Eight Days of Back to Basics: 8. Ruling Your Soul

“I’ll say it again,” proclaimed Doug. “God has called us to be rulers, not reactors. For example,” he went on, “if someone comes up and does something that you don’t like, your first notion would usually be to pop the guy in the lip. Now, if you take that thought captive and know that it is not a good one to have and it is not the character of Christ, then you can say, ‘Brother, I just bless you.’ That is learning how to rule in a situation.”

“Now, you may actually say any number of things to the guy,” said Tim, taking up the imaginary scenario, “depending on how the Lord leads you, but what we’re talking about here is a ‘being in the drivers’ seat’ that is befitting sons of God. A sense that you can remain centered in who you are, no matter what the world throws at you.

“A lot of people have never been told that it’s good for them to control their own thoughts and emotions. They imagine exercising that control would lead to an unnatural, robotic life of total suppression, but being a ruler and not a reactor is actually a very creative life. Jesus said that if someone hits you on the cheek to turn the other cheek to them as well. Well, that just turns the whole situation on its head. A strike on the cheek is meant to get a certain reaction, but you don’t just give the world what it’s used to getting when you’re a son of God. You become a ruler over the basic principles of the world. As we read in Galations, ‘You are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.’”

Ben chimed in, “That must be what Paul’s frame of mind was when he said in Colossians 2:20, ‘Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?’”

For eight days I’m posting excerpts from each of the eight chapters in Back to Basics: Eight Foundations for Kingdom Living, the book I co-authored with Doug Roberts and Ben Pasley.

Each day I’m also going to give one 50% refund on the price of the book to the first person to gift a copy of Back to Basics to a friend from our merchandise page at our store..