Gotta, Gonna, or Wanna?

For the last few years now, I’ve been an avid viewer of the Justin Rhodes Show, which can be viewed by anybody on YouTube. This homesteader has made a business of vlogging, allowing a more than normal intimate view of family dynamics on the farm. He and his family raise vegetables, chickens, sheep, swine, and beef, and they do their best to live primarily off of what they grow.

As I’ve seen with other homesteaders raising families, Justin and his wife, Rebecca, fully involve their children in homesteading chores appropriate to their age, at this point, ages ranging from 16 to 2; 5 children altogether.

Justin will discuss from time-to-time the various stages his children go through when it comes to doing chores. First and foremost, the children are required to do their chores. Though he is very forgiving, especially in early stages of developing personal responsibility, each child has their role to play in the family as members who help maintain the homestead. It is a requirement, even if they don’t feel like it, or want to do something else, like… play!

What we find from the children, being required to do their chores is a growing ability to do them, even without being reminded, in part, because positive and negative consequences are related to their obedience. At this point, sometimes Justin will talk about the future, realizing that any particular child might not choose to continue this family tradition, that, nevertheless, he has trained them to become responsible adults, and they can take their skills to whatever profession they want. That said, his hope is that they will want to stay on the family farm and carry on the tradition.

Except for the fact a child is supposed to be obedient to their parents, the practices I just mentioned don’t involve life and death, per se. We find nothing inherent to a child’s salvation relating to whether or not they collect eggs in the morning.

What we find is a process for developing character. At first, it may be that the child learns they must do something to please his parents. This can come from their own desire to please parents, and it can also come from the consequence of reward or punishment. But, what the child learns is that they MUST do what they are directed to do. THEY GOTTA DO IT. At some point in developing the habit, the completion of chores might come more from within, still with the concept of pleasing the parents, gaining a reward, or avoiding correction, but they no longer have to be reminded to do their chores. Now, they are at the stage where they  will just DO IT. THEY GONNA DO IT. For the parent, the greatest sense of success in training their children, isn’t just the character they are learning, taking on responsibility, but seeing the child grow up doing homesteading because they WANT TO. THEY WANNA DO IT.

As opposed to ain’t gotta, ain’t gonna, and don’t wanna…

When the LORD led Israel out of Egypt, after proving His greatness through the plagues, He offered to them a promise, becoming a father to them. Obey My laws, and I will bless you. Disobey My laws, and I will punish you. Then, throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles and the prophetic books written during their reigns, we find in the land of Judah varying degrees of rebellion to obedience, and in the realm of obedience we find gotta, gonna, and wanna. While the northern kingdom leaned only in the direction of rebellion.

In Deuteronomy, we see the impetus for Israel’s obedience when Moses shared with them the words the LORD gave to him.

Deu 30:19  I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
Deu 30:20  that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." (…from sermon by Mike Greider)

H1692   (Strong)
dâbaq
daw-bak'
A primitive root; properly to impinge, that is, cling or adhere; figuratively to catch by pursuit: - abide, fast, cleave (fast together), follow close (hard, after), be joined (together), keep (fast), overtake, pursue hard, stick, take.

And in Paul’s second letter to Thessalonica, he describes the latter days as a time of lying and deception where there is no gotta, gonna, or wanna, only rebellion in the hearts of the general population.

2Th 2:9  The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10  and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11  And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
2Th 2:12  that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Today, we will touch on the distinction that is made comparing wanna to gotta and gonna. All three obey but wanna wants to for a reason that goes beyond pleasing somebody, avoiding punishment, or gaining a reward.

We get a hint to the distinctions when the LORD chastises Josiah’s son, Shallum, who fits more within the context of coulda, shoulda, or woulda, instead of gotta, gonna, wanna.

Jer 22:13  "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness And his chambers by injustice, Who uses his neighbor's service without wages And gives him nothing for his work,
Jer 22:14  Who says, 'I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, And cut out windows for it, Paneling it with cedar And painting it with vermilion.' (continuing…)
Jer 22:15  "Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
Jer 22:16  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; Then it was well. Was not this knowing Me?" says the LORD.

“Was not this knowing Me?” First, the LORD compares Shallum’s proud, self-serving behavior to that of the actions of his father, Josiah, who carried out justice and righteousness, and then He asks that question. He then focuses on Shallum’s injustice and unrighteousness.

Jer 22:17  "Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness, For shedding innocent blood, And practicing oppression and violence."

So, the LORD did not say to Shallum that Josiah had simply pleased Him, or that he had avoided being punished, or even that he was worthy of reward. Instead, He equated Josiah’s behaviors as godly – giving him insight into WHO God IS.

