Simplicity and Godly Sincerity Part 2

Simplicity and Godly Sincerity. Part 2

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2Corinthians 11:3

But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 2Corinthians 4:2

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. 2Corinthians 1:12

Continued from Part 1.

To cultivate simplicity and godly sincerity devoid of worldly wisdom but resting only on the power of grace, we must first renounce every hidden thing of dishonesty. We must not entertain those thoughts that can't be justified in Christ Jesus or that can't be brought to the open in a godly conversation. 

I understand that the new way of dishonesty is to put lies and errors to people's faces as the truth, blatantly and boldly with satanic courage and confidence. But it's always with selfish cover up agendas and always to gain a psychological advantage to bully and stubbornly manipulate others to accepting errors as the truth. 

Lots of the times, ungodly and worldly ambitions, bothering on the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life are foundations of our lack of simplicity and godly sincerity. We want to have more money, we want to be seen as great people in the sight of the world irrespective of what Christ called greatness, we want to build empires and edifices of physical temples with our names attached like Nimrod, we want to be renowned, and we want to beat others to it. We want to make history that impresses men, breaks records and lays new ones, we want to lay up treasures on the earth and not be content with just food and raiment, but to be hailed by the world. 

We'll always need people to make these things happen and these people will either be won by certain false promises and pretences or be won by coercion and manipulations. In the process, the word of God is distorted to give a sense of divine approval to the error and people are led away into trouble and destruction. 

It is good that we develop a sense of confidence in our personal and individual relationships with God. Each believer must have that sense of right to independently explore God's word and His Spirit with minimal and only necessary help of third parties. The lie that we can only access God through third parties is the ground for manipulation. It is there that people's hearts are corrupted like that of Eve through deceit. 

Wherever God knows we need third parties, He is always ever faithful to give us pastors after His own heart, like Jesus Christ the great shepherd of the sheep Himself, who won't fleece us to satisfy their indulgences and selfish desires on our submissiveness and simplicity. 

To develop simplicity and godly sincerity, we need to learn to absolutely depend on God and on His grace. Without the active operation of grace, worldly wisdom will become an alternative and we'll slip into insincerity. 

There is nothing God wants us to become or to have that He hasn't made provision for in His plan for our lives. If we have the promise, then His plan has covered it from the foundation of the world. We need not cut corners or become corrupt to achieve the things God has ordained. God created the whole world without iniquity, there's nothing He has promised us that will require us committing sin against Him to achieve. We don't need to steal to have what God has promised. This underscores the difference between Isaac and his son, Jacob and their different natures of struggles to gain God's promises. 

For every plan of God, there's is power and every resource already available to bring it to pass. God's omnipotence exists to bring God's will and plans to pass. The purpose of the power of God is to bring to pass the plan of God. Once we can be sure that God has a plan for our lives, we should also rest in the assurance that He has all the power and the resources needed to bring it to pass. If it is His will, and we are willing too, His power is always available to bring it to pass in His time. We don't need to become insincere or to become complex and difficult to understand in our bid to make God's will happen. 

If the vision is His, He will make it happen. He had enough provisions to bring His vision to pass. The same way He had made us available for the vision with adequate passion and equipment, same way He has made other things needed available to bring the vision to pass. 

1Corinthians 2:9-11 tells us of the plan of God for our lives in things God has prepared for us, and Ephesians 3:20 tells us of the power at work in us to bring to pass things beyond what we can ask or imagine. Jesus is clear about the fact that God won't start a project He already doesn't have enough to complete. 

Our faith in this phenomenon triggers the release of grace to make things happen towards the fulfillment of the promises of God for our lives. We need not become anxious and fearful. When we walk by faith in this phenomenon, we will fear no man, we will fear no force, either in the spirit realm or in the physical. We'll fear no rejection of men or depletion of resources. No threat will be strong enough to scare us, we know we have the backing of God. We won't walk in envy, if we know these things, we know what God has planned is beyond what anyone can compete against or we compete to get. We will have restful confidence, as we wait on God doing His will. 

Let no selfish ambition, fear of failure or personal insecurity push you out of simplicity and godly sincerity into worldly wisdom and into acts of hypocrisy and dishonesty. There's simplicity in Christ and in it there's abundance of grace to power us all into all that God has in store for us. 

Jesus Christ is Lord!