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'The kingdom of God is not about material gain, but about positioning ourselves to be servants. We must begin to dismantle worldly paradigms if we want to become fruitful as kings in the kingdom.' (Mark Casto, page 92).
Sometimes we get it mixed up, don't we? We think gaining material things is success, but it isn't necessarily. I know people who are satisfied with a house they bought, a car they own, and a job that pays a decent amount of money, but a job they hate. And believe it or not, that's success to them. Crazy, right? Yet, how many of us are right there with them? How many of us have lives that are dictated by the tangible things we have? Or how much money we have in the bank? It doesn't matter how we feel inside and what we are doing to move the world, as long as we have the things people can see, then that's living an I-made-it-big life, right? No, not right. Wrong actually. We can't live that way, because that's not living if you ask me. Think about it. If those things equaled success then we wouldn't see the problems in some of the flawed high-profile people we follow, right? They would have it all together, but the reality is when it comes to success we are looking at the wrong things. We are sometimes looking in the wrong direction. And that's what Casto talks about in this chapter.
On page 92/93, Casto says, 'Jesus' brothers had the wrong mentality about Him. They looked at His preaching and performing miracles as His way to gain popularity and publicity. They didn't realize it was His obedience to what the Father led Him to do in secret. His brothers had no revelation or relationship with God.' Is it any wonder that we sometimes find ourselves there too, because our rationale may be way off in the way we expect God to move in our lives too? This is it. If we are in the business of simply gaining wealth and that's it and we're empty when we obtained, we will we still empty if we don't have a bigger purpose than ourselves. In other words, if we are not emotionally whole from the inside out, then when the challenges and struggles of our public pursuit comes, we when we get there will crumble under the pressure. We have to know to whom our help and strength comes from and we will have a steady and solid foundation on which to stand whenever adversity comes looking for us. Psalm 121:1/2 says, "I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."
Years ago when I was going through my depression night, if I didn't have God to talk to when nobody else was around, I don't know I would have done. I doubt if I would have my public In Sharon's Heart Platform. I can tell you that. I couldn't do any of it without God. We have to have something concrete to rely on and when we're all in for the right reasons, God will bless our endeavors. He will bless that we want all eyes to be own Him, not us. Now, does this mean we shouldn't want material things? Of course not, it doesn't mean that. There's nothing wrong with nice material things at all. What I'm saying is that materials things shouldn't be the only things that drives us. That's all I'm saying. Our purpose should be to fruitful and multiply, which means to draw all men unto the Lord, not ourselves. In John 6:38 Jesus said, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" Jesus was clear on what He was doing and why He was doing it. And when follow Him, we too, can be clear on those things. His power can work through us, you know.
On page 95 Casto says, "a person who has been with God in secret has a different goal when in public and that is to help others experience their own personal encounter with a living and relational God." Yes, the public pursuit, he says on page 117, cannot be the center of our lives. We should have a burning desire to walk with God in the secret place where we can abide in His presence. Intimacy is just the beginning.' Being close to God and staying close to Him is what needs to happen if we really want to be effective for the kingdom. And as we dismantle or breakdown the public pursuit of getting everything and doing all the things He wants us to do. We have to ensure our priorities are in the right place.
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