Distinction Between

 

 

 

“Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him.” (Malachi 3:18)

 

Nicky Gumble, in his devotional writes, “There is a division of destiny between those who are far and those who are near (Psalm 119).  There is a division of destiny between those who hear the gospel and respond with faith, and those who do not combine it with faith (Hebrews 4:2).  In the book of Joel, there is a division of destiny between those who call on the name of the Lord and those who do not (Joel 2::32).

 

In Malachi, the Lord confronts him for thinking in his heart that it is vain to serve him as it always seems the arrogant are blessed.  They not only prosper but they put God to the test and escape judgement. (Malachi 3:13-15)  The Lord is kind to the lost but hard on His followers as He disciplines the ones He loves.   They seem to get off scot-free.  But the Lord reminds him that the day of the Lord is coming.  This is the day that He takes up His treasured possessions.   Then, once more, there will be a clear distinction as the Lord separates the sheep and the goats.

 

If we are thinking about our comfort, we are looking at the world wrong and seeing it in a fleshly view.  It is not what we get away with or how comfortable we live in this world that matters.  What matters is eternal.  The Lord is preparing us for more and helping us to become mature in our faith.   Our lives have eternal purpose.  

 

The biggest decision that we will make in life is with who we will plan to spend eternity.  There will come a day of distinction in the valley of decision where some will go to eternal damnation and others to eternal life.  Multitudes are in this valley making this decision even now as they invite Him into their lives or reject Him to live in sin.

 

Singing in the background: “Hallelujah, you called out my name, I’ll sing out your praise! Hallelujah, you buried my past, I’m not going back. I was not made to be tending a grave, I was called by name, born and raised back to life again, I was made for more.”

 

We were made for distinction.   “God isn’t finished yet.”  Sings now.   We were made to stand out as different.   Malachi 4 goes on to talk about the great day of the Lord that represents both His first and second coming.  It is a day where He establishes His people and they stand out as distinctive from the world.  

 

We see this in the first coming that He cut off the evil doers and the old order of the arrogant when He established His new order.    And for those who fear His name, “the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.  You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.  And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 4:2-3)

 

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven,” Jesus said as the 72 that he selected came back from being sent out with His power and coming back with overwhelming joy, proclaiming that even demons submit to them in His name.  (Luke 10:17-18)

 

In Malachi 4, speaking of this great day of the Lord, He reminds them to remember the laws of Moses.  Jesus was not overwriting this law but fulfilling it.  Jesus selected the twelve—representing the twelve tribes of Isreal during the time of Moses. And we see in Numbers 11:16 that Moses was to gather seventy men and the Lord would come down and take “some of the Spirit that is on you [Moses] and put it on them.” It says in Numbers 11:25  that the Spirit came to rest on them and the prophesied.  Interesting that it goes on to tell us about two more men who remained in the camp, Eldad and Medad, who the Spirit also rested upon and they prophesied as well (Num. 11:26).

 

And then in Luke 10, we see Jesus appointed his seventy-two.  Commentary notes that some refer to this as “the seventy” coming back to the connection between this story in numbers about the elders being appointed.   What it demonstrates is that Jesus was following this order of Moses in establishing the church.  His Spirit rested upon these men and they were sent out to heal the sick and proclaim the peace of the Kingdom with power.  

 

Jesus told these 72 elders when they returned that while He has given them authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt them, what they should rejoice in is not this, but that their names are written in heaven.  (Luke 10:19)  He was reminding them again that their choice in their eternal destiny was the most important decision they will ever make.

 

But this distinction was not meant to end at these seventy-two that Jesus placed His Spirit upon.  He told His disciples in John 16:17 that it was good that He was going away so that the Holy Spirit could come unto them.  As we see with the Great Commission and then realized in Pentecost, He was not planning to stop with 72, it was just the start in establishing the church.   Soon, as the Spirit came upon all believers gathered in the upper room, the Spirit would be poured out upon the Church as a whole. 

 

We see Peter marking this day of distinction with all believers that would receive Him and this Baptism of fire with the words of Joel, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.  And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;  the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.  And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Acts 2:17-21)

 

All this to say, we are in the days of distinction and it is growing as we move toward His return.   As tribulation shakes everything that can be shaken, people are no longer only riddled with worldly insecurity from comparisons and envy, but with anxiety, fear and depression along with many other struggles.  They are being cut off from the peace and security they have held in the past.  While those who know their God will stand and do exploits, shining like the brightness of the stars. 

