How To Be More Like God

What must we do in order to be more like God?  That’s a big question but also one that has an answer.  Part of that answer can be found in Ephesians 4:22-24:

:22 Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion; :23 And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude], :24 And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.

Let’s look at these verses one by one.  First, we are told to strip ourselves of our former nature.  Something that is obvious from these words but could be easily overlooked is that this is OUR job, not God’s job.  It is up to us to take off our old nature.  God can and will do many things for us, but He also expects us to do some things for ourselves, including this. 

My word picture for this first verse is that when we come to God, whether it’s when we are first giving our life to Him or whether it’s in our time of repentance, we must take off our old self, just like we take off our “old” clothes at the end of each day.  Nobody likes to wear the same clothes day after day, partly because after a while they will start to stink!  The same is true of us when we don’t go to God on a daily basis to take off our old self. 

This verse tells us not only to take off our old self but also to “discard” it!  That means that when we go to God and repent of our sins, we are to throw those things away forever.  The word “repent” means to whole-heartedly apologize, to make a 180 degree turn, and to go in the opposite direction of that sin.  With God’s help and our determination, we should not be purposefully going back to our old self; we should be throwing that away.

Second, we are told constantly renew our minds.  This is not a one time deal; it is a lifelong process!  How do we renew our minds?  We can only do this by getting in God’s presence and by getting in His Word.  I know personally that my mind can VERY quickly go off the deep end when I don’t renew it! 

Following on with my word picture, after we have taken off our old clothes (our old self) then we need to take a shower.  It is only when we have stripped ourselves down to our natural state that we can then “get clean”.  We need to wash our minds with the water of His Word, and only then can we get rid of all the contamination of the world.  Again, this cleaning process is up to us.

Third, we are told to put on our new nature, the one that looks and acts more like God.  The only way we will know how to look and act like God is to read His Word.  When we take off our old self and wash up with the Word, only then can we look and act more like God. 

It is in this last step that we go to our closet and put on our new clothes (our new self).  God wants the best for us in every area of our lives; the Bible says that He daily loads us with His benefits.  He doesn’t want you to take off your old self, get all clean through His Word, and then go back and put on old, dirty clothes.  He wants you to put on your best self everyday, something new and fresh.  If you’ve had a problem with gossip, for instance, then He wants you to put on your new self today which doesn’t gossip!  If you’ve had a problem with lust, then He wants you to put on your new self today which resists that temptation and takes the way out.  This is how we can be more like God.  Just give it a try and see how great you feel wearing your new self!

Guaranteed Prosperity

Psalm 1:1-3 is a powerful portion of scripture! I want to take a few minutes to go through these three verses and share what I’ve learned. First, let’s read them:

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The Hebrew word for “blessed” in verse one means a state of prosperity resulting from a superior bestowing his favor (blessing) on one. This word is not to be taken lightly! The person that God is referring to in this scripture is a “champion” (the Hebrew meaning of “man” in verse one which tells us that God is not just talking to the male sex). So in the first four words of this passage, we know what we can become if we follow the instructions in the following verses: a champion who is in a constant state of prosperity because of God bestowing His blessing on them! And don’t be deceived into thinking that prosperity only relates to finances; prosperity means God’s wholeness in every area of your life: relationally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, financially, etc.

Let’s move on to the second part of verse one. There are three requirements in this section that you need to adhere to if you want to be blessed. One, don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly. The word “walketh” here denotes behavior, and the word “counsel” means advice or plans. In other words, your behavior should not be dictated by the advice or recommendations of the ungodly! Two, don’t stand in the way of sinners. The word “standeth” here means to remain stationary, and the word “way” means the activities that control a person, one’s lifestyle; destiny. You never want to become stationary in a place with people whose lifestyle (and ultimately destiny) don’t line up with the Word of God. And three, don’t sit in the seat of the scornful. The word “sitteth” here means to dwell, remain, settle, marry, inhabit, and the word “seat” means the dwelling place or habitation. The word “scornful” means mocker. While you don’t want to do either of the first two, you definitely don’t want to get caught living in the dwelling place of mockers!

