The
lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good,
your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad,
your body also is full of darkness. (Luke 11:34)
My
friends, to see clearly is everything! Nothing really happens in
this living walk, until you come to see things through God’s
eyes. To see the world, and all that it represents - to see what
is behind and beneath it all, where it leads, its scope and
sphere… is absolutely essential for the follower of Jesus
Christ. Now this may sound simplistic, but everything must be
reduced down to a crystal clear contrast between light and
darkness, and life and death. In so many ways, this is where the
process of forsaking and overcoming the world begins and ends.
Oh that
our Lord would open our spiritual eyes to see clearly what the
world is! What He sees! Not only the overtly evil and unholy
things, but all things conceived by the god of this world to
undermine the work of the Holy Spirit and the purposes of the
Most High.
The
Scriptures are clear that all of the world wrought in Adam is
under the dominion and influence of the evil one. It is also
under a sentence of death, waiting to be carried out at our
Lord’s return. It is a settled matter and there is no future for
it. The world and all who represent it - fueling it and feeding
it - have already been judged and found guilty. The judgment is
certain! Seeing this is key, my brethren.
When you
were saved what was it you were saved from? Was it not the world
and its most certain destruction? Yes, we go on living in the
world, touching the things of the world, but our life and hope
is not in them. This is no more our home than the desert is the
habitat of fish. We are sojourners and pilgrims here, looking
forward to a better country; a heavenly kingdom where the glory
and will of God is pre-eminent. We are sustained in this hostile
and alien environment by His heavenly life in us, breathing in
His Spirit, assuming His character, life and light.
Oh but
we know how this world appeals to the flesh in us don’t we? We
are acutely aware of how it teases and tempts it? This is why
our Lord minced no words, when He declared that the flesh (the
life of Adam) profits nothing. It is very much at home in this
world. It speaks its language and understands its ways
perfectly. It quite naturally pursues its wealth and prominence.
It’s life and destiny is linked to the world, and its roots run
deep into it. The way of the flesh is the way of the world – for
they are one and the same, nurturing one another unto
destruction.
Those
born from above in the Spirit know such things! They recognize
and appreciate that every time they touch the world (and how can
we not), there is the danger that the flesh in them will rear
its ugly head and reach for a bite. They understand perfectly
that only the world can appease the lusts and appetites of the
flesh, and they are forever watching and praying that their Lord
would keep them safe from the evil one. In touching the world,
they are careful not to let it touch them or get inside them.
They have given their heart to another, and their loyalty and
allegiance to another Kingdom.
All that
is the world; all that engenders and underpins it – its
economy, politics, religion, culture, science and technology,
etc – is at enmity with the Maker of the Universe. It is nothing less than the collective
expression of the pride and lust of every individual in and of
the world. Behind its very institutions and systems, its ‘isms and
‘ologies, and wisdom and ways are powerful demonic (spiritual) forces,
principalities and powers, all doing the will of their wicked
taskmaster - the one who was a murderer and a thief from the
beginning. Although his days are
numbered, and all that remains is for judgment to fall, he still actively rules this world with an
iron fist.
Dear
brethren – to behold the world clearly with spiritual eyes, to
perceive it as our Lord did when He walked this earth, and as He
does now, is to negate its power and influence. It is by seeing
that light infuses the entire body! Yes, our Lord – in His
munificent glory and grace - has chosen to sanctify us in the world,
not to immediately remove us from it. But make no mistake - we
are not of this world, and we are not to be associated with it.
We are a heavenly people, called into the household and kingdom
of our God! Our treasure and pearl of great price is not to be
found in this world, but above. For our treasure is God Himself,
and to desire Him above all else is to shun the world and all
of its empty promises.
To truly
see with heavenly eyes is to reject all that the world offers
and represents. Satan may tempt us with gold or pleasure, but we
see only rust and death. Temporal things no longer have any
appeal for those with eternity in their hearts. They see through
the veiled promises, pain and lies of the devil and His world.
All has lost its shine. It is revealed only for what it
genuinely is - hollow, empty and worthless!
To
forsake the world while still in it, and to expose it for what
it is by manifesting the light of truth that is Jesus
Christ – my friends – this is the power and wonder of our God in
this age of grace and gathering. Wouldn’t it be so much easier
to extricate us from it all and make us holy in heaven or
somewhere else beyond Satan’s sphere of influence?
