In light of this passage of scripture, the author goes on to say, "God wants to escalate us to greater places, positions, and purposes, but He's waiting on our complete alignment. In essence our excellence is the permission God needs before He will enlarge our territory and increase our impact. When we hold on to any thought, habit, or pleasure that is even slightest bit out of line with God's word, we relinquish the ability to be used to our greatest potential."
This point of view is widely accepted and widely proclaimed from pulpits all across America on any given Sunday. To put it bluntly, this is complete and utter garbage. This is only encouraging to people who like to pretend - pretend that they got it all together, know all of the answers, or are capable of doing so. If God wants to "escalate us to greater ...", whatever that means, nothing can stop Him from doing it - Nothing! He's not "waiting" on us for anything, and if He were waiting on us and our "complete alignment", then none of us would ever be used for His glory. "Our complete alignment" would mean perfection and that describes exactly none of us.
"Our excellence is the permission God needs?" He, the Creator of the universe, needs no one's permission for anything. He does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3). God's ability to use any of us is never limited by our potential or our position. This is good news to those who feel the weight of unworthiness, grasp the darkness of their own depravity, and are painfully aware of their own limitations. This is bad news for those who believe their best efforts can control or influence our God to do something He had not intended to do; namely use them for His glory.
To believe that "our excellence" gives God "permission" produces an, I earned this / I deserve this mentality. Like, I did it and deserve some of the credit, because after all it was my "complete alignment" that resulted in God "escalating me to greater places, positions, and purposes. God HAD to because of my "complete alignment". No human, except Jesus has or ever will obtain complete alignment to God's Word. Whenever or if ever we think that we've achieved complete alignment is when we've lowered the standard for perfection that God has put in place, which is what complete alignment means.
This also produces an unhealthy focus on self. Why hasn't God "escalated me?" That becomes the goal and the focus becomes "alignment" for your purposes and goals rather than God's glory. We then try to get God to bend to our will rather than resting and trusting in His. This belittles God and makes him into a powerless being who is just waiting on our cooperation to accomplish what He needs to get done and if we don't cooperate or completely align, then He cannot do what He wanted to do and we were the reason for it not coming to pass. This is nonsense.
God is bigger, better, and more powerful than our frail, feeble, human efforts, and God has been moving in and through the efforts of frail and feeble humans since the beginning of time to accomplish all that He wills. And He will accomplish all that He wills with or without our best efforts. This is good news for the self-admitted sinner, the weak, the poor, the man who just lost his job, and the woman who just lost a child. This is good news for those who've always felt like they don't quite measure up; those who've felt like all hope is lost; those who've let others down and have been let down. Our God never, EVER fails to accomplish His will - namely our redemption, which should be our focus, rather than being "escalated to greater places, positions, and purposes".
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