Each one of us is individually responsible before God for our own actions, not those actions of those around us. We are responsible for our own thoughts, not the thoughts of the majority. We are responsible for what we choose to believe. Culture is not part of our conversation with God. Just because the culture of today, especially the changing culture of the church, says and does one thing, does not give us individually permission to follow blindly in their footsteps. God never intended us as humans to follow the crowd; He created us to follow Him. The only way we can completely enter into His covering over our lives is by giving Him the first place in every aspect of our lives, our thoughts, our beliefs on what is true and what is deceit, our motivations and desires.
How do we live lives that are reflective of His lordship over us? Through constant submission to the Word of God, to the Holy Spirit, and to other members of His Body. Just as we live in a nation that has in place a system of checks and balances in the government, so too must we live in the system of checks and balances in the kingdom of heaven. Even as members of His Body, the more that we individually seek after Him, the more that we are able to see as He sees, the more capacity we have to speak life into others. This is not the same as every member of a church following blindly after the man or woman placed as a shepherd of a church, for Christ is the head of the church. No man or woman can take the place of Him.
What is submission? Submission is simply softening our hearts to receive encouragement and correction from others. In this way, we can worship God in our jobs, regardless of what they may be, by submitting to those that have been placed in authority over us, not to do that which is contrary to the Word of God, but to honor those placed in authority over us. Just we are all individually responsible before God, so too are those that are placed over us, as well as those who are placed below us. In truth, those distinctions are distortions of how the kingdom of heaven works. When we submit to others, when we lay down our own rights for the rights of others, when we allow others to occupy the place that we want for ourselves willingly and joyfully, we are actually stepping into greatness in the kingdom of heaven. This is the inverse relation of the kingdom of heaven to the kingdom of earth.
Those who are willing to lay down their lives, their possessions, their rights and dreams and desires, not for the sake of pleasing others or attaining glory from men, but for their reward in heaven, step into the cycle of life giving life. When this happens, Jesus is both the source and the reward, for it is out of our love for Him that we forsake our worldly standing, and our reward for doing such is a closer relationship with Him. This is the active transformation of our spirits to be more like Him, and the more that we become like Him, the greater capacity we have to experience Him. It is all about getting as close to Him as possible, to willingly run into His arms, to dying to ourselves and living unto Him.
How would you react if someone told you that tomorrow, or next week, or next year, the world economy would completely fail? That all of your assets, all of your money and possessions, all of your worldly inheritance, would suddenly be worth nothing? That your standing in your job, no matter how low or how high, would suddenly be eradicated, that there would no longer be a job to go to? What would you do if you found yourselves without a house to go home to, without a car to transport you, without a television or a computer to entertain and distract you? Where would you stand before God if all of those things were suddenly wiped away?
This is the place that we need to begin operating out of as a church, as individuals that make up the church, for it is out of this place that we begin to see how the kingdom of heaven operates. The more that we give now while we have that which we cannot hold onto, the more we will gain that which we will never lose. It is not out of our love for our possessions, for our money, for our good and charitable deeds, or even for our neighbor, but it is out of our love for our Creator, for our Savior, for our Bridegroom. When we stop allowing what the world says is good to get in the way of our relationship with the Giver of life, we begin to operate as if He is the Lord over our lives, we begin to submit ourselves to His authority.
What's most important to remember about all of this is that His authority is love! He desires us, He wants to be Lord over our lives, not because He wishes to exert His power and control over us, but because He wants to pour His love into us, to sustain us, to draw us ever closer to His heart, which is the source of all life!
He has placed us specifically in a system of checks and balances in the heavenly kingdom for this very reason. Through the authority of the Word in our lives to be a light in the darkness, to be the truth in the midst of the deceit of the world, through the authority of the Holy Spirit to guide us and convict us, to bring to remembrance His Word, and through the authority of the Body of Christ to speak into our lives, to rebuke and encourage us, He has equipped us to walk upon the narrow path of safety. However, this is an individual act. No one else is responsible for my walk but me.
