11 Aug Badge (discovering that authority is the channel through which God’s power flows): Part 2
Last week we began our new series. Remember what we shared…Christians love to say, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” The only problem with that is the Bible doesn’t say that! “Now wait a minute Pastor Jim, you are supposed to be a diligent student of the Bible. The Bible does say that!” No, the Bible tells us in James 4:7, “Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Over the years this has been one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible!
With that in mind, please allow me to share with you the first one of our…
“6 Submit Standards”:
- There is a difference between submit and surrender (Mark 8:34-35).
I look at our hearts as I would a house. God wants us to give Him every room in our house. Have you ever had unexpected guests tell you they were about to “pop” in to your neighborhood and make a surprise visit? What do you do? You quickly yell at all the family and ask them to throw all the clutter in a back room, and then you shut the door to that room! When you give your guests a tour of the house, you certainly don’t allow them to go in “that back room.” Many times we do the same thing to our Lord!
When I was a single young believer in my twenties, I gave Jesus most of my “rooms.” One I held back was my “relationship” room. I still wanted to hold back from God my dating life. I was concerned that God was going to stick me with a spiritual but less than attractive woman. In my mind’s eye, I pictured “Paula Pentecostal who grew up in pickle juice” type! Please don’t mistake me, I dated only Christians but some of these “Christians” weren’t all they said they were. I simply did not have a revelation of how much God loved me and therefore I did not fully trust Him in this arena.
I wasn’t shaking my fist at God telling Him “You can’t come in this room,” but I was hardening the walls of my heart and giving plenty of resistance from inside the door to the room! Needless to say, this was the area that caused me to stumble over on a fairly frequent basis!
The Bible tells us, “He who seeks to save his life shall lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s, shall find it” (Matt. 16:25). In other words, whatever you hold onto for yourself, will end up a mess. Whatever you give to God will ultimately end up blessed! Give the “room” of your relationships to God! Give the “room” of your finances to God! Give the “room” of your attitude to God! Give the “room” of what you watch on your phone to God!
Have you ever seen the internet meme of Jesus with a little girl? In the picture Jesus is trying to gently coax a little teddy bear from this little girl with one arm, and behind his back in the other arm Jesus has a very big teddy bear. If she will just let go of the little teddy bear, Jesus is ready and waiting to give her this big teddy bear! Over 35 years of ministry I’ve learned that Jesus doesn’t show you the big teddy bear but simply encourages us to trust Him, and let go of our little teddy bear.
The reason so many of you struggle letting go is because you don’t truly have a revelation of how much God loves you!! When I finally submitted the “relational room” to God…He brought me Anne! Anne was my big teddy bear!Remember this: Always submit yourself to God, but never surrender to the devil!
Join us next week as we continue this series…