I came across these five vows shortly after I gave my life to Christ. They were the content of a tract written by A.W Tozer, and if I recall right, were extracted from one of his sermons, or a book he wrote. I am sure that tract is still lying somewhere among my books and files till today. The five vows so resonated with me that I memorized them… in a manner of speaking. By this I mean that I while I cannot quite recall them word for word, or in the correct order, I do remember them all. This may not be unrelated to the fact that they have become central to my self-examination, are a regular part of my prayer points till today.
A WORD OF CAUTION HERE PLEASE: Making such vows without surrendering your life to Christ first will be useless to a habitual sinner because, in the first place, you will not be able to keep them. This is because firstly, you will neither have the grace nor the power of the Holy Spirit that those who truly surrender their lives to Jesus receive to do so. And secondly, in the unlikely event that you do manage to keep even four of the five, it will appear like a dirty rag before God since He will see you in ALL your nakedness of sin without the covering provided by Jesus to all those who believe in Him.
THIS IS WHY ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST WILL BENEFIT FROM MAKING SUCH VOWS. I would therefore encourage you to take this first step before going any further:
1. Admit that you are a sinner and confess as many of your sins as you can immediately recall as you examine yourself, sincerely to God;
2. Confess that you believe Jesus died for your sins, rose from the dead and is now alive with all authority to grant you Eternal Life.
3. Ask God to forgive you for all your sins and help you to follow Jesus faithfully for the rest of your life.
I assure that this is one prayer that God will always answer Yes to, if done sincerely. He can see our hearts you see. And you will know you have been forgiven through the peace, relief, and joy that flow through your whole being – among others – after doing so.
NOW YOU CAN READ ON
While what follows may not be in the same order as in the tract, I do know for sure that the first is:
1. DEAL THOROUGHLY WITH SIN.
Under this heading, the Christian is wisely advised never to dissemble or prevaricate on issues relating to sin. Rather, call any sin inadvertently committed by its true name. Do not try to play it down or express it in a way that softens or disguises its true nature. For example, calling your sin a ‘mistake’, an ‘error’ or a ‘lapse’ suggests pride, the deadliest of all sins. It is as if you are trying to ‘pose’ before God which is a clear sign that you are resisting the work of the Holy Spirit in you. Such an attitude may lead you to add sin to sin because it is tantamount to calling God a liar (1 John1: 6). Proverbs 26: 18-19 describes someone who tries to turn a lie into a joke as ‘a madman shooting a deadly weapon’.
Here’s another example. A child of God should not feel it is alright to stare lustfully at the exposed body of a woman, whether in real life or in a movie or in a picture. If you entertain immoral thoughts, make lewd remarks, or actively commit adultery or fornication, all of which you know very well God disapproves of, it means you have chosen to embrace your own ego, appetite or desire by ignoring and/or rejecting the grace, authority, and power God has given you as His child.
When the Holy Spirit makes you aware of this, you should not try to shake off the guilt feelings that follow with such excuses as: After all, I’m only looking so there’s no harm done. You must not try to salve your conscience by saying: After all, I have hurt no one. The person does not even know. That is why our Lord warned us in Matthew 5: 28 that anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with his heart. A half-confession is as dangerous as half-truth. Either can destroy you and others, in which case, you will be adding sin to sin. Repentance and confession must be real on the basis of what you know to be true, as opposed to what you chose to admit.
Here’s another example: You cannot deliberately take what does not belong to you in secret and without the owner’s permission, and say, well, it’s only this small thing and he won’t miss it. After all, he has so many others…”. It is steaing, and that makes you a thief. Admit it and confess and you will be forgiven if you ask sincerely.
The four vows that follow are not necessarily in the same order as in the tract, but in the way they impact me personally:
2. GIVE GOD THE GLORY
Note that it does not say Give glory to God or glorify God. Such expressions have become mundane among Christians and we may tend to say it without even thinking about its significance. As if A.W Tozer suspects this, he chose to couch in a way that jars us to reality. No doubt his aim was to warn us about the consequences of ignoring the warning. We cannot afford to forget that God will not share His glory with anyone. This is why it is very important to always consciously give Him the glory in all our successes and achievements. Why, the Bible even goes as far as to say that we must seek the glory of God, even in such simple things as our choice of food or drink, and when, where, and whether to eat or drink at all!
