GOD'S WORD TO ME--Walking with a Limp

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I Kings 18:21

"And Elijah came near to all the people and said, 'How long will you go on limping between two different opinions?  If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.'"

Do you ever feel like your spiritual walk is more like a limp?  I know that I do.  Sometimes it is because I have been wounded or beaten up through spiritual attack as I try to traverse this life as a Christian.    But all too often I am reminded of my limp when I consider the great battle that rages between my spirit and my flesh.  More and more I am realizing that this battle is between polar-opposite opinions, God's good and perfect will and plan and the evil that entered the world with the very first sin. 

I  only have two choices in every situation.   I can choose God's way or the wrong way.  The wrong way, the way of Baal, consists of three entities.  I John 2:16 describes the three as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life."  This is the way of the world, the way of Baal.  How often I take this path and follow Satan's way in the world.  It is no wonder that I walk with a limp in so many situations.

My call is to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, for this is the only "Way" to walk without a limp.  When I create my own 'altars of sacrifice,' that I willing lay upon, it is no wonder that I then find myself limping, for I will always limp around altars of my own making.  (I Kings 18:26--Read it!) 

Lord Jesus, today I choose to follow You.  Open my eyes to see those places where I am  sacrificing my trust in You by trusting in my flesh, what I can see, and my own sinful pride, for these are the altars that make me limp.  Lord, continue to show me that a limp can quickly become lameness.  Forgive my idol worship of life in this world while forgetting You. Come, lead me today, that I might walk in Your strength and power! 

Who Is REALLY In Charge?

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Do you ever feel like you are a stubborn child who goes your own way even when you know what Dad has said?  Me too!  I confess that I sometimes listen to my heart, instead of God when it comes to the multitude of daily choices that present themselves to me.  So often I use LOGIC to problem-solve, my best LIFE EXPERIENCE to counsel myself and others, and my EMOTIONS to respond to unpleasant occurrences.  None of these are sinful, but I am.  These 3 (and so many more) can so easily become the flesh gods that I default to.  When I turn to them instead of my Lord, I am choosing self-reliance and rejecting God.  Sounds harsh doesn't it, especially in light of the wisdom of the world that is so firmly and resolutely engrained in us?  The world says that when you are self-reliant you have a greater chance of success.  It tells us that the only one you can depend on is yourself, and that self-reliance is the only true road to freedom.  But God has a little something different to say about self-reliance.

"Ah, stubborn children," declares the LORD, "who carry out a plan, but not Mine, and who make an alliance (agreement), but not of my Spirit . . . who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking from my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! . . . Egypt's help is worthless and empty!"  (Isaiah 30: 1, 2, 7)

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't have any plans to go to Egypt, and I certainly do not trust in Pharaoh, the Old Testament leader of Egypt.  I bet you don't either.  However, I have no problem at all seeing myself in this verse.  I merely need to replace a few words with a few things that are relevant to my life.  I can clearly see that I often "set out to go down to" the path of my own making.  I daily choose to go wherever I want (in planning, in conversations, in counseling, in arguments,  in ministry, in those countless daily decisions) with absolutely no direction from God.  My true heart reveals that I am far more reliant on myself than in my God, making me the lord of my own life so much of the time.  Can you relate to this?

God is speaking to my heart today, revealing to me that every time I act or think in self-reliance, I am rejecting Him and His counsel and guidance.  When I put my trust in anything other than God Himself, then I have left His protective path and shelter for something that is "worthless and empty."
So I must ask myself a couple of questions:  why would I choose to trust in the ways of myself, knowing that I am prone to come up with the wrong answers and conclusions, leading often to a disaster that could have be averted?  What is preventing me from submitting everything to God first?  I can tell you quickly what the correct answer is to both instances.  It is my PRIDE, a very vine-like sin problem that entangles itself in just about everything I do!

So what are we supposed to do, in order for us to move from being stubborn children to obedient and submissive children?  God tells us plainly just a few verses after today's reference.  Isaiah 30:16b says, "In returning (repenting, turning around from our sin) and rest (from being in charge of my life) you shall be saved (from all the poor decision I make and actions I take):  in quietness (listening to Him) and in trust (of His and the plans He spells out to me) shall be your strength."  Did you catch that the wisdom God speaks is completely opposite of the world's?  I don't need to be strong!  I merely need to trust in God's strength in me.  In His strength I can make the right decisions and take the right path through my day.

