WORD 2 -JOHN FENN

JOHN FENN WORD 2

Hi all,
Last week I shared about self-oriented Christians, meaning believers who are inwardly focused. This week I'd like to share some thoughts on what leads a person to become an inwardly focused Christian.

The reasons aren't the usual suspects you'd think, like believers hurt in or by ministry, or even the world. And I'm not talking about the masses of exhausted church workers, students, volunteers and employees who are worn or burned out, or even those bored with church. I'm not even talking about believers who have been to hell and back in terms of life experience.

These things are merely outcomes; but they all have 1 core reason people who have gone through the above (and more) become self-oriented believers.

Here it is:
Somewhere along the line they made and continue to make emotional decision(s) instead of spiritual decisions. By using the word "emotional" I'm not talking about some sort of melt down, rather a decision made out of the soul rather than the spirit. And I'm not talking about always feeling "up" about life and the Lord. But rather a determination for destiny in the heart that is stronger than mere emotions of the moment.

Example from scripture to better define what I mean
Moses was called to make spiritual decisions and hoped the new nation of Israel would also make spiritual decisions. A spiritual decision is based on your future, your destiny, on God's unfolding plan for where he wants you to be 1, 3, 5 or more years from now. It is also based on having in your heart the #1 priority that will not be denied, the burning desire to know Christ and to be like him no matter what the devil, other Christians, or the world throws at you.

By contrast, emotional decisions look back at what used to be, what is now, and looks at the future as uncomfortable, scary, or maybe not high on the priority list right now. It values what "I" want more than what God wants. That's what Israel did, to the point they were longing to go back to the familiarity of slavery!

The generation that came out of Egypt died in the wilderness because of emotional decisions: We have no water, we have no food, we are trapped against the sea, we are going to die in this wilderness. 10 times their emotional decision making came against Moses' spiritually based decision making.

Moses made his emotions submit to the spiritual and made plans. Israel on the other hand, let their emotions make their decisions for them.

And remember that both Moses and the children of Israel saw the same crisis points. Moses too saw they were backed against the sea. He too saw the poison water of Mara. He too was hungry, and on it went.

A person who thinks of self instead of their destiny in Christ and being more Christ like looks at the lack of water and thinks they are going to die of thirst. A person right next to them who burns for God's plan in their life, who yearns to become more Christ like at every opportunity, looks at their thirst and says "Father, reveal your provision in my life, thank you for this opportunity to grow in you!" One witnesses miracles, the other just hears about them and wonders why they don't happen to them.

Do you want to be a disciple or merely a believer?
Jesus put people in a position where they had to make either emotional or spiritual decisions. In Luke 5 he asked Peter to leave his partners in the fishing business and be a disciple. Not only did Peter leave the business, but so did his partners, James and John! Those were spiritual decisions based on destiny. You cannot hold onto the past or present while trying to grasp your future.

Of course the greatest decision in which spiritual priorities triumphed over the emotional was Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

There were others who told Jesus they wanted to be disciples, but they wanted to be disciples that made emotional decisions: "I'll follow you anywhere...but you have no where to lay your head...I'll follow you anywhere, but first let me go and bury my father...I'll follow you anywhere, but let me tell everyone goodbye first." The rich young ruler is another example, who because of his love of things made an emotional decision rather than a spiritual one, hanging onto his possessions but losing the opportunity to become a disciple.

Jesus never changes, which means he is still asking people to make emotional or spiritual decisions. He didn't run after any of these people and He won't run after us either. He won't leave you, but he won't run after you trying to get you to make spiritual decisions. He will be as gracious as he can be with where you are.

In the here and now
Spiritual decisions are often void of "the presence" because they must be made alone, with God watching silently on the sidelines. He puts it out there like his invitation to the rich young ruler, then steps back and lets us decide which way we'll go. He will go with the flow of our decision though the invitation is to higher ground.

When you make spiritual decisions the natural realm will eventually fall in line behind that decision. It may take some time, and finances in particular seem to come up last in that line, but natural things will begin submitting to your spiritual decisions if you stay with it. It took Joshua and Caleb 40 years of waiting, 40 years of watching their neighbors and friends die in the wilderness before they entered into their piece of real estate in the Promised Land. At any time during those 40 years they could have gone with their friend's emotions, but they had their eyes on the Promise. Their emotions were lined up with their spiritual decision.

Paul said in Romans 12:3 that he was speaking according to the grace given to him. In other words, he couldn't speak from someone else's grace, just how the Lord had dealt with him. Same here today. Sometimes people ask me about our lives and where we are in the Lord, and when Barb and I reflect on things we can say that when we nailed God's will for our lives it was because we made spiritual decisions, and when we missed it, it was because of emotional decisions. But the spiritual far outweigh the emotional.

When we first moved to southeast Colorado we became pastors of a church in which the founding pastor had killed a member of the congregation in self defense. The church was in debt and falling further behind, but that's where the Lord said "Go", so we did.

Emotionally - GET US OUTA HERE! Spiritually - "I have many people in this city." (Sounds like another spiritual decision made in Acts 18 by Paul at Corinth)

We first lived in the parsonage, a square, 4 room house collapsing in the middle so that our son's bottle when dropped on the floor rolled to the middle of the house. A young mother came to Barb and strongly pressed her to get on the government welfare program for free milk and cheese products - we qualified by income and having a baby. But Barb perceived it correctly when she told me something to the effect of: "Poverty is a way of thinking not a lack of money, and it is a spirit in this town and with these people, and I'm not going to submit to it. God's brought us here so He must have provision for our children that is larger than welfare, so we'll just believe him for milk and cheese and things like that."

That was a spiritual decision. I don't think the lady that suggested the welfare program got it. Her attitude was 'use the system' while you could. For us, it would have tied God's hands and kept us trapped in a system.(I understand that may be God's provision for some, but I am speaking of the grace given to us.)

Soon a couple came to our church that owned a dairy. Weekly they brought fresh milk, cream, and often much more. Another couple had cattle and quarterly brought us 200 pounds of meat at a time. Barb could not have seen any of that when the simple and tempting question was posed that provoked such powerful emotional desires for her children, "Do you want to sign up for the free government milk and cheese program?" Emotional decisions are SO easy, but spiritual ones are based on a higher principle, and as I said, often have no emotion attached, just determination to see God's highest and best in your life.

So you can see, going back to last week, how this type of Christian will be hurt in the future. If the world is in turmoil, and Christians are used to making emotional decisions instead of spiritual ones, and they are not in relationship with others who could provide balance and guidance, they are going to be as confused as the world. If we won't live for him, how will we ever die for him?

Next week I'll share and what emotional instead of spiritual decisions mean to one's lifestyle, and how to move from emotional to spiritual decisions, .

Until next week,
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.iFaithhome.org