What Is Inside Of You Make All The Difference

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

" 'So often we mar God's designed influence through us by our self-conscious effort to be consistent and useful.  Jesus says that there is only one way to develop spiritually, and that is by concentration on God . . . pay attention to the Source, and out of you will flow rivers of living water.  We cannot get at the springs of our natural life by common sense.'  (Oswald Chambers, in My Utmost For His Highest)

The problem is that we tend to get this all backward, and then we wonder why we never gain victory of our sins.  We think that we grow spiritually when we set out to do what we 'ought,' and do not do what we think we 'ought not.'

As God was revealing this through a couple of devotionals I was reading not long ago, He knew that He had prepared an extra special treat for me in my personal Bible study.  That morning I was reading in Zechariah 3-4, and my eyes can across this very familiar verse, and it took on a new and fresh meaning.  God's revelation to me was so awesome, and needed!

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of Hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)

Now this was a word to Zerubbabel from God through Zechariah, and He was referring to how Zerubbabel was to finish the temple--neither by his own might nor by his own  power or strength.  God's Word to Zerubbabel was that the temple would only be completed by the Spirit!  Did you get that?  The temple, the house of God, is our hearts!  How will we complete and perfect our own hearts?  Not by our fleshly might or power!  We will see our hearts perfected , completed, and made holy by the Spirit alone!  Our hearts are the home of the Living God, and they need to be built up appropriately so that He is comfortable living there.  Our hearts are to be built up according to God's perfect design in accordance with His whole Word.  How could we ever possibly get that done?  The only way to repair, and thus complete, our hearts is by the Spirit.  There is no other way.  Not by our might nor by our power, but by the Spirit,  my heart and yours will be transformed into a wonderful home for God, if we will but surrender to His work in our hearts.  It is the Spirit's work to do.  It is His job to complete the good work Jesus began in us."

Spiritual Healing Begins With Surrender

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"For quite a while now I have believed that a heart can never be transformed by an act of our will, mostly because our will resides in our flesh, and that flesh is ever-decaying and can never be improved.  I believe that, in the same way that we may not be saved without an act of God's will, we cannot be sanctified and transformed without the same kind of act of God's will.  When God transforms my heart, then my obedient actions follow.  If I choose to act out of my flesh, as I have when I have made New Year's resolutions, it is possible that I might get some results to begin with, but they are always short-lived.  I am capable of changing some things for a period of time, but only God can change my heart.  When God is given the opportunity to work out His will in my heart and life through my surrender and obedience to Him, there is a lasting, even eternal, transformation that takes place in me and in  my heart.

But there is one act of my will that God requires of me.  God is looking into hearts, not just to see if we will stop a particular sin.  He is watching to see if our will is desirous of lining up with His.  The specifics of our sin are far less important than the act of our will that wants to surrender and obey in child-like faith.

Our surrendered heart is seen when we are faithful to ask the Spirit to reveal our sin.  Our surrendered heart is seen when we are faithful to confess what is revealed to us as sin, knowing that it is displeasing to God.  Our surrendered heart is seen when we are faithful to place that sin under His full control so that He might be Lord over it.  This is the surrender that He requires of us.  When we bring this sacrifice of surrender, He, who is capable of transforming the heart we bring to Him, will be faithful to accomplish His goal in us--a spiritually healed heart.

When we put our sins and idols into His hands to deal with, God will then, by His Spirit, give some directives for our surrendered hearts to follow, directions that will challenge us to obey Him.  This obedience will then reveal to Him and the world around us that we have given Him Lordship over the sin and idol-stained chambers of our heart.  When we choose to obey His directives, and continually walk in surrender, heart change will occur.  This is the work of the Spirit, and this is the reason I refer to it as spiritual healing.  Spiritual healing will always be a matter of the Spirit's work with in us, not an act of human will.  Spiritual healing is only experienced when we surrender, and that surrender will bring victory to our spiritual lives."

The Surrender That Brings Victory!

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)j

"Obedience is required in order for us to fully put to death our gods and sins.   Without our fully following God's commands, we will never kill those things that can kill us spiritually, and possibly even physically.  If we really want to become fully obedient to the Word, we will have to get to the place where we are confessing our sins as they come to our attention, and turning away from them by repentance.  We can no longer allow them to slide by for the moment while giving God our 'I'm sorry.'  God isn't as interested in our apologies as He is in our brokenness and true repentance of the heart.  If we do not grasp the severity of our willful disobedience and how much it hurts God's heart, we will never see the need to turn away from those sins, giving them up for good.  Instead, we will return over and over to our idol worship.

