The Day Of The Small Things*

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  In this season of my life, traditional holidays are changing as they should with my children all grown up with families of their own.  I stalled this season for almost an entire generation having raised 2 sets of children 17 years apart, yet nothing stops the advance of time.

The seasons come and the seasons go.  Years pass quickly and memories are like a glue that holds our hearts and our lives together even as some are taken away from our gatherings until a reunion at a point in eternity future. This season is different but holds its own delightful purpose and I long to find and squeeze out all the goodness from each new day and celebration that comes.

This morning the Holy One calls me out of my sleep with His peaceful reminder, "This is your season of observation and growth."    Being an observer involves a lot of remorse for my past flesh mistakes as self analysis exposes the deep chasm between the desire to be Holy and the reality of my own failures to perform.  When He puts together observation and growth I cannot help but be intrigued for what the new season holds.  Thoughts begin to cascade through my mind.

But then, My Holy Counselor enters into my self-conversation and adds more clarity. "Sanctification is hard work isn't it?  But you must always remember I hold the plumb line.  Do not despise the day of the small things".   And with that, He takes me back to His Word in Zechariah.

I have such a fondness for this book written by the prophet, Zechariah because it involves another great conversation in the realm beyond our view.  Zechariah was given a vision like in the book of Job, where in the beginning, there is a  behind the scene look at the spirit realm that is impacting our temporal lives here on earth. 

In the account of Job's life, Satan, the accuser of all of us is taking a shot at Job's integrity and asking God's permission to test it.  In Job's life, God  said confidently to the devil, "Very well then, everything he has in in your hands but on the man himself do not lay a finger". Job 1:12 NIV.

In Zechariah 3:1, a similar scenario is taking place involving the High Priest named Joshua and the ancient accuser Satan.  But in this passage of scripture, God rebuked Satan, effectively denying him permission to assault Joshua who was the focus of his evil agenda.   In Zechariah 3:2, "The Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you Satan!  The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this man not a burning stick snatched from the fire?"

With that comes a form of hope and comfort knowing that God drew the line around the man/Priest Joshua. The Lord rebuked Satan who stood ready to hurl accusations about this priest at the Lord just like he did hurl them about Job.  I appreciate it when the Lord tells the devil "NO!" 

Zechariah, the prophet, had been given a vision for the people of the day and even the age to come.  I read on in Zechariah 4 and learn about a governor of Israel named Zerubbabel.   Zechariah 4:8 reads, "Then the word of the Lord came to me, (said the prophet) "The hands of Zerubabbel have laid the foundation of this temple.  His hands will also complete it.  Then you will know the Lord almighty has sent me to you.  Who despises the day of the small things?  Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hands of Zerubabbel".   

These words regarding this earthly Governor helps me see the Holy Spirit as my Heavenly one. The Holy Spirit is my Governor, the plumb line is in His hands.  I am the temple He is erecting as the dwelling place of my God and King: Jesus.

It is easy to get impatient in the process of sanctification.  It is easy to despise the day of the small things.  It is easy to forget that the Lord has eternity as His time table.  And it is easy to miss the most important principles in the process.

The conversation deepens as the Holy One calls me to listen:  "Beware of the flesh bricks you are trying to place on My foundation.  All your "good works" mixed out of your flesh are like uncured bricks and will shrink or crumble with time and adversity". 

I see the picture of much of my life but also the church today.  The Holy Spirit layed the foundation who is Christ Himself, then WE set out to build it up in our flesh with "works".  Brick by flesh brick, we erected the church.  We set up programs and classes.  We took in tithes to build great halls and make big parking lots for easy access.  We did good things to build it but strayed from the Master Builder and followed our own blueprint not His. 

When inside the building, it is hard to see that the cosmetic things merely cover the fact that the building is flimsy and the winds of adversity will cause it to collapse.  The personal application of today's conference answers a few of my deepest questions and has to do with all the "great" things I started over my lifetime but found them blown away in the distractions and busy-ness of life here on earth

Most all my "great" ideas of things I wanted to do for my Lord were limited to a flesh ability and human agenda.   It has taken a lot of earth years to realize that what Jesus said is true, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing".  The mystery of the Holy One does not always permit answers but He never fails to provide clues for deeper understanding of our Sacred Romance.

