SELF SUFFICIENCY CAUSES GOD DEFICIENCY WITHIN US!

Many speak with great nobility of purpose that “I” must take care of my problems and make my own decisions.  They believe it is “a waste of God’s time and theirs” to bother God.  The current thought (from satan) is that “I” can accomplish anything “I will and determine” because the power of “fate and the universe” will ultimately win over every obstacle. I understand there is a book and movie coming out on this very subject. This concept is a blatant lie, error, and deceit by satan and it will rob man of God’s perfection and spiritual experience. Man’s dependence must totally be on God for his life, redemption, and resurrection to eternal life. Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

If you do not believe that you need to be forgiven and saved from your sinful flesh, then you do not believe God. Romans 3:23-26 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The word of God which is the sum and total of all truth and wisdom declares:  James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. It is rank foolishness to believe that the universe is greater than God who created it.  The thought that our ways could be greater or even comparable to God’s is “pride that goes before a great fall.” To decide, think, and walk in our flesh is to bring eternal destruction upon ourselves and our works.

God is the final judge on the matter of walking and depending on our own mind, emotions, and flesh versus walking in the Spirit of God as our only source of righteousness before God. Romans 8:1-8  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 

Our thoughts and our ways are as far from God as light is from darkness. The mind of man is finite and comparing apples with apples (comparing ourselves with each other) we may appear wise, but God tells us the truth of the matter. God says: 1Corinthians 1:19-20 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? God further states: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. (Isaiah 55:8) “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

The source of all truth and power is God. I was always taught in the business world “to go to the top” if you want answers.  It is an absolute necessity to get our truth from the “highest authority, God.” I have never seen a time when there is so much error (anything that is contrary to God’s living, spoken, and written word).  John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Walking in anything other than God’s word and spirit is to walk in the darkness of the “prince of darkness.”

We will never know God through our own wisdom.  The things of God are spiritually discerned.  Even after you hear a scripture, it must be spiritually discerned. Only if you are born of God’s Spirit can you receive the full meaning and impact of His word.  1Corinthians 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God; it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. However, when you are born of the Spirit of God through the new birth in Jesus Christ, the scripture comes alive.  The apostle John writes about this: John 7:17 “If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God, or whether I speak on My own authority.”

We know that the word is truth because the light of God’s word shines in the darkness of our minds and brings us understanding.  Like the blind man in the Bible our answer to the world is “once I was blind and now I see.” The word becomes our experience with God, tested and true. God’s word is alive and through faith He can perform miracles and we are His witnesses. God’s word never returns empty-handed. Those who stand on His word as their “way of life,” know it never fails.  The glories and blessings of God are first revealed to our heart through His word, and then faith ignites the word and we receive every good and perfect gift.  James 1:17-18 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

How do we know His word is truth? I have been given everything that pertains to life and Godliness through His word; privileges, advantages, and experiences have been mine that the world could not give. I am looking forward to God’s eternal kingdom! Only through Christ could I have such a rich inheritance now and forever.  Deuteronomy 8:3  “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.” Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” If you believe that God is the supreme ruler and judge, then you believe His word that tells us to live by every word that proceeds from His mouth.

The promises in God’s word are “yea and amen”! God is not a man that He should lie.  His words are checks that can be cashed on the bank of heaven and put in our account for immediate use.  We can see with our eyes and hold in our hands the blessings we receive and through the eyes of faith the gifts yet to be received.  The checks already cashed are proof in themselves that God’s promises and words are truth. 2Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God.

Throughout all the ages there have been those that twist the word of God to suit themselves, but it is very dangerous. Peter, the apostle, speaks about those that will turn the truth into error. 2Peter 3:16-18 As also in all His epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know these things beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Do not minimize the power and importance of the word of God. The word will be our final judge. John 12:47-49 “And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him — the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.”  Be careful that in picking and choosing what you want to believe that you do not believe lies. The truth sets us free, but error brings bondage to the soul.

Prayer: Oh Lord, reveal the truth of Your words to me and give me understanding.  I want to realize all that You have given to me that I might have Your fullness.  Help me to live my life for Your glory.  Let Your light and goodness be seen in me.  I have only one life to live and I want to attain to “The High Calling of God in Christ Jesus.”  Amen.