Theology or Reality?


Christians tend to judge themselves (ourselves) by our theology, but not by the realities of our lives.  We also tend to judge others by what we perceive to be the realities of their lives, but our perceptions are not always God's perceptions.

What is the answer?  I just read an article by John Bevere in Sid Roth's "mishpochah" newsletter..  The article was titled "Good or God?".  In the article John makes the point that we are all called to be vessels of God's grace, and "to rule in life through Messiah Jesus".

He then exhorts his readers to 'show [the unbelievers] the true Jesus, not a powerless Jesus.  He continues to exhort, "Let's embrace the truth and see truly good fruit result from our unswerving, loving obedience."

Wait a minute!  If we who have received the 'real Jesus' and the 'real Spirit' are not doing God's will already, why is that so?????

I suggest that the reality of common Christian life is that we give Jesus some room in our lives, but we retain control of the rest of our lives for ourselves!  Thus we are schizophrenic Christians, and not really 'in Christ'.  We  may have one foot in Jesus while we still have the other foot in the world.

And I submit that the reason this condition exists is because the "gospel" which we preach does not contain much, if any, repentance from dead works.  We do not call converts to renounce satan and all of his works.  We do not obtain from God the holy hatred of our fathers, mother, brothers, sisters, wives and children in order to become disciples of Jesus.  We only become disciples of the person who led us to the Lord!  Then we go to church and become the disciples of the pastor or the denomination rather than true disciples of Jesus.  We don't realize that our ears are being tickled unless we become desperate enough to ask Jesus to set us free from ourselves and the deceitfulness of our hearts, and the deceptions of the pride of our hearts.  We don't discern the half-truths which abound in the church, or the logical extensions of Biblical principles until we wake up in our spiritual pigsties and realize that we are starving for God because we are only being fed theology!

Let me bring an amazing fact to your attention - a fact which changed my life.  I read in the Bible in the Book of Genesis that Abraham, the father of our faith, was a friend of God in spite of the fact that he had no Bible to learn from!  Then, after I had read the Bible from cover to cover, God showed me that I had no idea how to effectively pray for another person's needs. See my page about Imaginations.  But the Lord graciously taught me that He knows how to effectively minister to others' needs, and we need to stop relying on our own understanding - even of the Bible - so that we may look to Jesus for the keys to every issue which confronts us.

Some time ago I began to ask Jesus to show me the truth about myself.  I was tired of not living up to what I through the Christian life ought to be.  He showed me the selfishness and pride of life which I either never recognized or thought was good enough.  He then began to give me the keys which I needed, and the understanding how to use the keys to get myself set free so that I could truly become a slave of His righteousness and set others free too.  Not that I am perfect yet - far from it!  But my life is much less and much more than it used to be, and I thank our loving heavenly Father and our loving Lord Jesus for pulling me out of the miry clay of sin and ungodliness, and for putting my feet on solid ground, and for putting a fresh song of praise in my heart every day so that I can give Father, Son and Holy Spirit a blessing.  And I get to have adventures with Jesus every day in various ways.  And I get to share in His joy and His peace and His righteousness as I continue to trust Jesus to help me to abide in Him, to be yoked with Him, and to grow in the knowledge of Him and our Heavenly Father every day!

So, I trust that God is speaking to you, dear reader, and I hope that you will gain some freedom from theology and knowledge of reality if you turn to Jesus, Who alone can lead us into all truth through the Holy Spirit of God!

Lord Jesus, please give hearing ears to all who need to hear what You have to say to us, and obedient hearts to all who need Your obedience to do Father's will!!

WARNING!  It is human nature to seek out a comfort zone where we can find as much safety from discomfort as we can, and to maintain that comfort zone.  But it does not take long for a comfort zone to become a prison which hinders us from going all the way with Jesus, and becoming all that we can be in Jesus to the glory of God the Father.  But I find that if I am willing to get out of my comfort zone to follow Jesus where HE wants to go, that God is able to expand my comfort zone to include whatever He wants to do!  In essence closeness to God is the best comfort zone there could ever be!!

Have a great day in Christ!!