Glorifying God should come naturally to anyone who has a relationship with Him. Note that I did not say anyone who knows God. The Bible says that the demons know God exists and they tremble. But giving God the glory is another matter entirely. The fate of the first being to attempt to wrest God’s glory for himself was Lucifer, Satan, the devil, that old Serpent who wanted to become like God. The result was that he was expulsed from heaven and cast down to earth along with all the other angels who supported him. And to make his punishment even more bitter, he was to be subject to even human beings on earth. But he continued to resist God’s plan by transmitting the same wicked desire that condemned him to Eternal Death to the heart of man, knowing very well what the result would be!
By using cunning deception, his specialty, to convince man that he can be like God (Genesis 3), Satan made sure man would suffer the same fate as himself, and usurped the dominion God gave man over the earth and all the creation in it! God had no choice but to expulse man from the Garden of Eden, but immediately made provision to counteract the devil’s plan. Praise God it is accomplished today. Jesus has paid in full for all our sins and has destroyed all the works of the devil. This means that everyone who believes in Jesus can overcome the devil and all his diabolic plans.
Nevertheless, as long as man is still on this earth, he still has to continuously battle with. It is still possible for us to slip if we do not pay special attention to seeking and giving God glory in all things. This is why Apostle Paul warns us in 1Peter 5:8: Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
We can learn a lot from the life of some Bible characters who tried to take God’s Glory for themselves. One was Nimrod and the people in his city who tried to build the Tower of Babel to reach Heaven. They figured they could be equal to God if they worked hard and used their combined intelligence to build their own access to heaven. This is still very much the case with many today. Atheists like to use their own reasoning, philosophers, their own intelligence, and even religious people their own ‘good works’ to attain heaven. But Ephesians 2: 8-9 states clearly “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, lest anyone should boast”.
As can be expected, God, in one fell swoop, put a stop their diabolic ambition by breaking down communication among the once-united arrogant people of Babel. Confusion reigned in their midst and, similar to what He did to the demonic angels, he scattered them to different places in the world. Read Genesis 11: 1-10 for details.
Then there was Pharaoh, the King of the once powerful kingdom of Egypt who actually arrogantly declared that he did not know God. he went further still to show utter disrespect for God by stubbornly refusing to repent in spite of the proliferation of natural disasters that God brought about to make him bow. Although he seemed to have relented after the death of all the first born sons in his nation, he went back on his word and, just like the devil did in the Garden of Eden, and is still doing today, continued to pursue Gods’ children. God’s judgement fell upon him when he and his whole army were swallowed up in the same Red Seas that God’s children walked through!!! Exodus Chapter 7 and 8 captures this tragic story.
And to imagine that such glory-seeking was also found among the children of Israel, who should have known better. In Numbers 16, Dathan, Korah and Abiram wanted the glory of a high position among the people. They therefore teamed up with 250 other like-minded rebellious Israelites to confront and publicly challenge the leadership authority God gave Moses and Aaron.
It is interesting that such people never show up when the going is tough. They were nowhere to be found when Moses and Aaron were burdened with the arduous task of facing Pharaoh to demand for the people’s release from slavery. They did not come forward when Moses had to stand strong in faith and lead the people through the Red Sea. They did not offer any support when the people had no water to drink and started accusing Moses. But when everything was calm and Manna and water was guaranteed, they now decided they were equally qualified.
As the Bible tells us, God did not take this lightly. Not only did He affirm Moses and Aaron’s authority publicly, but the rebels received the most grievous punishment ever known to man to date. They were swallowed alive into the earth in the presence of all the people!
There were also the likes of Ananias and Saphirra in the New Testament. These were children of God, a married couple who wanted glory for themselves, and to make matters worse, tried lying to obtain it. Not only did God publicly expose their lies, but they were also summarily and publicly removed from the land of the living in one of the most dramatic accounts recorded in the New Testament (Acts 5: 1-11). Also in the New Testament, we must not forget Herod the king of Judea who accepted worship from a tribe he had oppressed, and who flattered him with words that were only due God, for their own ends. An angel of God struck him down to his death and he was eaten by worms! (Acts 12: 21-23).
God’s powerful reaction to those who crave and accept glory for themselves is a clear demonstration of just how much He hates glory-seeking men in general and His children in particular. Which is why it is terrifying to observe that this seems to be the norm today. Everything around us seems to encourage self-glorification. Again, just like Lucifer in the Garden of Eden, movies and adverts in the media try to persuade us that the world revolves around us and that we therefore deserve, and must get everything they want us to purchase. Fleshly, material and worldly contraptions are projected over and over in subtle ways in order to tempt us and convince us that they are ours for the taking.
