The Exceeding Great Reward
The fear of man is a snare, because it is a tool of satan to steal the reward for obedience to God. This is because satan knows that if he can set your expectations wrongly, he can put you in a place where obeying God results in offensive things happening to you, you will burn out, and quit. If you are looking for the wrong reward, you will be very disappointed and unsatisfied serving God. Truly, the only thing satan really wants is his own kingdom and you growing in love and obedience to Jesus is the only thing that can hinder satan's attempt to keep his stolen kingdom. This is because mankind was given dominion on the earth:
Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Humans have been given the assignment of governing the earth in partnership with God. The mandate of mankind was to extend the government of God over all of creation forever...to fill it with a never ending experience of the glory of God by speaking words of authority over creation.
When Adam first learned of his assignment, I am sure he was shocked...maybe he didn't really even get it. God had him start small. Adams first role in governing the earth was naming the animals. If you name an animal, it's your animal. Having authority over everything...things Adam hadn't even seen yet, would certainly be hard to fathom!
I can see this whole conversation between Adam and the Father going down:
God: Adam, the earth is yours to subdue and fill... have dominion over it my son.
Adam: um...God, how big is this place? I mean, what do you mean "subdue" it. Have you seen the super big animal with the little arms and big teeth?
God: Yes, Adam. I am bigger than that one...they are all mine, and I give them into your hands. I have chosen you to rule over even that one. Use your authority to subdue it. Speak over it in agreement with me. It will honor my authority...the question is, will you?
Adam: ok, God. You need to show me how to do this.
God was not planning on doing Adam's stuff for Adam, He intended Adam do everything WITH God, that the relationship would grow forever. The reward for Adam's work was partnering with God. Knowing Adam was what God wanted.
God has given such great dignity to mankind. He was planning to never leave Adam by the connection of Adam and God through the Holy Spirit, but God was always intent on letting mankind do the mankind stuff for real, not pretending we were doing it while He was, and not taking it and running with it..divorcing God from our activity on earth. Relationship IS the point.
The subduing and filling the earth part is something God won't do for us. He knew it would be best for Adam to have other people in it with Him, so as Adam started to figure out how to do this "dominion" thing, he also was showing Adam the great dignity selected for people. People are not animals. To show Adam all of this, God had Adam start out naming the animals:
Genesis 2:18-20 And the Lord God said, “ It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
The reward of an animal for living is the filling of their appetites. The lion hunts down a meal, and the reward is a full stomach. But mankind was not supposed to draw a reward from our appetites...our reward was always supposed to be higher than the filling of our appetite...it was always supposed to be the soaring of our Spirit and the filling of our hearts with the smile of God.
God rewarded Adam and Eve at the end of their work, in the cool of the day, by visiting with them so He could tell them how pleased he was with their work. Their appetites were guaranteed to be filled, all the trees but one were more than enough, they could eat and enjoy food freely...work was for pleasure, and it was their heart that God wanted to fill as they partnered with Him in sharing creative and governmental work. God has always wanted to build something WITH us:
Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden
The cost for rebelling against the governmental partnership with God was a new, and much worse, government...one of lack and toil. Satan simply doesn't have the capacity to make the garden grow, and neither does man.
Adam and Eve were simply given what they wanted: a glimpse at life apart from the abundant power of God to produce life. From the day of the fall until the restoration of all things, mankind apart from God would be tasked with trying to simply stay alive...even the most basic task...keeping themselves fed and reproducing...would now be a huge labor:
Genesis 3:16-19 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
The point is: the government of the earth was given to mankind and would never be withdrawn. Because of the great dignity given to mankind as sons and daughters of God, God will not do our part and we cannot do His. God looks for a man to agree with God about how to go about re-establishing God's government on earth. If God doesn't find a man to intercede with God's words on earth, then he let's the earth get the death it wants:
Ezekiel 22:29-31 The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God .
Satan looks for mankind to agree with him, as well. Satan cannot exert his influence into the world apart from mankind. God will not and satan cannot, and mankind gets a free choice of whom they will choose to agree with. That choice comes with rewards.
It is important to understand the way this works, because satan is continually trying to corrupt the work of the Lord on the earth by tempting mankind with false rewards, and then accusing mankind when they choose to fall for the temptation. Many believers do the agreement with God stuff, but then fall for the false rewards for that very work! This is a temptation of satan designed to get those believers to quit.
The true reward for living in agreement with God is the relationship with God growing. God recognizing us...telling us who we are to Him. this will satisfy your heart forever, but it requires investment in the relationship. God is the only one who gets more and more interesting over time. He never runs out of new things to say. Satan desperately tries to interrupt this conversation between me and God, because the more God tells me, the more lovesick and committed I become.
