The Only Way Out

As I was spending time with God in my morning prayers, He began to impress upon my spirit to pray for those who are living in spiritual bondage.  As I prayed for these unknown people, He began to speak into my spirit what to pray.  One of the things that was impressed in my mind was that "the narrow path is their only way out."  I prayed for God to show them that there is hope by showing them the light at the end of their seemingly dark tunnel.  But His reply was that it is only the narrow path that will lead them from their current spiritual state to the light they so desperately desire. 

The narrow path means you gotta dust off that Bible and stop sleeping in on Sunday mornings.  Even more than that, I can tell you from personal experience that the narrow path means you will probably have to change your lifestyle.  The narrow path means you will have to allow God to change the way you think.  I can also tell you from personal experience, that you don't realize how infected you are with the way the world thinks until God delivers you from it.  And God can and will deliver you from it by leading you down the narrow path, but it requires genuine and perpetual surrender and personal death.  That is why Jesus said very few find it:  "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matt 7:13,14).  Very few find it because our natural tendency is to love ourselves more than we love God.

If you are frustrated in your walk with Christ, if you are crippled by depression, anxiety, fear, doubt or confusion, if you feel like you are a slave to your flesh, whether it be food, drugs, alcohol, sexual impulse, or a spirit of rebellion, stubbornness or pride, then the narrow path is your only way out.  When a Christian is living in spiritual bondage, it is usually because they are trying to follow Christ on the broad path.  And anytime a Christian tries to follow Christ on the broad path, they soon realize that they are only spinning their wheels and living a life without any spiritual traction.  But to walk the narrow path, we must make a conscious and purposeful decision to do so.  Every.  Single.  Day.

 

Our perception of being victims of circumstance is an illusion, because God always gives us a choice.  However, sometimes God will allow us to dig our hole so deep, so He can remind us that He is our only hope of ever getting out.  So He can remind us that He doesn't speak to be heard, He speaks to be obeyed.

"And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it." (Isaiah 35:8)

"You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God." (James 4:4)

"'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the LORD.." (Jer 29:13,14)