No… His
light and life would emanate through His called out children in
the very midst of the darkness, delusion and death that is the
world. The very Kingdom of God - the antithesis of all that the
world represents – would meet it head on, just as when the man
Jesus Christ was born into it, and stepped out in it, and
exposed it for what it was.
Let us
ask the Lord, my brethren, that He would grant us the heavenly
vision to see the world only as He does; and that we would forsake it
and come out of it in our hearts. Not to be physically removed
from it, for this is not His will at all; but to be released
from its grip in authentic spiritual separation. To have our
hearts purged of all desire for the world and its painted
treasure.
I really like the way A.W. Tozer suggested this when
he wrote of the Christian’s “smiling indifference to the world’s
attractions and their steady resistance to its temptations.” He
continued - “the true saint… cares little for passing values; he
looks forwards eagerly to the day when eternal things shall come
into their own and godliness will be found in all that matters.”
Amen to that.
Yet this
separation is of the heart and spirit, not some form of physical
asceticism. Those who seek hermetic isolation from
the world have not truly seen it for what it is. In fact, this
tendency to isolate oneself from the life of the world is more
an expression of the world’s religious spirit than the will of
God. You can’t hide or remove yourself from it, and that is not our Lord’s intent
for us here and now anyway. We are to expose it by walking as
heavenly lights in the darkness. We either believe that He who
is in us is greater than he who is the world and that we are
complete in Him or we don’t!
Therefore, if you died
with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as
though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to
regulations— “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which
all concern things which perish with the using—according to the
commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an
appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility,
and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the
indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:20-23)
See how
even such religious sounding prohibitions against contact with
the world is very much part of what it represents, and they have
no place for the Christian who holds all things loosely. Many
think that they in fact do have value against the indulgence of
the flesh, but Paul says the opposite here - that they are
actually just as much a part of the world and the flesh as the
things we are not to touch, taste or handle.
And
neither is the world like some modern city, with good
neighborhoods and bad, some safe and some deadly. The world is
not found in its location or activity, but in its antagonistic
spirit that pervades all life under heaven. And it is all under
the dominion and influence of the devil, and the judgment of
God, enacted at the Cross of Christ. We as children of the
family of God are either crucified to
it, and it to us or we’re not! It either still exercises power
and control over us or it doesn’t.
Again,
we cannot emphasize enough this power of seeing clearly, for
even the devil can make death and darkness appear as life and
light. Indeed, although many do not have the eyes or will to see
it, the vast majority of our churches are under His
direct control, and much of what we consider organized Christianity
(“speckled birds” as Watchman Nee so aptly called them) has
aligned itself with the world and its ways. That the wheat and
the tares would grow up together (Matthew 13) and be virtually
indistinguishable to the carnal eye indicates the enemy’s
mastery of subterfuge and deception. For those of the world, even
darkness appears as light. Yet this is not so for the children
of God, whose eyes have been enlightened with true heavenly
light.
Yes,
dear friends, we do indeed go on living in the world, employing
the things of the world - its money, government and
institutions, for example – but they and the spirit behind them are not ours
at all, and our hope and confidence is not in them. The way of
get, greed and godlessness that characterizes life in this world is
no longer our way. All that is in the world, and employed by the
adversary to undermine the plans and character of the Eternal
God, actively working to draw souls away from him, down into the
pit of despair, delusion and death – this no longer has any
claim on us.
We must
surrender our hearts to the Living and Awesome God who will soon
pour out His righteous fury and wrath on this world and its own. No longer should the cares of this world define and
manipulate us. No more should we befriend the world as it stands in
enmity and opposition against all that is Holy and True! The
Gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the kingdom - was preached as a witness against this
present world, and there is no future for it! All that chokes
the life of Jesus Christ in us – the cares of the world, the
deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things – all
of this will soon meet a violent end! We who are called sons
of light, and anticipate God’s mercy, stand in stark contrast to
those who are the sons of this world, and stand blindly in the
path of eternal judgment.
