Are You Still Your Own?

Have you accepted the fact that you are not your own?  Affirmations of theology are much easier than the actual doing of theology.  When the Father prods you to fast, are you still your own?  When the Holy Spirit pushes you to turn down a lucrative career move, are you still your own?  When Christ bids you to forgive your father for all the harm he has done you and to extend your love to him in a practical way, are you still your own?  At what point is there a demarcation...I am now my own, I am not my own?  Nothing takes our breath away quite like the sudden realization that God has made a demand of us that is beyond our threshold of submission.  It is then at the pinnacle of our faith that we face our Christianity squarely.  Will we accept the life of Christ in this matter too?  Will we let Him live through us here?  Peter took off running with his self-assurance that he would do anything for the Lord but that is the place where Satan "hands us our lunch".  Rather than living up to his boast to never let Christ down, he wound up ruined by failure weeping on the curb.  It was only after the Holy Spirit was breathed into him and he began to live in the power of God rather than his own ambitions of commitment that he took the mantle of martyrdom with careless self-denial.    You are not your own is the life-long work of God in you and it will not be train-wrecked by Satan.  You may come off the rails for a while as you try to make some sacrifice or service replace the life of Christ in you but you will eventually be brought "back on track".  Never mistake your ministry for self-denial.  It is not, unless the crucified Christ is killing off your self-will in it and making it all God's will working through you.  We can easily confuse our ambition for God's work and calling; if we are not careful, we will be as useless to God as Ananias and Sapphira. 

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.     1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV

The God Twitch

The God twitch is a spontaneous turning of one’s spasmodic concentration to God.  It is the sudden, spontaneous reaction to the Holy Spirit poking at your hot nerve.  Some are more reactive than others; quicker to flinch in God's direction.  If we don't realize what is happening we may mistake the poke as a crisis, as a terrible occurrence, as a heartbreak.  It is not.  It is the Lord making Himself unmistakably visible.  David felt it when Saul came after him in the wilderness.  Stephen felt it as he faced his martyrdom.  Jonah faced it as he sat in the belly of the great fish and Peter came upon it as he wept uncontrollably in the dark closet of Jerusalem Good Friday.  We may question many matters in our life but when Job like you was hit in the head by the lightning flash of God he became silent as a door knob.  There is nothing to do when God comes upon you with the force of heaven itself.  You must silently wait upon Him as He works Himself through every cell and corpuscle you possess.  Why should we think God would always deal with us peacefully and comfortably when the greatest people in the Bible were struck dumb by the weight of His awful Presence?  As Christians, we must stop making excuses for God; quit sugarcoating the ways He moves within us.  Did Ruth lose her husband or not?  Did Elijah face the terror of Jezebel or not?  Did Paul get beaten with rods or not?  It is anathema to make God out as some kind of silly puppy who bounces about mindlessly whenever we meet Him.  He is stern in His determination to make us face Him.  Should we think His glory is casual and light?  It is not!  It is as heavy as the weight of the firestorm that fell upon Sodom.  Nothing stops the force of our God's entrance when He decides to make Himself known to us with finality.  Just look at the picture we have of Jesus in Daniel 7 and try to wiggle out of this one simple attribute of God.  He is holy...terribly holy and it is a grave error to mistake Him as Santa Claus.  Sin is not a bad move on our part; it is the terrifying rebellion of a fool who dares come up against the Almighty God.  We must never mistake God as a doting father who overlooks every offence of his child.  He is not.  That is why the cross of Jesus Christ is such a roiling cauldron of chaos for Satan and the demon world.  Jesus Christ crucified is the lightning bolt of the Father that makes the entire world twitch in horror or in wonder.    The sins of the billions embedded within the dying body of the crucified King of Kings makes stones shatter in wonder and the universe come unglued in the end.   Are we so silly as to think God will only deal lightly with us when He comes upon us?

"As I looked, "thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.  His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool.  His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.  A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him.     Daniel 7:9-10 NIV