Focusing on the Eternal Perspective

In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples pointed to all the magnificent structures as if to say, “Look what mankind has done?  Isn’t it marvelous?”  Christ immediately gave them the eternal perspective.  He reminded them that they were in the temporal realm, and then taught them about the ends times.  The Apostle Paul also kept the eternal perspective a constant theme throughout his epistles.  If the kingdom of God is our goal, then it ought to be all about that, and not about this temporal realm.  But our humanity gets tangled in the affairs of this life to the extent that we have difficulty, often to the point of blindness, grasping but failing to maintain a hold on the eternal perspective.  That error can cause us not only to miss God’s will, but to sin against Him.  More insidious, it can lead us into entry level deception.  What I mean by entry level deception is deception that appears harmless, that seems to have little consequence, and one might conclude that God merely winks at it.

I have frequently reminded folks that error begets error, and thus deception begets deception.  Just as a small cut on ones flesh can become a major issue if not treated, so can a small deception contaminate the spiritual person.  It is important to remember that the last days will be marked by rampant deception, great apostasy, and a great delusion.  The conditions will be spiritually as a swine’s pen full of filthy mire.  It is not the time to be caught off guard while willingly imbibing any degree of deception.   Further, multitudes of individuals in the last days will have rejected love for truth.  This is actually a rejection of love for Christ, who declared that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  One must not willfully make the mistake of believing that a small deception, or an assumed minor rejection of truth, is non-consequential.   Deception lies, and other subtle works of darkness are spiritual germs that seek to invade our spirits.  There they grow until they poison and weaken our spiritual life.  

The primary way to avoid deception is to passionately love truth.  This means that you love truth when it is not convenient, when it hurts, when it causes embarrassment, rejection, and even personal attacks or violent persecution.  No one can love truth that passionately unless they have a firm hold on the eternal perspective.  The reason is because, as I previously stated, Jesus Christ is Truth.  He declared that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments; we will daily take up our cross and follow Him, and we will commit our lives to obeying the Father just as Christ did when He was on earth.  Such love and passion to follow Him will create the eternal perspective in us.  In fact, we will become so eternally minded that nominal Christians will accuse us of being so heavenly-minded that we are of no earthly good, which is impossibility.   However, people may not understand such a person when it comes to exposing deception in its more subtle mode.

I can think of an example that might explain what I’m attempting to present here.  I grew up poor, but we had a clean house, were required to take baths, and wore clean clothes.  The reason was because my Mom was passionate about cleanliness.  She instilled that in her children.  Throughout the past 35 years of ministry, I have met many people, wealthy and poor, with varying degrees of personal hygiene.  I’ve been inside of homes, some elaborate and others ramshackle, where I did not wish to eat a meal because of the unsanitary conditions.  I’m not talking about clutter, but about filth that is the result of sanitation not being a priority.  Most if not all of those individuals involved would probably not understand if I were to inform them that they were unsanitary.  In fact, they would be offended and may become angry and hurt.  The simple truth is that if one does not love cleanliness, one will not make it a priority.  Further, such a person may not even understand why a person who loves cleanliness would wash his or her hands after visiting the bathroom, or before eating.    

     

I realize that is a touchy subject, but it illustrates the same mentality that people may have about their spirits.  Some professing Christians can constantly put refuse into their spirits with no compunction or hesitation.   They can sit for hours feeding on diabolical television dramas, and etc., but spend very little if any time in prayer or Bible study.   The only time they are passionate is about something rooted in the world system.  They know more about football, NASCAR, golf, baseball, basketball, music, and Hollywood gossip, than they do about God, His Son Jesus Christ, or His kingdom.  They do not realize that the filth in their spirits is clearly visible to a devout Christian.  No, it’s not about “holier-than-thou”, but about truth and reality.  Therefore, when you attempt to tell them something that requires the eternal perspective, they are extremely disinterested and bored.  In each case where they are warned not to make a certain decision, not to accept a certain doctrine, or to refrain from a certain practice, they almost instantly discard the warning and reject the “warner”.  In their minds, it is all about “God and”, not about “God alone”.  It is about self-aggrandizement, personal gratification, and about enjoying the best of two diametrically opposed kingdoms at war with one another.   They will never understand until they fall passionately in love with Christ Jesus and surrender their souls to the lordship of God.

Therefore, when someone says to me, “You have to vote for the lesser of the two evils,” I would rather plunge my lacerated hands into swine mire, immediately pick up a sandwich and eat it. Considering how I am about cleanliness, such a scenario would be impossible.  Sometimes I cook for my wife.  I will wash my hands several times during the cooking process.  If I even touch a trash can lid, I will wash my hands.  If I pick something up off the floor I wash my hands.  If someone believes that is extreme, would he or she rather eat a meal prepared by someone with a lesser focus on hygiene?   By the same token, does anyone who is serious about God, His Son, His Word, and His kingdom, want to sit under the ministry of someone who does not have a sanitary spirit? 

One final point; does anyone believe that we need people who will refuse to compromise their allegiance to God’s will no matter what the costs, even when they irritate us, or even make us angry?

Doesn’t someone need to speak up for God, stand up for what He is saying, and simply tell us the pure and undiluted truth?  Or has our Christian society become so Laodicean that we only want pillow prophets who speak “peace, safety, prosperity, and comfort”?  Do we want people whom God has broken, purged, and that are uniquely formed by Him into vessels who will refuse to compromise no matter what it costs them?  If so, then we have to prepare our hearts to hear them.  We cannot cram as much offering as we can contain from the world system into our hearts and accept such people, much less listen to them.  We must have the eternal perspective that comes from a passionate love for Christ.  Our hearts must be so empty of the world’s rubbish that they become vacuums for the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Then we are capable of hearing the noise of His waterspouts, and deep cries out unto deep.   What is that cry?  Is it not, “More of You, dear Lord God, more of you”?  Our Christian society in America may be so deep into the great apostasy that they neither understand nor have any desire to understand what I’m trying to say here.  Most of them have not read to this point in my article.  You have done so, and I commend you for it.  “As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul longs for You, O God!”