Lovely traces, I can sense you in everything.
The way that you move me takes me far away. I seek no escape.
I’m dreaming through Your eyes.
I’m wandering through Your mind.
I’m overtaken by the way you deliver me. I’m transcended..
There’s no place I’d rather be than here in Heaven.
Without You I’m incomplete. It’s hopeless…
You consume me…You consume me…
Like a burning flame running through my veins…
You consume me…moving through me…
Any time, any place, You invade my space…
You consume me…You consume me…
The music video for the DC Talk song Consume Me provides a great visual for the above lyrics. It shows people who are walking around, but each one is on life support. A man at one point in the video removes his oxygen mask and struggles for his life as he fights to breathe.
We need God.
I believe that the essence of the Parable of the Prodigal Son was recognizing/missing the unconditional love and acceptance of the Father that was always his. But notice that his angry brother also needed a revelation of that too, even though he never left the fold:
Son, you are always with me and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found. – Luke 15:31-32
I imagine that the enemy finds pleasure when a Christian leader grows stagnant and lives life “going through the motions.” As we go about serving God we, like Mary in Luke 10:39, need to maintain our place sitting at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10:39). There’s something powerful that happens when a pastor, minister, or church leader fights to guard his or her intimate time with God. These times of talking, listening, and relating are essential. Our transaction with God always takes us to another place, a place of confidence, rest, contentment, and so much more that we need. All in all, we are reminded of who we are and what we have in Him.
As I have heard Dr. Nasir Siddiki say, “Things pursue kings. Kings do not pursue things.” We need to be on guard for those times when the enemy will try to get us to focus our worship and desire on things, even good things, rather than on God. A few examples in the Bible come to mind, first from the Old Testament. Gehazi pursued Naaman to get material goods (II Kings 5). King David took the census (2 Samuel 24).
When Paul and Barnabas preached and performed miracles from God in Lystra, the people wanted to put them in pedestals as gods. Being the men of God that they were, they identified themselves as “ordinary” men, pointed the crowd to God, and gave the glory to Him (Acts 14:11-18). It didn’t dissuade the crowd much from their actions of adoration until some opposing Jews arrived from other towns and persuaded the people to stone Paul.
Speaking of crowds, in John 6:15 we read that Jesus perceived that the people wanted to crown Him as king. So, what did He do? He departed to a mountain by Himself alone. It wasn’t God’s time or God’s way. And bear in mind that the same crowds that adored Jesus one moment were also the ones that wanted him crucified the next. It is no wonder then that Paul later wrote that his calling as apostle came not from man or through man, but from God. (Galatians 1:1).
In Luke 14:7-11, Jesus says:
When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him;
And he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man’, and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.
But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.
For whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
The heart of Satan is self worship, to go ahead and take up that seat in the front. It can be argued that the first “church split” that ever took place happened before man was ever created. Lucifer was full of himself and he wanted a piece of God’s throne (Isaiah 14:11-13). As a result, he faced eviction with all his cohorts. And there is nothing more that the enemy would like to do than to impart that attitude into the heart of a leader. He certainly tried it with Jesus:
Again the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to Him, “All these things I will give you if you fall down and worship me.” – Matthew 4:8-9.
Of course, this temptation takes on different forms and is common to all of us at various times in our lives. It is therefore important to keep our heart in check. We should get in the habit of asking and answering some serious questions, including the following:
- Is what I am doing and pursuing about me, my fame, my own glory, or is it truly all about God?
- Are my eyes focused on God or am I comparing myself to other leaders and ministries and what they have or don’t have?
- Am I using my gifts and talents for self promotion, or am I all about honoring God and touching lives for Him?
- Am I looking at people as numbers that make up the size of our ministry, or am I a good steward of those that God has entrusted me with, to be seen through His eyes of love and compassion?
- Do I seek to develop those God has put under me to their full potential, or am I using them as a means to an end – to build up my vision?
Am I building God’s kingdom, or my own?
Jesus replied:
Away with you,[a] Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve’ “- –Matthew 4:10
The Psalmist said, Who have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You (Psalm 73: 25). It all goes back to God the Father.
John the Baptist directed his disciples to Jesus when he said, Behold the Lamb of God! (John 1:29-37).
I recall hearing Dr. Mark Chironna explain that the word “behold” in this passage refers to an imprint or an impression.
When leaders fight the busyness of life to maintain that impression of Jesus embedded in their minds and hearts through on-going relationship with God, the temptation to worship and desire other things weakens its grip.
As the song goes,
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full at His wonderful face. And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Oscar Cuan 