Tamed And Domesticated. How Sad!

Posted on by Pastor Randy

1

I was just thinking this morning.  In my world of those who know me, many shudder when I say this.  Some even do the face palm thing while shaking their heads wondering to themselves, “Dear Lord, what is this man up to again?”  And a few even run and hide.  I’m OK with that because I am convinced God gave me a mind–a mind to learn with and a mind to question things–sometimes everything.

I am thinking about that word “TAME” and its partner word “DOMESTICATED”.  Somehow, there are those who think that the purpose of a relationship with God is about taming us.  There are many tribes (tribes are groups of people with a similar belief system and mindset about God, also known as denominations in some circles) who believe that in order to follow Jesus, we must be tamed.  They treat desire as if it were the modern-day equivalent of Biblical times leprosy.

And so this idea of desire is pushed back and beaten down so that respectability can rule and reign.  As I was thinking about that word TAME I realized that it rhymes with another word:  LAME.  So what if we started seeing DESIRE as something to, well DESIRE, to want, to insist on having?  Not just any DESIRE, but to have DESIRE for God–for what God is doing–and especially for what God wants us to do!

Can we agree, at least those smart enough to believe in Intelligent Design, that we have been created in God’s image?  OK!  God has DESIRES.  So if HE has DESIRES, why shouldn’t we?  Unfortunately many have traded in the God who has Great Desires for a god who is nice and kind and always gentle.  In others words, a domesticated god.  When something is domesticated it means we have TAMED it for OUR use, to use the way we want.

The True and Living God is neither TAME nor DOMESTICATED.  He is wild with DESIRE!  Oops, someone just said, “I don’t believe that!  Prove it from the Bible!”  Okey Dokey, be careful what you ask for; you just might get it, as in this case.  God sent a messenger to Eli the priest saying He, God, would take away the priesthood from Eli and his sons and raise up priests who do what, and I quote God, “I DESIRE!”  And in Isaiah 55:11–“It (His word) will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I DESIRE and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”  And Jesus said in John 17:24–“Father, I DESIRE that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

Now, when it comes to US, should their be desire?  Now David was called a man after God’s own heart.  When he selected a worship leader, he chose Asaph.  I am sure David, who loved to worship God, wanted someone just as passionate as he.  Read these words of Asaph:

24 You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?  I DESIRE you more than anything on earth.

26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever. (Psalm 73:24-26 NLT)

Let’s stop being Tame And Lame, and reclaim that word DESIRE.  The enemy has used it for too long as a sign of evil.  Desire, as God put it in us, is both good and necessary.  When we become “tame”, the enemy no longer fears us.  He has domesticated us, meaning, we are here for his pleasure and guess what else.  His “desires”, desires which are to keep us away from our created purpose and to prevent us from being Warriors.  One of the things that makes the enemy tremble with fear and trepidation is when he sees one of God’s Image Bearer’s doing exactly what Asaph wanted, to DESIRE God more than anything else.  When God’s designed DESIRE flows through you, the enemy runs and hides.  He wants you domesticated, God wants you wild and free as He designed you.  If you are not living out your relationship with God with that God-Designed-And-God-Pleasing DESIRE, you have been Tamed And Domesticated by the evil one.  And you are just plain old LAME.  And that is so sad, so very sad!

Love God with all you heart.  Love others the way Jesus loves you.  And make sure all the glory goes to Him and it will as you DESIRE Him more than anything else on earth.

 

Published by Pastor Randy

I have been a life-long pastor but recently God has kindled a fire in me about His calling for my life. For nearly 40 years my life and this ministry was centered on "the church". God has set me on a journey to become more than a "church" pastor, but to be a "Kingdom Pastor". Join me in this new journey of God's plans and purposes for HIS Kingdom

13 thoughts on “Tamed And Domesticated. How Sad!”

    1. Me too. But keep in mind, that lion is also a slaughtered lamb standing. Being like him gets you slaughtered. And well… after a while, you get tired of that too.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Great post!

    It is the coward who wants nothing. For a man to have courage, he must desire greatly.

    What then is peace? If we desire greatly, how can we be at peace? is it because we already have what we desire? Is it because have the assurance of Who we desire?

    For those who believe, the Kingdom of God is here and now. If the Kingdom of God is already with us, then we have the peace of knowing He is with us and loves us. If then we can put our faith in Him, we will have the courage that comes from desiring Him greatly, and we will know the peace of His love.

    “Take the case of courage. No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages. Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. ‘He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,’ is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. This paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if we will risk it on the precipice.

    He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine. No philosopher, I fancy, has ever expressed this romantic riddle with adequate lucidity, and I certainly have not done so. But Christianity has done more: it has marked the limits of it in the awful graves of the suicide and the hero, showing the distance between him who dies for the sake of living and him who dies for the sake of dying.” ― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Your post reminds me of that scene in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe where Mr. and Mrs. Beaver are leading the children through the snowy woods on their way to meet Aslan – the LION. The children had only just got used to the notion of talking animals – some of whom are good/nice while others evil/mean. When the Beavers reveal that Aslan is a LION, in fact THE LION, the children become very anxious. Here they are following these strange beavers through a strange land having only just met them, and now they find out they are going to meet a LION.

    I cant quote the lines just now, and that is too bad. But one of the children musters up the courage to ask if the lion is “safe”. (Or maybe if he is “tame”) Anyway, once the question is asked, Mr Beaver whips around to answer saying: Tame? No. Aslan is not tame. But he is good.

    It is one of the more important lines in the book which the movie version (which is fantastic) drops out. Don’t know how Hollywood could miss it. But I never forget that moment in the old C.S. Lewis story. Had a profound effect on me as a kid.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. Amen! “Tame and lame,” good word play. CS Lewis said something long ago that has stuck with me, “Aslan is not a tame lion.”

    One of my favorite passages in Narnia says, ““Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

    A lot of us get “safe” in the Lord, and than we get stuck.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. There’s no cost for being tame and ‘home bound’. Some may say those who pursue a life of desire for God above all else are those who put passion above doctrinal integrity or theological grounding. Those same may say a pursuit of desire for God ought best be your own so that we don’t suffer lose from your frivolous pursuits. Bottom line: for so many, God is not pleasant, happy, nor desirable – just necessary and scary. A pursuit of God is not religious. He gives life to those who find him and healing to all their flesh.

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.