Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Matthew 11:11

Somewhere, we have picked up some really heinous ideas and called them wisdom.  Take John…  He lived in the wilderness his whole life, fasting and praying, and preparing for Messiah.  He was to be the messenger, and he was to prepare the way for Jesus, so through him, all the world might be saved.  This was his mission, his job, and he knew it.  He knew it so well, that when Jesus’ “ministry” started to outshine his own, he didn’t even care.

Matthew 3:26-30

And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.”  John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.  “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’  “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.  “He must increase, but I must decrease.

He was the faithful servant.  When his job was done, he knew the bride wasn’t his, but Jesus’.  He had fulfilled his assignment, and he was content.

And, what did Jesus call this man who spent his whole life fasting and praying and living away from people and everything that makes life “enjoyable” in a fleshly sense?  The greatest short of those in the Kingdom.  And today we call him, the church church today would call him, a freak.  Again, as the Word calls it, they were people that the world was not worthy of.

Hebrews 11:36-38 (emphasis mine)

Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

If God considers them people that “the world was not worthy of”, and we consider them of “no earthly good”, being too spiritual to come amongst us, all we really are is a Pharisee, building the tombs of the prophets that our forefathers killed.

What are the things that distract you from this walk?  Say it’s a sin.  What pleasure, what relief, what benefit do you gain from participating in that sin?  What is the feeling that that produces within you that makes you want?  Whatever that is, hate it.  Hate the feeling and the relief you get from it, hate the soulish benefit you receive from the evil thing.  It’s harder to hate that than the act.  It is not really you.  Romans 6:11 says for us to reckon ourselves dead to sin.  Colossians 3:15 instructs us to “Put to death therefore”, to put it to death by the Spirit.

What distracts you and why is precisely what is important, and is exactly what is holding you back.  When you no longer need need anything from someone, or even when you don’t think you do, they have no control over you.  When you throw away the societal rules that imply shame and ignorance upon those who do not conform to fit a certain portrayed image, and you live and die upon a different system, a system rooted in an Eternal man, the earth has no more hold on you.

The world, and even segments of the church, can make a great deal of noise about the basic elements of this earth.  But Jesus came and demonstrated The Way, a way above them.

Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.

Colossians 2:8

Where the world is limited to the rules of this world, we are not.  Where the world must take a boat, Jesus walked on water.  Where the world must pay for all their bread, Jesus multiplied it.  Where the world cannot make up for a lack of wine, Jesus created it.  Where the all world must die, Jesus overcame it!

Do NOT let anyone rob you through the basic principles of this world.  Through the elemental spirits.  Through the rudimentary things of this earth.  One word of Faith.  One word of truth.  One word, saying, “Peace be still”, calmed a storm.  And one word, “Come Forth!” brought up Lazarus from the grave.

Don’t LET anyone rob you.  Don’t let circumstances rob you.  Don’t let anything rob you from first place.

John was the greatest outside of the Kingdom, but the least in it is greater than he.  What would happen if you combined the diligence of John, with the right heart and Spirit, with the ability, supremacy, dominion, and grace of the Kingdom?  The results will be out of this world…