The picture of flesh bricks and uncured mortar explains why in His erection of my temple, He has to undo some of those things I  stacked up on His foundation.  "Do not despise the day of the small things" reminds me to slow my roll.  Building this temple in such a way that will bring glory to the Lord is a slow and pain staking process and I realize now as The Holy One holds the plumb line that each layer of Holiness must be true to Him.. 

And as to the Church of the Living God, I see how my personal progress will affect the corporate Body of Christ.  I am to be a Holy brick in that building and if I am only offering myself as a flesh brick, that too will crumble with time.

Observation has brought remorse and with that comes a greater awareness.  Awareness permits me to change what is out of sync with Holiness.  Today I am convicted to pay close attention to the small things, and to do those things well.  But also to check often with the Holy Spirit who holds the plumb line in me His Holy Temple. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?    

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A Life Of Purpose**

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Breakthroughs come as welcome rays of sunshine through the dark clouds of adversity.  For me, some of the "whys" of life help me to process the mysterious purpose of Holiness. 

The circumstances in life are critical to gaining the knowledge of the One who has created and ordained life itself.  These are the days and times when, like Job, I just must declare that things too great for me to comprehend are at work through the mysterious ways of Holiness.

The Holy Spirit takes me to His Word where in Isaiah 55:8-13 He reminds me of the deep divide between His infinite mind and my finite one.  I trust and believe in His Word to me, for in each situation that life can throw at me, there is wisdom to navigate what I encounter.

He starts in Isaiah 55:8 with the reality from His Throne:

"My thoughts and ways are not yours; they are so much higher even as the heavens are higher than the earth."

The next sequence of verses explains in symbolic reference to rain and snow the ultimate purpose for the showers we experience:

To make the earth bud and flourish so that it yields what we humans need: "seed for the sower and bread for the eater".  That symbolism is also a picture of Christ Who is referred to as the Bread of Life, and the Manna in the desert that fed the entire Nation of Israel for 40 years.

God's promise follows that his Word (for our life) goes out and will not return empty but will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose (our food and provision) for which He sends it out.

The knowledge of His Word is essential for our navigation of life circumstances.  God's Word is available, and His promises are a sure thing for those who read and believe.   Due to the statement the Lord gave in Vs 8 that His thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours, we can assume that there will be a challenge for us to comprehend what His Word says to us and how to interpret and apply it to the conditions we meet on earth.

This portion of God's Word draws my analytical mind into His Presence to ponder His plans and purpose in what I see in my world.  It occurs to me that in all ways for our life here on earth to be rich, we need to become students of His Word.  

It is His Word that speaks of the Will of our Holy God and His Word that empowers His Will in our lives.  To be ignorant of His Word does not nullify His existence or the value of the His Word's power, but it cripples our ability to know how He intersects with us each and every day and prevents us from tapping into His wisdom and strategy for our victory in life's circumstances.

Isaiah 30:18 says, "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. He rises to show you compassion."

Our belief or lack thereof does not alter the reality of His Being.  Our belief or lack thereof only alters our personal understanding and perspective of Him: His power, His authority, His love and His intervention in our world.

This earth, we are told, is not all there is to our existence, since eternity has been written into the hearts of man.  God's Word is alive and practically applicable to every generation.  The key is to draw near to Him for insight as to the symbolism and relevance to our lives that is written on every page.

There is no expiration date on God's Word.  And there is no better day than today to start looking for your life story written therein.   God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

His Word has been given for us to read and realize that while His ways are mysterious and too great for us to comprehend, His love and intervention is personal and specific to us and our individual needs.  Life is not a roll of the dice, but an intricate tapestry of Divine origin and purpose.  But in order to find the life of purpose He created us to live, we must first look for and find Him.

 Isaiah 55:6, "Seek the Lord while He may be found.  Call on Him while He is near".

