Conditional Surrender***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Political correctness has become a suffocating blanket thrown over our truth denying nation.   Compromise abounds inside and outside the church as we process and form our opinions apart from God’s Word and pledge our allegiance to people not our Lord.  Truth calls out but the people ignore it and so truth fails. 

The Holy Spirit speaks His important reminder in these days of chaos and confusion, and He says,  

“You cannot pray about the conditional surrender of another until you have taken the steps to correct it within yourself.”

With a few words the Holy One speaks volumes then sets up my lesson for the day.  The Holy Spirit is my indwelling counselor who leads me into all truth.  Then He begins to show me how to apply the truth He reveals.  Whether the compromise is revealed in the big world of politics or the small world of my personal life, it boils down to how my heart and will is acting in “conditional surrender” to my Lord.

The lessons are always personal at the onset, so I must look at my own life first to understand the principles of Holiness and what lies within my heart and mind that the Lord wants me to see and change.  Here is when my thoughts shift from the political to the personal and I brace myself for what is about to be discussed. 

As a parent whose job it is to pray for my family of kids and their kids, the Lord takes me back to His prayer for the Disciples and also for those of us who follow Him today.  This was His parting prayer for them and us before He left planet earth and one that is still at the Throne of our Heavenly Father as we speak.

John 17:15-19, “I do not pray that you take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them by Your truth.  As you have sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.    And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth”. 

The Holy Spirit is the “Sanctifier”.  The truth sanctifies us…the truth sanctifies me.  Things start to get uncomfortable as the heat of our conversation begins to rise.  Jesus said that for “our sakes” He sanctified Himself, meaning that He was the first to surrender to the truth and complete obedience to the Word and Will of His Heavenly Father.   Holiness requires separation from worldly values and flesh dominated pursuits. 

As a Christian in this land of exile I understand my first loyalty must be to my Kingdom and my King.  The same is true in our family life.  

Jesus led in obedience and He rules through surrender to the authority of our Heavenly Father.   This speaks to the structure of Divine authority in all matters of life and today it really speaks to me.  

Bam!  Truth hits like a lightning bolt and I begin to see my own “conditional surrender” to my Father’s will. The prayer we all esteem and follow as our model speaks of complete surrender as we say and pray, to our Father in Heaven, “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven”. 

I am struck at this moment with the thought of how many prayers have been lifted up as “MY will be done in earth”.  I understand it is not the petition themselves that are right or wrong, but rather my heart “attitude” in the prayers that the Lord seeks to change.

As a servant of the Most High, it is my role and privilege to serve my Lord’s will. A servant does not judge or manipulate the mission or the message even if the Master’s purpose is not clear to the servant at the time.  

Conditional surrender puts up a hand and says to the Lord, “You can have all of this BUT NOT …… or you can have every arena of my life EXCEPT …….. and we can all fill in the blanks.

My complete and unconditional surrender is challenged in my relationships and today we go deep into that place of hesitation.  The Lord takes me to Matt 10:34, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.”

From the entirety of that portion of scripture, we can read that our complete loyalty to Christ above all other relationships will be challenged.   If these closest heart relationships will be tested, how much more will a friendship with the world come under the Lord’s scrutiny?   

The Holy Spirit has been my companion and friend for years and years.  He has walked with me up the high mountains and through the deep valleys.    His counsel is always perfect when I look back over time, but His ways are mysterious and sometimes foreboding to my carnal thinking.   

Some of my questions have answers and the Lord is willing to provide them to my enquiring mind.  I see how conditional surrender sneaks past my Holiness radar when it involves loyalty to my kids or friends or even a political party when the principals and discipline of God’s word is being compromised.  God’s love provides mercy but His Holiness is uncompromising.

The hardest times come to me and involve my family and the Lord’s requirement to surrender all to Him. Conditional surrender is really a trust issue.  Do I want them happy or Holy if those are mutually exclusive?

Trusting that in the end God’s goodwill toward them is His perfect plan over them reveals His directive for me.  Trusting His purpose in what He allows that goes past my understanding of it, requires a deeper level of surrender, unconditional surrender.

As I pray for all of my beloveds to walk with the Lord and live in surrender to His Will, I recognize hypocrisy if I am not in the same unconditional surrender that I am praying that they be in.  I am sure every parent would agree that giving up a child to hard circumstances is harder than going through them ourselves.    