One of the main tools satan uses is the false reward of recognition by other people. This is fear of man, or "fear of man's opinion." Satan continually tempts people with the desire to be recognized by others for the work we do for God. This is a blatant corruption of the design God has for mankind, that we would build stuff with Him, not for Him.
The tower of Babel was so offensive to God, because it was the first organized attempt to "steal the vineyard" from God. At Babel, the people decided to build not with God, and not even for God, but for the sake of themselves:
Genesis 11:3-7 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Because God has given such great dignity to man's role in the earth, He will not stop them from getting what they want. But, because Babel's intention was so evil, God restrained it...He paused it by confusing the language. Eventually, the earth will have to deal with the Spirit of Babel "unrestrained"...we live in that hour.
The desire of Babylon or Babel, is to have the garden, but not the God of the garden. The end time Harlot Babylon wants all the benefits of being the spouse, without the commitment to one man. Her reward for governing and building is the recognition of the people. She builds for herself.
The church, in many ways, is being pulled into this same reality. The popularity of church leaders tied to instant and prolific communication is great for spreading the Gospel and terrible for falsely feeding my heart with dreams of being important before men. The church now offers something only Hollywood used to: a public platform to be noticed and important in the eyes of other people.
When I do stuff for God, and look for the reward from people, I am actually agreeing with the harlot mentality. When I long for people to recognize what I am doing in the kingdom, I am actually "giving away" a right that only belongs to God. This is unfaithful, but it drives MANY in the church. This is seldom talked about, but it is one of the greatest snares keeping the earth from experiencing what all creation is groaning for: the people of God to become the sons of God who work only for the smile of their Father:
Romans 8:12-22 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
All of creation is groaning for the generation that will rise up as sons of the most high Father and will refuse to be corrupted by the fallen promises of satan using the fear of man to interrupt the locked gaze with the Father. There is promised a pure and spotless Bride, one who finds her entire identity in the gaze of her beloved...who doesn't give herself away to the groomsmen...one who refuses to let anyone tell her who she is but the one she belongs to.
Babel is being unleashed... unrestrained in this hour. Daniel was told that God would allow the break up of communication sent on Babel to be rejoined when "knowledge increased":
Daniel 12:4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
Paul said when this happened, the restraint of the interruption of communication would be lifted. This is happening in our day because of the internet.
The Holy Spirit is allowing what He paused in Genesis 11 to restart, by allowing the communication to flow again. This "lifting of restraint" is allowing the world to get what it really wants, good and bad. What MANY want is a great life in the garden, without the God who owns it. This is lawless, but it will be allowed and when it is, the antichrist will blossom:
II Thessalonians 2:6-11 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
MANY Christians will be pulled into this lawlessness. They already are at every level: local, nationally, and globally. These ones who allow a corrupted goal to fill their eyes will do the stuff FOR Jesus and will desire the recognition of other people. This will fill the parts of the body they touch with darkness:
Matthew 6:22-23 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
We have to carefully guard our goal...what is filling our eyes. Jesus doesn't want us to build stuff for Him. Jesus wants us to build stuff with Him and for knowing Him to be our reward for doing the stuff. Anything less will be agreement with the antichrist:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
The only safe mode of living in the end times is to make God your source of strength, and your reward for obedience. If God is your source and your reward, you heart is removed from the corruption of satan and his agents...people who have bought into satan's false reward system.
Fidelity to Jesus is safety in the end times. Seeking the approval, praise, establishment, or recognition from other people is wildly dangerous in the end times. It must be dealt with now. Jesus' body is not a top-down organization. It is a bottom up organization. The greatest serve in the lowest ways:
Mark 9:35 And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
The organization of God's kingdom is designed to allow the free flow of gifts from the Father to the children. Satan tries to corrupt it to make the children look to each other, beholden to each other, for the gifts. This is corruption.
The other children don't have what you need. The father does. Agreeing with this is agreement with truth. That is what Jesus did, and He earned the greatest reward a man can get:
Philippians 2:3-11 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges ; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is how God's organization works because this reflects the truth: God is the only one who can satisfy my heart with the right rewards.
Created satan isn't capable of satisfying his stolen kingdom, and mankind can never satisfy mankind. My heart was made to be eternal... to exist forever. That means my heart needs an eternal source of satisfaction. No created being has the infinite capacity to satisfy my heart with information, insight, encouragement, or love. There is only one eternal well of knowledge beauty, and love, and He longs to satisfy the heart HE designed:
Psalms 33:13-15 The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.
