Members Exclusive August 2024
Members Exclusive
Part 1: Being In The Family of God
by Bruce Billington
This is the first in a two-part series on what it means to be a people called out for God.
Head for the Mountains?
I love to be on the mountaintops of life when everything is going great with me and those I love. It is also from this place that we can really meditate on the wonder and the majesty of God, what it means to be His son or daughter, and what a wonderful world He made.
The mountaintop is the place that we should visit at least once a week and chill out, enjoy the views, get some downtime, and do some of the things we love doing. This is so important for our well-being. Please understand that God the Father, joins in with us on those things and loves to watch us “play”. Jesus taught that this special weekly day, although no longer a law, is our day – it is made for us (Mark 2:27). It is where we learn how to “be” rather than “do”. These times may or may not teach us anything, but they certainly will make us something. They are designed to renew and refresh us. Are you having these times and making the most of them?
But now here comes the “kicker”. As exceptional and important as these wonderful mountaintop moments are, God will not let us stay there for long – at least not in this life. The calling we receive from God, as stated in Ephesians 2:10, is mostly worked out in the valleys. This means we have to leave the mountaintop, roll up our sleeves and get down and dirty because the people who dwell in the valleys of a fallen world need help, encouragement, rebuilding, and deliverance. Of course, this also applies to society and ultimately the nations that are all part of this as well.
Matthew 17:14-18 tells us that the disciples came down from the mountaintop, into the valley, and straight into a deliverance session with a demoniac. As long as we are here on earth, we have work to do, and some of it is unpleasant, even grubby. Although it is wonderful to see people getting set free; getting delivered; getting reconciled with God and others, and so on, it is often an ugly thing to be involved in. At times we will be called to enter into the arena of the kingdom of darkness which has nothing nice in it, despite what counterfeit impression it may try to use to deceive us.
Yet it is our Privilege
Despite this though, what a joy it is that God trusts us with His work. Do you ever think about this? Or maybe you have some thoughts that say, “He is unwise to choose me because there is nothing good in me and I have no value”?
Ironically, that is exactly why He chose us. As long as we think that He needs us and that we are of value to Him, He cannot work with us because we will go out in our own efficiency, pride, or whatever, and in that state (our flesh), we cannot achieve the purposes of God. We often look at someone’s natural ability and think that person would make a good Christian, and of course, those abilities we notice are God-given. But the essence of the Kingdom of God is not a matter of our abilities and strength, but a matter of our poverty; it is not about what we bring with us, but what God puts into us; not a matter of natural virtues, of the strength of character, of knowledge, or experience— all of this is not what God is wanting from us.
The only thing of value is being taken into the purposes of God and being made His sons and daughters. Let’s read what the Apostle Paul said about this in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31.
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 – “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no man may boast before God. 30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
God embraces those who know their poverty. He doesn’t need anyone. He could do everything He wants by Himself and have a lot less hassle.
As Christians, we are not here for our own purpose at all— we are here for the purposes of God, and the two are not the same. We may not know what God’s compelling purpose is, but whatever happens, we must maintain our relationship with Him. We must never allow anything to damage our relationship with God, and if something does damage it, we must take the time to make it right again. The most important aspect of Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain, and the surrounding influences and qualities produced by that relationship.
This is not bad news – although at times it may seem hard. The overarching process of this, which is called transformation, often requires things in our lives to be put to death before they can come to life.
1 Corinthians 2:9 – “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
Wow – this beats anything we can ever do or have in our own strength in life, despite whatever gifts we have. If we allow Him, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to lead us and empower us – THEN – we can go with Him to the end.
There is a sobering verse in Luke 18:31. It says, “But if you will allow Him to take you to the end of your own self–sufficiency, then He can choose you to go with Him “to Jerusalem”.”
It goes on to say that He explained what was going to happen on this journey, but the disciples did not understand any of it (V:34). However, He still took them with Him.
