The Fruit of Repentance

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

Matthew 3: 1-8

How the people longed for Messiah to come!  They came eagerly and willingly to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  This would be the first time that they had owned up to their individual sins, taking personal responsibility for them.  This was so different from the annual Day of Atonement that they were so familiar with, a day of confession that was more of an event than a change of heart.  It was their yearly spiritual 'bath' that made them feel better for a year.  It was not heart change, for how often had they returned to their sins only to come to next year's Day of Atonement?  Yes, this confession and baptism in the Jordan was a brand new thing, and as they came up out of the water, what zeal and great desire to LIVE RIGHT came up out of the water with them!

The Pharisees and  Sadducees came to the Jordan as well, but with a completely different mindset and attitude.  They too longed for the coming of Messiah, but for them, it was all about how they appeared.  They neither came repenting, nor confessing their  sins, nor desiring true heart and life change.  You see, they believed they were already 'good to go.'

John's charge to them has a bit of a sting to it.  "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance!"  The sting is this:  the command implies that they currently were not bearing the correct fruit  So what is it that they were missing?  Just what was the right fruit?

The fruit of repentance is always obvious, especially to others.  It is the ACTION of turning around, turning away from the sin of which you are repenting.  The fruit of repentance is the cessation of the sin!  It is no repentance at all if you confess a sin to God and even others and then continue to walk in it.  The fruit of repentance is living life without the sin.  This is the fruit we are to be bearing!

Lord, I lay my heart bare before Your holiness, knowing  the multitude of sin that resides within it.  I confess that my sin is offensive to you, and that I am going the wrong way in so many areas of my life.  But I don't want to stop at this confession of my sins, believing that is all I have to do. Confession and repentance go hand in hand.  Speak to me and reveal the sin You wish for me to turn away from this month, as I begin the long process of rooting out all sin in my life.  Reveal to me another one next month, so that at the end of this new year, I will be able to look back and see the mighty work You have accomplished in me.  Holy Spirit, take my hand and guide me as I turn away and walk in a new direction.  I surrender to You and the process of repentance, knowing I will never bear the right fruit of repentance unless You produce it in me.  I am Yours; come do Your work in me.  I desire to live a holy life before You.

GOD'S WORD TO ME--"Contend For The Faith!"

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

GOD'S WORD TO ME

(Jude 3, 5-7)

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints . . . Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.  And angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day--just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire."

Though these are difficult verses to read, the Lord is speaking to my heart about America.  My heart has been burdened for many months now regarding two great evils in our country, and both of them stem from the sin of sexual immorality--abortion and homosexuality.  I need not state my opinion on these because, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, I align myself to my Lord and His opinion.  

But today He is speaking to my heart about my complacency and the complacency of most of my brothers and sisters in Christ.  While I know what I believe, and I am ready to stand with my fellow believers and discuss the sin that is so prevalent in our country, I don't know that I want to "contend for the faith."  Loving the sinner, but hating the sin quietly is my typical mode of operation.  Maybe it is yours, as well.

So today, I am challenged to pray many more prayers of repentance, for my own complacency, yes, but also for our collective complacency as a nation.  I will be praying repentant prayers for the Body of Christ, too.  We are all responsible, in part, for the downfall of this great nation, as we have continually turned a blind eye to the sin in our own camp.

It is time for sorrowful, heart-felt, repentance, my dear brothers and sisters.  Will you join me? 

Choosing Joy

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

Ever had one of those days?  You know the kind I am talking about.  The ones that are a truly "Murphy's Law" kind of a day.  From the moment you get up, the snowball starts rolling down the side of the mountain.  Everything you touch seems to fall apart.  And if that were not enough to try to handle, the constant interruptions and the "rearranging" of your schedule seems endless.  Then there are the feelings of not getting anything accomplished, and the realization that you are just "spinning your wheels."  I had one of those days last week. 

