"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV)
The Apostle Paul wrote two-third of the New Testament epistles and pioneered many of the gentile churches. His ministry spread throughout the whole world, and yet towards the end of his life, he said, "I have not achieved it." Saint Paul wasn't satisfied and he would not be until he reached the end of his race and received the heavenly prize.
This reminded me so much of my sister. She preached until the very end of her life. During the times where the growth on her skull was progressing and motor skills were being affected, she was still focused on sharing God's word especially on Sundays. I remember telling her that she should take some time to rest especially when she wasn't feeling well, but she would not take a tumor growth as a reason to stop. To her, preaching and sharing the gospel was more important than her own health. She was so passionate about sharing the word of God that she never put time to focus on the physical issues she was experiencing until she had to.
Even through her extensive surgery to remove the tumor from her skull and brain, she was looking forward to her recovery so she could get out of the hospital to begin preaching again. It wasn't so she can travel, party, or hang out with friends. She was looking forward to go back to work for the kingdom. She was keeping her eye on the heavenly prize. Once she transferred to rehab for her transition back home, she was full force determined to get back on track with being able to do the day to day basics of life (showering, walking, etc.), so she could get back to doing what she couldn't do for over a month -- PREACH THE GOSPEL.
Just like Saint Paul, my sister didn't feel that it was enough. She wanted to continue pressing onward in any circumstances to reach the goal of receiving her heavenly prize. In which I can say I truly believe she has. My sister was so determined and excited to share the miracle God bestowed upon her which was being diagnosed with cancer, surviving the extensive surgery she went through to remove the tumors, and share how the Lord was good through it all.
It may be confusing to most as to how we can still see God as "good" when my sister still was taken a couple months after. We see these circumstances from our worldly view point in which we feel pain, suffering, and even unfair. However, when we see it in the heavenly perspective, we see the bigger picture of this life. My sister left this world at 38. An age I never thought I would be saying goodbye to her. But through my sister's life, I see the gospel and the character of Christ shine through her life. She lived her life RUNNING THE RACE FOR JESUS and until her very last breathe, GOD, FAITH, TESTIMONY, and PURPOSE was her priority and what she lived for.
In order for us to complete our race and receive our prize, the first thing we must settle in our hearts is that we haven't achieved or attained as of yet. We are not perfect so we must continue to change and grow. Moses had a tremendous calling by leading a nation of three million and was part of miraculous signs and wonders like no one else in the Old Testament. God said that Moses was the meekest (most teachable) man on all the earth. He did not count himself to have arrived but continued to press on to finish his race and obtain the heavenly prize. In order to grow and change, WE MUST BE TEACHABLE.
The second thing we must do to finish our race for God is to forget those things (victories and defeats) that are behind us! Here's what God says in Isaiah 43:18-19 (NLT);
"But forget all that—
it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland."
Past failures, rejections, or sins, if dwelled upon, will hinder us from moving forward in Christ. However, the triumph of our past can hold us back as well. If we feel overconfident and sure of ourselves and begin to rely on past accomplishments to sustain and validate us, we will miss what God has for us now. This is exactly what God says in Isaiah 43. The former things were of Him, and in order to keep moving forward to accomplish what God intends for us, we must be ready to leave the ways God moved through us in the past. If we don't, we are in danger of becoming an old wineskin.
Saint Paul also emphasizes this truth:
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child.
But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror,
but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.
All that I know now is partial and incomplete,
but then I will know everything completely,
just as God now knows me completely.
---- 1 Corinthians 13:11-12
A child is not wrong, they are just immature. When I was six years old, my bubble existed of robots, train sets, and Legos. A huge accomplishment is learning multiplication and racing against the clock to finish a one page worksheet before anyone else in the class. I was seeing life in a very small perspective because I wasn't mature enough to handle the more difficult and complex aspects of it.
When I entered high school, robots, train sets, and Legos were things of the past. After years of growing and maturing, I was seeing life in a larger perspective. My level of understanding had grown. Now when a fifteen year old acts like a six year old, it is abnormal. As we grow, we forget our former self. The childish ways and understandings, which are no longer useful or functional for our needs or enjoyment.
As JB has stated in this chapter of his book, just like growing in the things of God, as we progress through life's stages, we should put away former, immature things. Paul was saying, now we see God's ways and His glory dimly, but as we pursue the heavenly prize, we will see clearer until we see God face to face. In other words, we will know Him as He knows us!
What is the heavenly prize Paul mentioned? In Philippians 3:10: Paul says, "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death." The heavenly prize of God is to be conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ so we can know Him as He knows us. Until we attain that goal, we should not be satisfied, so we must never cease to search for the heart of God.
The third thing we must do to pursue the heavenly prize is to "press toward the mark!" To press implies that there will be resistance or pressure. There is opposition to knowing the Lord. The greatest threat to the devil is a person conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and the forces of darkness will fight that harder than anything. When believers are conformed to the image of Christ, we are no longer alive to ourselves, but to the One who lives in us. That is why Paul said that in order to know God, we must know the fellowship of His sufferings. The particular suffering of the flesh he speaks of coincides with the death of self, which will bring resurrection life. Peter writes:
So then, since Christ suffered physical pain,
you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too.
