Marks of a Spiritual Man

Описание: I want to introduce you to somebody today; who's really blessed my life and enriched my life in many ways. His name is A.W Tozer. Never met him personally but I absolutely loved reading his books. If you've never read anything from A.W Tozer I really want to encourage you I think you'll be very blessed. I'm reading from this book the best of A.W Tozer and on page 112 he talks about the marks of the spiritual man. This is not talking about today's understanding of somebody who's spiritual but of somebody who's godly. He says the first mark is the person who desires to be holy rather than happy. You see in our culture today people think that the ultimate place in life is to find happiness. I bet you if you if you find a bunch of parents and you ask each and every one of them, you survey them and you ask them what's the greatest hope for their child? They would probably say things like well I really really hope that they will one day find happiness and truthfully that's not a biblical answer and here's why because happiness is not a goal. Happiness is the result for having the right goals. Happiness is in fact the effect of having the right cause in life and if your cause is the kingdom of God then those things too will be added to you just like the Bible says. Then the second one I just want to give you two marks what he mentions the second mark I wanna highlight he says the spiritual man wants to carry his cross. He wants to carry his cross. now Jesus said if anybody wants to be my disciple let him deny himself let him pick up his cross and follow me. Now I've had this conversation with many people and oftentimes when the question is asked what is your cross in life? They would think of a big problem that they've had to deal with in their life. A big challenge that they've had to deal with but after much consideration you probably agree with me that challenges and hardships come to both sinners and saints not just saints. So in other words if a sinner is dealing with hardship that comes to them does that mean they're carrying their cross? No not at all! So it's not something that comes to you that's difficult. You wanting to pick up your own cross can only be paralleled to how Jesus went to go pick up his cross. and let's look at how this happened. You see he chose that cross. He willingly went and chose the cross. In other words it's something that we choose to do. The second thing that we need to consider is that the cross that Jesus hung on was the price that he paid to give himself to God's purposes. Your cross will be the price you need to pay in order to give yourself to the purposes of God. There's a great example of this where the rich young ruler comes to Jesus and says good teacher! What must I do in order to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him sell everything you have and give it to the poor. Well the Bible says this rich young ruler walked away sad. Why because he wasn't able to pay that price. He was number one not willing to do it but number two it seemed like he wasn't able to do it either. The point is just you picking up your cross needs to be something that you want to do for the Lord and number two it is going to be the price it costs for you to surrender your life to his purposes. So today I would encourage you in this week remember this that God said that if you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness then he will add everything else you may need to your life. Let me pray for you. Father I thank you for my brothers and sisters. I thank you Lord that your hand touched them right now wherever they may be. Lord empower them with your grace. thank you God for offering them mercy every morning your mercies are new and now Lord I thank you that you open the eyes of their hearts so they can see this great hope to which you have called them that you may be made great in their lives in Jesus mighty name Amen! God loves you and I'm praying for you.