07/06/25

 

Why Settle for Less?

Embrace Who You Really Are,

And Have God’s Best!!

 

Jn 1:12–13 (NKJV) — 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right(authority, power, exousia]) to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

The Bible tells us that we have the right, the authority, and the power to become children of God. That is a choice we have to make. We were all born into the world with a worldly mother and father, and we take on the characteristics of them and the world. 

 

However, if we accept Christ, we have the opportunity to enter into a special relationship with God as his adopted children. And if we choose to become his children, we have to be willing to adopt the characteristics of God.

 

I want to take you to another level now. We all know this verse:

Jn 3:16 (NKJV) — 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Everybody knows this verse is about salvation, and God is giving us an opportunity for eternal life.  But that is not all that he is offering us.

 

We need to come to the realization that God wants more for us than just salvation. Jesus has said in John 10:10 that he has come that “we might have life and have it more abundantly.”

 

This should make us realize that He has done even greater things for us, in addition to eternal salvation! He has given us a relationship with God as our Father! 

 

Salvation is certainly a great blessing, but adoption is exceedingly and abundantly more than we could have ever expected!

 

For those who believe in Jesus, God has given us the opportunity to become more than just saved; He has given us the opportunity to become His dear children. 

Christ has reconciled us to God through the Holy Spirit, so that now we are new creations with the ability to experience what He originally desired: the ability to reflect His image on earth.

He has saved us, reconciled us unto God, made us the Father’s children, and that not enough, He has removed our citizenship from this world and made us citizens of heaven!

You ought to ponder on that thought!

He has saved us, reconciled us unto God, made us the Father’s children, and that not enough, He has removed our citizenship from this world and made us citizens of heaven!

 

I want to make a simple point in this message…

Why Settle for Less?

Embrace Who You Really Are,

And Have God’s Best!!

 

God has given us, as believers, the official standing and rights of being his sons and daughters! The way has been opened for us to experience the wonderful blessings of being children of Almighty God. 

 

But there is a great challenge. We have been and are being deceived by Satan into accepting a lot less than what God wants us to have! Satan has made us desire and focus on things of the world more than things of God. 

Just like he did in the garden, he had Adam and Eve focus their eyes on the fruit of the tree of knowledge of things of the world, and not the fruit of the tree of life!

Satan distracts us from what God has offered us!

 

Too many of us have stopped at salvation and are content to just be saved, but there is so much more to gain if we will open our eyes to fully see and embrace the benefits of the relationship that God gives us as His children.

 

He has given us a new Spiritual identity to embrace: no longer are we just children of men; we are now children of God, belonging to His family and inheriting the rights of members of the family of God.

We are now aliens in this world!

 

The key to this relationship lies in recognizing and accepting the power of the Holy Spirit in the regeneration of our lives.

Jn 3:5–6 (NKJV) — 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

 

When we are born of the Spirit, the Bible tells us, 

Ro 8:14 (NKJV) — 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

 

It is only when we are willing to embrace who we really are and submit to the Spirit of God (exemplifying the characteristics of the children of God) that we are entitled to the greater blessings of a child of God.

 

There is a difference between being saved and being a mature child of God. Many people may be saved, but many are not mature. They are still babies, and as babies, they cannot experience the greater blessings that God has in store for them. He wants them to have them, but they can’t handle them.

 

They have settled for less than God’s best! They are just saved and not best blessed!

 

As stated in John 1:12, he has given you the power to become children of God, not born of the flesh, but born of God. You must make an effort to mature in the spirit and grow in the power of his might. You must be a doer of what you read and hear. There is more than a natural life; there is a supernatural life for you to experience now!

 

Let us talk about operating in the power of the Spirit.

 

Being Born of the Spirit

Let us now consider what being born of the Spirit is. Consider when the angel came to Mary and told her she was going to have a child: 

Lk 1:35–38 (NKJV) — 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; 

therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”

 38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

 

Mary had to submit to the Holy Spirit so that a child could be born of her. A child who was man and God at the same time…

The man part came from Mary, and the God part came from the Holy Spirit. This could not have happened against her will.

 

Likewise, you have to submit to the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit will come upon you;  then, through the process of regeneration, you are born again. Born again as a child of God. Born in the image of God.

You are still physically in the flesh, but spiritually you are born again into this world as a child of God with the new ability to operate in the spiritual realm.

Let me see if I can explain better.

 

A Human Example of 

Maturing in the World

Now, let's think of what happens when a child is born into the world. They are immature. They don't know anything about this world. They have to be trained. They must learn and grow each day, experiencing the ways of this world.

 

The same is true about you when you first accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and you are born again; you are ignorant of the things of the new Spirit world you have been born into. You must learn and grow each day so that you can adapt and operate efficiently in your new environment.

 

 If I may use the example of my granddaughter, Mariah. She was born just over a year ago, totally unaware of the new world she was entering. However, over the past year, she has learned several valuable lessons about this new world, and she continues to expand her knowledge of it each day.

 

In the beginning, she could hardly move. But over time, she learned to crawl, and she is now beginning to walk. She has learned how to listen and distinguish the voices of people. In fact, there was a time when she did know her name, but just the other day, even when I called her name, she turned to head to listen. 