Regarding the things of the world, ignorance may be bliss, but when it comes to the Word of God, ignorance is lethal to a life of purpose.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?  

 

     

      

The Faith Of Christ***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The time for our conference call is like a bell ringing in my head or the sound of an alarm clock but more pleasant.  I hear Him speak from the darkness, "You have faith IN Christ but you need the faith OF Christ". 

The frustrations of what seem to be impossibilities of living a peaceful life here on earth are being experienced by most all of us today.  Great problems to our health and welfare and for some even survival represent life and death on planet earth.  We look to our government with the hope that it would protect us from terrorists, plagues, and abject poverty.  Sadly, to a reasonable mind, it seems that government represents more of a problem than the resolution:  mismanagement, misconduct, and mistakes are a daily reality and fear rules most of our lives. 

For those who are called "Christian", and as followers of Christ, we know that fear and faith are incompatible and that fear is a form of disobedience to our Commander-in-Chief.  We may argue the point that we have faith in Christ and are awaiting His return to rescue us from these dark days and evil threats, but to live in fear while we are waiting is antithetical to our faith.

The words of Holiness this morning draw me deeper into His presence to question what He means when He says, "You need the faith OF Christ".  With that He takes me to Hebrews 11:1, "Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".

When Jesus came into the natural world that, by the way, He created, He left His Divine privilege at home.  Everything Jesus did, as is recorded in the history books and the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, He did as a flesh man.  He modelled a way of life and impacted the natural world of our humanity by and with a power that had never before been felt or seen.

This morning I am compelled by the Holy One to consider His life, especially since He told His followers (and I am one) that we would do even greater things than He did because He was going to his rightful governing Throne wherein originates all the power and authority of creation.

His connection to His heavenly Father was the guiding relational principle of Jesus's  life here on earth.  He prayed long and often, we are told, and even declared that His mission was to show us the Father and bring glory to His Name.  That glorification of the One who sent Him was completed when He walked out of the tomb as the Resurrection Savior of the world.

Miracles and supernatural intervention into our earthly circumstances are elusive to most of us today,  yet Jesus is alive and has not changed nor withdrawn His word or His promises from His followers throughout all the generations. 

Each one of us could stand to see and experience a miracle of Divine intervention even just one time.  But as I look at the life of my Lord, I know that miracles were part of His full time mission and ministry.  On a daily basis, Jesus met the desperate needs of the people He encountered with compassion and brought miraculous relief. 

If faith, as it is described,  is "Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see", then Jesus lived out a life of faith here in this temporal world.  The deep question for me to ask is, "Where was Jesus's faith placed?  The ultimate conclusion is that He placed His faith in the One who sent Him.  It was His faith in God, the Father, that provided the miracles that have been recorded.

Many of us today get derailed by a counterfeit and end up having faith in faith and not faith in the One who Rules and governs all things. "Help us in our unbelief (faithlessness) is a prayer of weakness but as Paul has said, in my weakness His power is made perfect. 

Everything Jesus did, up to and including raising Lazarus, the human, from the dead, rested in His faith that the Father God would move in Divine intervention upon His request.  John 11:40-42 NIV, "Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed , you would see the glory of God?  So they took away the stone. (from Lazarus's tomb) Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father I thank you that you have heard Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me."

Oh the mystery of the Trinity.  When I ponder the relationship that Jesus had with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost (Spirit), it is apparent that The Son's life on earth was bound up in faith (as in belief) that each would do what was needed to Glorify the others in the Trinity, for the hearts and minds of humanity to be able to see and know God.       

Faith is a believing trust.  Jesus trusted the Father to do what He was asking so that the created would come to see and experience the Creator and in that, the Son brought glory to the Father.  Upon His own death on the cross, Jesus trusted the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit to raise Him up according to the written Word and prophecy about Himself, to bring Him out of the Tomb alive.  The Resurrection of the Son was to the great Glory of all Three in the Trinity.  