Kevin Geer, in his dissertation on leading in a way that creates a distinctive culture different than the world’s, speaks of using intention as the human tendency is to drift in the direction of dysfunction.   He specifically focuses on a culture where there are healthy staff so that they can contribute in a way that creates healthy and mature believers.  [1]

 

The end goal for him is not salvation but people to be engaged with God in a personal and authentic way, putting their relationship with Jesus first, growing in faith, and depending upon Him for guidance and Spirit led believers.    He notes that engaging with God moves people from “fringe” to “followers.”  [2]

 

As part of Geer’s plan to be intentional, He uses a “SMaC List” that comes from Jim Collins’ book Great by Choice.   This stands for Specific, Methodical, and Consistent.  The purpose of it is to help people keep their bearings and sustain high performance when in challenging or extreme conditions.   According to Collins, “a SMaC recipe forces order amist chaos.  It imposes consistency when your slammed by disruption.”[3]

 

Geer proceeds to provide his list of rules.  They are like rules of life for an organization.  Things like, “Create the kind of team you want to be on.”  And “We give each other the benefit of the doubt.”  Another one is “We have each other’s backs.”   [4]

 

While creating ways is helpful to guide you through more difficult situations, I would love to argue that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.    If we follow Him and are led by His Spirit, His Word will be a lamp onto our feet and guide us through difficulty.   Instead of a page long list of rules, we have pages of a treasure of wisdom to guide us in the Word of God.   Every word of God is tested and pure.  His promises are proven in the furnace of experience.

 

I, like most everyone else, is tempted to lean into manmade rules to follow, looking for wisdom when the world is chaotic.   One thing seems certain in the world these days and that is that it is chaotic and uncertain.   Between wars, acts of nature, and illnesses, there is a flood of considerations we cannot plan for in every direction.   But the truth of it is that God loves us and is faithful.  He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.  

 

The more we find ourselves in Christ, the more we will have the wins that we hope for.  And in the Jesus way, winning usually involves stepping back and helping others get ahead.   Winning is about empowering others.   I love that one of Geer’s rules is to create a collaborative culture where information is shared freely in the organization.   It comes with the extension of empowering everyone and making sure that they have what they need.   With any organization, people find that information is power.  So rather than using it to freely share it and empower others, they hold onto as much as they can get for themselves.  This kind of environment leaves everyone scrambling in competition and with less.  People feel disempowered and frustrated.

 

At the end of the day, Geer, is searching for ways to speak and bring life to others.  He wants to create a culture where everyone wins and even the younger team members find their voice.  It is a culture where winning happens together and everyone is a part of it.   He seeks where the wisdom and experience of the older teammates is leaned into while the energy of the young have room for expansion. 

 

I love Geers heart for the life of God to flow through his organization.  However, it is important to remember that the Word of God will hold up over time.  If we really want to make sure that our work is successful, it will be rooted in not only rules, but in relationship.  We don’t want to make for ourselves a golden calf to follow as shiny and bright as it appears. 

 

God is great at breaking rules.  The minute we try to put Him in a box, He breaks it in loving His people. I have seen this time and time again in my own life.  Someone once said that God does not speak when you just open your Bible, yet when I struggled with anxiety and was up in the middle of the night, God spoke to me every night through His Word and just opening a book filled with Scripture.  He brought me to right what I needed to hear at the moment.   He is the Great Orchestrator.   God speaks however He wants to speak at the time and for the purpose He has. Just one example of a multitude of rules He breaks.  

 

Thriving is always found where the Spirit is present and guiding us into the future.   It is where people will be in awe of the work of God around them and be hungry for more of His presence in their midst.  It is where the cloud of glory is leading by day and the roaring fire by night.   Like with the Israelite’s in the wilderness, they may circle around at times but by staying in faith, they will find themselves miraculously crossing over into the promises of God.   Their story will be, not that they found the right mix of rules or did it in their own wisdom or strength, but they have went from glory to glory and can recount the faithfulness of God as they lived from promise to promise.

 

As Geer notes about David, a man after God’s own heart, “The leadership God desires is comprised of a servant’s heart that desires not to please oneself but to honor God with the authority given—a heart that longs for the things God longs for and walks in obedience where He leads.”[5]

 

In a recent book I was reading about Spiritual Leadership, they noted that the “triple bottom line” is achieved when we invite in spirituality.   The Triple bottom line, defined by Harvard, is achieving financial performance while also achieving positive impact on the environment and communities.  It emphasizes that overall impact of decisions is important to measure and monitor.   The point is that thriving happens when we invite in Jesus and are led by His Spirit.  He is the Way, Truth and Life and outside of this, we will never find this fullness.

 

The author notes that amid the complexities and messiness of work and daily organizational lives, human potential and creativity is released as the Spirit within is manifested.  As a result, ordinary people achieve extraordinary results, both individually and collectively; becoming more than they ever thought possible.  [6]

 

Lord Jesus, help us to glean wisdom from others but be led by you.  You are the source of all wisdom and life.   Guide us daily that we might be fruitful and stand out from the world like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.  

 

1,2 4-5. Geer, Kevin D.  The Great Cultural Commission: Fulfilling the Command of Jesus to Lead and Create a Culture Different Than the World’s.   Southeastern University, FireScholars.  Spring 2024.  

3.Collins, Jim & Hansen, MT.  Great by Choice: uncertainty, chaos, and luck:  why some thrive despite them all.  HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY. 2011.

6. Fry, Louis W. & Altman, Yochanan.  Spiritual Leadership in Action:  The Cel Story: Achieving Extraordinary Results Through Ordinary People.  Information Age Publishing, Charlotte NC. 2013.