OUR SELF SEEKING

You know Satan gets blamed for many things in our lives that are not his fault. Did you know our biggest enemy is not Satan he is defeated in our lives if we really believe the word of God and understand how much God loves us. In Colossians we read where Jesus defeated or “spoiled” all “principalities and powers” and that included Satan, “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15) Please know it is not Satan or even the world that is our biggest enemy, but it is our “flesh” our self that wars against the Spirit and just like with Satan we get to choose who wins. Paul in Romans said it well, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” (Romans 7:18) My friend our flesh (our self) will do and say anything to glorify itself and keep it alive, but that is not what God desires for us. God desires to kill our self. Our self is subtle and can easily deceive us from the truth while projecting a religious and holy picture. My friend our flesh, our self must die if we are ever going to walk after the things of God if not then we will always be of the earth and walk after the earthly things. We can easily see how much our self is alive by the things we seek. Do we seek after the things of God or do we seek after the things that our self screams for. It is easy to see who follows the LORD or who follows their self. I can always tell where someone is in God by applying three metrics: Do they pray for themselves telling God what He is to do for them or do they pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Number two, how they give of themselves to others especially those who cannot give back to them, and three how often they use the pronoun “I” when speaking. The LORD really convicted me on this: I did this, I know this, I will do this wow, I sounded like a Mexican hat dance song. It is not I it is we did this, we know this, we will do this, I is always selfish and always self seeking. And the result of selfishness and self seeking in our lives and in society is always seen void of God and His word. Today most teens and young adults in America are so narcissist they are self centered self seeking having to have the latest gadget; I phone, I pad, I whatever and the results are alarming. Ages 18-22 suicide rates in America are skyrocketing. In the US military (of all places) between 1 January and 8 June 2012 in the same age group there was more than one suicide per day each day. (DoD) Now the experts blame the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but not so these disturbing suicides rates (also for non-military teens and young adults) are the result of their self seeking and not being able to find the answers in their shallow selfish egocentric lives. The same with controlled substances like drugs. Use of drugs (marijuana, cocaine, LSD, etc) in American in the 18-22 age group is up 40% as well as deaths. (CDC) Every hour in America over 4,000 kids run away from home. (CDC) Our self is a powerful force in our lives and our self seeking drives us on and on unless we have allowed the LORD to kill it in us if not we will have no inward peace and strength. We will be frustrated, unfulfilled, and lonely. Sadly this self seeking has infiltrated the church for years. Instead of the church being salt and light, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 14Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” (Matthew 5:13-14) influencing the world unto Godliness and righteousness the world has influenced the church. This self seeking has even become a part of the way we preach and hold services. We have special services for ladies and men. Where in the Bible did Jesus do this? Jesus never divided out the sexes. On Father’s Day and/or Mother’s day we have special sermons to extol the values and virtues of our Father and/or Mother now we love our parents, but this is nothing more than our self seeking to please our parents and our religious nature and attitudes. We sing songs telling God how much we love Him and how holy and righteous He is. Do we not know God knows how much we love Him and how holy and righteous He is? Are we so far removed from the truth and over into our religious self seeking that we do not know God knows all things and that God knows our heart? So much I could say here. Recently in the paper there was an article I quote; “The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) just elected the first black president in one of its biggest steps yet to reconcile the 167 year old denomination’s troubled racial past and appeal to more a diverse group of believers” (The Associated Press), but whatever happened to selecting a spiritual leader based on God’s desires and His requirements? Is not racism an ungodly heart condition of man? As the article continued it seemed the only real credentials the candidate had to be President of the SBC was he was black and had a big church in New Orleans that was started after Hurricane Katrina. With 100s of complicated issues facing the church today should racism be the deciding factor to elect someone to such a spiritual place of leadership? I think not. Do we really believe God knows all things? Or do we disregard these verses in Isaiah? “That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:6-7) Is not racism evil? Do we really believe all things work together for good according to His purpose? “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) or do we just give lip service to these truths in the Bible? Does “all things” and “evil” include racism? Whatever happened to God and His divine principles? Now if there is racism in our hearts we must allow God to remove it because God cannot do much with people who are racist, yet the truth of the matter is many churches today (both the black and white churches) are full of such people. Are we foolish to believe by merely electing a black man to a place of leadership will remove the racism in the heart of the people he leads or forgive the past of 167 years? This is all self seeking to glorify the SBC and cover its self seeking with a religious veneer of doing the politically correct thing. The leadership and delegates of the SBC should be ashamed of themselves for selling out to the way the world does things. There is no democracy in God (it is His way or no way) leaders in the church are not voted on, but men of like mind, full of the Holy Spirit (not 1,000s of people in a convention party) come together to seek God’s will and purpose and I guarantee you my friend being against racism is not in the top 100 qualifying credentials to be selected into God’s leadership. One does not have to go too far to understand why a black man was elected president all you have to do is go to a Southern Baptist Church and count the number of black faces in the congregation. We attended a Southern Baptist Church (some of the people were great) for about 5 years and in the congregation of about 350 to 400 we had two black members. But sadly now folks in the biggest evangelical denomination in America (the SBC) are leaving in droves no wonder they voted in a black leader now they can reach out to the black community where there is a greater desire for morality and truth. I have said this before and I will say it again, if a mighty revival breaks out in America it will come from the black church. Now it is not just the SBC many other denominations in America are floundering due to the fact that they offer nothing of the Spirit of God to the people. My friend programs, parties, meetings, and functions does not meet the longing in our heart to know the true and living God, but programs, parties, meetings, and functions do satisfy the self seeking in our heart and soul so many denominations, like the SBC, feed our self with things of the world because they lack the ability to give their people the things of the Spirit of God. As Spiritual leaders we must give the people the Spirit of God in a real, meaningful, and powerful way good sermons and stories are not enough, singing in the choir and working for God is not enough, if not they will be just going through the motions and when their self seeking is not satisfied they will fade and fall away. Did you know there is even a self seeking in seeking God? God loves not the believer who does the most, who feels the most, who thinks the most cleverly and best, not even the one who shows the greatest love, but God loves him who suffers and sacrifices the most. Suffering and sacrifice are the building blocks of the church it is the glue that binds us all together. I am aware that in discussing our self seeking even our deepest prayer is a prayer that does not depend on our outward senses or on those things which are pleasing to our self, but requires the martyrdom of parts of our self and our inward man. Our deepest prayers are reached when we have no self involved. When there is no emotional experience or intellectual assent to God. We reach this place in God when we discover God is not impressed with a multitude of well spoken words. He is impressed with the purity of the intent of our heart. He wishes to see our inward parts humbled, quiet, and totally surrendered to Him and to His will. We may not find emotions to produce such a relationship, but we will find a door by which we will enter into our nothingness and His all. Now that is a place of rest and a place of us ceasing from our labors. There are people who do not allow God to kill their self and turn away from Him almost immediately because they did not find any pleasure in it. Pleasure and our self walks hand in hand and when our self is being put to death we find no pleasure in whatever is killing our self, even if that is God. There was no sense of God, there was no power, there was no sense of being pleased with their own thoughts, or even being impressed with the way they formed their words and do things. In reality all of these approaches to God are nothing more than a hunt for sensible pleasures in God which to God is nothing more than self love and self seeking after our self. It is really not seeking after God at all. It is necessary that we suffer a little pain and a little dryness to kill our self. Death to our self will always kill us. The more our outward man delights in some sort of pleasure the less delight there is in the LORD. But the less we care for the outward man (our self) and the thrills even for spiritual pleasures, ah now here is something which delights the LORD. Written by David Stahl