WHAT MUST WE DO FOR GOD TO REWARD US?

By: Norm Rasmussen

What must we do for God to reward us, and reveal His reality to those who are searching for it? Most everyone wants to know if God is real. God made us that way. Yet if God made us that way, why does it seem so hard to stay excited about God at times?

God makes three insightful statements of fact in this following portion of New Testament scripture that might help someone reading this:

(1) "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, (2) for he who comes to God must believe that He is, (3) and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

1) God desires that we desire to please Him.

2) God says here that in our desire to want to please Him, it cannot be obtained until we walk down the solitary road of faith. Does that mean all other roads lead to a dead end in trying to please God? No. We can say, “Without obedience it is impossible to please Him as well.” And yet, God is making a strong point in the above scripture that He doesn’t want us to miss. What he wants us to ask ourselves is: “Faith in what?” The answer is: Faith in the totally completed, finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

3) God says that in our pursuits to please Him, we will do well to start out with the premise or belief that He wants to reward us. Not “maybe” reward us, but will reward us, somehow, someway, someday.

When God said, “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17) – what He wants us to realize is that until we confess Jesus as OUR Lord and Savior, we will never be “just” or justified in God’s sight. What does “justified” mean to God? Just-as-if-I-never-sinned. Let’s explain further in case you’ve never heard this.

Jesus Christ took your sin on the cross and gave you His obedience. Or saying it another way - Jesus Christ took your unrighteousness (sinful nature; disobedience) on the cross and gave you His righteousness. Jesus Christ took your unholiness on the cross and gave you His holiness. Jesus Christ took your punishment on the cross and gave you his peace over fear of ever being punished for your sins on the Judgment Day. (Jesus Christ took other things that were ungodly from us and replaced them with His godly things, but I won’t address those here in this setting, because it can get us easily sidetracked from the most important point God wants us to understand in this particular writing).

God wants us to know that when we put our trust in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, He wants us believing that when He looks at us, all He sees is Christ in us and doesn’t see our ungodly, sinful nature at all. (Read: Romans 6:1-7 for evidence). He wants us believing that He sees us as though we have never sinned, or ever will sin in the future (even though we do sin, and will sin, though hopefully less and less. The remainder of Romans addresses these issues). This is the kind of faith he wants us practicing and living by. Not faith in faith, or faith in any other thing other than faith that you and I are totally acceptable to God because of what was accomplished for you and I on the cross when we put our trust in Christ.

Experience from numerous other born again Christians, including myself, reveals that we can be agnostics, atheists, doubters, skeptics, cynics … (what have I missed?) … yet God has been known to show up and blow past every barrier we have standing between our spiritual darkness and his incredible spiritual light whenever we get miserable enough to cry out to Him for help for our anguished soul. Why does He wait so long to make known His reality to us, many of us have asked ourselves?

I believe it comes down to an “obedience issue.” I really don’t think God is all that concerned about whether people believe He’s real or not. In fact, I think God hides His visible reality most of the time from the human race on purpose! He does this to see who will “eagerly” seek Him – not “casually” seek Him.

God is searching for eager disciples, not casual disciples. Eager disciples will pay any price they have to pay in the obedience arena to know that God is pleased with them. Casual disciples will not. Casual disciples will stand at a great distance while eager disciples will get in the ring with the devil in prayer and go round after round with Him in the dirt and the grime and the slime over lost souls and sin issues and strongholds in our life and in the lives of others.

Eager disciples simply refuse to quit when God gives them an assignment. Casual disciples are content to exit an assignment from God when the going gets the least little bit rough, or disappointing or discouraging.

Eager disciples are careful what they believe about God’s Word (Holy Scripture – The Bible) before forming solid beliefs of what God’s Word is trying to communicate. Casual disciples will believe whatever is convenient – whatever their peers teach them – whatever promises the path of least resistance and pain and the quickest most earthly gain.

Eager disciples hunger to be used of God to win others to Jesus Christ. They use their time, their finances, their talents/giftings, their testimonies, prayers, witnessing … everything they have - to share with everyone who will listen that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for their sins. Eager disciples have a sense of knowing that the one thing they will not be able to do in heaven is lead a sinner to Christ.

