letting go

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Silent Witness

“Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ.” (Philippians 1:27 NLT)

This challenge from the Apostle Paul is a great reminder of our role as followers of Jesus. We are to live our lives as if we are already citizens of heaven. Matter of fact, positionally speaking, in Christ we are already in heaven, “we are now seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 1:6)

When I read the Philippians passage I am reminded of my responsibility to conduct myself as a yielded servant of Christ in my outward behavior. That produces what I like to call the silent witness. One of the highest compliments that I was ever given was when someone said, “There is something different about you. There is a presence that draws people to you.” I knew what that presence was, and it wasn’t my personality or a religious spirit, it was the presence of Christ.

This is a potential presence that every true follower of Christ possesses. It’s that presence that draws men and women to Christ. It’s a presence that causes unbelievers to want the peace we possess. We can’t manufacture that presence. There isn’t “5 Spiritual Steps to obtaining God’s Presence”, nor is it something that we earn by good works. Christ’s presence is only manifested as we learn to let go of our life and surrender the control of our life to Him. It happens when we practice trusting and resting in Christ as enough.

I desire to have that glow of God’s presence every moment of every day. But in reality, I know that it diminishes when I worry instead of trusting, or become fearful and stop trusting that God is in control. When I lose my temper and feel the need to set somebody straight, surely the glow fades.

God’s intention for us is to be so dependent upon Him that we willingly lay down our need to control and be in charge. Our life motto becomes, “Apart from Him I can do nothing.”(John 15). Our confidence moves from “I can do it on my own” to “with prayer and the leadership of the Spirit, in Christ I can do anything”.

Bottom Line

The Scripture tells us that “we are made complete in Him” (Colossians 2). That means when we commit to resting and trusting in the living Christ within, then we will manifest His presence and others will notice our Heavenly glow.

“For in Him we live and move and exist… (Acts 17:28)

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Subtle Dangers

“But Martha was distracted with all her preparations: and she came up to Him and said, “Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone?”…the Lord answered…only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part.” (Luke 10:38-42)

In our walk with God, there are always subtle dangers lurking in the shadows attempting to get us off track. More often than not, it’s the little things, that in itself might be good, but in the end rob us of “the main thing.”

We see an example of this in the story of Jesus’ visit to Bethany to have a meal with his friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Martha was busily serving the meal while Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet anointing his feet with expensive perfume. Martha approached Jesus and and said, “Master, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me?”

Luke’s account of this event says that “Martha was distracted with all her preparations” (Luke 10). It wasn’t that Martha was doing something wrong, she was performing her job as host by serving the meal to her honored guest. But in doing something good she missed a divine moment. She could have been sitting at Jesus feet with her sister. This opportunity never passed her way again, for in a few days Jesus would suffer the cross.

Jesus told Martha, “only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part.” Jesus was not scolding her for doing her job as hostess, but He was reminding her that doing things for God is not what’s most important. In her busyness to do something good, she missed a historic and divine moment of sitting at Jesus feet and learning of Him.

In this story we learn of a subtle danger facing most of us in our endeavor to walk with God. We let “doing things for God” replace our devotion to Him. God wants our total devotion, surrender and abandonment. He wants us to “risk it all” for Him. He doesn’t want us to hold back anything for ourselves. He wants our time, talents, attention and our resources. All those things were given to us by God in the first place. But He wants us to give it all back to him in surrender. It’s not that God needs anything, it’s us that needs to learn the value of not placing anything or anyone ahead of Christ in our devotion.

Bottom Line

Therefore, the normal Christian life is to be a radical life, one that includes absolute surrender and abandonment. Anything less and we are guilty of drawing on Him to simply satisfy ourselves.

When we gave our hearts to the Lord Jesus, we became a soldier of the cross. Soldiers are enlisted to do battle with the enemy, and our life is no longer our own. We are to be a living sacrifice, willing to pour out ourselves for the sake of the gospel.

So next time that you are compelled to “do something for God”, remember that He desires our devotion more than He wants our service. Thats because true service to God flows out of a life that is fully devoted and surrendered to intimacy with Christ.

Oswald Chambers says it best in his book My Utmost of His Highest,;

“ The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?”

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It is not about performance

“Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5)

One of the benefits of God’s grace is its ability, through the Cross, to deliver us from a law mentality. The law teaches us that “in order to “be” we must perform.” The law demands performance in order to measure up. The whole purpose of the law was to reveal our unrighteousness and our inability to perform enough good works to obtain any degree of righteousness, other than our own self-righteousness.

The whole religious system has always been based on a performance based mentality. The religious hierarchy, the ceremonial formality, and sometimes even the educational system feed the perpetuation of a system that teaches or implies that we must perform in order to measure up to some sort of religious standard. Religious rules are always about control and bondage.

This is not a new thing. Jesus encountered a religious system that fought his message of grace and it eventually put him to death. The disciples lost their lives preaching this same message of salvation by God’s grace.

Even though the religious system is still alive and thriving today, I am grateful for a few solid Bible preaching churches that exists to teach the message of God’s grace and Jesus’ provision for man’s salvation.

However, in spite of the good churches there are many believers who still live in bondage to the law. Even though they will quickly tell you they are saved by grace, they live as though they are still under the law. It’s the tendency of the flesh to mix law with grace. Ever since Cain’s attempt to appease God by his offering of vegetables from his garden, man has sought to add to what God has already provided through a blood sacrifice.

Paul gives a great example of this in Galatians 3. Some of the new believers were stumbling in their new found freedom by mixing law with grace. We read about some well-meaning men from Jerusalem who were attempting to persuade new believers that they must add Jewish ceremonial law to God’s grace. Paul says, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you…I want to find out from you, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”(Galatians 3:1-3 NAS)

Paul wanted to make it clear that salvation and God’s righteousness came by faith and God’s grace. They were made righteous by God’s gift not by any amount of works or law keeping. In other words, man is saved and kept by God’s grace and goodness, apart from any effort of works or law keeping.

Why is this important to know? The Christian life is not about working for God to gain His favor. It’s not about performance, but it’s about living your life in complete dependence on Him. Your Christian life began by putting your faith and trust in God’s provision for your salvation, and it is to be lived by placing your faith and trust in God’s provision to lead you every step of the way and in every season of your life.

The life of faith is about surrendering every aspect of your life to his control. As we abandon every area of our life to Him, the Holy Spirit will lead us in how to give our money, and how He wants us to serve Him. This same grace will also lead you through every major decision and crisis.

If you are trying to measure up to a set of religious rules or standards for God’s acceptance, then remember, you don’t have to “do things for God” to get his acceptance. Because you are in Christ, you are already accepted.

Then fully surrender every aspect of your life to His control and then listen for the Holy Spirit’s voice to lead you. It’s not about performance, but it’s about trusting and resting in His grace. Then, “HE -WILL- DO- IT –ALL- FOR -YOU.”

    “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him…for in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.” (Colossians 2 NAS)