STUCK ON LUKEWARM
Friday, August 8, 2025
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STUCK ON LUKEWARM
In a time of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh and great worldwide prayer for revival why do many of Jesus' followers appear to remain lukewarm?
Since the days the apostles proclaimed God's grace and restoration (made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus) millions of lives have been transformed by their message. Many became so enthralled with this great reality of God's love that they devoted their lives to following Yeshua and spreading His life-changing message of reconciliation.
How is it in the light of this awesome redemption that so much of the Body of Christ seems to be STUCK ON LUKEWARM? Why do many Christians lose their enthusiasm for the Good news of redemption and the gift of His Spirit to slip back into lives of conformity to the world around them?
There Is Much More
Paul addresses this issue in Romans Chapter 5 where he uses the phrase "much more" several times indicating that there is even more to the Christian life than forgiveness and restoration to God's favor. "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, MUCH MORE, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5.10)
If we are already reconciled to God by the death of Jesus how can there be "much more?" While the death of Jesus saves us from sin's penalty, it is the life of His Spirit coming into us that saves us from sin's power. However, being FILLED and YIELDING to the life the Spirit are not automatic; they require our co-operation. We do not turn back to self-righteous effort, but we deliberately RECEIVE the life of the Holy Spirit and consciously YIELD to it.
Receiving & Yielding
"And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." (Romans 5.13-14)
Our part is not to go into self-effort but to deliberately come under the dominion of God's Spirit and YIELD TO HIS LIFE. Law (not just the Law of Moses but every other kind of law) because it is based on self-effort cannot liberate us from sin's dominion. It is only by coming under the rule and control of God's Spirit that we experience liberation from sin's dominion and the power of the flesh. Religious self-effort cannot liberate us - only the indwelling Spirit of God.
As we come under the control of the indwelling Holy Spirit we begin to experience the abundant life that Jesus promised. It's not a matter of EFFORT but of simply RECEIVING and steadily YIELDING to the life of God's Spirit. In this way we overcome the flesh - that is the habitual selfish ways of the old life. When believers neither know nor practice this they remain "stuck in lukewarm." Jesus never intended for us to be stuck like this. He envisioned a body of people rising from the ashes of their sin, filled with and controlled by His resurrection life, serving as vibrant witnesses to His message and reality.
Choosing To Be His Follower
The second way we become "stuck in lukewarm" is when our lives are controlled by the values and measurements of our surrounding culture. We can be liberated from this by this by CHOOSING to become followers of Jesus instead of followers of the world. When we lay hold of His calling on our lives we truly become His disciples. This is not automatic - it is a choice. God will not force His calling on us - He INVITES us to become part of His plan. When we accept His invitation to make ourselves available to Him we become His agents of love and shining lights. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans12.1-2)
By presenting ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit, yielding to His life and seeking the agenda of our heavenly Father we escape being stuck in lukewarm and become alive to God. "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6.11)
This generation should not be robbed of the challenge and adventure of total surrender to Jesus. When we show people how they can escape not only the guilt and penalty of sin, but also the control of the world and the flesh, they can experience the fullness of the life Jesus came to bring us. They will NO LONGER BE STUCK IN LUKEWARM but will become His enthusiastic, sold-out followers under the dominion of HIS GRACE!
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WHAT OTHERS SAY
Spiritual Bondage
What a terrible thing it is to be in bondage! Yet how many of us are. In bondage to tradition, in bondage to each other, in bondage to human opinion, in bondage to forms and customs.
We forget that there's a wide gulf between the form of worship and the spirit of worship. There is a lot of difference between the man who "says his prayers" and the man who really prays! The day has passed when we can find God in the performance of ritual. Perhaps they did it in the olden days, but those were the days of the SHADOW and not of the SUBSTANCE.
- C.S. Price - 'Made Alive" page 97
Trying To Get What We Already Have
It seems as though we Christians have developed a nasty habit of leading people into a radical encounter with God's unconditional love, forgiveness, acceptance and union only to spend the ensuing years teaching them how to become close to God to earn his approval. In this way we unwittingly deny their existing union with and in Christ. Perhaps we're trying to talk them out of their experience of first love because we no longer experience it ourselves. - Ted Dekker "The Forgotten Way" p. 37
Loving Jesus Enough To Follow Him
We have reached the time when nothing short of FIRSTHAND CONTACT WITH THE LEADER and immediate guidance by Him will suffice. It never would, but it is more apparent now. The disciple of a disciple has always been pale and anemic in comparison with the immediate disciple of Christ. ..... True discipleship starts in believing and loving Jesus well enough to leave all and follow Him. All the rest of the equipment follows if you continue to follow. - Rufus Moseley "A Heavenly View" Compiled by Wayne McClain
God Comes In The Clouds
"The clouds are the dust of his feet." (Nahum1.3)
What a revelation to know that sorrow, bereavement and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God. - Oswald Chambers "My Utmost For Is Highest" .
Last Year's Words
"For last year's words belong to last year’s language.
and next year's words await another voice
and to make an end is to make a beginning." -TS Eliot
