meekness in morality
Being birthed into God by his Holy Spirit, we begin to know of a genuine, higher morality than what we previously thought and worked by. This needs nurturing. It is a wide road that shifts us away from this fundamental. We should learn to love, desire, and value certain things above what our human nature would prefer. If this lesson is not learnt, wherever the rudder of the boat takes us, takes us. As we move away from the higher “state” of morality to the lower, our views of morality are based on stronger imperfections, which are determining and unavoidably incomplete.
So, if we build our beliefs and actions based from a lower position, we have missed the requirement for building first on the higher position. And, this is common. Of course we agree on certain things that the secular western “Christian” world agrees are right and wrong. As we develop our higher moral position with God, our “being” is learning not to be controlled by body and soul in all things. We are spiritual beings, so spirit should have the higher place, rather than being mastered by the lower operations. (Watchman Nee was a Christian author who wrote on the way we work with Spirit, soul/mind, and body.) If this control or mixture occurs, we either develop with a dynamic of life within us, or we become set in our ways. There is no neutral position for the life we live in spirit or flesh. We are built so that our aims, energies, desires, purposes all go somewhere. They cannot sit contained or dormant. The expression of this varies. For instance, the male tends to be aggressive and physical in the use of energy as the genetics are built that way. If this is under control of the Spirit, man can be a great leader and servant, rather than a tyrant and abuser.
Separation from God impacts our moral position with God. This has extensive side effects. No one can save themselves by themselves, which is why many experience help directly from God only when they are defeated in crisis seeing they must turn to God. This is about us being with God in His moral position. If one does not think it immoral to be separated from God, there is little we can say.
Through Jesus Christ, all parts of the Gospel agree with each other, including healing. Thousands upon thousands all over the country deny Christ’s healing to extreme detriment. Until such time as this moral positioning is fully restored, we need to understand as best we can our relationship with God through His Son.
If God’s pre-eminence is not able to be substituted by anything else, then when we attempt to do so, the truth still remains. It does not go away, meaning we suffer the consequences of ignoring a higher morality. In the absence or ill health towards of this morality we place focus on lower level things, formulating strong opinions and actions as though they were right, as though they were the higher level. This can become obtuse and sick. Yet again, we see it everywhere throughout the world, with no one exempt from its influences where possible. What can exist in the minds of men will exist until God’s final judgement and righteousness on earth. If a man wants to go for what he wants, he will do it. This is the condition of the human heart. And so diverse people say they are doing God’s work when they are not.
How is the inner man strengthened in the things of God? At times by trial as a necessary cause due to what exists in the world. We experience assault upon the inner man. We will have to stand up to certain men on various matters, face health threats, or other conditions. But, the inner man also develops in the presence of Christ. When we are weak in spirit, we are less complete, less whole, even less resistant to illness or infirmity. Our view is that God looks to wholeness of the person, which can be quite complex. We perhaps all experience when we are more vulnerable to others and have lower confidence.
Jesus strengthens the inner man. This has consequences such as learning to sacrifice what the self of the fallen man wants, of our response to not wanting to let go of actions of the mind or flesh, refusing to see another way, dealing with known genuine sin that the Holy Spirit convicts of. For instance, hatred, anger, determination of power, fortune telling, freemasonry, satanic worship, demonic knowledge, unfaithfulness, carnality, and use of the flesh in addictions and so forth. There are those who struggle to remove these bonds over years, compared to those who relish sin, wanting others to justify them, leading to outbursts and divisions. If we develop our higher morality, our “lower” being changes. I recall someone in their 80’s who cried at the loss of time that could have been spent with God in a better, truer way. It has worked out good for that person as their cries to God were genuine. But the thought is there – loss of time and tragedy we cannot undo. If we know loss, we experienced true humanity and determine for a better way.
If men proclaim what is sin, but is not sin, there is no conviction or power for redemption. It is a useless exercise. If God proclaims what is sin, there is power. Men will do anything they want or imagine, so it is all out there to constantly surprise us. That which refuses to come under God’s reign is the problem. Constantly there are those who determine what that is, what purity is, what sin is. This quest to define sin has never succeeded throughout all history. The sword of the Spirit must work for each of us to run the race for that which is acceptable to the Lord. None of us are the same. We either foster such respect or we do not.
It is expressly important for each individual soul to continue in their desire to turn towards God and to move into Him with primary place, strengthening the inner man by the work of the Holy Spirit so that one is not under the influence of the world and the purposes of other powers.
Thankfully there is a Christian presence in society that has balance and awareness of some of the things going on in the world, despite those who compete with the loudest voices to say what they want.
It is concerning to think about ending our lives on earth from our bodies, with definitive, verifiable, and actual sin not dealt with. Such sin has full ability to come under the power of the Cross because that power is not weak. If that power is absent, then something else is going on. If what is supposed to be sin is not “transfigured” by the Cross, who is anyone to disagree with the Cross.
Although interesting, even from the 1970’s we have literature that attempted to define sin with different emphasis or concerns to what we define today. This pursuit is always going on by academics, philosophers, theologians, and even ourselves because we do make judgements and take actions upon those judgements. The instructions the Lord gives in the parables in Luke’s Gospel around seeking the Kingdom of God are pertinent. Our western world seems to have chronic judgments towards others. This is symptomatic of various unhealthy conditions we appear to make little progress on, at this time.
As I grew up with young Christians around me, many mistakes were made, if not at times tragedies. I have no idea why some things happened, but they did. We still see fundamental mistakes in more senior Christians, based on all sorts of underlying conditions. The message is always the same, to return to Christ, to allow the Spirit of God to move us further towards and in Him. In that we see more balance and less fear. We see more of what makes sense in our being and from that place can be of more usefulness to those around us. The opposite means restriction and even disobedience to God’s good pleasure.
In meekness shall be our strength, rather than the pursuit of artificiality and appearance.
When we are with those who have born the Cross in deeper scars, there is more relief being in their presence. It is a relief to be in their company. We do not have to use our automatic defenses so ingrained within our behaviour. It is rare, but the bar has been set by others.
