“…For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:45

ONE OF THE interesting aspects I’ve observed during my stay here in America is the variety of personalised car registration plates. One that particularly caught my attention just a few weeks ago implied, ‘I’m highly favoured’, displayed proudly on a black Mercedes, had me pondering on how many Christians casually blurt out, “I’m blessed”. Although that may sound ‘positive’, oftentimes there is something very unsettling and eerily self-centred when you hear them vaunt about how they won the lottery, came into a large fortune, got that employment promotion, moved into a bigger house or finally obtained their Mercedes dream car. I’m not saying it’s wrong to enjoy good things of a qualitative nature, but there is something seriously wrong when a Christian flaunts such an image that resembles the world’s mentality. You will find nothing whatsoever of that mindset in the entire Scriptures. Some, in contention, may well want to raise figures like Jabez and Solomon as examples of prosperity. Find me one instance in the New Testament where people were blessed in such a way. The Old Testament demonstrates how God’s people were made to prosper in a physical sense; the New Testaments emphasis lies in the spiritual realm, the solidity of what was foreshadowed by the Law and the Prophets.

Neither am I disputing the fact of acknowledging that a child of God is favoured, so long as there is no competition where one thinks more highly of themselves than they ought to. Being favoured is not about how one excels another person. I believe that a truly highly favoured child of God is one that has no desire to raise him or herself above anyone else. In fact, it’s the very opposite; they esteem others more highly than themselves – an attitude you will never find in the world (maybe modesty but not humility, a total difference) and sadly, one that is hardly found in the church either.

One of the most deceptive and dangerous aspects in the Church today is the misled belief and security in the ‘signs’ of salvation and surrounding of God’s favour because of financial prosperity, an unusual amount of success or increased popularity. We live in a church age where the remnants of the health, wealth and prosperity gospel has been revamped, writhed its way into every denomination, poisoning the souls of many and has diluted the one and only true gospel of Jesus Christ. Such reliance on so-called ‘signs’ and the ‘evidence’ of salvation are the very delusions of Satan – twice deceived and made twice the son of hell. (Matthew 23:15). It would be better for one’s soul to know nothing of Christ than to profess a powerless and unregenerate faith only to face a more severe judgment of God. This is so contrary to the heart that is truly humble and leans on nothing else but Jesus Christ as their security:

‘My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.’ – Edward Mote

Both our hope in Jesus alone and bearing fruit in keeping with repentance are the true signs of heaven born faith; they are the evidence of such a profession that manifests a life on course with God’s ways.

How many love to quote Joshua 1:8-9; how many ‘obey’ God in order to be successful and prosperous, but excess success may lead us to spiritually digress. How many of us would still obey if no blessing was returned? If it’s the kingdoms of the world you want, it doesn’t take much effort to strike a bargain with the devil; just walk the ‘Christian’ path his way while omitting foul play and you’ll have all you want. God gave the children of Israel what they requested and in judgment sent leanness into their soul; it destroyed them. Many of us continually pine after what our eyes desire, clueless to how destructive they would be. Many of us need the heart of the psalmist who prayed, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in Your ways” (Psalm 119:37)

There are many in the church today who have plenty of gold and silver but hardly any who know Jesus Christ; “Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give unto you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!.” That is not to advocate healing as a sign of salvation (Matthew 7:21-23), but rather true godliness that is not void of power but a collective, redeemed race who know God and His ways, where His power settles on them through their weakness, opening the eyes of many to the realization of His kingdom.

Daniel Rowlands, on his first meeting, asked the great evangelist, George Whitefield, “Do you know your sins are forgiven?” Nothing else mattered in the lives of these saints and the likes than knowing the assurance of their salvation; it is what made their preaching so dynamic – that they were known of God and they knew Him; they knew His saving favour was upon them for eternity; they realized their eternal security, and they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they belonged to Him.

Never look to favourable circumstances as a guarantee that you belong to God; they are sometimes a token of God’s smile upon His children but ought never to be looked upon as a means for our spiritual security – never! Good things happen to the good and bad; the goodness and kindness of God falls on the just and unjust – known as the common grace of God. But there is the special grace of God where He bestows saving favour upon the undeserving, whereby “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). The Holy Spirit impressing upon us that we belong to God, that we are His possession ought to be the confirmation we long for. Do we have the desire to know that; does it matter to us and concern us if we possess no knowledge of it (not in theory or intellectually grasping doctrine), and are we content to go on in the Christian life without knowing this assurance? Is it not the Christian’s duty to know whether we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, Who is the guarantee of our inheritance, and Who has hallmarked us for the day of redemption? As Augustus Toplady rightly declared in his hymn, ‘A Debtor To Mercy Alone’:

My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on his heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace;
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.

“More happy, but not more secure” are the saints in heaven, but we (who remain here) can know that security that breathes a calmness into our soul; it is what gives a spring to our step, the conviction and authority of what we proclaim, and the assurance that no matter what takes place – ill or good – we know beyond knowing that we are eternally safe. There is every point in knowing the assurance of our salvation and the witness of the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. For a start, we are not miserable and defeated Christians for having it, but there comes as a result an overwhelming impression that indeed we are more than conquerors through Christ Who loves us.

Would we honestly be willing to live in poverty and obscurity, deny all the riches in the world, just to know and hear God whisper to our hearts, “I have redeemed you, I have chosen you, you are Mine”? Is there anything greater than this, and would we be prepared and more than content to live the remaining of our days here on earth with no other blessing but to realize our all is in Christ, Who calls us His own?

His for ever, only His;
Who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss
Christ can fill the loving heart!
Heaven and earth may fade and flee,
First-born light in gloom decline,
But while God and I shall be,
I am His and He is mine.

(Hymn – ‘Loved With Everlasting Love’ by George Wade Robinson)