Let me repeat that.

The one thing we will not be able to do in heaven is lead a sinner to Christ.

Eager disciples strongly desire to be used to impart hope, encouragement and spiritual insights to other disciples during times of struggle in their lives. A struggling disciple is usually a less affective disciple. A strong, emotionally healthy disciple can make a lot of demons shake in their tracks.

Eager disciples persevere in prayer. It’s a discipline, like washing dirty dishes or taking a bath. It’s just one of the many assignments God has given them in getting the other assignments given them done more efficiently and affectively. Eager disciples know that the Bible promises that when people pray and believe and persist, it motivates and releases God to win huge battles for us – even to do the impossible when God wills to really show off His stuff. Angels battle on behalf of our prayers. Are angels forced to take a vacation when we take a spiritual vacation in our prayer lives? Demons never take a vacation. They hate us so bad that nothing could be more delightful nor energizing to them than to make us miserable like they are miserable and frustrate God’s will in our life, simply because they’ll never get what we have waiting for us throughout eternity.

[P.S. We realize the effectiveness of God using Precious Testimonies to bring souls to Christ and to continue to have sufficient favor, laborers and adequate finances will be directly related to how many people pray for this ministry on a regular basis, like any other evangelistic ministry or local church. The Apostle Paul knew the wisdom of having others pray for him. He knew that without their prayers, his assignments from God would not be nearly as fruitful for God. Thank each of you who keep this ministry lifted up in prayer on a regular basis. Please realize how invaluable your are to God, to angels, to others who are given hope and encouragement through the efforts of this ministry, and to us personally!]

Maybe you happen to be very discouraged and battle weary right now. It is very difficult to stay an eager disciple day in and day out. The spiritual attacks upon front-line soldiers can take a heavy toll at times. Even Jesus needed to get away from ministry at times and get alone to be ministered to – to have what it took to complete His next assignment.

If you see yourself as maybe more of a casual disciple rather than an eager disciple right now, this writing was written purposely to try to encourage you to keep seeking God for help to change. Precious one … it’s never too late to change. Determine to kick things in high gear and break out of your casket of spiritual lethargy. Shed off the chains the devil has wrapped around you to keep you in spiritual compromise and bound to the temporal things of this world that have no eternal value, or suck the spiritual life and vitality right out of you. Turn from sins that are open doors for Satan to place curses on you and your loved ones. Purpose this very moment to start living like the person you know you ought to be, but just haven’t been able to rise to be, ever, or lately have struggled to be.

God is the rewarder of those who diligently and eagerly seek Him. Everytime; all the time. Yet be patient with the way He works. Most of those rewards may not be realized during this lifetime, which is where we can get frustrated. They are being stored up for all of God’s family to enjoy together throughout eternity. Add “eagerly” between your first and last name the next time you write it as a reminder to yourself and God what you want Him to help you become.

Christ took your sin nature so you could have his sinless nature. Walk in it. Christ took your disobedient nature and gave you His obedient nature. Begin walking in it with the help of the Holy Spirit. He is your power enabler. If you have never eagerly sought for a greater infilling of the Holy Spirit lately with the evidence to walk in greater victory over sin and a burning desire to win lost souls, why haven’t you? What is holding you back?

Don’t beat up on yourself should you fall short of your hopeful expectations. God didn’t make the Grand Canyon in one day.

You’ve probably heard it said: “God won’t give you any more than what you can handle.” Though I’ve yet to find scripture that says specifically that, I have found scripture that says in paraphrased form that when you are tempted to sin, God will give you a way to escape that temptation if you want to escape it bad enough. I don’t think anyone is doing you a Godly favor by telling you God will not give you more than you can handle, especially in a time of great suffering. However, by the grace of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, you can do anything God desires for you to do on His behalf, whether it be to face a firing squad or walk into a fiery furnace, or maybe even something more frightening … witnessing to a stranger.

The Apostle Paul learned through all his struggles, spiritual battles, and physical tribulations that it was the power of Christ in him that enabled him to do whatever God was asking him to do. That is recorded for us in Philippians 4:13. I’m still in the process of tapping into the power of Christ in me rather than constantly trying to do impossible things in my own carnal power. I long for the time that God will allow me to walk in that dimension of revelation that Paul walked in. It’s hard to teach others how to do that when you’re not doing it fully yourself. (Confession time).

