind sinned, God immediately prophesied the coming Messiah who would bring restoration (Ge 3:15).  So why did Jesus come?  Many Christians will tell you that He came so that we could go to heaven when we die.  Surely this is part of the redemptive package.  Those of us who are His will spend eternity with Him in heaven.  But that doesn’t fully explain why He came.  Jesus came to restore what was lost in the fall.  In fact, Romans 5 tells us that the effect of the cross is greater than that of the fall.  In other words, Jesus’s sacrifice did more for us than the fall of man did to us.  The Bible tells us that Jesus came to give us eternal life (Jn 3:16). Many of us think that eternal life means that we will live forever with God in heaven.  While that is true, that is not the essence of eternal life but the result of having eternal life.  So what is eternal life?  Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3, ESV). Eternal life is relational.  It is knowing God.  In receiving eternal life, God’s original purpose for mankind, to know mankind intimately, to walk amongst them, is restored.

It is because of what Jesus did that we become the temple of the Holy Spirit, the very habitation of God.  It is because of the cross that we can come to the throne of grace boldly, with confidence (Heb 4:16). The fellowship, the intimacy with God that Adam and Eve experienced before the fall is now once available through the sacrifice of Jesus.

Is that a catchy title or what?

The other day I found a blog post from Simon Sinek (a corporate consultant) writing about people on the left side of the bell curve. When Simon mentioned the bell curve, I immediately thought of manufacturing process control (I know that’s the first thing that came to your minds). Manufacturing process control exists to minimize variability in the manufacturing process.  The Japanese are the best at this.  They are not the best at creating innovative technological designs.  Where they excel is in designing things that are manufacturable.  They minimize the number of parts required to assemble a unit.  If you look at car bumpers not only do the Japanese design something with fewer parts, they use fewer different types of fasteners.  This helps control inventory, simplifies the supply chain, and makes it less likely that someone will use the wrong fastener, reducing the possibility of manufacturing defects. This is one reason their products tend to be the most reliable.  I could go on and on with this (I’m sure you’re enthralled) but I think my point is clear that in manufacturing, variability is bad.

I then thought of the bell curve in terms of people.  In society a certain amount of aggregation is necessary.  Clothing stores lump sizes into small, medium and large (I used to be small, grew into medium and if I don’t stop eating ice cream, I will continue to transition into large.  But I digress).  None of us fit these sizes perfectly but the alternative is for everything to be custom fit which is expensive and impractical.  So a certain amount of aggregation makes our lives more convenient.

All of this brings me to discipleship.  I feel that when we come to discipleship we need to discard the concept of the bell curve whenever possible.  The goal of discipleship is not to stamp out disciples like some manufactured part.  It is to help men and women in their pursuit of intimacy with God and through that intimacy, to fulfill their destiny.  And because we are all different, this is in many ways a singular journey.   While I am not against discipleship classes, at best they provide a foundation for growth.  They are a means to an end, not the end.  Aggregation, while convenient, forces us to ignore what makes us unique, different.  It causes us to miss what is beautiful about each and every one of us.  Maybe a better, albeit imperfect analogy for discipleship would be the college experience.  My freshman year I sat in a large lecture hall with over a hundred other students listening to physics lectures.  By my senior year, I was in classes of twelve to twenty students.  My senior design project was in teams of three.  While I was one of many students graduating with Industrial Engineering degrees that June, no two of us had the exact same path, or the same college experience.

Two hundred years ago, Eli Whitney developed the concept of interchangeable parts.  Without it, modern manufacturing would be impossible.  However, in the Body of Christ there are no interchangeable parts.  There are individuals, all uniquely handcrafted by the ultimate Creator.  I have a friend who is an expert on dream interpretation (he wrote his DMin dissertation on dreams).  If I have a desire to speak to him and he is unavailable, I never think, “I’ll just talk to another dream guy.”  What makes my friend amazing is so much more than his gift.  It’s the sum total of who he is.  And while there are others with similar gifts, there is only one like him.  While there are many people out there who have similar gifts to each of us, there is only one you, only one me.