Often, we are called on a journey that we don’t understand or that doesn’t make sense. This puts us in a wonderful place of total reliance upon God, and now He can really do great works through us. These are things that we would really lament if we get to the end of our lives and it is revealed how many times we missed out on them. Let’s make sure we have signed up for this and are on the journey.
Our Mission
I know you would all expect me to say our mission is the Kingdom of God. And here at SRT, we are totally committed to this truth. But I want to speak a little more practically in this message and focus on how we work this out in our relationship with Jesus.
It is true that in our natural life, our ambitions change as we grow and mature. In our Christian life, there are similarities – we tend to live in seasons, and they certainly come and go. But here is the one major difference for those who are true disciples of the Lord. We start with Christ, and we end with Him; the beginning and the end are the same.
We live this out in our willingness to follow Jesus wherever He leads us. The teaching in so many churches today, that suggests that the main purpose of the Christian life is “to be a good person and win converts or provide money for those who are in the so-called ministry,” is false teaching! I completely agree that Jesus calls all of us to be evangelistic and to seek and save the lost, to be generous with whatever He trusts us with, and to help the poor and needy when we are able. All this is part of the Christian journey, and some of us will be called to do more in these areas, than others who have a different calling.
But, this is not the aim or goal of true Christian discipleship – not at all. Being born again or embracing salvation is not an end in our walk with Jesus, it is the beginning. When Jesus said in John 3:3 that “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”, the emphasis in this verse is on the word or realm of the Kingdom, not on being born again. This is made clear later in the chapter, when He concludes that part of the discussion with Nicodemus by saying, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12).
Being born again is about being born from above – that is a spiritual thing – something Nicodemus just couldn’t comprehend (see the previous verses). But the Kingdom of God – which is the mission that unfolds when we walk with Jesus, is about this earth!! It is, as Jesus said, an earthly thing. How have so many missed that? The essence of the Christian faith is to the Will of God, by following Jesus when He says (as we shared earlier), “We are going up to Jerusalem.”.
Oswald Chambers tells us this.
In our Lord’s life, Jerusalem was the place where he reached the climax of his Father’s will upon the cross. Unless we go with Jesus to Jerusalem, we will have no companionship with him. Nothing ever discouraged our Lord on his way to Jerusalem. He didn’t hurry through the villages where he was persecuted or linger in the villages where he was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned him away from his purpose: to go up to Jerusalem.
If Jesus is truly our master, the works of God will be manifested through us; people and the land will be blessed. Some of these people will show gratitude, but many will show ingratitude. No matter what, we must let nothing deflect us from going up to our Jerusalem. Are we committed to staying with Him, come what may, or did we sign up for this journey to get blessed? Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, particularly in the Western world seek the latter – the blessing.
The reason we don’t despair when our journey gets tough – the reason we keep our head above water when we feel like we are drowning, is due to two things that are aligned with the Holy Spirit. The first relates to the company we keep. We need constant fellowship with those in Christ, who love us, care for us, invest in us and watch over us. Each person who does that for us or with us, is part of our wealth.
The second relates to what the Apostle Paul said about this in Romans 8:18. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Many Christians, over the 2000 years of our history, have every right to consider that their sufferings may seem great. The Apostle Paul could certainly claim this. But what Paul is calling us to remember is that these sufferings are nothing in comparison with the future glory we will all be part of. These sufferings will go – and for most of us, they are but a season in our lives, and often go hand in hand in ultimately producing great blessings and a further measure of Christlikeness in us. But the eternal glory we are all heading for will last forever, and will greatly surpass anything we experience in this life – either good or bad.
Conclusion
So, what should we say as we consider this topic? In this teaching, we have claimed that the best life we can possibly consider on this earth, comes as we surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, and allow Him to connect us with our calling, with His people, and the empowering of us by the Holy Spirit. Whatever that may cost us will prove to be worth it – to some degree now, and later, in a life beyond our greatest dreams, for all eternity.
I want to finish with a great comment from King David, that he made towards the end of his life. Now that I am moving towards that season, I can only endorse it. David said, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging for bread.”
Next session we will look at what we should do, now that we are in Christ.
God bless you.
Bruce Billington