Jhn 14:6  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Jhn 14:15  "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Jhn 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that it may abide with you forever—
Jhn 14:17  the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees It nor knows It; but you know It, for It dwells with you and will be in you.

Jhn 14:21  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

However, with all of this clear assurance that we show God we love God by keeping God’s commandments, are we doing it because we gotta, so pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, we’re gonna, or… can we become solely driven by the wanna?

Eph 4:20  But you have not so learned Christ,
Eph 4:21  if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Eph 4:22  that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
Eph 4:23  and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
Eph 4:24  and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. 
Eph 4:25  Therefore, putting away lying, "LET EACH ONE OF YOU SPEAK TRUTH WITH HIS NEIGHBOR," for we are members of one another.
Eph 4:26  "BE ANGRY, AND DO NOT SIN": do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
Eph 4:27 nor give place to the devil.
Eph 4:28  Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
Eph 4:29  Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
Eph 4:30  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by which you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Eph 4:31  Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
Eph 4:32  And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Continuing in Chapter 5…

Eph 5:1  Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.
Eph 5:2  And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

These commandments “conform us to the image of Christ”, so they are not just a tool for judgment, with blessings and cursings, or something God requires so we can prove we like Him, but, instead, a reflection of godliness.

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

But, maybe even more suggestive than conforming is the clear distinction made in us that we are children of God, who, when we are changed will be just like Him.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
1Co 15:51  Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
1Co 15:52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54  So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY." (continuing…)
1Co 15:55  "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? O HADES, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?"
1Co 15:56  The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
1Co 15:57  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

But changed to what? Continuing the same thought, let’s go to 1 John…

1Jn 3:1  Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
1Jn 3:3  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

We’ve heard these encouraging scriptures and read them many, many times, surely! But the thrust of WHY they are read in our hearing, today, is to encourage us to contemplate and meditate on all of these words to discern the differences between wanna, gonna and gotta.

As I consider our journey a shared journey, sadly, I must confess that, having grown up in God’s church, I’ve watched countless lives turn to other journeys because someone, somewhere told all of them, “You don’t gotta!” And I learned from a number of those dear friends and family that they had pursued the journey you and I now share, but out of fear or a sense of obligation. My observation is that they never equated the things they were doing with having insight into WHO and WHAT God is. In doing the commandments, they did not experience the figurative expression of clinging to God, they did not equate the actions with KNOWING God, and they did not understand that those actions made God feel loved (as opposed to being appeased).

Why?

Their basis of obedience was born from believing they had to do something, or, in doing it, they would escape punishment, or even, receive a reward, even eternal life. BUT, they did not see the actions as being one in the same as behaving like God, reflecting (imitating) God, and the actions themselves showing they loved God.

If I could shorten the explanation as much as possible, I would say that they saw all of their actions in obedience as an avenue, a road, to an end and not the end, itself.

Mat 7:12  Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Mat 7:13  "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Mat 7:14  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

When they would read such a passage, it seems that they saw a destination as the narrow gate, and they saw the narrow way as all these rules for living to get to that gate. What they should have seen is entering the gate as already fulfilled because of the godly life we have chosen to live – because we loved God, then walking on that narrow path, living that way. And, when I say “we loved God”, I mean WHO and WHAT He is, which is godliness.

Remember, Jesus said, “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.” (Jhn 14:6) These three things personify that Person, Jesus. Jesus died so we might choose life. Everything Jesus said is true, but it also personifies HIM, and the WAY, the travel, the action, personifies Jesus.

We cannot find that narrow gate on our own, whether by accident or by determination. Many seek and… Do not find. We, too, cannot find it. Our Father, God, must reveal the gate to us, so we can choose to walk through and experience the narrow way.

1Co 2:9  But as it is written: "EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN THE THINGS WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."
1Co 2:10  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:11  For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
1Co 2:13  These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Our Father lead us to that narrow gate using the Holy Spirit. We than passed through the gate though baptism, receiving that Spirit within us, so that we could succeed in all of the qualities of godliness. Brethren, we are flesh, with all of the challenges that all flesh faces, but we are given the keys to godliness by the power of that Holy Spirit that ALWAYS abides in us. God, by opening our eyes and hearts, has given us what it takes. To WANNA be like God, to be godly, not only out of a desire to please our God, and distinct from the love of some reward, or some punishment. It’s true that we GOTTA, and by practicing what we GOTTA do, we are GONNA do it, but if we have entered the narrow gate, GOTTA and GONNA are superseded by the WANNA.

God help us enrich one another with the spirit of godliness, because we WANNA be godly.