If you make the conversation with God the reward for working with your eternal Father, no scheme of the enemy can touch you. This is how Jesus is going to get a pure and spotless Bride!
Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
II Peter 1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Humans have been given the assignment of governing the earth in partnership with God. The mandate of mankind was to extend the government of God over all of creation forever...to fill it with a never ending experience of the glory of God by speaking words of authority over creation.
When Adam first learned of his assignment, I am sure he was shocked...maybe he didn't really even get it. God had him start small. Adams first role in governing the earth was naming the animals. If you name an animal, it's your animal. Having authority over everything...things Adam hadn't even seen yet, would certainly be hard to fathom!
I can see this whole conversation between Adam and the Father going down:
God: Adam, the earth is yours to subdue and fill... have dominion over it my son.
Adam: um...God, how big is this place? I mean, what do you mean "subdue" it. Have you seen the super big animal with the little arms and big teeth?
God: Yes, Adam. I am bigger than that one...they are all mine, and I give them into your hands. I have chosen you to rule over even that one. Use your authority to subdue it. Speak over it in agreement with me. It will honor my authority...the question is, will you?
Adam: ok, God. You need to show me how to do this.
God was not planning on doing Adam's stuff for Adam, He intended Adam do everything WITH God, that the relationship would grow forever. The reward for Adam's work was partnering with God. Knowing Adam was what God wanted.
God has given such great dignity to mankind. He was planning to never leave Adam by the connection of Adam and God through the Holy Spirit, but God was always intent on letting mankind do the mankind stuff for real, not pretending we were doing it while He was, and not taking it and running with it..divorcing God from our activity on earth. Relationship IS the point.
The subduing and filling the earth part is something God won't do for us. He knew it would be best for Adam to have other people in it with Him, so as Adam started to figure out how to do this "dominion" thing, he also was showing Adam the great dignity selected for people. People are not animals. To show Adam all of this, God had Adam start out naming the animals:
Genesis 2:18-20 And the Lord God said, “ It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
The reward of an animal for living is the filling of their appetites. The lion hunts down a meal, and the reward is a full stomach. But mankind was not supposed to draw a reward from our appetites...our reward was always supposed to be higher than the filling of our appetite...it was always supposed to be the soaring of our Spirit and the filling of our hearts with the smile of God.
God rewarded Adam and Eve at the end of their work, in the cool of the day, by visiting with them so He could tell them how pleased he was with their work. Their appetites were guaranteed to be filled, all the trees but one were more than enough, they could eat and enjoy food freely...work was for pleasure, and it was their heart that God wanted to fill as they partnered with Him in sharing creative and governmental work. God has always wanted to build something WITH us:
Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden
The cost for rebelling against the governmental partnership with God was a new, and much worse, government...one of lack and toil. Satan simply doesn't have the capacity to make the garden grow, and neither does man.
Adam and Eve were simply given what they wanted: a glimpse at life apart from the abundant power of God to produce life. From the day of the fall until the restoration of all things, mankind apart from God would be tasked with trying to simply stay alive...even the most basic task...keeping themselves fed and reproducing...would now be a huge labor:
Genesis 3:16-19 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
The point is: the government of the earth was given to mankind and would never be withdrawn. Because of the great dignity given to mankind as sons and daughters of God, God will not do our part and we cannot do His. God looks for a man to agree with God about how to go about re-establishing God's government on earth. If God doesn't find a man to intercede with God's words on earth, then he let's the earth get the death it wants:
Ezekiel 22:29-31 The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God .
Satan looks for mankind to agree with him, as well. Satan cannot exert his influence into the world apart from mankind. God will not and satan cannot, and mankind gets a free choice of whom they will choose to agree with. That choice comes with rewards.
It is important to understand the way this works, because satan is continually trying to corrupt the work of the Lord on the earth by tempting mankind with false rewards, and then accusing mankind when they choose to fall for the temptation. Many believers do the agreement with God stuff, but then fall for the false rewards for that very work! This is a temptation of satan designed to get those believers to quit.
The true reward for living in agreement with God is the relationship with God growing. God recognizing us...telling us who we are to Him. this will satisfy your heart forever, but it requires investment in the relationship. God is the only one who gets more and more interesting over time. He never runs out of new things to say. Satan desperately tries to interrupt this conversation between me and God, because the more God tells me, the more lovesick and committed I become.
One of the main tools satan uses is the false reward of recognition by other people. This is fear of man, or "fear of man's opinion." Satan continually tempts people with the desire to be recognized by others for the work we do for God. This is a blatant corruption of the design God has for mankind, that we would build stuff with Him, not for Him.
