OUR MATCHLESS REWARD

OUR MATCHLESS REWARD

                I touched on this yesterday and I want to explore this thought a little more. We often think of our rewards in heaven in terms of things… things made of gold. But what is the value of gold when the streets are paved with it? Pure gold speaks of a refining process.

                We often want to escape all troubles, trials and persecutions and so we have developed this theology in which we take authority over every trouble, trial and sickness as something brought on by the devil. As such we often fail to see God’s hand in the refining process in our lives. Not that God puts sickness and disease upon us, nor does He persecute us. Both sickness and persecution are natural results of our present environment in a kingdom that currently belongs to Satan.

                When God created us, He made us stewards of this creation. In Genesis 1:26 it says: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

                God made us stewards of this earth at every level and as we have seen in His subsequent health laws, He made us stewards of our own bodies as well. So, it doesn’t matter whether we are speaking in spiritual terms, or mental terms or physical terms the Lord wants us to reason from cause to effect… and it doesn’t matter whether we are talking spiritually, mentally or physically, there is an axiom that remains true: “Garbage in… garbage out.”

                Spiritually, if we feed on the spirit of this world, we will take on the spirit of this world. Mentally if we take on the attitudes, the immoral thoughts and ways of this world then we will begin to reflect the ways of this world. If for instance we watch Porn in secret, it will continue to degrade our characters to the point where we will begin to act out those lurid things and the Holy Spirit will not be able to participate with us in any of it. This grieves the Holy Spirit.

                Physically, many people eat irresponsibly, even to the extreme and then they blame the devil for their resulting sicknesses and cry out to God for healing… and I think God is sometimes saying to us,         “Haven’t you learned anything in your life about the stewardship I gave you over your body as a temple of My presence?

                We love to quote 1 Cor. 3:16, but we usually ignore 1 Cor. 3:17 which says: “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are.”

                We often forget that we are in this world to learn something. We are to learn how to live by eternal principles rather than the temporary principles which God calls the pleasures of this world. We are to deny the flesh and to live by the Spirit. Godly living is to be godly at every level, mental, physical and spiritual.

                I don’t want to belabor these points, but let us say that God is involved in every aspect of our physical, mental, spiritual being. He wants us to learn how to live godly lives in every area of our being and He wants us to learn how to reason from cause to effect, for the principle of judgment is this… that whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. Gal. 6:7

                This is the way the universe is set up. Everything reproduces after its own kind. Whatever seeds we sow, this will be our crop. And so God calls us to sow abundantly of good seed and that good seed is Christ and when we receive that one seed, then all of the promises of Scripture become ours. But God wants us to learn how to sow good seed, not only spiritually, but mentally and physically as well for He says in 1 Thess. 5:16-23”

                “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances, but examine everything carefully; and hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

                So our sanctification seems to involve our entire being and even though these bodies are destined for the grave, we are in training to reign with Christ. We are learning to live by eternal principles rather than the temporary and unsustainable ways of this world. Stewardship is a part of our training.

                But apart from what we may call a legalistic observance of mental, physical and spiritual observances, self- control is one of the fruits of the Spirit.  Paul tells us that “All who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Rom. 8:14. He also says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of “God dwells in     you...but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” Rom. 8:8-11

                So we are not talking about the rigorous self- control of the Old testament, but rather the fact that if we live Spirit filled and Spirit controlled lives, it will affect every aspect of our existence here on this planet, whether it be spiritual, mental or physical and we are learning to be stewards of that which God has given us and that includes this planet that we live on and all of its creatures.

                Hebrews 12:11 says: “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness…”

                The bottom line is that we are learning to live by the Spirit who indwells us for our eternal reward is God Himself.

                1 Cor. 15:28 says: “And when all things are subjected to Him (The Son) then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him (Jesus), that God may be all in all.”

                In other words, God the Father gave all authority in heaven and on earth to Jesus until all things have been reconciled back to God through the plan of redemption. So when the plan is complete and sin and death are no more, then Jesus will turn all authority back to the Father who will be all in all.

                This statement has implications that we hardly dare to think, but it means that Jesus will have truly made us His brethren and God will then fill all of us even as He filled Jesus and together we will all become sons and daughters of God. Do we have any idea the eternal nature of the gift that Jesus gave to us in Himself? He is making us joint (equal) heirs of eternity.

                1 Cor. 15: 22, 23 says: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive, but each in his own order; Christ the first fruits and after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.” In other words Jesus was a prototype, the first fruits of the resurrection and He is a demonstration of what we shall be in eternity. Unbelievable!!!

                John said this: “Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.”

                Let us ponder these things knowing that it comes about not by some sort of prideful ladder climbing on our part, but by humbling ourselves, by entering by faith into His death so that we may also share in His resurrection. We are learning to live by His Spirit and what we are learning involves every aspect of our existence. We are putting to death the deeds of the flesh as we choose daily to live by His Spirit.

                How is this done? Not by works of the flesh. Have you ever seen an apple tree sweating and straining to bring forth fruit? No, it keeps its roots sunk deep into the soil, its branches raised to the sun and between the soil, the sun and the rain; the fruit comes on its own.

                Likewise if we keep our roots sunk deep in the Word, our hands raised to the Sun of righteousness and we drink in the rain of His Holy Spirit we will likewise produce the fruit of righteousness in every aspect of our lives.

                But remember this: We have been made stewards of God’s creation and the Bible has a lot to say about faithful stewards. And we long to hear Him say:

                “Well done good and faithful servant; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your Master.” Mt. 25:21

                Our matchless reward is God Himself, for He will dwell in us forever, without measure, and we will be His ambassadors in His ever growing Kingdom forever.