“The Willingness of Excellence”

Wednesday After the Sixth Sunday of Epiphany – February 15, 2012

2 Kings 5: 1 - 15b/Psalm 42/1 Cor. 9: 24 – 27/Mark 1: 40 - 45

Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines, D. D.

The Scriptures that we have read unveil to us the heart of God, the character of God, and the work of Christ in our behalf.  The theme for the week is “The Willingness of Excellence.”  God being a God of perfection and excellence, it would only be truth to us that what He does would be done out of the character of His heart of excellence.

You can see the work of creation; how excellent is the creation of the earth.  The earth still manifests itself in the fullness of its power.  It has not weakened in its ability to take care of man, as God intended it to do. It still produces abundantly all that we need when we handle it properly.  Look at the excellence of the sun; the ability of the sun to bring its warmth and to bring its life into everything that is on the earth.  Everything is empowered by the sun so that the sun brings the life that God intended us to have.

I have told you several times that in the past, there has been the warnings not to go out in the sun because it will cause problems.  Now, the doctors are changing their direction and saying, “No, you need to be out of the sun everyday for a certain amount of time because the sun empowers your body to digest the food properly so that you get nourishment from the food.  Without the sun being there to quicken that nourishment, you don’t get the value of the food you eat.  We have not given the sun its respect that God had intended it to have.   God has created all of these things in excellence.

Scriptures tells us that with God, all things are possible; without Him, we can’t do anything.  In Genesis it asks the question, “Is there anything too difficult for God?”  What God was intending to do, what He has set the course to do was to empower us to believe in His ability, to see Him as all-powerful, all-wisdom, all-knowledge, lacking in nothing. He is using that which He has, not to judge us or to condemn us, but to bring us to a point wherein we are manifesting the blessings He wants His people to manifest.

This is the willingness of His excellence.  His excellence was not just meant for Himself so that He could gloat and boast of who He was.  Instead, He took that excellence and He created the earth, all that filled the earth, prepared it to sustain the life of His creation which He was coming at the end, man, and since that time, man’s substance has been fulfilled in what God has created to sustain us - perfection.  “Is there anything too difficult for God?”

If God did all of these massive, major things, why do we question or even have a doubt in our hearts that He could not meet our little-teeny problems?  Compared to the creation, our problems are not really that big, but we make them big in our own minds.  We build the mountains and we set the barriers and the walls so that God has a difficult time getting through. God can come through but He respects us.

With men, much is impossible but with God all things are possible.  Luke 1:37 tells us that there is nothing impossible for God.  With all of these instructions that God gives us, with all these knowledge, with all His unveiling Himself to us, the question that perhaps many of us have is, “Why then am I going through this problem?  Why am I not manifesting His blessings?  He wants me to be blessed. He blessed me with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.  He granted to all of us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Why am I not there?  Why am I not being what He wants me to be?”

It is a very interesting question that would come to us and I believe that it is not wrong that we ask the question.  I believe that God wants us to have the knowledge and the understanding of the reasons why things are hindered in our lives or things that don’t come forth as they should.  1Timothy4:1 helps us to understand this confusion that comes to us. “But the Spirit explicitly says that in the later time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” These are the words that Paul writes when he sends his message to Timothy. He said that the reason some people will fall away from the faith is because they pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

What are the deceiving spirits then?  We need to understand what he is talking about so that we are not caught unaware and led astray, but we have an ability to know what God really intends us to know.  1John 4:6, “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.  By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” We see where deception comes in because we don’t listen to what God speaks to us.  We don’t pay attention.  We instead make up our own set of rules or foundations – whatever you want to call them. Deceitful spirits - we set for ourselves that which we want in our lives rather than listening to God and putting forth what God sets for us to live by.  What God speaks is the truth. When we listen to other things then we are deceived that there is an answer for us in other things.

In Genesis, when Adam and Eve were in the Garden, God had given them instructions not to eat the fruit of the tree that was in the center of the Garden; but the enemy spoke to them and deceived them, and they listened to the voice of deception.  As they were not obedient to God, they then brought sin into the world and to our lives.  This is because they listened to a deceitful spirit.  The enemy taunted them. He told them that God really wouldn’t do those things, but God said that He would.   Because they listened to that spirit, sin, death and darkness came in to their lives.

Right from the very beginning, God has revealed this to us so that we wouldn’t get caught in this practice. What are the doctrines of demons?   James 3:14-15, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.”    Here is the spirit of demons in our own lives –when we allow bitterness, jealousy, envy against others, selfish ambitions. What is the main thrust of the world today?  “Me! I do whatever is good for me.  Whatever I want. Whatever I think I can survive by and succeed by.”