If you choose to continue in sin, you must remember that God will let your sin find you out!  In case you have never been there, removing sin from your life as the Spirit reveals it to you is far easier than have to remove the sin that you have been caught in!  Humiliation is a tough teacher, but she is highly effective!  Our surrender is the only weapon that can be used to dispossess the idols that remain in our hearts, and the sins that trips us up.  And remember, surrender is not waving the white flag to the enemy.  It is giving ourselves up totally to the power and control of the God who loves us with a holy passion. It is our surrender that will bring spiritual victory to our lives.
Let these definitions of scriptural surrender guide you in your own surrender.

SURRENDER is choosing to:

• walk in the control of the Spirit, instead of in the control of your own flesh
• die to your selfishness and become a new creation
• worship God through your love for Him that is displayed by your crucified flesh and obedience to His Word
• be humble before God in order to pray to Him, seek His face, and turn from the things that you do that are evil in His sight
• allow your flesh to be crucified and die every day so that you can walk through the veil and into His glorious presence
• focus on God's will as your only priority instead of what your flesh desires
• be broken by God for sin you have left unattended for too long
• be willing to make a 180-degree turn in an action, thought, or word
• be open to the Spirit taking control of your entire life so that He can gush out of you
• die for the glory of God!"

The Dangers Of The Sin-Confess-Sin-Confess Cycle

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

A diagram of a heart with broken chambers and a giant tear down the middle can be found in Chapter 6 of my book.  An assignment was give to the reader to fill in the broken chambers with known sins, idols, wrong attitudes, or anything in their life that does not align with God' Word.  It is always difficult to look at the truth of who we are when it is staring back at you in bold black and white.  But acknowledging our sin is the critical first step to removing it from our daily lives.  Today's blog addresses what can happen when we never really put our sin to death.

"How did you do with the soul-searching assignment in Chapter 6?  Did you fill in the heart with your now illuminated, identified, and magnified sin?  Did God reveal to you some things in your heart that you didn't even know were there?  Have you begun to keep charge of your heart by confessing these gods and sins to the Lord, and have you been praying consistently for Him to transform these areas of your heart?  Do you realize that once He has transformed each part that He showed you, it will be time to fill in a new heart diagram, and that this will continue for the rest of your life?  Have you completed the assignment?  Have you shared your testimony with anyone?  This is taking full vengeance on your enemies!  This the the hard work of the Inner Court.

With our gods and sins exposed, with our minds now set on their removal from our hearts, and with our prayers reaching the heavens for God to take control of these areas of sin, we begin to see just how important this process is to God.  Our sins are the very walls that separate us from intimacy with Him.  Sin makes God's children impure, unholy, and no longer set apart for Him.  To spare any of our sins for our own benefit breaks the heart of God.  In sparing the gods of our own hearts, we hinder, and even threaten, a deep and intimate relationship with God, and we stay in a constant 'sin-confess-sin-confess' cycle that so easily becomes our lifestyle.  We are not living authentic Christian lives when we try to keep alive the sins that can eventually destroy us.  These sins that we ignore, and thus spare, will have devastating effects on our walk, our witness, and our ministry."

God Will Settle For Nothing Less

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"Everyone's heart is in some form of disrepair.  It is our individual responsibility to do the hard work of the Inner Court experience in order to show that we have our priorities right and that we desire to be obedient to God's call into His presence.  This pleases and glorifies God, just as when the Israeli remnant went to the mountain to gather wood for the rebuilding of the temple after they returned from their exile in Babylon.

Once we have realized our wrong priority of and disobedience in doing everything else but obeying God's command to rebuild and transform our hearts, we can finally begin to seek the Spirit so that we might be informed by Him of the gods, idols, and sins that are still in our hearts.  Ironically, it is these dark places in our hearts that reveal our most predominant affections.  They keep us from having right and godly priorities.  For example, the sin of loving to watch television, and therefore investing too much time sitting in front of it, will often be the very reason that we are not spending much time with God, or that we are not accomplishing the ministry He has given us to do.

God is a patient God.  He did not require us to 'get perfectly clean' before we could be His child.  Jesus' sacrifice was enough for us to join His family as we declared our need of and belief and trust in Him.  However, He is now patiently waiting for us to come before Him with each flesh affection that separates us from intimacy with Him.  What He has graciously and patiently let remain in us may now be the very idol or sin that He requires us to give up for Him today.   Yes, God is a patient God, but He will not be patient forever when it comes to our sin.  God would cease to be God if He continually winked at our unholy sin and love of the other gods that we have place before Him.  His desire is for our sin to be chopped out of us at  the root, leaving nothing left to grow back.  He wants to be the only God that we worship, serve, and bow down to.  He will settle for nothing less."

What are your heart affections that are keeping God in some other seat rather than first?  Have you not already spent enough time bowing at their thrones in your heart?  God is not winking at your sin; He wants these sins to be crucified in your flesh.  He wants to be your ALL IN ALL.  To crucify your flesh is  surrender.  Your sacrifice of gods allows you to walk in obedience to the one true God.  This is walking in the Spirit.  Shall we continue asking God to settle for the idolatry found in our heart and lives?

