Month 3:25, Week 4:3 (Shleshi/Bikkurim), Year:Day 5936:084 AM
7 Sabbaths + Omer Count Day #17
Gregorian Calendar: Thursday 14 June 2012
To Receive or To Be Made?
Learning to Walk in Spiritual Maturity
"Father, give me..." (Luke 15:12, NKJV).
You all know the expression, "you reap what you sow" and there is no better illustration of that than in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). Demanding his inheritance before his time - that is, his father's death - he demonstrated his crass immaturity and back-slidden lev (heart) in his choice of actions upon leaving home. Only when he had been taken to the end of himself did he finally own up to the folly of his own actions and demonstrate his maturity by owning up to the wickedness of his behaviour. He returned home, repentant, a new man.
Bruce D. Allen describes the difference between the prodigal leaving home and the repentant son returning home as the difference between the 'give me' mindset and the 'make me' one [1]. The purpose of life is to become transformed in character to be like that of Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus) not to be the recipient of countless gifts to consume upon our own selfishness and lustfulness. We are here to be made not to receive; and when we do receive it is still for the purpose of being made!
Some are pursuing a goal of conquest, humiliation of others and the acquisition of unearned spoils. They will not only fail miserably but spectacularly. If they refuse to humble themselves and repent, Yahweh will take them to rock bottom so that they can come to their prodigal senses. They do not have to go there - they can repent before they have to grovel in the mire - but some seem destined to by their stubbornness and obstinacy to go the whole hog of stupidity.
Like I said yesterday, the choice is ours.
Endnotes
[1] Bruce D. Allen, Gazing Into Glory: Every Believer's Birthright to Walk in the Supernatural (Destiny Image, Shippensburg, PA: 2011), p.63
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