Superficiality is the curse of our age.

July 02, 2008

 
Heb 4:12
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”.
 

God needs to remove all that is superficial, religious, shallow, and phony in our lives. The Lord must remove every outward mask from our lives. The Holy Spirit’s digging work in our lives is inescapable and the Holy Spirit does not want to leave any thing undone. He wants to remove everything that is in the way. He will dig and dig into the depths of our lives until all the digging work is complete. The time has come when all that is untrue and unrealistic must be removed. Everything that is outward, superficial or having some kind of a religious mask in our lives has to be removed. This work is not easy. It is not going to be easy. God desires to get to something real and solid into our lives. God will not thrust Himself upon us, or steamroll His will upon any one of us. Our cooperation and willingness is a necessary precondition for His work upon our lives. He will work upon us only if we allow Him to do so. But if we ask Him to work upon us, then He will get into the details of our individual lives and set us right. Are you willing? Are you ready for such a work?
Today, we see a great amount of superficiality in the lives of God’s people. Our lives do not reflect or manifest the truth of the things we are hearing. There is so much of the lie-of-the-world that we project to others. A man of God said, “Superficiality is the curse of our age.” The world is steeped in superficiality, artificiality and hypocrisy, but the Lord can remove these things from our lives if we give Him the go-ahead signal. Many believers are still very superficial in their character. Their behaviour and conduct is outward and external; in reality, their inward lives are poor and niggardly. Let the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see what Moses and his men saw, to see a precious jewel like the sapphire under His feet, to see a paved work like as a body of heaven in its clearance. If our eyes are opened, beloved, we will be able to give ourselves to this heavenly work upon our lives.
Many believers are unconcerned about their superficial lifestyles and external behaviour. They bluff others by their outwardness. I know of people who have given me excuses that were far from the truth. However, I did not argue with them although I knew that what they said was not true. In believing such ones, it is not I who stood in danger of displeasing the Lord, but that brother or sister who spoke an untruth. I was free and not bound. However, the other person was bound by his attitude and behaviour. He will have to be answerable to God. It is really sad that there is so much of superficiality in the conduct and behaviour of God’s people! God must work upon us. All the lies, the make-belief, the surface thing and the religious masks must be removed before we can come into the reality of His purpose. God must work deep within us. He needs to dig deep into our lives and make our paths straight from the inside. God alone can straighten our lives out but we must wholly cooperate with Him. Brothers and sisters, we must let God do this paved work upon us today. If we don’t allow God to do so now, it may never be done and we shall incur such a great loss.
Often God’s people look to God to perform a painless work in or upon them! Can a dentist do a painless work? If you have a cavity in your tooth, your dentist will have to first use a high speed electric drill to remove every deposit deposited there. The drill must go deep into the tooth to remove anything that will hamper its restoration. If you request the dentist to repair the tooth painlessly and quickly, he may not agree to your request because the problem could recur if he used the drill sparingly and you would be compelled to visit him again and again. A good dentist will not agree to fill the cavity without drilling the tooth; he would not risk losing the tooth to save you the pain. He knows that any kind of patch work, though it may be painless, will not help you in the long run. Many believers want the Lord to do a painless work upon their lives. They want to be part of God’s workings today, but they are not willing to go through a painful structuring work of God upon their inner man! They seek a painless cross. Many believers do not want a painful word. So they flock around preachers who give them a painless word! They only want to hear words of blessing. They only want to hear positive things which cause them no pain and support their own views, ideas and will. They say, “God is good all the time.” They prefer a short-term painless work to a deep work of the cross upon their lives. But God wants to do a lasting, deep work upon each one of us by His Spirit even though it is painful. Are you looking for a painless word or work? Or will you turn to the Lord and say, “Lord, I am willing. Dig deep into my life. Lord, I give you full freedom to remove all kinds of unnecessary deposits in me that hamper my growth in Christ. Lord, I want you to do a lasting work upon me even though it may be painful for the time being.”