I need to wind this down before it turns into another dissertation (my wife Joanie asked me if I have footnotes).  While I may not be saying anything new, I’m think I’m seeing it from another perspective.  Discipleship is about helping men and women grow in their relationship with the Trinity.  And it is not accomplished by looking at how we can process groups but by recognizing the inestimable value of each individual as a the  handiwork of God.  The purpose is to help men and women understand their who they are, who He is and through that ever increasing intimacy, be released to be all that God intends them to be.  That is the reason, “the why” of discipleship. And while the “how” of discipleship may change, the “why remains constant.  And I continue to find “the why” exciting.

I’ve been walking with God for many years. During that time I’ve experienced His love, His affection. I’ve seen Him heal and deliver. I’ve seen His power first hand. Despite all that, I always struggled with the nature of God as revealed in the Old Testament versus that of the New Testament. Years ago I saw a cartoon with two angels standing and talking. One looked at the other and said, “Be careful going in there. He’s in an Old Testament mood today.” How could the God “who changes not” (Mal 3:6), seem to act so differently throughout the Scriptures. I’ve asked many people over the years, including scholars, but I never received a satisfactory answer.

One of the common explanations I heard was to ascribe the differences to the Trinity. God the Father was the stern one, Jesus was the nice one and the Holy Spirit was the weird one. That creates all sorts of issues. We now have a God that’s at odds with Himself. Can you envision them overseeing the universe? The Father wants to zap them, Jesus wants to love them while the Holy Spirit simply wants to party. Is that really the way the Almighty runs the universe? How could you sleep at night wondering which one had the night watch? Somehow I knew that couldn’t be accurate. Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9). He said, “The Father dwelling in me does His works” (Jn 14:10). So there is no difference in nature between the two. Yes, they are two separate persons with different personalities but their natures are the same.

What about the Holy Spirit? Jesus said that He was sending “another comforter” (John 14:15). The word for “another” is the Greek word allo which means another of the same kind. While the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons with differences in personality, they all have the same nature. They are never at odds with each other.

There are two ways to explain this apparent contradiction. The first would be based on the differences between the covenants. God works according to covenants. Therefore His dealings with a nation of people under the law would of necessity be different than the way He interacts with His sons and daughters under the New Covenant. I believe this is accurate. But there is an even simpler way to understand this.

My wife Joanie is a teacher, a wife and a mother. If you followed her around during the day you would experience all three aspects of who Joanie is. If you watch teacher Joanie, you would describe her as organized. Depending on what was going on in the classroom you might categorize her as funny or strict if the students required that. Joanie the Mom would appear loving, encouraging. Then there’s Joanie the wife. As her husband I’m the only one who ever sees the romantic side of Joanie. Which Joanie is the real Joanie? The obvious answer is that they all are. But only those closest get to see her heart. And I am the only one who gets to see romantic Joanie.

In the Bible, there were always individuals who pressed through to a relationship with God. Both Abraham and Moses were called friends of God. David knew God intimately. The children of Israel however, saw Him as a strict rule keeper, despite His declarations to the contrary. They rejected a personal relationship for rule keeping. I find this telling. Those who interact with God on a rule-keeping, legalistic basis, see Him as a taskmaster while those who interact with Him intimately see His heart. There is not an Old Testament or New Testament God but there are rule keepers and lovers.

Jesus came so that we could know God intimately as the perfect Father, perfect lover. His blood qualified us to become temples of the living God, vessels in which the Holy Spirit dwelled. We have the privilege of interacting with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as beloved sons and daughters. It isn’t that God has changed. Intimacy was always His heart’s desire. However, through the New Covenant, we have been cleansed, transformed so that we can now enjoy the relationship with Him that He always craved. Through the cross, we can all be lovers of God and experience Him in all of His fulness.

