“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT.  That’s pretty plain isn’t it? Not much to explain there. And here’s another one, where Jesus Himself is praying for us… “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17:15-16. 

The thing is, without inward transformation, we are wasting our time and effort trying to capture the-people-who-don’t-know-Him’s attention with our own clever ideas and plans. We need to have the Lord’s guidance, His way to reach out to people. We serve the One Who took people out onto a hillside and they were so captured by what Jesus said, they didn’t even think about eating.

The point made in this scripture is that the Lord knows how to go straight to the heart of the matter, and we don’t. Let’s ask for His help! The bonus is we get to know God’s will for our lives. We no longer live by this world’s standards. The ‘latest thing’ is the ‘last thing’ on our minds! Unless the Holy Spirit kisses what we are doing and tears off the roof, our plans are limited, His are not.

Jesus isn’t praying for us to live detached from this world, like somehow what’s out there can stop what’s inside us from flourishing!  Our choices do that for us, they are what influence us. We don’t need to separate ourselves from the lives we are here to touch when we’ve decide to make Him our priority. Instead Jesus is praying that we will be protected from the devices of our enemy – who is all around us. Here’s my litmus test for in not of …  Ask yourself what occupies most of your thoughts? 

I have been to churches in many places, that are pale imitations of what this world can produce all by itself. In the end, the productions become more important than the God we worship or the people we are here to reach. Let’s realise that when it comes to production – this world is waa-aa-aa-ay better at it than we are! They’ve got great gizmos to help them make fake things look real.

I think that’s because whatever IS represented by this world is fake. In our churches we want to produce the real thing — but you can’t produce the real thing, from fake roots. Entertainment is by its very nature, anti-what-Jesus-stands-for. He wants to glorify His Father, by what He says and does. He can use entertainment, but He doesn’t need it. We can say we want to glorify God, but I’ve been involved in the production of a number of things in the past and this world does not easily let go of the idea that being bigger, better, brighter, more clever is the way to go! 

Human beings think that doing something well, is going to impress the world and help them to believe in what they are selling. They don’t need to be impressed with us, these people need the King, not our clever, glamorous well-produced rhetoric. Our message doesn’t need any help! It’s in the book and God Himself wrote it. Our God is the God of the Universe, He doesn’t want or need our advertising, He  wants to reach the people around us, with healing, deliverance, salvation and the Good News.

We have been asked to make disciples, followers of Jesus Christ – not groupies. Changing someone’s heart is His job. Ours is to co-operate with the Holy Spirit and make a permanent place for the Lord in our hearts and our churches – then we follow the Holy Spirit’s instructions regarding how we approach others. Our churches are where we meet to glorify Him and give Him the praise He so richly deserves. And all our gifts are to be surrendered and used to glorify Him — our fellowship is sweeter because of Him. 

Our meetings cannot be about “the atmosphere’ either – an atmosphere is easily created and easily broken. What we do is about Him, done for His sake, for His pleasure. We can’t substitute special effects for the anointing – it is far better to get on our faces and find out where we’ve missed Him, than to plough on competing with this world’s idea of a good time.  

To be in not of  means we are totally aware of our surroundings, and we can see and hear the people around us. Their needs, their hopes, their squashed broken lives. It is so easy to segregate ourselves away from the very people the Lord saved us to reach — simply because they do this and that, and that stuff might corrupt us. The hard times that have fallen upon everyone has disproved that theory. People are dying inside – they have no hope.  And guess what we have – HOPE! 

We have the incorruptible One living inside us!1 Peter 1:23 says: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” 1 John 4:4: “Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” In but not of is about singular focus, not just distraction. I would rather spend 5 minutes with a Spirit-filled person than 5 seconds with someone else’s clever ideas. Bye for now, 👋