I am beginning to grasp what the Holy One is trying to teach me.  It is starting to make sense to me as to why I need the faith OF Christ and not just faith IN Christ.  Faith in Christ as my Savior will be needful on the day I leave planet earth for my eternal destination , but the faith OF Christ, as in His faith operating through me, is important for my days here on earth.

We look at the hard circumstances and resign ourselves their reality.  Jesus looked at the same hard circumstances and worked to change their reality.  He did so with complete trust that the Father would do anything He asked, whether it was to give sight to the blind, feed 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, change pitchers of water into the best of festive wine, so the celebration of a marriage could continue with joy, or even raise His friend Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus came to bring Glory to the Father by and through alleviating human need or suffering as He lived out His flesh life, and He seized every opportunity to do just that.    

If I am to appropriate His great promise and all it's potential to do what He did in calling down miracles, I must have the faith He had in the One who provides them from Heaven.  "Apart from Me you can do nothing" John 15:8 and "if you have the faith of a mustard seed.....nothing will be impossible for you".  Matt 17:20.  Faith based on inter-dependency and unity with our Triune God, is the baseline for miracles.

Today I find myself in desperate desire and longing for that quality of faith.  I see how the world needs what that depth of faith can provide:  real life experiences that shriek of the love of a Father, and demand the reverent respect for the Son, Jesus, who brought the truth of that great love into the world.

Jesus has said, "Even if you do not believe my words at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves."  John 14:11 NIV  In this passage Jesus points to the miracles so we can believe, rather than shaming His beloved for needing them. 

My commission is to share the Gospel, the Good News of God's love with everyone who crosses my path.  Does it ever occur to me to ask Him to send forth a miracle to punctuate the message I am to share? Miracles all have a purpose bound up in Praise and Glory and Honor due the One who provides them. 

I don't know what is more heartbreaking: that my faithless failure to ask and believe does rob God of the glory He would receive in the answers He would send or the tragedy that my unbelief might seal the world in a place of  unnecessary suffering that the Father awaits to relieve if only I would ask and believe.  We all need the antidote for unbelief.  The faith OF Christ is just what the Dr has ordered.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

The Principle of Binding And Loosing

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The battle rages and I cannot wait to get up and join my Captain who leads in this war against the evil one.  The earth is under a dark cloud of wickedness that spews out of a hellish place of pain and sorrow targeting God's beloved humanity. 

Every day the "battle" affects us in many ways.  There is no way to escape it and to ignore it just means that we lose ground and never really understand why.  People see life in different ways.  For some it is a race, for others it is a puzzle, but for me it is an epic battle that is to be fought for my Kingdom and my King.

No matter how you view life, there is an antagonist who will provide resistance to you reaching your goals.  If you are a runner, there is a mysterious dark force that will try to make you stumble in the race.  If you are a puzzle working person in life, there is a vicious contender who hides important pieces of your puzzle to frustrate your work.  And for the warrior minded person there is resistance from demonic enemies who oppose our advance of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth's battlefield.

Understanding this aspect of the unseen world enables us to press on and hopefully will cause us to seek the One who controls the universe He created and the earth He gave us humans to manage. 

Today the Holy Spirit takes me back to a lesson of long ago but to add a deeper level of understanding that I can now comprehend.  As I press in to listen He speaks to my mind, " Binding and loosing involves repentance and forgiveness".   A noticeable silence fills the air.  What is my Lord trying to show me?

Over the course of my life and while being groomed with a warrior mindset, the lessons I have been taught deal with the armour and weapons I have been given with which to fight in the battle I see raging all around me.  I go back to the words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew, where He was revealing to Peter his up and coming commission to establish the Church of the living God whose foundation is the Lord Himself. 

The Lord gave Peter the commission in part because Peter was the first person to see and acknowledge Jesus for Who He is  Peter said,  "You are Christ, the Son of the living God".  In Matt 16:16, Jesus went on to say to Peter, "I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven".  Interesting that the Lord did not say,  "I will give you the keys TO the Kingdom of Heaven".  Keys "of" suggest a set of principles that unlocks a mystery and provides understanding of the Kingdom and how it operates not just gaining personal entry.

