"GOD'S IMAGE OR SELF IMAGE"
MF Blume
August 31, 1998 pm
Matt 13:44-46 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Phil 3:7-9 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Hebr 11:24-26 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
The image of God is man created in such a manner as to adequately allow God's Spirit to fill it and allow Him to then manifest through it.
- But that will of God can be thwarted by seeing mankind become more concerned over SELF IMAGE than the purpose of being GOD'S IMAGE.
All three passages speak the same message. And Jesus said this is the concept of the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
"Selling all that we have" can be easily understood in the words of Philippians and Hebrews.
- All that we have is referring to the self-life given away.
- It is referring to all the efforts in our lives that we dedicated to making ourselves known.
- Giving that "space" we use to put our influence of ourselves as far and wide as we can to Jesus that He might flow through us and spread His influence.
All the man had was sold in order for him to purchase the pearl of great price and the field wherein was hidden the treasure.. - This blessing can only come if we sell that "we" have.
- Paul said that all that was gain to "me" had to be sold and lost in order to win Christ.
In the last days it is going to be KINGDOM AGAINST KINGDOM.
Matt 24:6-7 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
As it is necessary that offenses will come to the childlike vessels of God, the perfect vessels through whom He can flow easily, it is obvious that kingdom will be against kingdom.
- Satan's kingdom against the Lord's Kingdom.
- There is a battle going on over whose influence will be made known the most.
- Satan is cast into this world and if he cannot rule heaven he is going to rule earth.
- But we must pray "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
- It must come to pass since the entire issue is one of God's influence against Satan's influence.
- Expect turmoil
Paul said the things gain to him were counted as loss for Christ. - That which promoted Paul's reputation and promoted Paul's self-image took away from t he Lord's opportunity to use Paul as a vessel to promote God's image.
- We should not be concerned with self-image but with the image of God.
- That means we are bottles since we are His image.
- And He chose to make us in His image so He could adequately fill and manifest through us.
- The pearl of great price is the great things of the kingdom of God.
- The man chose to sell all that he had to buy this pearl.
- Another man is said to have sold all that he had to buy the field in which was hidden the treasure.
- These are saying the same thing about the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Less of you and more of Him, in such a high degree that all of that which uplifts our self-reputation and takes attention of people's eyes to us is totally removed.
- And in the context of this statement, Paul said He desired to "know Christ."
This all fits together nicely. - Realize what we are here for.
- Avenues for His Spirit to fill the earth through.
- And that means connecting to Him and knowing Him to bring forth fruit to God.
Moses sought to suffer with God's people rather than enjoy the riches of Egypt's palatial living. - The reproach of Christ and bearing the brunt of scoffing the religious Hebrew people was worth more to Moses than those Egyptian riches.
- Because Moses knew the payment he would later receive in glory.
Satan cannot stop this kind of attitude. - Satan and his self-for-self system cannot deal with God's self-for-Christ system.
- Remember Job.
- Satan declared the reason Job did not cease glorifying God when all his children, cattle and property were lost was because Job's SELF was not attacked.
- And Satan said, "SKIN FOR SKIN, all that a man hath will he given in exchange for his life."
- But Satan did not know that Job was the type of man who, though he had, he lived as though he had not.
- When you have much and live as though you do not, then you do not pain as much when that much possession is removed.
1Cor 7:30-31 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing [it]: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
Paul told us to have as though we have not.
- If we are wealthy, then we must not let it get hold of us.
- Should that wealth ever depart we will not be lost if we had that wealth as though we had not.
- We use this world, but not abuse it to the degree that it has hold on us and we cannot exist if we lose that part of the world.
- The world passeth away.
- Lay your treasure in Heaven where moth and rust do not cause it to pass away.
And Satan threw all that he had at Job. - But Job was not self for self.
- Job was not skin for skin.
- And at the end the of the ordeal, after Satan threw all the attacks on him that were possible in appealing to Job to stop glorifying God, Job remained standing.
- Satan walked away utterly defeated.
- Job entered a realm of blessing in which he had twice as much as he had before.
Jesus Himself experienced this onslaught before HIs ministry. - In the wilderness, fasting and praying for forty days, Jesus was then approached.
- Satan threw all that he had.
Let me indicate all that Satan has.
1Joh 2:16-17 For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Satan's entire ammunitions depot contains three major kinds of weaponry.
- Lust of the eyes.
- Lust of the flesh.
- Pride of Life.
