Take time to read this important article before the conference call. Let's send it around to friends. Watch for the upcoming issue of Ministry Today on "integrity" with Larry Stockstill as the guest editor. I believe it's one of the most powerful and important issues we've ever published.

Making Integrity a Reality

By Jack Hayford

He draws the contrast between a self-deluded child of the serpent (which any self-indulging religious leader can become) and the Spirit-begotten fruit of a servant who sows into a lifestyle that lives before God on the inside. Jesus shows that such a heart will evidence itself in an "external cash flow" of fidelity, integrity, purity and humility thus, "out of the abundance of the heart."

A heart of integrity is the birthright of the newborn believer. But like Esau's, it can be traded off by choices that indulge the world's or the flesh's immediate demands rather than respecting the worth of God's promise to give us lifelong, abiding blessing. It rises from in the life of a redeemed soul that chooses to learn and live in the fear of God; a life in Christ removed from condemnation and yielded to Him.

Seeking such a lifestyle as a believer (all the more as a leader in ministry), I have concluded that integrity best grows when my heart truly respects the reality of Christ being ever-present with me. And when my heart wisely sees myself not as a leader, but as a child-not as one "positioned to be platformed," but "submitted to be conformed" to the image of Jesus.

No. 1: The starting point is to move beyond my theological belief in God's omnipresence to personal accountability with a practical realism of that truth. It begins with a heart that will get serious about the fact that I am not merely living in a private world of my own reasoning, guarded secrets, hidden thoughts or undetected actions, but I am always-always-"naked and bare" before heaven's eyes, and I earnestly choose to live in that light (Heb. 4:13).

In other words, it is ludicrous to claim Jesus' promise, "Lo, I am with you always," and remain numbed or duped by the notion that there are moments we might be temporarily unnoticed, as though some eternal surveillance camera broke down. But God doesn't conduct surveillance; He isn't watching over me as a policeman or chaperone. Never! However, He has summoned me to learn His presence and to love His purpose in me as deeply as I do His love for me.

God's "watch-care" comes with His Holy Spirit's entry and increase of fullness in our lives. Among His Spirit-filling purposes is His desire to sustain our awareness of the value He sees in us. He is faithful yet fierce; His watching over us reveals His devotion and commitment to guard us against everything that would seek to substitute for or reduce the true value of His purpose in us. His Spirit wants to renew and hone our consciences; to grow us as responsible sons and daughters of a holy Father.

No. 2: The companion to that is to make my choice to live with a constant availability to daily accept the Holy Spirit's inner voice as He corrects and refines me, even at seemingly minor points where flesh argues for small indulgences. By our yielding to Him at all points, He grows us in ways we neither can nor would grow without His insistence. The flesh is so very, very cunning and clever at pleading its own case for it own ways. It is our desire to "only trust and obey" that brings fruit-bearing obedience. Even in life's small things, we give place to the Holy Spirit's announced intention of lifelong growth in the likeness of Jesus.

This growth is by grace, but it requires our being realistic with the difference between the truth of Christ's saving grace and His Spirit's sanctifying grace (that is, becoming wholly His). Many never grow in grace and short-circuit it in that they only know about grace. Having learned the blessing in knowing the truth of justification-that the finished work of the cross is the grounds for our full acceptance and security in Christ the Son. Grace becomes something learned but seldom yearned for.

The gift of God's grace brings a glorious comfort and security in our relationships with Him, but it also calls us to grow in humility and practical purity in our personal lives and spirits. That call is our summons to live in the liberty of a life that is free to grow as the Father's children. We are born "not of the will of man but of God," and the Spirit's call is to a childlike pursuit of holiness. Scripture says, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thess. 4:3). It's our call to humbly and daily keep a continuous teachable, shapeable heart before God.

This demands we face down the blinded notion that maturity and knowledge are synonymous. First Corinthians 8:1 warn us that "knowledge puffs up," but true grace will reveal a humility that will joyously pursue a passion for practical sanctification that matches the joy of our complete acceptance through justification. There is an unworthy peculiarity in our evangelical bent to exalt God's grace without honoring His desire to grow sons and daughters who live like Jesus. But God's Word, in a letter to a pastor named Timothy, calls every ministry leader to have "faith and a good conscience;" to "keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing" (1 Tim. 1:19; 6:14).

Long ago I learned to never take so seriously my maturity, personal dignity or spiritual security that I forget that before Christ, I am but a child. He may call me a son, but my wisdom, insight and perception will eternally be infinitely less than His. Accordingly, I will remember-I am just a little boy, at best, learning today's call to be wholly-that is "holy"-His.

I have come to believe such a mindset is essential for all who would pursue a life of integrity in all things. To this day, it affects all my ways, words, thoughts and deeds. It became engraved on my soul by my mother's oft-spoken words, never with a religious tone but always with a loving firmness: "Jack, all that we do and say, every day is being lived out in front of Jesus."

That picture remains, even this moment as I write, at the same instant I stand as accountable to Him for writing these words-and for living them-as I am certain we will each stand before Him to give an account when He comes again (1 Cor. 3:11-15; 2 Cor. 5:9-10).

And thus it is, that to whatever degree He sees me as having begun to live with a heart of integrity, it is precisely that degree to which this day-this moment-I see myself living in front of Him.

Jack Hayford, the former president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, is a respected leader, preacher and sought-after speaker.