WBS.036
FUNDAMENTALS OF
DISCIPLESHIP
A KINGDOM HEART - VI
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.
Romans 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of Elohim, but not according to knowledge.
The Apostle Paul (Shaul) was speaking of the Israelites, his fellow Hebrews, who were zealous for Elohim, but not in a way that profited them. Zeal without knowledge is akin to gunpowder being strewn on a floor and lit with a match. It spews and sparkles and hisses; but it has no real power or effectiveness. Put that same gunpowder in a tightly wrapped container and light it and it will explode with much power. That is what zeal WITH knowledge produces.
There can be found many with zeal in the contemporary Christian church; but so very few are zealous with knowledge. Much of their zeal is nothing more than emotion that is easily and routinely manipulated by clever teachers and preachers; but what does it produce? Absolutely nothing. It does not change their self-centered lives to humble obedience to the Master. Their zeal does not profit them.
Much of what is regarded as zeal, today, is nothing more than dedicated self-interest. A pursuit of spiritual things is often simply a pursuit of what will make one’s own life better and more enjoyable in this present evil age. The masses go to conferences and revivals hoping that they will hear just that one thing more that somehow will make their life easier. Just watch the enthusiasm ignite when a preacher begins telling his audience that Elohim wants them to be prosperous and to live as kings in the earth. Hands are thrust upwards, words of praise are shouted to Elohim; and then they walk out no different than they were when they came in to the auditorium. They do not love Elohim more. They are not going to prosper in their lives one bit more; and their hunger for that next message that will make their life easier remains intact.
Read the New Testament Scriptures. You will find early on that a rich man is told to sell all that he has, give the proceeds to the poor and come follow the Master. That rich man could not do it. The message never got easier to any who would follow the Master; and there are no rich believers recorded in the book of Acts. If Messiah’s objective was to enrich us physically and make our lives in this world easier and more pleasurable, you would at least expect to find someone in the history of the church’s growth in the book of Acts that had arrived at such a prosperous state. Instead, you find believers regularly being persecuted for their faith in the Master; and seemingly no one’s life was made easier. Their lives were simply made joyful through their hardship.
Remember from prior postings that one of the primary hindrances to our walk in the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yahushua is wrong thinking. The mind set on the flesh is at war with IAUE. Correct thinking, correct knowledge, is what combines with zeal to profit the believer; and when I say “profit,” I mean that which will enhance our walk in the Spirit and guide us safely into the arms of the Father.
Self-centered living is what was supposed to be forsaken when we bowed our knees to the authority of Messiah. It is what was supposed to have been left buried in the waters of our baptism so we could walk in obedience to the Master in the power of a new life…a life devoted exclusively to his instruction and the Father’s will. For many, coming to Messiah was merely acquiring a ticket that presumably secured a safe transport to Heaven when they die. Lip service to the Master is given from that point forward, but the real master of their lives remains themselves. This is not the kind of life emulated by the early disciples. Their lives were marked by a passion that drove them all day long to seek the face of the Master, to hear his voice, to do his bidding. Let’s look at a couple of examples.
Acts 10:9 And on the morrow, as these are
proceeding on the way, and are drawing nigh to the city, Peter went up upon the
house-top to pray, about the sixth hour,
10 and he became very hungry, and
wished to eat; and they making ready, there fell upon him a trance
The setting of this story: Peter was staying in the home of Simon the tanner in the city of Joppa. Cornelius, a Roman centurion in Caesarea, had received a vision from an angel of IAUE to send for Peter who would come and speak to him words that would explain what he was to do. Peter did not know at this time that men were coming to call for him to go to Caesarea. No, it was lunch time, and Peter was “very hungry, and wished to eat;” but the meal was still being prepared. It was not yet ready to serve. So, what did Peter do? He went upon the roof to separate himself from the others so he could pray. Try to imagine the scene in your mind. Peter was very hungry. He did not go into the kitchen to see if there was something he could nibble while the meal was being prepared. He didn’t gather with the other men in the house to talk about the latest sporting event. He went to the rooftop to pray. For Peter, his relationship with and discipleship to Messiah was his life. Here, while he was extremely hungry and waiting to be fed, he neglected the natural instincts of his own body to seek out a place where he could spend just that little bit more time with his Master.
When has something like this been our own experience? Is our passion for the Master such a driving force in our life that every opportunity to seek his face is seized upon? I would venture to say that for most believers, every moment of waiting for the next thing to happen is filled primarily with whatever interests us, personally, with little or no thought to spending that moment with Messiah.
Acts 16:22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto Elohim: and the prisoners heard them.
Paul and Silas had been preaching in Philippi. Just prior to the above passage, Paul had turned to a woman who was demonized and used by her masters to make money from her divinations. She had been following them around and troubling them. Paul rebuked the demonic spirit from her. Her masters realized that they would no longer be able to use her to provide them with a source of revenue; so they reacted by stirring up the crowds against them and charging them before the magistrates. The magistrates, without any investigation, ordered them stripped and beaten and cast into prison. Paul and Silas were thrust into the inner prison with their feet held in stocks. Their backs were ripped to shreds and bleeding. Obviously, they were in much pain and discomfort, and their current circumstances appeared to be about as dire as they possibly could. What did they do? “At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto Elohim.”
Now, try to imagine this scene in your mind. They were not sitting in prison saying, “Woe is me.” No, the attitude of the early disciples was to be filled with joy they had been considered worthy to suffer in the name of their Master. Paul and Silas were not wasting their time discussing how unfair their treatment had been; that they were not provided opportunity to defend themselves; that they had done nothing deserving of stripes or prison or stocks. No, “at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto Elohim.”
Today, many believers are ashamed to even pray over a meal at a restaurant for embarrassment over what others in the restaurant might think of them. The idea of singing songs of praise in a public environment where others will hear you is also too embarrassing to even consider. Actually, very few believers pray and sing praise to Elohim in the privacy of their own homes. Why is this? It is because the Master is not their life. They have their “ticket.” Why should they waste their time on something that takes them away from what they want to do?
The disciples in the first generation of the church awoke in the morning with an ear to the voice of their Master. They listened to him and obeyed him all day long. Hardships were not evaluated in terms of their inconvenience; but rather in how they might serve the Master’s purposes.
Picture it like this. When we repent and bow our knee to the Master’s authority over us, acknowledging his right to rule over us, we relegate our prior life along with all that is in this world, to the past. We are dead to it and it is dead to us. That life, and all that is in the world (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – 1 John 2:16) becomes an alien and hostile environment to the life we now live in Messiah Yahushua. It is like we are a deep sea diver. We are in a deep sea diver’s uniform that protects us from the depths (That is being “in Messiah.”). That alone, however, will not sustain us while we are yet living in this world. We must have piped down to us the oxygen that enables us to continue to breathe while deep under the water’s surface. We must have the life from above in order to survive our life while we are still below. That pipeline of air is our life. If we neglect it, or cut it off, we will not be able to continue to live our life free of the effects of the hostile environment of this world; and the world only wants to kill us. Failure to understand this basic fact, zeal without this knowledge, will not profit us.
Hebrews 4:12 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Believing that we have acquired a “ticket to Heaven” and living our lives pursuing our own interests is not mixing the gospel with faith. It does not profit. If after reading this post, you still cannot see yourself living the kind of 24/7 life of dependency upon the Master that is demonstrated by the early church disciples; then perhaps the root of the problem is that your response to the gospel is not mixed with faith. Next week we will discuss the influence that faith has upon our discipleship.
