"Both God and Satan use the strategy of elevation"

As I read today’s Oswald Chambers, a couple of pictures came to mind which I’ll share a little later. Oswald makes the point that God is calling us to “come up even higher”, he calls it a “strategy of elevation”, but he also says that satan has a strategy that he uses too, but rather than use it as way of “spiritual growth”, he uses it in temptation, and he concludes that the “effects are quite different”.
Let’s take a look! Keep in mind the underlines, and added text is my own two cents, my observation on what I think he is saying. Please if you disagree, or have anything to add, email me back!

Oswald Chamber’s “My Utmost For His Highest” March 27, 2007
Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity (2)
“Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place . . .” —Revelation 4:1
The verse Oswald is referring to here is found in “Revelation 4:1” God is talking to the author John in a vision. In John’s vision God tells him to “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this!” Imagine hearing God’s voice telling you, “Child! Come up here and I will show you things!” Man! Talk about a “strategy of elevation!”
A higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character. If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, "Friend, come up even higher."

Sorry! I need to interrupt here! Be careful not to confuse the “practice of personal character” with the “practice of works”. Personal character is what you become by decisions you make with no real goal in mind than to just be.

The practice of “works” is something you purposefully DO, with a specific goal in mind, namely to win Gods favor to benefit yourself. God ALWAYS looks on the heart, He knows the motivation of it.

There is also a continuing rule in temptation which calls you to go higher; but when you do, you only encounter other temptations and character traits. Both God and Satan use the strategy of elevation, but Satan uses it in temptation, and the effect is quite different. When the devil elevates you to a certain place, he causes you to fasten your idea of what holiness is far beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear or achieve. Your life becomes a spiritual acrobatic performance high atop a steeple. You cling to it, trying to maintain your balance and daring not to move.

Now there are a couple of word pictures for ya! Satan has you duped into thinking that “there MUST be more to IT than this! Maintaining my spiritual growth MUST be harder than this!” And with that thinking, you’ll notice he has you no longer in the church, in the place of learning and worshipping, but outside, teetering “high atop a steeple.” You’ve managed to climb up the downspout, onto the roof, and slowly “work” your way up the steeple, only to stand there forever balancing yourself “daring not move”, for fear you might lose this little bit of spiritual growth that you’ve obtained for yourself.

The longer you stand there, the further from the truth you get, and one day you do a swan dive right to the ground below, right where satan wanted you in the first place.

Now you have three choices from ground zero,
A. Stay right where you are, defeated, wallowing in that whole “it’s too hard, I give up!” state.

B. Try to regain that false character you had, dust yourself off and start climbing that same steeple, only this time satan has you convinced or so “elevated” in your own pride that you take some people with you, you teach them what you know, because after all you’ve been to the top, and they climb with you!

Or finally 3. Surrender to the One who REALLY knows your heart! The One who will “elevate” you when you’re ready and not before! Remember, He wants the best for you, satan want to destroy you!

But when God elevates you by His grace into heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move about with ease.

See the difference? Rather than clinging to a crag on the side of a cliff “daring not move”, God takes you to a mesa, “a vast plateau where you can move about with ease!” I can picture these two scenarios side by side, almost like two cartoon cells you would find in the funny pages of the newspaper. One is me hanging by one hand, fingers gripping that crag in the rock, knuckles white, finger tips bleeding, dangling. And in the other cell, I’m dancing, I’m spinning, I’m truly rejoicing! The awesome truth is; this isn’t the tallest plateau there is, in my heart I know there are higher ones, but I don’t see them, or am I searching for them because I’m not ready for them, only He knows when and if. My character is not about looking to the higher plateaus, but to enjoy and be thankful right where I am for now, until He moves me.
Compare this week in your spiritual life with the same week last year to see how God has called you to a higher level.
Reminds me of that Steven Curtis Chapman song titled; “What about the change?” Can you, can I look back at where we were in our walk with the Lord last year and see that there has been some growth? Can we see a change? Even better, has anyone who knows you are a believer, and knows your struggles, have they come to you and commented on “the change” they see?
Is this change something that should be so profound that you are now ready to stand up and preach a sermon? Or so awesome that you never cuss, or think bad thoughts? I don’t think so because then you would be back in that cartoon cell that says; “I must achieve this, or I must be at this place in my walk AND I must maintain it!” No! It doesn’t have to be a change like that, BUT there should be some change, some fruit!
We have all been brought to see from a higher viewpoint. Never allow God to show you a truth which you do not instantly begin to live up to, applying it to your life. Always work through it, staying in its light.
Your growth in grace is not measured by the fact that you haven’t turned back, but that you have an insight and understanding into where you are spiritually.
“…that you have an insight and understanding into where you are spiritually.”
Have you heard God say, "Come up higher," not audibly on the outer level, but to the innermost part of your character?
"Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing . . . ?" (Genesis 18:17 ). God has to hide from us what He does, until, due to the growth of our personal character, we get to the level where He is then able to reveal it.
Wow! Just think about some of the things God had to hide from Abraham until he was ready to accept them, can you hear him? “What! I’m gonna be a father of a nation?” “You want me to literally take a knife and cut a piece of skin from where?” “Let me get this straight, you want me to take my son up on the mountain and you want me to do what?” But in each of these situations, and because “faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness”, he was ready, by faith, he was ready for what God had for him.
We need to ask God to help us and lead us right where we’re at and to know He won’t give us more than we can handle. He doesn’t give us more “bad stuff” than we can handle, and he won’t give more “good stuff” than we can handle either!