As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ I was well aware that the Spirit was with me, residing in me with all kinds of power for me to overcome this day  in spite of how it was unfolding.  My Bible was available to me to be my moment-to-moment guide book for navigating through this already unsettling day.  But I soon learned as I sat down to read my devotional that both the Spirit and the Word would be useless to me unless I surrendered my "right"  to experience my feelings in full bloom, repented of them, and turned to face my God, bowing in His presence.  It would be in that posture alone that I could choose the joy of the Lord, the only strength I needed for my discombobulated day.

These are the words that the Spirit spoke to me in the midst of the waves that continued to sweep over me:

"This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep . . . Go your way.  Eat the fat and drink sweet wine . . . for this day is holy to our Lord.  And do not be grieved, FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH!"  (Nehemiah 8:10)

When I read those words a smile lit on my face, for in them I could see what my solution to my day would be.  If I would crucify my irritated flesh and surrender my right to be "grieved" by my day and to moan and complain about how much seemed to be going wrong, I would be able to celebrate in the day with joy.  Realizing my marching orders, I chose to receive the command to go and "eat and drink,"  the command to just continue through the day with a different attitude.

No matter what our days hold we will always have a choice in how we walk through them.  Frustration can become joyfulness; busy-ness can become joyfulness; being overwhelmed can become joyfulness.  Even sadness and mourning can become joy.  And when you choose joy, your inner man is strengthened.  Out of our inner being will flow rivers of joy, contagious joy, that will minister to those around you.  And through our emotional transformation from upset to joyfulness we will be strengthened with enough might to overcome even the hardest of days. 

Choose joy!  It will reverse the effects that a bad day can have on you and those around you!

The Barriers That Separate Us From God

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

Today, while reading my daily devotional Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, I was struck by the first two sentences.  God's voice seemed particularly clear and direct as my heart heard these words come forth:

"You can live as close to Me as you choose.  I set up not barriers between us; neither do I  tear down barriers that you erect."  (November 5, page 324) 

While reading the first few words my heart was shouting a big "Oh, yeah!"  But the jubilation only lasted a second.  My heart was pierced by the last part.  "Neither do I tear down the barriers that you erect."  Stopping myself from reading the rest of the devotion, I sat silently pondering those words.  God's direct approach this morning had caught me so completely off-guard, I knew that I could read no further until I had addressed His comment spoken so specifically to me.

"Neither do I tear down the barriers that you erect."  You see, I love the idea that you I can live in such close  proximity to God that I experience many intimate moments throughout the day.  And I also love the idea that I could never go so far wrong that God would build a brick wall between us.  God set in motion a plan of relationship with Him that involves me running boldly into His throne room, without hesitation or fear, so that I can jump into His lap and be encircled by His loving arms, and at any point during my day, frequently if desired.  But what I don't like about what He said is that if there are any walls that are put up between us, it will be of my doing.  And what's more, He will not be the one to tear them down.  If I build a wall, I will be the one to have to destroy it, if I want it down.  Even worse for me to hear, there seems to be the implication that I have erected and will erect these walls.

My convicted heart knew in that moment that there is still a wall of barrier between me and my Lord.  I have built this wall, brick upon sinful brick, as I walk in the disobedience of my own fleshly heart.  What stands between me and the Lord are my sins, and the only way those bricks of sin are coming down is if I surrender myself to the Spirit within me,  and I  begin to obey the commands of God's word.  In a nutshell, the wall will come down as I repent, turning completely and resolutely away from each individual sin that is a brick in my wall.

Once again, my Lord has brought me back to the same thing He has been addressing in my life for several months now.  It is the issue of the individual sins and idols that are still in my heart, and  they are  affecting my spiritual  life and walk with Jesus.  This has ramifications on my intimacy with Him, too.  The bottom line is this:  I can spend much time in the Word; I can learn all that it says to me by dissecting the words I study by defining them more correctly in the Greek and Hebrew; I can do endless cross-referencing that will support the concepts found in a single verse; I can sit in on multiple Bible classes and teachings each week.  But if I am not applying what I am learning, and if nothing really changes in my thoughts, words, and actions, then all my knowledge and understanding comes to nothing.

