Keep Your Eyes Open: Seeking the Kingdom, Finding His Presence – Purity 457

 

Keep Your Eyes Open: Seeking the Kingdom, Finding
His Presence

Purity 457 06/29/2021   Purity 457 Podcast

Good morning  

Today’s photo of blue heavenly skies over water from the vantage point of
a starboard window comes to us from a friend who was taking the ferry to
Burlington Vermont on a recent trip to their camp in Highgate.  Although I am sure our friend was excited
about getting to their final destination, they had the presence of mind to keep
their eyes open for the beauty that God had prepared for them along the
way.   

As I encourage others to “walk in the Spirit”,
one of the basic instructions I give comes from Matthew 6:33 which says:

Matthew 6:33
(NKJV)
³³ But seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you.

The depths of meaning that can be drawn from
this verse are seemingly limitless as the Holy Spirit can continually reveal
new aspects to it.  

The aspect of seeking is what our friend tapped
into when they didn’t become distracted by the details on the boat or with what
was on their phone or with thinking about what it would be like after getting
off the boat. They seemingly let all of those possible distractions go and discovered
a pleasant view that could draw their minds and hearts to heaven.   

When we see sights like this one we could just
recognize it as “pretty” or we can recognize it as part of the setting that God
has put into our life’s narrative. If we do the latter the response is
gratitude, awe, wonder, and expectancy as we look to see what God will bring
into our lives next.   

Many have drawn off the wisdom of the word of God
in Jerimiah 5:21, that says foolish people have eyes and see not, and have said
that there are none so blind than those who will not see.  

Likewise, I would say that sentiment applies to
our relationship with God. If we are not seeking His presence in our life, we
won’t see it and we won’t be able to enjoy it or draw from His strength and
wisdom.

So no matter where your travels take you today,
try to remember to seek the Lord’s kingdom and righteousness along the way. He
has things for you to see and He has experiences that He is inviting you into
that will show you heaven on earth and allow you to be a channel of His love, joy,
and peace.           

This morning’s meditation
verse is:

John 14:27 (NKJV)
²⁷ Peace I
leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Today’s
verse shows us the care and concern Christ had for His followers in the
dwindling hours before His crucifixion and death.   

The
Apostles were undoubtedly troubled by Christ’s statements concerning His
betrayal and being turned over to the authorities and at Christ’s insistence that
He must leave them and go to the Father.     

In the
preceding verse Christ promises that the Holy Spirit would come from the Father
to teach them and cause them to remember all that Christ had taught them, but
Christ’s words here indicate that He knows the state of confusion and anxiety
the disciples are experiencing in these moments.   

Jesus
seeks to assure them that in this chaotic time of transition that His intention
is for them to have peace, and that peace is possible as the Apostle’s eternal relationship
with Him can calm troubled their hearts and cast out their fears if they trust
in Him.  

These
words of Christ are often in liturgical services leading us to the time of
communion, when we fellowship with God by partaking of the Lord’s supper.   This tradition is intended to bring us in
God’s presence and to bring God’s presence into us. 

The admonition
of peace in the service reflects the time Christ sought to give His followers comfort
and to draw them close into the new covenant that He was instituting.   

As members
of the Body of Christ, we are part of the new covenant and have also been
encouraged to have peace through our faith in Jesus Christ. 

So don’t
be afraid, and don’t let your heart be troubled. When our minds and hearts are
focused on Christ, we can partake of the peace that Christ wants us to
experience; the peace that only comes by faith and the indwelling presence of
the Holy Spirit. 

As
always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from
prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with
their walk. 

 

Today we continue with Dr. Neil Anderson’s Victory
Over the Darkness, continuing Chapter 5.

 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase Dr. Anderson’s books for your own private study
and to support his work. If you need this title you can find it online at several
sites for less than $15.00:

Parameters
of the Spirit-Filled Walk

When we first became Christians, we were similar to
one-third-horsepower lawn mower engines. We could accomplish something but not
very much because we were not very mature. Our goal as Christians is to become
DC9 Caterpillar engines—real powerhouses for the Lord. Without gas, though,
neither a lawn mower nor a bulldozer can accomplish anything. Neither can we
accomplish anything apart from Christ (see John 15:5). No
matter how mature you are, you can never be productive unless you are walking
by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

When it comes to walking according to
the flesh and walking in the Spirit, our wills are like toggle switches. The
wills of new Christians seem to be spring-loaded toward fleshly behavior. New
believers are going to live according to what they know, and they don’t know
very much about the Spirit-filled life. The wills of mature Christians are
spring-loaded toward the Spirit. They make occasional poor choices, but they
are daily learning to crucify the flesh and walk by faith in the power of the
Holy Spirit.

Walking by the Spirit is relationship,
not regimentation. To illustrate, think about your marriage. You may have
started your marriage by relying on rules for effective communication, meeting
each other’s sexual needs and so on. If after several years you can’t even talk
to each other or make love without following an outline or list of steps,
however, your marriage relationship is still in infancy. In a mature marriage,
communication flows naturally from two who love each other.

