The God Shaped Hole

John 3:30
"He must increase, but I must decrease.
 
The context of this scripture is when John the Baptist's followers were reporting to John that Jesus was increasing in fame and power. He responded with the answer that Jesus was the one who needed to grow more prominent and in doing so he would as a result naturally grow less prominent. He saw this as a good thing. 
 
I believe this understanding is foundational to our growth in God. I was listening to a preaher the other evening who misquoted the passage. And he said it like we often preach it. He said I must decrease and He must increase. You might think that this is a minor point. At one point in my history I came to realize that far from minor, it is foundational how we understand the way we grow in God. 
 
After several years of desperate seeking to see God's transformation in my life I found in this verse the hidden treasure that opened the door to practical change. It opened a path for me that I have seen to be absolutely accurate biblically and powerful to bring about God's desire for my life to be conformed into the image of Jesus. I saw that the first priority was not that I decrease. The first thing that must happen for me to see the work of God in my heart is that Jesus must increase. 
 
In fact I realize now that I cannot decrease unless he does increase. 
 
I also understood that all John had to do for this process to take place was to accept it and see it as God's plan.  John did not have to make himself less he just needed to point to Jesus. He would naturally decrease as a result.
 
The reason this is so essential is because our souls have a God shaped hole in them.  Decreasing ourselves will do nothing to fill that hole. Only if it is filled with God will the ache inside cease and the sin outside end.
 
Even if we do not teach a legalistic faith, we tend to continually emphasize denial of self. This actually results in making us more self-conscious. I learned that the way God wants us to see the self is to open our lives fully to God. To let Him be the centre of our affections, attention and adoration. As we let Him increase we will see ourselves decrease. 
 
It is as if our souls have a one way door. When we open it to God the flesh, the world and the devil lose their grip on us. He increases and we naturally decrease. When we open it to self God loses His grip on us. 
 
Galatians 5:16
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.


We see in this scripture the exact truth that I am sharing. We walk in the Spirit and the natural consequence is we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Can you see the power of this. We have been deceived that we can only walk in the Spirit by first dealing with the lusts of the flesh. There is no power to deal with the lust of the flesh except by being filled and following the Spirit. It is the one way door.


This is because emptying ourselves of self does not bring God into the empty place. The doctrine of emptiness is actual Buddhist. And it is impossible. The more we think we have emptied ourselves of self them more of self there is. The God shaped hole inside of us will be filled with something. The only things that can fill it are God, us, the world or the devil. This is why an emphasis in the proclamation of our message on dealing with the self life, without the call to be filled with God as the way to deal with it, will always result in dead works, discouragement, hiddenness and failure. 
 
Colossians 2:6-10
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:


The works of the flesh, the world and the devil being manifested in our lives are the way we can see that the hole in our being is not filled with God. When it is filled with God the other things no longer have power. They can't because the need inside out of which they are generated is gone.  The diagnosis when we see sin raising its head is not to centre on it to slay it.... it is like hydra the serpent that when you cut its head of it regenerated three more heads. When we see sin begin to work in our lives we can know that the God shaped hole in us is being filled with something besides Jesus. He must increase for us to decrease.
 
Romans 8:10
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.


The only way to fight sin is to open our soul to God and to be filled with Him. As He increases, the sin life (us) decreases. When He completely fills the soul there is no place for self and its attendant works.
 
Colossians 1:27
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
 
This is why preaching against sin without helping people to understand it as the indicator of their need to be filled with God never builds strong Christians. It builds sin obsessed Christians who spend their lives fighting sin. I know I did it for a long time.
 
Jesus is the only life giver. To be filled with Him is to be filed with life. The result of that life is death to the sin nature.
 
You might ask how does this work practically?
 
It works by opening our souls to the fulness of His Spirit by the simple acts that He asks us to do.
 
I have a teaching on the Three Roots of Sin which I will be placing on my Teaching Website in the future. For now let me give just one simple example which transformed my life. 
 
1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.


All sin derives from these three roots. Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life.
 
Go after them to destroy them without something to replace them and they grow stronger. Go \after them by walking in the Spirit and they die. It is a one way door. 
 
For example I saw that the lust of the flesh was founded on self pity. People feed their fleshly desires to obtain comfort. As self pity increases so do the lust of the flesh. I also saw that the corresponding work of the Spirit in us is thankfulness. To walk in the Spirit means to purposefully live in thankfulness.
 
1 Thessalonians 5:18
in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.


I learned that as I give thanks in every situation that I cannot be filled with self pity. The two are mutually exclusive. There is the one way door. A heart filled with thanks cannot at the same time be filled with self pity. When we see that we are being motivated by the Lust of the Flesh and we start to thank. praise and worship God we defeat the work of the flesh by being filled with the Spirit. Jesus increases and as a result I decrease naturally.