In and Within 31 Choice Starts Within

[HKHaugan]

The ‘choice revolution’ is a revolution against revolution. It’s internal and personal as opposed to external and impersonal. It’s against a real enemy as opposed to some invisible structure. It is not about picket lines, gathering and inciting anger, shouting meaningless slogans, rock throwing, rioting and tearing down existing political and economic systems. These are worldly revolutions based on the belief that politics and economics are the root problem behind all the world’s miseries.

We are talking about something entirely different. There is a deeper and more serious problem. It is the human heart, its spiritual evacuation from God and what causes it. It is not about unjust societies, corrupt economic systems or intractable class differences. It is about the individual heart and the choices it makes to live moment-by-moment in an externally motivated world: motivated by visible symbols of success, wealth, appearance and power. It is these pseudo-gods flashing their neon signs that distract our humanity from its Creator.

The ‘choice revolution’ is a revolution against three things, the sin-justifying mind, the fearing lonely heart and the prideful arrogant spirit. It is a spiritual revolution. The ‘choice revolution’ recognizes the real problem is a spiritual one---sin and with sin comes its ego monitors, fear and pride. Sin gets us to concentrate on perceived short-term satisfaction as opposed to real long-term relational fulfillment. Sin has infected our whole being and its eroding self-centeredness has divorced mankind from our Creator’s purpose. The ‘choice revolution’ is a revolution against the idea that the world is all about me. If we don’t think we live that way take a minute and look at our checkbook, our credit card statement and how we adapt to our material and emotional environment.

But let’s survey the three parts of the image of God that have been trashed by sin.

First, the mind. The mind apart from God is always busy manufacturing and sustaining reasons to justify itself.

Second, the heart. The heart apart from God, is riddled with fear of emotional pain, seeks to be in control or at least look in control and builds strongholds for self-protection.

Third, the spirit. The spirit apart from God drifts and shifts with whatever spirits enable it to survive among others who are alone like it.

Sin keeps these three working against each other, in spite of each other, placing pressure in one and over compensating in another so that we are thrown out of balance. Sin coaxes us to believe we are able to balance ourselves apart from God and be in control apart from Him. The mind is self-deceptive, the heart is afraid and the spirit is vulnerable and weak. The prevailing spirits in a culture cooperate with the spirit of fear to encourage the mind in self-justification, the heart to bury its guilt and the spirit to cower behind depression and self-pity.

Behind this trashing is the devil whose projected goal is for sin to feed our loneliness and aloneness so that every person ends up in eternity totally isolated, alone, depressed and living in the flames of fear, anger, guilt and self-loathing. What did God say after He had made Adam? “It is not good for the man to be alone (Gen.2:18).” Mankind has been trashed by the devil using sin and its partners, fear and pride, as his major weapons to lure us into the dark alley of aloneness where we are his weakened victims.

So what does Jesus ask of the Father? “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified (John 17:15-19 NIV).”

Here is a proactive prayer. Jesus doesn’t want His disciples to be taken away but to be protected from the devil because they are spiritually reborn from above the world to be His heralds in it. In order to do that He prays that they be set apart for His service through the truth. His truth is His Word, Holy Scripture. Here is the manual for the ‘choice revolution.’ It is a set of documents that the mind can stabilize its intellectual bearings in belief and think as God thinks. The heart there too, will find the words that lead to how to trust in Jesus as Lord and the Spirit as the interpreter. The spirit will be guided by the Holy Spirit to rely on the Word to offset sin’s fear and pride through living faith. As the Father sent Jesus into the world so He sends His disciples and therefore sets Himself apart for His Father’s service so that His disciples can do the same.

Because there is One God in whose image we are created, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph.4:4-6 NIV).” This means that the parts of us the devil wants torn apart can be restored by the Lord and find their unity and balance in the Lord. It is the Holy Spirit of God who is the stabilizer in us who keeps our mind, heart and spirit in that unified balance.

The ‘choice revolution,’ therefore is the freedom in Jesus the Father has given us to reconstruct our mind to think as He thinks by reasoning on the basis of Scripture. As we think so our hearts are informed and can make the same choice, to trust His presence to lead us. As our spirit keeps in step with the Holy Spirit in the Word it is the belief, trust and faith unified to make us one in Jesus.

Prayer is the kneeling cushion for the mind, the heart and the spirit when a choice has to be made. Prayer for the mind to weigh the options the Word presents. Prayer for the heart to choose to relate to God’s heart in Jesus and prayer for the spirit to choose the urging of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is the choice clarifier and the choice strengthener. Prayer moves us into the realm of choosing God over self, choosing Jesus’ right as opposed to the devil’s wrong and choosing the way of the Cross to lay my ego down and let the Holy Spirit guide every next moment.

So, when the pressure is put on the mind to think as the world thinks we simply rehearse the beliefs we have been given there. Or when our hearts are set upon to compromise being an image of God we trust Him to help us to stand with Him. Then our spirits motivated by belief and trust are motivated to act in faith to please Him and give Him the glory. It’s our choice within that changes the world without. That is why this a ‘choice revolution.’ It’s deep, it’s personal and it begins with me right where I am in the mental, emotional and motivational atmosphere in every next moment.

What we see in Jesus’ personal prayer is the choice cushion at work. So it is for us as well. Join the ‘choice revolution’ right now not only with your knees but with all your mind, heart and strength.