More Than A Feeling

One of the ways the devil likes to gain a foothold into our lives, is through our emotions.  He is intimately acquainted with our vulnerability to our own emotions.  This is why our feelings cannot define our relationship with God, because our feelings change from day to day.  But God never changes.  This is also why our feelings cannot dictate our response to God's truth.  Because His truth doesn't change either. 

However, one of the greatest weapons in our enemy's arsenal is our emotions.  If he can appeal to our emotions, if he can get us wrapped up in them, distracted by them, and ultimately consumed by them, then he has gotten his foot into the door of our heart.  He has gained access into our lives to begin building a foundation of lies.  He's done this with many things the Bible calls sinful, but that the world has tried to excuse.  He has ensnared us into complacency by appealing to our emotions.  He has so crippled us with lies, that we do not have ears to hear the truth. 

Any weakness we may have toward something that the Bible defines as sinful, does not serve to redefine it.  Nor does it mean that we can't love those who have weaknesses toward certain sins, but it does mean that our love for them cannot redefine what the Bible considers sinful.  For many, this may be a hard truth to bear, but it is truth nonetheless. 

One thing I know, is that we live in a time in which we need more voices crying out in the wilderness to, "Make straight the way of the Lord." (John 1:23). 

We need more disciples who will preach repentance, "They went out and preached that men should repent." (Mark 6:12).  

We need more watchmen on the wall who will not keep silent, "I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent.." (Isaiah 62:6). 

 

But alas, the Church is wounded.  We are eaten up with compromise, rebellion and pride.  We are slaves to our emotions, giving our allegiance to what we feel, rather than to what God says. 

"For this people's heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.'" (Matt 13:15)

"But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'" (Luke 16:30,31)

"But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like stone so as not to obey the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets;" (Zech 7:11,12)

"For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." (Rev 3:17)

"The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?  I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind...to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds." (Jer 17:9,10)

The Brook Dried Up

I like to have things all planned out.  I like to know where I'm going, what I'm doing, and why.  I like answers.  I like to have reasons for those answers and I like to understand those reasons.  Because of this tendency, sometimes I can be my own worst enemy.  Many times, God has had to remind me of the scriptural account of the prophet Elijah being sent to Brook Cherith to wait.  I've written about this before, but it is something that God keeps pressing upon my spirit.  The whole account of this incident is only eight verses long, but there is a tremendous amount of spiritual food that can be mined from it.

Scripture tells us:
"²Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah:  ³'Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁴It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.' 

⁵So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁶The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
⁷ It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. ⁸Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ⁹'Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there'..." (1 Kings 17:2-9)

We see in verses 2 through 4, Elijah was never told why he was supposed to go there, nor was he told how long he was supposed to wait there.  God simply told Elijah where to go, and that He would supply Elijah's basic needs while he was there.  That's it. 

Neither are we told exactly how long Elijah waited at that brook, but we are told that it was long enough for it to dry up (v.7). 

The thing that speaks loudest to me about this whole account, is Elijah's unquestioning and unwavering obedience to God and His word.  Granted, scripture does not reveal Elijah's thoughts or emotions, but what it does reveal is that regardless of whatever those thoughts and emotions were, they did not get in the way of Elijah's obedience.  We know that Elijah's obedience was unquestioning because when God instructed Elijah to go to the brook, verse 5 simply tells us, "So he went and did according to the word of the Lord..."  How many of us really, truly apply this level of obedience to God in our own lives?  How many of us allow our emotions and reasoning to get in the way of our obedience to God's word?

We also see that Elijah's obedience was unwavering because even though the brook was drying up, he remained there.  Imagine sitting there, day after day, watching your only source of water dwindling to a mere trickle, and then ultimately stopping altogether.  How many of us would have fallen victim to our own reasoning to seek out another water source?  How many of us would have reasoned, "surely God understands I need water, surely when He said to wait here, He didn't mean 'no matter what'."  Yet, we see no evidence in scripture of Elijah reasoning within himself, nor seeking his own way.  Many times when circumstances in our lives become challenged by God's word, we try to reason our way around it instead of simply submitting to God's truth in humble obedience.  We try to seek out another "water" source, instead of holding on to the "living water" of God's word.

My brothers and sisters, we live in a time in which people are so confused that they don't even know which bathroom to use.  We live in a time in which those who profess to belong to Jesus Christ are so Biblically illiterate that they cannot tell truth from the lie.  We live in a time in which our emotions and our own reasoning have become lord of our life in place of Jesus Christ and His commandments.  We live in a time in which the very definition of "love" has become so diluted and perverted by the world that another gospel is being preached, simply to appease those who refuse to love God's truth.  We live in a time that was prophesied 2000 years ago to Timothy by the Apostle Paul, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." (2 Tim 4:3,4).

Unless your desire is God's truth no matter what the consequences, then you are seeking your own desire.  When we seek to justify anything that is contrary to God's word in our own lives, we turn away our ears from truth and away from God.  When we seek our own desires and turn our ears away from truth, we are seeking another water source.

