……the date is today, and the time is now.
i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, contemplative conversation, just for you in this season, at this time, where ever you are, be it grieving at home alone, or in the middle of a crowded place, the date is today, and the time is now.
Hey listen, in no way are any of the programs aimed at persuading anyone to one religious faction or another within Christian circles. It isn’t to persuade Catholics or Methodists to be someone else, or, for that matter, any other denomination to become your new denomination, far from it actually. i for one, harbor no appreciation for denominations in the least. The goal is to inspire a reconnection with God, deeper, wider, and longer than before; to cast a vision of where we’re going, as individuals and as a community, how to step into that vision, and for you and God to root out where you’re supposed to be. If we don’t have an idea of where we are going, it’s really difficult to know how to be where we are. As an example, if we don’t know we are going on a trip tomorrow, how can we prepare today if we’re blind to the fact we are leaving the house tomorrow?
But in the meantime, we can learn more about the Ever Lord, the One King, who He is, how He does some of the things He does and why, yea, why, why why. Doesn’t it seem as though God is always digging around through our why?
As we approach an intersection, we are approaching a place of rapid-fire decisions which simply must be made. As we approach, the light is green… green… green… and we know at annnyyyyy second it could suddenly change to red and we’d have to slam on the brakes. The closer we get to the moment an imminent decision must be made as to whether to stop or give it the gas, the more tense everything gets. There is a tension in the deciding that is uncomfortable. How we make decisions is partly done from our inclinations, like, “i am inclined to run a red light at the last moment”, “i am inclined to slow down at intersections”, “i am inclined to be honest no matter what,” or “i am inclined to be honest only when it suits my personal agenda”. How about, “i am inclined to think i need an image management program” as opposed to “i am inclined to play down my titles because i don’t need anyone’s endorsement to do what God has asked me to do, afterall, there are no pastor’s or bishops in Heaven, only the redeemed.”?
Our inclinations and motivations are driven by what we believe, which warrants a very piercing question, if answered with all honesty, “What exactly do you believe, how did you come to that conclusion, and why do you think it’s a good idea?” That’s called, your “epistemology”. Big word with big implications whose defining reaches down to even our smallest, and seemingly innocuous doctrines. If you think your smallest ideas and imaginations don’t really matter, rest assured and settle it in your heart, everything matters.
If we are believers in Christ, underneath all our thinking, the Holy Spirit is changing our impulses from worldly impulse to Godly impulse, from worldly instinctive tendencies, inclinations and motivations, to Godly instinctive tendencies, inclinations and motivations, re-bending them and squeezing them into righteous shape.
It is a general instinctive tendency to run away in the face of difficult trials, thinking only of self-preservation, but in the heart of every believer there grows the inclination or instinctive tendency to not run away from difficult trials, because more and more often, standing for the truth in Christ is more important than preserving our reputation or even our lives. Fear says runaway, but, there are things more important than being afraid.
To reiterate from the last program, a doctrine is a belief or set of beliefs held and taught, it is our internal descriptive theology and ideology from which we operate and continue on. To search out doctrine means to take nuances from words of instruction within the context of how the words are used; to grasp wisdom, take understanding, or to sit under the good sense of a teacher’s persuasion. Titus2:1 says to “teach what is sound and right according to sound doctrine.”
In his sermon titled “Heaven”, Charles Spurgeon spoke of four subtle doctrines which i think are worthy of discussion. Our topic is concerning the doctrine of impulse, our instinctive tendencies, inclinations and motivations. A bit brainy, but i think it’s a worthy discussion to have.
A really bad habit that’s allowed to continue on in its method’s and practices, eventually takes over and molds our entire personality, until we become “self-contentedly dead”, happy with who we have become, not realizing we have become inanimate, or dead. Yea, who are the dead anyway?
The things we’ve done and seen in our lives stick to us, we can’t wash them off so easily, and if allowed to remain we become those things. In my experience, the blood of Jesus is the only hope for those who’ve lost their way, having become, think about this: “self-contentedly dead”; Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, chastised for our peace, and by His stripes we are healed. Jesus is the only hope to wash the things we’ve seen and done off of our heads.