The Graft That Produces Godly Fruit

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

Yesterday, I revealed to you that I would be sharing a quote from Joanna Weaver's book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.  She let's us have a peek into her thought process before she understood the meaning of being grafted in to the Vine, which is Christ Jesus.  Can you relate to living with wrong suppositions, only to discover the truth later?  I surely can.  Here is her testimony.

"'It is not enough simply to be associated.  To be acquainted.  We have to be spiritually grafted on--to draw our life from [Jesus], to be so closely attached that we would wither and die if we were cut off. 

I missed that point for a long time.  I had spent so much of my life concentrating on the 'fruit' of my own personal holiness, that I missed out on the connection, the sweet intimacy of being attached to the Vine.  And as a result, what I tried to do was as ludicrous as an apple tree branch trying to produce apples by its own effort.

"Be good, be good.  Do good, do good," the broken branch chants as it lies on the orchard grass.  "That apple should be popping out anytime," says the helpless lifeless stick.

But that is not how it works.  It's the tree, not the branch, that determines the fruit.  The tree is the life source.  The branch has no power of its own.  But once it gets connected, once that sap gets flowing and those leaves start growing, that insignificant little twig will find itself loaded with fruit.  And it didn't have to do anything--except abide.'

Our lesson from the Israelites is that hard work will be required of us to rebuild our hearts and bring them under Christ's full control.  But the hard work of learning how to walk by the Spirit, to make the Word our life's road map, and to worship as God desires will reveal to both God and others something of great significance--our surrender."

If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are a grafted in branch.  Having now been grafted into Jesus the Vine, you must now begin to recognize and accept that the Holy Spirit is the life-transforming, fruit-producing sap.  He is the life of Christ inside of you.  It is His job to cause fruit to be produced out of you.  Your only job is to surrender to Him.  And as you do, you will become the bearer  of the fruit.  He produces through you; you simply bear what He produces.  In essence this is the definition of abiding in Christ the Vine. 

Have you been a successful graft?

Discovering The Sin Within Your Heart

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"Theory must always give way to practical application, otherwise all of our 'head knowledge' becomes wasted and worthless grey matter.  Can we turn our focus for just a moment to the Inner Court of our heart transformation?  I would like us to magnify that court right now so that we are not looking at the beginning or end of our spiritual journey, but just at the present, the here and now.

It is in the Inner Court where God allows us to see just how dark and sinful our hearts really are, and can be.  This court is a place of illumination.  Once in the Inner Court, once we have taken a good 'look around' at what is really hidden there, we often find that the sins, the gods, and the idols we find inside of us are so many that they are overwhelming to us.  We know that we are to be busy building our hearts into a proper and pure home for the Lord by sweeping out all that He would not enjoy.  Just like the Israelites of Haggai's day (that we looked at in Chapter 6 of Spiritual Healing), we know that we are to 'rebuilt' our sin-scarred hearts, which is the temple, the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. But again, just like the Israelites, we typically respond just as they did, don't we?  We put satisfying the desires of our own flesh ahead of the priority of cleaning out those very flesh-sins found in our hearts.

We follow after our own priorities, and we leave our sin-filled hearts in disrepair, desolate, and open to destruction while we continue living flesh-ruled lives.  Our breaches, fractures, and sins remain.  Our walk with the Lord and our very lives do not even remotely resemble the life of Christ!  We continually go our merry way, prioritizing everything else in life except our walk with Jesus and a desire to achieve a holy and pure lifestyle.  Following in the footsteps of the Israelites, our wrong priorities lead us straight to the obvious consequences, and some of them will be severe.  Our ministry for the Lord becomes fruitless, barren, and even non-existent.  In the end, when we do not concentrate on obediently living the commandments and repenting of our sins and idols, our lives reveal that our hearts have not been transformed.  Such transformation only takes place when we have been walking intimately with the Savior."

Tomorrow I will be continuing in this vain, by sharing a quote from Joanna Weaver's Having A Mary Heart In A Martha World.  Her personal testimony might help you more clearly see what you are doing that is keeping you from that very intimacy.

Choosing The Correct Path

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

As I begin to wind down the message of Spiritual Healing in the next few blogs, much of it will seem familiar to you, at least I pray that it will.  The last chapter of the book is the culmination of the first eleven.  Each blog will have less information, but it is designed to be that way.  Prayerfully absorb the truth, look deeply within so that you can correctly assess your spiritual condition, and then choose the correct course of action that will lead you into the Holy of Holies.