I’m at Starbucks this morning, hanging out with a friend.  During our time, I get up and go to the men’s room (after all, we are drinking coffee).  I go to wash my hands and I notice that posted on the bottom left corner of the mirror is a note that all employees must wash their hands along with a six step diagram of how to accomplish that (I never thought it was that complicated but then again I am not a food service worker in the 21st century).  The last step after drying your hands, is to turn off the water with a paper towel. My first thought was that you really should try to turn the water off sooner to curb waste.  However, I realize that the priority is being given to having a clean, germ free faucet.  The only problem is that Starbucks has converted to paperless hand dryers and have removed all paper towels, so it is now impossible to comply with the letter of the employee hand washing requirement.  I’m thinking how someone who is OCD could actually stand there paralyzed, not knowing what to do.  Do I touch the faucet with my hands, hoping they are sufficiently clean?  After all, no one’s watching.  What do I do?  (At this point you may be reconsidering your statement that what I think is rambling is actually creative thought.  However, please read on because there is a point to all this).

All of this spawned a seemingly unrelated question:  Is Christianity expansive or restrictive?  I want to say expansive.  I truly believe that is the correct response.  But looking back over most of what I’ve seen in the Body of Christ, if I was answering based on what I’ve been taught, what I’ve observed, I would have to say restrictive.  Why is that?

I think one reason is that many of the activities we offer in the church are similar to low fat alternatives to food.  We have Halloween alternatives where we dress up (just don’t dress up as Satan) and hand out candy.  We have parties that are “just like” the parties in the world but without alcohol.  We have Super Bowl parties, but we don’t serve beer (what fun is that)?  It’s as if we have decided that ice cream is evil but that’s OK because we have non-fat sugar free frozen yogurt which is just as good.  But it isn’t. And we all know it isn’t.  The very fact that we are offering low fat alternatives is an admission that these activities were enjoyable.

It is clear that sin brings bondage.  It’s a trap.  Jesus came and set us free from the power of sin and as a result, we are no longer under its control.  That is freedom.  But beyond that, I have to believe that life in the Kingdom is far more fun, far more expansive, than life in the world.  Mankind lived in much greater freedom prior to the fall.  And if Romans 5 is true, then what Jesus accomplished through the cross was much greater than what we lost in the fall.  Therefore we should be living the most expansive, most free, least restrictive life possible this side of heaven (not that heaven is off limits).

Another reason we fail to see the expansiveness of the Kingdom is that many of us are afraid of freedom.  Freedom means we have choices.  Freedom means that we can actually make a wrong choice.  This shouldn’t scare us but sometimes it does.  I think it does because we are still not totally secure in who we really are.  In many ways, God trusts us more than we trust ourselves.  He has entrusted the preaching of the gospel to men and women.  That is an enormous responsibility.  Why would he do that?  Because He knows who we are better than we do.  Gal 5:1 says that, “it was for freedom that Christ set us free.”  Why did Jesus free us?  So that we could be free.  Freedom is that precious, that important to God.

Here’s what I think.  Before we were saved we were largely blocked from the realities of the Kingdom. We had no idea what it meant to be free.  We had no idea what God was like, what life in the spirit was, or if it even existed.  Now that we are His children the curtain has been pulled back and we have access to all that is in His Kingdom.  We know it is a fun Kingdom because it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Not only is it fun, it is stress free (peace) and it is right, it is good.  And the Holy Spirit is in a very real sense our heavenly tour guide.  He delights in showing us the wonders of the Kingdom.  The Kingdom of God is not a theory.  It is a very real place and we have been given free, unrestricted access to it.  The Bible says that all things are ours.  Everything God has, everything God has created is ours.  And there is no earthly equivalent for much of this. It is infinite, meaning we will spend the rest of eternity discovering it, enjoying it. It is so amazing there isn’t language to adequately describe it.  And it’s all there for us.   

We are all on a journey discovering the wonders of the world God has created for us, both seen and unseen.  We are discovering who He is and in discovering who He is we are also discovering who we are.  The further we go on this journey the less the pleasures of this world offer any real appeal.  That is not because we are fighting against them.  It is because the further we go in exploring the Kingdom, the more we realize how much better Kingdom realities are.  God has set us free to enjoy all He has.  And it is His delight to give us His kingdom (Luke 12:32).

