THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN — part 2

As I con­tinue through my first week of blog­ging, I find myself reflect­ing over my 25 years in min­istry. I’d love to stretch the truth and tell you I’ve done it all cor­rectly and never skinned my knees, but I’m not going to. I have had been plenty of blun­ders, fum­bles, and flops. There are many things I wish I had known since the begin­ning of my min­istry. How­ever, I now know there are some lessons only learned by experience.

Here’s some­thing I’ve learned that I think you need to know as well — there is no sub­sti­tute for integrity. I don’t care how great, how anointed, or how tal­ented you are, noth­ing replaces integrity.

In a day when tal­ent and sta­tus seems to be at such a high pre­mium, if you’re fak­ing in your walk with God, we’re going to find out! Oh and by the way, God already knows.

HERE’S THE KEY —

The key to growth, fruit­ful­ness and ful­fill­ment in Jesus Christ and in life, is absolute integrity of heart before God. Did you get that? It’s not how well you can sing, it’s not how great you can per­form, and it’s cer­tainly not how pow­er­ful you can preach. It’s hav­ing a heart of integrity before God.

We all are way too famil­iar with the casu­alty list of those who felt their gifts and anoint­ings gave them license to fudge in the integrity depart­ment. I’m flab­ber­gasted every time. What causes a per­son to believe they can be rel­a­tively true to the mes­sage they preach or sing to oth­ers? The Word is clear friend, our sins will be found out.

Let me make another state­ment and let’s see how it strikes you… The key to growth and ful­fill­ment in Christ is not the Bible.

Now before you leave me and start surf­ing the web again, hear me out. You can­not grow with­out the Word of God, but it is not the pri­mary key. There are many peo­ple who study the Word, who do not have a heart for Him. The phar­isees were very knowl­edge­able of the Law, yet Jesus said they were full of dead men’s bones on the inside.

Integrity is the sin­gle most fore­most fac­tor you must come to terms with in your own life. By integrity, I’m talk­ing about whole­ness of heart toward God, not holi­ness. Holi­ness flows from whole­ness, but the essence of integrity is completion.

David did some very unwise and sin­ful things in his life­time, but it is said of him that he had a “heart after God’s.” In Psalm 25, he said, “Let integrity and upright­ness pre­serve me.” Thank God! That means integrity is not per­fec­tion.

Make sure you absorb this point. To be a per­son of integrity does not mean you’re per­fect, just like David was not per­fect. It does mean you’re wide open, totally hon­est, with noth­ing hid before God. A per­son of integrity does not fake it — even with God!

In the next chap­ter he says, “Vin­di­cate me, O Lord, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip.” (Psalm 26:1 (NKJV)

Did you see that? If we walk in integrity and trust the Lord, our steps will not lose their foot­ing and God will be our vin­di­ca­tion. True integrity means never hav­ing to fight for your own rep­u­ta­tion! God’s got your back!

The Hebrew word used here for integrity is tawm, mean­ing com­plete. The sim­plest illus­tra­tion in our own lan­guage would be the word inte­ger, mean­ing a whole num­ber. In other words, not a frac­tion!

Inte­ger and integrity are related terms in our lan­guage, and the con­cept in Hebrew is the same—wholeness or com­plete­ness. It means I am not splin­tered by double-​​mindedness, nor com­pro­mised or eroded by per­sonal dis­hon­esty with myself.

Integrity is derived from a math­e­mat­i­cal term mean­ing “a whole number.”

Once a num­ber is frac­tioned, or divided, it is no longer a whole num­ber. I’ve often told our church 99.9% truth is a lie. Why? It’s only a frac­tion of the truth!

Are you liv­ing in true integrity? If so, your feet will not slip and God will vin­di­cate you.

Here’s a few integrity points I’d like to leave you with:

• Char­ac­ter is the sum total of every day choices.
• In any given sit­u­a­tion, what you are deter­mines what you see; and in any given sit­u­a­tion, what you see deter­mines what you do.
• Pri­vate vic­to­ries pre­cede pub­lic victories.
• Per­son­al­ity has the power to open doors. Char­ac­ter keeps them open.

“Char­ac­ter is like a tree and rep­u­ta­tion is like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” (Abra­ham Lin­coln)

Source: Scott Jones