…grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ. ~ John 1:17b NASB
While recently reading a news article about a political candidate, my attention was arrested by their statement: “This is what I have to do to play the game (ie., to get ahead politically), but it’s not who I am.”
Not only was the Prophet portion of my human spirit wildly waving its red flag, but so was Servant’s orange, Teacher’s yellow, Exhorter’s green, Giver’s blue, Ruler’s sapphire, and Mercy’s violet! Good thing that leading my internal parade of “wait just a minute…!” was the Spirit of Truth and Grace. The same Holy Spirit who took this once double-minded person and presided over The Big Divorce at God’s Throne of Grace.
For me, the Light from the Throne of Grace exposed me as I was before God’s holiness. The most fitting description was that I found myself standing in the inescapable power of a “Gestapo searchlight.” Mind you, I grew up watching Hogan’s Heroes, and I know well the feeling and phrase, “like a deer caught in the headlights.” Only this powerful light was not aimed at me by broken humanity. It was The Light with healing in its wings. No one else was present. It was truly an alone with God moment that changed the trajectory of my life course.
Double-Minded: The Big Divorce
To be a double-minded person begins with a divided heart. The Word is full of scriptures1 surrounding this major life issue; a majority of which are directed to those who have received salvation and call themselves Christians. To be sure, a divided heart is not a pleasant, restfully invigorating way to live this one life you’ve been given.
There are two sides to every spiritual divorce. One side represents the fact that a double-minded person has confusingly divorced their actions from who they think they are. They say or think one thing – and do another.2 The other represents surrendering our version of ourselves to God – in repentance, without excuses or resistance.
Surrendering Your Version of “you” to God’s “you”
During the years we served the Church in counseling and prayer ministry, we took note of a common theme. Frequently, we sat with ones who struggled mightily with, as my husband verbalized it, “their surrendering their view of themselves.” Despite their perceptions, they always arrived at one place: doubt coupled with mistrust of God.
While the politician’s self-statement above is a classic legitimacy lie, such ways of double-thinking lead to a character outcome no matter who you are. Try as we might to persuade, desiring God’s truth for others, when single-minded meets double-minded, the results are not in our hands. Unless they make a determined choice to place all of who they are in God’s hands, little progress is made in matters of the Divine nature.
We were witness to Scripture’s characterization of a double-minded person being ‘unstable and undecided in every step they take’.3 Feet wearing two shoes aimed in opposing directions will not follow Jesus with one heart. There is little peace (inner calmness of mind, quieting of soul, resting of spirit) for a straddler of faith fences.
Adam Clarke said of the double-minded: “The man (individual) of two souls, who has one for earth, and another for heaven; who wishes to secure both worlds; (they) will not give up earth, and (they) are loath to let heaven go. A man (person) of this character is continually distracted; they will neither let earth nor heaven go, and yet they can have but one.” Weightier than Adam Clarke’s commentary is Christ – Who was, is, and ever will be the Kingdom’s single Mind.
James 1:2-8 (J.B. Phillips)
“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers (and sisters), don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become (people) of mature character with the right sort of independence.
And if, in the process, any of you does not know how to meet any particular problem, you have only to ask God—who gives generously to all men (people) without making them feel foolish or guilty—and you may be quite sure that the necessary wisdom will be given to you.
But you must ask in sincere faith without secret doubts as to whether you really want God’s help or not. The one who trusts God, but with inward reservations, is like a wave of the sea, carried forward by the wind one moment and driven back the next. That sort of individual cannot hope to receive anything from God, and the life of a person of divided loyalty (double-minded) will reveal instability at every turn.” ~
(ncb italics and parentheses – to denote all people, and personalized for emphasis)
~ Gracefully Free
Hogan’s Heroes – US TV sitcom 1965-71 – “The inmates of a German World War II prisoner of war camp conduct an espionage and sabotage campaign right under the noses of their warders.” More than a little interesting trivia is that the actors who played the four major characters were Jewish. Three had fled the Nazis in WWII, the other was an American Jew. Considered in the light of spiritual warfare, the Army of God bound in operation to the Wisdom of God, disarms the enemy.
1 Prayers for an undivided heart: Psalm 86:11; Psalm 51, esp. verses 10 & 17; Hosea 10:2 KJV – Israel as a nation and applicable to God’s church
2 Romans 7:7-25 – (21-25a ff) So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! – (Paul experientially speaking)
3 James 1:8
Photo Credit: Pexels-Pixabay-33783 │ ©2024 Nancy C. Bentz
Related reading if you’re feeling expoundy:
When the Grace Has Lifted Fine Lines: Point the Way vs In the Way Category: “Dear Christian”
Her Perfect Work – “Patience” in honest poetry, have a box of Kleenex handy – to throw or to wipe your eyes
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