The Few, The Proud 

 Justin Miller
 

 Recently I have been led to teach more and more on the power of choice.  That is the choosing to accept and prioritize our lives by the Word of God.  There is a sentiment infecting believers’ thoughts that uses scripture to meet the needs of self-gratification on one hand, and on the other hand the devilish desire to debate and argue the Word instead of doing it.  I remind you from Revelation 22:12-14 but mainly from the 14th verse, “Blessed are those who DO the commandments, they have the right to the Tree of Life”.  Not everyone has that right.  Those who debate and argue, twist and pervert the Word to their selfish means all have a similar trait – they do not do the Word.  Anyone and everyone ought to know the Word.  Knowing the Word and allowing it to be the basis for your everyday decisions and actions are at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Doing the Word is for your establishment and stability in end time days.  In order to activate the Word and make it effective in your life, the Word must be done.  We see this when Jesus prayed “Thy will be done”.  God’s will is His word and His will must be done.

 Jesus showed forth His righteousness by doing the commandments and fulfilling them.  His contention with the Pharisees was that they enjoyed pontificating and arguing and debating.  They enjoyed having the Word in the form of knowledge but from a heart motive, they did little of it.  They enjoyed being seen among their disciples because it was a form of recognition as if to say “See I am wise”.  Self-proclamation is empty in the Kingdom of God.  The ones who did the law and commandments eventually were convicted and this caused them to stay on the right track.  Others outwardly did the commandments but only for the sake of recognition and piety.  This is all empty and vain.  Jesus was real about it.  We must be real from our hearts and not fall prey to a selfish gospel. We see the love of many growing cold as prophesied as we excuse and reason away the Word. 

 The uncompromised acceptance of the Word must be the root of your understanding regardless of what you have or have not attained to; that is to say if the Word says you’re wrong, you’re wrong.  Whether or not you take corrective action, you hold yourself accountable to the Word and do not pervert it to make yourself right – that is uncompromising acceptance.  Conversely, if you’re right, you’re right.  And no amount of persecution can cause you to water down and stoop to a level below the standard of the Word.  That’s uncompromised acceptance.  Believe me, the world will want you to stoop to appease their uneasy conscience but we must realize we are not responsible to make what is already a good and acceptable Word acceptable to those who refuse to accept it in its outright truth.

 I was asked by one of our prisoner students to read a book on “Darwinism”.  I haven’t had the chance yet, but it aroused an interesting point of view in regards to the topic of choosing.  Darwin died a Christian fully renouncing all of his previous theories.  His own followers rejected him when he denounced evolution.  In Darwin’s case, he being the creator of a theory based solely on speculation gave birth to many followers who accepted this speculation as fact.  It’s funny they choose to teach speculation in our schools instead of known facts because of its ease of acceptance.  When Darwin rejected his own theory they rejected him.  They held no honor for him or they would have listened to him who created the whole illusion in the first place!

 Be very aware and careful of this sort of rebellion.  It reveals itself by the insistence on its “right” to be either right or wrong.  A choice is not a right—it’s a choice.  If a choice were a right, there would be no judgment because we’d be right to choose whatever we want.  A choice is a privilege—a privilege is not a guaranteed thing and can be removed at the will of the guarantor.  When the right choice is made, the right to a thing has been granted.  At that point the chooser has a legal right.  Not everyone has a legal binding right because they have yet to choose correctly.  There will come a day when choice is removed from those who have abused it and so we see more light on the portions of scripture that declare “every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord”.  Accept and receive the Spirit to both will and to do and choose correctly while the choice is available.  Never be so sure of yourself as to presumptuously pre-qualify yourself for anything with God.  Let God declare your qualifications—and He will. 

 So you see there is wisdom in declaring your rights as Jesus did when He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because the Lord has anointed Me to heal the sick and bind up the broken hearted. . .”.  You must be sure to be lead by the Spirit in these matters.  Let your words be few and let the few be in the love of God so as to give none offense.  In this choosing you’ll be perfected and fulfill what Christ said, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect”.  Always make it a point to recall that many are called and few chosen.  Few are chosen because few HAVE chosen.  Be one of the few.  Remember the Marines?  The few the proud the . . .  What are you? 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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