"Are you in the same court [of the Tabernacle] as when you began to read this book [or these blogs on the book], or have you covered some ground on your way into the next court?  Which court is your current address?  Each of the courts can be reached by taking appropriate steps, and sometimes even leaps, in our spiritual lives.  The goal is always to reach the presence of God in the Holy of Holies.  But your arrival there will depend on these two things:

1. You!
2. And the choices you make!

If you never choose to die to yourself and your sinful ways, you will never walk boldly into the Holy of Holies here on earth, for no flesh can reside in His presence.  So to reach that goal, one must die to self.  Do you remember that the placement of everything in the Tabernacle lines up into a cross?  In order for Jesus to secure a way for us to travel through the Tabernacle into the presence of God, He had to sacrifice His life on a sinner's cross.  If we desire to bask in His presence, we must choose to do the same.  He died for our sinfulness, but our sin still is present in us to many varying degrees.  His intimate presence will only be gained when we die to the sin still found in us.  The Old Testament Tabernacle was a prophetic picture of Christ's death.  It was also a prophetic picture of what is required of us now; it shows us how we must die even as Christ had to die."

What will you do with this information?   Did you recognize this as truth and absorb it?  Did you assess your spiritual condition and the sin that still is apparent in your life?  Will you decide to do whatever it takes to die to your flesh and to your daily sin?  These choices are up to you.  Your choices will determine and reveal whether or not you are serious about moving forward in your walk.

Your Journey To Intimacy With God

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"Out of God's great desire for us to walk in a deep and intimate relationship with Him, one in which we begin to turn over our entire lives to His full control, He woos us by His Spirit to walk through the Door of Jesus.  We are saved through our belief in Jesus when we walk through that Jesus Door.  We then claim His sacrifice on the cross at the bronze altar as His act of sacrifice on our personal behalf, and we are baptized in the cleansing water found at the bronze laver, whereby we associate ourselves with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.  This is our Outer Court experience, but it is not the end of our journey.  It is not the goal.  It is not the place of the greatest intimacy.

As we continue to make our way through the Tabernacle, our journey takes us into the Inner Court.  It is that place where we begin to grow up in our faith.  It takes some believers (like me) many years to pass through that particular door because we are content with our Christian life in the Outer Court, just the way it is.  Others begin to grow right away, flourishing in the Holy Spirit, in the Word, and in pure worship to the Lord.  No matter into which category you happen to fall, the Inner Court is a place where you will become even more intimate with the Lord by way of walking in the Spirit, delving more deeply into the Word, and by learning to worship in both Spirit and the truth found in the Word.  Our growth will be evidenced by our greater fruit.  But this fruit is not limited to the ministry that God has given us to do.  We must also focus on the fruit that will grow inside of us, the very fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.  The Inner Court will be the place in which we identify, confess, dispossess, and take full vengeance on those actions and attitudes that do not line up with the Word and the Spirit.  It is also the place where we will learn to follow the commands that are found in the Word.  The door into the Inner Court is a "cross-roads" in our journey to the Holy of Holies, one which will determine if we will take the easy road (and stay in the Outer Court) or adjust our course, choosing to take the narrower path.  If we choose that narrow path into the Inner Court, it is there that we will be aligned and adjusted in our hearts to the good and perfect will of God, and begin to obey His commands with our whole hearts.

A marvelous thing happens when we are consistently seeking to turn our whole lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ through our confession of sin and the surrender of our will to His.  Through deeper study, a closer walk with the Spirit, and worship from a much more pure heart, we discover moments of great intimacy with the Lord such as we have never before experienced.  These are indescribable times of joy that only flow from a heart that is chasing after the God who can restore it.  This is the experience of those who have chosen to pass through the veil, crucifying their own flesh and will, and step into the Holy of Holies.  This is spiritual healing and intimacy with Christ!   And ultimately, our earthly level of intimacy will grow exponentially when we see Him face to face in Heaven!

The Tabernacle is where we meet Jesus.  It is where we identify our lives with His.  It is the place where we give Him the rule of our broken lives, tarnished with sin.  It is whee our intimacy with Him grows.  The Tabernacle is a picture of the journey of a true believer, and it reveals the relationship that we are currently having with Jesus!"

The Heart United

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, from Chapter 12, "Unite My Heart to Fear Your Name")

"Have you heard the old adage, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'?  Well, here is the real truth of that statement.  You can't even lead a horse to water if he refuses to go!  All you can do for some horses is say, 'There's the water over there.  If you want to drink, you will have to walk yourself there.  I will come along for the journey, if you'd like, but I'm not going to drag you there!' You have nearly completed this book.  It has been full of information about your heart and how it can be, and should be, transformed.  As you read this last chapter, my prayer is that you will look forward, see the 'water', and go take a thirst-quenching drink, over and over.

