I remember having dream once of getting onto a bus with a lot of luggage. The journey was long and as I travelled to an unknown destination people were getting on and getting off, but I wasn’t allowed off.
I somehow knew that the driver was going to tell me when I had arrived at my destination. “Are we nearly there yet?” I also knew that this was a prophetic dream about the journey towards my destiny. Finally we stopped, and the driver stood up and signaled to me that it was now time. It was as if he was standing to congratulate me for enduring for so long. Amazingly when I got off the bus I had no more baggage. I started my journey with a lot of ‘stuff’ and now it had all been stripped away. Sounds quite spiritual doesn’t it?
As Christians we are running a race and in order to win the prize we need to strip off all that is weighing us down so we can finish well.
“In a race everyone runs, but only one person gets first prize. So run your race to win. To win the contest you must deny yourselves many things that would keep you from doing your best. An athlete goes to all this trouble just to win a blue ribbon or a silver cup, but we do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I fight to win. I’m not just shadow-boxing or playing around. Like an athlete I punish my body, treating it roughly, training it to do what it should, not what it wants to. Otherwise I fear that after enlisting others for the race, I myself might be declared unfit and ordered to stand aside.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
There is an unusual verse I want to share with you from Psalm 116:15
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints.”
Does this mean that when a Christian dies, God says ‘whoo hoo,’ another one bites the dust? Another one of my Saints is coming home? I don’t think that is what He is saying here. I believe it’s all to do with our dying to self and the stripping off those things that are hindering us in the race toward our destiny.
God’s ultimate plan is for us to glorify His Son and make Him number One in our lives here on earth and not us. John the Baptist said in John 3:30. “He must increase, I must decrease.” Jesus was to be number One and not John anymore. John had to fade into the background and Jesus’ ministry begin to flourish. The trouble is we think that if we decrease we are going to lose out, but that is far from the truth.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31 that ‘He died daily’. That didn’t mean that he was stoned every day and raised from the dead. He was saying that he died to self every day to fulfil the will of God.
We too, need to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand for He promises that He will not forsake us, but will raise us up and honour us. Jesus says that if you want to be a leader in His team you also need to serve, for the way up is down.
There is a Hillsong Chorus that I love, that says. “I love you, more than life.” The Lord would love us to come to that place where we too can say that we love Him more than life, even our own lives. He wants us to know how to die so that He will truly become our life. Psalm 24:2 says that God was the strength of David’s life and He wants us to discover that He too can be our life, our strength, our health and our everything as well.
As I stand before this congregation after a year away, I know that I am not the same person I was last year. That was ‘Hotter 2.1. ’Now I’m ‘Hotter 2.2’ - lol. I’m also expecting an upgrade any moment now to ‘Hotter 3.1’. God loves a spirit of expectancy, yearning in our lives. The Spirit has been dealing with me and pruning me over this last year, its not been easy but it’s all for my good and His glory.
I love getting upgrades for the graphic apps on my computer. Its fun to see what addition has been added to the software once I reboot. In my personal life my desire is to wake up and find I have a new upgrade, maybe a new miracles option released into my ministry.
When you have a major upgrade on your phone, they ask you to not turn it off or fiddle with anything while the upgrade is taking place. Leave your phone along and let it reboot on its own with no help from you. When you have a major hospital operation, you too are alone with the surgeon. You can’t have your wife and kids with you while things are taking place internally. A lot of the time God wants to reboot you and make major changes in your life, and you have to be alone with Him for however long it takes. Jacob had to be alone with God when he wrestled with the Angel through the night and it was there that he had a major upgrade from being Jacob to Israel (Prince with God).
Jesus said something interesting to His disciples at the well of Samaria. He said that He had food to eat that they knew nothing about. He later went on to say that, His food was to do the will of the Father. It was His lifestyle to only do that which He saw the Father doing. If the Father didn’t give Him the green light He didn’t do it. We as His followers need to learn how to do this too. Learn how to be led by the Spirit and not driven by other forces.
Since I was last here with you, I have been forced to stop and consider all that I have been doing in my ministry. I have felt not to look for preaching opportunities; in fact I turned one down that I would have usually jumped at. In a sense I have been shut down and slowly rebooted, learning to know what the Father really wants. The older I get, the more I can see how I’ve made so may decisions without really consulting God. A lot of what I have done is by ‘knee jerk’ reaction or the fear of man. The trouble is for many of us we are afraid to stop and ask God because we think He will make our lives miserable. The ultimate plan of God for us is far from that. He loves us dearly and only wants to bless us with His best.
There are times when God does prune us, but that is always so that we might bring forth more and more fruit. I have learnt that He really does want His best for us and if we listened and obeyed He will lead us in more pleasant paths than we have ever been in before.
It’s not a matter of gritting your teeth and trying harder to die, but of surrendering to His will, asking for the Spirit’s help and when we do this, He promises that even though we are dying to our will He will raise us up again to a better life. The cross has taught us that in every death there is a resurrection, because you have within you the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. The Spirit of Resurrection.
Look at Psalm 16:8-11. This psalm speaks of how God did not leave Jesus in Hell, He did not forsake Him and raised Him from the dead, and He will not forsake us either but bring us out of the dark and death like situations in our lives. The Father hadn’t forsaken His Son and He hasn’t forsaken us either. Jesus surrendered to the Father and trusted Him to get Him out, “Not my will but yours be done,” and the same promise is for us today. It may take longer than 3 days but He will come to our rescue.
As James say, let us submit first to the will of God and as we do when we resist the Devil He will flee from us.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7