A change in perspective

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”2449″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]There’s a lot more to talk about in God’s kingdom than sin. But sin is still pervasive among God’s people, so the rest will have to wait.

It reminds me of the 1948 film classic, The Treasure of Sierra Madre. A couple of vagrants meet a grizzled prospector in a Mexican flophouse, talk about gold and team up to go find it in the remote Sierra Madre mountains. But when they succeed, fear and suspicion rise up in them, release a spirit of murder and things don’t end well.

A great move of God is beginning in the world, unlike anything that’s been seen before. Countless people will become Christ-followers. At the same time, the spiritual opposition will be great. Entering this season with unresolved sin in our lives will be dangerous. It will make us vulnerable and unable to stand against the temptations that suddenly close in around us.

Paul explains in Ephesians 4 that we “should not live like the unbelievers around [us] who walk in their empty delusions. Their corrupted logic has been clouded because their hearts are so far from God.”[1]

Many of the people about to be saved believe that things God warned against as sins are okay in our modern era, that God is synonymous with Nature and the Bible is metaphorical and irrelevant. And when we’re saved, we don’t change instantly. We carry in with us the lies we’ve been told, our twisted beliefs and our permissive lifestyles. Things get messy, and the mess gets on the Christ-followers who are trying to help them get to know Jesus.

Our lives have to be in his hands, our eyes fixed on him, our hearts one with his.

If you’ve “experienced the Anointed One, and heard his truth, it will be seen in your life.” You will have “let go of the lifestyle of the ancient man, the old self-life, which was corrupted by sinful and deceitful desires that spring from delusions” and been “made new by every revelation that’s been given to you.”[2]

If you haven’t and it’s not, it’s time for a lifestyle change, a change of perspective and a change in behavior. Begin responding today to the convictions and the invitations of the Lord.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to my ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice and lose your lives for my glory, you will continually discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will forfeit what you try to keep.[3]

~ Photograph by Cody Board

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[1] Ephesians 4:17-18, TPT.

[2] Ibid. vv. 21,22.

[3] Matthew 16:24-25, TPT.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]