Trusting the Lord as a participant is different than trusting Him as an observer especially as it involves children who have grown up and away from my control as a parent.  The love and protective instincts are still in operation but I must defer them (in unconditional surrender) to the Lord Jesus Christ whose love for them is greater than even my own.  As deeply as I love them and hard as I might want to be, I am not their savior and I must surrender them unconditionally to the One Who is. 

My focus this morning begins to narrow and the range of thoughts bring me back to an understanding of the Lord’s word to me.  Sanctification is not for me alone but for the sake of those I love and have been privileged to lead. 

Conditional surrender is a blockade to Holiness and must be corrected in my own heart first before I can begin to pray (and expect) that it be corrected in theirs. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?       

The Discipline And Benefit of Fasting

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  I have to begin without my early morning shot of caffeine because today is a day to fast.

I try to hide my head under the pillow and go back to sleep but the Holy Spirit insists that I get up: “Understand why I call you to fast.  I want you to be in control of your flesh so you can receive more of my wisdom, which is more truth”.

Jesus fasted.  As I ponder His command and model, the why of it leads me to understand how my flesh dictates can over-rule Divine input.  Flesh control leads to flesh pampering and flesh pampering leads to a carnal lifestyle. 

Paul said in I Corinthians 9:27 that he beats up his body to make it his slave.  It is interesting to note that in our days of mega information about health, we learn that fasting has a health benefit as well as a spiritual one as modelled by our Lord

Reading about the life of Jesus when He walked the earth reveals that fasting was His regular routine.  We associate fasting mostly to His word to the Disciples when they tried and failed to exorcize a demon out of a young boy. 

After He rebukes them for their unbelief and talks about the faith of a mustard seed that can move mountains, He said in Matt 17:21, “However this kind does not come out without prayer and fasting.”

A closer look for me is to see that fasting in some mysterious way, takes us into the place of Divine wisdom to understand how to co-operate with the move of God in the situations we face in our world. 

A recall of the life in the Garden before the fall reminds me that man was created to co-labor with God in the government (tending) of His created world.   For that we need a relationship with the Creator to gain His wisdom in the management of our lives. This is why we need to get past our human minds now tainted by the toxic fruit of “human” knowledge of good and evil and into the place of Divine wisdom from the One who knows all things.

The Holy Spirit continues to show me truth:

The Disciples did not know that the unbelief of the father was at least in part the cause of the demonic control of the child.  Jesus told them that this kind of demonic influence would not be obliterated without prayer and fasting on their part.  Straight up, they needed Divine wisdom to set the boy and his father free.

As I look over the principle of prayer and fasting it seems they both go together and appear in example by Godly people seeking Godly wisdom.  It requires a personal discipline by the “fast-ee” to give something up to gain something better.  That something better for me is “Divine wisdom” to process and re-act to the challenges that our Heavenly kingdom battle against evil forces presents.

There are all kinds of excuses our flesh will deliver and we will accept as reasons not to fast.  But by capitulating to our flesh, I believe we miss out on great things that might empower us in the realm of the spirit where God initiates His moves.

A fasting discipline can begin slow and low but must start with the thought of consistency and getting stronger as we see and feel the benefits in body and spirit.  And in truth, we must be prepared with patience to wait upon the Lord as we fast. Just as a body builder does not see the results of their discipline in the first hour of training, I must be diligent and not give up.

My experience is that at first my stomach growls at me and makes me miserable.  If that doesn’t work, my head starts to hurt and reminds me that the physical pain will subside if I just drink a cup of my beloved coffee or eat some sugar. 

If that doesn’t draw me out of the discipline, then the “liar” starts his round of assaults mocking my efforts as stupid or futile and pointless.  Then comes the threat and danger to my health that such risky behavior will surely bring.   Subtle whispers in my ear trying to get me to cave.

Then all that mumbo-jumbo leaves and impatience begins to set in.  I want to see an immediate result for my huge “sacrifice”, in the form of an instant Divine word or resolution to the vexing situation I am dealing with.

If the missed meal whether one or many doesn’t translate to a major change or event, the previous lies become even more believable and I am tempted to confess, “This fasting thing just doesn’t work for me”.

