It's Not About Us

What is this Gospel about?

Millions of Christians seem to chase Christianity for themselves when the Gospel of the Bible is all about giving ourselves to others. David Platt put it better when he said, “We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering for ourselves when the central message of Christianity is about abandoning ourselves.” Very few, it seems, go to church for what they can take back out into the world. Most go for whatever is in it for themselves.

Is this not only a betrayal of the Great Commission, but also an act of rebellion against God? How many of us actually go to church expecting to see things happen today? When was the last time many of us even heard of a miracle let alone actually saw one as it happened? If you answered that with anything other than “today”, or “yesterday”, then you gave the wrong answer. We should expect miracles of healing and deliverance and salvation daily – if we are living out the great commission.

“If we saw these things daily”, I hear someone cry, “then we would surely have some sort of revival, wouldn’t we?” “Yes we would !! And why ever not?”, is my response. Revival living is as much an attitude as it is a lifestyle. I have said before that if we ask little we get little but when we ask big -  thats when God really loves to answer our prayers.

When will we teach or preach, as Paul said to the church at Corinth, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,  so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.^{” 1 Corinthians 2:4-5.} When we talk to people offering and perhaps giving a demonstration of Holy Spirit power; when we reach out well over our personal comfort zone boundaries; when we become the church instead of talking about the church – then perhaps we will see God moving on a different level.

There is a church near us where the youngsters go into the streets with the Gospel and with healing. The trouble is that they have to get the local authorities permission and a license to do it. There are many authorities who will never give permission for such a thing. The dividing line between obedience to the law of the land and obedience to Biblical instructions is sometimes very hard to see and there is often a moment when we have to just step out in faith and do it rather than worrying about whether or not we have the civil liberty and rights and permission to do so. I am not advocating that we break the law but there comes a moment when we have to decide whether or not to obey man or God.

We need to start thinking as church not as individuals? It is certainly not for personal glory that we do anything for God’s Kingdom. Perhaps that is the secret of the way forward – to become so Kingdom focussed that we lose self entirely. That is after all what Jesus said – die to self in order to live to Him.

The Gospel is not about catering for ourselves – it is about abandoning ourselves for the Kingdom of God. Let us become a Kingdom-minded Church so that Holy Spirit may have free rein to bring revival.

“Abandon self and allow revival” - that’s not a bad motto for the church today.

What do you think?