We see the natural progression here from walking to standing to sitting, and this is just another reminder from God of how it is you can get caught up in sin. No one backslides overnight. A well-meaning husband or wife doesn’t just fall into an affair. These things happen after a progression of events. If you’re walking with the ungodly (anyone who is not going in the same direction as you are trying to go with God), then eventually you’ll get tired and want to stop for a minute, and then you’ll probably want to sit down and take a rest. Before you know it, you’re somewhere that you never intended to be, and it was all because you started walking (behaving) in the same direction as the ungodly!

Verse one tells us what this blessed champion does not do, but in verses two and three, we find out what he does do. “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” The word “delight” here means desire, and the word “law” means direction, teaching, and instruction. The word “day” simply means daily while the word “night” means the period of time in which it is dark; deep calamity without the comforting presence and guidance of God. Wow! We see that this person loves God’s Word and His direction, teaching, and instruction, and they are pondering and studying His Word daily, even in the toughest of times. Even when they can’t feel God or hear God, they are mature enough to trust that He is real, that He is faithful, and that He is constantly working on their behalf!

Verse three continues to describe who this person is. “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” A tree does not pop up overnight. It takes years and years for a tree to go from a simple seed to something that kids can climb on. During this growth process, the tree must form roots that go deep down into the ground. It’s from these deep roots that the tree can then gain nourishment and stability. If the tree’s roots are never allowed to go down then it will never be able to live. The champion described in these verses is someone who is staying in one spot long enough to put down their roots in God; they’re not flaky and shallow. They recognize that every time they pray, every time they read God’s Word, every time they go to church, they are allowing their roots (their livelihood and stability) to go down deeper and deeper into God. It is this person who will then have the ability to produce the right fruit in the right season, according to God’s plan for their life. Whatever this person does is going to prosper! The word “prosper” here means success with God as the source. You will never truly be prosperous until God is the source of all that you do. If you do things your way, you’ll get man’s limited results, but when you do things God’s way, you’ll get His supernaturally successful results!

I love this passage because it encourages me that when I do what I know I should be doing in my walk with God then I can lean completely on Him for my success. I don’t have to worry and try to make things happen for myself; when I am walking with God, my prosperity is guaranteed!

To All the Servants...

Did you ever dream of becoming a servant? Probably not, but once you entered the kingdom of God, that became your new title. No one is above serving. Jesus is referred to as a servant in the New Testament on many different occasions. But serving is not just about your actions – it’s more about your attitude than anything else!

There are many lessons that God wants you to learn throughout your life, but while He will provide the circumstances for you to learn them in, He won’t force you to learn them. That’s up to you. When God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, they had what should have been an 11 day trip before they reached the Promised Land. But just because that trip should’ve taken only 11 days obviously didn’t mean it did. They circled the mountain for 40 years before they got to where they were going. Forty years! That just goes to show that God will provide the way, but it’s up to you how and when you get there. My point is that one of these lessons to be learned is how to be a servant, and for most of us, we stretch out that “11 day trip” into something much longer because we don’t get it the first time.

Many people are spiritually immature, and they don’t do something they know they should because they don’t feel like it. I can tell you right now that if you live your life based on your feelings, you’re in for one long roller coaster! One rough definition of spiritual maturity is doing what you know is right, even when you don’t feel like it. I don’t always feel like being Suzy Homemaker and taking care of things around the house, but I do it, not just for my husband and myself but for God. God is a God of order, and when your house is a mess and out of order, that can be an indicator that other areas may be out of order in your life as well.

Don’t be misled; serving is not just taking care of the two-year-olds one Sunday a month at church or being an usher every other weekend. Serving most often takes place outside of the four walls of your church. You can serve by putting the grocery cart away in the right spot in the parking lot or by putting your clothes back on the rack after you’ve tried them on at the store instead of piling them onto the already busy worker. You can serve by picking up trash in your neighborhood or by doing what your husband asks without that big sigh that says “I’m too busy to be bothered with this right now, but since I’m such a good, Christian wife, I’ll do it.” And just because “they have people who take car of that” doesn’t mean that you can’t give them a break and do it yourself.

Once you graduate from “doing nothing because you don’t feel like it” to getting into action serving, then you must look at your attitude. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Are you doing it to be seen by someone in hopes of gaining some kind of promotion? Are you doing it to gain social status or acceptance or are you doing it because you know that God is watching and would be pleased?

