Do You Want to Go To Heaven?

September 20, 2013 by journeyintolight

It was a beautiful October morning. The air was cool and crisp. The trees were bright yellow and orange. The sky was a deep blue and cloudless. It was one of those golden days of October.

We were living in a mansion on a huge estate. Miles of fields surrounded the mansion with rows of trees dividing the countryside into squares. It looked like Austria from the air in The Sound of Music.

We were about to sit down for a late breakfast. It was Saturday morning. The people in the house were all good friends. The sound of laughter and the feel of deep friendship were in the air.

I was especially looking forward to the afternoon when several of my friends and I were going fishing at one of the nearby lakes. Jesus was going to join us. We always seemed to catch more fish when he went with us.

I was also looking forward to the fish fry in the early evening. I have always felt a special satisfaction eating fish that I have caught.

Probably the thing I was most looking forward to was another strategy session that night. Jesus was meeting with several of us again. He would be sharing some of his plans for spreading his kingdom to worlds unknown. I felt especially important and close to Jesus as he described what our roles would be in working with him.

What’s going on here? Where is this story happening?

It is happening in heaven. This was my first attempt at trusting God to use the Scriptures, my imagination, and who I am in experiencing a day in heaven. I was inspired to do this after reading Randy Alcorn’s book called Heaven.

Why imagine a day in heaven? It seems so weird. But is it so weird? Is it really a waste of time?

Not when some of us think of heaven as some giant worship service that never ends. Not when others of us think of it as boring sitting around playing a harp most of the time. Not when still others of us want to go there because it’s got to be better than going to hell.

Imagining a day in heaven that is tailored to our needs can make us long for it more. It makes it easier to set our mind on the things above (Philippians 3:18-20). It makes it easier for us to “consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

Jesus endured the cross by looking ahead to heaven (Hebrews 12:2). We can trust the same Spirit that empowered him to help us imagine what Jesus knew to “abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

But some of you may balk. You may say, “Using my imagination is so subjective. It is not concrete, like the Bible.”  But as we trust God to use what the Bible says about heaven, he will use our imaginations to paint a picture of what heaven would be like for us (Romans 12:1).

Let’s try an exercise. Below are a few descriptions God gives us of heaven:

  • “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which has not entered the heart of man, all that [I have] prepared for those who love [Me]” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
  • “In [My] presence is fullness of joy; in [My] right hand there are pleasures forever” (Psalm 16:11).
  • “In [My] house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you so; for I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).
  • “ [I] shall wipe away every tear from [your] eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (Revelations 21:4).

Ask God to use your imagination to experience a day in heaven based on the above Scriptures. After this experience, do you long for heaven more?

Posted in Imagination | Leave a Comment »

Dare to Go Deep

September 14, 2013 by journeyintolight

As I studied spiritual formation in seminary, I became excited about how this information could revolutionize the spiritual lives of my Christian brothers and sisters.  That is, if they practiced it.

Before seminary, I wondered if I even knew I had a heart. Now, I was learning that from my heart “flowed the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Thus, the condition of my heart was vital to my life.

I learned that my heart is what God wanted to change the most. “This people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me” (Matthew 15:8). God did not want me to just look good at the surface, but also wanted me to look good in the deep. He wanted to change my heart (Psalm 51:6).

Therefore, you can understand why I have been disappointed over the last few years as I have discovered that few Christians want to go deep. Do they know what they are missing?

I knew how my life had gone deeper, and I knew that theirs could too! This would be for their great benefit, and God’s honor (Luke 18:29).

So, why do so few of us want to go deep? Why do we cling to the surface, even if it isn’t working very well?

One reason that we do not go deep is that we are scared. We would have to give up some of our idols. We are not like Moses who “chose to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25).

We have often settled for a largely legalist, comfortable Christianity. We “are already filled, we are already rich, we have become kings” (1 Corinthians 4:8).

Little do we know that we could be  “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelations 3:17) like the church in Laodicea. The reason we may be deceived is that we do not dare go deep.

We need to go deep with God to get to the root of our sin and false beliefs that keep us from living a powerful life. We have deep internal structures that are hell-bent on opposing any transformation God wants to bring to our lives. These include false beliefs, bad feeling habits, and substitutes for trusting God that we have had for many years.

