Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him. Ephesians 6:5-9
Most of what the Lord was showing me today can be summed up by these verses. Once again he was speaking of how we are to live our lives in every detail for the glory of God, not for our own fleshy desires or satisfaction. The other day the Lord taught about how we as humans compartmentalize our lives. We have this time for church which we translate to God and or spirituality. We have our work time, or kids time, our spouse time, or friends time, or TV or social media time…
But with God it is not like that, everything you do you do it for the Glory of God, as if he is watching you every second of everyday, because if you are his he is watching you like that.
He reminded me or I reminded myself how boring at times the life in him can be. For whatever reason I was remembering some of the movies I used to watch, like Caddy Shack. And how funny they were, and how they also caused you to try to be funny like them, repeating their jokes (or maybe that was just me)? After coming to know God, I know it is not acceptable to him to let things like that into my mind. And then especially to repeat them trash jokes. A few days ago when reading Ephesians it spoke exactly about this, to pay attention to what comes out of your mouth. And Yeshua talked about it also, saying what proceeds from your mouth is what is inside of you and your small talk will be your judge.
Your works are a combination of the things you do and the things you say because of what you let into your mind. What proceeds from your mouth is because of what you let into your mind, we must guard this always.
Something else the Lord showed me which is similar but a little different, is how people do not like to be told they are wrong. They are like the spoiled child in the store that when the parent says no, they throw themselves on the floor, crying, kicking and screaming, demanding their way.
The Lord reminded me of the guy who used to come to our house to discuss the things of God, and when I told him something he did not agree with, which happened a lot. He got upset! Same thing with my aunt recently, she was upset because I would not agree with her catholic doctrine and do things the way she thought I should do them. And threw her doctrine at me as if I had to agree. And when I in turn showed her the doctrine taught to me by God using verses he showed me, she got upset and stopped talking.
God sees us exactly like that spoiled child, which most of us are really turned off by it when we see it in a store. But of course it is OK for us at 61 or 80 years old to act like that and God is OK with it. And no one should ever point out to us that it is not like that, and God is NOT ok with it.
As the Lord has shown me many times, we do NOT get to go to him with our own doctrine or ideology or theology or whatever ology you want to call it. And tell God how we want to live and he must be OK with it and bring us to heaven. The new covenant is set, no adjustments or amendments to it for anyone. You either accept it and live by it, or you do not. This is a simple one, hear and obey the Lord, do things his way and die unto yourself. Let the light shine into you and convict you of your sin and wrong doing or unrighteous way of living.
There are many things in our life we do not see as wrong, but God does. Using the example of the spoiled child again, we do not see it as bad in us, just in others. Which makes those who live like that a hypocrite. This is just one of thousands of examples of how we live and do not see it as wrong or a big deal with God when it is. We must seek the will of God and live by it so he is pleased with us. And sometimes that is extremely easy, as if there is no devil to trick you or attach you. And other times it feels like there is no God to protect you and help you and you are under constant attack. Lately I feel the second, as if God left me to myself and satan is having his way with me.
But I am fighting the good fight, not letting satan have his way. The fiery darts he throws at us keep coming one after another after another. He does not stop. And I am catching them and doing everything to get rid of those thoughts and keep my focus on God and his will. And when I sit there and there is no indication of God’s will. I remain quiet and without action until I know his will. And then when I carry out his will, no matter how difficult it is, I let the “cookie crumb” as it will. In other words whatever happens happens and it is by his decree not mine.
This is difficult because human nature wants to jump in and help, or to defend yourself. To try to get people to see your side of it or your point of view and agree with it and you. And the people will talk either way and make things seem bigger than they are and even try to place blame.
Paul continues with one of the most popular verses in Ephesians 6 with putting on the full armor of God. This is a daily thing to do, even a second by second thing to do. The devil never stops attaching when he is trying. He flees at times and then waits for the next opportunity to come back and pounce on us, if you do not have the full armor of God and walk according to your own flesh. God does not and never will protect you in your own flesh.
Many pray also for God to protect them and keep them from any evil, this is not the will of God either. He does not sweep us away to a special place where nothing bad ever happens. He leaves us in the fire, but he prepares and equips us for the battle, as long as we are doing our part and remain in him no matter where he leads us.
Then the question becomes, as always. Do you follow God in obedience to his voice? Or follow your own made up religious lies keeping you under the power of satan and leading you to hell with him? A tough truth to hear but it is truth.