For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.
You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires,
but you will be anxious to do the will of God.
--- (1 Peter 4:1-2 NLT)
I have suffered in the flesh, and I am still suffering in the flesh. I have been on my Joseph journey for quite sometime. I continued to see every hardship as some type of punishment, instead of realizing that this entire wilderness journey that I am still on is part of my growth in the things of God. I want to grow deeper in my relationship and union with God. In saying that, I didn't realize that the harsh circumstances I was facing is part of the growth.
As stated in 1 Peter 4, Jesus physically suffered for us and we need to prepare ourselves and have the same attitude Christ had, and be ready to suffer as well. Now, our sufferings come in many different ways. Some suffer with health, others suffer with family, friends, work, etc,. But in these different moments of suffering, we must see it in the light of God. In this life, we still have goals and dreams we want to reach. However, these goals and dreams will no longer be with our own pursuit and ability, but we will be excited to obtain and reach these goals and dreams in life with the will of God.
Although the previous circumstances are part of suffering in the flesh, now what are the suffering of Christ fully? Many have misunderstood the full meaning of suffering with Christ due to certain religious teachings that have perverted this biblical term. Suffering is not just dying of disease or not having enough money to pay bills. It is not going without food for weeks so that God will be moved by our sacrifice. Suffering is NOT SACRIFICE. Suffering is OBEDIENCE.
Written in Hebrews 5:7-8, "While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered."
Jesus didn't bring obedience to the world, He had to learn it. Christ learned it by obeying His Father when it was easier to not obey. He didn't seek to please human beings, but God. Christ knew human beings would greatly benefit in the long run by His obedience. Peter identifies true suffering as living according to God's will as opposed to human desires (1 Peter 4:2). The "sufferings of Christ" means going God's way when our mind, emotions, or physical sense are beckoning us to go the way of ease, compromise, or pleasure. This often occurs in the conflict we face when God tells us to go one way, but our friends, family, coworkers, or others desire us to go another way.
I can attest to this completely. I've struggled in different pockets of my life and my job is a huge one. Not a lot of people know this, but I've struggled with my job and work place for the last couple of years or so. One issue after another, one terrible coworker after another, one toxic area of work to another, and the list can go on and on. Many times it has been very tempting to just pack up and leave in which is the easy route and the way we would all look at this circumstance. However, it seems that God still continues to tell me to stay. He still has a purpose, a plan for me in this terrible circumstance. It's very tempting to go against God's way when our mind, emotions, and physical sense are screaming LEAVE; however, a great example of encountering this resistances seems to come from the people closest to us.
The example of Peter when he disagrees with Jesus about His death and burial:
From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Matthew 16:21-23)
Jesus declared to His disciples that in order to obey God, He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and be raised on the third day. Peter bypassed hearing the "resurrection part" of what Jesus said, or he wouldn't have been so troubled by the statement Jesus made about His coming death.
In regards to this, JB says, "Can't you hear Peter's thoughts"?
Wait a minute, You are the Messiah [it had just been revealed to him], and You are supposed to set up the kingdom and restore Israel. I have left my business, my wife, and family to follow You. I have lost friends to follow You. I have a lot of time invested in this. I've developed a reputation. The leaders of the synagogues think You are crazy; the newspapers and magazines are constantly writing articles about how controversial You are. You are the hottest topic on social media, and most of the chatter is unfavorable. You are considered by many established theologians and leaders to be a heretic. And now You are talking about death. Where will that leave me? All this time invested in following You, and I'll be left with nothing but a bad reputation.
Jesus had to point out that Peter's thoughts were selfish and worldly. He was not seeing things through God's eyes. The world is trained by Satan ("the god of this world" 2 Corinthians 4:4) to look out for its own interests. The kingdom of heaven is the opposite. In order to fulfill the will of God, we must go against the flow of culture, even if that means we have to go against a "brother or sister in the Lord" whose thinking is too influenced by the world. Peter was not a wicked man, but his thought process in this matter was conformed to the world, not to Christ.
A huge example in this present day about this, was the pandemic and vaccinations. Throughout 2021, brothers and sisters of the Kingdom were throwing jabs at one another on vaccinated versus unvaccinated. Segregating the two different groups and making it seem that they have power to blame or speak badly of people. Unvaccinated people were being "judged" for the decision they were making for themselves. Now I found it amusing that vaccinated people were stating that they were "looking out for the health of everyone" but why was it when those who made the decision to get vaccinated were overreacting to the unvaccinated group? If you feel safe with your choice, why are you still afraid of the choices others make? So in my way of seeing things as a kingdom child, what gives brothers and sisters of the kingdom power to forcefully tell someone they are right or wrong especially if what we are speaking about has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE KINGDOM OF GOD?? Therefore, let us not focus on the culture, news, and influences of the world, and fix our minds on what is of the kingdom so we believers can fulfill the will of God.
