“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” John 17:14-15
While we as Christians are told to be IN the world but not OF it, for many people within the church world those lines have seemed to blur together as the church has become more and more like the world around it.
As ambassadors for Jesus Christ, we can influence the world around us through the Kingdom of God that lives within us because of the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians, however, are being contaminated by the way that the world works and are adopting the things that we were commanded to avoid.
Many have become more OF the world as they seem to have forgotten their real identity is only found in the Face of Jesus Christ by the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit.
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6
While it is necessary for us to be IN the world as catalysts for the Kingdom of God, many have neglected their relationship with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, which has caused everything to become a form of Godliness instead of a demonstration of the Holy Spirit and His Power in operation.
It’s like looking in a mirror and carefully observing who we are in that mirror and then walking away from there and forgetting who we are, what we possess, and adopting another way of life that’s completely foreign to us as Believers (James 1:23-24).
So many believers are trying to be Thermometers in the Spirit realm while what they were really designed by God to be are Thermostats! While a thermometer can tell the temperature of an atmosphere, a Thermostat can change that atmosphere completely.
Being OF the world completely diminishes our ability to have influence or change anything around us, because we’ve Conformed ourselves to this world’s belief system like a Thermometer. But being IN the world instead of OF it gives the Holy Spirit (through our surrendered lives) the ability to change it completely like a Thermostat does to a room’s atmosphere.
Are you a Thermometer or a Thermostat today? Are you IN the world only, or are you OF it as well? The Holy Spirit’s desire is that you Know Him and that you allow His Ability (through your life) to bring the Kingdom of God here in order to affect and influence the world around you bringing Transformation in the place of Conformity.
“Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].” Romans 12:2
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