Dear
brethren – the time has come to stop attempting to appease the
world, or to be reconciled to it in some manner, as so much of
what is called Christianity today. Our Lord never promised us
such affinity with this world, only its hatred. Yet just as He
overcame the world, we too must overcome it in Him. Here is the
glory and power and wonder of our Heavenly Father, that He would
claim us as His own in the world and redeem us to its face, in
blatant opposition to it.
How
glorious that we can be in the world, touching it daily, and yet
not be conformed to it, or corrupted by it. No longer does its
wisdom wield any influence with us, for we see it's foolishness and death. No longer do we desire the world’s
spirit, its greedy desire for more, its delusion and obsession
with earthly things. Better to be despised by the world and
accepted by God, to live by His grace and not the world’s carnal
pursuit of life apart from the Creator.
And you He made alive, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of
disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the
others. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Here we
see that origin is everything; and that everything runs its own
course. What matters is not good or evil
per say, but who and where you are from – the essence of our
existence in Christ Jesus. It is our roots in Him, and our
newfound nature in God, that determines the course of our lives
now. He is our way and path and life! A fundamental part of this is the
widening of our eyes in real heaven-sent revelation, that
we might see the world as it really is, with all its glitter and
paint stripped away. It is in truly beholding it, and
comprehending what it represents in its opposition to our Holy
Father and His Beloved Son, that we forsake and overcome it. In
the Scriptures things are less defined by what they do but
rather where they are from. And every man’s life and existence
is either rooted in God or rooted in the adversary and the
world. It is that simple. For...
• You
either have a fleshly mind or a spiritual mind
• You
either have the spirit of the world or God’s Holy Spirit
• You
either serve the Lord Jesus Christ or Satan the thief and
pretender
• You
either walk according to the basic principles of the world –
leading to condemnation and death, or by the life of Jesus
Christ leading to heavenly blessing and life
• You
are either a child in the household of God or a son of
disobedience and the world
• You
are either a friend of the world and at enmity with God, or you
are friend of the Lord Jesus Christ, at peace with the Father in
Heaven
• You
either love the world and the things in the world (prominence,
property, power, etc.) or you love the Father in Heaven
• Your
are either compelled by the spirit of the world and anti-christ
or you have the Holy Spirit within you transforming your heart
and mind into the very image of God
Dear
friends – there is nothing to fear or be intimated by, for He
who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. And again
the world is everything constituted by man’s philosophies and
politics and principles, whispered into his soul over thousands
of years by the liar himself. Its reach is extensive and complete.
Will you hide from it dear ones, or shrink back from it?
Will you be intimidated by it when the Lord Himself placed you
right in the center of it for His glory alone, as a demonstration of His
ascendant
power and wisdom?
Consider
the following wisdom from Watchman Nee…
Religious
people… attempt to overcome the world by getting out of it. As
Christians, this is not our attitude at all. Right here is the
place where we are called to overcome. Created distinct from the
world, we accept with joy the fact that God has placed us in it.
That distinctiveness, our gift from God in Christ – is all the
safeguard we need!
Again we
must emphasize that all the world, and all that it represents as
a spiritual order and system, is under the judgment of death,
enacted by God’s holy law. It has been condemned, and all that remains
is the penalty phase to be applied. No place in the
Scriptures do we read anything of God reforming or improving this
present world or its principalities and powers. Rather, He
demonstrates His love for the world by supplanting it with His order and system – the Kingdom
of God and His Christ.
And there were loud voices
in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign
forever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15)
In
teaching the Kingdom of God, Jesus presented an alternative to
this worldly reality lived out in the power of the flesh,
according to carnal pursuits. To enter His Spiritual Kingdom is to escape
the world as we know it. Herein lies salvation, for no longer
are we subject to the world and aligned with its impending judgment and
death.
Truly,
my brethren, to see rightly is everything. If the lamp of the
body is full of God’s heavenly light, then the world no longer
holds any power over us. Its bond of deception is broken, and we
are truly free. No longer are we to worry about our temporal
condition as the world does – what we will eat and we wear; what men think of us. No longer is survival and
material comfort and security all that drives us in life. Our focus and
devotion will turn to our Heavenly Father who provides
everything we need in His beloved Son through His Holy Spirit.
Here is our peace and provision in the world, and to see this is
to be truly free indeed!
