Dethroning the Self

Dear Church,

Where to begin, there is so much on my mind. I have never actually sat down to write like this before. But I feel compelled to do so as the longing in my heart is to see the Body of Christ (His church) become more than it could ever hope to be without Him.

The reason I write now and break my own silence is due to one emotion alone, that of love. I have been reading the Acts of the Apostles in my time with the Father during these last quarantine months. I have been searching to understand what God did in the hearts of His inner circle of 12 that lit the flames of the early church to engage a world with love itself. The reality hit me: all the early Saints were coming into contact with the presence of Christ, not just the apostles. There was no Sunday morning worship experience and there was no coffee. Fact is, there was only prayer, fasting, discipleship, and worship. That was all there was. Whenever I read Acts I am always amazed at how fiercely the church multiplied from the moment of Pentecost onward. God did that. It was not Paul. It was not Peter. These men were mere vessels. It was the power of the Holy Spirit making His home and His presence known in the hearts of His people who loved Him deeply.

This is what we desire as the Body of Christ. If you know Jesus and love Him, your desire should prayerfully be this very unity the early church experienced at Pentecost. Sometimes, I imagine and dream about what it would have been like to be present in those early days. No earthly experience can compare to the move of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of His people. He loves to show off and He loves His people. Most importantly, He desperately desires the souls and the very heart of every man, woman, and child on this earth.

How beautiful it is to be able to hold on to this very hope itself of redemption. God desires to once again light the flames in the hearts of His people so His church will explode into multiplied love for the world.

Today, I believe the state of our heart, soul, and mind as a body of Christ is seriously lacking the substance and filling of the Holy Spirit Himself. This might be a hard statement to swallow because many of my brothers and sisters will disagree. Many will say they know Christ and have walked with Him for so many years. My concern to the brethren is if we were walking with the purely Holy Christ Himself, why does the unbelieving world not see it? Why has there been such a deterioration in the desire to be a part of His church? We are to be His workmanship created in His image and we are to bear His likeness for the broken world around us.

It is clear (in Western society specifically) the culture we live in has no regard for the saint of Jesus Christ. Perhaps, this is not an issue of believer versus non-believer. Perhaps, it is an issue starting first with the heart, mind, and soul of His very own people. Is there something our Father wants to tell His children?

I offer this thought to shed some light on how we are lacking in the richness of Christ compared to the early church. We know the early church came into contact with a love so fierce it compelled them to donate all they owned so their brethren had no need. We know the early church dedicated themselves to the breaking of bread together in their own homes. We know the early church provided for the apostles in their ministry. We know the early church multiplied with the message of Christ’s pure love because they knew Him intimately. The key ingredient here is not that they only knew Christ, but they listened, obeyed, and fell in love with the very presence of Christ Himself. This is what lit the flame and provided the healing power to a dying and broken world.

The present state of affairs in the church today is not one that utterly convinces the world (or me) we are united in our cause to usher in the love of Christ to a dying and broken culture. No, I believe we are still far from where we need to be in the West for the Lord to work. The problem is not only sin that continues to fester and remain unchallenged in our churches. The root of the issue itself is our obsession with continually allowing our SELF to remain enthroned above Christ in our hearts.

Remember, the moment of our salvation, Christ tells us we are given new life because our old self passed away and truly all has become new. Many of His children are still holding on to that old portion of self. You know why I say this?

• If we truly were free of our self we would not speak so highly of our politics at the dinner table above our deep love of Scripture and Kingdom come. Our political party would not be intertwined with our current reading of Scripture. We would allow Scripture to interpret our approach to the current cultural climate instead of aligning our Scripture with that of pure political party.
• If we truly were free of our self, we would have compassion on any people group that is oppressed in our society and we would listen without jumping to our own opinion. We are to foremost listen with our hearts so our life can become the feet Jesus needs to overcome the oppression through His people.
• If we were free of our self, we would be less focused on making our house or our church building larger at the expense of potentially losing members by conducting deep and tough discipleship within the church walls. We would instead be focused on building up people so they would actually be sent out as disciples like Christ commands. This means we would be willing to confront sin head on and so purge evil from the midst of our hearts and church walls.
• If we were free of our self, we would not be allowing sexual abuse to go unchecked in our houses of worship.
• If we were free of our self, grace would overflow from the church to a dying world. There would no longer be so much condemnation and judgment from his own people.
• If we were free of SELF, families would be reconciled to one another who know Jesus Christ. I have seen so many families who claim to know the reconciliation power of Jesus but legitimately have not talked to their daughter, son, father, mother, aunt, uncle, in years. There is a lot of harbored unforgivenss and judgment that plagues the hearts of His Saints right now.
• If we were free of our self, we would not be hating the person who disagrees with us, especially if they are an unbeliever. We must be gracious and seasoned with salt in our speech towards our society. This means our heart would love people instead of blasting them for disagreeing with righteousness. Why should it even be surprising to His children the world may disagree with truth or righteousness?
• If we were free of our self, our social media accounts would not be used to post our opinion on cultural issue first rather than Christ’s implanted Word.
• If we were free of self, we would be supporting Christ’s vision to redeem culture and not our own vision of how to accomplish that redemption in any form that stems from the foolish wisdom of man.