 

Likewise, her ability to see and discern what she sees has to be learned. She has to learn the difference between images and what those images are. She has learned to recognize the image of her mother by spending time with her, looking into her eyes. She has determined the image of her father by looking at her father. 

 

She has learned the difference between her father and her grandfathers by spending time with us, and between her mother and her grandmothers again by spending time with them. She has to learn these things. She also has to learn to distinguish between the various faces that are there in her world. This is like we have to learn the various spirits that are in the spirit world. 

She has so much to learn, but as she takes the time and experiences more of this world, she will learn more and more how to apply herself and do whatever she needs to do to receive what she wants. 

 

I bet in time her mother, father, and her grandparents will give her anything her little heart desires. 

 

The same is true with us as children of God. We are born into a new world as immature babes. We have to learn a new way of thinking. The old world has passed away. We should forget what came before and look forward to what is ahead. 

 

We must learn the ways of the Spirit and reject the ways of the world. The ways of the world are the ways of the dead.

We have to mature. We have to grow. We must learn to live in the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, and to talk in the Spirit, and learn to discern and follow the voice of the Spirit. The more we grow up in the spirit, the more we will be able to do what we need to experience the full benefits of the spirit.

 

How We Mature In The Spirit

How do we come to know our Father? We come to know our Father by reading his word. We are told in the Scripture  1 Pe 2:2 (NKJV) — 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

 

A baby cannot digest real meat until they are mature enough to digest it. Therefore, we give them baby food. When we are immature in the spirit, we cannot experience the mature blessings of God until we are mature enough to handle them. 

 

We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we can begin to see and grow into the ability to obtain all that God has for us.

 

How do we determine if we are maturing in the spirit? It is according to how we treat one another! Our love for one another determines the true measure of our Spiritual growth! The more we love, the more we prove we are maturing and conforming to the image of Christ.

1 Co 3:1–3 (NKJV) — 1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to Spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

Paul tells these Corinthians Christians that, although they are saved, they are not spiritually mature. They are carnal, meaning their fleshly desires rule them. 

 

Saved, but they have not grown in the Spirit; their Spiritual immaturity is seen in envy, strife, and divisions. They are babes in Christ because they have not matured beyond their worldly attitudes and behaviors.

 

You need to hear this! 

When you are born again, you are expected to learn to grow in the Spirit.  Paul says further

Heb 5:12–14 (NKJV) — 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

 

Listen to me carefully now!

You must learn to mature in the Spirit of God so that you may be able to experience the greater blessings reserved for the mature children of God. 

 

My granddaughter cannot be given the keys to a car. We will not even give her a trip to New York by herself. We will not give her diamond rings, nor will we give her a hundred-dollar bill. Why not? She is not mature enough to handle these things. But as she matures and grows, she can expect greater blessings.

 

Now hear this: you are not going to get some of the best things God to give you simply because you refused to grow up!

 

Here’s what the Scripture tells us about how spiritual immaturity also hinders us.

Ga 3:26–29 (NKJV) — 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

Paul tells these Christians they are children of God, and as children of God, they have got to stop seeing the differences the world makes among people.

To think like the world makes one an enemy of God and a hindrance to the purposes of God on the earth.

Ga 4:1–5 (NKJV) — 1 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, 2 but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

This lets us know that as long as we are immature, we are confined by spiritual and natural boundaries that we cannot go beyond. We may want greater blessings, but we are not yet mature enough to handle them. 

 

The Scripture goes on to say…

Ga 4:6–7 (NKJV) — 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

This also lets us know that even though we may be immature, we are still children of God, but limited to the greater blessings of God that are only for those who are spiritually mature.

 

One Of The Greatest Blessings 

Of Being A Child Of God!

There are many great blessings we have access to as mature children of God. But there is only one I want to speak of today, which I believe opens the door to all the rest!

Mt 7:7–11 (NKJV) — 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 

This is a wonderful blessing, and we usually stop here, but we must continue to read on so we can understand why we can have greater confidence that this will come to pass in our lives.

 

Mt 7:9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?   11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

 

Here, I believe, is one of the greatest promises in the Bible. It comes from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is speaking about prayer, and He tells us that God, as our Father, listens and answers the requests of His children.

Look at verse 11 again.

11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

 

The promise is that when the children of the Father ask anything of him, he will answer all of their prayers! This is our guarantee of answered prayers! Think about this!

I so much want this!

 

Everything we desire that is good, we can ask for and know with certainty; we can receive it because we are His children.

 

As a child of God, we can ask and we will receive!

As a child of God, whatever we seek after, it will be given to us!

As a child of God, whatever door we knock on, it will be opened for us!

 

However, there is one universal problem as to why we won't receive things in prayer!

 

TOO MANY OF US ARE NOT MATURE ENOUGH TO RECEIVE THE THINGS THE GROWN CHILDREN CAN RECEIVE!

This is so sad! Too many of us just on want to grow up.

James says…

Jas 4:2–3 (NKJV) — 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

In other words, you are too carnal and too immature to receive what you ask for from God! You are too focused on things of the world to be given the best things of the Spirit!