Where do you get your impulses, your inclinations and motivations? Are you a church leader who “gives to get”, in other words you get people to play g-r-e-a-t music at your church so it will expand your church, or is it to bless the people in hopes they wake up and advance their relationship with Christ? Do you get charismatic people to speak for what they can do for you? How that charismatic person will draw more people in, or is it for something greater and higher to advance the congregations pursuit of the Lord? How do you lean in your heart, what is your inclination in those situations?
i agree with Henry Drummond. Let’s assume Adam’s sin was the first of it’s kind, and up until that moment, i believe he was perfectly righteous from the first moment of his existence. From the first he breathed in life, he was capable of right action ….. if he was immediately capable of right action he was also inclined to act right. You get that? Our inclinations motivate our actions. For Adam to do right, i believe he had to be created with a pre-disposition to do right, he had to have had an inclination to righteous action because of the holy disposition of his heart. He had this inclination due to his cognizance and loyalty to God. i believe one of the things lost when sin entered in was Adam’s inclination to right action, being replaced with an inclination to operate without God, and to give power to wrong action. As a result, one definition of sin is losing your relish for righteous things, and giving power to your flesh over your spirit.
Our inclinations spring from our heart posture, how we lean in our hearts toward or away from God. An old definition of attitude is: the pitch and yaw of a boat or airplane; how we lean in our hearts toward God.
Our inclinations and motivations squeeze us into shape, we become the pattern of even the most basic of our beliefs. Without Jesus in our lives we are powerless to follow any other pattern and inclination, other than sin and the world, yet with Jesus alive in our heart, He becomes the power to “re-bend” us away from the world and toward Himself, if we’ll allow it. We all have inclinations and motivations, but let’s think about where we got them…they had to come from somewhere, no one is born with God’s values immediately inclining their heart to right action. Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.
The aptitudes and predispositions which lead to death and inspire us to simply be “self-contentedly dead”, those we were born with, again, if we are willing, and allow it to be so, the Lord can and does re-bend our foundational inclinations into patterns of righteousness and goodness, bringing us into right-standing with God, as it was in the beginning.
Exodus 6:6, “Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm …” The idea of an “outstretched arm” is an idiom, a phrase which isn’t readily obvious just by looking at the individual words. In this particular case, an “outstretched arm” means that the Lord is greatly inclined to deliver His people, His heart is “inclined” towards our deliverance, not “declined” away from us. The Lord is the personification of perfect choosing, and His heart is always, always, always inclined to goodness, without even a shade of anything less.
In 1Kings11:2-4, the Lord is speaking to Solomon about his love of foreign women. Three times the Lord says the foreign women would “turn his heart away” and in vs4 we read that indeed, the foreign women, whom he loved, did turn his heart away, or caused him to incline his heart away from God, thereby becoming disloyal. The idiom “turn his heart away”, speaks of the pitch and yaw of his heart, and he near completely, was no longer inclined to follow after God.
After several years of thought, i believe i can conclude that the desire to make righteous choices requires righteous desires and inclinations, and without a Godly inclination toward goodness, we are not able to do good.
i believe our choices follow our inclinations and motivations. From this comes the idea that what you believe rules you, you don’t rule what you believe. Our inclinations and motivations, as set in the foundations of our heart. They are the fuel driving our decision-making machine, and only the blind, naked, and clueless think they’ve got control over all that. No person is smart enough to run their own life. We need help and should call to the Lord to re-bend our foundations to His will.
Psalm14:1, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.”
Mankind, as a whole, have all fallen short, have all become corrupt, indeed, there is none who do good. We have allowed secular drift to clog our God communications. Doing a good deed doesn’t mean you are good, there is only One who is good, Matthew 19:16-17, “And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.…” Think about that, the man asking the question was implying that if he were to do that one good thing which was above other good things, somehow, he would be able to get for himself eternal life. Friends, a life of good deeds not only doesn’t make you a good person, neither does it qualify you for entering in the Kingdom of God. Will God let into Heaven those who do not love Him?
i’m gonna put this out here, without Christ in our hearts, even our good deeds are not good deeds. Without Jesus, who is the sole possessor of righteous goodness in the universe, in our heart, good works are called dead works. There i said it. Isaiah 64:6, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
Friends, be brave to ask the Lord to reveal to you what your inclinations and motivations are, and make the necessary adjustments He reveals to you, not so you can “get it right” but that you would draw closer to Jesus who has given you life, hope, and redemption.