"What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's all about?"

As a Christian, have you ever asked yourself that question...well not necessarily that question, but have you ever thought, "What if this really is all there is to life?" Or “What really comes after I close my eyes for the last time?”

When I saw this bumper sticker this morning; "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's all about?" I chuckled at first, and then I began to think about what it was really saying to, or at least what I perceived it to say.

I must confess to you that there have been times, times when my mind wanders to "the dark side", the side where my flesh lives and thinks, that that thought has come to me, but praise God, it's a thought that is short lived. When it comes and my mind wants to entertain it, I ask God to take it away, The Spirit kicks in, and I pull back, things get clear again and I begin to look around me, I think about my life and where I am, where I was, and one day where I will be. I think of the miracles that I've seen in my family, miracles that happen every day, and I begin to believe again without a doubt, that there is more to this life than just the hokey pokey.

As I thought further about those ‘dark” times in my thinking, it dawned on me again, as it always does when my mind begins to slip, "Where does this thinking come from?" and the answer comes swiftly, this thinking is coming from the one who said in the beginning, “Did God really say...?” the one who hounded our Lord in the wilderness and said things like; "If You are the Son of God...!" and even after all that, the bible says that “he departed from Him until a more opportune time”.

This thinking is the “more opportune time” the bible speaks of! In those “opportune times” we allow our minds to wonder and wander into places they shouldn’t. The enemy waits for us there, in the dark, on the fringe, behind the proverbial trash can in the proverbial dark alley wanting to sell us, among other things, the Brooklyn Bridge. He’s in those dark places where we’re not as strong, tempting us with lies all in the name of curiosity. “I wonder!” your mind says, when in fact you don’t need wonder, ‘cause you know the truth!

So don't be surprised when these thoughts come from way out in left field, and when they do, remind yourself before your mind is “dragged away and enticed” that they are whispers of deceit and temptation, whispers of lies to get you off the path and out of God's Word where The Truth is! They lead you away from fellowship with your eternal family till you find yourself in a corner, by yourself, a place where you will no longer grow in Him, but grow weak and defenseless against the wiles of the enemy.

These are the thoughts that cause you question your faith and cause you to begin looking for answers in books, books on spiritual issues, humanism vs. Christianity, evolution vs. creation, all written by men who want to give you the answers, when the truth is, that by faith, you know the answers, the answers to life and where to find them.

And finally, by faith and with the Spirit of the living God in you, you can fight against these thoughts, these thoughts that throw up walls that ask “Is this as far as life goes?” “Is this really all there is?” and “Is the Hokey Pokey what it’s all about?” We can fight against those thoughts with the truth, the truth that begins with “In the beginning God created the heavens and earth!” found in the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis, and the truth that ends with “He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Which is found in the last two verses of the last chapter of Revelation. The truth is this and everything in between!

There are those who rather than get these thoughts once in awhile, live by them, and they accept them as a true belief. They believe this IS all there is to life! There is no God in their life, they can’t see Him, so He’s not there, so they believe. Have you ever listened to a humanist talk? Not only is there no mention of God, but they believe that the ONLY thing we have in this life is each other. They see life as a number, the age at which you will die and from that point? You are no more. They believe it is up to us as a human race to care for and to feed, to nurture and to heal each other, when we know as believers in God and followers of Christ, that it is God who does these things for us and through us.

Pray for them! Pray that they would see this earth and this life as a gift from a creator, for them. Pray that the hidden hope they may have, would have God’s light shine on it, and that they see that hope is Jesus Christ. Pray that they would come to know Him, and from that point on, they would truly be able to enjoy this life, this earth, and that they would look forward to what is beyond it.

Satan tempts Jesus...he tempts us too!

Hey All!
I know I’ve written on this before, but as I have begun to re-read through the gospels it came up again this morning. In Matthew 4:1-11 we see where Jesus has just been baptized by John, the Holy Spirit had come in the form a dove and had lighted on His shoulder, and God’s voice is heard with Fatherly pride, “This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The bible says that Jesus was then led by The Holy Spirit into the wilderness where He fasted for “forty days and forty nights”, and then He was tempted by the devil.

