A Necessary Exchange

There is much talk of spiritual deadness and personal stagnation today, so much so that it is now a part of normal Christian conversation. How different the New Testament times seem, when Christianity was new and the presence of the Holy Spirit could be felt and visibly justified in the lives of the believers. I would like to pass my imperfect judgment on the issue. I do so, not with arrogance, but as humbly as I know to do.

It seems the differences between those very-much-alive converts in the New Testament, and the typical washed out Christians of today are two-fold. Firstly, the believers then were regenerate, born again followers of Christ. Today most believers believe enough of the Scriptures to enter into hellfire with some Bible knowledge. They are “believers,” but not converted. They are lost. But it is not these people that I concern myself with now.

Secondly, and this point is the focus of this writing, the believers then lived their lives in a different manner than we do today. The difference is simply a question of focus. And our focus is wrong.

Our focus is on pleasing God. Our focus is to serve Him by doing what He commands. Our focus is to make less of self and more of Him. Our focus is on ourselves, and we are blind.

The true focal point for the Christian is the person and character of God. For fellowship with Him we were created. For this we were redeemed. To add ourselves into our focus, as if somehow we were worthy of sharing in the glory of God, is a serious error. The direction of our entire walk will be affected by this, and we cannot accomplish the things we would hope. There is, however, a way to victory.

A focus on God’s character evokes the proper response in the believer’s life. Whether the conscious will is involved or not, realization of certain facets of God’s person will cause a definite, certain reaction in a worshipful heart. When a child receives a long-awaited gift, his reaction is involuntary. The parent who gave the gift is responsible for evoking the foreseen response, because the child could not respond differently to this act of kindness and love. Even so, the life that has tasted any part of the awe-inspiring person of the LORD cannot choose its own method of response. The response is involuntary.

I will say concerning the vast number of moderately successful Christians, that consecrated people have a host of imitators, but the imitators miss the mark altogether. They have no heart for God. The godly man responds without deliberating, for he is drawn along by his enraptured conversation with God. The imitators successfully mimic much of this holy walk of creature with Creator, but not perfectly, for a spontaneous action can be mimicked only deliberately, and the mimicry is soon known.

The answer to the whole matter is this. There is life in a fascination with God, but continual dying and ultimate vanity in a self-regulation of self. Focus on self is deadly.

How is your life? If your soul is not engulfed in fellowship with and worship of God, your very face will betray the fact of your self-focus. Your determined “I will” must be forsaken for the pure “He is.” He is holy. He is lovely. He is good. And your life follows these things, because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

I do not say that you should exchange your “I will” for “He is.” Rather, I say that you should seek the face of the God of heaven, whom you claim as your Father, and see this exchange accomplished by Him. What He does is not undone by the feeble efforts of man. What He does, He does well.

This is the way of life.