If we ignore this deep structure, we will be constantly tripped up in living the good truth that we get Sunday after Sunday in sermons. “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).

Jesus is who sets us free from this body of death and fills us with his joy, peace, and love. But we have to go deep with him. We have to “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling” with him at a deep level (Philippians 2:12).

We will need to do more than just know truth. We will also need to become doers of the truth at a deep level (James 1:22).

We can dare to go deep because we are not alone. In the deep, Jesus’ Spirit reveals our sin to us and then empowers us to live the truth that we often already know. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23-24).

Therefore, I encourage you to go deep with God today by sincerely asking him to reveal what is going on in your deep. Then, ask him to help you live his way in the issues that he reveals.

Posted in Spiritual Growth | Leave a Comment »

Can You Imagine? Living the Way God Sees Us

September 7, 2013 by journeyintolight

I was talking to a friend the other day and asked him to imagine how his life would be different if he believed that he was always important. He immediately responded and said that he would be more of a risk-taker. He would be more honest with himself about the condition of his business and be willing to fail in trying to grow it.

You see my friend did not view himself as always being important. He felt that his worth was on the line everyday. He was not living in the reality that he will never be more or less important than he is today (Isaiah 43:4).

He is like a lot of us Christians. We are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9), and yet we live like we still need to prove ourselves everyday. Can we imagine how our lives could be different if we saw ourselves the way God sees us?

If we were to imagine it, here are some examples of how our lives could be different:

  • We could better stand up to bullies knowing that they can’t lay a glove on us as to our worth.
  • We would have much less fear in our lives living in the presence of God’s loving gaze.
  • We would be free to fail knowing that our worth will never decrease.
  • We would be free to lose control knowing that he is carefully watching out for us.

Yet, most of us live like paupers when we could live like royalty. We refuse to see ourselves as God sees us. Why is this so?

There are several reasons. May I suggest three:

One is that we have failed to reckon that a lot more changed at salvation than just going to heaven someday. God also gave us the challenge of seeing ourselves as having great worth and being deeply loved. It is ours for the living. But most of us won’t live it. We are lazy. It takes too much work to see ourselves differently.

We are also afraid. This business of never losing worth no matter how many times we fail seems too “pie in the sky.” It is scary. So, we refuse to follow God into the Promised Land and fight the giants that resist our living like royalty.

A third reason is that we are fooled. “There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12). We think that our collection of idols will do a better job of making us feel loved and important than accepting God’s gift of love and worth. The great Deceiver has fooled us along with the rest of the world (Revelations 12:9).

So, if we do not want to be like the rest of the world, how can we better see ourselves as God sees us? One thing we can do is to start with a vision. “Without a vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). We can be motivated to seek living in this reality, as we can imagine it. Imagining and then living in the reality of always being loved, valued, and accepted will change the way we do life.

Another thing we can do is to wage war over the habits and spiritual forces that hold us in bondage to our low self-esteem. We are royalty! We need to live that way.

We need to ask God to take away our self-image that needs to succeed and always be approved of. We then need to ask him to replace it with living in the reality of always being loved, special and forever accepted. “If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

Posted in Self- Knowledge | Leave a Comment »

The War Within

August 29, 2013 by journeyintolight

I began to sweat bullets again as I thought about my doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. I hated the humiliation and feeling weak it would bring. I dreaded the self-condemnation that I would heap upon myself.

You see I suffer from White-Coat Syndrome. My blood pressure soars when it is taken in a doctor’s office. Lately, I have had to do a lot of fast-talking just to keep the doctors and nurses from putting me in the hospital because it is so high.

So, what is going on here? My blood pressure is normal except in a doctor’s office. What is causing my fear?

I took this question to the Lord before the doctor’s appointment. He not only gave me insight into why I have this fear but also how to cooperate with him in beating this thing.

So, why fight it? Why don’t I just take the easy path, accept defeat, and avoid the hassle of cooperating with God in changing?

