November 10. Acts ch 12-14
SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION (1)
“Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”
Matthew 13:11-12 NASB1995
GOOD DAY. Jesus mentioned this mystery of the kingdom of God three times in the Gospels. First is in Matthew 13:12, next is in Matthew 25:29 and the last is in Luke 8:18. I chose the one above because He called the statement a mystery of the kingdom and understanding it is a gift. Now let us look at it in terms relevant to us. In the Luke account, He talked of it in terms of talents you can check it out.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE?
The treasure or luggage of each man’s heart since after the fall is evil.
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Genesis 6:5 NASB1995
Because of this evil intent in the heart of man, we have turned the earth into an evil place to live in. We need a continued effort to sanitize the evil intents of our hearts. What are these evil intents?
“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21 NASB1995
We are all familiar with all these attitudes or nature. Each person has loads of them. The more you have of these in your thoughts and words, the more you are given of them. The more of them you are given, the farther away you are from the kingdom of God. In the second part, we shall see what the kingdom of God is about. If for example you fail to see any goodness in your life, and you keep dwelling on the bad things around you, you begin to attract more situations that align with what you see, think and talk about. Whereas the person who has a lot of good in his life and sees, thinks and talks about them always attracts more of such. The little goodness unappreciated in the life of the complainant is added to the life of the person that sees goodness. Do you see the spiritual dynamics?
How do you sanitize your spiritual environment? First is to be conscious of the state of your heart, your inner man. Our spiritual environment is within us. Your spiritual environment is within you. It is set in your beliefs, your attitudes and the core of your being. Those things that inform your response to others and circumstances form your spiritual environment. They are what determines what you attract around yourself. You need to identify, acknowledge and decide to turn away from any of the attitudes listed in Galatians 5:5:19-21. Like in the natural world, we only clean our environment by doing away with whatever we see as debris. All those attributes above lead to ruin and gather more of themselves to make whoever harbors them miserable. Today, begin to examine your heart and gather the debris. Tomorrow God willing, we shall see what to replace them with.
PRAY: Dear Lord, I invite You into my heart today, search me and show me all the debris in my heart. Cleanse me Lord.