2 Kings 7:2 “The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, ‘Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?’ ”

Every now and then God puts us in an advisory role to someone of influence and if we are not careful we start to believe that we have power even more than God himself.  We mistakenly believe that we are the source of authority or behave as if we are the axis on which everything rotates.  The Lord Acton’s quote “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely comes readily to mind.

It therefore begs the questions:  Are we too willing to compromise our Christian values in order to be famous, favoured or to get fortune?  Are we bowing to the golden images around us or seeking to cater to the panting of the popular waiting for us to bow down to them, as they set the framework for us to prevent us from worshipping the True and Living God? What are we willing to put up with just to make sure we are part of the in-crowd?

Jesus wants us to turn the spotlight inward and ask ourselves those questions. Some of us get caught by the illusions of dream weekends, dream bodies, dream careers, dream families not realising that we  have been snared and are engaged in soul empty lives,  full of ourselves, bloated with self-importance but hollow and dead inside (Habakkuk 2:4). Others of us get caught up in the quest for satisfaction in other ways going from place to place; hungering, thirsting for the wrong things, creating mayhem and in the  process ignoring God’s prompting,  signs and wonders to our own peril as seen in Amos 4 and Ezekiel 17 &18 (The Message).

God is calling us to step back and take a look at what we are bowing to and the internal effects that compromise is having on us internally as highlighted in Ephesians 4:17-32. Firstly, compromise stems from worldly wisdom which affects our thoughts and understanding. We begin by searching out things that are not straight up & shady and they infiltrate our thought patterns and re-wire our brains. This leads to futility of thinking as our thoughts and understanding become opaque.  Eventually our hearts become hardened and we become ignorant and separated from the life of God. Here we believe that we are alive but are really soul empty.  Secondly, hardened hearts makes us lose our sensitivity to everything righteous until nothing matters but only what we want and what appears to satisfy us. This leads to an indulgence in every kind of sensuality, impurity and a continual lust for more. We never can be satisfied, never really alive.

Thirdly, dissatisfaction corrupts us as deceitful desires become the norm and our minds and spirits become old and stale, never refreshed or made new. Can’t you hear the staleness and cynicism in the officer’s voice ‘Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?’  Fourthly, lies and falsehood become the standard by which we are known by our neighbours.  Anger seeps into our minds, bodies and spirits until it poisons even our sleep. We tear down others with our unwholesome talk and destroy all who listen.

Fifthly, having gone this route of compromise, of bowing down to the altar of self, we grieve God’s Holy Spirit with which we were sealed for redemption as bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander and every form of malice overtake us.  This leads to self-destruction (Ezekiel 18).

That is what bowing to Satan and his schemes do to us and oh how innocently it starts.

So are we compromisers? Let us check ourselves and see where we are.

PRAYER

Father we confess that we are filled with self-importance but we are really dead, empty of our souls.  We run down the things the world has to offer instead of seeking you and your kingdom first.  No wonder we are so unhappy and unsatisfied.  Forgive us and fill us again with your fresh anointing.  Let your Holy Spirit transform and renew our corrupt way of living so that we can really be fully alive in you.  May we never take for granted your mercy, grace that you secondly extend to us.  Thank you for being the God of the seventy times seven chances.  In the matchless name of Jesus. Amen