Today I have a hard word to bring. The Lord said to me he’d like to shed His light on us so we can search ourselves. I’ve spent most of yesterday praying that the Lord will show us in what areas our attitudes are not in line with His will.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23, 24). Maybe today we could pray the same. Do we grieve the Holy Spirit?
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” (John 8:12). The key condition in this promise of Jesus is ‘whoever follows me’. Who do we follow? I’ve seen many churches in my lifetime copying other churches and all kinds of revival movements. I hear regularly from individuals who would admire other individuals and their ministry, i.e. lift them up. One often hears of so and so who is/was such a wonderful man of God. When certain pastors are invited to speak at a particular event, the speaker’s credentials are listed. Who do we follow? What would these individuals have been without Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s anointing? Why do we focus on the individuals and give praise to them? Pastors and leaders are there to train, guide and support us in our calling, but we should not admire or obey man. We should follow Jesus through the Holy Spirit in us, obeying Him on a daily basis and give Him all the glory. We have discussed the gift of discerning of spirits in a previous message. We should discern whether it is the Holy Spirit guiding us or is it men.
If you are a pastor or in leadership yourself, what is the motive behind your actions? Do the people get stirred up emotionally so we could say we had a wonderful service and you could grow in popularity? Do you compromise the Word of God so you could preach what the people would like to hear, or do you preach truth, conviction, obedience and life? “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths,” (2 Timothy 4:3, 4). It’s so easy to fall for the temptation to please people, for pastors are dependent on their tithes and offerings.
When you think of yourself - as pastor, a leader or just a Christian - are you pleased with yourself and what you’ve accomplished and do you enjoy the attention of people, or do you pass praise on to the Lord? Are we looking at the world, seeing the need for Jesus and make every effort to bring the light of Jesus to them, sacrificing ourselves in the process, or do we live self-indulgent lives, justifying ourselves that we deserve the comfort.
We can go on and on, getting to issues such as the rich who will have difficulty to enter heaven etc. but I’ll leave it here. Allow the light of Jesus to show you your attitude and your level of obedience, for “the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few,” (Matthew 9:37), and “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven,” (Matthew 7:21).
Lord, please break through my self-righteousness and show me who I am.
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