I’ve spent the last day pondering friendship with God. When we get saved we become sons and daughters. However, I don’t think we are all friends. We are all potentially friends but I think friendship is something we are invited into as our relationship with the Lord deepens. Friendship is a place of intimacy where there is a sharing of hearts. There is a place in God’s heart which is reserved for each of us individually. I heard Kris Vallotton mention how most of us desire to know God so that we always hear Him and obey. While that is good, he said that is still a master servant relationship. Friendship is more of a sharing, a give and take. When God and Abraham negotiated the terms for the destruction of Sodom, I believe they were operating out of a friendship paradigm. God let Abraham have input into the decision. I think the same thing was happening when God was going to destroy the children of Israel and Moses intervened. The Bible tells us “God spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to His friend.” Could it be that friendship is the answer to the power, the authority, the intimacy we seek? I think it is at least a large part of it.

John 15, Jesus mentions that He has told the disciples everything because they are friends. There is an intimacy to friendship that servants, no matter how trustworthy will never experience. This didn’t mean they stopped serving God. Likewise we can be friends, but we are still sons and daughters. I wonder if some of this is played out in how we interact with each member of the Trinity. Is our relationship with Jesus more friendship while with Father God it is more sons and daughters? I don’t know and I don’t know if it matters. What I am convinced of is that there is a level of intimacy, a level of heart connection with God that few of us have ever experienced. I think Rolland Baker, a missionary to Mozambique, understands some of this. The first core value that their organization has is that God can be known. I’ve heard Rolland say that much as he loves the miracles, the signs and wonders, that he is after something much bigger. he says, “I am after Him.” He understands that Jesus is the ultimate prize.

I have Logos Bible software with 1700 volumes on my laptop. I looked up friendship with God and I can’t find anything of value. I find that strange, but it tells me that this is not something that can be pursued intellectually. It is a heart issue and parts of it are uniquely personal between each believer and God. I don’t think the road to friendship is widely travelled.  Most are content to live their life with god vicariously, reading about others.  It is however, the ultimate journey with the ultimate reward.  

The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted (Prov 29:25).

I like people. I like it when people like me. We were not meant to live in isolation. We need each other. We need the love, the affirmation the respect that we get from our loved ones, our friends.

All of this is healthy provided it is a byproduct of each of us operating out of our identity in Christ. A healthy culture will affirm who God has created each of us to be. It will honor our uniqueness as sons and daughters of the King. In that kind of environment, we are released to operate in all God has created us to be.

Living from our authentic selves is not always easy. People will not always appreciate who you are. As the saying goes, “hurt people hurt people.” All of us have been hurt by wounded people acting out of their wounded-ness.

In addition to the assaults of wounded men and women, we live in a society that emphasizes political correctness. Political correctness is in actuality an oppressive force that attempts to coerce people to conform to a certain standard in order to be considered acceptable. It is man pleasing on a societal level. In many spheres of society, standing up for your convictions that are not politically correct will result in you being vilified. Danny Silk says that political correctness is a religious spirit that, “in the name of God causes people to be afraid of who they are created to be.”

With all of these pressures, it is not hard to understand why people, particularly those who have been hurt or are insecure, are willing to compromise their uniqueness to please others. This is what the fear of man does. It causes people to compromise their identity in order to receive the praise of men and women. When we fear man, we say to them, “You have power to determine my worth.” That is a dangerous place. It causes us to compromise for the sake of the praise of people rather than living for the One who created us, who truly loves us. When we fear man we hide our authentic self and choose to live a facade, a false self.

The fear of man is a form of idolatry. It is allowing man to take a place in our heart that should be reserved for God. Once we start to fear man, we stop operating from a Kingdom perspective. Instead of being led by the Holy Spirit, instead of fearing God, we are now letting the approval of others dictate our actions.

The answer to the fear of man is not arrogance. It is not a bombastic attitude. Over the years I have encountered rude people who say that they don’t care what anyone thinks. That is not the answer. I like it when people affirm me. But I can’t allow my enjoyment of affirmation to cause me to compromise my own integrity just for the praise of others.