The answer is because it would grieve God. It would also cheat me out of living as joyous and fulfilling a life as it could have been. “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

He longs for us to live life in intimacy with him. But if we cling to anything other than him, we distance ourselves from him.

I discovered that my White-Coat Syndrome was caused by clinging to being strong, respected by others, and meeting my standards. I was not clinging to God always accepting, valuing, and keeping me safe despite lousy blood pressure readings.

This was my war within for the week. What was yours?

We have ingrained habits and spiritual forces fighting tooth and nail to keep us conformed to the world. Why do you think we are as busy as we are? Why do you think we hate change as much as we do? These are evidences of the war within us.

Yet, this war is worth fighting. Our joy, eternal rewards and the destinies of others ride on our decision to fight the war or be lazy.

The war largely consists of leaving behind the old ways and putting on God’s ways of living life. For me, this week it was leaving behind the need to be strong and to impress and putting on my acceptance and worth I always have from God.

The Holy Spirit is in us to help us leave behind the old ways. “If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). Progress is often slow, but it does come (Proverbs 4:18).

The sad truth is that God will not force us to change. He will not force us to fight the war within. But what a waste if we choose to put up a white flag.

So, I encourage you to ask God to show you an old way that he wants to replace with his way. Ask him what he wants you to do to cooperate with him. Then, do one thing that cooperates with him.

Posted in Spiritual Warfare | 1 Comment »

Are You Afraid of the Holy Spirit?

August 23, 2013 by journeyintolight

Most of us are.

Even though the Holy Spirit is God, and loves us greatly, we tend to fear him. I think it is a loss of control that scares us the most. When he is control, we are not.

So what happens when we are afraid of the Holy Spirit? These are a few examples of what I think does happen:

  • We stay focused on gaining Bible knowledge at the expense of allowing the Holy Spirit to change us at a deep level.
  • We rely on our “wits and wisdom” to guide us rather than the Holy Spirit to lead us step by step into our future (Proverbs 3:5-6).
  • We forbid the Holy Spirit to use his “miraculous gifts” in the ministries of the church.
  • We do not ask and depend on Jesus to use his Spirit to guide and empower our lives and the church’s.

We forget that the Holy Spirit is not an option. We forget that he provides the power to live the Christian life (Colossians 3:1-11). We forget that he is a Person and can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). We forget that he can withdraw his presence and power from our church.

Listen to this. Through his Spirit Jesus told the church at Ephesus:

“I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place- unless you repent” (Revelations 2:4-5).

This passage says that the presence and power of the Holy Spirit can be withdrawn from our church if we continue to grieve him. So, our fear of letting God and his Spirit have their way can be devastating to our church, as well as to our own lives.

So, let us lay aside our self-effort to control and crank out the Christian life. Let us learn to love and depend on the Spirit so that our lives and churches are full of love, joy, and kindness (Galatians 5:22-23).

Let us repent of how we have pushed the Holy Spirit out of influencing our lives and our churches. Instead, let us embrace him as a vital member of the Trinity and no longer fear him.

What evidence do you see in your life and in your church’s that shows you or your church is afraid of the Holy Spirit? Talk to God about what he wants you to do about it.

Posted in The Holy Spirit | 1 Comment »

Where’s God?

August 17, 2013 by journeyintolight

I tried really hard this week to fix a medical problem that has lingered on for quite some time. I prayed and then called the doctor’s office twice to try to get an appointment.

I got nowhere. No return calls and no appointment. Meanwhile, I grew increasingly anxious about my medical problem.

I was frustrated. Where was God? Why wasn’t he helping me?

During the week I spent some time meditating and talking to God through Psalm 139.

Here is what he said to me through this psalm, “I know what is going on in your life. I am all over your medical problem. I carefully watch over you and I will guide you as far as what you need to do regarding your healing.”

Well, you could have fooled me! God seemed awfully distant and otherwise preoccupied.

But this is the life that God wants us to live. He wants us to “see” him throughout the day, even if everything in us and around us is screaming that he is not there. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

He promises that he is always with us (Hebrews 13:5), and sometimes that is our only assurance that he is. Other times we can “see” him in our circumstances, in answered prayer, and in a word of encouragement from a friend.

