"Seek
Spiritual Things"
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ven
upon salvation, many still seek to be blessed through natural means. The
"only" problem is that once one is saved, all is spiritual . So, in
order to be able to please God, we must earnestly seek that which is from
above.
It
is no accident that the Lord works so hard to get us away from where we were
before salvation. You see, it is He Who knows where we were headed and only.
He had the "remedy" for the problem that our sin had caused.
Contrary
to what many would believe, the Lord has no problem with us being blessed. Indeed,
this is one of the benefits of salvation. However, neither does He want us to focus on what we can "get
from" Him. The blessings that He bestows upon us are simply for the
purposes of witnessing to the glory
of God. He provides for us that we might be free from any
impediments to working for Him. So, more than the question being "if"
and "how much" are we blessed, the important question is "What
do we do with our blessings?"
Any
man can be blessed, for the Lord blesses on the basis of a man's faith. Therefore,
anyone willing to believe Him is able
to be blessed, but just because a man
can get blessed,
does not mean that that man has a testimony. Blessings only bring glory to God
when no human involvement is ascribed to them.
It
is ludicrous for any man to think that he accomplishes anything of his own accord, because that which Man needs is impossible for him to attain through his own ability. All that we have, all that we will
attain will be possible only because of Him ! Every saved
man must be able to see where he was
and how the Lord has blessed him.
We
try so hard to see everything with regard to ourselves that we miss God's
purpose in most of what happens in our lives. So often, we accept the
foolishness of this life as being our most important motivator when the truth
of the matter is that only what is spiritual is truly "about us."
The
amazing thing about us is that even though after salvation all becomes
"new," all too frequently, we continue to live after the flesh. Now,
what sense does it make for us to be "born again," yet be born in the same manner as the first time?
It
is im Because it is not our
"nature" to be spiritually minded. Our minds are minds of the
flesh--naturally.
A
mistake that we frequently make is to think that being "saved" just
means that we go to church more frequently than others. All too often, we do
not recognize that all about our
lives becomes spiritual. To one who is saved, acquiring a car, a house,
appliances--these are all spiritual issues. If we fail to deal with it in this
manner, we may never get these things. All should be desired for the working of
the ministry--not just to be "consumed upon our lust."
There
is nothing for which we should not be dependent upon God. In fact, the Lord has
set all in motion for it to be totally dependent upon Him. If we fail to learn
this, or choose not to accept it, we will
struggle --and this is not His intention.
Some
would choose to trivialize the miracles of the Lord so as to make it seem that
He is not that "necessary." You know, "Well, at one point, the
We
are all familiar with the benefits of "seek(ing)
spiritual things." Though we may not be familiar with them by performing
the action, we are well aware of the Lord's promises to us for doing so. Yes,
He wants us to live spiritual lives that attention might be drawn unto Himself,
but as "bonuses," He incorporates into His plan a means by which we
might have joy, happiness, peace of mind and all of the other things that Man
"seeks. Isn't it rather ironic that, with all if his seeking, Man's
"quest" is only satisfied when he commits himself to seeking the
things of God? The way to "real" joy is found only by taking our
focus off earthly things and focusing upon the spiritual.
When
it comes to walking in the liberty and victory that the Holy Ghost confers, the
redeemed frequently lag far behind their recognized potential. You see, it is
hard to "run a race" for a company that one feels is
"cheating" him. This is far too prevalent an attitude amongst the
people of God. As opposed to doing as Jesus did and looking past the "inconvenience" of
many situations, we conduct ourselves as spoiled children, who, if denied one request, throw a temper tantrum. Suddenly,
we become unable to recall our deliverance and instead, see only our
"captivity."
How
often do we think of ourselves in the "corporate" sense? Well,
whether we choose to recognize it or not, when we are born into the family of
God, we become members of the corporate
body . We
are no longer individuals and no longer responsible for ourselves, alone. We
become one with others and come under the rulership
of Another. Jesus Christ, Himself, becomes our
"Head" and as such, we are under an obligation not to allow the rest
of mankind to perceive that Christ's body is "deformed." A
genetically "balanced" being has one head and one head, only. But, it
does have a head. Any body with two heads or no head is a body
with a problem!
As
elementary and evident (in nature) as the preceding point is, man will come to
the Lord, agree to accept His Spirit, then proceed to
complain about "house rules." It is absolutely ridiculous to get
saved and then waste precious time complaining--about anything! When we
came to Him, we sought Something because we needed
it! Then all-of-a-sudden, we are discontent with what we have found and quite
content to return to what we fled so hastily. What it seems that, largely, we
have yet to grasp is that that from which we needed to be saved was ourselves!
As Men, we are the embodiment of flesh and so, the Lord saves us from the worst
off and in us-the flesh.
If,
before salvation, we lived to please ourselves (and through ignorance, we all
did), we are now to live for the One Who has overtaken
our affections. You see, we have gone from flesh being our motivation and
Motivator to the Holy Spirit as He Who deserves what we had held in reserve for
the flesh. This new life to which we have been raised
requires new "habits," new speech, new associations and a new mind !
One
who determines to "seek spiritual things" will find that the natural
is already provided for. With all of the "fuss" concerning the Y2K
"bug," the redeemed man would do well to remember that even if the
discussion were about Y10K, everyone without
God is "in trouble." With God, there is no trouble!
How
can one remain constant in "seek(ing) spiritual
things" when all around is such turmoil and upheaval. For this, there is a
tried and true formula: just take your attention off of yourself and all that
concerns you just long enough to praise Him. You have His guarantee that He
will let you know that He is there. n