The question I ask myself is whether the fast has drawn me into the Lord’s presence and whether my perspective has been changed or affirmed. The real spiritual purpose I find to the discipline of regular fasting is to draw closer to the Father Heart of God, to hear His voice more clearly and to grasp His purpose more willingly.  The good will of Heaven is in our eternal best interest and not necessarily our temporal pleasure.

Fasting takes me past flesh considerations for the time to seek the Father’s will just as Jesus told us to do.  Fasting is a way we crucify our flesh and surrender it to the ruling authority of the Holy Spirit.  The benefits of fasting far outweigh the pain of missing a meal. 

I have questioned the real purpose of fasting over the years.  I have come to many thoughts and drawn many conclusions   The highway of Holiness provides many way stations of refreshment as we navigate the ups and downs of life.  Spiritual maturity is a process and not, I might add, a fast one. 

Today the Holy Spirit has opened my eyes to the fact that fasting is an act of obedience and shown me the importance and relationship fasting is to gaining His wisdom.  In this chaotic world that seems to be under a blanket of dark deception, the truth and wisdom of God is not something we dare be caught without.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

Counting The Cost***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  It is His role and desire to lead me into all Truth. 

Many are the days over the course of my life when seeing the persecution of the righteous leaves me feeling defeated and whiny. 

None of us asked to be born in these days of end times yet in the Sovereignty of the Almighty here we are:  Feet planted on fallen earth “at” such a times as this.  But then, we get to choose to believe and act as if it is also “for” such a time as this, as it was for Queen Esther in the book that bears her name.  That is called purpose and I am compelled to look for mine

We are starting to see the overt persecution of Christians again after a long period of peace for the Church.   Yet whether we realize it or not the subtle persecution of our Christianity goes on in our personal lives day after day through the adverse circumstances we face from an unseen enemy that some may choose to call “fate”. 

The Holy One speaks what very few of us hear before we make the decision to follow Christ, “Remember what it is to count the cost!”

Death to our “self-life” is the cost all who follow Christ will sooner or later be required to pay.  Death and the cross of crucifixion comes to us in many different ways as we journey with Jesus.  For the martyrs who we see being tortured and beheaded, the death is a final and physical one.  

For others it may be staying in a love-less marriage, or thank-less job.  Death may come as a talented mom who decides to stay at home for her children instead of following after a promising career.  For others it may be enduring the pain of living and seeing many children starving in a foreign land while being able to help only a handful to survive.

Emotional oppression and physical infirmities can also be persecution by an unseen enemy and does in part explain why bad things can and do happen to good people.  The list of ways to die to ourselves goes on whether by choice or happenstance and each way is unique to the calling that Jesus has on our lives.

Jesus was the one who gave warning to those who would choose to follow Him. 

Luke 14:25 Jesus talked about “hating” family and even their own life, “And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost whether he has enough to finish it…”   

Earlier in Luke Jesus told them in Luke 12:51-53, “Do you suppose that I came to bring peace on earth?  I tell you not at all.  For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two and two against three.  Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. 

These divisions are heartbreaking and forms of death for relational beings that we are.  Jesus was not telling us to hate in the common sense of the word hate, but rather requiring his followers to prioritize their love for Him above all others.   Following Jesus will bring persecution from those we love and out of relationships we cherish.  We must be prepared to endure what that means. 

The Church has become soft and in part I believe it is due to the soft pedaling of the Gospel.  We treat salvation like a ticket to Disneyland rather than prepare the “saved” for the hardship of what will begin a life of persecution and death to our life of comfort and ease.  While Eternity is our outrageous and delightful destination, the Christian’s journey on fallen earth is anything but easy. 

It seems to me that we, the church, are a community of shell-shocked believers who were either never told about the persecution to come or were adolescent in thinking that persecution would not be part of our life experience. 

Jesus never minced words and was always brutally honest in everything He spoke of.  When He told those who would follow Him that persecution would come, it did.    But Jesus also promised that He would never leave nor forsake those who were and would become His followers.

On the flip side of counting the cost of following Jesus, I see how following a self-serving lifestyle or worst yet a seducing evil spirit also bears a cost. The consequences of sin without a Savior to mediate brings eternal as well as temporal pain.  Evil makes no promises past the immediate but short-lived pleasure and it bears noting that Satan hates and persecutes all humanity even those doing his will.  