So, what we have here is really an awareness problem. We are like Jacob who said, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16).

Why then do we have this God awareness problem? Why do we often fail to sense his presence throughout the day?

Probably the main reason is that we do not want to. We do not want God messing with the details of our lives. Often, only when life gets too painful are we motivated to allow the reality of “his very present help” (Psalm 46:1) to seep into our awareness.

In closing, where have you seen God in your life today? Thank him for his watchful care and invite him into the details of your life for the rest of the day.

Posted in God's Presence | Leave a Comment »

Dare to Be You!

August 9, 2013 by journeyintolight

I was trained as a child not to be me.

Being me did not seem to meet by needs as well as being who my parents wanted me to be. So, I learned to perform and be someone else.

I emerged from childhood equipped to be whatever would earn me the most worth, acceptance and love.

One of the results was studying engineering instead of something I really was interested in. Another result was seeking responsibilities in jobs that were way over-my-head that sometimes led to demotions, and once being fired.

However, I did change when I was 26. I became a new me when I became a Christian. “Therefore, if any [person] is in Christ, [they] are a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But did new things come? Did I dare to be me?

No, I did not. I continued to strive to earn worth through job success, love through pleasing people, and acceptance by conforming to others’ expectations. I still did not depend on it being okay to be me.

Why?

The power to be me comes from knowing and living in the reality that I will never be rejected. Oh sure, people will reject me from time to time, but never God. “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

In recent years, I have learned more to be me.

God tested me last year when I could have been accepted on a board if I were not me. All I would have to do is to pretend that I subscribed to their approach to helping people grow spiritually.

However, I did not subscribe to their approach. So, I dared to be me and was rejected. I was comforted  by God’s acceptance of me, which I considered to be more important.

But growing in daring to be me is slow business.

This summer I have struggled with being me in the face of low ministry results. To some extent, I still let ministry results dictate my worth. I forget that I am always precious, honored and loved (Isaiah 43:4), even when ministry results scream otherwise.

So, how are you doing in daring to be you?

Two of the biggest reasons we often fail to be ourself is our lifelong training and our pride.

We often have not been trained to regard ourself as fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). We have not been trained in regarding ourself as God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). We fail to live in the reality of the uniquely wonderful person that God has made us to be.

And we don’t want to. “What? That sounds crazy,” you may say.

No. We don’t want to admit that we need God to give us our worth, love, and acceptance as gifts. Instead, we have been trained to look to others and things we do to get these needs met by our own efforts (John 12:42-43).

Daring to be ourself requires us to admit our desperate need for God. And we don’t want to do that!

So, we don’t dare be ourself.

Ask God to help you identify an area of your life in which you are not being you. Picture how your life would be different if you dared to be  you in this area.

Posted in Self- Knowledge | 2 Comments »

Waiting is Good

August 1, 2013 by journeyintolight

I find myself waiting a lot these days. Boy, is it frustrating too! I want to make things happen. But I wait.

Why?

I am slowly learning that God often is doing good things in the waiting period that prepare me for the challenges when the wait is over.

For example, I started a ministry last year. I have worked really hard to make it succeed! Yet, it is small and growing slowly. I am waiting for ministry doors to swing open.

However, in the meantime, he has also led me to improve my marriage, deepen my relationship with him, and grow in writing skills. He wants me to have a strong foundation so I will be able to handle whatever challenges he has planned for me in the future.

Also, wonderful things can happen to our faith as we wait. “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). We can grow in expecting good from a good God before it happens.

We can also be delivered from our problems as we wait for God. “I waited patiently for the Lord;.. and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm” (Psalm 40:1-2). Instead of bullying our way through our problems in our own strength and often failing, we can learn to wait for his help.

Waiting on God can help us not to quit too soon. “And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap, if we do not grow weary” (Galatians 6:9). A comfort to me in waiting on ministry results has been the reminder that “my toil is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Finally, waiting for God just makes sense. It is logical. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who [lives] in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That’s right! By not waiting on him, we can do nothing that truly serves God (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

Therefore, let us learn to wait for God. It will be hard. We will need retraining to wait. “All [waiting] for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11).

So, what are you waiting on God for? Ask him to help you see the good that he is doing as you wait and give him thanks.

