Strength of Personality and Powers of the Spirit
Rev. Joseph R. Reid
In the beginning came England’s Pop Idol, followed by unless you’ve been living in a cave, American Idol, the dominant television hit of the past decade. Later we heard a senior hit wonder, Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent and the 62 million hits that a singing homeless Korean boy got on You Tube on the show Korea’s Got Talent. Another show by Simon Cowell, creator of American Idol, called X Factor has been on TV with a popular following. There has been a string of copycats, “Dancing with the Stars”, “The Voice” and even a Gospel Music idol, “Sunday’s Best.” We can’t seem to get our fill of wannabe talent to keep our hope of becoming a star alive or to just forget ourselves for a few minutes. The problem with all of this stargazing and “forgetfulness” is at the end of the day it does nothing for our soul salvation. Seeking and serving God is just the opposite of forgetting. To seek God we must find ourselves. And to find ourselves we must discover the limited strength of our personality and the power of the Spirit of God. Here are two weaknesses of the personality: One, its ability to fool others into thinking one thing while doing something else and two, the personality’s desire to always be on top.
Church has also become a forum for entertainment and the preachers filling the seats are the ones who look, sound and act like entertainers, as in “Sunday’s Best,” for preachers. Here is the real problem; if we don’t begin to take our soul salvation seriously we will miss the Kingdom of Heaven. There are ways we can avoid falling into the trap of seeking the entertainment value in everything, even our search for God. The Bible says, “But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” What was the prophetic meaning of the spectacular betrayal of Jesus by Judas? The coming for Jesus with swords and clubs was predicted; the betrayal of Jesus was also predicted. The Scriptures of the prophets refer to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. Judas took Jesus in secret and in a violent manner which was predicted in the Old Testament. Through it all Jesus remained meek, calm, and submissive. He did not blame Judas because he knew who Judas was and what he had to do. The Bible says, “Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.” Not only did they go away quickly, they went away and left him alone, as He foretold they would, (John 16:32 ). They literally ran from Him like nervous sheep knowing the shepherd was about to be killed; fearing they would suffer or be crucified on a cross, they scurried away. Why? First, they had developed the ability to fool others into thinking one thing while believing something else. The Disciples of Christ were not yet true Believers. They were personalities and followers, not Disciples. They had created a persona or mask that allowed them to be with Jesus but not to stand with Him in time of trouble. This was especially true of Judas. Judas taught us something about personality; we cannot depend on it to stand in the face of trying times. If we are to become Disciples of Christ we will need to move beyond our personality and uncover the presence of God that lies within us. When we truly discover God for ourselves, we will be ready to receive the powers of the Spirit.
Second, the disciples fled Christ because of their egos’ desire to remain on top. Ego is another word for personality. Judas had a huge ego. Judas was Jesus’ own disciple. He managed the money and was most trusted. He betrayed Jesus. Those 12 disciples of Jesus were very simple people, except for Judas. They were uneducated people, common people of the earth. You would not have recognized them anywhere in a crowd. Only Judas was not ordinary. He was polished, educated, cultured, and sophisticated: that’s what the ego is. Ego is nothing but a sophistication of what we love. Only love can betray, because to betray somebody, we have to come close to them. To hate somebody, we have to love them. Whenever we love somebody, a part of us goes on hating because love requires surrender, and our ego resists giving in to anyone or anything. Judas is nothing but a representation of the ego. There is a Judas in us all, the ego is the Judas. Judas has to be rooted out. Ego is nothing but the part which has become extraordinary in us and a barrier to receiving Christ. The ego will always betray Christ in service to our desires, wants and perceived needs. We tame the ego through prayer and meditation. We tame the ego through repentance and baptism. We tame the ego with humility and the powers of the Spirit.
Here is the deal, knowing how to get what we want is one of the greatest strengths of our personality. It is also our greatest weakness when what we want is in conflict with God’s will. A strong personality is needed for the affairs of this world but when it comes to spiritual matters our ego will flee and hide. It has no courage. We need the powers of the Holy Spirit to stand in the face of evil.
