JOHN FENN – WORD 3

JOHN FENN – WORD 3

Hi all,
This last of the series installment is coming to you early due to travels to a conference Labor Day weekend. I shared last week how a self-oriented Christian makes emotional decisions rather than spiritual ones.

My examples included the children of Israel who saw the same lack of water and food Moses did, but they complained and griped while Moses made a spiritual decision to look for supernatural provision in God.

Today I had promised to share results of emotional decisions, and then how to get out of the pattern of emotional decisions and back to spiritual decisions. I'm trying to teach and perhaps provoke towards healthy introspection for us all, so take it in the humble spirit intended, realizing that time and space prevent the full development of thought. There are 4 results listed below.

First result: Stop/start spiritually
Emotionally made or soulish decisions are not based on the bedrock of destiny in Christ. But Christ lives in us so he is continually stirring us to grow in him, causing a tug of war within.

Peter comes to mind as the gospels present him as the master of the stop/start. On the one hand he boldly proclaimed "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!", but then denied him 3 times. He would alternate between the brilliantly bold; "Lord, if you are, tell me to walk to you on the water" in Matthew 14, to over the top; "Let's build tents for you and Elijah and Moses" on the Mt. of Transfiguration.

Like Peter, these people are their own worst enemies, often alternating between self-loathing and 'feeling good' about their life and where they are - until another crisis happens and down they go again.

Second result: Socially alone/lonely
The stop/start ramification of one's spiritual life gets to be just too much for people they know. The unpredictability is fatiguing to those around, and all too often friends move on or potential friends back away.

It leads to social isolation or at least loneliness even when surrounded by people. The Bible is full of people like this. Lot, Abraham's nephew, made the emotional decision in Genesis 13: 5-9 to move to the well watered plain around Sodom so he could make more money, rather than a spiritual decision to stay away from the place. We find him in Genesis 19 all alone with no friends to help, locked in his house in Sodom, his front door being attacked by the mob wanting to rape the 2 men (angels) in his house.

II Peter 2: 7-8 tells us that Lot was righteous, he had a walk with God, but that his soul was 'vexed', literally 'tortured' in the Greek, by the lifestyles of those around him. Yet he chose to place himself there.

I often find those who have made emotional decisions have their walk with God but are emotionally and spiritual 'tortured'. Yet they are either clueless that they have done it to themselves, or they know it but choose to stay there because it's familiar and 'safer' than launching into the unknown new territory with God.

Samson also comes to mind as an emotional decision maker who was all alone. He chose to love Delilah (Judges 14:3), the Philistine girl who was outside the covenant of Israel rather than an Israelite girl. He went back and forth between emotional and spiritual decisions, ending up all alone, powerless with his eyes punched out in a metaphor illustrating how emotional decisions weaken and blind us. Ironically his final spiritual decision resulted in the collapse of a building on himself, and the death of himself and those within.

Another example is from Luke 15, the prodigal son. He made an emotional decision to take the money and run, and when he came to the full ramifications of that decision - all alone, hungry, feeding (unclean) pigs, the text says in verse 17 that he "came to himself", and saw his situation stripped of the imaginings that led him to make the original emotional decision. He sized up his situation rightly, and returned home.

Third result; Inconsistent life
People who habitually make emotional decisions have some area(s) of their life that are very inconsistent.

We should be moving from inconsistency towards consistency, as 'self control' or 'patience' depending on the translation, is one of the fruits of the spirit/Spirit in Galatians 5:22 and one of the character traits of a growing Christian listed by Peter in II Peter 1:5-8.

Consider Paul's teaching in Ephesians 4:14 on, about how inconsistency, or being 'tossed to and fro' is childlike. If you examine the rest of the chapter within the context we are talking about here, you'll see he is talking about leaving emotional and self-oriented decisions in favor of spiritual and outwardly oriented decisions, bound together within the glue of relationships with others.

Put on the new man in Christ not living like you used to - put away lying by telling the truth, put away explosive anger and holding grudges by loving, let him that stole get a job so he has money to give to others, clean up your language so you speak praises and grace, walk in forgiveness, are just a few examples.