How do we begin living in the reality of the kingdom of heaven; how do we begin operating out of the economy of heaven and not out of the economy of the world? When Jesus went up upon the mountain and delivered the sermon on the mount, He was actually giving us the road map of how to do exactly this. His instructions, His sermon, was delivered specifically to give us the exact way to enter into living in the kingdom of heaven while we are still living in the world. The more that we desire to be transformed by Him, the greater capacity we are given to willingly give up our lives, and this process starts with us believing on Him, by believing His Word, that what He said is truth. We cannot operate in the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven except by faith, that His Word is true, and this faith begets faith as we begin to see the truth manifest itself in our lives.
This is nothing new. From the very get-go of Christ's ministry, He spoke these things. It is also no wonder that these things are the specific instructions for the church to stay on the narrow road. This is protection for that which is to come, the time of His return to the earth, the transformation of the church into His pure and spotless Bride, a transformation that only comes about by dying to ourselves and living unto Him, the great tribulation of the world, which is a terror to the world but a joy to those who love Him. He is coming, and this is the time to ready ourselves by willingly living out the sermon on the mount. We want to be counted among the Bridesmaids who are found ready, with lamps full of oil, and we can be ready by walking out our death to our own selves willingly, by allowing God sanctify our hearts while there is still time to do so, and not by waiting till the last possible minute, not by holding on to our lives until we see our Bridegroom parting the skies, for if we wait until that moment, than it is too late. It was out of this same mindset that Paul operated, the single greatest contributor to the New Testament, for he understood full well the urgency of preparing the world for Jesus return.
How then can we walk this out, responsible only before God, but still in submission to the Body of Christ? Does this not seem to contradict itself, if there is the possibility that there is a chance that the church has been swayed by the winds of the world today? If we are, in fact, living out the two greatest commandments, in order, than we will not be swayed, nor will we blindly follow after the leadership of others, because we are looking first to God and His Word and allowing His Spirit to guide us before we look to the church. We must test each church by looking to the fruit that it produces, for everything can be known by its fruit. If the fruit of a church is not in line with the fruit of the Spirit, if it is not fruit that draws us closer to the source of life, to Jesus, if it is contrary to His Word, if it promises false comfort and peace, if it flatters with the tongue and agrees with the world, then it is not of the root of Jesus. In this, we must not condemn others, but point them to the truth in love.
What this will produce in the days to come is a unified church, such as the world has never seen before. This is the Bride readying herself for the Bridegroom, to receive Him in all His glory, to become pure and spotless before Him. We must choose, each of us individually, to step into this, to die to ourselves and live a life a submission, of humility, of love, first to God, and then to our neighbors. There are very real consequences, both good and bad, to the choices that we make today. The sooner that we, that I, choose to relinquish my own hold on my life, the sooner that I can begin readying myself for that glorious day, for that day is coming, regardless if we are ready for it or not.
What have you been holding onto in your life? Is there anything that you can think of, an area that He has been highlighting in your life recently, that you have fought to have control over? I encourage you to take this before God, to submit to Him these areas, to allow Him to have more authority over your life. Talk to someone in your church about these things and allow them to speak into your life. Dig into the Word and see what it says. Pray about these things and ask God to transform your heart. Ask Him to open your eyes what is truth and what is deceit. Ask Him for more opportunities to become more like Him, and ask Him for the strength to respond to those opportunities, to lay down your rights for others, to be more generous with your time and money. This is not something that is done once and forgotten about. This is not something that is easy, but it is worth doing, for what you gain is Him. After all, what does it profit you if you gain the whole world, but lose your soul?
Side note: These questions are just as much for me as they are for you. I am desperately in need of living this out every day. It is out of my own desire to become more like Him that I am writing, not to correct anyone else or pretend that I have figured everything out, because I clearly have not.
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