Do you want to be anointed or entertained?
My dad recently sent me a text meant as a compliment, but honestly... it was a total gut punch; it read: I saw this quote and thought of you, "One hour with God infinitely exceeds all the pleasures and delights of the lower world." Love, Dad.
While, my dad is right, I wholeheartedly love my time with the Lord, my conduct has not always mirrored the reality of these words. Have you ever had delights of this lower world pull you down? Sometimes, my attention can get wrapped up in things that edified my flesh, not my spirit, things like media, negative conversations, and bursts of rage (mostly on I35). My Dad's text gently reminded me to be purposeful with what I choose to watch, listen to, and speak.
We all have excuses for the things we run to, and some of them are not even bad in and of themselves, but they will not grow us. Let me be the first, to be honest, this year really knocked the wind out of me as I faced some things physically that left me with debilitating exhaustion. I had days I couldn't muster up the energy to get up. However, some habits continued beyond my recovery. Not every day was squandered, but admittedly, I wasted hours binging media as I aimlessly tried to find my footing again. One day, while lying on my bed, I heard the Lord say to me, “Celeste, Do you want to be entertained, or do you want to be anointed?”
Ouch. My flesh wanted to be taken to an alternate reality to escape my situation, but my spirit wanted to go deeper. My prayer from the beginning of this journey to health was to walk in a double anointing. I wanted God encounters, prophetic words, and divine provision, but when push came to shove, I was leaning into what was natural instead of the supernatural.
On top of my Dad’s text and the Lord’s correction, I began to study Romans 13. When I read Paul’s words, verse 14 was like it was written just for me. “Celeste, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for your flesh, to gratify its desires.” Sometimes, you read the Bible, and other times it reads you!
Ugh! I didn’t realize I had been making provisions for my flesh while leaving my spirit out to dry. It’s way too easy to spend time being entertained than being edified. In fact, it's almost effortless. It’s no surprise that with our culture of instant gratification and collapsing attention spans, we have to intentionally work to focus on things that matter to God. We have to delete distractions to make room for the divine.
That is exactly what I did. I pulled out my phone and deleted apps. I'm going somewhere, and time stealing, pointless apps were slowing down progress. Without the constant tug, notifications, and accessibility, I could read more, write more, pray more, and have time to meditate instead of allowing my mind to turn to mush.
I don’t know what provision you might be making right now, but Paul gets all up in our business in Romans 13 about our conduct aligning with the spirit of God and not our fleshly desires. He tells us to pay our taxes, which means to avoid gratifying our flesh, we can’t make plans to evade our taxes. Paul writes, “Feed your enemy if he is hungry.” not give your husband the silent treatment instead of making him dinner (sometimes it can feel like you’re sleeping with the enemy-just flesh talking here!). He says, “Bless those who curse you,” not tell your side of the story on Facebook. He says, “Let no debt remain outstanding.” even if your student loan was a waste of money because you didn’t use your degree. He says, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.” Ok, Paul, but you are not living in 2024, right before a crazy election cycle!
Make NO provisions for your flesh. Don’t give yourself permission to indulge in behavior that is repulsive to heaven and delays your destiny. INSTEAD, make provisions for eternity by, as Paul says, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t put on copious amounts of news, Netflix, or social media. DELETE. DELETE. DELETE. Clothe yourself with God’s word, and his ways, and become his likeness. Forget about being entertained, be anointed and appointed for such a time as this!
