Desk of Dennis PillerFearlessly Courageous3 2 2023Click for Audio Version
Doing More for God or Being More for God – Flesh Versus Spirit
“This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6
Many of you know I have deep roots in men's ministries. But those years have clearly shown that those who learned to "Be More" in God grew so much further than those that "Did More". We follow plans, though we don’t like direction, following God never works well when you're trying to follow a template or checkboxes. It's not about doing more, it's actually about letting go, letting God, and relying on the holy Spirit while you do less, and fix less.
Being Who God wants you to be is about surrender not doing more to correct an issue or a wrong.
Doing more puts a man in control. We are natural fixers. We conquer things. We are headed on vacation, and we become a race driver trying to “get there” faster. Being more puts God in control. Giving God the keys and surrendering to His will is letting Go and Letting God. When you choose God to be in control of your life, you can experience true peace and freedom knowing He has a plan for you.Doing more is a safe style for men. Being more is risky. Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, do it from the heart for the Lord and not for people”. Doesn’t that seem a little backward? It's risky because we often don’t think we're ready, trained, or have the time or the aptitude to win. We see that in 2 Corinthians 12:9 meaning that tells us that Jesus' power is perfected in our weakness. We like to downplay our weaknesses and focus on our strengths. We place the pressure on our own strength to get by and "Be More". But God claims “my grace is sufficient for you” and “my strength is made perfect in weakness.”Doing more implies there’s an end to it. A project. A season. A timeline and we are done.Being more is a process with God— fluid and unpredictable. How? We prepare for the unpredictable before it happens. What we choose to do daily determines whether we will be able to stand when challenging times come. If we decide today to spend time with our heavenly Father and enjoy His presence, we will be better prepared to face tomorrow. It’s a promise repeated over and over again in his word.Doing more lets a man pick the changes he needs to make. Growing up sometimes my Dad would let me choose my medicine for a wrong I had done. I loved it.I gave my young daughter the decision of whether her sister should get a spanking for her disobedience but her sister said, No. I love her, I wouldn’t want you to do that. We always take the easy way out.Being more allows God to reveal the changes a man needs to make. We can be easily fascinated by the feats of others, but how many times do we simply ignore the feats of God? The Bible says that God has revealed Himself to humanity in four different ways. They include (1) Nature (2) Our conscience (3) Jesus Christ (4) The Bible. Being more, means we listen to what God is doing. We imagine his examples of love and living. How much more can we be when we let God direct our path?Doing more requires trying harder. The Bible calls our old sinful nature “the flesh” and warns that those who are “in the flesh” cannot please God (Romans 8:8). The Apostles couldn’t ever do more by staying awake to pray for Jesus on the eve of his crucifixion. Jesus warned them, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). How can you walk in the Flesh of doing more when We can only worship and know God in Spirit? It's just not the way. Being more relies on training humbly. “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6). A person can be alive in his will to try and "Do More" in the flesh. A person can be alive physically (in the body or the flesh) but dead spiritually. Who's in charge? Are we trying to To Be who God wants us to be or Be the person always striving to do more in the flesh for God? A person who has been born again by God’s Spirit is made alive spiritually (see Ephesians 2:1 and Colossians 2:13)."Being more" reaches the private self — the man God wants to reach. In Romans 8, Paul contrasts those who live by the flesh with those who live by the Spirit. It is clear from the context that he is not referring to fleshly Christians and spiritual Christians but rather to those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit and those who have not. Paul says this explicitly in verse 9: “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” Christians are described as “those who do not live according to the flesh but according to the spirit” (verse 4). Those who are in the flesh, those who are being more to earn their position, are hostile toward God, cannot submit to God, and cannot please God (verses 7–8). This can only describe unbelievers.So here’s the bottom line. Challenging men to love more, say more, pray more, read the Bible more, allow God to discipline them more, love their wives more, and serve their kids more. Men have wanted all those things, but the majority of them are failing over the long haul. In Paul’s writings, the flesh – “Doing More” stands for the natural desires of a person operating apart from God. A person who has not been raised to live spiritually is still “in the flesh…Still trying to do more versus Be More in the Spirit”
God has asked men to do what their hearts and character cannot deliver. Author Dallas Willard got it right: “What’s needed is a renovation of the heart before a renovation of lifestyle.”
The person who has been brought to spiritual life- Being for God—the work of the Holy Spirit within—will want to please God. But the pull of the world and temporal, physical needs and pleasures are still present. Therefore, the Christian must feed on spiritual food and continually yield to God’s Spirit on a day-by-day, minute-by-minute basis.—James 4:8 ICB
As you become aware of My loving Presence, I help you become more alert, I Will help you BE More awake in the Now— NOT DO – Being In Me will smooth out the tangled thoughts in your mind.This helps you see Me more clearly and find My way for you.
Waymakerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsypFJ5mNw0
Some excerpts were taken from Got Questions and Every Mans Ministries