For years I have basked in the idea that "knowing" is a great blessing.  But the blessing only comes when we "do" what we say we "know."  Jesus told His disciples a powerful truth, just after He had washed their feet and challenged them to live spiritually higher and more intimately than they could completely understand.  These are the words He spoke to them, and to me today, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."   I have coined a saying that is similar to what Scarlett O'Hara said in Gone With The Wind.  Here is my thought that seems to line up with what Jesus said to His disciples, "Knowin' and sayin' ain't doin'!"

In the end, my biblical knowledge on the topic of the importance removing sin and idols from my life, the verses I can quote about it, even teaching the Word's truth of it to others, will never equal the 'living it out' in my own life.  The wall I have created out of multiple bricks of sin and dependence on things other than God Himself must come down!  The difficulty of the task can never be my excuse to avoid tearing it down.  The state of the mortar that holds it together (whether hardened by years, partially solid, or still soft from its very recent application) is irrelevant.  The wall must come down if I want to experience life in the Holy of Holies.  My wall is the veil between the Inner Court Classroom on my spiritual journey and the intimate presence of God in the Holiest Place of All.   The wall, the veil in the Tabernacle, is my own flesh!

To turn away from the difficult work of rooting out all sins, idols, and wrong attitudes in my life through my surrender and repentance is to make a choice to live farther away from God than He desires.  It is a choice to live with my sin-wall between us.  Yes, my wall MUST come down!

The Surrender That Brings Victory!

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

(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!"

Prayer Of Surrender

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

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

"I would like to close [this chapter] with a prayer that I found many years ago.  It is a powerful prayer and has led me in my own surrender on more than one occasion.  To pray it without conviction will not yield the fruit of repentance.  But this prayer prayed with a broken and contrite heart will help you to humble yourself before the Lord.  Once humbled you can bring in the heavy machinery of surrender and repentance so that the Spirit can be unleashed in you and out of you!  There is now no need for prayers that beg, 'Give me strength, Lord.'  The Holy Spirit is all the strength you need, and He lives inside of you!  His strength is already ours if we will yield to Him and die to the fleshly emotions of fear, doubt, and dread.  If you are ready now to begin the deep drilling process of repentance and surrender, then pray this prayer out loud . . . on your knees or on your face before the Lord God.

Lord, I'm Yours.  Whatever the cost may be, may Your will be done in my life.  I realize I'm not here on earth to do my own thing. or to seek my own fulfillment, or my own glory.  I'm not here to indulge my desires, to increase my possessions, to impress people, to be popular, to prove I'm somebody important, or to promote myself.  I'm not even here to be relevant or successful by human standards.  I'm here to please You. 

I offer myself to You, for You are worthy.  All that I am or hope to be, I owe to You.  I'm Yours by creation, and every day I receive from You life and breath and all things.  And I am Yours because You bought me, and the price You paid was the precious blood of Christ.  You alone are worthy to be my Lord and Master.  I yield to You, my gracious and glorious Heavenly Father;  to the Lord Jesus who loved me and gave Himself for me; to the Holy Spirit and His gracious influence and empowering.

All that I am and all that I have I give to You.  I give You any rebellion in me that resists doing Your will.  I give You my pride and self-dependence that tell me I can do Your  will in my own power if I try hard enough.  I give You my fears that tell me I'll never be able to do Your will in some areas of my life.  I consent to let You energize me . . . to create within me, moment by moment, both the desire and the power to do Your will.

I give You my body and each of its members  . . my entire inner being:  my mind, my emotional life, and my will . . . my loved ones . . . my marriage or my hope for marriage . . . my abilities and gifts . . . my strengths and weaknesses . . . my health . . . my status (whether high or low) . . . my possessions . . . my past, my present, and my future . . . and when and how I'll go Home.  I am here to love You, to obey You, and to glorify You.  O my Beloved, may I be a joy to You.     Amen and amen!