Colossians 3:23, 24 says, “Whatever may be your task, work at it heartily from the soul, as something done for the Lord and not for men, Knowing with all certainty that it is from the Lord and not from men that you will receive the inheritance which is your real reward. The One Whom you are actually serving is the Lord Christ the Messiah.” It’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling unappreciated when you’re serving, and that’s why it’s so important to remember that even if no one ever gives you a pat on the back for all of your hard work, God does. He sees every time you serve with a right heart, and He appreciates you! If you’ve fallen into the “woe is me, no one appreciates me” trap, climb out of it fast. Realize that your promotion and your reward ultimately come from God and God alone!
Becoming a true servant is a life-long process. If you’ve mastered serving in one area, tackle another that might not be so easy for you. You can always find a way to grow when it comes to serving!

Sow the Seed of YOU

1 Corinthians 15:36-38 AMP
36…Every time you plant seed, you sow something that does not come to life [germinating, springing up, and growing] unless it dies first. 37Nor is the seed you sow then the body which it is going to have [later], but it is a naked kernel... 38But God gives to it the body that He plans and sees fit, and to each kind of seed a body of its own.

What is a seed? In its purest form, a seed can be described as a source or beginning. YOU are a seed, and it’s up to you in what soil you will plant yourself. In general, most seeds look the same, and the same is true for people who are away from God. While they may not all choose the same sins to partake of, they all sin – and look basically the same: searching, empty, and lonely. It’s not until you make the choice to plant the seed of YOU into God’s soil that you will see who you really are!

If you had a bowl of seeds, you probably couldn’t tell the different between a seed that would produce a flower and a seed that would produce a vegetable. Why? Because as seeds in a bowl, you can’t see their full potential or destiny. It’s not until you plant a seed, in the right environment, with the right conditions and the right amount of food, water and sunlight, that you slowly begin to see what it was meant to produce. The same is true for you. It’s not until you come to know Jesus as your personal LORD and SAVIOR, you immerse yourself in the Word of God, and you commit yourself to learning God’s will for your life that you will begin to see what you were meant to produce.

And notice how God’s kingdom (His way of doing things) works: most of this process is up to YOU. Yes, God is there helping you in your weaknesses, giving you the strength and desire to press on, but ultimately if you don’t do the work in your life, it won’t get done. As my Pastor says, “Anything significant that happens in your life will be initiated by you.” No one can get saved for you, no one can go to heaven or hell for you, and no one can fulfill your destiny for you.

What is the first step in planting the seed of you in God’s soil? Death. Death to your flesh and your way of doing things. Death is not such a bad thing. If Jesus never died, He could never have been glorified, and if you never make the choice to die daily to your self, you’ll never experience the true glory of God in your life in the way God intended. You can’t truly come to life in Christ until you die to this world first.

God has a tailor-made plan for YOUR life. He hasn’t run out of good ideas and decided to recycle His plan for someone else’s life to give to you but rather He has planned out every single minute of every single day that you are on this earth. It’s up to you to seek Him out in order to find that plan. 1 Corinthians 15:38 says But God gives to it the body that He plans and sees fit, and to each kind of seed a body of its own. God has a body just for you, one unlike any other in the whole world or in all of past eternity, and He wants more than anything for you to find that body as you plant the seed of you in His fruitful soil.

Philippians 1:6 says And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. And Philippians 2:13 says …for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. Don’t worry; take heart that GOD is on YOUR side and is ready, willing and able to help you…but you must take the first step and help yourself by making the decision to plant the seed of you in Him.

Temple Under Construction

1 Corinthians 3:16 is a very familiar scripture, and it reads “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” I’ve always heard this scripture and thought, “Yes, I am the temple of God. God makes His home in me, and I need to take care of myself, as I am His home.” But as I was studying the other day, God gave me a new revelation about this scripture and the others surrounding it.

There is not much in this world that just appears out of no where, without first going through a process, so why have I always pictured in my head that my temple was already complete? Whenever I heard 1 Corinthians 3:16 in the past, I thought of myself as God’s home, which I am, but it never entered my mind that this “home” is not yet complete. It’s not that I have ever thought of myself as perfect, but I simply never before read this scripture and saw the “Temple Under Construction” sign.