Understanding the truth and reality of persecution underscores for me the truth and reality of the promises for those of us who believe.  If persecution is truth, then so are the promises Jesus made to His followers.

Promises follow and speak of joy and relief to come, “Beloved do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s suffering.  That when His glory is revealed you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”  I Peter 4:12   

The glory of the Lord can be revealed at any moment since that is what the Holy Spirit brings out of our lives as we endure and persevere through the hard times.  So our joy is not just for the sweet by and by but also the hard here and now, and can be found in the Divine intervention we will experience here on earth.   

James 1:2 also speaks of the trials of persecution, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials that the testing of your faith produce patience.  But let patience have it perfect work; that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.”      

Today the Holy One has dialed up and made an important point in understanding the fiery trials we face and can rightfully call persecution.  Persecution was warned as the cost of following Jesus and all should be encouraged to count the cost.  But once we are in it, we must look for and appreciate the Divine purpose for it.  And that is the perfecting of our faith.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?    

 

  

A Life of Miracles***

The Holy One calls to me this morning. I so enjoy the great liberty and freedom the Lord provides as we seek Him and learn more about His mysterious ways.  

Some of the most amazing Truths have been discovered as we play a mind game I call “What-if”.  The Holy Spirit seems to draw me into our game this morning.

“What if……Divine intervention is My desire not just the desperate need of your heart”. 

Miracles are the evidence of Divine intervention and an over ruling of the “natural” circumstances that we are programmed to expect.  Miracles demonstrate a power over what we deem as impossible situations or events.  Somewhere along the line between truth and error, I picked up the thought that true faith doesn’t call out for miracles and that God is reluctant to show His Hand. 

When Jesus walked the earth His life demonstrated a multitude of miracles and He said that “even if you do not believe in my words at least believe on the evidence of the miracles (works) themselves”.  Miraculous works were the evidence that He is God and that when He speaks of His Father in Heaven and the love of our Creator His words are true. 

When I consider the origins of man and the creation of the first pair, I am drawn to the Divine benediction over them and as the first humans, it is the Godly benediction over all of us.  Our lives are to be spent tending and co-laboring in a sense with God in His created world.

But as I look around I see contradictory evidence in that darkness and doom cover the land. So I come to ask Him:  Lord, what is the problem here that evil seems to be on the increase in our lives?  And where is the promised dominion for your people?

His answer comes from out of His word, “My people are dying from lack of knowledge and they do not receive because they do not ask”.   

Back in the garden before humanity increased, man was set to “tend” God’s created world.  One definition of to “tend” is to discover the mysteries contained therein.  That opens up a whole archeological adventure for my mind.  But the word “tend” in a common definition is to take care of, and in that sense, people in God’s created universe require the most tender care. 

By the details of His earthy life, it is clear that Jesus came to care for humanity.  He spent all His time and energy dealing with human need.  He did not look for the animals to make their lives better nor did He cause stone statues to bleed or weep to demonstrate His God-power.  His miracles directly impacted human lives and as He told us from early on; He came to set the captives free.

This is not to say we should abuse or refuse to tend to the animal kingdom for that is also part of our dominion and responsibility but His model of miracles was to relieve human suffering as the evidence of the love of God, a Heavenly Father over His beloved children.

Miracles mark God’s Divine intervention and are needed when we are at risk.  I am captivated by Jesus explanation to His disciples as to why the man was born blind who Jesus was preparing to heal.  They had been accustomed to being legalistic (as some of us are) in the interpretation of infirmities and or birth defects.  They assumed his condition was a result of sin whether his or his parents.  Jesus set a new standard of interpretation before them, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned but that the works (miracle) of God might be revealed in him”.  John 9:3 NKJV

This was a graphic situation that baselined the lessons for their day: that He is God, that the situations in life are to be seen as opportunities for His glorious intervention and very importantly that He is the light of the world and removes our blindness to Truth.

We who know Him are the only ones who can petition for the miracles from Heaven and expect answers.  For no one comes to the father except through Jesus and only in His name will the Father give what is petitioned.   The only prayer of a non-believer that will have an answer is the prayer for salvation and that is instantly accepted and stamped approved. 

This leaves the burden and responsibility and privilege to ask for Divine intervention on the shoulders of the “saved”.  Miracles are a true co-laboring with our God and exercise of our delegated dominion here on earth.  As we live out our lives, we see suffering humanity and yet do we just wring our hands in resignation of the evil that suffering represents?  Or are we willing to give the time and effort in folding our hands in intercession that God should move and be glorified as He does? 