Jesus follows with "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, whatever you loose on earth with be loosed in heaven".  Warrior minded people have always applied the principle when dealing with the demonic forces or the "strongman" aka the devil we see active in the temporal world we inhabit.  We set our sights on those dark beings we see impacting the lives and circumstances we meet along the pathways of our life.  We know we have a Divinely delegated authority and we set about to use it to battle against the darkness.

The Lord has given us a sword with which to do battle but we must understand it is "double edged".  While I have used my sword in combat and taken up the side against evil that does bind demonic forces and loose Heavenly mercies,  today the Holy One calls me to understand and use the other side of His sword and let it work on me. 

He has told me that when I repent for the things that are at cross purpose to His Will, those things are effectively bound.  When I choose to forgive those who despitefully use me, God's grace is effectively loosed.  My internal world is then set straight so that my external world can see Holiness, as I go about binding the darkness that has taken up residency on the turf that belongs to me by Divine decree and loosing Heaven's light out over the land.

The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are those principles that govern it and are so opposite to the ones that rule our flesh.  We know that we must die to live and give to gain and today, I can add that we must repent and forgive to the list of mysterious opposites that enable us to battle in victory, run the race in even stridden power to the goal and get the pieces back from those who have taken some important parts of our puzzle.

The Lord has said that the "meek" shall inherit the earth.  Meek by definition does not mean weak, rather it suggests power under control as in a powerful horse under the control of it's rider.  Meek by definition is a surrender of the innate power within and results in a mild and gentle outward expression. 

The binding and loosing through repentance and forgiveness,  allows the Holy Spirit to harness the real power that lies within us.  That power under His ruling authority enables us to make a stand against the evil in the world, love where we find hate and fulfill God's eternal and sovereign purpose in our lives.

This morning, I am so thankful to the Holy One for giving me a different perspective of an eternal truth.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

 

   

The Darkness and the Storm Light

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Circumstances can and often do dictate the subject of the conferences we have in the early hours just before dawn.  Personally I like to start the day early.  With my Counselor and friend in charge, the world just seems to be at greater peace when most of humanity is asleep.

Today the temporal circumstances press in and provide a sensory backdrop to our conversation. The weather has called for freezing temperatures and freezing temperatures can snap the power lines.  This morning's freeze is a seasonally premature test that our power lines have failed.  The power is out, the lights are off, and darkness rules.

Fortunately I have a storm light.  This is a small flashlight that when power goes off in the house, it turns on.  The beam it sends out is a comfort and helps me find the things I need to weather the cold darkness.

Rarely, in Calif where I lived the majority of my life, do residents lose power.  Here in the south it happens often and for me it activates a tempting fear.    There is no darkness like a deep forest darkness, where absent a full moon, there is no visibility past the hand.  On days like today when that darkness covers the land I am so thankful that my Lord promised He would never leave me nor forsake me and I rely on His Spirit to talk me through the fear and aloneness of this moment.

The physical darkness is a reminder of an unimaginable threat:  Permanent separation from the Light of life.  While I can self-talk and calm my heart that this darkness is only temporary and the sun will soon rise or the power will be restored, the stark reality is that someday people like me will perish without the One who created light and will be doomed to a forever darkness without Him. 

I say people like me because we were all created for fellowship and community. We were all created to be in a love relationship with our Creator God.  We are all hard wired in such a way that requires His presence in our lives in order for us to be OK . 

Many fail to understand this and find substitutes in life.  We find in the masses of humanity a place of temporal comfort: a human relationship or a series of them, a chemical that eases the pain of longing for something just out of our reach, or a set of goals that fill our minds and serve as distractions to the fears of little or no self worth.

The darkness of this morning symbolizes blindness and the Holy One seizes this situation to speak of the Father's love.  "God is not content than any should perish but that everyone come to repentance". 
2 Peter 3:9   Then He moves on to talk about the storm light; "You can be like that storm light you are holding, in someone else's life and be a comfort in their darkness until the power is turned on".  

