🌅MORNING Light
“Then Your Light Shall Breakforth As The Morning...” Isaiah 58:8
🎯 THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM
CHARISMA OR CHARACTER
🔎📖 JUDGES 14:1-7
🎯📖 Judges 14:3 “His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?”
As a Nazarite, Samson was a custodian of secrets that upheld his consecration. Unfortunately all was lost because he was waning in godly character, though he was thriving in charisma.
Since the Keys of the Kingdom are reserved in His secret place, it is God’s desire that we keep abiding in His presence without restrictions. However, One of the greatest threats to a life that consistently abides with God is often the emphasis on the charisma of the Saints at the expense of their character. Anyone truly seeking the keys of the kingdom will have to watch and groom character more than charisma.
👉🏽 RICH IN CHARISMA
Judges 14:6 “The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat.”
Samson was anointed by The Holy Spirit to exhibit super-human strength. He killed a lion with his bare hands, broke thick ropes like they were old threads, he killed a thousand men with the jaw bone of a donkey and he lifted the city gates plus its hinges, like it was nothing. The gifts of the Spirit make us manifest extraordinarily but they are often wrongly over rated to mean God’s full approval of a person’s spiritual life. Charisma is good, but without character moral crisis is inevitable and heaven cannot entrust the keys of the Kingdom to such a person.
👉🏽 POOR IN CHARACTER
Judges 14:8 “Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey.”
Though he was a Nazarite, Samson’s affairs with foreign women were known in Timnath, Gaza and the Valley of Sorek. As a Nazarite he was supposed to avoid touching any dead animal. Unfortunately he sought and harvested honey from a dead lion. Could a person being used by God still be living in sin? Jesus warns of those who do miracles in His name but he would say to them, “I don’t know you.” God is not bribed by our charismatic activities. Jesus said, “By their fruit you shall know them.” Is your charisma a cloak for your deficiency in character? True character will always show after the evaporation of superficial charisma. Let us desire to grow and increase in the character of Christ described by the fruit of the spirit. Character matters more than charisma.
Please meditate and pray with the hymn of Thomas Chisholm, O To Be Like Thee.
1. Oh! to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Refrain:
Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
2. Oh! to be like Thee, lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer, others to save.
3. Oh! to be like Thee, Lord, I am coming,
Now to receive th’ anointing divine;
All that I am and have I am bringing,
Lord, from this moment all shall be Thine.
4. Oh! to be like Thee, while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love,
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
🙏🏽PRAYER
Holy Father, I want to be like Christ and to bear His character in my life. Please stamp Your image in me and may I not grow in Charisma at the expense of your Character, in Jesus name. Amen.
Have a blessed Thursday & stay safe! 😷🙏🏽
BIBLE IN 1 YEAR: APRIL 18 2Sam 19-20
Bible in One Year Plan: SEPT 5 Ezekiel 15-20.
