God favors no
man. Jesus said “seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
(Matthew 7:7) This offer is extended
to anyone. God wants you to be as close to Him as possible, but He will not
force you. He makes it entirely our choice. The only person that can stop you
from being close/closer to God, is you. It’s not your family, your job, or your
friends that keep you from God. In James it says “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his OWN desires
and enticed.” (James 1:14) Did you
know that even the devil himself cannot keep you from God? Again, in James it
says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) He has to flee. This means he has no power over you,
unless you give it to him. The only thing that he can do to you, is give you
opportunities for you to stop yourself.
So that means,
you will be as close to God as YOU want to be. Nothing, and no one can stop
you! But you have to stop settling for
less first!
There’s a song
that’s flooded our Christian radio stations recently… This song gives the
delusion of beauty but is in fact nothing more than a lie. It’s that new
Casting Crowns song. You know, the one that’s main chorus line is “Can’t we
just be broken together?” Now let’s try saying this line another way and see if
we can see the deception - Can’t we just give up trying to be whole? Can’t we
just settle for our infirmities, for our broken heart, for our distance from
God? Can’t we just settle for pain, and sorrow? Hm...would you agree that these
lines are basically saying the same thing? Because I certainly think so. What
kind of message is this to the public? More curious is how this song was even
approved for being aired on the radio as actually having a “good message”. This
song saddens me, but I think it perfectly encapsulates the problem with the
Church in America today. The Church has settled for being broken. They’ve
stopped trying, stopped fighting, and have settled for settling.
This isn’t what
God wants for us though! He doesn’t want us to be broken! Jesus didn’t come to
die and rise from the dead so we could just sit around and “be broken
together.” He came to make us whole! He came to heal! Jesus came to “bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”
(Isaiah 61:1) To give us life
abundant. (John 10:10) To heal and
redeem us.
Let’s think of
this rationally. If you believe the lie “can’t we just be broken together” then
that’s all you’ll probably ever be. Broken. Because the first step to being
made whole is rejecting the brokenness,
and wanting to be made whole. We’ve all heard the expression, "the first step
is admitting you have a problem". Well likewise the first step is deciding you
don’t want to have the problem anymore.
In the Gospels we see the story about Bartimaeus. He was a
blind beggar who never would have been healed of his blindness if he accepted
this lie. If he said, well I’m blind and there’s nothing I can do about it. If
he had settled for his blindness, he never would have cried out to Jesus and he never
would have received his healing. But Bartimaeus did NOT accept his brokenness.
He KNEW Jesus was the healer, he KNEW Jesus came to mend and restore, he KNEW
Jesus would make him whole. Bartimaeus rejected the liars who told him to keep
quiet and he cried out all the more. Therefore Bartimaeus received healing.
When we reject
our brokenness, our infirmities, our pain and sorrow; and cry out to Jesus
knowing that He is our healer: we will
be healed. BUT, the first step is rejecting the lie that says we can’t be
healed. Rejecting the lie that say’s “let’s just be broken.” Rejecting the lie
that says we can’t be as on fire for God as someone like Billy Graham or Beth
Moore. You think Billy Graham would ever have become the man he is today if he
looked at people like Peter or Paul and said to himself, Whoa, now I can’t have
an anointing like them…I can’t be as close to God as they were. NO! Billy
Graham became the man he did, because he knew God shows no partiality, because
he knew if he gave all to God, that God would give all to him. He rejected
every lie that said he couldn’t, and every lie that said God couldn’t.
You can be as
close to God as you want to be. You can be healed of anything you want to be.
But it takes effort. It takes great work, and great surrender, and great
sacrifice.
There are levels
of closeness to Jesus, and therefore levels of reward: Reward being more of God,
who is “thy exceeding great reward.” (Genesis
15:1) So the more you give of yourself, the more of Him you’ll receive.
The first level
(and furthest away from Jesus) is The
Multitude – The ones that go to God whenever they’re hungry; whenever they
have a need. Then they leave. These people do not rest in Jesus’s presence. They
hear Him speak, get some food, and then go home (that’s where they rest). This
is what’s wrong with America today, the Church has settled for being the
multitude. They’ve settled for being broken. They’ve settled for not being on
fire for God; for not resting in His presence. A key difference between the
multitude and the rest of the levels of closeness to Jesus is also obedience. When
Jesus asks them to do something, they don’t do it (ex. the rich young ruler
that Christ told to sell as his belongings and follow Him). Disobedience and
never resting in His presence caused the multitude to never receive
understanding “hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” (Matthew 13:13)
The Second level
to Jesus can be seen in The 70 Disciples
–The ones that spend more time in His presence. This type of people make it
their goal to be like Christ. Simply put, they received the title of disciple and
that’s what the term means. They were literally in a tutorship on how to live
like Jesus. They also both wanted to be and were used by God. They went on mission
trips, spread the gospel, and loved in the name of Jesus. We also see that the
70 disciples were obedient to Jesus. When He asked them to do something, they
did it. But the difference between this level and the closer levels is that these
do not rest in His presence all the
time. The 70 did not follow Jesus everywhere. They weren’t with Him at all
times.
