The Motive
Chapter 4
Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse, because it is built on rock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash." (Matt 7:24-27)
Do you remember the expression, “Fall on the rock or the rock will fall on you”? Well, I seem to have had the rock fall on my head a couple of times. I’m sure I’m the only one, right? Why are motives so important? That’s a good question, right? Why is God so concerned with motives? Because He loves us and doesn’t want us to miss out on what He has for us. He has to stick to His word; His justice demands that. Remember being a kid and doing something you got caught for, something you knew would get you in trouble? I remember saying, “Please don’t whip me, please, and “I promise I won’t do it again.” And then my Grandpa would say, “I told you if you did that again I was going to give you a spanking.” I could beg and plead, but Grandpa had given me His word and He planned to stick by it.
God is the same way. If He said something He will do it. Good or bad. God wants to give us rewards on the Day of Judgment. Rewards in the kingdom are directly related to our motives on earth. God judges the heart. My problem was not a lack of desire to do things for the right reasons, it was a wrong foundation. I wasn’t operating from a proper perspective. I hadn’t built on the rock. What is the foundation? The foundation is the teaching of the Kingdom spelled out by Jesus. If you look at the gospels you will see Jesus constantly teaching about the Kingdom by way of parables and the like. The apostle Paul built on Jesus’ foundation with the idea in mind that his hearers already had a good foundation. Think about this. This is very important.
Today churches build on the writings of Paul in place of the teaching of Christ. This can be bad if we don’t understand the foundation that Paul built on. Paul describes our works as being tested by fire on the day of judgment to see of what sort they are.(1 Corinthians 3:12-15) The reason many of us are messed up in our motives is because of our foundation. We have to revisit the ancient paths as Jeremiah exclaimed and walk in them. Jesus was from the beginning and His foundation is right.
Motives are important for four reasons. First, they have everything to do with reward. Second, if our motives are right our work will be sustained and not short lived; third, if we are properly motivated we won’t be discouraged and quit when difficult circumstances arise, and lastly motives are key to the supernatural and or effectiveness of our ministry.
Root
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me. 5 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! 8 My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father. ( John15:1-8)
The gospel began with God and is confirmed by God. It’s His favorite subject. If we are to know the operation of the Gospel we need to understand its origin and design as discussed earlier. The Gospel is supernatural so why should we believe it can be carried out any other way. Supernatural means beyond our ability. The reality of the Gospel lives in us and is transferred by us with the help of the Holy Spirit. When we speak of the reality of the Gospel being within us, it’s another way of saying that the Kingdom lives within us. We carry the kingdom everywhere we go and the kingdom is manifested when we believe. The quicker we realize this fact, the quicker we will see the power of God manifesting in our lives. The Gospel is power. (Romans 1:16) It’s not an effort thing it’s a faith thing. Faith releases the power of the Gospel in and around our lives.
The root determines the fruit. Everything reproduces after its own kind. What is the fruit in our lives - a dead dry religion or the manifestation of God’s power in our lives? Some believe if they just try harder, and work harder and pray harder and the list goes on and on - that God will show up and move on their behalf. Our efforts don’t move the hand of God, our faith in what Jesus did at the cross does! If it had something to do with our great spirituality then we would swell up like a blow fish and explode with pride. I’m just fine letting God do it. I finally realized that my trying had to be replaced with trusting. This is truly liberating when it’s grasped by those who genuinely want to be used by God. The reason so many have paralysis in the church today is because they approach the Gospel and the things of God from a wrong perspective. It’s no surprise so many in the church are turned off to Evangelism (Gospel) in the church when they think it depends on them. One of the major reasons for this error is because of the approach we have taken in furthering the Gospel. We have made it about methods and formulas. The kingdom doesn’t work by formulas it works by relationship and the power of the Holy Spirit. God wants us to be free. He died for our freedom, not so we could go back to the same approach we used before He came that only resulted in failure. It’s an inside job, not an outside one. The Lord is saying that there are many in my church today that have a genuine desire to be used by Me, but have not been taught the way of My spirit. Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord. Jesus secured for us all the power and ability we would ever need when He died on the Cross. Jesus said it is finished. It is time to start working from the Cross and no longer to get to the Cross. Jesus has given us all the power we will ever need. The Lord is bringing freedom. He doesn’t want us bound up in unnatural approaches that appear superficial instead of supernatural. He wants to manifest His life through us - our personalities, just as we are. There’s been enough superficial; we need the supernatural and its coming. You haven’t done anything wrong, and there’s nothing wrong with you. God made you just as you are. We have to discover how to let Him live His life through us. Do you want to be used by God? Well, if you haven’t been yet, you’re about to be! Stop trying and start trusting.