Throughout this book, you have been given three visual aids to help you grow in your understanding of what your heart truly looks like.  We have examined the Tabernacle of the Old Testament in light of how it represents the journey of our hearts, our very life-path, from the moment that we step into Christ to the moment that we are face to face with Him in eternity.  We have looked at a simple representation of our heart with all of its breaches and cracks, gaining a unique look at the sins, the gods, and the idols that have accumulated there since our birth.  Finally, in the chapters on surrender, we were able to visualize how those layers of sin can trap the Holy Spirit inside of us, unless we break through the sin with our surrender and repentance.  I believe that these visuals will help us all see that the matter of our heart is serious business to God, and the journey through it will be difficult, but necessary, for us to make.  He desires that our hearts be a proper home for Him, one in which He is comfortable.  But for Him to have that proper home, we will go through processes that will make us uncomfortable.

Without an understanding that we are to enter into a relationship with Jesus so that we can begin to be conformed to His image, we will helplessly wander in the wilderness of salvation without sanctification.  From our salvation all the way to standing in the presence of the Living God, we are to be engaged in a progressive process that is designed to unite, bind up, and restore our broken, damaged, and yes, sin-filled hearts.  This sanctification, our perfecting in Christ, is accomplished when we begin to surrender piece by painful piece to the only One who can transform our hearts into hearts that are united and that fear the name of Jesus."

The Upward Call--A Strenuous, Godly Lifestyle

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

"Finally, I will share with you one more insight from the Greek definition for 'run.'  It compels me to run more diligently, and I hope you will find it equally compelling.  This word 'run' is used to compare, figuratively, the public races of Biblical times to a Christian's call to a strenuous, godly life.  This race, this course that has been set for us by God Himself, which allows for the weeding out of sin and encumbrances along the way, is to be the priority of our lives.  We are to become like Christ, and that will never happen if we leave our sin unattended and unchecked.  This race is not intended to be for fun and games, nor for a Christian life of ease.  It is for the prize, upward call of Christ Jesus!  [Those who ran in the Biblical games competed for one reason: to win.  They had no other motive.  They ran strenuously and with reckless abandon!  They removed every obstacle to gaining the prize, and ran, leaving all of themselves on the race track.]

But one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind [our sin] and reaching forward to what lies ahead [our holiness and the active knowledge of God's constant presence with us], I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:13b-14).

You are nearing the end of this book [these particular blogs of excerpts from Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory) , but the journey of the spiritual healing of your heart is just beginning.  Our hearts, tattered and ripped by our sin and our stumbling blocks, are also divided by them.  But we can still run with endurance the race of which every believer is a part:  the race of holiness and Christ-likeness as characterized by our surrender of the sin in our lives and by obedience to Christ, which replaces it.  By enduring the race in this way, our hearts will be sewn up, and we will begin to see God 'unite our hearts to fear His name.'  To have a united heart is the goal.  It is the prize.  Living the upward call is our spiritual healing!  And now it is time to tie on your running shoes!  Ready, set, GO!

INTROSPECTION

1. What are you practically doing to lay aside your 'encumbrances and sin'?  Are you surrendering those places in your heart daily to the Holy Spirit for transformation?
2. What is currently impeding your walk that is not specifically a sin?
3. What sin is satan using to attack you, seemingly from every direction, so that he can prevent you from finishing the race and being a positive influence on other believers?
4. What can you do to make a course correction and run the race well?
5. You have not yet endured like Jesus, to point of death.  But since He has, He is your example.  Are you willing to make 'enduring the journey' your life task?"

(My husband Nevin, the runner, chose this picture from many, because it portraits the struggle at hand, as well as the strength required to accomplish this run.  Wasn't it a great choice?)

Christ, Our Example Of Endurance

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

"Our call to holiness will require from us a run of endurance, a race in which we do not waver, but continue to obey no matter what trial, temptation, or test comes our way.  And lest we think such laying aside and endurance is impossible, we need only look to Jesus.  He is the One on whom we must focus our sights while we run this race.  He is our ultimate example and witness because He has endured the cross.

This is what Jesus did when He endured:  He endured [with unimaginable pain and sorrow] our hostility while we were still sinners, walking in the shame that we deserved.  As His children, now we can endure our trials without becoming weary and losing heart.  Now we have the power to attack our sin issues by obedience to the Word in full surrender to the One who showed us how to endure.  Have you ever considered that?  Jesus endured on the cross for us so that we might endure as we take a stand against our most besetting sins and stumbling blocks today.  And He did it by focusing on the joy that was ahead of Him, His triumphant return to the Father and His eternal home.  Should we be focusing on anything else but Christ and eternity in Heaven?  By setting our focus on Him, we can endure until we gain triumphant victory over our sin.

We will never endure as completely as Jesus did, for He resisted to the point of shedding blood.  Even if we persevere in surrender and obedience, we will never work so hard as to shed blood as Jesus did.  No one has or ever will resist sin to that degree.  But it is still our duty and our responsibility to be about the removal of sin and stumbling blocks from our Christian walk with the desire to overcome, master, and gain victory over what satan has used to entangle us."

