A Tale of Two ships and a Spiritquake

[HKHaugan]

Let’s review for a moment. Paul gives us three maxims that can cure our ‘secularitis’ (my word for the infection from sin and its worldly standards), a spiritual disease that leads to a slow and lonely death.
First, don’t be conformed to the world. Conformity is slavery unto death.
Second, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. A mindquake leads to a heartquake where Christ is freedom unto life.

Now the third of Paul’s maxims---It leads to a ‘spiritquake’---“Test and approve what God’s good, pleasing and perfect will is (Rom.12:2).” Here we have the final dose, taken daily, that reverses the erosive damage to the image of God in us.

How do we do that?

First, we want to make sure we are scripturally attuned. When Jesus was tempted by the devil to jump off the top of the Temple to prove Himself He was quick to respond, “It is also written: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test (Mt.4:7).” But in Malachi 3:10 the Lord commands us to test Him in regard to tithing. So we have two apparent contradictions, Rom.12:2 and Mal.3:10.

There are two extreme contrasts described here. But note the difference. The devil’s temptations make us self-centered and alone while the two commands from Malachi and Romans lead us to be God-centered and relational. Tithing and testing His will are the practices in faith placing our present and future in His love and care. Faith is the way He has made us to grow spiritually. Faith is how we mature. Through faith our spirit grows, our knowledge of the Lord grows, our mind expands and our heart finds its place in Him and in the hearts of others. The devil’s temptations do just the opposite. They lead us into darkness where we become more and more self-conscious, self-centered, self-gratifying and eternally alone.

We have the choice therefore of voyaging on two ships. One is ‘I’-solation-ship,’ to retreat into self. Its staterooms have no lights, no running water, no portholes, no doors and no adjoining cabins. It drifts alone into eternity with no one but self within. There are the constantly lingering dark intrusions of fear, regret, remorse, guilt and despair. Its angry unfeeling helmsman is the ‘father-of-lies’, the devil (John 8:44).

The other is ‘Relation-ship,’ where you leap out to God and others in faith and they leap out to you in love. It’s built in the shape of a Cross. The name on the side of the bow is “Kingdom of God.” In this one there’s lots going on. It’s well lit, bright and shining with the glory of God. The buffet is His love, His personal interest, grace and truth. Every accommodation is there to enable relationships as you grow into eternity. The helmsman is the Lord Jesus, the crew is the Apostles and the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev.4:4). The communication is the Word of God that lasts forever (Mt.24:35). Creation is the instrument panel in the command center (Job 38-41).

So let’s look at what it means to test God’s will. Three things support God’s intention here. First, Jesus as the example of testing the Father’s will. Second, Scripture as the statement of God’s will. Third, personal risk, taking up our cross daily, as the lifestyle of faith (Lk.9:23).

How does Jesus test the Father’s will? Everything Jesus did was by faith thus everything Jesus did was His Father’s will. It is the Father’s will that faith is the means to live with Him and live with one another through obedience to His Word. As Jesus said when you hear Him speaking it is His Father’s words that He is giving and His total work is obeying His Father (Jn.4:34). The same dynamic He passes on to us when He says, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent (Jn.6:29).”

So testing God’s will starts with the mind and that means believing, believing all His teachings, His behavior and His calling to us to be and make disciples for Him. It means trusting with your heart that that is where Jesus is moving within us in His Spirit. And it means more.

It means your spirit is no longer alone, driven by sin’s self-centeredness, but under the care of the Father, the Savior and the Holy Spirit. It means Spirit-led action in faith and that is first to love one another as He first loved us. It means to reach out with the same love toward others as Jesus did. It means to search His Word on a daily basis and let it take shape through the leading of Holy Spirit. It means seeing everything from and in a spiritual context. It means reacting spiritually as the Word informs us. And how that takes shape will be unique and personal because each one of us is unique and personal.

When, as believers together, we worship and steep ourselves in His Word, we are then sent into the world to bring our unique and personal application of Him wherever we are. That uniqueness is His personal gift to each of us so that we experience life like He wants us to in our individual hearts. That’s why He gives us the choice to accept His Son personally and let Him bring our uniqueness into the world. Now that is the kind of love He went to the Cross and created us for. I can live with that. How about you?