LESS NOT MORE

I wonder why we think more is better for us? We strive to get more of things at great peril in our lives and to the shame of other things in our lives. Society tells us get all we can in life, get a better house, get a bigger house, get a newer bigger car, bigger is better less is bad more is good, well that is not the way God operates. In God less is better than more. I know that will raise some eyebrows with my name it and claim it friends and even anger from my word of faith friends, but that is okay with me; for the truth to be said is more important than friends who would wilfully walk in darkness and distort the word of God. If we critically look at the Bible we will find the progression is from big to little, large to small, more to less. This thinking more is better is very destructive to our walk with the LORD and our walk with our brothers and sisters in the LORD and friends and acquaintances. In God the way up is down, down is less. John the Baptist said, “I must decrease and He must increase.” The more we can become of a lowly, humble heart the more we can become like our precious savior Jesus Christ. Gain in God is not measured by how long we can speak in tongues, how long we can preach and teach, how much money we give to the church, or the numbers of good works we do for the LORD. Oh no, God measures our gain in Him not by what we gather (bind) to ourselves, but what we lose of our self. How much of our self can we allow God to empty us of? How much of this world will we allow God to empty us of? Did you know the only way to be full of God is to allow God to empty us. The condition to be full of God depends (not on God but us) on how much we have allowed God to empty us and at the same measure we allow God to empty us of the world, our desires, and our hopes (so He can fill us with His desires, hopes, and plans) at that measure we can be filled with God and His glory. Why do we think God comes and fills us with His glory and virtue and leaves the old carnal nature within us? Can God put new wine in an old wine skin? Of course not the old wine bottles would bust. Jesus told the disciples, “And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. ³⁸But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. ³⁹No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.” (Luke 5:37-39) As the new wine is made it undergoes a very violent fermentation process for weeks until it is settled and brewed and if you put new wine in an old bottle the violent process of maturing will explode the old bottles. We allow God to empty us of our old ways and thinking when He gives us a new heart (Spiritually speaking) to hold the new wine of the Holy Spirit that He pours into our lives. This process of becoming something in God starts when we allow God to empty us of the old (wine) ways and thinking. We cannot empty ourselves oh no, this is a process of submitting to God’s dealings and judgments in our lives whereby He brings things (both sin and not sin) in our lives into judgment and then we can chose to separate or not separate them from our daily living. ll throughout the Bible we see this process of more to less in operation. One of the best examples is the story of Gideon’s victory over the Midianites. We read in Judges, “Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. ⁴And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. ⁵So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. ⁶And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. ⁷And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.” (Judges 7:5-7) Gideon went from an army of 22,000 to 300. The progression in God is always downward not upward, less is more. Even Jesus never could do much with many people He always used a few to touch many. In Matthew we read how Jesus fed the multitudes not once, but twice, “And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. ²¹And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.” (Matthew 14:20-21) and in the 15^th Chapter we read, “And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. ³⁷And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. ³⁸And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.” (Matthew 15:36-38) yet after feeding 9,000 people (some could have been the same folks) when He spoke of Him being the bread of life and they had to eat of Him they had no stomach for His words. I have found in my travels the masses (the more) like to be fed with earthy (natural) food, but it is the few (the less) that like to be fed with the heavenly (Spiritual) food. This is why huge churches share in no real communion (all hearts one in the Spirit), but operate on a natural level, where small churches (for the most part) know each other more intimately and can share each other’s burdens. Again, big is not better in God. Always remember if people are running after something, someone, or flocking to a big church God is not. We even see this truth play out in the life of Paul. What an outstanding teacher and world traveler Paul was surely Paul would have millions of people following him, after all Paul wrote 2/3 of the New Testament and brought great correction to the Church, but we read in 2 Timothy, “This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. ¹⁶The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:” (2 Timothy 15:15-16) Now know when the Bible says “all” it means “all” not some or a few it means “all” every last one. Everyone in Asia turned their backs on Paul. The folks in the Churches at Antioch (where the term “Christian” was first used), Ephesus, Galatia, Troas (where Paul got his Macedonian call Act 16:6), “that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me” yet the Gospel message (the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) marched on. On a massive scale we know when the children of Israel left Goshen they numbered over 2.5 million people yet only two Joshua and Caleb made it into the promised land. God had to pare down the people to see what was in their heart, “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. ²And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.” (Deuteronomy 8:1-2) We too must allow God to pare us down to see what is in our hearts. God must bring us way down by way of the wilderness in our lives so that He can humble and prove us for service. Salvation is free for us (not Jesus it cost Him His life), but everything else we get from God will cost us something of ourselves.

In God the direction is less not more, downward not upward. In God numbers, ability, and strength do not matter only obedience, commitment, and faithfulness matter. Our way with the LORD is a way of less not more. It is limitations and restriction (less) that bring us to fulfillment and completion. Today in the church I hear songs that say “we are free to run in God,” well that makes no Spiritual sense and is not supported by any Scripture. The only freedom we have in God is to choose whether or not to enter in to God’s restrictions and limitations for our lives and to walk in the way God chooses for us to go. Everything else is direct rebellion to God’s word. More my friend? Oh no, less my friend is God’s will for our lives. Written by David Stahl