Maybe, just maybe, the most important thing is not sorting things out and labeling what is good or not good, but more the underlying inclination and motivation that prompted the need to draw such a distinction, almost as if it’s too scary to listen to the Holy Spirit about what’s right and wrong. Even to this day, people want a list of do’s and don’ts outlined for them, whereas within our life in Christ, the Lord wants us to follow Him, which is more than just keep a bunch of rules. Surely, in the face of the grace of God, you don’t believe that your well-being and prosperity is derived from your ability to get it right. i didn’t say don’t be obedient, of course, that is a fundamental necessity, but i am addressing something far more foundational, and that is our impulses, our inclinations and motivations which we operate from, our basic beliefs, theology and ideology from which we do life. The Lord is very interested in speaking to us about that stuff. From the beginning to the end, one obvious truth is that God is concerned with the total life of his people, and nothing is beyond his concern, in His eyes, everything matters.
i don’t believe we just have the Lord’s likeness upon us, like eyes, mouth, ears, nose, touch, movement and direction, i believe we also have it within us in that we feel, choose, think, relate, love, hurt, etc, etc.. When the Lord said in Genesis 1:26 that He would make man in His own image and likeness, those are two different words there, meaning it is like a father who has a son, the son has a resemblance to his dad, or an image of him. The son can see, hear, taste, feel, smell, walk and talk like his father. He also reflects his dad, he tends to think, and choose, decide, laugh and be sad like the parent. i guess you get the picture of resemblance and reflection.
Those of us who are in Christ don’t simply have a resemblance to the Lord, but we also possess His reflection, but it is more than simply being able to act, decide, have thoughts and inclinations, it is also the reflection of holiness, righteousness, goodness, peace, hope, and joy. We are inclined like our Heavenly Father. From this it’s easy to see why when someone gloriously declares, “We are all just children of God” it holds no water. Just because we all have the power to breath and choose doesn’t mean we are blood relatives, there must be an inner reflection of Christ for us to be blood relatives, and that requires repentance, believing in our heart, and confessing with our mouth according to Romans 10.
When men try and do ministry with the wrong inclinations and motivations, it is like trying to write on paper and the ink dries on your pen before you’ve made the first letters or lines. It’s just a lot of scratching and scraping….it just doesn’t work. God’s work is first set in our heart as inclination and motivation which He has planted there. From the inclination to right action grows right ministry, and if He has given us His endorsement, He will also make the provision. And on a side note, i don’t believe God asks us to do anything we can do ourselves. Following Christ sets in our heart right inclination and motivation … we gain a Holy Spirit leaning towards acting according to God’s values.
In my heart exists all kinds of inclinations, but the longer i lean into Jesus, the more the tendency to act like the world which fades away, dissolving secular drift….in these latter years of life, more often than ever, i think i almost always lean toward the Lord more than the world, even when i sleep.
2 Corinthians 5:14, “For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us.…” Ahhh, now we’re down to the matter. Henry Drummond writes that when we function under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, we do God’s bidding without having to think to act to force ourselves to feed the hungry, cover the naked, house the homeless, or love the unloveable….it comes to us like an easy wind blowing through our heart and our service and obedience is peaceful and easily entreated. When we allow ourselves to be available and function under the Holy Spirit impulse, being inclined to follow God like a little lamb follows the shepherd, suddenly we see the need of others because the reflection of Christ is at the right angle, the God-angle, suddenly we see people we didn’t have eyes for yesterday, yet they were there, we are righteously compelled without being urged by some religious doctrine which has been legally impinged upon us.
When we live life in the inclination and motivation of the Lord, life seems more like the way it is supposed to be lived. We don’t think to ourselves that we need to give ourselves a medal for living an extraordinary life when we get home this evening. It feels like life is supposed to feel, alive in the presence of God, in the moment, all day long. God gives us a Holy Spirit-natural-leaning to do the missions of His Heart.
Living life in Christ is like that, and not thinking to take credit for the glory we operate in, is like one fellow said, “It’s like when you look at a mirror, you don’t see the mirror, or even think of it, but only of what it reflects. A mirror never calls attention to itself except when there are flaws in it.”
