Thread: Daniel Kolenda on motivations

I watched a Daniel Kolenda video where he mostly talks about something different but he also mentions the truest motivation for serving God. I thought that he was going to say something like "get people saved into heaven" but instead he talks about a love for the King being a true motivation for promoting His kingdom. I thought that sounded a bit weird but then I thought about it for a while and it no longer did.

When we try to get people saved from hell it is by getting them saved into God's kingdom. It's not from hell and to neutral - as in everlasting life as we know it here on Earth according to our births. There is no alternative to God's kingdom, salvation is from the kingdom of hell plus God's wrath over it and to the kingdom of God with everything that that kingdom entails. A king tends to represent and reflect the best of his kingdom and in this case he is even the very substance of that best.

Often people don't want to get saved because they want nothing to do with king Jesus and what he represents. They'd rather go to hell or just take their chances or they postpone taking that plunge, so to speak. I'm not saying that they understand these things exhaustively but it can be a bit like that. So wanting to see people enter the kingdom has to do with a love for that kingdom which necessarily has to do with a love for its king since he is the substance of that kingdom. The light and life of this world.

"get people saved into heaven" as I said above can mean two different things. It can mean to get them saved from hell. It can also simply mean to get them into heaven. In the positive sense, from wherever else. Not from hell and to wherever else. From wherever else and into heaven. I like that approach, being king and kingdom minded rather than hell minded. I think it is tied to being Spirit minded rather than law minded. The ministry of the law brought death and condemnation and the ministry of the Spirit brings life, as 2 Cor 3 says.

What is your main focus ?

Two important factors come to mind for me, ....

1) relates to our love to and for Christ, ... Christ said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments," and the Great Commission is at the top and is foremost among the commandments. And a wonderful motto for living and serving Christ is "He died for me, I'll live for Him!"

2 Cor 14-15
14For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.


2) relates to our love for people and our responsibility before God to warn the lost and call them to repent and believe the Gospel.
2 Cor 5: 11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.

I've never been motivated by "avoiding Hell". Relationship with the Father and being conformed to the image of Christ is key for me.

My impression is that if one could turn up to full volume the spirit of this world which permeates the hearts of the unsaved then that would equal the spirit of hell. The corresponding heart inclinations and acts would follow and we would have hell on Earth. Most people would die physically rather quickly and would then be in actual hell but the difference wouldn't be that large. Hell sort of follows as an extension of the sin that is already integral to their hearts. The way I see it, one could turn that spirit up to full volume slowly and it wouldn't be spectacular at all, it would rather be boring.

Do unsaved people understand that even if you tell them ? Typically not much. But they might find it easier to spot in the contrast between what they are used to and a demonstration of the things of the kingdom of God.