God tells us certain things in Scriptures.  Matthew 1:6 says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and I will add all the other things to you.”  The other things that He is talking about are what you eat, what you wear, and where you live.  But we take it upon ourselves not to put God first in our lives.  We put the other things as more important in our lives because we say that if we don’t have these other things, we can’t survive.

I had a conversation recently with parents who were considering sending their child to college.  There are some difficulties and the mother spoke up and said, “If we don’t send her to college, she won’t be able to make it in the world.”  I said, “Wait a minute.  That is not what God says.  God doesn’t promise you that if you go to college and get an education, you are going to be successful.”  We have taken that as a fact today which is contrary to Scripture.  There is nothing wrong with going to college, but when we put it as the only way we are going to succeed, now we have sin and we have rebelled against God. College is not the secret to life.   God is the secret to life.   When we put something else there, now, we are listening to demonic spirits.  When we put other things in the place of what God has promised us, these are things not coming from above, but that which is earthly, natural and demonic.

We wonder why we don’t have the blessings of God that we believe belong to us.  God has blessed us. We are a blessed people; then why are we lacking in so many things? Why are we struggling and battling? This is because we have taken other things and replaced them in our hearts, our minds, in our lives in place of the truth that God gave to us.

1Timothy 4:2, “By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,” we are listening to people who are in essence speak lies to us, not speaking truth.  These words may be harsh but God speaks to us to get our attention.  They then become a spirit of demonic because they are pulling us away like Satan did in the Garden, being contrary to what God instructed Adam and Eve to do.  They then listened to the voice and they then brought destruction upon the earth which is death, pain, and sorrow.

Verse 3 says, “Some men will forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.”  We have allowed sometimes things that science says or of doctors who will say certain things.  They come up with things that they studied or think are truth.  How many times have we seen in our lifetime things that were forbidden one time, then all of a sudden become good?

I can remember very well the thing about coffee.  I like coffee; I used to drink a lot of coffee.  The doctor said that you shouldn’t drink coffee because it is bad for you.   Now, they are saying publicly that a certain amount of coffee is very healthy for you.  This is what God says, “I created these things good. Why are you saying that they are bad?”   God created heroin, cocaine. I caution parents about this because I don’t want to get misunderstood.  If we didn’t have those plants, we would not have many of the pharmaceutical drugs that can bring healing to the body. Yet we have those who have abused them, and so we have put them in our minds that they are evil.

It is not the drug; it is not the cocaine or the heroin that is evil.  It is man’s inability to use them properly and to discipline himself.  This is where the problem is.  Everything God created was good. It was not only good, but very good. When we begin to think things are evil, we begin to listen to other spirits which Scriptures reveals are deceitful spirits or spirits of demons. They pull us away from God – our faith in God.  They pull us away from our confidence in God. What God intends and wants to do in our lives is hindered because we have allowed which Paul says are for old ladies. These old ladies, in my experience, would say, “You shouldn’t do this or that.”  They bring this out because maybe it affects them in a certain way, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is wrong for everybody.

If you set your minds in certain things, very possible, those things will come true because that is where your confidence is.  As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.  As your faith is, so be it unto you.  This is why Paul tells these things to us so that we won’t miss the blessings of God.  Don’t listen to these things.  It is okay to go to college, but don’t think that is the answer for your success.  The answer for your success is faith in God. He will bring your success.  He will bring to you what you need to eat, what you need to drink, what you need to wear, where you need to live.  God said that He will provide it if we will put Him first in our lives.  He will take care of the rest.

How many times do we find ourselves so enamored with making success that we will ignore our worship of God or our commitments to God because we think, “If I don’t do this, I won’t make it in life?”   You set God aside, you may not make it in life because it becomes then a hindrance for the blessings of God to be made manifest in our lives.

God is willing. The problem is not God.    The leper went to Christ and said, “If you are willing, You can heal me.”  Jesus said, “I am willing.”  The problem is not God or Jesus; the problem is us when we allow other things to replace our faith in God like the things that are very common today.  I share as an example that which is prominent today.  Women today, feminists, make the statement, “This is my body. I can do what I want with it.”  In Corinthians, it says, “The wife does not own her body, it belongs to her husband.  The husband doesn’t own his body either; it belongs to the wife.” Not one or the other has total control over their being.  Yet the feminist today says, “This is my body. If I don’t want to have a baby, I don’t have to have a baby.”