Jesus becomes the foundation poured in your life when you get saved, and YOU then choose what you build on that foundation. Every choice you make in your life is also a block used to build your temple. After all, it is your choices which ultimately determine your destiny: who you choose to associate with, where you choose to go (or not to go) to church, whether or not you choose to obey when God speaks to you, etc. 1 Corinthians 3:12,13 tells us that no matter what materials we use to build our temple, it will one day be tested based on character and worth. Even though you’re saved, you still have free will – that didn’t disappear with salvation – and God will let you make your own mistakes. He will allow you to put a block in the wrong place or use the wrong material if that’s what you choose, but He does also cause all things, even your mistakes, to work together for your good. The point is, God lays the foundation, and you build the temple.

The first couple verses of 1 Corinthians 3 talk about being spiritual babies, and we learn that the mark of a baby in Christ is someone who allows their carnal nature to dominate their life, someone who is under the control of ordinary impulses. You can choose to obey God and build your temple according to His blueprints or you can choose to remain a baby and build your temple according to your own fleshly blueprints. However you choose to build it, just know that someday it will be tested.

I’ve been very privileged to live in nice places my whole life. I grew up in a beautiful house and throughout college I lived in nice apartments, but it is only now that I am married and own my own home that I can really decorate it the way I want to. You wouldn’t believe the difference it makes when you can live in a home that is yours and can be painted and decorated exactly to fit your tastes. Now think about your temple as God’s home. Just as you wouldn’t like to live in an environment not suited to your tastes, God doesn’t either. God makes His home in you when you get saved and is happy to inhabit that home even throughout the construction process, but make sure that you’re building that home to suit God’s tastes, not your own – being obedient to His Word and not to your flesh. Your temple should always be “Under Construction.” No home pops up with a snap of the finger and your temple will be the same way…but don’t grow weary in well doing – in the construction process – because if you faint not, you will reap a reward and God will be pleased with the home you’ve built for Him!

Paying the Price for Perfection

My King James Bible places the description “A Perfect Heart” above the 101st chapter of the book of Psalms. Before I read this 8-verse long chapter, I thought, “Well this is David and we read he was a man after God’s heart, so it’s easier for him to be ‘perfect’.” But that isn’t necessarily so. In these verses we read about some of the choices that David makes which help him to become “perfect”…and let’s examine the Hebrew definition of that word (because it’s not exactly what first comes to mind).

First things first, David begins in verse one by singing and praising God. It says, “I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.” Your life – whether it is through your words or actions – is giving praise to someone or something. YOU are the only one who can choose who you “sing your song” to; don’t allow your song, which belongs to God, to be stolen by your flesh and the world!

The word “perfect” occurs twice in verse two and yet the two words have different Hebrew definitions. Verse two reads, “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” The first instance of “perfect” means complete, intact, not cut up into pieces. The definition goes on to say that nothing in your outward activities or internal disposition is odious to God, and this describes your entire relationship to God. While the second instance of the word means completeness in integrity. While the definitions are similar, the second one goes into more detail. So we see here that our English definition of “perfect” which according to Webster’s means “having no defect or fault; flawless” doesn’t exactly equate with the original Hebrew meanings of this word.

No one is perfect (by our English definition); Jesus was the only human without sin. But we can work towards perfection like David did – that is work towards being complete IN GOD. Let’s look at some of the actions David took on his quest:
He set no wicked thing before his eyes (verse three)
He hated the work of those who turned aside (verse three)
He put a froward heart away from him (verse four)
He did not know a wicked person (verse four)
He cut off gossipers from his life (verse five)
He did not entertain proud people (verse five)
He set his eyes on those faithful to God (verse six)
He put deceivers and liars out of his house (verse seven)
He destroyed the wicked of the land (verse eight)
These points are taken from the King James language so let’s look at them in our words.

Whatever you look at longest will become strongest in your life; that is a fact! If you fix your eyes on God and your relationship with Him, He will become the strongest thing in your life, but if you allow your eyes to wander to the things of the world that are vying for your attention (that don’t deserve it), those things will instead take over your life. Whatever enters your gates (your eyes and ears) then goes into your heart, and as we know from Proverbs, out of your heart flow the issues of life. In other words, GUARD YOUR GATES! David says that he set no wicked thing before his eyes, and then he says that he set his eyes on those faithful to God. Smart man.