Ridding ourselves of the fear of man hinges on two factors. The first is the fear of the Lord By “the fear of the Lord I mean a reverence for God that causes us to be so consumed by His greatness that everything else fades into the background. When this occurs, we are no longer bound by the opinions of man. He becomes our focus and the praises and criticisms of man lose their hold on us.

The other part of this is understanding our identity. The Bible declares that we are, “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:14). The word “fearfully” could be translated awesome. When God looks at you He says, “you are awesome.” This is not an excuse for pride but a recognition of His goodness that is deposited in us as the crowning of His creation. To look at someone else and wish I was like them is to denigrate who God made me to be. I no longer do that. I am free to follow God, to live the life He has placed in front of me as the man He created me to be. He delights in me living my real, authentic life before Him. When I understand who I am as His creation I am no longer bound by the opinions of others.

Who are you? Are you a lawyer, a father, a mother, an employee, a CEO? Who are you? Why are you here? What are you called to do?

On one hand, we are all individuals. The Bible tells us in Psalm 139 that we are, “fearfully and wonderfully made.” We are each unique with our own personalities, giftings, callings. There has never been anyone quite like you and there never will be.

With all of our uniqueness, we do share certain traits. We are all called into a love relationship with the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). We are all called to walk as sons and daughters. We are all called to manifest His love.

How do we do this? Many Christians try to accomplish this by their own self-effort. Despite their well meaning efforts, this always results in burn out. The life God calls us to live is not difficult, it’s impossible. Then how do we do it?

The answer is simpler than we might think. The Bible says that, “the things that are impossible with man are possible with God.” So whatever we do with God is no longer impossible. Once we bring God onto the scene, that which was formerly impossible is now completely possible.

Bringing God onto the scene is not the result of some religious activity. Many people think that if they pray long enough, if they achieve some level of holiness that they will somehow coerce God to show up. I’m all for prayer and holy living but the reality of it is that God is more willing to manifest His goodness than any of us realize. He demonstrates His love for us by making us His temple. The Bible tells us that we are, the temple of the Holy Spirit. That means that He lives in us. Wherever we go, we take Him with us. It’s impossible for me to go somewhere and not have him there.

The key is to live with an awareness that He is always in us and that we get to dispense His love, His goodness to a world starved for love.

No one likes to admit it but many Christians get a sense of satisfaction, a sense of pride out of struggling. After all, if we struggle and push through, if it is our battling that causes breakthrough then we can share in the credit, share in the glory. When we think it is our prayer vigil that was the catalyst for the miracle than we can take pride in it. No one would publicly admit this, but this attitude is rampant in the Body of Christ. Ultimately this breeds a mindset that God is stingy and we have to twist His arm to get Him to do what He promised.

When we act like this we think we are being spiritual but in reality we are operating in the flesh. The Kingdom of God is not blood, sweat and tears but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). It is the spirit that gives life. The flesh is of no help (Jn 6:63). Every good gift comes from above (Jas 1:17). All of the good, all of the blessings in this life and the life to come are initiated from heaven as manifestations of the goodness of God. The Bible tells us that, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). In other words, Jesus didn’t die for you because you were good, He died for you because He is good. He died for you because you were helpless. You were lost and had no possibility of saving yourself. He redeemed us and now we get to sit with Him in heavenly places. I really believe that we will spend all of eternity amazed at His goodness.

It’s amazing how often people get saved, knowing it had nothing to do with their goodness or their effort and then they try to walk out much of the Christian life by their own effort. It’s as if we say to God, “Thanks for saving me, I’ll take it from here.” This was the sin of the Galatian church. The Apostle Paul rebukes them when he asks, “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh” (Gal 3:3)?

The reality of life in the kingdom is that God is not withholding any good thing from us. We are already blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies (Eph 1:3). It’s all there for the taking. It’s received as a free gift (grace) by faith. His Word declares that, “all of God’s promises are yes and amen” (2Co 1:20). Oral Roberts once wrote, “I’ll pray easy because God does the work.” I challenge you to live as if God really was that good, that willing to bless. It’s a lot more fun and much more effective.