Are you fake or authentic?

Have you ever walked into a room and felt the air leave when you walked in?  You saw the look of shock and fear as you entered upon a conversation you obviously were not supposed to hear.   Then after the couple seconds go by, which really feels like minutes, for all people involved, one of the people come over to you to speak and welcome you.   And when they leave you feel the stain of fakeness cover you. 

We have all had these moments in life.  We have all stumbled into a conversation about us, something we should not have heard or worse have been part of the people talking, when someone else walks into the room.  We know that feeling of having a fake conversation or having someone fake niceness with you, knowing that isn’t their true feelings inside.

It’s almost as if you can smell and see the lies that people tell or show.  You know they say that animals can sense fear and that’s usually when they attack, well I think we can sense when a person is being less than honest with us and themselves.

I try very hard to live my life transparent.  I am honest to a fault at times, which I have learned has hurt people’s feelings, which is not my intention.  I try to be honest in every situation I am in because I never want to leave that feeling on someone, that feeling of I was just lied too, or that was a very fake encounter.

I am saying all of this as the lead in to Matthew 7:29 For He was teaching as One Who had (and was) authority and not as (did) the scribes.  

The verses leading up to Matthew 7:29 Jesus was telling us what we need to do to be accepted by Him and into heaven and how we need to keep His commandments.  We were also told where our priorities in life should be.  How we are to build our life around Him and His word, so that we are built on solid rock instead of sand.  We are being given instructions on how to have a prosperous, happy life and be in the will of Christ.

In verse 28 it says When Jesus had finished these sayings (the Sermon on the Mount), the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed with bewildered wonder at His teachings.

To me this is mouths hanging open, audible gasps and conviction in their soul’s moment.  This is like a moment that you are sucked into and aren’t able to move your gaze but oh so badly want too, because you know He is speaking to you.  You swear He can see inside you at that very moment and see that you are a bundle of emotions and on the brink of change.

These are among one of the moments and times where there is no denying Jesus is the Son of God because as verse 29 tells us, you can see His authority.  To me this is being able to see the spirit of Jesus and seeing His truth in not only His words but also His life.

There is a big difference between someone giving you “lip service” and someone speaking truth into your life.  The feeling is different.  When someone is speaking with authority and truth, there is a rumble inside of you, even if you are feeling convicted.  There is a stirring inside of you that says, this is truth that I am hearing, and my spirit connects to it, and recognizes it.

This is just like when you are church and you hear a speaker who you can tell hasn’t lived out the words that he is telling you.  You can sense an authenticity to the person, and a realness to him.  Not that he is trying to deceive you or bare false witness to you, but the connection is missing because his passion and real life experience is not there. 

When Jesus was speaking to this group of people even though He was giving instructions on how they should live their lives, I am sure some of them were not happy about it, they identified with His words.  They identified with His spirit.  They saw and claimed His authority and truth, which is why the crowds were filled with wonder, overwhelmed and astonished.

This is how the Holy Spirit wants to work through us.  He wants to send us into the world to show God’s authenticity through us.  He wants to change us to win souls for Him, but He can’t send you into the world as you are, He must change you first and then send you into the world.

We wonder why He chooses the Meek and Foolish things of the world to work through, and in, it's because that’s where He can shine the brightest.  If He took someone who was poised, eloquent and educated on His word, would you be so surprised when they were standing in front of you put together speaking.  No, you wouldn’t.  You actually would probably be bored thinking, how can this person relate to my life in anyway, when they have had a very good life.

We would miss God in everything this person said because we wouldn’t feel the authenticity of the person.  I can talk to you about what it is like to be a victim of abuse but I can’t talk to you about what it’s like to be a drug addict.  I can tell you the feelings on the side of the one abused and the one in a relationship with an addict, but I can never put my feet inside of the shoes of that person. 

If I would begin to speak on addiction, I could only do this from the view point of a person who loves an addict.  If I would go into a room of addicts and try to speak as if I was one they would all feel the fakeness in my words, in my demeanor and in my heart.  They would never connect to the words, which means that change could never stir in their hearts.

Verse 7:29 is a verse that could never be omitted from the Bible.  Verse 28 & 29 speak of the connection and authenticity.  These verses help validate your own stirrings and build your faith.  You know that you are not alone in how you feel, and it helps you accept what is breaking off of your soul.  It helps you allow the words to be life and life giving.

Folks we need to live an authentic life full of the authority that Jesus had and has.  We need to take away the layers of fakeness and open up our hearts and minds to the truth that is Jesus.  We need to adapt our character to His character and begin to walk that out in this dark world. 

It’s like a woman who wears a lot of make up thinking she has to cover her true beauty, when you wash away the make-up and strip her down; you then truly see how beautiful she is.   Jesus isn’t our make-up, Jesus is our beauty.  Jesus is a clean, freshly washed face that walks into the world exposed.  We pile ourselves up with so much stuff to keep people away from our hearts, emotions, secrets, or whatever you are hiding, and they feel the disconnect, which makes them feel the lack of authority in your lives.

It doesn’t send the world a welcoming energy.  It doesn’t make them want what we have, and should it?

I’ve said this many times on this blog, and many times to myself, but we are the hands and feet of Jesus on this earth.  We are meant to be His image and allow Him to create us into His image.  If we don’t accept that is our new identity than how can we ever begin to lead people to Him?

Allow God to strip you down to nothing but Him and your outer body.  Allow Him to make a shell of who you used to be and fill you up with who you are meant to be.  I know this is incredibly hard, as I am going through this right now, but try, and I mean, try, to let God take your hand and remove from you what is not pleasing to Him.  Allow Him to do the restoration and transformation work on you that He needs to do, so He can send you into the world to bring people back to Him.

You see this whole journey that we are on is to glorify God and to bring Him glory, praise and honor.  When we allow ourselves to walk in His authority then and only then, are we going to be able to do the work that He has called every one of us into.  We will then be walking out the journey He has set before us, and bring people who are lost back to the kingdom of God, so they can walk out their journey too.