the Word of God is not chained
Never underestimate the effect of this Word in and through you. Never disqualify yourself from the full benefit of what God made available for your enjoyment. The enemy will try anything to persuade us that we are disqualified from both enjoying and proclaiming this relationship with God. Distraction is His ultimate strategy.
Even what we consider ‘ministry’ could be a distraction from God’s point of view! Let me illustrate. A couple of days ago I casually started thinking about the ways, methods and resources we use to ‘promote’ this gospel – everything from the weekly fellowship, the occasional weekend function, books, CDs and internet site came to mind. It wasn’t long before I found myself comparing what we did, with what I knew others were doing. The moment that happened a sense of inadequacy came! My first reaction was: I’ve got to do more!
But God is so faithful. He reminded me of this scripture: “…when they measure themselves with themselves and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding and behave unwisely” 2 Cor 10:12 (AMP). He then pulled my attention off others … and off my own efforts, onto the one and only measure that accurately reveals me – Christ: the revelation of my value.
…until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the full and accurate knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him. Eph 4:12
Seeing Him is the most captivating and satisfying experience. It has nothing to do with ministry in the first instance – it has everything to do with enjoying Him and enjoying others from this perspective. Promoting this gospel is not the aim – it is the natural consequence of delighting ourselves in Him. If your understanding of this gospel does not motivate you to include others, then you have not seen & enjoyed what God intended. The love of God is not a passive force, but a compelling force. It compelled Jesus to offer the ultimate sacrifice – His own live. It compelled Paul … it compels anyone who understands it.
Imagine the thoughts and temptations presented to Paul, while in prison. Prison was as shameful then as it is now. Even though he knew his innocence, the situation he found himself in undoubtedly would have closed some doors to him. And even the doors that remained open to him were unreachable because he was shut behind a cell door. It must have seemed as if all opportunity to declare this gospel was taken from him. He had no internet access! Not even the printing press was invented yet. It was him alone, isolated … with the greatest revelation of the love of God ever known. That revelation was the source of his confidence – the Word unveiled in his heart could not remain hidden even while He was imprisoned. In one of His letters he wrote: “For this Gospel I am suffering affliction and even wearing chains like a criminal. But the Word of God is not chained or imprisoned!” 2 Tim 2:9 The integrity of this message, not what people thought of him, is what gave him unwavering boldness to speak about that which he enjoyed – an enjoyment not hindered by circumstance. ” … for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am …I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want.”
Never ever, for whatever reason, allow your focus to be diverted from this message that produces intimacy with our Creator, to any other message. For I am persuaded beyond doubt that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing else is worth taking your attention off this inexhaustible truth.
Prisons do not exclude God
By Madame Guyon (imprisoned for her faith)
Strong are the walls around me,
That hold me all the day;
But they who thus have bound me,
Cannot keep God away;
My very dungeon walls are dear,
Because the God I love is here
They know, who thus oppress me,
‘Tis hard to be alone;
But know not, One can bless me,
Who comes through bars and stone;
He makes my dungeon’s darkness bright,
And fills my bosom with delight.
Thy love, O God, restores me
From sighs and tears to praise;
And deep my soul adores thee,
Nor thinks of time or place;
I ask no more, in good or ill,
But union with thy holy will.
‘Tis that which makes my treasure,
‘Tis that which brings my gain;
Converting woe to pleasure,
And reaping joy from pain.
Oh, ’tis enough, what’er befall
To know that God is All In All
