VIM- Means

The “means” to live in God’s Kingdom now are to fool every part of our normal self into trusting that we can actually be transformed. In football, we would call this an “end around.” If you take the direct approach it almost always fails. Like,

This time I am really going to live a godly life! I am going to quit being so impatient. I am going to be patient and I am going do it- right now!

Whenever we take the direct approach, our whole being cries out,

It can’t be done!

Or,

Who do you think you are?!

Or,

I’ll just die if I follow through on this!!

How do we go about indirectly impacting ourselves to live the transformed life? The spiritual disciplines that Jesus practiced are the key.

Through silence and solitude, study, worship and such, we are able to focus on what is there in front of us, and it will naturally be used by the Spirit to change us from the inside.

For instance, we don’t say, “From now on I am going to be a loving person,” but rather we say, “I am going to work on becoming the kind of person whom can love.” The spiritual disciplines then become the tools that make us available for that transformation.

Think about the various types of “self-help” you have attempted.

VIM- Intention

Here is where we start to get bogged down in our spiritual growth. Two things happen.

One- we don’t really trust what we say we trust

Two- we don’t really intend to obey what we learn

We must intend to trust Jesus.

Here is where “thinking it through” is so important. There is a whole area of study that is critical to trusting in Jesus. It is called, “Apologetics.” This means, “making a case for,” or “making a defense.”

In Christian apologetics, you make a logical case for your faith in Jesus. You build confidence in the reasonability of the Christian faith. Why is it important to trust intellectually?

You cannot sustain a living, influential faith in Jesus unless you trust in what he says and does. You cannot thrive as a disciple unless you have confidence that the Bible is the Word of God, Jesus is who he says he is, and the Christian worldview is the most reasonable and rational view of reality there is out of all religions and philosophies.

Sunday School/ “Jesus loves me this I know” faith, does not survive teenage and adult skepticism in a person who is truly testing out their faith. You can get by when times are good, but when crisis and uncertainty hit, which they will, to have confidence in the authenticity of your experience and the evidence of the truth of the Gospel are essential.

The good news is: Jesus is totally trustworthy, and so we can obey his ways.

Christians are not really honest on this point. Often we talk a good faith but we don’t live it. Usually, this has something to do with focusing almost entirely on a God of love and forgiveness.

Yet, God is equally a God of justice and righteousness (right living). The God who totally loves us is the God who totally expects obedience. We emphasize all the accounts in the Bible where Jesus is caring and forgiving, but many times we skip over his call for our radical self-denial.

For example, when he tells the woman who is caught in adultery, “Go, and sin no more,” he wasn’t winking at her when he said it (John 8:1-11).

We can actually choose not to sin.

We can choose to do what is right.

It is possible to do this in this life. We are already a new creation when we place our trust in Jesus and begin to live in his Kingdom now. We do not have to give in to our old human desires for pleasure and power. The fact that we fail at times, and fall back into our sinful human ways, doesn’t cancel out the equally truthful fact that we can choose not to sin. Unless we go into this whole enterprise intending to live a transformed life, we will fail before we get started.

We can live our lives as Jesus would live our lives if he were us. He created the means.

What do you really want?

We start with a vision to be a Kingdom person. This is someone who is actively working with God in living a kingdom life. Before we can understand this we need to define “Kingdom.” Dallas Willard defines it this way:

Kingdom of God- the range of God’s effective will

We have confidence that God’s will is done everywhere. Therefore, his Kingdom is infinite because his domain is wherever there is the possibility his choices are accomplished. We pray this frequently.

Thy Kingdom come: Thy Will be done: On earth as it is in heaven.

This is the life of our possibility. Where God’s desires and our destiny are identical. We are invited to the greatest cause of the galaxies. To live our lives the way we are designed to live. Think about it this way.

Everyone in the world may be working against God’s Kingdom coming because they have given in to a life of self-worship. Yet, if we are working for the sake of God and others, we are being transformed. As a result, creation itself is being transformed because we choose to follow God’s Kingdom vision.

How could we live in any safer, richer, more joyful place than in the reality of what God wants done? Do you think he can accomplish what he intends to accomplish?

Then I would suggest we all get on God’s bus and go for a ride!

What do you really want?

What is VIM? Let me use an example.

For most adults in America, one area we frequently wish to change is being overweight. If you take all the weight loss products, all the weight loss programs, all the health club memberships, and all the diet books, then you add it all together, you are looking at billions of billions of dollars. Yet, most people simply go through a cycle of losing and gaining. Most people don’t see permanent results. Why? Could it be they went directly to means, without really considering vision and intention?

In vision you think about what you would look like if you lost weight. Would you be more attractive? The bit of narcissism in all of us would enjoy that. Then you think about what you would feel like if you didn’t have to carry around those extra pounds every day. The aches and pains in your joints. Just the overall dragging that goes on by the end of the day. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to face the world as a “lean, mean, fighting machine?” (If you haven’t seen Stripes, do so; classic Bill Murray) Do you have a vision for weight loss?

The vision is not enough. You can’t just sit there daydreaming about how great it would be to lose weight. You can’t just read testimonials. You have to carefully consider what life would be like as a slimmer you. You have to count the cost. Jesus knows that.