The tower of Babel was so offensive to God, because it was the first organized attempt to "steal the vineyard" from God. At Babel, the people decided to build not with God, and not even for God, but for the sake of themselves:
Genesis 11:3-7 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Because God has given such great dignity to man's role in the earth, He will not stop them from getting what they want. But, because Babel's intention was so evil, God restrained it...He paused it by confusing the language. Eventually, the earth will have to deal with the Spirit of Babel "unrestrained"...we live in that hour.
The desire of Babylon or Babel, is to have the garden, but not the God of the garden. The end time Harlot Babylon wants all the benefits of being the spouse, without the commitment to one man. Her reward for governing and building is the recognition of the people. She builds for herself.
The church, in many ways, is being pulled into this same reality. The popularity of church leaders tied to instant and prolific communication is great for spreading the Gospel and terrible for falsely feeding my heart with dreams of being important before men. The church now offers something only Hollywood used to: a public platform to be noticed and important in the eyes of other people.
When I do stuff for God, and look for the reward from people, I am actually agreeing with the harlot mentality. When I long for people to recognize what I am doing in the kingdom, I am actually "giving away" a right that only belongs to God. This is unfaithful, but it drives MANY in the church. This is seldom talked about, but it is one of the greatest snares keeping the earth from experiencing what all creation is groaning for: the people of God to become the sons of God who work only for the smile of their Father:
Romans 8:12-22 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
All of creation is groaning for the generation that will rise up as sons of the most high Father and will refuse to be corrupted by the fallen promises of satan using the fear of man to interrupt the locked gaze with the Father. There is promised a pure and spotless Bride, one who finds her entire identity in the gaze of her beloved...who doesn't give herself away to the groomsmen...one who refuses to let anyone tell her who she is but the one she belongs to.
Babel is being unleashed... unrestrained in this hour. Daniel was told that God would allow the break up of communication sent on Babel to be rejoined when "knowledge increased":
Daniel 12:4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
Paul said when this happened, the restraint of the interruption of communication would be lifted. This is happening in our day because of the internet.
The Holy Spirit is allowing what He paused in Genesis 11 to restart, by allowing the communication to flow again. This "lifting of restraint" is allowing the world to get what it really wants, good and bad. What MANY want is a great life in the garden, without the God who owns it. This is lawless, but it will be allowed and when it is, the antichrist will blossom:
II Thessalonians 2:6-11 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
MANY Christians will be pulled into this lawlessness. They already are at every level: local, nationally, and globally. These ones who allow a corrupted goal to fill their eyes will do the stuff FOR Jesus and will desire the recognition of other people. This will fill the parts of the body they touch with darkness:
Matthew 6:22-23 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
We have to carefully guard our goal...what is filling our eyes. Jesus doesn't want us to build stuff for Him. Jesus wants us to build stuff with Him and for knowing Him to be our reward for doing the stuff. Anything less will be agreement with the antichrist:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
The only safe mode of living in the end times is to make God your source of strength, and your reward for obedience. If God is your source and your reward, you heart is removed from the corruption of satan and his agents...people who have bought into satan's false reward system.
Fidelity to Jesus is safety in the end times. Seeking the approval, praise, establishment, or recognition from other people is wildly dangerous in the end times. It must be dealt with now. Jesus' body is not a top-down organization. It is a bottom up organization. The greatest serve in the lowest ways:
Mark 9:35 And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
The organization of God's kingdom is designed to allow the free flow of gifts from the Father to the children. Satan tries to corrupt it to make the children look to each other, beholden to each other, for the gifts. This is corruption.
The other children don't have what you need. The father does. Agreeing with this is agreement with truth. That is what Jesus did, and He earned the greatest reward a man can get:
Philippians 2:3-11 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges ; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is how God's organization works because this reflects the truth: God is the only one who can satisfy my heart with the right rewards.
Created satan isn't capable of satisfying his stolen kingdom, and mankind can never satisfy mankind. My heart was made to be eternal... to exist forever. That means my heart needs an eternal source of satisfaction. No created being has the infinite capacity to satisfy my heart with information, insight, encouragement, or love. There is only one eternal well of knowledge beauty, and love, and He longs to satisfy the heart HE designed:
Psalms 33:13-15 The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.
If you make the conversation with God the reward for working with your eternal Father, no scheme of the enemy can touch you. This is how Jesus is going to get a pure and spotless Bride!
Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
II Peter 1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Comments
Post a Comment
I appreciate your comments.