As I quote this from the book the Lord gave to me, I am challenged once again as I contemplate my level of endurance in 'fighting the good fight.'  By introspection, I can clearly see so many areas in which I am still either fighting in my own strength, or worse, not fighting at all.  To consider the unfathomable lengths that Christ went to in order to pay the penalty for my sin, I am broken-hearted to find, once again, that I am falling short of the mark when it comes to overcoming the sin that has wrapped itself around my heart, choking out the life of Christ within me.  I am faced with my own lack of surrender to the process of sanctification, and that points, with far too much clarity, to my disobedience. 

Maybe you are finding yourself in that same place.  If so, would you join me today by flexing your spiritual muscles through a prayer of repentance, telling God of your desire to completely turn and face Him as you turn away from your entangling sins?  Will you surrender in humility with me today to our ever-enduring Savior as we seek Him and ask Him, once again, to take over the reins of our lives, and live His through us?  Will you set your laser-sharp focus on Jesus with me?

Making A Course Correction

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

If we put together all of the words and phrases from Hebrews 12:1 that we have looked at in the Greek, we are able to write the verse with even greater clarity. 

"Putting all of those definitions together, we will see an 'amplified' version of what it is really telling us."  Let me show you.

Considering that God has designed for us a particular race to run, one in which we are to lay aside the things that trip us up on our journey to Him, we should set our minds on giving the race a strenuous effort so as never to surrender to our stumbling blocks and sin.  We should attack this race as our course on earth, one of mastery and victory over satan and sin.

If we do not live out this verse in our daily walk of obedience to God, our sins and our encumbrances will keep us from the kind of runner's race of faith that could influence others.  Have you considered what effect your sin and 'allowances' have had on those around you?  What impact could it have if you continue in your disobedience?  Do you remember the legacy left to us by the great cloud of witnesses?  What legacy do you really want to leave behind for others to follow?  Do you want your legacy to be that you tolerated your own disobedience to your Creator while He abhorred it, or that  your fought the good fight, that you ran a great race, that led you to the surrender the brought victory into your life?

Do you find that you now have a course correction to make?  The masterful author of Hebrews has the 'how to' in verse 2 of Hebrews 12.  He says to 'fix your eyes on Jesus' because He is the Author and Perfecter of faith.  Our faith began at our salvation, with Jesus and our belief in Him.  Though we are a character in the book He is writing of our faithful journey, He is the Author of it, not us!  He is also the One who is doing the perfecting in us.  We would never be capable of heart transformation on our own!

As a reminder, let's revisit the 'let us' phrases and what they are telling us to do:

• Lay aside what is holding us back.
• Run with endurance.

The 'laying aside' of our sin and heavy encumbrances is a call to Lordship in our lives.  As we begin to walk in the Spirit and lay aside our stumbling blocks, we are actually making Jesus the Lord of those particular areas of sin and barriers to holiness.  In surrendering them, we are giving Him His rightful seat in our hearts, which allows Him full control over the things that can entangle us and get us off course."

How Well Are You Enduring Your Race?

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

We have been taking a closer look at the two "Let us" phrases found in Hebrews 12: 1-4.  Let me refresh your minds in regard to those two phrases.

     1.  Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us.
     2.  Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

I am making the second one the topic of today's blog.  I will continue to use a Greek dictionary to help us gain greater understanding into the phraseology of this verse.  Today, let's see what the Greek has to say about these 3 very important words:  run, endurance and race.

• Run -- to run or walk hastily having a course to run; specific to this verse, 'with strenuous effort.

Can you sense the urgency and intensity of this kind of running?  This kind of run will not be easy or leisurely.  The course referred to has already been set for us by God, and we will need endurance to finish His race.  [This definition begs an answer to this question:  Why do we, as believers, call our journey with God a 'walk'?  For me, to call it a walk infers that it is an easy-peasy trip!  And it isn't at all!  I think I may start labeling my 'walk' a 'run'.  That just might open a few doors to witnessing!]

• Endurance -- a patient continuing (waiting when necessary), bearing up under the strain with a tranquil mind, not surrendering to them (the sin and encumbrances).

Wow!  I had no idea that my endurance required a tranquil mind, set only on the hope of making it through!  I am not sure I have ever correctly endured!  But let me not just focus on the word 'tranquil'.  We must look at the other words in the definition in order to clearly understand what endurance is.  To endure will require something in me that says that I will keep going, no matter what.  I must stay the course with a constancy that patiently continues even when it is difficult, not just when it is easy.  This race is about learning to be obedient in all things.  When the Word speaks of not surrendering to those things that can entangle me, I must decide now to bear up when temptations, trials, and tests come, so that I can win the race by gaining victories over them.  And with that thought in mind, let move on to our third definition.

• The Race -- strife, contention, a struggle, a contest for victory or mastery, a contest against the enemies of man's salvation, much like the Greek games [Olympics].