His words are an encouragement to my heart and help me define the usefulness of our individual lights in the darkness that covers the land.  Jesus is the Light of the world yet people do not know Him as the Light of life.  John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."  Until a person finds Jesus and gets plugged in, they live in darkness. 

The power is back on and the timing of its restoration is not lost on me.  The lessons taught by the Holy One can be very dramatic at times.  The interesting thing I noticed about the storm light as I put it back in it's place, is that when the power is on it is not noticeable.  But the storm light is bright and very visible in the darkened room when there is otherwise no power. 

This morning the Holy Spirit has shown me the importance and value of one small light in a very dark place.  We, the Lord's people, can be like a storm light in the darkness for those who are otherwise blind.  We emit His light and as people are drawn to ours, we can speak of His.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?     

The Honing Of A Servant**

The Holy One calls to me this morning. Dreams and visions fill my mind. Out of the depths of a hard slumber, the Holy One shares His light.

I have had many "visions" of ministry, and the hope of a Holy calling over the course of my life. The desire to find my giftings and then to use them is an undercurrent and theme that seems to surface and then disappear from view as life's demands take center stage. Raising children, putting out fires, tending to loved ones sick or helping those in desperate need of encouragement and help as they face devastating losses, supplants all those dreams of doing the "greater" things I see envisioned. There are no regrets but just a sense of all that I might have done in addition to the basics of just living life.

I envy people who seem to have found their spiritual niche. The old attack comes out of the darkness as I look back over a life landscape that is littered with unfulfilled visions and broken dreams. Time and seasons have past into history, opportunities to do great things have come and gone and I find that expectations get adjusted downward the older I get.

I have visions of a better world and deep desire to be part of changing this one. The hope of heaven has been stirred from within my heart and not just for the future but for every day I wake up on planet earth. The Holy One speaks into the oppression of the enemy of my soul and offers a priceless lifeline:

"Your visions and dreams and life experiences are each one, not an end in and of themselves but a means to an even greater end: The honing of a servant".

With that statement, my mind is fueled with hope. Rather than seeing myself as an over-seer of a failed project or an unreliable loser, I realize in simple terms that I am on track with the Lord's vision and that His assessment of me is quite different than my assessment of myself.

Isaiah 55:8-11 reminds me that God's thoughts and ways are higher than mine and that His word will not return void but will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it out into and over each one of our lives.

The personal words of my Lord are spoken gently into my ear: "Apart from Me you can do nothing so do not judge yourself so unkindly".

The compassion of the Holy One is beyond comprehension. At those moments of my harsh self-examination, just when I expect a confirming and justified rebuke, I feel His warm and gracious acceptance, a loving response to the humiliation of my spiritual pride.

My take-away from this morning's conference is critical to all those future dreams and visions that may or may not be fulfilled "my" way. The fulfillment of whatever I may see or dream really belongs to the One who set them up in my mind. His purpose for each and every one may be so different than the purpose I think is there in the end.

The life of my Lord speaks of this truth. We read about His life of miracles and ministry in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, yet the overall purpose was greater than the personal suffering He alleviated in the lives of those He touched.

The greater purpose of the Lord's earthly life was to show the true picture and image of God and to do what was necessary to redeem humanity for relationship back with our Creator. His ultimate purpose was to serve all of us and in that role bring Glory to the Father who sent Him. Now we are called to be His servants in each of life's situations that we find ourselves having to deal with each day.

A servant does not get to dictate how or by what terms he serves his master. I can see that dreams and visions motivate me to serve my Master whether they end up being fulfilled my way is not to be my concern. The requirement over every dream and every vision is the same: It must be surrendered back to the One who gives it and I must allow Him to dictate and fulfill the purpose for which He sent it.

If I can trust His assessment of what seems to be personal failure to meet self-established goals, I might just find the greater purpose in His honing of this servant.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?  

Let Go Of Your Judgements!*

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The mystery of His Presence draws me at first light.  What will we talk about today?  I grab my coffee and notebook in anticipation.

