SMALL

Personal Matters

Having just returned from interstate where I was surprisingly confronted with issues to do with sin, plus the church’s failure to testify to Jesus, I was feeling even more “overpeopled” than normal. Feeling crushed, re-traumatised (again!) and very fragile I was seeking the Lord for an exact word about what I was experiencing right then and what had beleaguered me so much over the years. This insight did not come easily, but when it did come it made sense of many of my past mistakes. It was a revelation linked to early life issues but one few observers would attribute to my personal mind-set; the exact word was “SMALL”. Whenever I see myself as SMALL I am invariably traumatised by the weighty issues of sin, righteousness and judgement which I am called to deal with again and again (John 16:8). How we perceive the SMALLness of our lives and the greatness of God is critical to the renewal of the Church.

Small Men Act Big

That small people act big is no great secret; Hitler, Napoleon and Alexander the Great were all undersized males who worked to put their stamp on the world. Such a perception problem didn’t start there. The first king of Israel fell from grace through fear of man because, as Samuel pronounced, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.” (1 Sam 15:17). On the swing side the Lord warned Baruch, ““do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not,”” (Jer 45:5). In hindsight I can see as a SMALL minded person I have at times been pathologically attracted to some large personalities in Christian leadership; unsurprisingly those relationships did not end well. These days, with so much narcissism around us in Church and culture, I am more likely to react in a fleshly way against loud egoistical brethren. Yet many believers continue to be attracted by men and women with a big presence and even bigger “vision” about building a megachurch. The stage microphone and its lights irresistibly attract all those who at an unconscious level think of themselves as SMALL. Many of us are like the little lizard that by puffing its lungs can swell up to three times normal size making itself look too big for predators to swallow. But if the snake just took one bite the whole ruse would be punctured! To my regret I can remember many past occasions when I have upsized my personal presence through sounding intellectual, being angry, intense or letting it be known who I know. Sadly this tended to make people feel small and often bred fear; e.g. amongst my theology students.

Speak Great Things

Revelation describes how in the end-times the beast is allowed to speak “great things” against the purposes of God (Rev 13:5). Today we are hearing the spirit of antichrist speaking such “great things” through terrorist groups like ISIS, and millions are listening. It should not surprise us that young people across the Western world are intoxicated by these demonic voices when our culture endlessly tells them that there is nothing bigger than themselves. For Christians our total sense of the size and significance of our ego must come from Christ. Instead of my ego consciousness being filled with a sense of my SMALLness (or greatness) I need to ask God’s Spirit to reveal that in Christ I am a part of a Church which is “the fullness of him who fills all things in every way” so that “all things are yours” (1 Cor 3:22-23; Eph 1:23). Only when the Church begins to speak of the great things of God in all their true enormity can there be any significant spiritual shift in Australia (Acts 2:11). Are we asking for the revelation of such “great and hidden things” (Jer 33:3)? Yet such things require an abiding insight that I and so many other sincere believers have been lacking.

The Heart of the Father

Jesus descended from heaven becoming on the scale of eternity so small as to “make himself nothing” (Phil 2:7). Then in his hour of dereliction on the cross he took on the status of “a worm and not a man” (Ps 22:1, 6; Mark 15:34). This was his experience for us of just how tiny sinful men and women are before God. The Father however did not remain passive; in resurrection and ascension the Father swooped down and lifted his Son back into his heart in heaven. These great acts of God are ours in Christ. Through the sacrificial victory of Jesus the Father has swooped down on us and lifted us up into his heart in heaven (John 1:18; Eph 1:3; 2:6). As I was out praying about these things this morning I could sense in my spirit just how blessed the Father felt to have me as his child. To abide in this precious awareness is to abolish all self-centred SMALLness (1 John 4:15). Instead of self perceptions of the size of our own wisdom, knowledge, fame, influence, giftedness, achievement, anger, sadness…. we can sense in each and every circumstance all that we are and all that we have belongs to our Father (James 1:16-17). This is the true testimony of Jesus and the remedy for the many sins of our day (John 14:9).

Conclusion

At a time of deep spiritual darkness combined with religious self-confidence the prophet Amos was shown a series of impending judgements which caused him to repeatedly cry out in anguish, ““O Lord God, please cease! How can Israel survive? He is so small!”” (Am 7:2, 5). We likewise live in a day when so much of the Church is deeply confused about its true spiritual status. Whether we think we are SMALL or great it is Jesus and Jesus alone who can save us! I think it would be fitting if we could join together and make the words of this marvellous God-centred hymn our own;

1. Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
   Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;
   Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
   Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
2. Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
   I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
   Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
   Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
3. Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
   Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
   Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tow’r:
   Raise Thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.
4. Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
   Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
   Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
   High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
5. High King of Heaven, my victory won,
   May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heav’n’s Sun!
   Heart of my own heart, whate’er befall,
   Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.