Because satan wishes to thwart our efforts to gain victory or mastery over our sin ans stumbling blocks, our fight with him will require great effort.  Our enemy wants to keep us in our sin, maybe more than we want to be free of it.  Therefore, he will contend with us with every weapon in his arsenal.  We must learn to use our entire spiritual armor, and specifically the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, with even more effort and zeal than satan uses against us.

Do you see now shy it is so very important to understand God's Word in its original language [Greek and Hebrew]?  The Greek must be used to define the words of the New Testament; our English dictionaries just cannot fully get the job done!

What Is Entangling You?

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

Let's continue today with our passage found in Hebrews 12: 1-4.  In case you have forgotten the verse, let me remind you:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin . . .

Taking a closer look at some very important phrases in this text will continue to give us greater insight into what God wants desperately for us to understand.

• "Sin -- missing the true end and scope of our lives, which is God, missing the mark or target that God desires, an offense with emphasis on guilt.

This points to the actions, attitudes, and words that we know are wrong and oppose God's Word.  No further discussion is needed here.  We know what they are!

• Entangles -- The definition of this word points to a picture of a competitor trying to thwart a racer (his competition) from every direction; easily surrounding, and can lead to calamity.

Wasn't that a great picture of what it means to be entangled?  You are trying to run the race of your life, but your competitor, the devil, is doing everything within his power to trip you up from every direction, and entangle you in a web of sin as well.  He doesn't want to just win; he wants to take you out of the race!

If we take what we have learned so far from literal definitions of these few words, we can now crate a new and personal rendering of this verse, one based on the more picturesque language of the Greeks.  Here is what I came up with.

Since I have been shown such great examples of people in the Bible who learned how to walk out their faith, and they now are surrounding me, I choose to get rid of my storehouses of stumbling blocks that have been hindering my walk.  I choose also to put away the things I do and say and think that I know are in direct opposition to God.  These encumbrances and sins are intended by the devil, the competition of my faith-walk, to surround me and cause me to trip so that I will be disqualified from the race.  I now understand that his purpose is to lead me to a race calamity as I continue to sin and fall prey to my encumbering activities.  Today I choose to walk surrounded in the faith of those who have gone before me.

The faithful ones who were listed in the Heroes Hall of Fame are the ones who successfully put their sins and encumbrances behind them while marching on in faith and obedience as those who have been called to this lifestyle by God.  Had they not done this, they would not have been included in God's great list that encourages us today.  They are our examples, and they are our legacy.  Therefore, we should follow suit."

What will your legacy look like for those who are coming up after you?  Is your example the one that you would like them to follow in?  Will Jesus use your example for others?  Will you allow yourself to be cut free from what is holding you back?

The Solution To Our Stumbling Blocks

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

Yesterday I promised you a story from the Bible that would be an example of a stumbling block, to help us see the difference between a sin and an encumbrance.  The story is found in Matthew 16.  Let it inspire you to overcome both!

". . . Jesus had just told the disciples of the real events that were about to happen in Jerusalem.  Jesus' prediction of His death gave them more detail than had been disclosed during their previous discussions.  Peter couldn't handle the truth he had just heard.  Jesus told them that He was about to die, and Peter's rebuke was strong.  But it was filled with adoration for his Master.  In his blurting sort of way, Peter boldly told Jesus that His death would never happen!  Jesus immediately turned to address Peter, saying, 'Get behind Me, Satan!'  (Matthew 16:23).  Jesus understood that the thoughts of Peter had been infiltrated by the enemy.  So Jesus said, 'You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.'  (Matthew 16:23).

You see, your own thoughts or actions that are self-absorbed, self-centered, and self-focused can just as easily be a stumbling block to you or to someone else.  They are flesh-fed thoughts, and satan delights in such thoughts, for they do not consider the thoughts or plans of God.  If you struggle with these kinds of encumbrances, your battle plan to overcome them is found in the verses that follow the account of Peter's wrong thought processes.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'  (Matthew 16:24)

This is the answer not only to self-centered thinking or activities but also for every sin you will battle.  We must learn to simply tell our flesh 'no!'  By denying ourselves what our flesh wants, we 'take up our cross,' for that is what Jesus did when He clearly understood what His Father's will was.  If we tell ourselves 'no,' and then obey what God says, in any situation, then we are following Him in that moment.  Those things that encumber us are our stumbling blocks, and they often appear to be innocent thoughts or activities that seem right, on the surface.  But we still will trip over them.

What thought or activity is currently encumbering your walk?

What Are Your Stumbling Blocks?

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 (Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)



"Let's take a closer look at some very important words in [Hebrews 12: 1-4].

• Lay aside -- to put away, cast off, lay down, put off, the opposite of storing up

Can you think of any examples of 'storing up'?  I like to create word pictures.  They help me 'see' better what is meant by certain words.  That's how visual learners learn best!  Here are my word pictures:  a well-stocked pantry [as I stated in yesterday's blog], grain bins too full for even one more kernel of corn, and fat stores.  I know!!!  Don't remind you!  Things that are used to store up other things are designed with a plan and purpose for 'storing up.'  There is no other reason for it!  So, if 'laying aside' means the opposite of 'storing up,' then we need a plan and a purpose for 'laying aside' every encumbrance that we have, as well as the sin that entangles us on our Christian walk.