Jesus said that abiding, not striving was the key to bearing fruit. This used to really bother me. I just couldn’t figure it out. The truth was that I just couldn’t believe it. How could I bear fruit by abiding? I had grown up with a performance mindset. I had to perform and do things a certain way to be accepted, and naturally I brought this same mindset into my life as a believer. The Lord had to teach me that if I was to be used by Him, I had to understand that I had been accepted and didn’t need to push and prove my way anymore. All I was to do was to abide (Believe). I know it sounds easy, yet it seems like many of us have to go through high water before we learn it. Jesus said that apart from Him we could do nothing. In the book of John, the seventh chapter, the disciples asked Jesus, “What must we do to do the works of God.” He said to them, “ this is the word of God, that you believe in the one that He sent. Jesus has already done the work. There is nothing more liberating than that.
We draw our life from Him. We are not on our own. If you can believe, God can use you to greatly influence those in and around your life. Rest in Him knowing that He will do for you what you can’t do for yourself. This is true grace; God doing for you what you can’t do for yourself. If you are only willing, God can use you in a powerful way. I read a story once about a man who walked on a train car and the people on the train began to weep because of the presence of God on His life. It took me a long time to realize that it wasn’t the man; it was God in whom the man believed. The man on the train car ended up leading the people to God. Do you believe God can open doors for You? Are you to scared to find out? Some days I say yes, I am too scared and some days I say no, let’s do it. Believing God scares the heck out of me sometimes, I never know what’s going to happen, but you can bet something always will.
Before coming to the Lord, getting high on anything was of utmost importance to me; but I can honestly say since I surrendered my life to the Lord, I have had a higher more exciting time than I ever did before and I’m not even getting in trouble for it. Living for God isn’t boring, as a matter of fact, sometimes it seems to be more than I can handle. It’s a win - win situation. The deal is that God wants to use you more than you want to be used. Let yourself be a recipient of all that He has for you so you can give it to those around you.
Think about a tree for a minute. The root system is the kingdom of God. (What it’s like there). The kingdom flows up through the vine, which we know is a type of Jesus, and nourishes all of the branches. The branches are where the fruit grows. That’s me and you. Faith draws the experience of the kingdom up through Jesus and out through us. How awesome is that! Just be your supernatural self. Remember that signs and wonders will follow those who believe. The only way God could get the kingdom to us was through Jesus. Praise God for that! What is your root system? Is it ambition, fear, pride, human effort? All of these things are examples of wrong root systems. The Apostle Paul when speaking to the Galatians asked if they had received the miraculous of God by the works of the flesh or by the hearing of faith. (Galatians 3:5) Truly motivated work starts with faith, not the other way around. So then we can see that our motivation does not come out of us, it comes out of God. Believe God and step out in faith, it really works.
Position
24 And they began to argue among themselves as to who would be the greatest in the coming Kingdom. 25 Jesus told them, "In this world the kings and great men order their people around, and yet they are called 'friends of the people.' 26 But among you, those who are the greatest should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. 27 Normally the master sits at the table and is served by his servants. But not here! For I am your servant. 28 You have remained true to me in my time of trial. 29 And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right to eat and drink at my table in that Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:24-30)
When people in the church today fight for positions and titles, they tell on them selves. They tell everyone that they are not living in the Kingdom, they are living for themselves. Paul warned often in the Epistles concerning the spirit of the anti-Christ and how it was coming into the world and would get worse with time. Once again when people hear of the anti-Christ they think of some mean man setting up a world empire and killing Christians. That’s not what I’ talking about. Anti-Christ could just as well mean anti-anointing given the fact that Jesus is the anointed one sent by God. So what stops the flow of the anointing (supernatural power of God)? One word: SELF. Why is there such little demonstration of God’s spirit in the lives of believers today? SELF. I believe what Paul warned us about is alive and well in the church world today. We see it all around us and unfortunately, we see it in the church. John the Baptist, when preaching in the wilderness said that he must decrease that Christ may increase. John understood the kingdom. He understood that the kingdom didn’t exist for him but that he existed for the kingdom. The exaltation of self is pride which is the very thing that got Satan thrown out of Heaven. Whether a man appears or not to take on the role of the Anti-Christ, the same spirit is alive and well today and is fueled by man. It’s man’s attempt to replace God’s plan with his. As you can see this is not the right way. The kingdom way is the sure way.
