How to be "Not of this World".

John15:18-27 “If the world hates you, then become aware that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. But they will persecute you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But they no longer have any excuse for their sin. The one who hates me hates my Father too. If I had not performed miraculous works among them that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen the miracles and have hated both me and my Father. Now this happened to fulfil the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’ When the Helper comes, whom I will send you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me, and you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

JESUS was good at cutting across worldly patterns of life and understanding. He was not consciously non-conformist, He was naturally so because he got all his motivation and ideas from his Father in Heaven.

There is a temptation to excuse ourselves from the idea of being “not of this world” by telling ourselves “that worked better for Jesus because he was in close contact with His father.” We however are in close contact with all the expectations and customs of this human society. There comes a time when you realize that nothing good comes from that line of thinking because the world’s way of doing life does not work. Look around and tell me “it aint so!” and I will tell you that you are not seeing the damaged lives.

Yes we know that we will be hated and persecuted if we really do begin to function as Jesus did but that is incidental because if we do, life will really work and we will become effective in the kingdom. The big question then is how do we live and function in a way that is not of this world?

Do we get more intensely involved with our beliefs and attend every meeting, make a practice of “sharing” our perspective of the gospel with everyone we meet and pray publically or privately at every opportunity? You will be viewed as “not of this world” all right and everyone will think of you as a sanctimonious bore! This NOT what Jesus was talking about but you cannot convince some.

In fact when we do stuff that seems good and right because we think we should, we are no different from the practitioners of any of this world’s religions. Jesus had a better idea: he said “when the Helper comes...” The Holy Spirit is the only means and method of living and functioning to be truly “not of this world.” Religion in and of itself is a complete waste of your life. All the human driven church movements down through the centuries of the NT age are complete flops. They all apostatise and liberalise. No system of churches or belief has endured except through its own tradition, history and momentum.

Now down through history within all those various movements and in pockets around the planet, there have been wonderful glowing lights of the Holy spirits power.

The terrible corruption that emerges when human institutions reach “critical mass” (Like fukushima) has spurred on the growth of a Holy Spirit motivated church.  (Critical Mass (my definition, not nuclear!) is defined as that point when any institution becomes more of a problem than it was designed to serve.) E.g. Education, hospitals etc.  Many large evangelical churches are at this point.

Does this mean we need to be anarchists and have nothing to do with human institutions? No! They are the way humanity functions and we can lightly hold and utilise them: We are “In the human society but not of them” John 17 cp vs 16.

John 17:13-22 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 

Our survival as believers is dependent upon drawing our life and power from the Holy Spirit. There is no tradition that correctly defines how we live and operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. Forget the Pentecostals or Charismatics, they were just passing human institutions and customs and will probably soon corrupt. The fact is we just do what live groups of believers have been doing since the day of Pentecost! The timeless Word of God explains how we do it and we need to take it very seriously for our survival.

John 14:15-17: “If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^] in you. 

One of the great keys is the prophetic anointing which allows the Holy Spirit to speak into our lives and fellowship. We can invite him to break into our culture and minister to us in a way that keeps us on track.