Does "Personality" Determine "Conviction" ?

10/6/2014

Does “personality” determine “conviction” and “passion” and “love” -- or is it True Repentance to what is REAL, and Conversion into the New Covenant Twice-Born DNA?

Hello Friends :)

I had a nice 7 hour car ride yesterday and during the course of the ride, a couple of topics came up that prompted me to try to formulate into words some things I’ve been Learning from very practical, personal experiences and thoughts that had been stirring in me. I was REALLY grateful to sort of be “cornered” into needing to explain a couple things that I had been mulling over and experiencing. Since this is all fresh on my mind, I’d love to share with you some of this and am grateful God had the grace to let me have some Clarity and gave me the privilege to be able to share some of these truths with you as I am NOT an articulate person and am very abstract in my head. ;) Gotta love them artists. :)

There were pretty much two separate, yet related, topics and some of it was building on another conversation a few weeks earlier. The question that started it was basically, “Are some people more prone to, from their personality, have the attitude of ‘this one thing I do’ or ‘going out to get it?’ There are some people who just seem to care and go out and get what they want, but I see others and they just don’t seem like those types of people.” And earlier this person had been asking about another person giving their life to God and that they (the other person) were getting all tripped up about if they were “really ready” and all this other stuff.

What it has seemed like to me, is that most things become Clear and Real when we have a Reality Check. Sounds obvious. And it is. Once someone sees the REALITY that “Jesus IS Lord” and “You are the Christ, the Son of the LIVING God,” that is when they get themselves “In Line,” if you will. Those Facts have always been there and have always existed-- they *ARE*-- but someone needs to turn around and actually SEE and KNOW the Reality of it and then they can live and function in such a Reality. Things fall in place. Dealing with sin, confessing one to another, following Jesus no matter what, loving the Household of Believers, laying down the desires of the flesh... all these things fall into place and are the logical outcome of the Fact that “Jesus is Lord” and “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

For a 3D example, think of the earthly reality, “Gravity holds me down.” Is someone really going to sit in a corner and try to decide if gravity is really holding them down? Or if they deserve to have gravity holding them down? Or if gravity deserves to be holding THEM down? Or if they really WANT gravity to hold them down (“let me think of the pros and cons and then decide”)? Or “Am I ready for gravity to hold me down?” And “What if I decide to not let gravity hold me down later... am I really committed?” Or “After all, ‘down’ is relative. So is gravity REALLY holding me down? Relative to other planets in the solar system, which way IS ‘down?’” Or “Scientists in 6,000 years are still unable to explain gravity and what it even IS. So how can someone believe in what they don’t understand and can’t control?” etc. etc. When you see that you ARE in a world of gravity and that gravity DOES HOLD YOU DOWN, then you function in life and you Live in that Reality... of course! You can simply and naturally walk, run and play with the children because these things fall in line with the REALITY that “gravity holds me down.”

The other topic of “Are some people a little more likely, because of personality, to ‘go out and get it’ or ‘this one thing i do?’” Well, maybe, a little bit yes, but I think in most cases, when someone has had a Reality Check of what’s Real and also something is Important in their lives (that they maybe never even had before) THAT is what nurtures and drives the “this one thing I do.” (note: If you read 1 Thessalonians:1 Paul is writing to a WHOLE Church. Clearly, all these people wouldn’t have all been “prone to” this passion and purpose “because of personality!” It was “CHRIST - the Anointed One - IN them, the Hope of Glory” and “Rivers of Alive Water gushing from ALL WHO BELIEVE” just as Jesus Promised!)

The Tiger Woods example is one that is well known, but this golfer admitted to loving fast food, french fries and junk food. THAT is what he was prone to be like. But something CHANGED in his life and became important in his life and he made his decision of “this one thing I do” and changed his life accordingly for a time. Even unbelievers who have a PURPOSE change their personalities and habits to serve a greater purpose. How much MORE SO when Jesus Lives inside a person, for REAL.

The same thing with a man who has become a father. All of a sudden, his priorities change and it’s not about him and being about to hang out with buddies and have fun (unless he is a very bad “father”), but all of a sudden, there is something and someone important in his life and he will NOT let his child go to bed hungry and he will NOT let them have to sleep on a hard floor. “This one thing I do.” And he lays all other things aside for the well-being of his little boy or little girl. He CARES about something now. As stated earlier, it could be some people tend towards that a little more than others, but I really think, more often than not, it’s a Vision of what is ALREADY going on and is ALREADY Real and that there is something important in our lives we CARE about that nurtures and drives us to “go out and get it” and “this one thing I do.”

I’ve had a really good example of this realization with myself recently. I have always needed Wisdom and Creativity and Help and Jesus’ Presence my whole life. But recently, my circumstances changed and I had a Reality Check (more to come, for sure) and now that I see more Reality, I crave and desire Wisdom and Creativity and Help and God’s Presence in my life SO ridiculously intensely and I see my need and my inabilities painfully more clearly. But I’ve always needed the same amount of all these things. It’s not that I need more now than I ever did and all of a sudden I “have a need.” I just am seeing a little more and a little more of reality and caring a little more and a little more... so the Truth that has always been there is coming out.

God’s ways are so Simple and so True. He really has made it simple for us, so let’s look to Him and ask and beg Him to open our eyes as He did for Elisha’s servant (2Kings 6:17). Then, we can see what has always been there and see what is REAL. We can have His Vision and, with our eyes set like flint, walk straight towards Jerusalem and love and live and breathe and rise up and sit down and walk along the way with, This One Thing I Do etched on our hearts and foreheads as His Priests.

—priscilla