I'm sure my last statement is probably going to turn heads and bring up some controversy in church groups, or people may be offended which baffles my mind because why is it people feel free to offend others but don't like to be offended if the tables are turned? If we are truly walking in relationship and union with God, we will project the character of Christ, we will respond in the way Christ would, NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCE OR OPINIONS THE WORLD SHEDS ON US. If you claim you are a child of God, then let's be one. Let us not embarrass Christ by being hypocrites and being overly opinionated in things that don't matter, and we should not give any opening for non believers to think God is a joke. But we Kingdom children need to determine if what we say and do is conforming to the world's point of view or are we genuinely conforming to God?
Another example of this was the children of Israel during the time of Moses. They were to go and check out the land of Canaan and had been in the wilderness for over a year when God told Moses to send men to gather information on the Promised Land. Moses chose twelve leaders, one from each tribe. Two of them were Joshua and Caleb. When they returned from spying out the land, they gave conflicting reports of what they had seen and what actions that should be taken. Ten of the twelve men said:
"But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley....
But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are! So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge."
(Numbers 13:28-29,31-32)
Caleb and Joshua brought back a different report:
But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”.... And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us!
Don’t be afraid of them!”
(Numbers 13:30; 14:8-9)
All twelve had traveled together to spy on the land. They had seen the same land, cities, and people. Why did they come back with different reports? PERSPECTIVE!
God said that Caleb and Joshua had a different spirit because they followed Him fully (Numbers 14:24). In saying that, it meant that they had moved away from men's desires to God's will. They saw through God's eyes, not through the perspective of self-preservation. As author John Bevere shares, this is the key to understanding why ten spies were more concerned about their comfort, security, and families than God's desires. Their lives were led by what would affect them, not the kingdom of God. They failed in knowing that God would never abandon them and would give success in whatever He put before them. This wrong thinking was true of the rest of the population as well, for they said:
Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?" Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”
(Numbers 14:2-3)
The children of Israel were looking back to the "good ol' days" of Egypt, when their stomachs were full and there was some stability. Even though they were slaves in Egypt, what they were facing now looked much more difficult than even their bondage. They were all resisting a necessary change. They found security in the familiarity of the desert, even though their nomadic lifestyle and dietary choices were less than ideal. As a result they never saw the Promised Land and never fulfilled the will of God for their lives.
However, Joshua and Caleb had to press on. The resistance they had to face came from their own "brothers" who wanted to totally silence them: "But the whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb" (Numbers 14:10). Those who opposed Joshua and Caleb had unrenewed minds and were still conformed to think and see things the way the world did. They were stuck in their ways.. and stuck in desert thinking.
Just like Joshua and Caleb, the apostle Paul said that he had to forget those things that were behind and press on toward the heavenly prize (Philippians 3:14). Looking again at Isaiah 43:18-19, some instructions that certainly should encourage us today:
“But forget all that—
it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland."
It's unfortunate that even today, there are many who would rather stay in the "security" or "comfort" of their bondage than to press into freedom, fulfilling the will of God for them. They fear the change ahead more than their familiar but oppressive surroundings. There are others who are satisfied with what God has done in the past and are unwilling to press on to new challenges. I can speak on this experience for myself. It's terrible that most of us are blinded and set in our ways that we don't realize that we are staying within the comforts of our present or past. Unwilling to press on, we reject the challenges and trials that are thrown our way instead of embracing it and asking God how we can fulfil His will for us. Something I realized was that the struggles, challenges, and trials that repeatedly appear and never end are the the ones where we need to pause and really ask God for clarity and accept that season we are in and see what the Lord is trying to teach us. In our circumstances, how are we fulfilling the will God has for us?
Obeying the will of God brings life and liberty and is the only way to find true fulfillment. However, pressing on to the heavenly prize may look impossible in our current circumstances. Through Isaiah, God said He would do a new thing, but it would "spring forth in the wilderness" In other words, as we follow the Spirit of God to accomplish what He desires, we will find ourselves in what appears to be an impossible, dry situation. But as we know, what seems impossible to men is possible to God (Luke 18:27). For on the other side of your current wilderness are abundant life, conquest, and fulfillment.
I've struggled with certain aspects of my job for quite sometime and these last 3.5 years have been the most uncomfortable, long, and most times ridiculous piece of my wilderness journey; however, in allowing God to do new things and accepting each challenge and trial I am allowing the Lord to work within my life and dropping this piece of bondage that has been affecting me. It took me 3.5 years to finally realize this but I am thankful I did. I don't want be like the ten spies and all the others who are unwilling to embrace God's desires and resist the change that would release us from deprivations of the wilderness. Instead, with confidence, I want to strike out for the promised land of God's heavenly prize for me.
Let us not wallow in the things that do not give God the praise and glory. Let us not be blinded by what the world says is "correct" or "normal". Let us not be afraid to drop the things that are not kingdom minded and focus on the bigger accomplishment which is fulfilling the purpose God has for us in this life. Let us be the salt and light of this world (Matthew 5:13-14) and work our ways towards the heavenly prize God promises us.
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