Some believe the recent full solar eclipse was a sign of judgment from God. Others don’t. Some believe there was a plot to take down the Francis Scott Key bridge. Others don’t. On social media we post and repost images, memes and headlines confirming or debunking signs of God and conspiracies of man.
In weightlifting, it’s wise to often incorporate dumbbells into your training. A barbell can often mask imbalances. You might not recognize a small imbalance in either your right or left shoulder, if you only ever use a barbell. Only by identifying and working on that weakness can you achieve a greater strength. Using dumbbells helps you to see and to feel where that imbalance exists.
As Christians in a sincere pursuit of discerning the times and the truth, we often don’t realize we’ve developed imbalances. Are we giving too much weight to signs and conspiracies? Too little? The following fruit are “dumbbells”. They can help us identify and correct an imbalance in us.
1. BUSYBODY: You are always looking for the next sign, always seeking the next conspiracy. Yet, what God wants you to know, He’s already made clear to you in His Word. Nothing good does He withhold, nor has He withheld, from you for life or godliness.
2. RESTLESS: You can’t rest, you won’t rest. You are always with expectation and anticipation of something negative or life-altering happening. Yet, if your heart is not at rest when you don’t “see” or understand, then you’re not at rest in Christ who is sovereign over all things.
3. AFRAID AND ANXIOUS: In Luke 21:26, Jesus says “people fainting with fear and foreboding” is fruit he expects from the “nations,” not His people. The people of God should be the most stable people on the planet.
4. ALARMED (Bells going off all day!): Jesus states in Matthew 24:6, “see that you are not alarmed” when you see and hear of certain events. Keep your head and don’t panic, this is “routine history”. On the other hand, Jesus says, “when these signs appear” in history pay attention. The Spirit will speak to those who have ears to hear what He is saying.
5. DIFFICULT TO TRUST: A child-like faith trusts quickly and fully in God. So, even IF, signs or conspiracies prove to be true, it doesn’t change anything. You are still a child of God and your Father is still your good and heavenly father.
6. FIGHTING AND QUARRELING: Paul commands Timothy to “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels” (2 Timothy 2:23). Today we are intolerant of disagreement and tolerant of cruelty. You are too invested on your side if you hate the other side and avoid them whenever possible.
7. SLANDERING AND GOSSIP: Slander occurs whenever someone says something untrue about someone else that results, intentionally or unintentionally, in damaging that someone else’s reputation. God hates slander (Proverbs 6:16, 19). Paul lists it as a behavior of those who hate God (Romans 1:30), and James calls it demonic behavior (James 3:15–16). We must not slander even our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48).
8. SPIRITUAL ARROGANCE AND BLINDNESS: To see through everything is the same as to not see. If everything is a sign, nothing is a sign. If everything is a secret plot, nothing is a secret plot. We can become puffed up with true and false knowledge. If we are always looking up for signs, we’ll miss the secret sins in our own hearts. On the other hand, if we are always looking down at our feelings, we’ll miss the arrival of “the Bridegroom,” the blowing of the Spirit, the “angels in disguise,” Jesus in the least of these, and all the possibilities in the resurrection of Christ.
9. DISTRACTED: Are you distracted by your fighting/quarreling from what matters most? If you can’t have a family dinner without arguing, if you and your spouse can’t sleep in the same bed, if you can’t go to the same Sunday service with someone you disagree with, you might be distracted from your priorities. If you can’t serve the least among you or if you don’t love the lost, the stranger, and the enemy around you, then you might be distracted by less important things.
10. A SPIRIT OF SELF-CONTROL: Do you have self-control over how much you’re online? Over your thoughts and feelings related to the things you’re reading or listening to? “Self-control” means control over something in you, not others (2 Timothy 1:7). What are your intentions when you research and share? To help, serve, inform? Or to draw attention to yourself? Is there peace or chaos around you? Is there faith or fear? Clarity or confusion? Are you running to extremes or filling the space between?
11. STAY AWAKE: The simplest way to “be ready” for Jesus is by keeping your eyes on Him and doing the things He’s already commanded you to do (Matthew 24:42). Yet, ask questions! “Lord, what are you doing?” Don’t put God in a box! Be a student of a supernatural God. Ponder like Mary did some of the “impossibilities”! A healthy curiosity is a good thing!
12. STRAIGHTEN UP: Don’t be spiritually lazy thinking either everything or nothing is a sign and a conspiracy. Rather, “straighten up from a bent over position” (Luke 21:28). Strengthen your spiritual “core”. Wrestle with and study Scripture. Listen more than you speak. Don’t swallow everything, but also don’t spit everything out!
13. RAISE YOUR HEADS: You’ll know Jesus then (when He appears), because you know Him now. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the light of the glory of God wasn’t added to Jesus, it was revealed in Him. His light and glory transcend all signs, conspiracies, plans. They transcend all laughter, natural wonders, “ordinary” life. No matter what, when, where, or how Jesus shines with glory. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. There’s a quality and familiarity to His glory that is present in all that is true. In all that He has made. In all that comes from Him.
14. THE SPIRITUAL TIDE IN YOUR HEART IS LOW/HIGH: It is when the spiritual tide in our hearts is low that we find it easier to lean on and trust in our own understanding or in another’s understanding of events, signs, theories. To know God as high and lifted up — to have a fear of the Lord — is the surest way both to protect yourself against false signs and empty conspiracies and to train yourself to recognize Him in genuine signs and providential events.
15. EVANGELISM: Evangelists for who? Do you proclaim more signs than Jesus? More conspiracy than Gospel? If a nonbeliever scrolls your feed, what’s the fruit they will see?
16. SIMPLE OBEDIENCE: The highest does not stand without the lowest. Even the highest signs or highest conspiracies do not change the lowest or most fundamental fact about who you are and what you are called to do as a Christian: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. On the other hand, even the most mundane and boring days and tasks don’t change the highest and most fundamental fact about who you are and what you are called to as a Christian: you are a new creation, a citizen of the kingdom of God on earth, filled and empowered with the very Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
Dear Elim Grace, my pastoral goal is not to prove or disprove whether what you claim or believe is true, but whether what you believe is producing the right kind of fruit in you and through you as a Christian towards God, other Christians, and “the world”. If you and I are serious about the right kind of fruit – the fruit of the Spirit – being produced in our lives, then we must also be serious about identifying and working on the imbalances in our lives.
Pastor Jonathan