• Every encumbrance -- a burden, hindrance, or weight; specific to this verse it means a tumor, mass, impediment, a stumbling block

It is critical that we understand this definition because an encumbrance and a sin are defined as two different things in this verse.  The encumbrances that the writer of Hebrews is referring to are not those things that are clearly and scripturally sinful.  He covers that in the next phrase of our passage, and we will define 'sin' next.

So what is he referring to?  Encumbrances are those stumbling blocks that are often called the 'gray areas' of the Bible.  An encumbrance can be anything that impedes your walk that isn't specifically identified as sin.  Consider these:  watching too much television,  smoking, drinking, and being a workaholic.  Do you get the picture now?

The word 'encumbrance' concerns those things that weigh you down or hinder you from doing what God wants you to be doing.  Often you justify their presence in your life because the Word doesn't strictly forbid it or state they they are sins to you.  Yet they rob you of certain aspects of your relationship with God and eventually burden you.  What do you depend on or rely upon other than God  What do you do that creates a way for you to spend more time involved in it than with the things of God, causing you to sometimes exclude Him from your daily life?  These are stumbling blocks that are intentionally set in your way by our enemy."

Join me tomorrow for a specific example of a stumbling block found in the Word!

Are You Laying Aside Your Sin . . . Or Are You Storing It Up?

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

'Storing up' is a very good thing to do when it comes to pantries. But at other times what we 'store up' becomes a hindrance to us.  Take for instance our sin.  God doesn't want us to store up our sin because it will become a stumbling block to us.  When we store it up, we become more comfortable with it.  It can even become our security, and what we trust in when push comes to shove.  God wants us to lay aside our sin because it encumbers our walk with Him. 

Do you remember the story of David.  As a young boy, he took it upon himself to stand and fight a giant who had ridiculed David's God.  King Saul thought he had the solution, or at least a small help for David.  He offered him his King's armor to wear as he fought.  David obliged, but not for long.  It only took moments for David to realize two things.  The armor was too cumbersome for him, and it took his eyes off of trusting God and walking through this battle with Him alone.  David defeated the 9-foot tall giant, but only after he laid aside the armor.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.  (Hebrews 12: 1-4)

"Did you notice the 'let us' phrases?  Whenever you come across a 'let us' verse, you need to read it a 'I must.'  It is a gentle command; it is not a suggestion!  What did the 'let us' phrases tell us to do?

       1.  Lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us.

       2.  Run with endurance the race that is set before us.

If you have been in church, participated in Sunday school, attended a small group, or just read your Bible, you know that eventually you will hear or see something that has to do with how we are to be dealing with our sin.  But in this chapter [of Spiritual Healing] we are going to discover our need to deal with all things that hinder our walk.  We are going to use the Greek definitions of certain words in our passage to help us gain a better understanding of what Hebrews 12: 1-4 is actually telling us, and what was originally intended by its author.  Read the verses above again."

We will continue with this tomorrow.  Be sure to check back in!

Our Great Cloud Of Witnesses

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(Excerpted material from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

Wow!  It seems like it has been a very long time since I have posted a blog for you to use in your devotion time with God! Though I enjoyed my time off, I am glad to be back in the saddle again.  I just love getting back to routine! As I continue to quote through my book, Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, I am picking it up again in Chapter 11, entitled "Enduring The Journey." 

"We will be taking an in-depth look at Hebrews 12: 1-4, but before we begin our study of that passage, I remind you that it is important to read the Word in context.  It is always a good practice when you are studying the Word to look at the chapter before, ore a few verses before and after what you plan to study.  This will often give great insight into your passage of study.

The chapter just ahead of Hebrews 12: 1-4 is the chapter I have often heard referred to as the 'Christian Heroes Hall of Fame' or 'The Faithful Who's Who List' of all who are aspiring to be faithful followers of Jesus.  It is filled with the brief stories of the faith of the likes of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.

This chapter tells us of the accomplishments of faith and obedience.  It tells us of the  many who have gone before us who walked in faith and gained God's approval.  It is a chapter full of miracles and hardships.  And this chapter is about the lineage of every believer.  It is about the legacy that has been left for us and from which we are to learn and then imitate.  Hebrews 11 is a list of our great cloud of the great cloud of witnesses that Hebrews 12: 1-4 refer to!

But Hebrews 12: 1-4 turns its attention to us, and it will cause us to ask ourselves just what kind of legacy we want to leave for those who will come after us."

Read it and let its deep truths and challenges sink in.  I will be blogging about this passage tomorrow.