FUNDAMENTALS
OF DISCIPLESHIP
A KINGDOM HEART – XXVII
Matthew
15:8 This
people draws nigh unto me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips; but
their heart is far from me.
Last
week’s post ended with this comment:
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Issues. We all have them. It is part of the human experience. They begin during childhood when we are not
mature enough to know how to respond to unpleasant or undesirable experiences
as we should. It isn’t a process that automatically terminates when we grow
older; but we begin building mental programs very early in life. It is like software that we develop to insure
that we will respond to similar events in the future the way we have pre-decided
that we should respond.
A
lot of times that software begins when we react to a hurt or a rejection, or a
refusal or a denial of something we want.
We react to it by telling ourselves: “I am never going (to allow that to
happen again)(to be like him/her when I grow up)(to let them be my friend)(to
trust them again), etc.” In that moment,
we begin to erect a defensive posture to protect ourselves in similar
situations, should they occur. This kind
of behavior is very natural to the flesh; because self-preservation is
intrinsic to the flesh. One of the most
significant problems with this, however, is that by setting up these programs,
we do not permit opportunity to hear and respond to the leading of the Holy
Spirit, or to the voice of our Master, or even to the instruction of Scripture. The preservation of our own life is
paramount. All else must take a back
seat to that objective. That path, however, is not afforded to those who would
be Messiah’s disciple.
Matthew
16:25 For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
When
some catalyst triggers our program (a reaction from someone, a tone of voice, a
specific person approaches, etc.), the software runs, and we behave just like
we planned to behave… when we were 6 or 10 or 12 years of age. (Frankly, it can be
quite embarrassing… to others, to see how readily we can behave or react like
children, even though we are now of adult age.)
Many
of our issues are defensive…maybe most.
The programs we develop for our safety, however, eventually become walls
that incarcerate us. For some of us,
those walls have been there for so long, that we don’t even know who we really
are any more. We have had so many
reactive programs in place for so long, most of our personality is simply
comprised of triggered responses in every circumstance in our day to day
living. We are not even choosing to be
this way. The choices of how we should
be were made long ago.
I
am sure most of us have seen TV shows or movies where a man or woman really
cares about another person, but they can’t let themselves be vulnerable enough
to let them know. They can’t break down
their walls of hardness of heart to trust again, or to love again. All the way through the movie we are rooting
for them to just DO IT! It is tormenting
to see it happening; and we wonder if the movie is going to end with them still
sitting on the fence protecting their own life and missing out on the prospect
of a loving relationship. As uninvolved viewers, it seems so simple to do. Why can’t they see it? It isn’t that easy, though; because when you
analyze it, the programs we write into our hearts to dictate our responses are
gods to us. We worship them, for they
take precedence over our humble obedience to the will of IAUE. Anything that interferes with our ability to
obey IAUE is a god to us.
Matthew 15:8 This people draws nigh unto me with their mouth, and honors me
with their lips; but their heart
is far from me.
It
is natural and easy for us to embrace the religious culture of our faith with
our minds. It is easy for us to
assimilate into the fellowship of the Body by speaking the way we are expected
to speak, acting the way we are expected to act, attending the services and
meetings we are expected to attend; but it is possible to do ALL of that and
never allow true faith to captivate our hearts.
Our hearts are full of programs we wrote before we ever gave any
consideration to the will of IAUE. Just
because we may have had a crisis of faith and have given our lives to Messiah;
that act does not eradicate those programs, nor instantly deal with all of our
issues. We can hibernate in our heart
for decades untouched by the Spirit of IAUE; always catering to those gods we
REALLY serve…the god of SELF; while on the outside, giving lip service to our
faith. We can fool almost anyone; but we
cannot fool IAUE.
James
4:4 Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with IAUE? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the
enemy of IAUE.
5 Do ye think that the scripture says in vain, The spirit that
dwells in us lusts to envy?
The
Spirit earnestly desires free reign in our hearts; and is envious of the depth
of the friendship we make available to the world. He knows that our love of the world is
counter-productive to anything that holds any real meaning or profitability to
our lives; and yet we love it so. The
difference He could make to our lives if we gave friendship with Him half a
chance would produce multiple paradigm shifts in our experience. We would begin to understand the Scripture
when it speaks of being changed from glory to glory.
Matthew
15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from
the heart; and they defile the man.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with
unwashen hands defiles not a man.
When
we read this verse, our instant reaction is to exonerate ourselves by saying,
“I don’t have evil thoughts. I don’t
want to murder or commit adultery. I
don’t want to steal or lie or blaspheme.”
We end up thinking, “Hey, I am okay.
My heart is just fine.” The
problem is, we actually DO have evil thoughts.
Even if just a passing thought, how many times have you thought, “I am
going to kill him/her?” or “I wish he were dead?” How many times have you
looked upon a man or woman with lustful thoughts? How many times was your first thought to tell
a lie, even if you ended up telling the truth?
We have all manner of programs in our heart that generate every one of
these malicious evils. Messiah says THIS
is what defiles us.
We
need to determine the following:
- Do I really want to be a disciple of Yahushua Messiah?
- Am I willing to recognize that all of the programs I have written into my heart are gods because they do not allow me to obey the will of IAUE; they compel me to obey them?
- Am I willing to understand that this means I am an idolater in my heart?
- Am I prepared to do whatever it
takes to purify my heart before IAUE?
This
brings us back to the instruction of the Apostle Paul:
Romans
12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of IAUE.
The
very fact that Paul says we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind
tells us that he expected us to need to be reprogrammed. This also means that we are going to continue
to sin after becoming a disciple; because we will not even be aware of the
programs we have buried in our hearts until they surface in all their nastiness
and expose themselves to the light of day; and in doing so, become targets for
elimination. I like to think of this as
the dross coming to the surface. No jeweler
allows the dross to remain upon the gold or silver once it has surfaced and has
become apparent or obvious. It is targeted for removal, immediately.
We
should look at any deviation from obedience to the will of IAUE in our words,
actions, mannerisms and behavior as an amber light cautioning us that dross has
surfaced. It should alert us to a program that needs to be deleted and the
correct way of thinking produced in us by learning the heart and ways of our
Master. We do not have the luxury, as
disciples of Messiah, of playing games with our lives. If there is dross, we must deal with it with
a severe hand, for it is a strange god that stands between us and a pure heart
of devotion to IAUE.
Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance
of the will of IAUE.
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