Setting Your Spiritual House In Order

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“Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’” 2 Kings 20:1

Heavenly Light Revealing the Darkness in the Heart of Worldly Humanity

The above photo intentionally proposes to convey more than one meaning to the reader. What some of my weekly readers will perhaps do is to use the title of this blog post, “Cleaning up your spiritual house” to imply that each believer must apply the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the daily spiritual disciplines of the Faith, to uncover things in one’s life that has limited your spiritual maturity, or perhaps unconfessed sins that God wish to deliver you from.

America is largely a secular Nation that reflects its true “heart” of contempt and defiance, with lies, deception, greed, violence, and ethnic and political conflict, etc. For other readers, the above image may depict all of the evil and unrighteousness that has been hidden in the hearts of its citizens, that now is being played out on a grand scale by the power of God.

Lastly, there may be a very small percentage of readers, who may recall the biblical passage in Luke 8:17 that for them, the items that are hidden from plain sight, will in God’s due season, will become manifest, namely the preaching of the Gospel message, and the various ways in which it has been proclaimed during this age now will bear the visible fruits for the nations of the earth.

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Luke 8:17

Preface

The essence of this blog post is to reveal the dangerous nature of denial in our culture, its citizens, and the church community. In the closure of this blog post, I will reveal some ways in which the Scripture guides the Body of Christ toward “Getting your Spiritual House in order!”

Denial Hides from the Truth, Denialism Builds a Different truth

The top three dictionary meaning of the noun, denial is an assertion that something said, believed, alleged, etc., is false: refusal to believe a doctrine, theory, or the like. disbelief in the existence or reality of a thing.

In a wonderfully written article entitled: Denialism: What drives people to reject the Truth, the author Keith Kahn Harris states that we are all in denial, some of the time at least. Part of being human, and living in a society with other humans, is finding clever ways to express – and conceal – our feelings.

The article continues by communicating that human deceptions are not necessarily malign; at some level, they are vital if humans are to live together with civility. As Richard Sennett has argued: “In practicing social civility, you keep silent about things you know clearly but which you should not and do not say.”

Whether you agree with this statement by Sennett or not, one must beg to ask the very most important question and rationale for this blog post;

But when does this necessary private self-deception become harmful? The answer to this question is when it becomes public dogma. In other words: when it becomes denialism!

Denialism is a person’s choice to deny reality as a way to avoid a psychologically uncomfortable truth. Denialism is an essentially irrational action that withholds the validation of a historical experience or event when a person refuses to accept an empirically verifiable reality.

In psychological terms, the danger of denialism is an expansion, an intensification, of denial. At root, denial and denialism are simply a subset of the many ways humans have developed to use language to deceive others and themselves. Denial can be as simple as refusing to accept that someone else is speaking truthfully. Denial can be as unfathomable as the multiple ways we avoid acknowledging our weaknesses and secret desires.

Denialism is more than just another manifestation of the humdrum intricacies of our deceptions and self-deceptions. It represents the transformation of the everyday practice of denial into a whole new way of seeing the world and – most important – a collective accomplishment. Denial is furtive and routine; denialism is combative and extraordinary.

The latter portion of this article discusses ways in which denialism can be effectively dealt with! https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/03/denialism-what-drives-people-to-reject-the-truth

In theological terms, the willful practice of denialism by individuals is an indictment against the culture that fully embraces irrational actions that withhold reality, thus successfully uncovers nothing more than sin or holistic depravity. Theologians Lewis and Demarest contents that holistic depravity indicates that no human capacity has escaped sin’s pollution.

This includes the mind, the conscience, the emotions, and the will are not exempt from the power, the pull, and the consequence of this sin of denialism and all sins of our fallen human nature. Apart from God’s grace, sinner and saint alike are incapable of altering their dispositions. [Sinful Human Nature and the Imago Dei; The Human Person in the Theology and Psychology, page 245, James R. Beck and Bruce Demarest]

Warning!

Whenever the Nation of America, its citizens, its culture, its institutions blatantly normalize denialism as an alternative reality, we are witnessing an evil disposition of those who are slaves of depravity. What America is guilty of among other things, by the powers to be, is the amoral persecution of those who believe in, live by, and defend civil law, the U.S. Constitution, and Democracy. This emergence of a potent culture of denialism has pointed our Nation into a very dark and irreversible direction of peril.

