GIANTS: #6 The Giant Called Failure.

People fall short by omitting occurrences or performances when they do not reach a self-justified expectation belief. The expression is ambiguous.

What is failure to one person is success to another. 

So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! (Romans 11:11-12)

Failure is birthed from the sin of comparison, thus, why it causes jealousy. As Paul states, jealousy has some benefits.

In order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. (Romans 11:14)

However, most think about failure in a negative light. Their belief system demands that failure is painful and that it causes mental turmoil and distress, resulting in agonizing guilt and self-condemnation. A failure is a conscious act resulting in falling short of a self-established objective that was typically unrealistic. The perception of failure is always subjective. It usually propagates the lie of being the opposite of success. Why? Because “success” is subjective at best. The perception of failure is not only useful; it is the primary tool God uses to reveal the weaknesses of the flesh. In short, God’s redemptive plan through His Son doesn’t work without the overwhelming belief of failure. Simply put, we are failures without the indwelling Life of Jesus Christ.

The Giant of Failure is complex. The Giant functions, or should I say, thrives off of what is true about our flesh. This monster hides behind the skirt of self-help, self-effort, self-justification, or any other self-idiosyncrasies. While this monster loves chaining the believer down with the lies associated with pessimism, in God’s reality, it is a healthy dose OF reality. Paul shared this in a simpler way.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

People of failure do not understand that they are as weak as jars of clay. God’s design included and ensured that humanity would align themselves with the vulnerability of their fallen nature. He did this for reasons often confusing to the human mind. The flesh wants to succeed on its own without the help of God or others. Flesh enjoys flaunting self-accomplishments. It thrives off of self-justified rewards. It uses words like pride, proud, “I can do it,” and thousands of other exalting oneself ideologies. Does God freak out over these sinuous acts? Not one bit. He uses these twisting acts to exhaust the human, bring them to the end of themselves, and cry out for a life that can be lived out in and through them – Jesus. Failure is meant to be frail and degrading so that, as Paul said, to show that the surpassing power (of Christ) belongs to God, not to humans. When humans attempt to take ownership of God’s power without Christ, we are causing jealousy on Jesus’s part. The good kind. Jesus responds to His jealousy by breaking down the human into a pile of failure. Only then will they consider indwelling Life. 

The Trinity can always count on failure.

Every human can crumble, even be broken beyond repair. However, there are the few who enter brokenness because of failure and find salvation in Jesus Christ. Brokenness produces either bitterness or willingness. That is a fact. When, or if, a person within humanity discovers all things can be worn away except for the Word of God and the God of the Word, they can experience the pouring out of the Holy Spirit from within. After all, the Spirit of Truth IS the Word. And why? Because the light of the Spirit is the manifestation of the surpassing power OF God. Here is what failure does.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:8-10) 

Humanly speaking, affliction, being perplexed, acts of despair, persecution, being forsaken, and being struck down typically induces failure. When someone is filled with the Successful One, Jesus, it doesn’t destroy us but rather aligns us to the death of Jesus. When that is accomplished, Jesus, through the Spirit, will be manifested in our bodies. I hope you caught that. Failure produces the release and manifestation of the Life of Christ IN our mortal bodies. Every time a believer attempts to fix the failure that God has put in place, the believer rises up against the hand of God. If any human buys into the lie that they can rise above their failures outside of Christ, they obligate the Lord to reach for a measure of brokenness that could handicap them for life. It happens every day - I am one of them. They might see God as a harsh God for His discipline. However, He sees it as an act of love, compassion, and healing.

God Is Not Shocked By Our Failures

Try to see humanity through the eyes of God. When He created humanity, He made them perfect. Adam and Eve were the perfect reflections of the Tree of Life. As soon as they were lured to the Tree of Knowledge and ate from that tree, failure immediately entered their souls, causing them to be weak as dust. From the fall forward, God compassionately looked down upon humanity with tenderness.

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear Him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (Psalms 103:13-14)

We need to remember that God did not make the choice to make humanity fail. He created them innately to live successfully. Adam and Eve choose failure, which makes them the dust of the earth. To regain or enter into the state of perfection, one must choose once again – the indwelling Life of Jesus. To make this possible, Jesus had to come to the earth, empty Himself of being God, and grow up within a frail human body while never choosing to do what the first Adam did – choosing sin over righteousness. This demonstration pushes the reset button. Adam made a choice while having a sinless body. He chose to sin. Jesus willingly made the choice of righteousness while having a sinless body. Since Jesus was not from the seed of sinful Adam, being of the seed of the Living God, that frail body did not contain sin, for sin is passed through the seed, weak yes, but no seed line of sin. Both the first Adam and the second, Jesus, started out with a sinless body.

If the saved or the unsaved do not embrace this Truth, both will attempt to fix the fix that God has fixed on them to stop fixing themselves. In other words, they will attempt to rise above failure through self-effort.

Failure Produces Eternal Weight of Glory

Failure lives and breathes in the seen world. In this, we are faced with the greatest challenge of this Giant. Since failure thrives off of what it sees, all matters concerning faith become an enemy of sorts for the minds of self-help propagators. Even with those who believe the misnomer of I fail now to succeed later. Here is what Paul said about our failures.

For this light momentary affliction (failure) is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

The buried truth within this passage is absolute. Our failures today lead us to the successes of Christ in us, which produces rewards on Heaven’s side. Without question, we fail as a fleshly default. Knowing that these acts of failure prepare us for an investment in our eternal rewards - puts this Giant in his place. What failure sees is fake and temporary. What Christ sees in and through us is eternal weight. Let’s see, which sounds like a better plan? We must view our failures as a temporary pathway to Christ’s successes. It is acceptable to fail outwardly to release the successes of Christ inwardly. In light of this, we can see God’s reasons for our failures. We die, and He lives.   

Believer - don’t lose heart. Fight this Giant with the Truth by agreeing with him that you are indeed a failure without Christ. When this Giant hears that you are using his weapon against him, he will flee. Agree that you are a failure outside of Christ. Wrap yourself in the blanket of God’s Grace as you are failing. Make your shift to depending upon His successes in you. Walk in His forgiveness. Do this, and you will see success in your life like never before. Never fight against what is true about you. In your flesh, you ARE a failure. In Christ, you are as successful as Christ. Then, and only then, you can be at peace with the fact that failure IS a fact of life while living the Truth as a way of life.

Let us all begin with rising from failure and start each day as a fresh day. While we avoid judging ourselves and others for perceived failures, we can walk in the light of His Word. As for the Giant of Failure, he can crawl back under that rock he came from. May we all release the successes of Jesus from within. If we want an eternal paycheck, this would be the Giant to slay.

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