Another example is prayer. Perhaps you
learned to pray using the simple acrostic ACTS: adoration, confession,
thanksgiving, supplication. If, however, you have been a Christian for a few
years and your prayer life is no deeper than an acrostic, you have never
learned to pray by the Spirit (see Ephes. 6:18).
Prayer is a two-way communication with God that requires listening as well as
petitioning.

Paul defines what it means to walk by
the Spirit in Galatians
5:16-18: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of
the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may
not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are
not under the Law.” Actually, this passage mainly tells us what walking by
the Spirit is not, but that is helpful because it gives us two parameters
within which we can freely live.

What
the Spirit-Filled Walk Is Not

First, Paul said that walking according to the Spirit is
not license. License is a disregard for rules and regulations constituting an
abuse of privilege. Some Christians wrongly assert that walking by the Spirit
and living under grace means, “I can do whatever I want to do.”
Walking by the Spirit means, “You may not do the things that you
please.” Living by the Spirit doesn’t mean you are free to do whatever you
want to do. That would be license. It means you are free to live a responsible,
moral life—something you were incapable of doing when you were a bond servant
of sin.

I was invited to speak to a religion
class at a Catholic high school on the topic of Protestant Christianity. At the
end of my talk, an athletic-looking, streetwise student raised his hand and
asked, “Do you have a lot of don’ts in your religion?”

I answered, “I don’t think I have
any that God doesn’t, but I think what you are really asking me is, ‘Do I have
any freedom?’” He nodded.

“Sure, I’m free to do whatever I
want to do,” I answered.

His face mirrored his disbelief.
“Get serious,” he said.

I responded, “I am free to make
the decision to rob a bank. But I’m mature enough to realize that I would be in
bondage to that act for the rest of my life. I would always have to look over
my shoulder wondering if I would someday be caught. I would have to cover up my
crime, possibly go into hiding and eventually pay for what I did. I’m also free
to tell a lie. But if I told a lie, I would have to remember who I told the lie
to and what I told them.”

What some people think is freedom is
nothing more than license that leads to bondage. Freedom doesn’t just lie in
the exercise of choice; it ultimately lies in the consequences of those
choices. The Spirit of truth will always lead us to freedom, but the desires of
the flesh will lead us to sin and bondage. The commandments of God are not
restrictive; they are protective. Our real freedom is in the ability to choose
to live responsibly within the context of the protective guidelines God has
established for our lives.

Second, walking by the Spirit is also
not legalism. “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the
Law” (Galatians
5:18). If you want to relate to God purely on the basis of moral law, then
you need to listen to Paul’s words in Galatians 3:10:
“For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse.” You
will be a driven person or a guilt-ridden dropout. “Is the Law then
contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given
which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based
on law” (Galatians
3:21). The law is powerless to give life.

Telling people that what they are
doing is wrong does not give them the power to stop doing it. Christians have
been notorious at trying to legislate spirituality with don’ts: Christians
don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t dance, don’t attend movies, don’t play cards,
don’t wear makeup and so on. Others may claim not to be legalistic, but all
they have done is gone from negative legalism (don’t do this and don’t do that)
to positive legalism (do this and do that). We are “servants of a new
covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6).

The law also has the capacity to
stimulate the desire to do what it intended to prohibit (see Romans 7:5, 8)! Let me
illustrate. What happens when you tell a child, “You can go here, but you
can’t go there.” The moment you say that, where does the child want to go?
There! He probably didn’t even want to go there until you told him he couldn’t
go. A Christian school published a list of movies the students could not see.
Guess which ones they all wanted to see? Why is the forbidden fruit the most
desirable? Apparently it was in the Garden of Eden as well.

Christianity is a relationship, not a
ritual or a religious code of ethics. We could not keep the commandments by
human effort living under the law. The law was a “tutor to lead us to
Christ, that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24).
In Christ we can actually live by faith according to the righteous laws of God
in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Suppose you were walking along a very
narrow mountain road. On the right side is a cliff too steep to climb down and
too far to jump. On the other side of the road is a roaring forest fire. Ahead
of you is a church and a roaring lion is behind you. Which way do you run? Off
to your right is an option. Just sail off that cliff. Can you imagine the
initial thrill? There are serious consequences to that decision, though, like
the sudden stop at the end. That is the nature of temptation. If it didn’t
initially look good, you wouldn’t be tempted. Giving in to temptation always
has serious consequences. When people advocate free sex, they are advocating
license that has deadly consequences to meaningful relationships and even life.

On the left is another option, but you
will be burned by legalism as well. The accuser will give you no peace when you
try to live under the law. The only path of freedom is straight ahead, but no
church building or group of people will provide an adequate sanctuary. A devil
is roaring around like a hungry lion seeking someone to devour (see 1 Peter 5:8),
and your only sanctuary is in Christ. No physical place can provide a spiritual
sanctuary for you on planet Earth.

Victory Over the Darkness: Realizing the Power of Your Identity in Christ.

—————————more tomorrow————————

 

God bless
you all!

 

Join our “Victory
over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via
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