Divided hearts divide the Kingdom
"I want to give God everything He wants from me."(me worshipping God because I love Him)
OR
"I want God to give me everything I want." (God worshipping me in exchange for my "love")
Within these two motivations you will find the separation of the wheat and the tares. But this same war is being waged inside of ourselves where these two motives are at times in a heated battle.
So my prayer today as it was with King David is;
"Search me, O God, and know my heart;Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me,And lead me in the way everlasting."
~Psalm 139:23-24~
I also need to look at my own heart, mind, and will and see if I am in alignment with God's desires and not my own even if what I am doing is "for God." Which was Paul's word to the Corinthians before his third trip to their Church.
Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified.
~ 2 Corinthians 13:5
The heart of man without God is desperately wicked, we know that because of what the Prophet Jeremiah said about it:
“The heart is more deceitful than all elseAnd is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
~Jeremiah 17:9~
The heart and its desires(will) wage war against God and His desires or will. And no where can you this better than in Matthew chapter seven where Jesus reveals that during judgement day many people who believed themselves to be Christians will be sent straight to hell. In fact many of them (the Bible says "many")
will try to make a case for themselves on the things they perceived as a sure sign that they were Gods own servants. But you will notice that the first reason Jesus sends these people to hell (yes He sends them there) is because they did not do "the will of His Father."
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
~Matthew 7:21-23~
It didn't matter that they did all the right things what mattered is that they obeyed God, walked in His Will, and used the gifts He gave them to further the Kingdom of God and not their own. Our Kingdom is found with Him if we truly are His and our inheritance is not found here.
This is the point where, again, "many" will cry, "balance, it's all about balance." As if there is some wise form of moderation in our complete, total, and uncompromising devotion to God. I'm not saying we are perfect, that won't happen until Jesus returns. But I am saying the goal is always God first in everything and let Him meet my needs according to His will not mine. As Jesus said:
"Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
~Matthew 6:31-33~
There is nothing wrong with asking God to meet your needs or bringing your hearts desires before the Lord. However that is light years different than making God your sugar daddy in the sky whos job is to bless you, make you happy, and ultimately He becomes our servant instead of us being His.
But we seek first the Kingdom of God which is a bit different than saying "seek God first." Anyone instructed to "seek God first" might mistakenly believe that you seek God first for the intended purpose of Him blessing you and giving you what you want in this life. But by saying "seek first the Kingdom of God," it is clear that we are seeking the interests, desires, and goals of another Kingdom and therefore the King of that Kingdom. We are also instructed to seek first His righteousness, not our righteousness(we don't have much). And then He promises that if we seek Him first He will take care of us until He returns, I dont see any promises for wealth, power, or greatness, but rather all the things listed here are 'needs'.
There is an unsaid spiritual war going on in the Church right now and a lot of corruption and Leaders have been exposed which needed to happen before the Bride of Christ (His True Church) would rise up. God is dealing with the corruption at its root, and the root began with evil desires and evil people finding ways to make it look like God was the one backing those desires.
But before the Church of the end times is up and running full speed I would suggest that we each one of us look at the root of our own hearts desires and call on God Himself to see if He can find any evil way in us, anything not is not right before Him.
Because anything that has a root in anyone of us will spring up to become something that will separate us from the will and way of the Lord, and even worse, by our teaching we might lead many more astray. This is something that will be disastrous during the biggest war against the Church during the end times which is why when Jesus talked about the end times He continually warned us against the increase of false prophets.
I think as I pray in agreement with King David that God would search my heart to see if there is any wicked way in me, and to lead me in the way of the everlasting(Kingdom of Heaven), I will also again pray in agreement with King David by praying:
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me."
~Psalm 51:10-11~
God never changes, not even a little because He is perfect, but if we want to follow Him we have to be changed and allow ourselves to be changed the way He wants to be. We are to be conformed into His image, we are to never, ever to attempt to get God to conform to our image. And that will be the dividing line at the root level of the Church in these last days and end times.
Daniel Paul