If you want Jesus Christ to be glorified in your life, then you need to step aside, you need to get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit do the work of the Lord through you, there is no other way. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)
This is the prerequisite, you must hate the world, all that it offers must be seen as detestable in your eyes, the pride of ownership, the pride of accomplishments, of the praise of men must be seen as an offense to God who has given you the life that you now live in the first place. The Word of God says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Phil. 4:13) The world says simply I can do all things, not individually of course but as a whole, as a cohesive unit, “If we all pull together as a team.” This is ingrained into the smallest child the first day they step onto the school grounds, they, we, are taught that it takes all of us working together to bring about the great achievements of mankind, and as is the usual course, once again this statute is being employed across the planet. Wear the mask, take the vaccine, and together we can beat this enemy.
One of mankind’s most sought after purposes has always been to kill God, or at least deny His existence, Sovereignty is not a word that most people like. For the born-again believer that word Sovereign and the only One that it has and ever will be attributable to is the first step in taking ourselves out of the equation, of stepping aside, but in truth I believe that it is not the first step that many of us take.
When we first came to the Lord, when we, as is said “accept Jesus Christ as Lord,” we are not aware of His complete control over all of existence, for in truth what we want is something from Him. We want the pain to go away, the heartache, the sorrow, we want happiness and do not yet realize the difference between happiness and joy. A better term, seeing how it is the Lord God who chooses us, we do not choose Him, (Eph. 1:4) would be that we have acknowledged the Lord God as our Savior, and Jesus Christ is the only means of that salvation.
We cannot step aside and allow Him to be the Master of our lives, of our destiny until this conclusion is reached.
It is why I have stated before in these poorly written letters my belief that there is a difference between those who have been born-again, and those who have been crucified with Christ, and that the love of the world that still abides in some that are definitely saved by grace, and the inability to completely step aside is the proof of this statement. There are perhaps many who are truly saved that still live, at least in part, in and for this world, the cares of it still concern them, the desires that it offers to them still calls them, and it may be where the term “carnal Christian” comes from.
Those who have been crucified with Christ do not care which way the world is going, they have one purpose for every thought, (2 Cor. 10:5) every action, (1 Cor. 10:31) every movement they make, that the name of the Most High would be exalted above the heavens. This person is not self-imprisoned in some cloister studying the Word of God continuously, he is out among the people, reaching out to them, speaking of the only One who can save them from the wrath of God, from their sins, we step aside, we let God do His work for His glory through us, for that is what He has chosen to do in this age of grace.
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18) You must decide who and what is most important to you, you and the world, or Jesus Christ, because you cannot have them both.