If you are serious about your walk with Christ, then sincerely and earnestly pray for God to search your heart and to reveal any way within you that is contrary to His word.  Pray for Him to give you the ears to hear and receive His truth.  Pray for Him to fill you with an unquestioning and unwavering obedience to His word, no matter what brook you may find yourself sitting at. 

 

"So he went and did according to the word of the Lord..." (1 Kings 17:5)

 

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)

 

Hand To The Plow

For a long time I resisted God's call on my life because I was scared.  I was scared because when you start preaching truth, you gotta live it.  And that's a scary thing to someone as flawed as me.  I had been a believer in Christ for a long time, but I lived my life the way I wanted to live it with a little bit of God on the side.  But there came a time a few years ago that God was ready for me to move into the ministry He had created me to fulfill.  That doesn't make me special or exceptional, because the truth is, everyone who is saved in Christ is created to fulfill a particular ministry within the Body of Christ.  And that's all fine and good if God has called you into a ministry that you are already fully prepared to walk in.  But I wasn't ready and my particular preparation would be painful because there was a lot of death that needed to take place.  I wasn't ready, but God was.

I was an alcoholic.  I was prideful, obnoxious and crude.  I was always ready to have a good time and fulfill everyone's expectations to be the life of the party.  I sought fun more than I sought God.  And when I did seek God, I looked everywhere but the Bible.  I thought I was smart and I prided myself on my education, cleverness and quick wit.  I always had an answer because the thought of saying, "I don't know", and taking the chance that people might think I was stupid, horrified me.   I exuded security and confidence on the outside, but I was insecure and wounded deep within.  And because of my secretly wounded inside, I incorrectly saw my value as being my self-perceived intelligence, abilities and personality, rather than seeing my value as who I was in Christ.

One thing I quickly learned, is that God cannot use someone in a mighty way until they are broken and empty.  I was full of myself, full of the things of this world and full of old wounds and it all had to go, because God will only fill an empty cup.  It is a scary thing to let go of who you think you are so God can show you who He wants you to be.  It is a scary thing to set your hand to the plow, knowing you can never look back, because if you're anything like me, your fear of failure will stand between you and that plow as long as you let it. 

"But Jesus said to him, 'No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'" (Luke 9:62)

"For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.'" (1 Cor 1:19)

"For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." (Matt 23:12)

"Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth." (Col 3:2)

What Is Your Treasure?

Scripture says that Christians are supposed to be the light of the world and to give light to all who are in darkness:  "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house." (Matt 5:14,15)

Those in Christ give light to all who are in darkness when they speak God's truth.  When a Christian shines their light from atop a hill, things that were once hidden in the dark begin to scatter like cockroaches.  Darkness tries to hide truth, but light sets it free.  Jesus said God sent Him to, "..proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed." (Luke 4:18).  So why are so many of those who are saved in Jesus Christ still living in captivity?  Why are so many who claim salvation in Jesus Christ blind to truth and oppressed by temptation?  Because darkness tries to clothe truth with deception, but light clothes it with Christ, "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." (Gal 3:27).

The problem is, many of those who are saved in Jesus Christ have dimmed their light because they are still clothing themselves with the things of this world, instead of Christ.  We are living in the age where those who are saved in Christ have covered their lamps and fallen asleep, content with a lukewarm effort to seek God, they are not reading their Bibles, they are not doing Bible study, they are not going to church, nor fellowshipping with other believers on a regular basis.  We are living in the age where those who claim to be saved in Christ spend more time consuming the things of this world and what the world teaches, than Christ's words and His teachings.  There are too many Christians that can tell you more about pop culture, popular movies, books or T.V. shows than they can about God's word.  Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Luke 12:34).

Why are so many of us intimately acquainted with the storylines in worldly entertainment, yet grossly ignorant of scripture?  Because we treasure and value things that entertain us, rather than things that challenge us spiritually.  We want God to work in our circumstances, rather than work in us.  We want to come to God when we need Him to fix a problem, but we don't want to invest the time trying to establish a relationship with Him through prayer and study of His Word.  We want to define God on our own terms, according to worldly knowledge and understanding, rather than surrender to the revelation He has given to us about Himself through scripture.

A few years ago, when I was still a lukewarm Christian, I began to pray for God to help me understand Him.  I had this inexplicable longing to really know Him, for Him to reveal Himself to me. Don't get me wrong, I thought I already knew God, I was just longing for something more, something deeper.  After praying for God to show Himself to me, all the while having grandiose expectations of my own "burning bush" encounter, or for God to audibly speak to me, He simply placed the thought into my mind, "Why don't you start with what I've already told you about Myself....read the Bible."  So I did.  Cover to cover.  And what I quickly found out, was that all those years I thought I knew Who God was, in all actuality, I really had no idea.  All those years I was so confident in my lukewarm Christianity, I was really only following my own personal version of it.

Scripture says that many will think they know Jesus, but the only ones who really know Him are those who are obedient to Him, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matt 7:21).  By the lips of our Lord and Savior we are told that only those who are obedient to God will enter the kingdom of heaven.  That obedience starts with genuine repentance to turn away from this world and the sins that so enslave us and accept the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.  And that obedience continues through daily surrender to God, His Word and His plans for our life, rather than our own.  The Apostle Paul so accurately described a genuine walk with Christ when He said, "I die daily." (1 Cor 15:31).