In Jesus’ conversation with the disciples we see Him once again bringing light to the truth of the Kingdom. Who would be the greatest in this coming kingdom they asked? The servant would be the greatest. Not the self- centered one, the Kingdom-centered one. The biggest problem in the Church in relation to power is an ignorance concerning the Kingdom. We need to return to the pattern Jesus laid out so we can be about the Father’s business and lay aside all the other stuff. The future of the Gospel is the Kingdom of God. I’m glad God didn’t leave us to fight it out and figure it out for ourselves. The process and pattern is clear. The kingdom leaves no one behind so there’s no reason to fight among ourselves for things that have no significance in our future.
The government in the Kingdom is in direct opposition to the governments of this world and God has called us to live like it. Our position as servants insures our future reward and makes us capable of reaching those around us with the Gospel. Others may never see what you do for the cause of Christ, but God does and you will be fully compensated for it. If you’ve been feeling down and forgotten, that ought to cheer you up. What you’ve done has not been wasted or forgotten but is being stored up for you on the day of your recompense. Praise God!
Ambition
31"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to have all of you, to sift you like wheat. 32 But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen and build up your brothers." 33 Peter said, "Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you." 34 But Jesus said, "Peter, let me tell you something. The rooster will not crow tomorrow morning until you have denied three times that you even know me." (Luke 22:31-34)
Peter was the one with the big mouth. He was the one always stepping out, trying to prove something. As messed up as he was, Jesus would appoint Peter as the leader of His church. What a responsibility! Here Peter was, all the way up to the point of Jesus death, and he still didn’t get it. Jesus must have seen something in Peter that no one else did. Today He sees the same in you and I. Peter thought he was the strong one. Peter had a lot of zeal but lacked the knowledge and understanding to carry it out. I believe that through failure Peter truly learned what it meant to be in God’s will and not his own. Peters will would fail, but God’s will would succeed. Up to this point Peter was still alive; he had not yet learned God’s process. His intentions APPEARED okay but to no avail in relation to the purposes of God. How many of us are in this same place today?
I believe Peter had experienced the salvation of the Lord but had not yet been converted to the way of the kingdom. Thank God for second chances. The Peter tendency is the same tendency that we all face today. Through defeat, Peter learned that the call of God was not for him but for others. It wasn’t about him and his preference. He learned through his trial that by losing his life he would find it. Peter began to realize the way of the kingdom the day he saw Jesus, for the first time after the resurrection, sitting on the beach. Here we see a completely different man. He was ready to be used for the Lord’s purposes. Jesus reinstated him that day and gave him his marching orders. If God were to exalt us and use us in a selfish state we would quickly fall to pride and probably be destroyed in the process. God loves us too much for this. He would rather take us around the mountain than see us self destruct. Through Peter’s life we see God humbling the proud and exalting the humble. Peter finally gained a proper perspective and we later read about his very shadow healing the sick. Wow, what a transformation! God uses surrendered men not strong men. If God were to use us based on our abilities many of us would be disqualified. God is no respecter of persons; He will use us if we are willing to go through the process. Peter’s efforts appeared noble by today’s standards, but were useless in the kingdom.
We miss it when we judge the fruit according to its appearance. I’m sure the apple looked good the day Adam and Eve decided to take a bite, yet it still produced death. It doesn’t matter which side of the tree it comes from if it’s not the tree of life - it will always produce death. We get confused today with what we consider good and evil. Remember, it’s the root that determines the fruit. Religion lives by good and evil. In the kingdom we live by the tree of life. How many things through the years have been done in the name of good, and yet resulted in tragedy. No matter how valiant our efforts, if it’s not out of a proper understanding, ambition, perspective, etc. it won’t produce the desired results. God has not called us as failures; He has called us as victors! Victory is properly relating and applying the kingdom of God in our lives and affairs. On this foundation, we can’t go wrong as Jesus taught. God has called us to build on His unshakable foundation; a foundation that will withstand any storm and come out on top. God has promised to prosper us and multiply us, given the fact that our work is properly motivated. I believe this is the number one reason so many works fail today. Wrong foundation. What are you building? What was Peter building? Get into God’s building plan and you can’t fail. Lay down your agenda and take up His; this is the place where you will see the fulfillment of His word and purposes for your life.