If you read the entire passage (1-17) you will discover that Israel did not comply with God's word, and He therefore, executed judgment upon them.  Will we comply and submit our every thought, word, and action to the guiding hand of our Dad, or continue in our self-reliant ways?   Our answers to the questions, and our actions that will surely follow (either way), will reveal who is really in charge of our lives.  Who we rely on most is who is in charge!

The Spiritual Side of an Artesian Well -- Part 2

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 10)

Yesterday I blogged on the workings of an artesian well.  Today, let's look at the amazing application we can take from it, and by it, discover the exciting experience we will have when we surrender our whole lives to God!

"Now here is where it gets fun!  Looking at the spiritual application that we can glean from the artesian well, we can clearly see the unmistakeable similarities between it and our surrender.  Let these points of comparison minister to you as you see the perfection of God's picture of the power of your surrender to Him.

1. The Holy Spirit indwells us at the time of our salvation.  He rains down on us from Heaven and comes into our very hearts, His Tabernacle.  He took the path of least resistance, filling up the holes of our sin-ravaged lives, as He made His way down deep inside of our souls.
2. Once inside of us, our fleshly, sinful pride traps  Him, so that He resides deep within us, waiting to be released by our full surrender to His authority and control.  We know His power is there inside of us, but we don't often see it exploding forth in our lives, and neither does anyone else.  He remains hidden, and our pride keeps us from surrendering fully to His Lordship.
3. When we decide to bring in the heavy equipment of repentance and surrender, a deep boring  will take place within our hearts.  This repentance and surrender will break through what has been our impermeable sin and pride.  Once our repentance and brokenness go deep enough, the Holy Spirit is released  in us, and out of us, like a powerful fountain.  He will shoot upward to the Father, glorifying Him and granting us power and victory over our sin.  Then others will also experience the power of our surrender as we begin to walk under the influence of the Spirit instead of our flesh and sin nature.  They will see the 'new and greatly improved' us!

It is the rain in the diagram that is the Holy Spirit.  In the Word, the Spirit is often spoken of as water of various kinds.  The porous rock is the sin in our lives.  It is all the holes in our sinful hearts that are obvious as we came to know the Lord.  But then, as is often the case, the Holy Spirit becomes trapped inside of us by the impermeable rock of our fleshly pride and daily sin.  The Holy Spirit is now rendered powerless and useless [just like the trapped rain water in the artesian well]  because we refuse to allow Him to have full control of our lives.  Do you see how our brokenness over sin, and the repentance and surrender that follows, is the drill that is necessary for the Spirit to come forth from us in power?  Without our repentance and surrender to the Spirit, He lies trapped inside of us with nowhere to go.  He is the power inside of us that we have been given to be all that God intended for us to be.  When He is not allowed to explode out from us by our surrender, we live powerless lives that are without victory over sin.  We live in the flesh instead of in the Spirit.  In this state, we will surely die and stand before the Lord with regrets for not having become the person God desired and empowered us to be.  And we will have little, if any impact, on a lost and dying world.

Awesome, isn't it?   You have been equipped to walk in the power of the Spirit through your acts of being broken and repentant of your sin, and surrendered completely to God.  These are the drills God uses to release the trapped Spirit from within you! 

Can you now share this principle with others who might need to know how to set the Spirit inside of them free?  What a great visual to use with those who ask you what has happened to you, and how it is that you have changed.  You can now witness to them that it is the power of the Spirit in you, that has been released out of you by your surrender to the perfect will of God, that they are witnessing in you!"

Now, that is a testimony!

Obedience Is Important To God

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God gave Israel a plan for the destruction of the Midianites:  they were to choose 12,000 armed men to go to war against the Midianites, 1,000 military men from each of the 12 tribes of Israel.   Each tribe stood to loose the same number of men when they went to war.  These men then set out to go to war against the five kings of Midian.  The knew their "marching orders" well.  They were to kill everyone and everything, for that was what God meant by "take full vengeance."  There was no question as to what God required of them, and no other options!

So these 12,000 men of war set out to destroy all of the Midianites.  Even Phinehas the priest went out with them to be God's agent to them, for he carried with him the holy vessels and the trumpets for alarm in his hand.  They wouldn't lose--they couldn't lose!  Just as the Lord had commanded them, they went to war and killed all the men and the kings with the sword.  The captured the women and the children. Then they took all their cattle and all their flocks, and then . . . 