He begins our conversation with a known fact, "Salvation saves you from judgement".  But in His gentle insistence He moves on, "Why then, do you use your salvation as an excuse to judge others?  You must let go of your judgements".

It is surely unnerving to realize how the Holy Spirit knows my every thought and the human motive behind every action.  Nothing is hidden no matter how hard I try to cover up or shore up my weaknesses, my internal Counselor nails me every time.  The Holy One cuts through all the chaff and lingering vestiges of legalism I picked up early on in my "religious" life.  

Strongholds are sometimes not so easily broken.  A stronghold is a power grip, usually flesh, that we identify with dark forces and blame for our helplessness when we feel that grip.  A stronghold is a flesh habit but it starts with a mental tendency that controls us and holds us in bondage to the "tendency"  Substance abuse begins with a stronghold, as does immorality, as does legalism. 

The Holy Spirit fulfills His role by helping me identify the strongholds in my life and gives me the ability and strength to break the grip so that I can be set free.  This is critical to the process of "sanctification" since His goal after salvation is to make me more like my Christ. 

Sanctification stalls if I get to the place where I think I have "arrived" and I am beyond indictment with no further need for Holy scrutiny or Divine correction.  For me, the struggle against legalism seems to be endless and the Holy Spirit detects where the tentacles are wrapped around my thoughts.

We all know and love John 3:16 NIV,  "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life".   But then right after that statement in John 3:17,  He said, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it but to save the world through Him".   And again in John 12:47, Jesus said, "As for the person who hears my words but does not do them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world but to save it". 

The base of legalism is judgement and that is completely contrary to the life and mission of my Lord.  Legalism in me has to be obliterated if I am to represent a true picture of my Lord to the world around me.  Legalism assaults the very nature of Christ and can serve as a blockade to any works the Lord might otherwise do through His servant.  Legalism fosters a judgement of the people we seek to help and serve in Jesus name.   By and through legalism, we can look at the weaker vessels and judge their condition rather than call upon the might of our Lord to fix it. 

When the disciples questioned the Lord about the man born blind in John 9:3, "Rabbi. who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?", they reflected the thinking of the day that suffering was a consequence of personal or generational sin.  Jesus answered their legalistic question and spoke to them from a different perspective,  "Neither this man nor his parents sinned", said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.  As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me." Jesus cut through a whole lot of legalistic thinking with His explanation of the man's condition and the reason for it.

Depending upon how deep we want to go in grasping God's sovereignty, Jesus provided a picture of an eternal plan that is set over our lives.  Nothing is random.  God knows the end from the beginning.  There are things God wants to do throughout our lives that reveal His personal love and interest in each one of us,  If we dare trust Him, His intervention will provide the very testimony that speaks of His love and desire to fix what is broken in our lives.

Add to that the privilege Jesus extended to those who call Him Lord and notice, that Jesus did not say, "I" must do the work of Him who sent Me.  Jesus said "WE" must do the work.  Jesus included others in the "work" He was sent to do.  Jesus set about the work of fixing what was, for this man, a debilitating condition in his life having been blind since birth.  Jesus came and in His ministry set up precedents for us to follow as we commit to His Lordship in our lives. 

Connecting more of the dots between my thoughts and His gentle rebuke,  I can see how my human judgements can affect His Divine intervention.  Looking for flesh reasons for for the suffering I see, can stop me from asking my Lord to enter into the places of wounded humanity. I am beginning to see His point: I can devote so much time and thought looking to the cause of human suffering that I fail to just ask for the cure.  Could it be that personal judgements are a link in a chain that end in faithless unbelief?  Jesus said that if we have the faith as small as a mustard seed, we would be able to move mountains.  Forming a personal judgement about why the mountain is there, stalls me in my mission to see it removed.    

We serve the One who God sent to save the world and not judge it.  Jesus spoke that "We must do the work of Him who sent Me".  Jesus wants my participation.  Miraculous solutions are waiting to be asked for and claimed, and it is not for me to let personal judgments get in the way.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?