Kingdom's Keys Fellowship

Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.

Christmas and Perception

Perception is spiritual reality at work. But what shapes our perception? If we really look at it, the heart is the source and the attitude it dresses in is the deciding factor. If I do not believe in God, my attitude is emotionally conditioned and intellectually justified based on what makes me comfortable. If I believe in God, my attitude is in the process of being reshaped by Jesus Christ who is constantly challenging me from one moment to the next.

Childhood and growing up are full of inconsistencies due to parental values and cultural pressure. We have all kinds of inner conflicts, needs and desires as individuals. What we find is the world around us offering peace through conformity but that makes us lonely winners or losers and aloneness is no comfort. The attitudes I develop along the way are the result of fear of rejection and increased aloneness. Herein lie the roots of bias, prejudice and the growth of pride, the anti-personal spirit the devil uses to alienate us from God and one another. This is where we get class, race, ethnic differences, ‘one-upsmanship,’ revenge, resentment, family discord, relational separation and add what you will. At the root is the need to be in control of our aloneness. We don’t have just one attitude, we have many and however our past has affected us, we will drag an attitude from our stronghold suitcase we carry with us, to meet the moment of challenge. It’s the baggage of our discontent that Jesus knows we carry when He says, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Mt.11:28).”

So, attitude is the heart’s passive-aggressive defense mechanism. It comes from the pains in our life’s development. Attitude is what the Bible calls a stronghold (2Cor.10:4-5). It is any idea, concept, principle outside of God we use to defend ourselves in what we perceive as the best way to survive. Attitude is the strategy we use as we approach any circumstance whether it is relational, social or occupational. Attitude governs what and how we perceive and then react to those circumstances. You can see why attitude is called a stronghold. It has a stranglehold on our heart.

Paul speaks to this strong-stranglehold when he describes the attitude of Jesus:

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!

Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Php.2:5-11).”

It is this singular attitude with which Jesus met His daily world. The task for us is to replace our momentary attitudes with His singular attitude. This is why we have an ongoing relationship with Him. We meet the world around us with His perception. What did that look like? First, to Him all people were images of God loved by His Father but lost in the wilderness of their heart’s attitudes. Second, to Him every person is spiritually and relationally restorable as His constant teachings show. Third, to Him every person restored can be a witness to the Father’ plan of restoration with the gift of the Holy Spirit He gives them.

If you read the following passage about the mission of John the Baptizer and apply the spiritual meaning of mountains, valleys, crooked roads and rough ways as the strongholds, attitudes, strangling the heart, it will become clear how Jesus fulfilled the total history of Israel.

“A voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation (Lk.3:4-6 quoting Isaiah).”

In essence that is His call to us and the following passages deal with perception and how we are called to look forward in faith. That faith takes the attitude, the singular attitude of Jesus, and makes it ours as we yield to Him in our every next moment.

This is what the Lord says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland (Is.43:16,18-19).”

“I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.…(Php.3:12-14).”

“So, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ…(2Cor.5:16-18).”

The call is to meet every next relational moment with the singular attitude of Jesus---every person is an image of God, every person is restorable, and we are the Lord’s reconcilers through the power of His Spirit.

His attitude, a Christmas gift we can carry with us every day!