Becoming to overcome is not an easy journey. It challenges our faith and spiritual skills to overcome the enemies of the Holy Spirit’s lordship in our lives.
When we first come to Christ and are born again, we are very zealous and committed, though we are children in God. As we mature in Christ, we may discover that our earthly “father figure” has affected our expectations of God. What we really believe about God at a deep level is often influenced a great deal by our history, because our heart have been wounded. We have emotional wounds from our journey, which if left unattended, fester and become bitterness, sapping out spiritual strength. The “journey of becoming” is the work of the Great Surgeon to remove unbelief and healing us so we learn to love His work, done His way.
We start our journey with God as ‘children’ with little understanding of the “things” of God. In fact, we have to be taken care of. As children, our prayers are simple and “cute” but not very powerful or astute, yet God answers them in spite of our limited understanding. He teaches us what matters to Him and He builds our faith through answered prayer. We are encouraged and begin to feel like we’ve made progress. It’s then that God changes the ‘rules’ and begins to require more from us. As ‘servants’, we’re told what to do and are offered no explanation of why we’re doing it. We learn to be obedient and to surrender our intellect (self will) to God’s authority in our lives.
Jesus said to His disciples at the appropriate moment in their journey, “I no longer call you servants but friends.” Friends have a relationship with the Master. They talk about what they’re doing and why. They get understanding and revelation that others don’t. Friends have learned that God’s ways and will are better than their own. They learn to hate their will and ways, and love God’s. They gain powers that ‘servants’ don’t have, because they can be trusted with them.
Friendship with God, however, is not the destination – the journey’s not over. He wants to bring us into the family where there’s equality. He’s still the “Father”, but He wants to share everything He has with us. He wants us to be heirs of the Kingdom. ‘Friends’ don’t have the privilege of a family member. Family members understand the ‘family business’ and are committed to its objectives; they’ve had special mentoring, understanding, and training in God’s ways so that they can take over (inherit) His work and do as their “Father” has done. They’ve become like Him.
The most valuable thing we have is our life. When we give it up, it is worship in spirit and truth. In the Kingdom, we give up our lives and become born-again and start a new life. We think that’s the end of it, but Jesus asks us to give up our life in the bondage of Egypt, so we will live a new life in the Kingdom of God. He wants us to choose to leave the life of the tyrannical money/world system for a life in and from the Kingdom of God. When we make that choice to leave Egypt, it’s as if we’re jumping off a (spiritual) cliff with only God there to catch us. It’s scarey, but we give up something that is worthless in order to gain something that is priceless.
The journey of becoming is unique to each one of us and only God knows its path. We can’t construct our own wilderness journey. We take His hand and follow because only He is “the lamp to our feet”. Others who are not experienced in His work of preparation will not understand. They may criticise, point to scripture, and oppose us out of their own fear (unbelief) and childish understanding. Children, servants, and friends understand the Kingdom differently; but only sons and daughters and humble followers will inherit the Earth and the promises of God.
© Copyright 2014-15, Paul K. Weigel – All rights reserved.
Learn more about the process of becoming…check this out.