But I Want You To Go First!

"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." James 4:8

"Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work". 2 Timothy 2:20&21

Draw nigh unto God, a rule I think we many times forget! Since God has already done His part for us on calvary through Jesus Christ, we now have a responsibility of responding to Him. I think this is what God wants us to learn through James. I believe God is saying, "I have already provided the resource for you, now appropriate that resource!" And my premise for this is found in 2 Timothy 2:20&21, "Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work". Notice it says to CLEANSE YOURSELF! But wait Chris, I thought only Jesus could cleanse you? You are 100% right, but what Paul is saying is we need to appropriate the tools already provided for us to get clean! Notice also in the above verse that James says, "cleanse your hands sinners, purify your hearts you double-minded", we are going to cover why it is so important to draw nigh unto God in the following paragraphs. He initialized by revealing certain things to us, it is now up to us to appropriate these truths!

Now I believe there are a few ways to draw nigh unto Him. The obvious way is through genuine, earnest, quieted-heart prayer. In fact, this is the foundation of drawing nigh unto Him. Understand this everyone, if your prayer life is suffering your sin is increasing, your heart is getting cold, things seem impossible to overcome because more doors are open to the enemy than to God (See the devotion titled "He's Knocking"). So we want the predominate "voice" in our lives to be God's and not Satan's, put on the whole armor of God...remember? If we put on our armor (Ephesians 6:11), drawing nigh unto God, then when the fiery darts of Satan hit, they are quenched! (his fiery darts are his lies leading our hearts astray).

Second is staying in the Word. This is very important as well, as God's Word is literally the key to understanding anything and everything of true value. Some of us tend to elevate this more than prayer, understand though that the new testament church didn't have all of this documentation compiled yet. In fact, through Paul and the other apostles remaining in prayer and abiding in Jesus, resulted in these revealed texts. Don't hear me wrong, reading God's Word is crucial to your walk, but the main vehicle that propels you deeper with Him is through a healthy prayer life,in fact, prayer is what makes His Word come alive even more because He is now giving you direct revelation! Think about this with me. If we are friends, and all I do is read letters all the time and hardly ever speak with you, is our relationship going to go too far? Unfortunately not. The letters I read from you are still relevant, but they just aren't quite the same as when I am consciously with you. So I am not dumbing down the importance of the revealed Word of God, but I am explaining why I believe if I had to pick a "second" this would be it.

Now when we combine these two "drawing nigh" tactics, and add appropriation (walking the walk and not just talking the talk), this is equal to what the Jesus called "abiding in Him". John 15:9 says, "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love". Now when we do things in obedience to Him, we are "drawing nigh unto Him". And what did He say He would do if we draw nigh unto Him? The answer is that He will draw nigh unto us! I am so thankful for His revealed Word! This is amazing truth that makes our faith a live and active one! I hear so much theological talk about being saved seemingly in theory and not relationally, and unfortunately we have made a relationship with God into more of a religion, because we love to talk about the Word, but when it comes to applying...ahhh, thats for people in full time ministry. And this brothers and sisters could not be farther from the truth. We all have a race to run, let's do it with endurance! God wants all of us to view ourselves in "full-time ministry". LETS ABIDE IN HIM!

Now sometimes we don't feel like doing certain things (i.e. prayer and Bible reading). Remember this truth though, THE FEELING TO DO SOMETHING WILL NOT NECESSARILY COME BEFORE THE APPROPRIATION. I separate desire from feeling. For instance, the battle between the flesh and the Spirit is very real, right? You DESIRE to walk in the Spirit but you FEEL like walking in the flesh. CRUCIFYING THE FLESH IS GETTING IN THE SPIRIT, GETTING IN THE SPIRIT ENSURES YOU WILL NOT REBEL, BEING IN THE SPIRIT AND NOT REBELLING LEADS TO DRAWING NIGH UNTO GOD! Thats why the Bible says not to quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19), because when we do that we have sinned and lost the alerting capabilities (momentarily) of the Spirit because He is quenched, and when we sin we give Satan a foothold(Neither give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:27), and after he has a foothold he begins to deceive. When we quench the Spirit's "voice" we are now wrestling with an opposing voice that we have given strength to by submitting to sin. Thats why Hebrews 3:12&13 says, "Be careful, brothers and sisters, that none of you ever develop a wicked, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Encourage each other every day while you have the opportunity. If you do this, none of you will be deceived by sin and become stubborn." The reason we begin to get deceived, is because we gave Satan a foothold and he is now advancing his lies, and they penetrate effectively if we are quenching the Spirit! Don't put your armor on and then take it off! Satan's darts hurt!

Now for the implementaion (appropriation). If I want to plant a seed so I can enjoy the future benefits, I must get the shovel out and plant it. Now my desire is for the fruit the action of planting produces, but I may not feel like planting the seed. Now I fully believe, when we act on our true desire to draw closer to Him even when we don't feel like it, our feelings begin to change. That's called discipline! Discipleship! For instance, God showed me a while back that when my wife and I begin to get upset with each other, to grab her hand (no matter how hard it is in the moment) and tell her "I love you". You would be surprised at the instant relief and healing that begins to happen! See all of these principles tie into reaping and sowing, so the basic premise is still the same, if I initiate based on the desire of my heart I will reap God drawing nigh unto me! The Holy Spirit has put that desire in your heart to seek God! Even if it is faint, tap into it, stoke it as you would the burning coals of a fire and run again! Cleanse your hands! Purify your hearts! But how? Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you! If you have told God, "If you will do something, then I will start praying and reading", or a question of this sort, then you could be waiting a long time. Let's be a people that takes Him at His Word!