Fourth result; Not a giver
When Jesus comes back and separates the sheep from the goats, he says in Matthew 25 the giving he is looking for is the giving of self, time, and practical things as well as things which involve money: I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me water, sick and you visited me, in prison and you visited me, naked and you clothed me. All involve money, but also time and resources, the larger issue being the relationships which promote giving in any form.

Many believers, even well grounded spiritually, still make emotional decisions in the subject of financial giving. If you consider that traditional church has largely replaced emotion for anointing, and brow beating and guilt trips to motivate people instead of teaching them how to establish internal motivation and discipline, is it any wonder most Christians give out of emotions rather than a spiritual decision to discipline oneself to write a check consistently month in and month out?

Barb and I have always held a principle close to our hearts that David understood and lived his life by. It's found in II Samuel 24 when an angel appears to him at the threshing floor of Araunah. David wants to buy the property to build a temple on it (today's Temple Mount), but Araunah offers to give it to the king.

But David wants to pay for it, saying in verse 24: "I will not give to the Lord that which costs me nothing."

That concept is lost on so much of the body of Christ, and as I said, I think this is one area the whole body needs to mature in because so few understand it. I will not give to the Lord that which cost me nothing.

A self-oriented believer became that way through emotional decisions, and because of their stop/start spirituality, loneliness, and inconsistency, have proven they shy away from anything that may cause pain or discomfort. Therefore they won't "give to the Lord that which costs me nothing."

I can only speak through the grace given to me, so lets bring this down to the nitty gritty of our lives. Barb and I support an orphanage in China and missionaries in Panama, $75 each per month, on top of our regular giving. So many times we've eaten out of the freezer rather than buy groceries for ourselves just so we could have the money to keep our commitment to them. That's spiritual decision making. Giving up fresh food or a meal or two out so an orphan has their needs met. I want it to cost me SOMETHING to give to God - and that seems so small compare to what it cost Jesus to give to us, doesn't it?

We have delayed paying our bills because we are used to trusting the Lord for our living and given to someone who freaks when they have to dip into their savings, giving that money to them so they may be comforted while we await more money to enable us to buy groceries or get the car fixed. We've lived this way since we were teens, like giving to a fellow teen $10 who had run out of gasoline while my own car was on 'R', but I knew I'd have it when I needed it for he had none at all.

I can't count the number of times in over 30+ years of ministry people that we've poured our lives into never give an offering, talking about how tight things are for them or how in debt they are, and then turn to someone else and talk about the restaurant they just went to and the upcoming trip they're going to take, or things for their house they bought at the store.

Time after time I just look at them with pity, praying they grow up.

Others are givers, but emotional ones. They'll give when they have extra. They'll give a percentage of a bonus or when they have some spare cash around. They will give when it costs them nothing. But they have a hard time making the spiritual decision of regular as clock work giving.

Remember the poor widow who gave all she had in Mark 12:41-44? Her 2 mites cost her, but she would not give to the Lord merely out of her extra. It's based on the fact we owe God, we love God, therefore we want to give something of ourselves, something we sacrifice to him because he sacrificed so much for us.

We could imagine the Father and Jesus saying "We will not give to mankind that which costs us nothing".

Thank God Jesus didn't say at the decision making Garden of Gethsemane, "Oh, this is going to cost me? Oh, I can't give that much! I need to go out to Zeb's Bar and Grill tonight with Peter and James, and when I feel like it I'll go to the cross."

It hurts
And this brings me full circle, for perhaps you've perceived when I mentioned David's heart and my own lifestyle that I was talking of larger things than mere money. Growing in Christ hurts. When it comes to changing from emotion based faith to spiritual based faith, you MUST give to the Lord that which costs you. Period.

We have repeated teachings in the New Testament about taking up the cross, dying to self, mortifying the flesh, "I'm crucified with Christ". It's going to cost you to move from emotional decisions to spiritual ones.

Remember Lot, Samson and the Prodigal son. They each 'came to themselves' at some point. They sized up their respective situations accurately, and made a decision not based on emotion, but something that would cost them. Lot lost his home & business. Samson lost his life. The Prodigal had to humble himself before his father and family. It will cost you. It doesn't feel good until after you've grown, and then it's WONDERFUL, because you have just that much more Christ formed within, and He feels like peace. (Galatians 4:19)

I will not give to the Lord that which costs me nothing. Welcome to discipleship.

New subject next week!
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.iFaithhome.org