And what about Social media? This free-for-all means of communication takes this evil concept further still. Through all the video editing, photo-shopping, and more recently Artificial Intelligence, social media encourages any and everyone to circulate fake images of themselves, or false stories to the world. People make themselves what they are not, or create fake realities to become famous or popular. And all these deceptive images enter into our personal space and capture the attention, interest, and imagination of many.
And what about fake businessmen (scammers) and experts who dazzle the greedy with dubious deals. Or spiritualists and philosophers crawl their way into the heart of the desperate and gullible in order to swindle them of their hard-earned money by teaching them to always look out for number one!
Yes, some even do so under the cover of the Christian faith! Some supposedly Christian celebrities who populate the media even go as far as to declare that they are gods! Yes, Satan’s old lie is still working today, even as it worked on the first man and led to the fall of the human race! But those who have received Jesus as the King of Glory are not supposed to fall for this trick. So be wise, be vigilant and vow to give God all the glory in all things. Should that be a true desire, He will give you all you all the grace and strength you need to stay faithful to it.
3. OWN NOTHING
This vow may startle many of us and make us very uncomfortable. Own Nothing??!! We may feel we cannot survive if we own nothing. We all want to hang on to the earthly blessings of God and often forget that we did not deserve or earn them but only have them by the grace and mercy of God! The things we usually hate to let go of range from relationships (family, friendships), to material possessions (house, car, money), achievements (academic and social etc) and even reputation and position. No wonder out Lord said that whoever is not ready to give up any of these things cannot truly follow Him! (Luke 14: 26). The fact is that all these things can disappear in the twinkle of an eye, and if they don’t, we will eventually have to leave them behind.
Therefore instead wasting so much energy chasing, and trying to cling to these things, we would be much wiser if we earnestly and sincerely make every effort to build our relationship with God above anything else. That is the only way we will be able to know God’s will, follow His ways and pursue His specific purpose for our lives. In doing so, God will provide all the other blessings which are meant to serve us only while we are here on earth (Matthew 6: 33). This is why we must never get too attached to them, but rather regard worldly blessings as tools we must invest as responsible stewards to promote God’s glory. No wonder the Bible reminds us that “Naked we came to this world, and naked we will return to our Maker”.
4. BURY EVERY GOSSIP
There’s really not much to say here. This vow speaks for itself. We all know what a gossip is. Speaking well of someone well-known to known or unknown third party behind their back can hardly be described as gossip. And rarely do you find people doing that. Gossip is always malicious in intent and delivery and it is the specialty of many media and social media influencers today. Whether true or false, deliberate or mistaken, the messier the story, the faster they publish it, and interestingly enough, the faster it circulates! This is so because many of us crave these crazy, juicy stories because they make us feel good about ourselves. And in our self-righteousness, it is often not enough to take pleasure in reading or watching or listening to them, but also in circulating them widely. Jude chapter 1 verses 8-11 aptly describes this trend. Just read it and you will see that it captures almost to a word, what is done on Social Media these days.
That is yet another trap we need to watch out for. And when you do realize you have been caught in the cycle, quickly repent and try your best to make restitution by letting those you shared with know it was wrong, or a lie, or a scam. Then, continue to press forward, assured that the ultimate victory is yours!
And the last but not the least is:
5. DO NOT DEFEND YOURSELF
Again, I do not have much to say about this apart from admitting that I consider it my greatest challenge. I tend to spend a lot of energy trying to figure out if the occasion was self-defense or well-deserved. I am of course not saying we should not defend ourselves when we are physically threatened. Indeed, our Lord taught us to ‘turn the other cheek’ (Matthew 5: 39). But what He really meant by this was that we should be bear the insults, false accusations and denigration of persecutors and those with evil intentions without retaliating. He showed us the example especially during what is referred to as His Passion, when He was arrested, falsely accused, and unfairly sentenced to death by crucifixion.
Perhaps I am looking for a cop-out when I try to reason that maybe my sharp retort, or my retaliatory comment are not ways of defending myself. But there are times when our Lord did proclaim speak sharply to the hypocritical religious legalists and mischievous leaders when He called them the children of the devil (John 8: 44), and blind guides in Matthew 15: 14 who shut the door of the Kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, refuse to go in themselves, and block others who wish to do so from entering (Matthew 23:13).
But after all said and done, I thank God the Holy Spirit because never lets me off easy. When I do eventually realize I have broken this vow, I confess and ask God for forgiveness. I trust my God who says in 1 John 1:7-10 that if we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from any type of sin.
For now, all glory to God, who is able to keep us from falling away and will bring us with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault! (Jude 1:24). AMEN!!!