Conviction today is a sword to my heart.  Self-centeredness in spiritual laziness is choking when I realize my prayerlessness constrains God’s love and desire to be seen for who He is to the unsaved world around me.  Miracles are the evidence of Who He is not just the human need fulfilled. 

Just to be clear, a miracle to me is the supernatural fact that as I pray God hears and answers.  Our intimate relationship with the God of all creation is a miracle in and of itself.  The realization that the Holy Spirit indwells us is a miracle.  The control that the Sovereign has over all of life is a miracle and is seen as He orchestrates things in life that lead all of us to Him.

From my counselling session today, I pray I may be more open to all that the Lord desires to do in intervention and not wait to petition until my heart is in human distress.  God desires to give us life and life to the full.  Miracles are all a part of the fullness of life. 

I realize that hard times and impossible circumstances make us acutely aware of our need for His hand of intervention but resolution of those things are not the only miracles He desires to work through my life.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?        

Remembering Momma***

The Holy One calls to me this morning. Living with an aging parent marks the beginning of many “endings” for things we often take for granted.

When a cherished parent takes a turn from independence to complete dependency, it marks the end of a familiar and life-long structured relationship. The switching of roles is hard if not heart-breaking, yet it is the cycle of life that many will face with the passing of time.

The Holy Spirit has laced His counsel today with a powerful truth: “Don’t focus on where she is today. Look ahead to where she is going and what her glorified state will be for all eternity.”

My mom has reached the ripe old age of 93 and is in the sunset of her long and productive faith-filled life. She weathered many hard circumstances growing up in the depression. She was widowed during WW II and was left with a baby boy who would never see his father and then had to bury that same son after a sudden and unexpected death before his “time” in human terms.

She lost her 2nd beloved husband to the treachery of Parkinson’s disease and then after he left her side, she spent many subsequent years living independently alone but always in support of those she loves.

I was raised in the church and faith and my mom has always been a rock of emotional stability in my life when heartaches touched our family. As I went through some hard trials after leaving home and over the course of my own life, I always drew from her example and strength to press on and, in faith, to look for and always hope for better days.

To see the one who was always so “in control” of herself; the one who was a living example of grace under fire, slip into such dependency is among the most difficult things in life that I have had to process.

Relational losses happen in life. Divorce is hard but life goes on and there is a hope for what may be another relationship better than the one lost. Death is a final and difficult good-bye from here, but one where both the body and the soul are gone at the same time. Healing comes slowly as we live on and recall sweet memories and wonderful times with others who knew them too. But for me, watching the breakdown of the mind while the body is strong requires a better perspective than I can muster on my own.

There is a helplessness that overwhelms a sudden onset of geriatric confusion and as a child of a victim, I confess that the helplessness takes its toll. As with all the circumstances in my life, the Holy Spirit leads me into all truth and He takes me to His word to paint a picture of His message.

Each of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell of His resurrected life. Each speaks of the way that Jesus appeared to those who knew Him:

Matt 28:9-10, “And as they went to tell His disciples behold Jesus met them saying “Rejoice” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshipped Him.”

Mark 16:14, “Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.” (not the first time they had been rebuked by Him…LOL)

Luke 24: 31 and 36 “Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him: and He vanished from their sight.” “Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them”

Luke 24:39-40 “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle and see, for spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. When He had said this He showed them His hands and His feet.

John 20 has various verses of His interaction with the disciples who knew Him:

John 20:16-18, “Jesus said to her, “Mary”, She turned and said to Him “Rabboni (which is to say, Teacher”). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my Brethren and say to them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God”. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken these things to her".

John 20:27-28, “Then He said to Thomas, reach your fingers here and look at my hands; and reach your hand here and put it in my side. Do not be unbelieving but believing. And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God”.

John 21:12, “Jesus said to them, “Come and eat breakfast” yet none of them dared ask Him “who are you” ----knowing that it was the Lord.”

The wonderful picture for me today is not just the reminder of our resurrection life to come that Jesus modelled after His death, nor the make-up of His glorified body like the one we will someday have, but the picture for me today is that He was recognized as the Jesus that each one knew. The resurrected Jesus was the same “persona” as the Jesus they knew and loved in the flesh.