Holiness
"Don't be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. 2 There are many rooms in my Father's home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know where I am going and how to get there." (John 14:1-4)
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith--for he was like a foreigner, living in a tent. And so did Isaac and Jacob, to whom God gave the same promise. 10 Abraham did this because he was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. 13 All these faithful ones died without receiving what God had promised them, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promises of God. They agreed that they were no more than foreigners and nomads here on earth. (Heb 11:8-10, 13)
Holiness is living in the new world now. Think about that. God calls us to live as if we were already there. If we believe it, we will live it. The reason so many don’t live it is because they don’t know it. Holiness is not what you wear or what you eat, holiness is where you live. I was at home one day and the Holy Spirit asked me a simple question. He said, “If I were to come right now, would you be ready to go?” Would I be willing to leave all that I had in this life to go be with Him? I had to think about the question for a minute. I didn’t realize it, but I had put the vision that God had put in my heart above God Himself. I had made an idol of the very work of God. This was a very sobering event. My motives were at that moment turned inside out. Was I ready? This is holiness. Holiness is living a consecrated separated life. Are you living for this life or the next? That’s pretty sobering! It sure was for me.
My sister shared a dream along these lines. In the dream, she saw the Lord coming in the clouds and multitudes of people started ascending into heaven. The thing she noticed was that many of the people were stopping about half way up. She described that those who stopped ascending were connected by umbilical cords. Some had one and others had two or three. The umbilical cords stopped them from ascending to the Lord. I immediately knew what the dream meant because I had been thinking along the same lines. The people were connected to this world. They were drawing their life from things here instead of there. What are those things? I don’t know that. I assume they could be a variety of things; however, each of us has to answer that one for ourselves. Jesus warned again and again, as did the apostle Paul, about being ready for the Lord’s return. Jesus exhorts believers (as related to His return) not to go back into the house for anything, but to be ready and watching because no man knows the hour in which He will return. (Matthew 24:17) So again, holiness is living in the new world now. When we understand what God has awaiting us we will not think twice about hanging around here. We need understanding. This is a truth that is far too important to be passed up. The church desperately needs to understand the truth of holiness.
When I first began to see the nature of holiness, I had been struggling with different issues in my life, mainly fear. I was asking God on a plane back from Panama how to overcome these fears and insecurities that seemed to be so real in my life. The Lord began to show me that where your investment is, your emotions or feelings will be also. Let me explain. I was moved in my soul by fear because my security was in the world and this life. Does that make any sense? I had a vested interest in this life and didn’t know any better. Where our treasure is, our hearts will be also. Heard that one before? The reason many of us fear man and circumstance is because we haven’t been converted to the way of the kingdom. We fear death because we don’t realize Jesus overcame it; we fear this life because we don’t realize we’ve been delivered from it. It’s all about identity. God has to come in and deliver us. And He will if we are willing. Jesus tells us not to be troubled or afraid. Why? Because in His Father’s house are many mansions. Do you see it? When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, the first thing he had to do was take Egypt out of them! Israel was not in Egypt anymore, but Egypt was in them. This is the same thing God has to do in us. We are in the world but not of it, we are foreigners and nomads here on earth as the writer of Hebrews expresses. Holiness is God taking the world out of us. We are kingdom citizens. It is in this place that the church will rise up and despise the shame of the world and boldly proclaim the Gospel to the nations. This is the key to being free from the fears that plague. Satan has no grip on one who understands his identity and destiny. Let God transform you by changing the way you think. Yea, it hurts for a little while, but it will be well worth it.
There is only one answer to those who desire pure motives. The answer is to build on the rock. Jesus laid the foundation. Understanding the kingdom is the first step to proper motives. Leave the titles and positions up to God and serve Him from a pure heart. He won’t forget you. This is the road to success. Right motives are key to leading productive fruitful lives. Our works won’t be short lived in light of a proper perspective. God is raising up men and women with pure agendas, His agenda. If you want to be great in the Kingdom, then humble yourself. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you in due time. (1Peter 5:6) This is the secret to promotion in the kingdom. If you promote yourself, you’ve already received your reward. I desire a reward that comes from God!
In closing, I believe we can begin to see a pattern emerging that God has designed for those who are His. It has everything to do with the harvest. There is such a great need today for men and women who will lay aside their own ways and follow God’s. In Psalms we read that the children of Israel knew the Lord’s acts, but Moses knew His ways. (Psalms 103:7) I want to know His ways. His way has everything to do with the motive of the kingdom. Cry out to God to transform you to the way of the kingdom. It is in this place where we truly become useful to the King.
