Determining God's Voice, Over Our Own- Part 2

January 21, 2014

 

 

Continued from

 

 

 

For most people, the idea of giving up on their dreams and goals is too terrifying to consider.  At one time, my career in the oil and gas industry had become my ultimate dream and goal. And in my case, giving up on my dreams and goals meant losing my identity.  My total identity at that time was based on my efforts to pursue a successful career--  I considered myself a self-made woman and garnered my personal strength through my success in what was otherwise known as a male-dominated field of employment.  The total sum of my experiences throughout my life and career-- from the hardships and trials to the accomplishment and success-- had come to completely define me as a person.  Up to that point, everything I thought I was, everything other people thought I was, everything I knew about myself, everything other people knew about me....... "me" as an individual and unique personality, and more devastatingly, me and my perceived value and strength-- gone.

 

To give up on what I had seemingly worked so hard to accomplish and become, despite the great odds stacked against me even before adulthood, meant to be completely lost, to be without direction, without identity and seemingly, without purpose.  But what I came to realize, which was also what God was trying to teach me, was that when we feel that way about something in our life, our life has become about us, not Him.  What God was trying to teach me, was that our identity, direction and purpose are found in Him and Him ONLY.  Everything else is simply circumstantial-- the circumstances in which we carry out who we are IN HIM, not who we are in the world.  And those circumstances are always subject to His authority and discretion.

 

Psalm 62:2 says, "He alone is my Rock and my Salvation, my Fortress where I will never be shaken."  And since we are children of the Most High God Who is eternal, this means that when we rightly find our identity, direction and purpose in Him, it remains the same no matter what our circumstances-- even in death, the most final and irreversible circumstance.  For us, as children of God, surrendered unto Christ and His salvation and Lordship, "Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Cor 15:54)

 

True and genuine surrender unto God, is to truly and genuinely submit to Christ being not only Savior, but also and more importantly, LORD over one's life.  This means TOTAL surrender and submission, and total surrender and submission includes even what may seem to us as the loss of ourselves, most especially, our own perception of ourselves or  the world's perception of ourselves.  Regardless in either case, the only perspective that really matters is God's, and from His perspective we cannot be lost when we are found in Him.  Which means that we don't have to live up to the world's expectations of us because we are not accountable to the world.  We don't even have to live up to our own expectations of ourselves, because ultimately we are not even accountable to ourselves.  We are fallen and flawed, therefore any standard of accountability we measure against ourselves is flawed. 

 

We are incapable of comprehending God's eternal perspective because we exist in a creation that has been cursed with death.  Only through Christ are we given the promise of eternity, yet as long as we exist in this flesh we remain incapable of truly comprehending eternal things.  

-That is why, as Christians, "We walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor 5:7)  

-That is why we are told by Jesus Himself that, "the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23)

-That is why we are told by the blessed Apostle Paul, "For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." (Romans 8:24)

 

In Christ, we are called new and eternal creatures (2 Cor 5:17).  However since we still live in a fallen world, and our spirits remain encompassed in flesh, the Apostle Paul gives a vivid picture of what we experience as we wait for our promise of eternity to be fully revealed at Christ's coming: "For indeed while we are in this tent [of flesh], we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed [with immortality], so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by [eternal] life. ⁵ Now He Who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the [Holy] Spirit as a pledge [of making good on His promise]." (2 Cor 5:4)

 

As children of God who are being transformed into the image of Christ, this transformation requires regular refinement, which requires regular submission and surrender with the faith that God will make good on His Word to transform us, even at times when we may not understand His process.  Therefore God, in His ultimate wisdom and mercy, saw fit to give us the ultimate example of submission and surrender through Christ.  Throughout the Gospel we are shown that even Christ consistently submitted Himself to God and God's ultimate authority over the circumstances of His (Jesus') life.  Even Christ, Who is One with God, surrendered Himself to God's timing over His own, and conceded Himself to God's circumstances rather than His own perception and reason.  Christ knew His purpose was to die, but how that purpose was specifically carried out and exactly when that goal was achieved had to be surrendered to God moment by moment.  And the only way to discern God's leading over His (Jesus') own understanding was to humble His Incarnate Self (Jesus) unto His Eternal Self (God) in constant prayer and daily intimate fellowship with His Eternal Self and Word. 

 

I find it worthy to remark that Christ seems to have spent more of His total time here on this earth in fellowship with God and His Word than He did actively carrying out the very purpose He was sent here to accomplish.  We are given many accounts throughout the Gospel in which Jesus sought God in prayer and fellowship.  Which means for Christ to have succeeded in carrying out God's ultimate will and plan for the salvation of mankind, most of His time was necessarily spent making sure that He carried it out without mistake and that it was utterly according to God's perfection.  In His particular case, there simply was no room for error through miscommunication.

 

Therefore, this says to me that if we are spending more time actively pursuing what we, ourselves, have determined is God's plan for our life, than we are spending in intimate fellowship with Him in prayer and His Word, then we have moved from making our life more about us and our own perceptions than about Him and His eternal perspective.

 

...continued and concluded at