So how can you know that you're in a place of life? How you treat people, so people who are in a place of life with God, there is something overflows that positive, encouraging, nurturing, lifting, believing in and activating people - not judgemental things and all that kind of stuff. See, we have to understand that the dimensions of maturity we have are always reflected in how we treat people. If I want to know how deep your connection is with God, I don't need to listen to all your revelations. What I really need to see is how you connect with people, how you treat people. Is there a continued flow of kindness, generosity, abundance to people? That is the measure of the outworking of what you've got with God.
I've known many people over years and particularly people who had a great revelation from the word of God, great insights to the word of God, but there was a bit of a problem. I found that when I was with them, it always felt like I never knew anything. It always felt like I was sort of inferior, and they were sort of so spiritual gurus. I used to feel a bit put down by that and then one day we said why don't we have a group and we'll just meet together and we'll talk about how to make marriage work, so we got the group and we brought out some material that would help make marriage work. They all said it was carnal, and not spiritual and they refused to come. Then I got a revelation, that for all that they knew in the word of God, their knowledge of God and maturity was not deep, because they actually could not outwork this in real life. This is one of the troubles that we have, is that we can have great experiences with God, great insights from the word, but where the love of God is outworked is with that person next to you. That is the only way you can really measure in a tangible way, what dimension of maturity you have in God in your life. Think about it.
I've met other people who've had wonderful experiences, but you know what? Problem was, they didn't know how to love people and they hid in the experience from engaging and loving people, just as the other ones we were connected with some years ago, hid in the doctrine from engaging and loving people. The bottom line is do we manifest the love of God, or do we manifest religiosity? Now when Jesus told a story and He said there was two men went into the house of God to pray; one was a tax collector and the other one was a Pharisee, one of the religious people. The religious man said oh, I thank You God I'm not like that other fellow over there, drunken boozer. I don't know why you've let him here, he smells of booze. The other one said Lord, I'm broken and damaged, Lord, please forgive me.
Jesus asked the question - who do you reckon went home that day right with God? The man who had a struggle with alcohol, or the man who had a struggle with pride? The man who had a struggle with pride couldn't see his need. He was blind, and didn't demonstrate the love of God, he demonstrated a superiority that looked down on others and found them lacking. The other man captured the heart of God when he said God, I know I'm broken, I know I'm damaged, but I'm reaching out to You to forgive me. That man who was forgiven went away loving God very much, and that's what Jesus wants. He wants us to be able to bring our experiences of Him, our knowledge of Him into the reality of how we engage one another, and the culture around us. So often people come, they have a wonderful thing and hold their hands up on Sunday, and Monday they're a monster. That's not Christianity. It isn't. It's just not coming to grips with the core of what Jesus said to us; love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, not just on Sunday - ALL your soul, that's your emotions and your mind, ALL your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself. It should flow to where people are and engage them.