Your Character is what Sustains you!

I am amazed sometimes at what happens when a person gets a title. It is easy for a title to allow you to get beside yourself. We have to remember that a title does not make you, but it can break you! We have to stay humble and not allow our flesh to be glorified! No flesh can glory in the presence of God. That is not my thoughts but that is the word of God!  "So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God."~1Corinthians1:29 At the end of this scripture in the Message version there is an awesome statement! "If you are going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God!" Let your character speak for you. Be reminded today that your character is what is going to sustain you!

Our gifts and our talents can take us far in life, but our character is what is going to sustain us! We have to be rooted and anchored in Christ. We have to know that God alone is our shield and our buckler! God is the one who lifts up our head. Our title is not going to get us into Heaven. The way we live, the way we did not live, what we did behind closed doors, and those secret thoughts are what is important! We have to be reminded that it is what we do when we don't think anybody is listening or watching that shapes our character. What we do when we think no one is watching is who we really are. We all can appear to have it all together. We all know just the right time to lift our hands. Many of us know just the right time to shout amen! Many of us have perfected the "deep and serious" sanctified look! The important question is how is our character? Will our character sustain us?

Too many times we want to be the mirror holder and we don't want to look in the mirror. We have to ask God to show us who we are in Him. When you know who you are, you also know who you are not! It is time to get our character right. It would be a shame to prophesy in the name of Jesus, to heal the sick, to see your brother or sister receive Christ, to see people delivered but to end up falling back yourself because your character and who you are in Christ did not sustain you! I heard an amazing story at a conference recently. There was a man who had a thriving ministry. He had many followers and one day he saw a picture of a mom holding her dead baby. The baby had died from starvation. The guy said, "There must not be a God, because if there was he would not have let this baby die." The more man elevated him the farther he got from God. He got to the point that he no longer had a relationship with God. He was seeing people be healed. He was seeing signs and wonders, but his character and who he knew God to be was not anchored in Christ. His character did not sustain him. What we know to be true shapes our character!

One of the definitions of character is moral or ethical strength. As followers of Christ we have to strive daily to live a life that is marked by these two traits. Be reminded that we are held accountable not just for what we say but also for what we do not say. We are accountable for what we do and for what we do not do. A lot of times we can be so focused on what we are not doing that we forget to do the things that God called us to do. When God places gifts inside of us, we are to use those gifts for His glory. When we do not use the gifts that God gave us for His glory, we choose to not walk in our purpose. When we choose to not walk in our purpose long enough, our character will start to be broken down. Everything will be about me, my, and mine instead of about the Kingdom.  Remember my friend that your character is what is going to sustain you!