What Drives Your Life?

Everyone's life is driven by something.

The dictionary defines the word drive as "to guide, to control, or to direct." Whether you are driving a car, a nail, or a golf ball, you are guiding, controlling, and directing it at that moment.

So my question for you today is...

What is the driving force in your life?

Right now you may be driven by a problem, a pressure, or a deadline. You may be driven by a painful memory, a haunting fear, or an unconscious belief. There are hundreds of circumstances, values, and emotions that can drive your life. The Book of Ecclesiastes can help you greatly in your search of the truth to the answers you may be looking for, finding real unchanging values, (to profit) in this life.

Let's look at some of the things that may be driving your life today.

Many people are driven by guilt. They spend their entire lives running from regrets and hiding their shame. Guilt-driven people are manipulated by memories. They allow their past to control their future. They often unconsciously punish themselves by sabotaging their own success. When Cain sinned, his guilt disconnected him from God's presence, and God said, "You will be restless and wander the earth." (Genesis 4:12) That describes most people today - wandering through life without a purpose.

We are all products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it. He turned a murderer named Moses into a leader, and a coward named Gideon into a courageous hero. He can do amazing things with the rest of your life also. God specializes in giving people a fresh start. The Bible says, "What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven! ... What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record." (Psalm 32:1)

Many people are driven by resentment and anger. They hold on to hurts and never get over them. Instead of releasing their pain through forgiveness, they rehearse it over and over in their minds. Some resentment-driven people "clam up" and internalize their anger, while others "blow up" and explode it onto others. Both responses are unhealthy and unhelpful.

Resentment always hurts you more than it does the person you resent. While your offender has probably forgotten the offense and gone on with life, you continue to stew in your pain, perpetuating the past.

Those who have hurt you in the past cannot continue to hurt you now unless you hold on to the pain through resentment. Your past is past. Nothing will change it. You are hurting yourself with your bitterness. For your own sake, I challenge you to learn from it, and then let it go. The Bible says, "To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, and senseless thing to do." (Job 5:2)

Many people are driven by fear. Their fears may be a result of a traumatic experience, unrealistic expectations, growing up in a high-control home, or even genetic predisposition. Regardless of the cause, fear-driven people often miss great opportunities because they are afraid to venture out. Nothing ventured is nothing gained. Instead they play it safe, avoiding risks and trying to maintain the status quo.

Fear, False Evidence Appearing Real, is a self-imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. You must move against it with the weapons of faith and love. The Bible says, "Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life - fear of death, fear of judgment, - is one not yet fully formed in love. (1John 4:18)

Many people are driven by materialism. Their desire to acquire becomes the whole goal of their lives. This drive to always want more is based on the misconceptions that having more will make one happier, more important, and more secure, but all three ideas are untrue. Possessions only provide temporary happiness. Because things do not change, we eventually become bored with them and then want newer, bigger, and better versions.

It is also a myth that if you get more, you will become more important. Self-worth and net worth are not the same. Your value is not determined by your valuables, and God says the most valuable things in life are not things. They are just tools for fulfilling your calling and destiny.

The most common myth about money is that having more will make you more secure. It won't. Wealth can be lost instantly through a variety of uncontrollable factors. Real security can only be found in that which can never be taken from you - your relationship with God.

Many people are driven by the need for approval. They allow the expectations of parents, spouses, children, teachers, or friends to control their lives. Many adults are still trying to earn the approval of unpleasable parents. Others are driven by peer pressure, always worried by what others might think. Unfortunately, those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it.

I do not know all the keys to success, but one key to failure is in trying to please everyone. Being controlled by the opinions of others is a guaranteed way to miss God's purposes for your life. Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters." (Mathew 6:24)

There are many other forces that can drive your life, but all lead to the same dead end: unused potential, unnecessary stress, and an unfulfilled life. The answer clearly lies in God's Word, and the Finished Work of the Cross. We must really take a look back, back about 2000 years ago, at what really happened to us. This will give us the insight to our future. A life guided, controlled, and directed by God's purposes. Without doing this, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason.
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The Tithe

.....There is much manipulation when it comes to submissiveness in tithing. One of the greatest misuses of scripture is in regard to giving. There is no easy way to address this issue. Let me preface by saying the Church cannot function without finances. And Ministries should be partakers for their service to the body. This is in reference to the Old Covenant order. When the children of Israel brought their first-fruits into the priesthood, the priests shared a part or it because they had no inheritance, Numbers 18: 24. God has ordained it to be so, 1 Corinthians 9:13-14.