This is the state of many in the body right now. We have lived in a society for so long that we have become accustomed to our “freedom” to worship and live our life the way we choose. While this is a natural human right ordained from above, the saint is never allowed to live as He wants. No, the saint of Jesus Christ is called to pursue Christ and operate our life in obedience to His leading. We are not letting Him lead us in many area’s of our life, plain and simple. Until we choose to let Him lead our mind, heart, body, soul, and spirit we will continue to lose the battle with darkness. We must humble ourselves enough to receive the whole counsel of the Lord. The time to no longer ignore portions of His counsel is right now. 

The good news is God wants His children to win for Him. The good news is God wants to use us. The good news is that Christ is so deeply loving of His creation that He will put up with us. But we are never taught by Jesus to test the boundaries of His love. I fear in the last 200 some odd years we have been testing those boundaries. God does not put up with sin and He especially does not put up with it in the ordained holiest structure He ever created, His Church Body.

Beloved, we are being ushered into church history as I write this. With our world in such pain and turmoil right now, it is primed for an awakening. Our world is desperate for love to flood in and overtake the darkness in a way we can not even possibly begin to comprehend. We are moving out of the shadow of His presence and into the reality of His holy love. His love is both discipline for His church and strength for His people. Whether we choose to agree with it or not, we are moving into Christ’s will for His presence to be revealed to a dying and broken world. God will move His church in the direction He so desires.

It is time for us to no longer live in the shadow of His presence taking comfort in the pride of all that society has to offer our SELF. For too long, we have allowed pleasures of this world to keep us from stepping out of the shadows and into His glorious light. I tell you I have yet to experience the fulness of His majesty myself. But I do not want to get caught stagnant.

I am moving and I will continue to move. He has shown me too much to keep me from believing the lie He could not be as grand as He claims to be. Our King is grand, majestic, and fierce. He is the force we, or the powers of darkness, could dare ever pray there is no reckoning with. We are so ready for Him to come in and rescue us from all the evil persecution but we are not ready for Him to rescue us from the pleasures of this fleeting life itself.

There is something far more greater than the evil of this present world that we must always reckon with: Christ Himself. It is sweet to be loved by Him. Biblical history also tells us it is fearful to let God choose to allow us heartache in order to banish any portion of self so we can finally enter His sweet presence. He loves us as His church and He wants us desperately to perform His works in and for this world. But we must let go. Let go of us. Let go of our thoughts and desires. Let go of our politics. Let go of our money. Let go of our jobs. Let go of our house. Let go of all that even remotely seeks to place itself first in any part of our life before Christ. He wants us to live in reckless abandon to ourselves so He can usher in Himself.

We must reconcile with Him and be freely repentant of all sin so the Holy Spirit of Christ can work in the hearts of His children.Only until we make our greatest pursuit in life to know Him and the power of His resurrection will we be ready to be fully used by Him.

This is the call for the church. We must dethrone any portion of SELF and we must let Him move us with His throne. We can no longer allow ourselves to live in the shadows and deny that His all powerful presence demands Holiness and righteous living for those who have received the new life. Love is here and it is ready for us. Are we truly ready for it? I want it.

If you will stick with me on this journey, I will continue to post what the Lord reveals to me and places on my heart. This was just the start of what He placed on me to say. I want to obey and speak it out because I know He has something for me to learn and for His church to hear. I believe as He speaks and as we align with His heart, the world will begin to transform. God will reclaim what the enemy has so cunningly stolen in our churches. The strongholds will burn and the walls will break down.

The church of Christ can once again become a refuge of love that selflessly carries this world into His presence, whatever the cost.