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

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

"Consider you spiritual life right now.  Do you desire to be pleasing to the Lord by bringing Him your sacrifice of surrender now?  If so, let these next tree passages of Scripture shed new light on the picture of the artesian well of surrender.  They will clearly reveal the life rewards that await the one who is submitted to the power of the Holy Spirit within:

• Therefore, you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation.    (Isaiah 12:3)

•  Jesus answered and said to here, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.'    (John 4: 13-14)

• He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water,' but this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.   (John 7: 38-39)

God is so specific, isn't He?  But let's not just revel in the wonderful thought of what can be.  Let's take the thought one more step -- into action!  We must apply this truth by contemplating our own lives.  Do you have sin in your life that you are holding onto, sin that is keeping God's power trapped inside you?  Has your pride kept you from giving over all of your sin habits to the God who desires to explode forth from you?  Do you understand clearly now that repentance and surrender are the only tools that will enable you to bore deeply into your own heart, bringing you to victorious, overcoming power in your life?  Are you ready now for the Holy Spirit to flow out of your life to others, touching them with His living waters?  Do you realize that in your lifetime, there will be many such borings of repentance and surrender?  Surrender was never intended to be a 'once and for all' deal.  It will be a continual process during your walk toward Heaven.

Your understanding and application of surrender of your whole heart will determine the amount of power that can be witnessed in your life.  If you seek to overcome by the power of the Spirit, then you must find the altar of death and the surrender that can only be found at the veil of the Tabernacle.  That is the place where your flesh dies.

The Spiritual Side of an Artesian Well -- Part 2

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

(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!

Reaping What You Sow

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

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

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."  (Galatians 6:7)

"Do you see what your response is to be [to the enemy's deception and lies about the seriousness of our sin]?  God is calling you to surrender your sins and turn from them.  You are not to be deceived by the lies of the devil.  If you continue to make  excuses for not surrendering and repenting, God will eventually say to you, 'I will not be mocked!'  When you choose to sow for yourselves the seeds of denial of your sin and its corrupt influence, you will reap a bitter fruit of defeat.  But if you sow for yourself the seeds of repentance and surrender, from a heart that is broken and contrite, you will necessarily produce a different kind of fruit.  That fruit is victory over your sin and a powerful life in the Spirit that you will never know unless you turn from your sin and allow Him full control of your life.  Victory and power lie just around the corner for the one who will lay down the boastful pride of life for the purpose of surrendering to God's authority.  Persevering victory and power are the gifts of God for the truly broken-hearted, surrendered servant of the the Lord."

Are you interested in gaining victory over your sin?  Do you want to see what God can do through you?  Then God asks only one thing of you:  Remove all excuse to sin and replace it with real, heart-wrenching repentance and surrender to Him!  This response to your sin moves the heart of God.  In this, He will never feel that you are mocking Him!

Beginning next week (I am on retreat this weekend with my Women's Group) I will begin to explain to you what happens to the Holy Spirit when He enters us the moment we are saved, and what will be required of us in order for His power to be released out of us.  I will be using an Artesian Well to describe it to you.  The correlation is incredible!  You won't want to miss it!

Sacrifices The Delight God

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

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

"What will happen if we do surrender our sinful hearts to God?  Our surrender will lead to victory, perseverance, and power!  If we lack power and victory in our daily walk, we can most assuredly know that our personal surrender is lacking.  Psalm 51: 16-17 sheds some more light on just what kind of sacrifice God requires of us when we surrender.

For You do not delight in [animal] sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offerings.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

 God wants our hearts and spirits to be broken by our sinfulness.  He is looking for a broken and contrite heart in the one who comes to a place of total surrender.  This brokenness and contriteness must be so intense that it leads to real repentance, the turning away from that sin and toward the God of our heart.  This kind of brokenness is a deep sorrow and remorse for our sinfulness that is followed by the desire to never fall prey to that sin ever again. 

