By becoming the "Incredible Shrinking Man" one unleashes the power of God in one's life.
The goal of the Holiness pilgrim is to become a perfect reflection of God's plan for his or her life. Anything less puts the pilgrim in the mode of "vanity, vanity, all is vanity" written about so eloquently by the wisest man on the planet, king Solomon, whose wisdom was a reflection of insights given him directly by God himself.
Jesus, our supreme example of how we are to live our lives, further enunciated how this central truth should work in our lives via explaining how it worked in his own life: John 5:19: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." John 5:30-31: "By myself I can do nothing. I judge only as I hear (from the Father), and my judgment is just because I seek not to please myself, but to please him who sent me. If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another (my heavenly Father) who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid." John 6:37: "All those that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." John 6:38-40: "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, and that I shall raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:44-45: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me." John 14:7-14: Jesus, speaking to his disciples said, "If you really knew me you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know the Father and have seen him." Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered, "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say 'Show us the Father?' Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing the work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe in the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."
The Holiness pilgrim should follow the example of John the Baptist who said, "I must decrease and he (Jesus) must increase."
From the Holiness perspective of the mature Christian pilgrim, godless people are singularly unattractive because they think they are "something" when they are "nothing." If one abides outside of Christ, one thinks one is "something" when one is actually "nothing" on one's way to worse than "nowhere" because one is then on one's way to the Gehenna garbage dump to be discarded with the rest of the refuse. Conversely, to the mature Christian, one who manifests a humble spirit is most attractive, because a humble spirit denotes the potential of becoming "as a little child" vis-a-vis the Father and, therefore, denotes the potential of communing with God and of receiving God's goodness into one's life.
We are taught that universal generalizations are false, but there is one universal generalization that is most emphatically true: "All successful people of a worldly orientation are obnoxiously immature because they wreak of arrogance." And immature people, both "worldly" and some who are of the Christian faith, have a bad habit of getting excited, angry and agitated because they mistakenly think they are "something" when in fact they are "nothing" because only God is "something." Psalm 103:15-16: "As for man, his days are as the grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more."
Jesus taught the rich young ruler this lesson when Jesus asked him, "Why do you call me good? None are good but the Father in Heaven." Only pride and arrogance justify thinking that we are good enough (or enough like God) to get upset or worried about anything. We are not in charge, God is. As long as men think they are in charge, they will continue to butt their heads against stone walls, and they will continue to meat-cleaver themselves into human wrecks. All this because they do not understand what the world is all about: In the real world God is in charge, not us.
In John 14:16-17 Jesus says, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you will know him, for he will live with you and will be in you." And Romans 8:14 says, "Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God." In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus warns us saying, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"
The bottom line is found in Galatians 6:3: "If anyone thinks he is 'something' when he is 'nothing,' he deceives himself."
Isaiah 14:12: "O Lucifer, son of the morning! How thou art cut down to the ground." For you, Lucifer, (King of arrogance and vanity), hath said in your heart, "I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most High God."
But thus sayeth the one who is really in charge, our most High God, "Yet (despite your bragging) thou shalt be brought down into hell, to the sides of the pit." And humiliation will be your inheritance throughout eternity: "They that see you in hell will narrowly look upon thee, and they will consider thee saying, 'Is this the man (O, that great man) that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, and the one who would not free his prisoners or have mercy on anyone?'"
Therefore, the Holiness pilgrim, having plied the Holy Scriptures with diligence, and thereby having clearly identified what is good and what is evil, and having separated himself from the "world," the "flesh," and the "devil," starts by beginning and ending each day with God, i. e., beginning and ending each day in communion with God via the Spirit of Christ, in oneness with him, just as Jesus' example demonstrates, and then working toward a continual, ongoing relationship that will carry the Holiness pilgrim to the heights of ecstasy and "joy unspeakable and full of glory." Then the Holiness pilgrim will be able to clearly see the hand of God working in his spirit day by day to lead him to his ultimate destiny in Christ, namely, God's perfect plan for his life. Then it can be said of him with joy, "You have arrived! You are fulfilled! You are one with God."
William A. Gabel, Jr., P. O. Box 184, Wabash, IN 46992
E Mail Address: WilliamGabel@Comcast.net
Website: CyclesResearch.org