Enjoying God - Week #8

CHAPTER SIX (second half) – "LOVE-EMPOWERED HOLINESS"

The longer I live and walk with God, the more I understand how impossible it is to love Him in the flesh. Wholehearted love for God is only possible by the power and grace of His Spirit. The pursuit of wholeheartedness is ongoing and requires focus and intentionality – this doesn’t come naturally to us, and the enemy of our soul will fight this every inch of the way because he knows well how dangerous lovesick followers of Jesus are to his agenda. Even though such followers are weak, they can’t be manipulated nor intimidated by the world and the flesh and the devil.

So once again the issue of getting spiritual understanding of God’s enjoyment of me is imperative since I will never enjoy or love Him rightly without first knowing that He loves and enjoys me. Grasping His true nature and heart towards me is necessary for confidence to grow.

The second half of this chapter on love-empowered holiness continues the theme of desire for love and pleasure. The author addresses the matter of giving up all for the sake of the Kingdom of God, saying that this is the outcome of having caught a glimpse of the value of the Treasure, Jesus (Matt. 13 parable about giving all one has to buy a field in order to have the treasure discovered there). Discovering the beauty and attractiveness of the Lord will empower us to do things we could never do by sheer willpower and things that we never thought we’d be able to do. Hill gives the examples of Hudson Taylor, Mary of Bethany, Jim Elliot, etc., as people who gave all because they saw something (the ravished heart of Jesus) that empowered their hearts to give all for His sake.

I believe that the evil one knows what most empowers the human heart to give all, and for that reason one of his greatest strategies is to keep the believer in the dark about the nature of God and His emotional heart towards His children.

AFFECTION-BASED OBEDIENCE

“The more we enjoy Him, the easier it will be to obey Him. Obedience that is born out of the revelation of His deep affections for us always produces the strongest commitment.”

I recently heard a preacher say, “A heart won in tenderness is held in the tightest grip imaginable, and in the dark hour it won’t give way.”

The enemy’s desire is to make you fear that God will reject you, and the fear of judgment causes us to guard our hearts before Him rather than freely be who we are in His presence. “Loving and worshipping the Father without a guarded heart is vital for spiritual growth.” As long as we shrink before Him, love and affection for Him won’t flower. It’s like being in the presence of someone who you know doesn’t especially like you or is disappointed in you – none of us enjoys that very much and will avoid being with someone like that. If we feel that God looks at us that way, we will avoid being with Him as much as we can. Even in our prayer times with Him, we can dodge His look at us with religious ways of having our devotional time.

THE POWER OF GRACE

“…many of us try to serve Him solely on the basis of the strength of our wills…Legalism teaches us that our commitment to God motivates Him to be committed to us…the grace of God teaches us that His commitment to us is what enables us to be committed to Him. It’s the romance of the Gospel and the Father’s commitment to us that release us from religious pride and legalism.”

The author quotes from the book "Ministering to the Lord" by Roxanne Brandt, and I recommend that book to you as a great little book about true ministry to God. She writes: “How wrong the Church has been to teach new Christians that we are saved to serve God. No…We are saved primarily because He wants us for Himself…God isn’t in the business of saving people because He needs servants to win the world for Christ, or because He might lose the battle against the devil…The Bible never once tells us to do anything for God. It tells us that in His love and grace, God chose to involve us in what He is doing…”

God does the work and we get to be alongside Him in it! He has chosen not to do His work without human companionship. I love that!...and just this morning was asking Him to let me partner with Him in bringing about a particular reality in my little world. This is what prayer is about – partnering with Him in what He already wants to do but won’t do without a human partner alongside Him. This takes the strain out of work and ministry, because we aren’t called to make anything happen; rather, we are called to join Him and say yes to what He wants to do and simply obey anything He may ask of us along the way. When He has our agreement with Him, then He accomplishes the impossible and we get to enjoy it with Him! Isaiah 9:7 says, “The zeal of the Lord will accomplish it.”

So the slave mentality is replaced with a marriage mentality in which we belong to Him and gladly yield to His ways out of desire and love. “The radical call to holiness is really an invitation to let the beauty and sweetness of Jesus so fill our hearts and minds that the seductive pleasures of sin will be swallowed up in the holy satisfaction of His presence.”

CAPTURED BY A SWEETER SOUND

Hill finishes this chapter telling of the story of Ulysses in Greek mythology. He went to the city of Troy to rescue Helen, the wife of King Menelaus, who had been stolen from the king. The rescue of Helen was ingenious (you know the story), but it was the trip back to Greece and to the king that proved the most difficult part of the rescue. Part of that trip included having to pass by the island inhabited by the infamous Sirens whose outward beauty and seductive songs were irresistible to countless unwitting sailors who had passed that way. Once lured close to the shore, the boats would crash on hidden rocks, and the demonic cannibals (Sirens) could then savagely consume their flesh.

Ulysses had heard much about the Sirens and the destruction of many sailors. He ordered his men to put wax in their ears and to look straight ahead and row for their lives. As for himself, he ordered his men to strap him to the mast of the ship but to leave his ears unplugged because he was curious to hear their songs. It turned out that he was totally seduced by their songs and except for the ropes that tied him down, he would have easily succumbed to their invitation. “Although his hands were restrained, his heart was captivated by their beauty. Inwardly he said Yes…His No was not the fruit of spontaneous revulsion but the product of an external shackle.”

Another mythological character, Jason, faced the same journey, but he used a different solution. He took with him Orpheus, who was a musician of “incomparable talent.” When they were about to pass the island of the Sirens, Jason did not plug the ears of his crew nor tie himself down but ordered Orpheus to play his most beautiful and alluring songs…Jason and his men were not at all inclined to succumb because they were captured by a transcendent sound, music that was of a different order altogether!

The author closes the chapter with this line: “You must allow the sweeter sound of Jesus to capture your heart so you can say no to the seductive sounds of this world.”

Holy Spirit of Jesus, open my ears to the music of heaven and God’s passionate heart for me so that I am increasingly empowered to say no to the seductive voices that seek to lure me away from true holiness which is based in intimate relationship with God, receiving and giving love freely from and to my First Love. Thank You that You are delighted to do this!

(Next week we will cover the first part of the last chapter(up to page 132), Persevering in our Quest for Intimacy. The blessing and grace of the Lord Jesus rest on you this week!)