Matthew 4:1-11
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.

“the tempter” will come to us in the “opportune times”, times like when we’re hungry, tired, sad or mad, and even when we’re happy! The Word says Jesus fasted, and after 40 days and 40 nights He was hungry, but He was also God but this didn’t stop the devil from tempting Him anyway. As I think about it, the devil has kind of told on himself to me here, what I mean is, we know that The Word is “living and active” and relevant for us even all these thousands of years later, and with that being said, in these verses the devil shows us HOW he tempts, what techniques he uses, and what he has up his sleeve, let’s look further;

3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Pride is one of his weapons, or one of his “flaming” arrows if you will. He wants to convince us that WE have the power to do anything, it’s within us. He wants us to build OURSELVES up, and then he wants us to prove ourselves, prove that we are something…something without God.

Think of the powerful men of the past, men like Adolph Hitler for example. Adolph fell for the lie after the tempter came to him, after he convinced him that he could have, and in fact that he did have ultimate power within himself. That he could do anything, and sadly Adolph believed him. What’s worse than that is that he acted on the prodding of the enemy, and as he became more powerful he became more confused and deadly.

So what was satan’s benefit in all of this? Let me ask you a rhetorical question; Wwas it a coincidence that he had Adolph kill 6 million Jews? God’s chosen people? The people that God would one day send His only begotten Son to die for (first the Jew then the Gentile)?
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus could have said at that point with a smirk; “I know you know who I AM! And you know that all I have to do is speak My own Name and you would be dust!” But He didn’t say that because again He knew that one day you and I would be reading His Word and that it would speak to us in this way; “God’s Word, His spoken and written Word is more important than anything else in this life!” IF Adolph had been listening to the true and living God I don’t think that tragedy would have happened, but I also believe with all my heart that God saw it coming and had it all figured out before it happened. He is all knowing!

So the devil doesn’t give up there, he goes a step further and uses the word that he loves to use “IF”, actually it’s more of a tactical move. He used this tactic on Eve in the garden, it’s a tactic that causes one to doubt, “Did God really say…?” and “If you’re not sure whether it’s really right or wrong, than just do it anyway!” He more or less tells Jesus “If You are the Son of God, then show me!” I think he must have lived in Missouri at some point, ya’ know the “show me state”.

5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘ He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and, ‘ In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
How many times has he told you and me; “Just go ahead and do it! Throw yourself down! Jump off the cliff of reason and oneness with the Lord, to the rocky bottom of sin, it’s not that bad, and besides doesn’t His Word say that you’re already forgiven!?” Or “You can make this decision on your own, you don’t need to get counsel from The Holy Spirit, you don’t need to seek guidance on this one, just go for it!” What are we doing when we do this? Read below!7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”
No matter how much you rationalize something, no matter how many scriptures you may dig up and contort to defend your desires, God always has one more that will point you to the truth. When we decide to do something of our own free will, number one, we are out of God’s will, and number two, we are tempting God. We are telling God; “I know the right thing to do, but I want to do it this way, what are you gonna do about it God?”
Satan was trying to convince Jesus that God loved Him (Jesus) so much that even if He jumped of the cliff He would be saved. But Jesus was saying that He knew this to be true anyway, He knew that if He had jumped from that spot, that “angels” would take care of Him, but He wasn’t gonna give satan the satisfaction of even appearing to show doubt by having to prove Himself or God
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
Wow! I wonder if this is what he told Hitler? We’ve heard rumor about rock stars who have “sold their souls for rock and roll”, I wonder if this is what he told Mick Jagger or Snoop Dog? I would think he would almost have to convince them that either God is a wimp, God is only about love no matter what, or that there is no God at all. Then he shows them what they could have with a promise of more. It’s like the cocaine dealer who will give you the first “taste” for free, he’ll let you experience the euphoria, let you go into yourself with the drug, and then before you know it, it’s what you want and at any cost. The good and bad of it is, whether you’re an addict or you think you’ve “sold you soul”, you can always be transformed from that, you can live again, that’s the good, the bad is, you die…for eternity.
Jesus at this point has had enough with him, especially with this last temptation. It seems to be the most destructive, and it’s what hurts God the most. God says in Deuteronomy, “I offer life and death, (please!) choose life!” He says that all He wants us to do is trust Him, love Him, worship Him, accept Him.
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” 11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
How many of us are worshipping other gods? How many other things are we “serving” before God?

Father help me to hear You! Help me to discern the what Your will is for my life. May I not become complacent in my life with You. Once again forgive me for the things that cause not to hear as clearly as I need to. Keep me hungry for “every word” that proceeds out of Your mouth through Your Word. Amen