It is my humble yet urgent pastoral/ prophetic plea for those who have ears to hear that the next severest persecution will be those who believe in and live for Christ! If our county is denying the rule of law, overthrowing Democracy with sedition, the subculture that spiritual salvation is established by faith in the “Truth” will not stand a chance. The Body of Christ will be the next and most detested target of hate, violence if not enemy number one of the states in this Nation.

Christ during his prayer in Gethsemane, Jesus tells God, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17)

What is the absolute truth: The Bible claims itself to be perfect and absolute truth. Psalm 19:7, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”

Psalm 119:142, “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” In other words, without error.

Why People Reject/Deny the Truth

• People reject Christ because they love their sin and they hate having it exposed by God’s light.

• People love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

• Those who practice evil hate Jesus, who is light, and do not come to Him for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

Quotes

• I cannot imaging anyone looking at the sky and denying God. — Abraham Lincoln.
• As the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, so the denial of God is the height of foolishness. R.C. Sproul
• Jesus died for humanity publicly so don’t only live for Him in private.

If ever is the appropriate time to “set your house in order, now is that time!

Persecution

The Holy Scriptures and the words of Christ are loaded with warnings about the persecution of the faithful followers of Christ. In the basic definition, Persecution is the act of harassing, oppressing, or killing people because of their difference from society. Christians are persecuted because their belief in Jesus Christ as Savior does not conform to the godlessness of a sinful world.

There are at least three major types of persecution, all of which sometimes are interconnected in a systemic manner in which ill-treatment is imposed. They are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution.

The Body of Christ worldwide is, in essence, a spiritual sub-group of individuals living within the wider secular culture. Concerning the actual persecution of believers past, present, and future, the Scripture is very clear just how God and His Kingdom are glorified by those who will endure trials, testings, temptations, and persecution for Christ-sake!

In the secular world system, all forms of persecution ultimately esteem humanity, systems, and human philosophies. However, within the Kingdom of God, those in Christ, who are persecuted, are a spiritual blessing because they reflect the goodness and righteousness of God on the earth. It reflects His love and mercy.

This major difference of secular versus spiritual persecution as planned by God through the example of Christ is not only a blessing, but it has the potential to accomplish the greater good for an unbelieving godless culture. Put your faith in God and His love for both you and the offender.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange was happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 1 Peter 12-16

But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Luke 21:12-13

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matt. 5:11-12

Beware of the false voices of Peace and Prosperity in the Land

The powerful people who will and are the very ones who will persecute the Body of Christ are the same ones who will promote false narratives and claims about peace and prosperity. This is true in our culture and within the institutional church system. As it was in the advent of the Kingdom of God through the Messiah, up to the present generation, leading to the return of Christ, the following Holy Scriptures speak for themselves about the lies and deceptions of individuals who are caretakers and proclaimers of amoral deceit.

Peter wrote about false prophets and teachers who promised “freedom, while they themselves are slaves to corruption, “for a person is a slave to whatever has defeated him. Indeed, if they have once escaped the pollutions of the world through knowing our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah, and then have again become entangled and defeated by them, their latter condition has become worse than their former. It would have been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness than, fully knowing, to turn from the holy command delivered to them. 2 Peter 2:19-21

Words from J.Barton Payne states that depravity/corruption means that “man’s nature…, drives him to sin like the compulsion of an animal in heat (Jer.2:22-25). This very statement implies that all of the root of evil in the world politically, economically, and socially is sited in each human being, thus not fundamentally in the environment, institutions, or socially.

Jeremiah 23:17
“They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace”’;
And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,
They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’

Jeremiah 23:16
Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.
They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the Lord.

Isaiah 56:10-11
His watchmen are blind, All of them know nothing. All of them are mute dogs unable to bark, Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber; And the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied And they are shepherds who have no understanding; They have all turned to their own way, Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.

How to Get Your House in Order

The ideal of the spiritual life in the faithful followers of Christ is one where all of the essential parts of our human nature are effectively organized for and around God, for by His Grace alone and the power of the Holy Spirit are they spiritually restored and sustained by Him.

Getting your house in order is nothing more than spiritual formation in Christ that essentially leading His people back to Himself via love toward God with one’s full heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving one’s neighbor as oneself. Nothing is a clearer definition than Psalm 16:7-9;

“I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.” [Gleaned from Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ, page 31, by Dallas Willard]

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrew 13:5

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” On the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 17:1t-21

If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Closing prayer

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May our Lord make His face shine on you and show you His favor.

May the Lord lift up His face toward you and give you shalom. Numbers 6:24-26

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