The next verse goes on to tell you that if you want to be friends with the world, and live like the world, you are an enemy of God! There is no way you can be a child of God and embrace the ways of the world! 

If you want to receive the best of God, you have got to renounce the world and the ways of the world and struggle to put on the ways of God by allowing the Holy Spirit to control your life! 

He goes on to say…

Jas 4:4 (NKJV) — 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

Jas 4:5 (NKJV) — 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

The Holy Spirit will give you the ability to stop thinking like the world and to overcome the world. You must learn to submit on to God and the devil will flee from you!

I want you, as your bishop, or as a bishop want you to recognize that you cannot serve two masters! As long as you hold on to things of this world, you cannot receive the best things of God’s world. 

Even if it is the world’s best, it does not compare to what God has prepared! 

Eyes have not seen, and ears have not heard what God has in store for his children! 

Why settle for less? Embrace who you really are and have God’s best!

Then, just a few verses later, he says 

5:16… The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 

A righteous person is a mature individual who knows who they are and lives as a true child of God, not a child of this world!

 

Some of us are not mature enough to receive God’s best because we are too self-centered! We are not focused on the glory of God the Father, but on the glory of self! 

We hold onto how we were raised as children by mothers and fathers, we have not denied self!

We are still like children, too immature to receive answers to our prayers; we focus on the world, not the Word. 

We don’t see the blessing of the Father as worth enough to reject our worldly upbringing and child-like ways.

We are too immature, and still harbor resentment and ought against our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We judge one another according to how we think and not according to the word.

We are too immature because we think more of what the world says about us than what God says about us!

 

What is it that you need? Ask him! What is it that you want? Ask him! No good will the Father withhold from his children! How much more will our heavenly Father give us good things if we simply ask!

 

The greatest blessings of God are reserved for those who are mature enough to receive and handle them. Some of us have not embraced who we truly are as children of God and have not, or will not, or don’t even care to take the time to mature enough to receive God’s best. 

 

I want God’s best blessings! Who wouldn’t want them? The question is, are we willing to submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit that we might mature enough to receive them?

Are you willing to give up your worldly ways and accept the ways of God?

 

Some have rejected the offer to experience the best as a child of God because they have chosen to live life according to the ways of the world, rather than according to the ways of the Word.

An Example Of A Child 

Rejecting The Offer Of The Father

 

Lk 15:11–24 (NKJV) — 11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 

Notice he had two sons, one of whom is mature as indicated by his being older, and one of whom is immature, as indicated by his being younger.

 

12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 

This lets us know that the father gives each of us a choice on how we want to live our lives. We can wait for his timing, or we can hurry up and do what we want to do, disrespecting our father.

 

13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 

Many of us waste our time on foolish worldly living. We focus on things that don’t matter, earthly stuff. 

Things that are not worth anything eternally. God will allow all of us to do whatever we want, even though we are his children.

 

14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. 

It is important to realize the world is not your friend. In fact, the world will hate you and the world will rob you! And you know why, you are a child of God, not a child of the world.

 

17 “But when he came to himself, 

Now, this is extremely important. He begins to realize he was living less than his best life. His father did not go after him. His father allowed him to live his life as he wanted to. God, our Father, will allow us to do the same as well.

 

The Bible says he had to come to himself. He had to face up to the mess he had put himself in.

I am certain he thought to himself, “Why should I settle for less? I need to embrace who I really am!” 

He finally realized who his father was.

 

17 “But when he came to himself,  he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 

Here, he considered how blessed he really was while he was in his father’s house obeying his father’s rules. 

We all need to think about what is in our father’s house. The many mansions that are being prepared for us. We need to think about our Father, who is rich in houses and land and holds the wealth of the world in the palm of his hands. We need to realize who we really are! We need to realize just what God desires to do for us if we will seek to remain in his good will.

 

So, the boy then says:

18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 “And he arose and came to his father.

 

You know the rest of the story… When the boy went home, his father welcomed him and put on him the best robe, a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet. He then killed the fatted calf, and they began to eat and be merry.

 

This boy is just like many of us. We are young and immature in the spirit. This world is not our home. This world has no place for us, yet we go into the world seeking to do what we want to do, and the world makes a fool out of us. 

 

We talk like the world, we act like the world, we dress like the world, we do stuff like the world, we are more concerned about what happens in the world than what happens for God’s kingdom.

 

We think we can be content with the things of this world. This world will only offer us emptiness, yet we will work for things of the world. We will give our time to experience things of the world. And all of it is meaningless! It is just plain stupid to spend our time focusing on things of this world!

It is just stupid!

 

Unfortunately, unlike this boy, many of us do not come to our senses. 

 

Satan, even though he has lost us because we are saved, still blinds our eyes and our minds so that we cannot see ourselves as the children of God but only as children of the world. 

He does not want us to see ourselves as children of God. He does not want us to see our rich spiritual inheritance as children of God.

He wants us to settle for less, focus on the distractions of the world, and not embrace who we really are, so that we will not have God’s best.

 

But I ask you today, why settle for less? Embrace who you really are, and have God’s best!