Fortunately, scripture also says, "'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).  But make note, God's instructions are to seek Him with "all your heart."  So I suppose the question is, what is the treasure of your heart?

Laughing Gas

I got a root canal the other day.  When I sat in the chair for them to begin the medieval torture, they told me they would give me laughing gas to help me relax.  I laid back in the chair and the doctor began to give me a series of shots in my mouth, but despite the gas, I was nervous, anxious and fretful.  I wanted out of there, out of that chair, out of that room, out of that building.  I was horrified and wanted to get as far away from him and what he was doing to me as I could.

After a few moments, my mouth began to get numb but my heart was still racing because I knew what he was about to do in there.  The thought of it still made me fretful and anxious.  But by the time he began to work on my tooth, the gas mask had been on my face long enough for its effects to begin to take place.  My body eventually began to relax.  I was still concerned about what was going on inside my mouth, but I was no longer tense and fretful about it.  Then after a while, I no longer cared about what he was doing to me.  Nothing had changed about the procedure, the horror of what was taking place was still being played out in my mouth, but I was unconcerned and unbothered, content to sit there and suck on that gas mask.  In less than thirty minutes, I went from horrified about my condition to completely unconcerned and content.

This is what happens to us spiritually when we allow sin into our lives.  All sin, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant, should make us want to get as far away from it as we can.  That is why the enemy of our souls works unceasingly to devise subtle ways to desensitize us towards sin, so he can accomplish his signature move:  to get us to rebel against God in ways of disobedience that seem reasonable and justified.  When we make a conscious decision to justify or excuse our disobedience, we make a conscious decision to allow the enemy to do his work on us.  Then after a while, things that should horrify and repulse us, we are content and unconcerned about. 

 

As Christians, we should have a revulsion in our spirit towards sin because of the influence of God's Holy Spirit at work in us.  But over time, as we turn a deaf ear to God's voice and refuse to surrender in obedience to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, we will eventually succumb to the influence of the devil's work upon our flesh over God's work in our spirit.  And even though certain sins may still make us fretful or anxious, our enemy is able to easily consume us with distraction. We end up in a state in which we are much more inclined to surrender to the enemy, rather than surrender to God.

Scripture plainly tells us, "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7).  But far too many of us are submitting to the enemy, instead of submitting to God.  Scripture tells us to "resist the devil", but far too many of us are resisting God, instead of resisting the enemy.  We resist the enemy by submitting to God.  

 

Not only are we called to defensive action by resisting the devil, we are also called to offensive action by standing against him: 

-"Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." (Eph 6:11)
-"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." (Eph 6:13)
-"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.." (1 Pet 5:8,9)

The rest of the scripture at James 4:7 says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded." (James 4:8).  This scripture is telling us to submit to God and resist the devil.  To draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  To cleanse our lives of worldly things that only serve as distractions to God's kingdom work.  To purify our hearts with obedience to God and His word, so that we will not be reaching out for Christ with one hand and holding on to the world with the other.

 

Resist the enemy of your soul, get as far away from his work as you can, lest he make you numb to his schemes.  Even a little bit is too much because it accumulates over time until you find yourself unconcerned, unbothered and content about things that we, as Christians, should find repulsive to our spirit.

Eating Bird Poop

When I was a little girl, I remember someone telling a story about a person getting into their car while holding a baby on their hip.  As they fumbled around with their keys to unlock the car door, the baby saw a big pile of bird poop on the roof of the car and reached out and grabbed it.  Thankfully, the parent noticed the fistful of poop as it was on its way to the baby's mouth and managed to keep the child from cramming its mouth full of bird doo doo.  Although the parent was horrified at what the baby did, they didn't reprimand the child because it was too young to understand what it had done was wrong.

Now imagine this same child being seven or eight years old, reaching out to grab the pile of bird poop from the top of the car and shoving it into their mouth.  The child is old enough to know better, yet chooses to do it anyway.  In both cases, eating the bird poop is wrong and shouldn't be done.  Yet in the first case, the child is given mercy because it is just a baby.  It is incapable of understanding that what it is doing is wrong.  But in the second case, more is expected of the child because the child should know better.

This illustrates where many of God's people are in their spiritual development in these end days.  We are old enough to know better, yet we choose to do what God clearly instructs us not to.  I tolerate my one year-old pooping on herself in her diaper because that is normal at her age and development.  I would not be so tolerant of cleaning up such a mess from my nine or eleven year-old.

Because God is perfect in mercy, He is merciful on the ignorant and He is longsuffering on those who are doing their best to move forward in spiritual maturity.  He gives us room for mistakes.  However, God makes no wiggle room for outright rebellion.  When we know better, He expects us to do better.  When we consume the things of this world more than we consume Christ and His word, we may as well be eating bird poop.

"..it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." (Heb 5:11-14)

"Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly.." (1 Cor 3:1-3)

"Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal...I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats this bread he will live forever;" (John 6:27,51)