This is against the Scriptures.  This would be a deceiving spirit and a demonic spirit.  It is very prevalent in the world today.   It is very, very acceptable in many societies.  I am saying this not because it is the only problem, but it is one of the foremost situation that we are facing here even in our country.  We face the RH Bill because the whole thing is, “I am in control. It is mine.  I can do what I want with it.”

This is not what God says at all.  We need to be cautious and careful that we don’t listen to these spirits that would take away what God intends us to have. He wants us to be filled with His provisions and blessings.   It is His heart.  He wants us to be the witness to the world.  Remember His desire for Israel?   He wanted Israel to be so glorious that it will draw the rest of the world to Him.   It is what we are supposed to be today in the Church and in Christianity.  We are supposed to be so glorious that we draw the world away from the deceptions in the realities of life.  Sad to say, we have taken on many of the deceiving spirits as being okay for us. We have even listened to the demonic spirits and we think these are the things are right when the Scriptures tell us differently.

I am not sharing this to condemn us but to open our eyes so that we become aware.  These things are not wrong when used properly, but when we put our faith in them, rather than in God, now we find ourselves in difficulty.

God is willing, more than willing; but where is our faith? Is it in Him or have we allowed other things to become what we put our faith and confidence in?  I believe that His promises are true and He will fulfill it without failing in our lives if we trust Him.  If we don’t listen to Him, if we don’t pay attention to Him, He has no obligation to fulfill His promise when we deny Him and put our faith in other things.

God is able.  Not only is He able, He is willing.  This is the picture that we should have of God.  It is that which should help us or challenge us to put our confidence in Him, rather than listening to what Paul says of old wives tales.  We don’t listen to those; we listen to what God says because that is the truth.  He wants us to walk in that truth. He is more than willing.

Epiphany is God revealing Himself to us.  He is revealing that He is willing, He is able.  The problem is us.  In the story of Naaman and Elisha, Elisha just raised a son of a woman from the dead, how that he had fed a whole village from a poisoned plant; he fed a hundred men with twenty loaves of bread.  All these things he did but Naaman chose to think that he didn’t want to bathe in river Jordan because it was in his mind not clean.  But the Jordan River was predestined by God to be the source of cleansing from all sin.  It was where Christ was going to go in behalf of the whole church, the whole world.   Naaman thought that the waters in Syria were better. “It is cleaner.  I am going to go there.”

Thank God for the people that were with him, they brought him to his senses saying, “You want healing?  Be obedient.”   When he was obedient, he was cleansed from the leprosy.  He struggled with it.  He got angry because Elisha did not greet him and tell him how great of a man he was.  But God healed him. Naaman wasn’t a Jew for God to show His care, His compassion, His love and His commitment is to all mankind.  You don’t have to be a Jew to get the blessings of God.  Thank God! But there are no other limitations either because God sent Christ to prove His love to everybody, to the world that is ours.

We should hold firm to this. There are many times when I don’t feel well, but when I take the Eucharist, I am taking on a new body.  It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me because I take the body of Christ.  Now, I got the body of Christ!  If I got the body of Christ, my body is not going to be decrepit; it is not going to fall apart; it is not going to be weak because Christ has what I call a supernatural Body that is empowered by the Spirit.

Do we see this in our lives?  Are we limiting ourselves to just what we think? Our problem is in our minds, not the heart.  We analyze, we use human reasoning, and we limit ourselves when God wants to prove Himself.  Sometimes that proof comes at a time when it is impossible.  Remember, all are possible with God. There are no limitations.  No barriers with God.  He can do whatever is necessary.

I remember Mian Canlas getting the news from the doctor that she had stage four cancer.  The doctors told Dcn. Ed that she was not going to make it.   I told her, “Don’t listen to the doctor. Don’t believe it. This is not yours.  Reject it.”  Today, she is well.  Today, she is fine.  Someone else just told me that the doctors told a relative that he is in stage three.  I said, “That maybe what the doctors know and I am not saying that they are wrong, but I know Somebody who is greater than what the doctor says. Put your faith in Him.  Don’t go on moaning and groaning and feeling sorry for this person.”

With God, there is joy.  There is hope in God. There is help in Him. We are not destitute but we are destined for glory.  This is what God created us but we have to be wise.  We have to listen to Him and not the other things.  We need to listen to Him.  Put your faith in Him.  He will not fail you. We may fail Him but He will not forsake and fail us. Trust Him and watch His glory be manifest in our lives. Be blessed in Him!