To be broken literally means to 'break or crush into pieces' and the word contrite  means to 'collapse'!  Is that how you have taken full vengeance on your sin in the past?  Have you ever been to that place?  Have you been broken to pieces by your sin?  Or have you ever collapsed from following after your sinful flesh,  your sins, your gods?  It is difficult in our pridefulness to get to that place of contriteness and brokenness.  We will try every form of evasion to avoid being ground to pieces, won't we?  Believe me, I know that from my own experiences!  True surrender and repentance are rare in the church today, it seems.  Yet we cannot offer God the correct sacrifice if we are never broken and contrite about our sin. 

Have you ever found yourself saying any of these things to yourself, as I have?

• "I don't need to do that because I'm already forgiven."
• "I am not all that affected by my sin."
• "Who cares anyway?"
• "I don't want to be labeled a radical Christian."
• "I am afraid that if I fully surrender, God will make me do something that I am uncomfortable with."

Maybe the enemy has spoken things to you that are different than these.  It doesn't really matter what has has spoken to you; they are still excuses if you listen to them and use them, and worse, believe them. 

Do you know what all these excuses are?  They are lies and deception from an enemy who would love for us to remain unyielded to God.  He stands to gain territory in our hearts if he can keep us from submitting to God's call to surrender.  If the enemy of of our faith  can make us believe, for any reason, that we don't need to take our sin seriously, then he will be thrilled to keep us from the power that is available to all who do surrender to God's full control.  He would love for us to never surrender anything to God!  He would love to continue to hold us captive in our sin!  He wants to keep us from the victory God has for us!"

For the believer, spiritual healing is all about the surrender that brings us victory over sin.  If you want to lead a victorious, holy life for Jesus, you must come to grips with the idea that it only flows from a heart that has been utterly shattered by its sin, and is now fully surrendered to Him.  There are no short-cuts on the way to the victory that Jesus can bring to our spiritual lives.

How To Be Obedient, God's Way

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 9)

We are taught from a very young age that we not only can accomplish things, but it is better if you do it all by yourself.   This sounds like good instruction, but it does so because this has been ingrained in us since we began to hold our own bottles at feeding time.  But God's word does not teach that at all.  As a matter of fact, He tells us this in Zechariah 4:6 instead:

  

"Not by [your] might, nor by [your] power, but by MY SPIRIT, says the Lord of Hosts."

 "Here's the problem that most of us have when it comes to surrendering to God so that we might obey His every command.  We tend to try to do it in our own power.  In other words, we try to surrender the flesh--BY THE FLESH!  You have already heard that nothing good resides in your flesh, yet you are probably guilty of trying to surrender by your own fleshly power and strength anyway.  You have also likely discovered that surrender by way of the flesh is fruitless.  If you think that isn't true, then just think of one New Year's resolution in which you have succeeded for life!

It bears repeating.  We can only accomplish surrender to God in one way--God's way!  We must come to the place where we allow God to change our hearts and minds so that we understand that repentance--the intentional turning from sin--that flows from a heart that God is changing, is required of every God-seeking believer.  When we allow God to work in our hearts and minds we are set free to act upon the work He has already done within us--the heart-transforming act of placing the life of Christ in us by way of the Holy Spirit.  Because of this one action, we can fix our gaze on Him and turn away from our sin instead.  This is how we die to our flesh.

It is at the veil that divides the Inner Court from the Holy of Holies where the crucifixions of our flesh will take place.  When the veil of your heart that keeps you from fully surrendering to God is removed, then you will be enabled to become a fruit- bearer of the  greatest kind!  But if your walk lacks crucified flesh, then your flesh will remain in its state of decline, ruling over your thoughts, words, and deeds.  If you choose against the surrender that involves the crucifying of your sinful flesh, then you will become useless to God, and your 'religion' will be dead.  Remember, the flesh is death to you, but the Spirit is life."