Only those who are put there for self will be moved out of the scene for God's Kingdom's use by these armaments. Satan hurled each temptation loaded with each armament.
- He threw the woman of Genesis 3 down with these three, managing to get her to look towards herself rather than God's will to influence.
- Satan managed to get her to concern herself over the desire to promote herself rather than realize she was a vessel created by God for use by the Lord to promote His Spirit.
- He had her fall to the lust of the eyes when she saw the tree's fruit was pleasant to the eyes.
- He had her fall to the lust of the flesh when she saw the fruit was good for food.
- And he had her fall to the pride of life when she saw the fruit was desired to make one wise.
- He would do the same with Jesus.
But each attack bounced off Jesus not arming Him one iota.
- Lust of the eyes... no sir.
- Lust of the flesh... Ha!
- Pride of life.. .no way.
Jesus Christ was God's image and He knew why. - Therefore He would not allow Satan's plot to get him to concern Himself over His flesh to stop walking this earth for the purpose of manifesting God's Spirit.
- His flesh was like our flesh.
- It was the image of God as Adam was.
- It was a bottle.
- And Satan had to simply get behind Jesus as Jesus marched ahead into greater territory, because JESUS was not going to fall for self for self, or skin for skin.
And after Jesus denied the enemy the foothold by not giving up, and not stopping the will of God from being done in Him, Satan could do nothing but walk away in defeat. Satan started the war.
- He started the attack on Job.
- He started the attack on Jesus.
- But Job and Jesus won the battle and Satan walked away from his own fight that he picked with these men as a defeated loser.
HOW TO DEFEAT THE DEVIL'S RULE IN A REGION
The entire message God is trying to relay to us is that the manner in which to break the stronghold of the devil in any region, over which devil princes reign, is to face the onslaught. - He tries to get you to be so concerned over yourself.
- He depends upon your self centredness to defeat you.
- He can only appeal to those who are self for self as he is.
- Outside of that he has no jurisdiction.
- So he attacks in such a manner that a person who is self centred would quit serving God.
- All the things he does are intended to make a self centred christian quit serving God.
- He may want to make you popular, because popularity will make a self centred person stop allowing oneself to be used for God's glory and will fall to the temptation to bring glory to oneself.
- He may cause people to insult you, since he knows that such a self-centred christian will not take insult for they are more concerned over their reputation than they are spreading Jesus Christ.
- Anything that will make you stop serving God is something that has caused you to be more concerned with yourself than the BIGGER KINGDOM OF GOD.
- But if you are like Job, and if you follow Jesus' example, you are not concerned with what might exalt you up, and so the attacks he gives to you may appeal to a part of you that desires self-exaltation, but you have another part in you that is stronger.
- You have a part that wants God's influence and God's will done more than your influence and your self centred will.
- Satan has no weapon that can prosper against those who are not here for self, but for His Kingdom's sake.
- Satan can offer you the fame, but you are not concerned over people knowing you, but over people knowing Jesus through you.
- You are not concerned over someone twisting your intentions around and trying to make you look evil when you know God knows the truth. You let them mock and turn the other cheek to them.
- You are more concerned over people knowing correctly about Jesus.
Eve could have told the devil, "I am not interested in vaunting myself up to be wise. That is not my purpose. I am not concerned over self image. I am concerned over being GOD'S IMAGE."
I must be willing to sell all that "I" have...
- Sell all that SELF has...
- "I" is "self."
- Whatever is gain to me is only loss to Christ.
- Whatever promotes me takes up that much space from God to use me that He might be Promoted.
- I want to win Christ.
- I want to be His vessel, so therefore I will KNOW HIM.
- Seeking to KNOW HIM is what I am all about.
Roma 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, [even] to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
What did we say was the reason that people who build on the rock are indestructable when the storm comes?
- What did Jesus mean by this mental picture of the indestructability of a house built on a rock, that is battered by storms?
- He was speaking about those who hear his word and do it.
- He was speaking about those who do the will of His Father.
- He was speaking about KNOWING HIM.
Can you see the point? - When you KNOW HIM it is because you KNOW WHY YOU ARE IN THIS WORLD.
- You know that we as a group of people are married to another, Jesus Christ, as an entire church body, THAT WE MIGHT BRING FORTH FRUIT UNTO GOD.
I hear people putting the cart before the horse all the time. - I need to pray more so that I will remain strong in these last days.
- That is putting the cart before the horse.
- What you FIRST need to do is understand something.
- You need to KNOW WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT.
