The True Spiritual Person
True Spirituality
“Jesus turned and said to Peter , “Get behind me Satan ! You are stumbling block to me ; You don’t have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Matthew 16:23
Jesus told His disciples that He must suffer many things at the hands of the elder s, chief priests and teachers of the Law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter reacted and rebuked the Lord. Satan never has in his minds the things of God but rather earthly things. Peter’s rebuke is inspired by Satan. The carnal man’s mind is inspired by Satan. The carnal man does not live for the glory of God but for his own self. What does the carnal man desire ? The carnal man desire comfort , pleasures, satisfaction, happiness, wealth and prosperity, fulfillment and convenience. The carnal man is not willing to suffer for Christ’s sake. The carnal man is not willimg to die to his self in order to fulfill the will of God. The carnal man is not willing to take up his cross in order to be obedient to God’s will. The carnal man is not willing to follow Christ’s ways of sufferings. The carnal man is not willing to lose his life for the sake of the Kingdom of God. The carnal man will never be able to please and glorify God.
True Christianity is pursuing Christlikeness. True Christianity involves daily dying to self , to sin and to the world. True Christianity is a reproduction of the life of JesusChrist in a person as it is written in I Johm 2:6 : “ Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” True Christianity is continuous perseverance for the fulfillment of the will of God in your life no matter how much it cost, or how difficult it may be. Just like the life of the Lord JesusChrist on earth, it is a demonstration of perfect obedience to the will of God. And Christ find His ultimate satisfaction in doing the will of God in His life no matter how much sufferings it cost Him. So Christ while on earth never seek His own convenience, pleasure and satisfaction . He chose a difficult life, a life of sufferings in order to fulfill the will of God and give Him glory. The life of a carnal man is an exact contradiction to the life of Christ.
That is why I will never have confidence in the teachings of today’s so called prosperity gospel preachers. The teachings of these men allow me to say are Satan-inspired. They are very appealing to the carnally-minded men who never had his priority on the things of God. The message of the prosperity gospel is so adverse to the truths lived out by JesusChrist, the Apostles and early disciples. The prosperity gospel seek only to glorify self and never intended to give glory to God.
A true spiritual Christian is seeking to fulfill the will of God more than his own comfort. To be a truly spiritual person, we must be willing to suffer to fulfill God’s purposes in our lives. We must be willing to let go certain rights and privileges just to give way to the agenda of the Kingdom. A truly spiritual person never seek for his own happiness but seek on top of everything the fulfillment of God’s will that will bring glory to God. A truly spiritual person will find contentment in whatever difficult circumstances she or he may have as long as God is glorified in his/her life.