WHAT?  What did they do?  Did these 12,000 soldiers obey God?  Did they comply with God's command?  Had not God said to them, "Take FULL vengeance"? 

Do you understand what they did?  They disobeyed the command of their God.  They killed the men and kings, but they captured the women, kept them alive, and plundered the animals, too!  Why would the do that?  They had been sent to battle  to kill everyone and everything because the Midianites were idol worshipers instead of God worshipers, and they had already had  a great evil influence on the Israelites. 

In a nutshell the disobedience of God's people was a result of this:

1. The Israelite men had a thing for the Midianite women, who introduced them to their gods.  The men then would marry these women who were outside of the Jewish faith, thus destroying the purity and holy calling of the Jewish race.
2. The did not want to destroy what their flesh definitely wanted to hang on to and enjoy--the women.
3. The wanted to be in control and make their own decisions  instead of allowing God to be in charge.  Flesh doesn't normally like to be told what to do by God or anyone else.
4. Maybe they thought God would somehow be pleased with them for keeping the women and children alive.  He might just approve of their "compassion."

Can't you just see them merrily returning to camp with those they took captive and all the spoils, hoping to be rewarded for the fine work the had accomplished and for the wealth they were bringing into the family?  They were surely proud of their increase, and they probably couldn't wait to choose from the booty that would be their reward for a job well done.

No matter what the reason for their disobedience, the truth is that they still disobeyed God and He and Moses would surely have something to say about that!  Moses was angry!  Surely his words to them cut them to the quick!  There was no applause, no congratulations, no heroes' welcome home from battle.  This is what Moses said to them:

Have you spared all the women?  Behold these caused the sons of Israel . . .  to trespass against the Lord . . .  so the plague was among the congregation of the Lord.  (Numbers 31: 15-16)

God is the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. What was important to Him in the Old Testament and New Testament is important to Him in the Church Age right now. Obedience has always been VERY IMPORTANT to God!

(More tomorrow on how this applies to the believer.  Today's quote is excerpted from Chapter 7 of Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory  written by Cheryl Gnagey)

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 35

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Day 35:  Peter  (Matthew 26: 31-35, 69-75)

Peter’s spiritual journey proved to be long and difficult—painful, to be exact.  His pride had gotten the better of him too many times to count.  But it hadn’t always been like that.  When he met Jesus on a deep sea fishing trip, Peter fell down at Jesus’ feet, proclaiming his sinful unworthiness.  That day he began his journey with Christ.

From the beginning there seemed to be favor on his life.  It was Peter who was called to walk on the water to Jesus.  It was Peter who first declared that Jesus was the Christ.  Christ said of his bold statement, “Upon this rock I will build My church.”  He was one of three who saw Jesus transfigured and was allowed to see Moses and Elijah as well.

Despite these incredible events, Peter seemed to keep trusting in himself.  He sank in the waves.  He thought it would be a great idea to build tents for Jesus and Moses and Elijah, pridefully hanging on to the fact that he had been a part of that powerful moment.  On that day, God spoke aloud and said, “Listen to My Son!”  But listening wasn’t Peter’s strong suit, either.  He can be found on the pages of the Bible usually speaking with great devotion, but little follow through.  “I will never fall away.  I will never deny You,” are the words that surely played over and over in his head along with his three denials of Christ just before His trial.  Had Jesus not said, “You will deny me three times”?

Peter’s pride had caused him to rely more on himself than to trust in Jesus and His word, and he paid a bitter price for it.  I wonder if anyone has wept harder over their sins than Peter.  On the other hand, it’s possible that no one understands forgiveness to the same degree as Peter.  After the failure of falling to pride, Peter received his forgiveness and went on to preach salvation with a boldness that caused thousands to be born again.  Thus, the early church was born, and he learned to tenderly care for and feed God’s sheep.  In the two letters of Peter that have been preserved in the Bible, he feeds us today, as well.

What sins cause you to deny Jesus?  How do you trust more in yourself than in Jesus and His Word?  What have been the results of such a walk?  Is repentance your next step, or will you deny that it needs to be?

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 33

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Day 33:  Philip and Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8: 1-24)

The death of his beloved friend, Stephen, clouded Philip’s thoughts.  How he mourned this dear man.  Philip had come to know Stephen as they took meals every day to the widows, taking care of their sisters who were alone.  “Stephen had such a pure heart.  How could they stone him?” Philip lamented in his troubled mind.  This one thing he was sure of—these evil men would never be able to stop the spread of the gospel.  Stephen’s death served only to make Philip and the other followers even more determined to carry out their individual calls to ministry.  The Voice of the Spirit even seemed to be speaking more loudly and clearly.

