For thousands of years, the people of God have experienced times of putting on a facade that brought about the appearance of godliness. Today is no different, matter of fact it’s quite the epidemic among the body of Christ, yet there are many that are not even aware of their inconsistent behavior. However, the true people of God will begin (at some point) to notice themselves behaving inconsistently with what they SAY they believe. What happens when what people think of us becomes more important than what God thinks of us? Or when our times of prayer and reading the word of God have become a mere check off of our “to do” list? We must often ask ourselves and God some important questions if we are going to endure to the end by faith. It is imperative that we ask God to search our hearts and reveal His Truth, for according to His will we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Now you may be thinking, “I believe in Jesus for my salvation, He definitely lives in me. I am definitely not the same since He changed me. Oh yes, my faith is strong!” But let’s go a bit deeper. You may already know that no one is above deception, meaning that we all can be deceived, even the elect according to scripture. The Lord says in Jeremiah17:9(AMP) that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?” In verse 10, the Lord says that He searches the mind and tries our hearts. From this and other areas in the Word we could discern that without knowing the still, small voice of God through time spent in His presence, communing with Him in His Word and prayer, we truly couldn’t say that we know or understand what our true motives are.
As we grow closer and closer to Jesus, all of us will begin to find many areas of our behavior that is in disagreement with the will of God. Therefore, our relationship with Him must be so solid and intimate that we admit it and bring this behavior to Him, asking Him to change our hearts and show us our responsibility in the cleansing process. Not all behaviors come out of us just because we decided to receive God’s forgiveness and the blood of Jesus for that area. God has given us a responsibility and we must seek His guidance to know what that is. Otherwise, we’re walking in foolishness and presumption. God will not do our part, He will simply stand back and wait until we call on Him repenting, asking Him to show us our part.
I have experienced this in my own walk with God and it was very hard to accept and admit that I had merely pretended my faith-walk for many years. Yet it was extremely freeing and the ONLY alternative outside of being like a Pharisee or Sadducee, which you may remember that Jesus made it well known how He felt about their works. I came to a desperate place several years ago when I realized that I was a “people pleaser”. I battled this often by speaking right confessions saying, “I’m a God pleaser not a man pleaser.” I gathered a couple verses and committed them to memory and spoke them off and on, but it was not from the heart. I never asked God how to go about it, I assumed this was how all problems were to be handled, just declare and pray the Word of God. Many times I felt God tugging at me to spend time studying, meditating on the Word and just listening for Him. But I was in a hurry! I had things to do! Very important things! Because if I didn’t get them done, God forbid someone might get mad at me!
Around this time, I began to find so many inconsistencies in my behavior that I could no longer bear it. I had become a sorry example of a Christian from my perspective. I didn’t pray or read my Bible very much anymore. I didn’t care when people shared their problems, nor did I want to pray for them. Everything became a duty, something I HAD to do in order to be “walking by faith.” I also became very frustrated with others and began to blame people and situations for my failures. I felt as though I was stuck and had no power over my situation. I had fallen into depression, which took me 7 months before I would even consider the possibility of depression or even admit it. After all, I had to keep a “right confession”. God began dealing with me to temporarily forget about keeping a right confession so much and just focus on the “Truth” about where I was- to just be honest with Him and others, instead of acting as though I was still “sold out for Jesus,” when I knew I wasn’t.
Jesus said in John 18:37(AMP) that “Everyone who is of the Truth [who is a friend of the Truth, who belongs to the Truth] hears and listens to My voice.” But what we have to constantly check ourselves about is “are we really taking the time to wait and listen to His voice?” I have been learning more and more that God is not on my schedule and I can’t rush or control Him. It’s like saying to Him, “you’ll have to hurry up today God, I only got about 15 minutes so come on, speak to me, show me Your will and prepare me for this day.” Some of you may barely get that much time in the morning. And I understand everyone is in their different season, just make sure you are letting God show you other opportunities to spend time with Him throughout your day. He’ll increase your time later on as your seasons change. But please know that 5 years down the road there should be some changes that have occurred in you and how you spend your time with God. We just need to be careful that we don’t fall into the practice of ritualistic formulas in prayer. That leads us no where fast! I have finally begun to realize that what truly matters is that we’re led by His Spirit and since we definitely need His help, we should push through our feelings to do it His way and not ours!
If you also have been noticing inconsistencies in your behavior, rejoice! God is showing you the Truth that can make you free. That’s step one though, now here’s your part. Admit it! Despise the sin! Throw it off of you like a dirty rag and run to His mercy seat. Now, receive, receive, and receive the grace of God! Ask God to create within you a clean heart and renew a right [persevering & steadfast] spirit within you. (Psalm 51:6AMP) This verse of prayer must be a continual cry from your heart to God as you often identify with your need for Him to change you and make His truth known within you. Ask Him to strengthen you in your inner man and give you the holy determination to keep your word. Ask Him to restore the power to make decisions and keep them! Now you must decide to believe that all things are possible with Him. Put all your trust in Him and His Word. He will do what you can’t. He can and will turn your messes around. Now, last but definitely not least practice being quiet and listening for His voice everyday, it may be difficult at first but just tell your flesh to calm down and HUSH. Because those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to the cross and crucified them there! (Galatians 5:24NLT)
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