Several weeks ago a friend sent me this nearly 4000 word conversational spiritual teaching that intrigues me greatly, but I’ve not done well at all editing & condensing it, as it’s still 2100 words long. Since it arrived without a title, I’m calling it “Immunity For Effective Kingdom Service.”
The next 3 posts are titled 1.) Have We Been Set UP?; 2.) This World is Our Process to Spiritual Maturity; & 3.) Building His Natural & Acquired Immunity
IMAGINE THIS:
One Christmas, a child is told that a week of their summer vacation will be spent at Disney World. Understandably, that child is going to live their life like they’re going to Disney World! They’re going be telling everyone in school. “I’m reading up on Mickey Mouse because you know I’m going there this summer.” So, about every other day, they’re gonna tell somebody something about Disney World. This future trip will dominate all aspects of their daily living. Why? Because they believe that they are going there this summer. They will adjust all aspects of their life accordingly. That’s what promised expectations can do.
Now, just guess what happens when summer comes and they ask, “When are we going to Disney World,” and they are told, “Well, you’re going to Disneyland, not to Disney World.” Even the child knows the difference and his tantrums will not be pretty, right? That child will have wasted a lot of time but more importantly, that child is going to be upset, emotionally fractured, possibly, even crushed, and understandably so!
The same thing can & does happens with Christians. So, just let me go ahead and say it, if you’re a Christian, and you have a belief that while you’re in this world, slowly but surely, it’s supposed to become a paradise; or, perhaps you think you’ll magically be removed before it does get bad, you’ve been snookered! Some Christians even possess an “entitlement mindset,” for whatever reason; thinking that by checking the boxes, doing good works, and such, that for every day they face this encroaching darkness personally, they’re too going to be upset, because they were thinking at some point they’d would be absolutely 100 percent shielded from everything; opposition, trials, tribulations, no trouble, no anything painful!
Of course, we’ve never been tempted to view our Christian journey that way! Wrong! So, what do we do when the shielding never arrives and the darkness pervades our very existence and we feel as though we’ve been lied to as the child counting the days until their Disney World vacation. If & when that happens to you, you’d be upset too, just as the people right now, be they in or out of church, because they believed if they had a relationship with a local church or God, their troubles would go away or they’d be exempt. That’s what they believed, or better stated, mentally asserted, but it was in error.
In addition, too many persons have the expectation somehow that the devil will not oppose them, that they’re not supposed to have trials and tribulations. The Bible says; “Don’t think it’s strange when you have fiery trials…” So, when your life falls apart, you get depressed, may even lash out.
However, consider if in fact, a person expected to have these trials & tribulations? Then they’d likely not get upset, nor be depressed, would they? If you knew from the Get-Go, you were going to be opposed, you’d not likely get angry, for the Bible is clear that we can expect such. So, possessing that perspective, when we break through that first barrier and realize my earthy paradise expectations were wrong, I immediately correct them scripturally, and re-focus.
The second problem can occur when our interpretations of those expectations are wrong, because many people believe that if they’re not blessed right now the way they think they should be blessed, that somehow God is angry at them! So, they interpret their current conditions as proof of the level of their relationship they have with the Lord. And that’s also incorrect.
NEXT UP:
Part 2 This world is not your paradise. It never was, and it’s not supposed to be. This World Is Our “PROCESS!” to Spiritual Maturity… BOOTS ON THE GROUND VARIETY!