Who Do I Really Belong to: Jesus or the World?

‘For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’
Jeremiah 29:11 AMP

“[God] is not the ‘God of feeding the five thousand.’ He is the ‘God of twelve baskets left over!’ He has not withheld one thing from us, and even beyond what we need, He has given everything He has, even to the rulership of the world, a throne with His Son! Do you understand? He has withheld nothing from us! ‘…Every spiritual blessing in heavenly places…’ ‘…All things are yours.’ ‘He who did not spare His own Son. Will He not freely give us all things?’

“The problem is never, ever with God. The problem only is in our receptiveness. We buy the ancient lie—God is not good, as proven by what He has withheld. So we banish our bitter selves from His lavishness. We hold onto our transgressions by failure of admission and when we don’t experience His outpouring, we say He isn’t outpouring.

“In our proud destitution, we would rather die than need Him. And in our insane independence, we would rather fail than give Him the credit for our victory. The beggarly alone find themselves in the wondrous kingdom.”
Martha Kilpatrick, All and Only

 

Who do I really belong to: Jesus or the world?

This scripture and excerpt perfectly encapsulate where I am and what I’m on right now. I see so clearly that the issue of God’s sovereignty and goodness is present in every choice and chastening in my life. And why? Because every situation and relationship turns on ownership. Who owns me? Who do I really belong to: Jesus or the world?

My spiritual life feels like it’s moving at breakneck speed these days. Revelation, repentance, discipline, deliverance—seems no sooner do I move through one dealing then something else pops up. I confess that I’ve been fighting discouragement over this. It was so much and covered every area of my life! I couldn’t even keep track of all the different issues – fear, obedience, setting boundaries, obligations, expectations, self-discipline, you name it. I’ve been all over the map and around the world. Twice. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit stepped through the whirl and showed me that these were simply different manifestations of ONE single issue: ownership. Who do I really belong to: Jesus or the world?

This is the bottom line of every exchange with the Lord: Who do I really belong to? Who owns me? Who holds me and keeps me and secures me? Do I belong to Jesus in reality or by mere verbal declaration? Is He my Savior AND Lord, or just one chosen characteristic in the life I lead, like a social or political alignment, nothing more? Who do I really belong to: Jesus or the world? With this one question, the Holy Spirit brought the seeming turmoil of my life into the stark simplicity this sheepish sheep desperately needed.

(In my next post, I’ll spell out in more detail the relationship between ownership and every other spiritual issue in my life that the Spirit showed me. It’s amazing!)