.....God is not poor nor poverty minded. Vows of poverty and suffering for the cause of Christ when used to achieve some merit or make others feel guilty is unscriptural. On the other hand, making unfounded promises that God wants to make everyone rich or that not giving will bring a curse against people is also unscriptural. Malachi 3 has some principle meaning, but the material withholding of finances will not initiate a curse. Those who are in Christ have been redeemed from all curses. According to vs. 3 and vs. 4, the Lord was looking for an offering of righteousness. This was prophetically speaking about the New Covenant experience when His people would be purged, (cleansed once and for all).

.....As far as the Lord's will is concerned, the prosperity of the Soul is the most important. This kind of prosperity comes only from a knowledge of the riches of Christ, 3 John vs. 2. Much of what ministers call wealth comes either by wise decisions or over-emphasizing the prosperity message. There is a constant barrage of messages associating prosperity with personal, sacrificial giving. The beneficiary of such giving is usually the one who claims the Lord requires it. He or she then appears prosperous, convincing everyone that their prosperity is proof that such giving works. Again, I am not discrediting the principle of sowing and reaping, only those who manipulate it. Jesus ended the curse for all men who believe on Him. Although sowing and reaping is a valid principle, "No Man" has the right to even insinuate a curse on those who do not give their money. The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus supersedes "All Law!"

.....The word Tithe means tenth. You may be surprised to learn that God did not initiate tithing. Abraham did when he first tithed to, that's right, Melchizedek, in Genesis 4: 20. Before I go on, please, hear my heart. All I am trying to do here is correct some things we all have taught, and have been taught. Once I enlighten you to this, you must make your own decisions about what truth is to you. If you will listen to the Spirit of God, He will show you fact from fiction.

.....Once Abraham tithed, it was used as an example in the requirement in Mosaic Law. Even though the principle is sound, the Tithe in the New Covenant has changed. You must hear this: Giving money does not move God. It is the giving of one's self. In the New Covenant, Jesus is the Tithe. He is the first fruits. This term is used over 10 times in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, as offering requirements for various things. The principle of giving 10% "First" of any income was initiated there. Now today, Christ is in us and we have the first fruits of the Spirit, Romans 8: 23, who is Christ, 1 Corinthians 15: 20, 23.

.....So, we are a kind of first fruits of His creatures, James 1:18. The New Covenant tithe is the redeemed ones who are virgin or pure in their worship and follow the Lamb, which is in the death and sacrifice of the Lord, wherever He takes them, Revelation 14: 4.

.....Tithing today is twofold - It is the worship of the "Christ" Spirit in us to God, and the giving to the ministry of Christ on the Earth, Hebrews 7: 8. Paul said, " He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. As a man purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver."
2 Corinthians 9: 6-7. Bountiful grace supplies, and then multiplies the seed sown, this is what increases the fruit of righteousness, vs. 10. No one can pay tithes in a New Covenant relationship, because they have already been paid through Christ. God is our Father, not our landlord. Any motivation of payment to God, including service, forces Him outside of grace, to then give us what He owes us, which is nothing.

So you may ask, How do I tithe today?

.....First understand your worship of God is your tithe to Him. Material giving, in whatever form, is simply an expression of that worship. Since Abraham started tithing, let's look at what took place back then. We see in Genesis 14: 18, Melchizedek serving Abraham, whose name was Abram back then, bread and wine. He then blessed Abraham and God. Abraham then responded by tithing. So we tithe in response to the revelation of Christ's life given for us and to us, as bread and wine, by those ministers who preach Christ today.

If we will re-prioritize this whole system of giving, making Jesus Lord of the tithe, giving will increase and the tenth as we say will seldom be mentioned.

.....If you want to talk about "getting credit" for tithing, let us look at Levi. He received credit for tithing even before he was born, because of Abraham, Hebrews 7: 9-10. It says in Galatians 3: 29, "If you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Understand this, You are now not under obligation to give, you are "Free to Give." Once one sees their inheritance, it becomes easy! The mindset that previous said that the tenth belongs to God, now has the understanding that everything we have, including ourselves, belongs to God. If we choose to continue to approach God by percentages alone, we will always be found lacking.

.....For now, until we learn the proper way to tithe, and what it actually means, we will stay poor. Spiritually, Mentally, and Physically. How can we truly experience freedom, "Freedom In Christ," and lead other to the same truth, if we continue to push Man's created system, portraying it to be God's.

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