We can do it, but not alone!  Our part is to surrender to the Spirit in us, and then He accomplishes obedience through us.  Any changes we make on our own can never be heart-transforming because our flesh is made of nothing good. Changing us is the work of the Spirit within us.  Only He can change your heart.

Are You REALLY Sorry?

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

When you have sinned, do you just come to God and blast out a quick, "I'm sorry"? Are you really sorry when you do this or are you just trying to get out of trouble?

"God does not want us to let our sin off the hook!  And He is not nearly as interested in our, 'I'm sorry,' as He is in our confession of sin and repentance.  Have you ever hear children (and sometimes adult too) say that they are sorry when they really are just sorry that they got caught and are now in trouble?  It goes a little something like this:  'Mary, tell your brother that you are sorry for taking his train engine away from him.'  Several moments pass, so you prompt, 'Mary...'  With all the iciness and attitude of a snow queen, you hear this come from your precious little girl, 'Sorrrr-reeee!'  Within moments, little brother is screaming again for his train engine.  Do you get the picture?"  (Chapter 8 of Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory)

Confession is not telling God that you are sorry.  Confession is agreeing with God that you have done something wrong according to His standards and guidelines.  Saying you are sorry to God, with now plan to really be different, will eventually reveal that you not really sorry at all.  To be sorry means that you understand your sin and error, and that you desire greatly to never do it again.  That heart desire should cause us then to take the first step, and then many more, in the opposite direction of the sin.  This is repentance. 

When you have sinned, and go to God with your apology, consider approaching Him this way:

1. Come in true humility
2. Tell Him that you completely agree with His assessment of the sin (confession)
3. Then tell Him that you are sorry
4. Ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, so that you might turn away from repeating this sin
5. Walk away from anything that will lead you to sin in that way again (repentance)

The integrity of your "I'm sorry" that is sandwiched between the confession and repentance of your sin will be revealed in your true repentance of the sin.  Will you walk the other way, or were you just trying to feel better in the presence of God?  Were you trying to let you and your sin off the hook, or were you serious about walking on in holiness and purity by the Spirit?

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 35

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

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 25

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

Day 25:  Zaccheus, the Tax Collector

As Jesus was heading toward Jerusalem, He had to pass through Jericho.  A hush came over those who were on the street that day as they looked to the horizon and saw the Man coming whom they had heard so much about. 

Zaccheus had just made a tax collection from one of the street venders when the hubbub began.  Straining to see over the crowd, Zaccheus became frustrated again by his stature.  It had always plagued him and humiliated him.  But he was rich and he had great power over those whom he was charged to collect from.  Maybe his greed had become his compensation for his lack of height. 

Knowing that he would never get a glimpse of the Man, Zaccheus ran ahead and climbed into a sycamore tree.   Perching in the tree was just fine with Zaccheus.  He had heard that this Jesus seemed to know things He couldn’t possibly know.  Yes, the tree would do just fine.  He would see Jesus, but maybe Jesus wouldn’t be able to see him—or his cheating, selfish, tax-collecting ways that had made him so wealthy.

“Here He comes.  He doesn’t look like a god.  He looks like a man to me,” Zaccheus mused to himself.  But as he was, Jesus stopped right in front of the tree and looked up—right into Zaccheus’ fearful eyes.  Zaccheus had never been so terrified.  What would Jesus say to him or about him?

“Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house,” were the words that broke the uncomfortable silence.  Out of sheer relief Zaccheus scrambled out of the tree and received Jesus’ invitation to entertain Him that night.  Conviction ripped at Zaccheus’ heart, and he boldly proclaimed his sin of defrauding the people out of more money than he was owed.  Half of all he had he pledged to the poor, and to all he had defrauded, he would return four times as much.

Are you trying to hide your sin from Jesus?  When Jesus looks in your heart and reveals your sin, are you willing to let Him in?  Are you willing to make restitution for your sin?  Jesus saved you to seek out your heart.  Will you go the extra mile for the sake of being in the Presence of Jesus?