Praying in order to remain strong is like looking at the little board you are hammering and saying I need to put this nail into this board. - But you are not seeing the overall HOUSE YOU ARE HELPING TO BUILD.
You need to FIRST know the GRAND PICTURE.
- The BIG PICTURE.
- You are part of the BODY OF GOD that is intended to be filled with His Spirit and flowing forth that Spirit by way of fruit... flowing forth His love and joy and goodness.
- Forget the lesser self glory that will die when you die, but step into the grand work of living for His glory, that rewards you eternal life that never fades, for His glory is eternal.
- And know that a Body of Christ can only bear fruit for God by KNOWING CHRIST.
- As Adam knew Eve, only then did she bear children.
- And Jesus said that TO KNOW HIM is to build a house on a rock.
- To LOVE HIM and be there for Him to manifest His Spirit through you is to build on a rock.
- To consider things that vaunt YOU and promote YOUR reputation and YOUR name as things that only take up space and cause LOSS FOR HIS NAME to be made known, to be considered as dung is to build on a rock.
- TO LOVE GOD SO MUCH THAT IT CAUSES A REACTION TO OCCUR OF BIRTHING HIS SPIRIT INTO THIS WORLD.
- WHEN ADAM KNEW EVE THEY REPRODUCED THEMSELVES.
- WHY DID GOD CREATE THE PROCESS OF REPRODUCTION IN THIS MANNER?
- IT IS A SHADOW OF THE GRAND PURPOSE.
- THE MOST INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A MAN AND WOMAN TYPIFIES THE MOST IMPORTANT PURPOSE OF THE BODY OF CHRIST IN THIS EXISTENCE.
- We are here and dead to the law by Christ's death on the cross... we are here by the almighty salvation God granted through Calvary, THAT WE MIGHT BRING FORTH FRUIT UNTO GOD.
- First know THIS.
- And you will understand WHY you must pray.
- It might even help you to pray the way God meant for you to pray... in love to Him, telling Him you are His to minister to a dying world through.
Paul spoke about the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Cor 12. - And in ch. 13 he said that a better way is to desire the gifts due to LOVE.
- You want to be a vessel in the ministry of healings because you LOVE people and you LOVE GOD and desire His will to be done to the hurting and dying.
Sell all that YOU have, and buy the pearl of great price. - This is what the Kingdom of heaven is like.
- It is removing things that only bring attention to yourself so that you may have the blessing of being part of the Kingdom that brings attention to God.
- You are more concerned over being God's image than you are having a certain self image.
The reason its like building a house on a rock that storms cannot destroy is because when you are empty of self for self, then Satan can do NOTHING to stop you. - His appeal to self centredness is in vain, for he has no target he can hit when you are not self centred.
- You will not give up just because your self image is attacked.
- You do not stop glorifying God just because you have a chance to be put out there amongst the lime light.
- You step from the spotlight and tell Jesus to step in there instead.
Realize this, then you can proceed and pray and seek God. - And THEN will you pray fervently as you should.
- The Lord wants you to think of this when you pray because He intimated it in Matthew 6:9-13.
- THY KINGDOM COME.
- THY WILL BE DONE IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
Satan cannot stop you for you have no concern for self like he wants you to. - You are on a rock and you cannot be shaken.
Hebr 12:26-28 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this [word], Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
In light of a kingdom that cannot be removed, Hebrews speaks of God being a consuming fire.
- Moses saw a bush burning but not being consumed.
- Why?
- He saw symbol of what God made him.
- A man not concerned over self image as he once had been..
- A man concerned with God's kingdom, humbled.
- And His fire only burns away the dross of self for self.
We have in our Bibles a BOOK OF JOB. - And we know that book ended.
- Job stood the test, due to no self centredness in him.
- But there is a book called after YOUR NAME, also.
- It is presently being written.
- WILL YOUR BOOK END AS THE BOOK OF JOB ENDED?
- Will you stand the test?
God wants you to pray, ... - But LOVE HIM WHEN YOU PRAY.
- He wants you to worship, BUT LOVE HIM WHEN YOU WORSHIP.
- He wants you to fellowship and hear the word preached, BUT DO IT BECAUSE YOU LOVE HIM.
- Only if you KNOW HIM (deeply love Him) will you stand and not fall.
- ONLY IF YOU ARE MORE CONCERNED OVER BEING GOD'S IMAGE (A VESSEL CREATED FOR HIM TO FLOW THROUGH) THAN YOU ARE SELF-IMAGE, WILL YOU STAND.
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