David hated the work of those who turned aside. Beware of those who “turn aside” around you. Their hearts have changed from God as a result of deception. Do not entertain their ideas or reasoning, in turn allowing yourself to be deceived.

David also put a froward heart away from him. Froward here means distorted, false. Because of our sin nature, our hearts are naturally distorted, so YOU must evict your perverse heart and replace it day by day through God’s Word.

David says that he didn’t know a wicked person. The word “know” here means to know by observing or to be intimate with. NEVER become intimate with wicked people; do not share ANY part of your life with them. Bad company will eventually corrupt good morals! In knowing this, David cut off these people from his life: gossipers, proud people, deceivers and liars (to name a few).

Verse eight talks about David destroying the wicked of the land. Destroy here means extirpate (which means to pull up by the roots; to destroy wholly, completely). Your job and duty is to root up the wicked. This means exposing them for who they really are. Many people don’t like to believe that there are evil forces; they only want to believe that there is good. Don’t be deceived because the enemy is out to steal, kill and destroy. Be ready for hard work because some roots are as thick as trees and are anchored deep in the ground – but remember that it’s not by might nor by power but by the SPIRIT that these things can be accomplished!

These are just a few steps on the path to “perfection” in your life. God is the ONLY one who can help you on this path, so ASK HIM for his help! We ALL need it!

REAL Hope

I’ve learned how to put a powerful tool to work in my life lately, one that I didn’t always relate to God: hope. As a teenager I learned through life experiences not to put my hope in everything because as the book of Proverbs says “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” But that’s not the whole scripture; the second half reads “but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” I think a lot of people share the feelings I had as a teenager, but it’s so critical to differentiate the hope of this world from the hope of God.

Romans 5:3-5 says “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” The word hope in this scripture from the original Greek means “favorable and confident expectation, a forward look with assurance.” This passage tells me that true hope is found after tribulation, after patience and after experience.

If you put your hope in man you will eventually be disappointed, but if you put your hope in God you won’t ever be let down. The Amplified Bible puts Romans 5:5 this way: “Such hope NEVER disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” So many times we incorrectly judge God by what we see in man. You may have been hurt by someone in your church or by someone who says they’re a Christian and then assume God is that way too. That is a VERY costly mistake because while we are created in the image of God, we are still made of imperfect human flesh. Jesus was the only man who ever lived without sinning. The same is true if you’ve put your hope in someone only to be let down. Don’t allow yourself to become so callous and hard that you assume God will let you down the way man did.

Psalm 119:71 rings so true: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” In time of affliction, hope is essential! Many times God allows hard and uncomfortable circumstances into our lives because without them our faith would never be tried, and we wouldn’t learn anything. If you’re a teacher, how do you know whether or not your students have learned the material you’re trying to teach them? You know they’ve learned if they pass the test. The same is true with God. You’re responsible for everything you learn in God, and don’t be so naïve to think that a test will never come. And if you’re going through a time in your life when you feel that God is not speaking to you, just remember that the teacher never talks during the test! It is in these times when your hope in God will carry you through.

Hope is intertwined closely with faith, and when the two are used together they produce peace. Hope in God is not simply wishing for something, thinking maybe it’ll happen and maybe it won’t but rather it is CONFIDENT EXPECATION. When you are in covenant with God, through the Blood of Jesus and through paying your tithe, and when you’re standing on the Word of God, you can have that hope, that confident expectation. Pastor Rod Parsley always says, “Expectancy is the breeding ground for miracles.” If you need a miracle in your life today, whether it’s in your home or your finances or your body, EXPECT it and HOPE for it. I remember the little magnet my mom had on our refrigerator growing up; it said, “Expect a miracle!” Don’t let the enemy lie to you and steal your hope (and he can only do that when YOU let him).

You need to determine in your heart that God is real and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6). He is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19). What He said will come to pass because His Word cannot return to Him void (Isaiah 55:11). Stand up for yourself against the attacks from the enemy on your hope. Fight the good fight, and watch God as He comes through for you. Your journey to your promise will be much smoother when you bring along HOPE.