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 23

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

Day 23:  John the Baptist (Matthew 11: 1-6)

He came into the world in no insignificant or ordinary way.  His birth and name were foretold by an angel to his father, who then became mute until he arrived.  Both of his parents were beyond the normal childbearing years.  He had been filled with the Spirit of God before he even breathed his first breath.  He was given a clearly spelled-out assignment before he was conceived. He would be the forerunner of the Messiah, bringing a message to his people, a message of repentance of sin. Yes, his life had been extraordinary, and his call precise.  He would make ready a people prepared for the Lord’s coming.

Growing up, he knew his close relative, Jesus, was special.  How many times had he heard the stories of how their births were so similar, uncannily so?  Yet he hadn’t put it all together that Jesus was the One he was preparing the way for. (John 1:31, 33)  When the time came, he diligently set out to fulfill his special calling.

His message of repentance was well-received, though it was a brand new concept for his people.  Until then, they only knew they were to offer sacrifices for the sin they committed.  Never before had they been taught to turn from their sin.  But the message of repentance was necessary to prepare their hearts for the message of salvation.  The crowds continued to gather, to hear, and be baptized.  Some even thought that John might be the Christ.

On that particular day another crowd from Bethany joined John at the Jordan River.  When he looked beyond the olive trees, he saw Him coming—Jesus!  When He arrived at the river’s edge and revealed why He came, John was incredulous.  How could he baptize Him?  Yet the Spirit in him leaped, and he knew this was the Christ.  Understanding the requirement of the moment, John obeyed.  God confirmed in his spirit what he already knew.  “This is My Beloved Son!”

Yet John, months later, faltered in his faith.  Upon hearing of the works of Jesus, he sent his disciples to inquire if He was the Expected One, or should they look on.  Are you faltering in your faith?  Has your faith turned to doubt?  Try revisiting in your mind the day of your salvation.

God's Warnings--Ex. 11

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

My Precious One, how easy it is to ignore My warnings, when the one I am warning is you.  How equally easy it is to know of My warnings to another and judge their lack of response.  This morning as you read the passage concerning Pharaoh's final warning, it was easy for you to read it with the mind set that it was foolish for Pharaoh to ignore My 7 warnings and My 9 plagues.  Yet, that is exactly what you do when you know the behavior I desire from you, and you choose instead to ignore what you know that I have clearly asked of you.

Pharaoh could easily ignore My warnings and plagues because, with each time that he followed his own heart, his heart became hardened a bit more.  As he scoffed at the warning, not believing Me at all, it got easier to repeat the wrong response.  By the time I reached the tenth and final plague, his heart was so hard and unbelieving that he thought nothing of what Moses had said to him by prophecy.  He did not count the cost at all for his willful, stubborn disobedience.  His hard heart had already cost him much, but he was willing to overlook it, believing that, in the end, he would prevail over Me.  When Moses told him of the death that would be coming to all the firstborn of the Egypt, Pharaoh never considered that if Moses was speaking the truth (as he had 9 previous times), that he himself would lose his own firstborn.  Because his unbelief prevailed, all of Egypt went into deep sorrow and mourning when they witnessed the devastation that the Angel of Death delivered.

My Precious One, how many warnings from Me will you continue to ignore, believing that no real harm will come to you. Ignoring My warnings, those things that I have clearly laid out for you in My Word, leads to sinful disobedience.   And do you not know that your lack of concern for your disobedience reveals your true heart?  Your disobedience, at its core, is unbelief in Me, the One you say is your Lord.

Disobedience is its own form of unbelief.  When you disobey Me you are telling Me that you believe in your own, sinful heart's desires more than you believe in My ability to provide a way of escape for you.  Did you notice that every one of  My 7 warnings to Pharaoh included a way a repentance for him, a way for him to turn around and heed My warning?  You see, I desire to bring you to repentance, too.  Pharaoh never took Me up on it.  Will you?