To receive. That is all there is to the Christian life.

All is given.
All is already there, not to be sought nor earned.
A feast of strength and glory, a banquet of rich sustaining.
An adorning of beauty.

Simple. Merely receive.
So why all the spiritual-rot and soul-disease in His house?
Why all the failure and sham?
Why all the selfish suffering?

It can only be that "He came unto his own and His own received Him not."

We are in this day just like the Pharisees of HIS day...

Like little twisted ogres, we plot to steal that given to another,
and though destructive we never get the goods.
We scratch to earn what is already ours to grasp the golden
goose is to kill it.

Or worse, we stew in private cauldrons of bitterness,
steaming over those who "have."

Then in that self achieved bankruptcy,
we blame a miserly God
and view Him as destitute too - beneath us.

God's gifts are not a paycheck
and they cannot be embezzled.
They are an inheritance. Free. Earned by Another.

To receive, one must be a lowly beggar, desperate and alone.
To receive one must be naked and raw, stripped of muscle,
peeled and visibly wretched. 

No pretense.
No crutch. 

We are a walking picture of God.
Whatever we are is a photograph of...Him.
"If you receive Me, you receive Him who sent Me."

We are an illustration that makes Him a small weakling.
.
By not receiving, we are poor.
It is not a shame to us
but to Him
for it represents Him Who Owns All,
as impoverished, impotent. . . stingy.

To receive. That's all He asks. And we cannot...rather WILL not.

This is Laodicea. The "Emperor With No Clothes".

Where pride has deluded to the point of blind obsession...
The enemy mocks.
And the people stare at nakedness
of one who should, could be...opulent king.

We will not be poor. We will NOT be obligated to God.
We will NOT share the credit or the stage.
We will not be NOTHING...even though we are.

Why? Why so stupid? Why, oh, why?
Because of Pride.

Pride is the self made prison of spiritual poverty.

Pride is always "I will be god"...for I will be center.
I will be only. I will decide. 

The ugly face of Pride, that cloaks itself in
dark and secret promotion,
justifying and arguing for its own merit.
Bitter at being ungiven and must have ALL.
Its own and everyone else's.

It will not die. It will not give.
And it cannot, cannot, cannot receive.

It cannot let another be prosperous in the Lord...
Pride will possess those riches and kill the rich.

A terrible vain greed is Pride, never enough
so never seeing
and tasting the Kingdom.

Pride says "I will be the Source."
So by ambition, is demoted.

Pride is self fixed on self...protecting, licking, petting
the wounded ego, keeping it sick and oozing
never letting it die its due death.

Pride also runs in reverse.
Self disparagement is the mirror image of self promotion.
Just as sick, this pride will not receive because
it doesn't deserve,
isn't good, hasn't earned.
It is still the ego ruling and demanding by its own right and wrong
elevated on
the pedestal that belongs to God.

The pride of self preservation is a many legged monster,
complex by its agendas and schemes,
boring by its single motive - ME.
It is a creature blind,
a brute to all, passionate lover of self. 

How to receive? 

Take off your preening clothes and be naked.
Come down with the rest of common humanity and
be the wretched poor and blind
who live comfortably in abject need of God
by the constant emergency of poverty.

Tell the grim truth.
Don't hear - or believe
the hidden whispered flattery of flesh and devil.

When wrecked to base reality - stay down.
If proved wrong - don't lie.
In embarrassment - be shamed.
Let all things expose you - to your self's heart.
Bear your soul's cold anguish -
don't scramble for the soothing blanket of excuses.

The courage of nakedness is
humanity's greatest heroism,
...his darkest battle.

And most lose
by fighting Truth instead of Lies.

John 7:39 the Spirit...whom those believing in Him would RECEIVE...
 

Copyright © 1998 Martha Kilpatrick