Totally unrelated to the purpose of this writing, yet I feel to say it because I believe someone needs to read it. As far as we know, angels were the first of God’s creation. Sometime in history, they were tested. The Bible tells us that one-third of them failed their test, and were removed from heaven and the blessings heaven gave them for all eternity.

God is now testing His second creation: the human race – you and I. Could it be that God learned some things from that first testing to make our testings more intense than the angel’s testing? Is this more intense testing going to be the thing that qualifies us to one day be judging angels, as Paul stated we would in 1 Corinthians 6:3? Hmmmm…almost mind-boggling, isn’t it? Scripture tells us that out of the masses, very few will pass their test in this life. Lack of Obedience to Christ and New Covenant Truth (New Testament Truth) will be where they ultimately fail. That’s sad in a way, isn’t it? Most will spend eternity with the angels that were kicked out of heaven long ago in some form of eternal torment.

We certainly cannot possibly assume we are the last of God’s created beings either. In fact, the accumulated revelation many noted Bible scholars are agreeing on more and more is that this planet will one day become perhaps the headquarters for God to rule and reign from…or at least one of His main headquarters. To me, it doesn’t matter what I will co-reign over or from where headquarters for me will be. All I care about is that I learn what I’m supposed to learn while I’m down here on this planet, fulfill every assignment He gives me, and pass every test (as in trials and hardships) God sends my way and get an A+ on them instead of a lot of D-. I suppose there may be a lot of wishful thinking in all this, but if I don’t desire these things, knowing me, chances are good I won’t strive to attain them either.

I see all around me seasoned saints being afflicted one after the other and my wife and I haven’t been excluded, though so many have faced far more difficult trials than what we have faced, at least in our estimations. Financial strain, work strain, marriage and family strain, sleeplessness issues, physical pain and depression issues … the list gets uglier and uglier. When we read in scripture when it says that we will co-reign with Christ, and it doesn’t clearly indicate that angels will co-reign with Christ, but that angles will be placed underneath us in chain of command, rather than over us sometime in eternity … can any of us fathom just how intensely our testings here in this life are needed to qualify us for that degree of glory and responsibility?

My favorite scripture for over a year now…the one I share with prisoners often is THIS in abbreviated form:

“Therefore we do not lose heart. For our light afflictions, which are but for a moment (this brief lifetime on earth in light of eternity, though it sometimes seems like an eternity, especially for prisoners) is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

We’re training for co-reigning dear saints. One day in eternity we’ll look back on the struggles this life handed to us and we’ll simply shake our head in utter amazement at what God accomplished in us by the unjust and just sufferings God allows to visit each of us. Then we will have full revelation of why we’re to “count it all joy” for the suffering we are going through now in this life.

I tell prisoners who will spend many or most of the productive years of their lives locked away, with families shattered and marriages destroyed -- do any of us have full revelation what God is saying when He stated, “The last shall be first, and the first last?” (Matt. 19:30) Will many obscure prisoners be placed higher in rulership than our latest TV preacher and mega-church Pastor? Will little obscure praying widows be elevated to the highest positions of rulership possible? God has kept this particular scripture much of a mystery from what I can tell. I believe what He does want us to realize however is that no matter how obscure or how insignificant we might feel we are, there is hope that we are on equal ground with the “super-saints” we perceive as super-saints when God determines who does what and who gets what when He rewards us for the assignments we’ve been given during this lifetime, and whatever mountains we’ve had to climb for Him, or struggles or injustices we’ve had to overcome.

Our future, saints, is better than anything we can imagine. Eagerly walk humbly and faithfully with our God. The world will one day be ours to rule over, and evidently so will galaxies, and universes and future creations. Perhaps the angels will get to take a much needed extended vacation and we will backfill them. The possibilities are endless. Whatever God has planned … we are suffering now in this life as training for co-reigning.

Pass your tests, no matter how insignificant they might seem at the time. They are designed to work for you an eternal weight of glory.