No wonder the Holy One is encouraging me to look past the fleshly withering because the flesh “withering” does not impact the soul. The body is destined to decay while our soul/personality is eternal, and designed to live forever. Momma is the same soul/personality as she has always been in the glory days of her fleshly control with a sound mind and she is the same soul/personality today as she will be when she inhabits her glorified resurrected body in the age to come.

With that as encouragement I can see to taking care of her earthly tent as it is folding and speaking over her the truth of her coming restoration. She is and always will be the Momma I have known and loved. It will be amazing to see her once again in her prime and with all the vitality of eternal vigor.

For the moment she is locked in a flesh and disintegrating earthly tent but there is a day coming when she will be set free from her earthly shackles and be forever young because of what Jesus has done for all of us.

Remembering Momma as she once was, helps me to look forward to who she will become again.

It must be stated that eternal resurrection of a glorified body is only promised and true for those who have come into a relationship with Jesus as their acknowledged Savior and Lord. Only those who believe that Jesus is the Savior Son of God and accept Him as their personal Savior and Lord for having died in their place are eligible for eternal life in a resurrected body. Jesus knows the heart of all of us and He will move heaven and earth to make each of us His own.

As I think about the natural process of aging and make my peace with the decline, I am also encouraged to think about the those who are physically and mentally “handicapped”. These are whole souls living in a broken body. They will be set free one day as well and all those believers in Jesus who have been their parent or care-givers will have the incredible joy of meeting that special unique person trapped inside the temporal broken body.

The long journey home, may take us through some dark valleys and difficult days but when we see our loved ones and their hard circumstances in the light of eternity, I admit, I cannot wait to get home.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Divine Purpose In Human Weakness***

The Holy One calls to me this morning. I have taken some hits lately from the unseen enemy in the Kingdom battle that rages.  It leads me to question where is my shield?

I have learned over the years that perspective is key to processing events that befall me and those I love.  When things make no sense from my point of view, I know I need to stop and say to myself, “It’s time to get God’s perspective on this problem”.

Self-pity taunts me and challenges me to look at the “damage” to my tidy little life that I have to confess is outside of my control. The Holy One speaks to the question that is like a dead weight and has stopped my forward motion:

“When evil assaults and inflicts pain, it’s not any failure of your shield, but I want you to see that I will heal the damage if I do not protect you from the arrow.”

I am confident that each and every one of us is born under a Divine benediction and with a purpose ordained by our Creator.  It is the Father’s will that we find and flourish in that purpose so that He will be glorified not only to those of us on earth but also to all the unseen witnesses in the Heavenly realm.  

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a loud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, despising its shame and has sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God”.

This is my answer and whether I am protected from the assault or healed through it, the bottom line is that I am OK and God is always in control of my life even as I am not. 

Sometimes I forget that while I am being asked to trust God, He has the greater challenge in that He placed His trust in me to be His faithful witness and in that way justify His great wisdom in the creation of mortal men with an eternal soul who seem to constantly fail Him. 

Here is where I see that even in my abysmal weakness there is Divine purpose.  Once we get saved and our eternal destination is determined, the process of sanctification begins.  That is a word that explains all the challenges we face as Godly people in an ungodly world. 

We are being transformed from fleshly carnality to an acceptable state of Holy made possible only by the indwelling Spirit of Christ Jesus Himself AKA The Holy Spirit. 

If I lose sight of the bigger picture and greater goal, I might falter in the race set before me.  This is why we are called to persevere.  We are not fit in our flesh to rule and reign with Christ in the eternal Kingdom to come.  We learn to rule as we submit to the Throne of the rule maker and His Indwelling Holy Spirit.

“Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us.”  For me that sin and weight is the self- pity the enemy has thrown up in my face and tried to use to weigh me down.  Evil will throw all kinds of garbage at me from the sidelines just to trip me up.  The way to get past his taunting is to listen to the Holy Spirit and focus on Jesus who endured more pain than I ever will and is cheering me on from His Heavenly Throne.

One day all who call Him “Lord” will reach the end of the race and celebrate together with Him the victories we found and that He provided all along the way.

Until then we are to press on and do all we can to bring Glory to our Father who is in Heaven by fulfilling His purpose for us on earth.  I am thankful for His wise counsel. 