The Third level
can be seen in The 12 Apostles – The
ones that rested in Jesus’s presence at
all times. These were the ones that were always with Jesus. They followed
him anywhere He went. They woke up in the morning and there was Jesus. All day
long, they communed with Him. To be able to do this the 12 left everything.
They left their jobs and their families. Their love for Christ exceeded their
love for anyone else. This level of closeness required their entire life. It was
all they were. And what do we see the 12 receive above the other levels? Jesus
explained the parables to them. They received the reward of revelations and
understanding. These received a greater amount of Godly wisdom. These also
received the reward of witnessing all of Jesus’s miracles, and were used to
work miracles through themselves.
The Fourth level
can be seen in The Three – Peter,
James, and John. These three apostles are often set apart by Jesus in the
gospels. Jesus often chose them to be witnesses to some of the most amazing
miracles and revelations. Jesus chose only them out of all his apostles to come
into the room when He raised the little 12-year-old girl from the dead. (Luke 8:51) He again chose only them out
of everyone else to witness Him transform on the mount, and to see Moses and
Elijah, and to hear the very voice of God Himself. (Matthew 17) These three received a greater revelation and
understanding than the rest of the 12. They also were able to witness greater
miracles than anyone else. – Why? What did these three do that set them apart
to receive such a great reward? – Starting with James and John, we see how they
wanted to call fire from Heaven to consume a town in Samaria that had just
rejected Jesus. (Luke 9:54) – Too
much of a good thing becomes a bad thing; this is true. However, underneath the
overkill, what was their heart? It was to defend their master and to stand for
Jesus. Then we see Peter: he cuts off the ear of one of the soldiers who came
to take Jesus in the Garden (Matthew
26:51; John 18:26) He went too far, but his heart was to defend Jesus. Now
this is just one of many differences that can be seen between these three and
the rest of the 12. For times sake, I’m only pointing out this one. So what can
we learn from it? A key difference between this level and the lower ones is a
defensive heart for Jesus. Put it this way: when you hear someone say something
that’s not true about Jesus, are you quick to defend? Or do you say nothing and
let the lie continue?
Finally, the
Fifth and closest level to Jesus (and my personal favorite) can be seen in The One – John, the one “whom Jesus
loved.” (John 13:23) John (the
apostle and one of The Three) was closer to Jesus’s heart than anyone else. At
the last supper, we see how John rested. Read:
John 13: 21-29 He rested with his head on the chest of Jesus. Now when you
rest your head on someone’s chest, you hear their heart beat. I’m sure you’ve
experienced this – the heartbeat is so loud that it practically drowns out every
other noise. And this is where John rested. All the other 12 were in Jesus’s
presence too (they were all in the same room), but only John rested on His
chest. He wasn’t satisfied with just being in the room. He wanted to be as
close to Jesus’s heart as he could. He wanted to hear His heart beat, and let
every other sound in the world fade away. This is how John loves Jesus. And because
John loved the most, he received the most.
At the last
supper, when Jesus tells everyone that His betrayer is one of them, Peter asks
John to ask Jesus who it is. Peter, who, “on this rock I will build My church,”
dared not even ask. He knew though, that whatever John asks Jesus, Jesus will
give it to him. This is a reward of such a close relationship; of such
surrender and love for God. Because John’s heart was so close to Jesus, he
rested in the sound of His heart. So John asked, and Jesus told him. John is
also the one that wrote the book of Revelation. He is the one that was chosen
to witness how God is going to unfold the end times, in perfect detail. John
was also given understanding of the things that he saw. He received more
revelation and understanding, and witnessed the greatest miracles and mysteries
than anyone else - above the multitude, the 70, the 12, and the 3.
Why? – Because
he gave more. He surrendered more. He
loved more.
You can be the
multitude, the 70, the 12, the 3, or the 1. It’s entirely up to you. God wants
each and everyone one of us to be the 1. But it requires on our part the
greatest level of surrender: everything.
