Dear friends,
The old proverb goes something like this: if you want to get something done, find someone who’s already busy….
Of course, believers can be busy with the right or wrong thing, with the right or wrong motive. Or…
Believers can be committing something for God….or omitting something that pleases Him.
Perhaps a bit more explanation will suffice.
How many times in your life have you encountered a situation where a spouse, person, or group, steadfastly refuses to treat you respectfully, and/or move out and join you on a godly mission that will ultimately change the kingdom of God?
Or help fulfill a Godly need in your own life?
Remember, in these cases, it takes both of you being unified and one in Christ to accomplish it fruitfully.
But they just won’t do it. Your appeal falls on deaf ears. Ears that won’t ear. Or even consider that you’re exhortation, admonition, or outright rebuke is from God.
In these cases, you’re certain that the leading of the Father’s Holy Spirit is bringing you to a new or renewed revelation of truth. You desire honor from the other party that they’ll at least listen carefully.
Here you desire to be a committer.
The other party delays, refuses, and/or digs in, and may even shoot the messenger. This person is the omitter. As the messenger, you’re the committer.
Please remember, in order to be “successful” for God, in order to be fruitful, it requires both of you, both parties, to come into being one.
Might you remember the piece we wrote on seeking and stonewalling?
So, then it’s entirely possible to be an omitting stonewaller. Not a place to be with the Holy Spirit.
This abnormality to the normal Christian life is apparent in the overwhelming number of cases for those ‘committed to committing’…for Him and His Kingdom. For the King Himself. The King of Kings.
It’s my personal experience in countless encounters and interviews with Christians, that the average Christian omitter talks a great game as they omit. You’ll hear things like, “I love God with all my heart.” And, “God means the world to me.” Even, “Whatever Jesus wants, is fine. I belong to Him.”
But talk is cheap.
And love that follows Christ is costly to us. To our old dead-and-buried ways of the old man.
Two testimonies follow.
Marriage is a frequent battleground for the unity of God to be tested by the flesh and by the devil’s minions.
Usually in marriage, we hear in the western church that the man is almost always the main fault. 99% at fault. And yet in the New Covenant record, we usually see the apostle authors addressing the wives first!
That’s biblical code for God’s priorities, and how He teaches His children about what is the best for His kingdom…and consequently, for us as well.
When was the last (or first) time you ever heard that in a modern day message?
We know men who have literally tried almost everything over years and years to bring oneness to their marriage. But the wife steadfastly refuses and omits to join him in the pursuit. She is overtly very religious. But even some close to her have spoken into her life.
She submits, or is subject, to him when she wants…when it suits her…not in everything as the Word declares:
Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, be subject (submit) to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
This passage precedes the ‘husbands love you wives as Christ loved the church’ part. Certainly, she must draw the line if the request or demand is overtly sinful, i.e. anything from a perverted sex act to robbing a bank.
But the things these husbands request are not over any good Christian husband’s line. She just won’t do them. She knows she has him over a barrel. I’ve interviewed and know personally many, many men who feel really trapped in this way.
It’s not sacrificial service…it’s selfish service.
And the male church leaders just put up with it, therefore training the next generation of children that this great dysfunction is normal behavior. After all, as the pagans declare, if momma’s not happy, no one’s happy. Indeed.
So…the omissions continue…and continue….and continue. Church discipline is virtually non-existent these days. At times, these brothers are almost ready to thrown in the towel. But the love of Christ constrains him one more day.
Of course, we have plenty of men who omit the right holy works in their marriage.
Here’s the fact: with the absence of any real church discipline, the omitter always triumphs…at least until they stand at the bema seat of Christ. At that time, it’s too late.
2 Corinthians 5:9-11a Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men…
The wife has a 400% influence over the husband…for good…or bad.
The reason I’m using this example as the main one is that it’s so prevalent…and so ignored. There’s an elephant in the room.
Walk Worthy of your Lord, ladies…
Secondly, I know a man who for years held a theological position as a vital leader in a movement and refused to really search the Word with those loving him and holding the opposite view. Someone was wrong. The Spirit finally broke through, and over time the two parties became one. And the man courageously renounced his original position, asked the readers of his books and other materials to ignore the errors!
What humility and courage. And this saint sent a bold message that he’ll be a bold committer for God’s holy kingdom.
Walk worthy or your Lord, gentlemen…
Hallelujah! More glory to Jesus, and us:
John 17:22-23 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
Perfected in unity.
What a picture of peace and rest in undivided oneness…so unlike what we see in most cases. Are you committed along with me to giving you’re all to making this great truth a reality in our lifetime? Let’s search together for the very truth of God’s mind, and He has promised to give it freely to us.
For example, a wife or husband may think, ‘I want to serve him-her, but this thing they desire is in the way of what pleases me…I don’t like it, and I find it distasteful.’
Sacrificial service is the command of God our Father. He often brings these loving and gracious trials to see if we really mean what we say about Him. Anyone can serve selfishly…anyone.
We want to be absolutely certain that we aren’t falling into the trap of practicing overshadowing sin.
The new creature, the new creation in Jesus, is a committer first and foremost. He strives to enter the narrow gate by scanning the horizon for every opportunity to shame the devil and destroy his schemes.
And, remember, this first and foremost looks like the love of a diligent committer…those seeking the mark of the true disciple who loves with deed: unity.
Being one.
With Him! Do we really love Him? Really? More than our fleshly, omitting ways?
Ephesians 3:20-4:6 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Some people I’ve encountered point to the following verse and say, “See, we can’t be one on all things. It says it here.” But does it?
Ephesians 4:13 …until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
It’s unity of the faith! In the passage right above that, we can preserve the unity of the Spirit…not run off and form another denomination, or omit some holy act of God that runs counter to our personal sacred cows.
Who cares who’s right and wrong if we have the mind of the Lord?
May we live in such a sanctified way, that the pagans will be shamed by our rising holiness…our separateness from their ways that always lead to eternal death.
“…and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.” from 1 Peter 3:16
What witness are we giving to the unseen spirit world, the great cloud of witnesses? And to God the Almighty Himself?
Ephesians 2:14 For He Himself (Jesus) is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall…
Since there’s no barrier whatsoever between all people and all groups being one in God’s kingdom, what sort of people should we be that claim His family name and honor?
What will be the report when we stand in front of the Majestic Glory to give an account of our life?
2 Peter 1:17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”—
Will He be well pleased with us? Or will we be called an “omitter” at the judgment with what really counted to our Lord Jesus Christ?
Only one small letter separates the two opposing parties: C-omitter, or omitter.
Like the “C” in Christ.
Can you and I “C” the Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of heaven and earth, in all this?
Now…
What will He have you do to become a more dedicated and complete committer in your life in the kingdom of God?
Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,
Marc
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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!
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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Marc White, Director, Walk Worthy Ministries, www.WalkWorthy.org