Hearing that Saul, one of the men who had been present at Stephen’s stoning, was now ravaging the church, Philip was compelled by God to leave and go to Samaria and preach the gospel of salvation.   Ministering in the Spirit and by His power, many Samaritans believed and were baptized.  One such man was Simon, a former magician who had made great claims about himself in the past.  He believed and was baptized when he realized that people were no longer amazed at his magic.  How he longed to do the powerful things that Philip was doing, so that the people would be amazed with him again.

When the disciples came from Jerusalem to see what was happening in Samaria, they laid hands on all the new converts, and they received the Holy Spirit.  When Simon saw this great sign, he came forward seeking what the disciples had.  But Simon’s heart was not right with God.  It was clearly focused on the wrong things.  He did not ask for the Holy Spirit to come to him because he needed the Holy Spirit and desired Him.  Instead, his heart was “Simon-centered.”  He offered to pay the disciples money if they would give him the gift that they had.  Simon was seeking the power of laying his hands on people so that they would receive the Holy Spirit.  He was not seeking the Spirit Himself.  Simon had believed the gospel message and had been baptized, but his heart had not been resurrected.   He was still in bondage to sin and pride.

Do you desire gifts you have not been given because they are more visible to others and seem more important?  Are you jealous of those who have what you want?  God knows every intention of every heart.  What does He see in yours?

Saying Is Not Doing

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Great acts of courage can elevate a man. Gideon humbly assumed the role of "judge" and fought for Israel's freedom. Israel wanted him to rule over them, and with great sincerity he refused, saying no man would be their ruler, only the Lord. But immediately he began acting like a king. Out of his spoils of war (that he required from each man), Gideon made an ephod for Israel to worship, and it became a snare to them.

There are many quotable quotes from Gone With the Wind, but there is one that applies here.  While this may be a more "formal" use of the language, the quote is perfect for today's blog.  Saying simply is NOT doing.

Gideon had chased an army, far larger than his own, 150 miles and defeated them, killed their kings, and secured peace, both militarily and domestically, for his nation.  When he returned to his people, they cried out for him to be their ruler.  With what appeared to be a sincerely humble heart, Gideon declared that neither he or his bloodline would be their ruler because the Lord was the only ruler that they needed.

When you read that passage in the Bible your first though, like mine, was that this is a man of great integrity.  It would be pretty difficult to turn down such a request, with all of its power, prestige, and financial blessing! My own heart was challenged as I question what my true response would have been. Yet Gideon declines.  I trusted in the true and humble integrity of a man who had been born into a family considered to be the "least in Manasseh."   And in his own family Gideon was also the "youngest in his father's house."  He seemed to know his place while at the same time knowing God's.

But something wasn't right in Gideon's heart.  His actions did not match his words!  While he refused to be become Israel's ruler, he had no problem asking each of his soldiers to give him part of their spoils.  Though they might have offered it to him because he had led them well, to ask for what was theirs revealed a heart that elevated itself above others.  What he received from them was more than 50 pounds of gold, making his "take" far greater than theirs. 

Not only did he require what was not his, adding it to his own portion, Gideon also took the exquisite ornaments and purple robes of the two Midianite kings and the neck bands of the camels of the Midianite army.  Then Gideon made an ephod out of the metals and set it up in his city.  The people were so enamored with it that they came and worshiped before it.  Gideon, the great judge of Israel, introduced another form of idolatry to God's people.  Gideon had led the army well in defeat of their physical enemies, but he led his people astray to worship the enemy of their heart!

Gideon's success as a leader brought out the "god" of his heart.  Success corrupted him to the level that he was able to convince Israel by his words of his sincerity of heart, when all along his heart was stained with pride, self-interest, self-elevation, and idolatry.

Integrity is heart- defining.  It can't be faked for very long.  What you say must be followed up with actions that are in line with your words.  Saying is not doing.  Integrity is the character trait of aligning your words with your actions. Do your actions match the words that you speak?  Can you be described by your actions as "full of integrity?"  Are you winning the spiritual battle in your heart?  Or are you just saying that you are?  Remember. . . saying is not doing!