Luke 14:28 (NLT)
“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills?”

After this careful consideration, if you are truly ready this time, then you state you intentions. Maybe you confide in a friend that this time you really mean it. You have a vision for weight loss. You have the intention to do what it takes to achieve it. Now, the final step is the easiest. How to do it. The means.

Obesity is most often spiritual at its core. David Housholder, in  Light Your Church On Fire Without Burning It Down, has this to say,

“One only has to think of our grossly overweight society, and the massive trillions spent on resulting medical care trying to cure the symptoms caused by obesity, when there is deep inner pain trying to get covered by overeating. Why not go right to the cause?”

Healing prayer will deliver a person from this inner pain. Along with this, healthy habits follow. Proper diet and exercise, and sleep are important for weight loss. A healthy lifestyle includes these three.

Healing prayer and healthy habits are the means to losing what we are dragging through life.

You can see what practicing vision, intention, and means can do for weight loss. What would it look like to change a whole life? Through VIM, you yield yourself to the power of the Holy Spirit for lasting transformation.

Where do you need healing?

Our love of God directly impacts our love of neighbor. When we receive God’s love for what it is, it becomes possible to love our neighbor as Jesus does. Not for what I can get out of them, but out of genuine generosity. Through this process, the five parts of who I am (heart, mind, body, social relationships, soul) come into proper alignment. More and more, I am living as I am designed to live.

The choices I make out of my heart are for the benefit of others. My mind is filled with thoughts and feelings that focus on good rather than tempt me toward evil. My body is used to worship and glorify God rather than pursue pleasure and power. All of this affects the people I choose to hang out with. In this way my soul is in harmony with God’s intentions.

Specifically, as I am dying to myself, I am becoming the kind of person who does not have a crisis when I don’t get my own way. It does not surprise me or bother me. I am confident that I am perfectly safe in God’s hands and will face life centered within his presence.

As I become an apprentice of Jesus, I am able to live in his kingdom now. Instead of feeling I belong away from God and becoming more and more a person who cannot want him, by dying to self, I am at home with Jesus and living my life as he would lead it if he were me. This is a reality waiting to be discovered.

Renovation of the heart is possible and it is the only option to true living. I will live as I have been designed to live all along, and I will be at home with Jesus. I will be my best, true self.

Now where do I start?

When do you support unhealthy life being lived out by a friend?

The path to radical ruin is wide and easy. It is made possible by following our own desires.

It looks like this:

• Make choices based on your interests.
• Do what you think best.
• Do whatever your gut instinct tells you to do.
• Do whatever makes you feel good.
• Don’t worry about how you affect someone else.
• Don’t think about the consequences of anything.
• Just do it.

This is the life of radical ruin. It looks strangely like the normal life of an animal. Yet, you are not an animal in relationship to the rest of creation, in that you have a choice. There is another path you can join. The path to radical goodness.

Created in the image of God, in part, means you can choose to be affected by God.

Here is the choice. Either you choose a life apart from God or a life set apart by God. This is the meaning of the word “holy.” “To be set apart.”

The way to holy living begins and ends with self-denial. This is the antidote to self-worship. Now, this doesn’t mean self-rejection. It is not designed to take away our dignity so we can become a doormat for the world; allowing everyone to step all over us.

Self-denial is dying to having to be the center of the universe and allowing Jesus to rule on the throne of our lives. Death to self brings life in Christ. The ultimate reference point in our lives becomes God. We live according to what he wants rather than what we want.

Living with Jesus on the throne of your life, where he lives for you and through you, brings about a restoration of your very soul. You can do what he wants rather than what you want. You can become the kind of person who lives in his Kingdom now as he desires you to live. As the words of the ancient psalm proclaim,

Psalm 23:3 (KJV)
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

The answer to the “What is the meaning of life?” question is…

When we are turned from God, our bodies become the place where sin is lived out. The path of self-worship goes directly through what we look like and how we physically feel. We can see this obsession everywhere.

Look at any issue of a fitness magazine like Men’s Health or Shape. What do the models look like? Carved statues of the “ideal.” Abs and diet on every cover. People like myself who have a “one pack” are invited to know that life is transformed with a “six pack.” It’s never too early to start. Page through any issue of Seventeen and you may notice a slight obsession over looks?!

Then there is physical feeling. According to advertisers, I am invited to try any product with the understanding that I am going to be sexually satisfied as a result. Other than a touchy/ feely family love theme, every product out there is marketed on sex. God-given creativity and imagination seems to be stuck in the public arena on how many different ways I can make sex my god.

Pornography, alcohol, and drug abuse all are pure body ruin. We are bombarded with the message of feel good or don’t feel at all. Without a good spam blocker you will notice the two “V’s”, Viagra and Vicodin. They seem to be the solution to all my problems. Giving in to the search for pleasure is a direct result of heart and mind ruin. Social ruin follows because I don’t need you unless it means I can use you for pleasure. Even anger is not exempt from body ruin. Anger is lived out physically, as well. Getting a “rush” over rage.

So if heart, mind, body and social relationships are all on the path to ruin, what happens to me?

Notice sexual themes in all the media and advertising you come into contact with today.