Today, I can be sure that He has Divine purpose in my human weakness and I will keep going as He works it out.   

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

The Consequence Of Unforgiveness***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Most of His lessons come out of my personal situations and the wrestles of trying to navigate my way through a fallen world.  But while all lessons are applicable, some are taught and brought through observation of other caught in deep waters.

Today as I ponder things that are brought about by pure evil, I see how the worst suffering may result from wrong handling of the emotions that come with and are basically due to the attacks. 

The Holy Spirit gently leads me to a very important truth.  “Humanity’s deepest pain is not generally from without but rather the consequence of bitterness from within.  Bring all your bitterness to Me”.

People do evil thing to us and to those we love. Time goes on and evil people pass away or move on and out of our lives.  Relational pain is something we suffer long after the attack is over.  Unforgiveness that brings bitterness is a continuous emotionally lethal consequence that we must learn to deal with.

Jesus spoke of it in Matt 18 in His parable of the unforgiving servant.  Jesus told Peter that the Kingdom of Heaven is “like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with His servants”.  As he began to settle these accounts, one servant owed a great deal he could not pay.  His Master ordered the sale of his wife, his children and all he owned in order to cure the debt. 

The man pleaded for mercy and just more time to pay, but the Master moved by compassion forgave the debt and even wiped his slate clean.  That same servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him a debt far less than the debt he had just been relieved from repaying. This “wicked” servant with no compassion, threw his debtor into prison until he could pay.

The Master heard of the situation and recalled the wicked servant to stand before him as he reinstated the debt.  He said, “You wicked servant.  I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.  Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant just as I have had compassion on you?”  The parable ends as the wicked servant is delivered to the “torturers” (a prison of torment) until he should pay off all his debt.

While the main point of the parable has to do with the principle of our debt forgiven by God when we ask for forgiveness and mercy and with the expectation that we should in turn extend the same mercy to others since we all have debts to be paid.  But today the Holy One takes me to the consequence of the wicked servant’s unforgiveness; He was delivered to the “torturers”.

The principle of forgiveness is the bedrock of our Christianity.  God forgave us at the cost of the excruciating suffering and physical death of His Son, Jesus.   If forgiveness is the bedrock of our faith, then unforgiveness is the sinking sand.

The consequences for unforgiveness according to the word of God is torment, a mental torture, a penalty with life altering ramifications depending on how long we choose to remain in that place.  Mental torment is the worst since it clouds our thinking and robs us of peace, and joy and all the other good feelings that make life on earth pleasant and even easier.

Unforgiveness is a prison where we are locked with the offense and the one who delivered the blow.  Forgiveness provides for our release from that heart-rending prison and freedom from the offender and the dark demons we find there.

Forgiveness benefits the offended even more than the offender unless there is true repentance for the assault on another and reconciliation is made possible.  Absent that, forgiveness is deeply personal and really affects our own heart and mind and our relationship with the One who gives the command to forgive.

On that note it is worth mentioning that sometimes the bitterness and unforgiveness we are most tormented by is directed at ourselves.  Self-forgiveness is just as important as forgiving others and self-bitterness is as toxic as bitterness toward others.

The size of the debt owed us is not the issue and has no bearing on the forgiveness we need to extend.  All offenses we suffer must be forgiven and then released for God to enact His judgement, or vengeance or what amounts to consequences for violations committed against us and ultimately Him

Apart from Christ, forgiveness in many cases is not possible in and of ourselves. The lighter offenses we may get away with ignoring or sweeping under the rug of our prideful self-exalted generosity.  But sooner or later evil, using people in our lives, will deliver to us a blow that cannot be forgiven by our flesh-defending self.

This is the lesson that comes out of our counseling session this morning.  I understand how unforgiveness leads to bitterness that is a mental prison worse than a physical one.  But in His Holy drawing, the Lord reminds me that just like all the other godly works in my life, apart from Him I can do nothing.  I must bring all that is not forgiven and causing a root of bitterness in my soul to Him to fix.  I repent for the bitterness that my unforgiveness has brought and ask Him for His help in the cure.

With the Holy One I find that it is possible to move from the prison to the Holy Place in a short matter of time and even experience having the consequences of unforgiveness removed.   We in essence hold the key to our own cell but the question is: “Will we use it”? 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?