Pop-ups and Faith

[HKHaugan]

Epi.17 Pop-ups and Faith

One of the great things that is often overlooked is the way women have this incredible attitude of giving thanks through little gifts that fit the person to whom they are given. They also teach children the importance of giving thanks for gifts and that it is not the gift itself but what the gift says to the heart. Women have a sense of personal sensitivity that goes beyond the male mind that is usually centered on getting a task done and achieving some pride building applause. Spiritual gifts are the balancing equalizers that employ both the male and female attitudes and skills to reach the heart. Before we get into specific gifts, let’s peruse Paul’s spiritual overview.

If we continue Paul’s definition of worship as offering our bodies to be living sacrifices, we move to the way that is done (12:2). First, it begins with removing ourselves from conformity to the world. How are we conformed to the world? Only each of us can answer that. There are some common factors involved like how we have been conditioned to think. Let’s take the attitudes and principles that we have been culturally trained to live by. What motivates us to act certain ways when we meet people? Those inner reactions; what issues take up our conscious moments? Then there are the inner fears we experience. What do we spend most of our waking time on? Before we considered what it meant to be a Christian, where did we relax and why? What were we trying to accomplish with our lives? Who did we spend most of our time with and who did we try most to impress? When we consider our social lives, what do we fear the most? Do we carry guilt, resentments, chronic habits, regrets, remorse? How much of our choices are based on being accepted; like pride, fitting in, looking good, so we can feel good about ourselves?

For a moment, consider our computer experience. One of the annoyances we have are what we know as ‘pop-ups.’ Sometimes they’re planted like a virus that you can’t get rid of and other times they are part of an article’s theme. Some are good and some are bad. Now think about what we said above about our past ‘before-Christ conditioning.’ All of those dynamics are like ‘pop-ups.’ They are all things that pop up as we go through a day in our lives. They came as a result of the way we conformed to the secular (God-is-not-first) world’s pattern of behavior.

But there are other ‘pop-ups’ that take place, the good ones. Disciples of Jesus know them. It is when we place our consciousness of the Lord in those ‘pop-up’ moments and receive them as spiritual insights. When both the good and the bad ones happen, that’s when the transformation begins. We face our conformity to the way others expect us to react, turn away and believe the Lord’s way to think. Then is when transformation of the mind begins.

We switch from conformity to transformity.

This is our response when the Lord Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow Him. We actually crucify the bad ‘pop-ups’ and the Holy Spirit is the One who ignites the process. He is the One who inspires us to distinguish between reacting out of our past pop-ups and into the spiritual ‘pop-up’ insights that move us away from the past and into “the way, the truth and the life.” Transformation is choosing the spiritual insight pop-ups instead of the self-centered conformity pop-ups of the past. Transformation is an ongoing, spiritually maturing, way of life, the life of the Cross.

Transformation happens when we activate the mind to believe in the presence of the risen Jesus, when we are thinking spiritually before we think any other way. Transformation is the Cross of Christ working its power in us.

There’s a second part to this process. When we make transforming choices we are actually doing what Paul counsels. We are testing the will of God. To quote the Lord, “The work of God is this: to believe on the One He sent (Jn.6:29).” This means faith motivates us to step out, risk outside our comfort zone, put our new choices to work. In one sense we can say that we don’t know what the will of God is until we test what He calls us to do and see the results. The results are His will. How that will is worked out is unique to each individual. His Word is the test manual. We know faith is the bottom line will of God upon which He builds the rest of His will for each of us. Love is the bottom line will of God. Looking forward to stepping out and risking ‘outside the box.’ If we knew exactly what that looked like then it wouldn’t be faith. Testing the will of God is taking advantage of the things that are really going on in our mind and heart when the ‘pop-ups’ happen. It’s when a spiritual choice follows a spiritual voice instead of a lonely anxiety surrendering to the world’s propriety.

Paul tells us that God’s will is good, pleasing and perfect. We need to know those things. We can’t really know them unless we test them. What makes God’s will good? God as revealed in Jesus is good the way human beings were originally designed. Jesus was dependent on His Father. Jesus was obedient to His Father. Jesus desired to be at one with His Father in mind, heart and spirit. The one thing that bound all that together from one moment to the next was His faith. It is the not knowing what will take place from one moment to the next, but approaching that moment with faith in the work of His Father through the Holy Spirit. That was and is faith.

Think about all the ‘pop-ups’ Jesus faced day after day. The requests He was given, the hostility of His enemies, the needs of the moment, His knowing the inadequacies of His followers, His aloneness as He prayed in the Garden before He was crucified and His isolation on the Cross. Given all this, the one mark of Jesus’ perfect faith that stands out above all was His perfect spontaneity in each and every circumstance. His Father and His Father’s will consumed Him. Jesus never had to say He was sorry nor did He put off anything until He felt good about it. He responded perfectly without hesitation in every moment, both the best and worst of moments. Much more could be said. But the pleasing part is that faith is what pleases God. “Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb.11:6).” Jesus showed the ‘good, pleasing and perfect will’ of God. He lived it. That has to be our response as well.