Posted in Lordship | 2 Comments »

Does God Speak to Me?

July 25, 2013 by journeyintolight

“Well, I certainly hope so,” I thought to myself as I contemplated following God in courting Adele. He had told me a few days earlier in an inaudible voice, “This is the one who I have saved for you.” However, I had quickly put it in the back of my mind. I didn’t put much stock in an inaudible message from God in those days.

So began a journey of one and a half years of seeking God every step of the way in courting Adele. I had a proven track record of failure in courting and so I was desperate to hear his voice telling me the way to go.

I was to hear his voice through books, pros and cons lists, wise counsel, approval of those who were my spiritual leaders, my desires, and my inner thoughts informed by biblical principles. However, I was holding out to ask her to marry me until I heard his voice through the Scriptures.

Then, one Sunday afternoon when I was doing my weekly bible study, I heard his voice from two verses. He said, “Have I brought you this far in your relationship with Adele and will I not complete the process? Show your faith in Me and act now and ask her to marry you” (Isaiah 66:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:13). I could hardly contain my excitement at his go-ahead.

Of course God speaks to me. He speaks to all his children every day. But are we listening? Do we want to hear his voice? These are the key questions.

How else can God have an intimate love relationship with us unless he speaks to us daily? He says, “When you walk about, I will guide you; when you sleep I will watch over you; and when you are awake, I will talk to you” (Proverbs 6:22). In this verse he promises to do these things through his Word.

Today, God spoke to me in my quiet time in Galatians about the importance of fighting for grace. As Paul was fighting for the Christians to live by dependence on the Spirit and not return to Judaism, God wants me to fight for Christians to depend on the Spirit to live life.  He does not want us to return to earning our salvation, worth, love, and acceptance.

God talks to us in many other ways as well. Here are a couple of other ways.

In recent years, practicing silence has helped me to hear God’s voice better. As I get away from the noise, I can better hear the “still small voice” deep within.

“And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire, a sound of a gentle blowing. And behold a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:12-13).

He often speaks to us when we ask him to. “Shall I give you a snake if you ask Me for a fish?” (An application of Matthew 7:10).

When we ask him questions, he will answer us in his time and in his way. “His ears are open to [our] cry” (Psalm 34:15).

As we learn to recognize God’s voice, we are protected from following the other voices we hear. “My sheep know My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).

To help you become more a doer of the Word, ask God to help you reflect on your day. List the different ways he spoke to you and what he said.

Posted in Hearing God | 2 Comments »

What War?

July 20, 2013 by journeyintolight

 

I have often been deceived throughout my Christian life in trying to perform my way into God’s good graces. I have often used unreliable people, my fluctuating performance, and harsh internal demands to tell me of who I was.

I have also largely missed the experience of God’s deep love for me. I have often sought people’s approval as a substitute for relying on God’s love.

I believe that Satan has been working with my flesh and the world to hold me in bondage to these sinful ways of viewing myself. Instead, I need to view myself the way God views me. “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away; behold new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:16).

This is how Satan has been working since Adam and Eve. He tries to get us to reject the truth of God. Eve failed to rely on the truth of God’s warning and ate the fruit (Genesis 3:4-5). I have often failed to rely on God’s love for me as a gift and tried to earn it.

Paul says, “our weapons of war are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Corinthians 10:4). What fortresses?

He goes on. “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

This is war, friends! This is where the fiercest battles are being fought. Satan is out to control our mind and our heart.

But some of you may not be convinced. Some of you may say, “I am not in a war. I am not a soldier.”

But you are!

We all are! God has enlisted us in his army to fight the good fight (2 Timothy 4:7). Our war is for the hearts and minds of people, including ours. God wants us to rely on his truth and to use us to lead people “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

However, many of us are deceived into thinking that there is no war. We live life by human strength alone.

We show by our lack of dependence on God that we do not rely on the truth that

“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

We do not live in the reality that our “adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). We often do not accept the fact that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).

So, how do you wake up to the war that rages around you and in you? How can you become a better soldier?

Ask God these questions. What did he say?

Posted in Spiritual Warfare | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »