Shalom.
Here is another nugget from the New Man Magazine website's Daily Tune-Up section.
This blessed me because it showed me that I still have work to do on this earth. I have to decide which call I am going to take. I can't let the "phone" keep ringing. I can't keep checking the caller id and ignoring the call. It is sad for me to say that I have not been preparing myself for the call, or I have been very slow with my preparations. I hope we all can make a decision to answer the call for not our sakes, but for those that are lost, that are in need of hope, direction and love.
There is a high calling and a low calling. The high calling is a life lived on earth according to heaven’s standards; it is see the kingdom of God manifested through an individual life. People who live in the high calling control their surroundings. By staying in their authority, they change the spiritual climate from oppression to liberty.
Darkness cannot overpower light. Light expels darkness. The brighter the light, the more the darkness is displaced. This is how it is when we walk in the authority of God’s kingdom. We place our surroundings under its rule.
Jesus could eat with sinners because He controlled the atmosphere. If you are stronger in God than the unbeliever is in the devil, you will control the atmosphere. If a sinner is more dominant in evil than the believer is in righteousness, the unbeliever will control the spiritual climate.
When you decide to live in the high call, you will face opposition and resistance. “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12, NKJV). Again we are told, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22, NKJV).
Yet many Christians settle for and live in the low calling. Why? They do not want to face the resistance that accompanies pressing toward the high calling. They would rather conform to their surroundings than change them by godly confrontation. It is much easier to blend in than stand out. When faced with opposition, some settle for compromise and seek the path of least resistance.
—John Bevere
Lord, I don’t want to settle for less. Regardless of the consequences, let me answer the higher call of a true disciple of Jesus.
John Bevere, Breaking Intimidation (1995), 195–196.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
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