That’s how i want to live my life. i want to be like that mirror, who’s inclination and motivation is to reflect Jesus, never calling attention to myself, but to always be found pointing to Jesus. i want to live as if that’s not some dream or vision but a real experience any person can live.
In Hebrews 12:2 Paul uses a Greek word for “looking to Jesus” that’s not used anywhere else in the Bible, only there. It’s a two part verb, the first part meaning a separation from the whole, and the second part means to see with the eyes, to see with the mind, to stare at and discern clearly. It is not only a physical action but a mental action both. The Hebrew equivalent means to “experience by perception”, and the more i perceive and see Jesus, the more i become like Him, meaning the more we see Him, the more our lives will gain a natural inclination, a natural leaning to follow after Jesus, the more we follow Him, the more we reflect Him, receiving no attention and gathering no medals of honor to ourselves.
Now, that may not seem to make any sense to some listeners, but let me encourage you to not just trot past that, not giving the idea a second glance, but to let it sit on the back of the stove until the Lord brings it forth and reminds you of things He’s said when you need to know them.
Our inclinations and motivations are also called “intentions”, they are a spark, like the flash of a gem stone, which is more than an inkling which is a hint or a slight knowledge. And what is the nature of a spark? It’s humble, it is small like a little light reflecting occasionally on and off in the darkness. Buried in the Hebrew letters for the words “intention” and “inclination”, it is easy to discover they’re origin is in our imagination as a spark, and as we know, a spark is all we need to start a fire, for good or bad.
In Genesis 50:20, where it says, “meant for evil”, the word “meant” speaks of something which began in the imagination as a spark and was woven together into a larger idea that was acted on, but the whole thing began as a spark that started a fire, and had their hearts not been inclined to do evil, the fire would have never caught. What evil was so flammable in the heart of Israel that the spark in their imagination caused a large scale fire to begin with?
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Malachi 3:16, “Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name.” i just love that verse.
There at the end is the word “meditate” or “thought on His name”. It’s a phrase which also means to imagine things about God. In the word is a humble spark, or inclination and motivation to not only imagine but weave together ideas and to execute what is imagined, like weaving together the reflected light caught from gem stones, and if you caught enough gem stone light and wove it together, you could have a coat of many colors. Now wouldn’t that be amazing? A garment of woven together gem stone reflected light, a heavenly garment born from righteous imagination, triggering our inclinations and motivations, to do the works of the Lord, changing the world around us! i like that vision, so let’s stop right there and say, think about it!
We who are believers in Christ and are in hot pursuit of God have impulses, inclinations, and motivations in us that should not be a surprise. i’ll speak for myself here, so here goes, i am inclined to read my Bible often to see Jesus better; i am inclined and motivated to kindness, even when i, initially, don’t feel very kind; in my heart is a motivation to help, just in general, just to help and aid those in need; i am not inclined to be combative and defensive much anymore; i am inclined to watch the vision of my heart while using my physical eyes to see the world in front of me, motivated to watch for God’s direction; it is my inclination to see as He sees; i am motivated to engage with others to share the goodness of God with them; i am highly inclined to believe God hears my prayers and will answer; i am inclined to not do things which taint and diminish the honor the Lord has given to me, nor to dishonor and bring demise to those around me.
What or who sparks your imagination, inclinations, and motivations? We become the company we keep, meaning they influence the way we dream, believe, and imagine. Who or what do you allow in your life, adding input to how you lean towards or away from the Lord?
i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation, broadcast semi-live from the late evening cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the river’s edge, and every crystal clear, beautiful evening is pleasant.
Deuteronomy 31:21, “For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” The Lord knows the things we are inclined to before we know what those things are, long before we begin to weave together a plan of action. In His knowing what we will do before we ever do it, He sets such a course of action to lead us to Himself, that even our imagination, inclinations, and motivations are bent to lean in the accomplishing of His purposes. What a wonderful God we serve!
Be strong and courageous this week, listen with all your heart, the Lord is truly speaking to you. Drive carefully, pray diligently for loved ones and your neighbors….i hope we meet again on the trail of the lonesome pine, to sit by the fire and dream of God, whatever dreams may come. Amen!