Live the Christian Life In God’s Power

November 3, 2012 by journeyintolight

God’s Spirit does more than just help us understand the Bible, comfort us, and convict us of sin. He also gives us the power to live the Christian life. “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

I used to rely a lot more on myself to live the Christian life and to grow spiritually. If I was self-centered or unloving toward someone, I would either repress the sin, memorize Scripture, read a book on the subject, or just try harder. Now, I am more inclined to give up the autonomy and give it to the Holy Spirit to transform this self-centeredness or lack of love into Christ-like attitudes and behaviors.

We are often fooled into thinking that all we need to do to live the Christian life is to know the biblical principles, and then we do them in our own fortitude. We think we can largely grow and do ministry by our own strength and willpower. However, the resistance to progress in the Christian life is supernatural. We face “spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). The world, the flesh, and the devil are too much for mere human resources. We need the Spirit’s power to overcome our bondages to arrogance, self-centeredness, and complacency. We need the Spirit’s power to know and do the works of God.

We also need to learn what hinders the work of the Spirit in our hearts. One of the biggest hindrances is knowing the truth without relying on the truth. Relying on our fortitude instead of the Holy Spirit for our life and ministry grieves the Holy Spirit. One of the truths that we need to be relying on is depending on the Spirit to be putting off the old sinful thinking and feelings, and putting on Christ-like thinking and feelings.

For me, I assume I am walking in the Spirit, unless I sense that the Holy Spirit is convicting me of something specifically. A vague sense of guilt does not work with me, for this tends to be a common ploy of Satan. Also, when I feel anxiety, I try to turn to God in prayer, for this often means that fellowship has been broken with him. Anxiety often is a call from God to connect with him in prayer.

May we all move beyond being satisfied with just knowing about God’s power. May we also have the courage and humility to live in God’s power. He commands us to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). May we ask God to make this true for us today!

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To See Ourselves As God Sees Us

October 27, 2012 by journeyintolight

I have been trained to see myself as others see me, or how I think they see me. It is embarrassing to me to admit that in some areas I still tend to see myself as my mother did long ago regarding my looks. I felt unacceptable and diminished when she pointed out to me my appearance flaws.

So, when I think about it, it is not too surprising to me that I was disturbed the other night when I caught my image in a mirror that showed that I was nearly bald on top. My thinning hair on top nearly disappeared in the bright lights of the room. It was as if the top of my head was stamped with “shame, “unacceptable,” and rejected.” So, without thinking, I did what I usually do, which was to try to put the image out of my mind.

I chose to believe that my worth and acceptability depended on not being bald on the top of my head. I could not believe in that moment that being bald on top did not diminish me in God’s eyes. However, I then came to my senses.

Before I could put the image out of my mind, I decided to change the image to match the truth. Instead of “shame”, “unacceptable”, and “rejected” stamped on the top of my head, I now saw “approved,” “loved,” and “precious” stamped on the bald top of my head. I knew that God accepted me with or without hair. There was absolutely no flaw in me that would ever cause him to reject me. So, I decided to put off the old image and put on the new one.

So, the next morning when I noticed in the mirror that I had an absence of hair on top, I pictured “approved”, “loved”, and “precious” stamped all over it. Now, I am beginning to feel differently about my thinning hair. It is no longer a source of shame, but a trigger to praise God and his grace, and to feel good about myself. I am retraining myself to see myself as God sees me.

I encourage you to ask God to help you discern where you are seeing yourself less than the way God sees you. For example, you may not see yourself as very important because of your looks, your achievements, or what people think of you. Baloney! You are important! God says, “You are precious in My sight, you are honored, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4). We need to put off the old ways of seeing ourselves, and with God’s help, see ourselves as God sees us.

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On the Way to the Mailbox

October 21, 2012 by journeyintolight

My trips to the mailbox for much of the last three weeks have been tense. The reason has been that I could be getting my lab results from my annual physical. In the past, the results have usually been good. However, in recent years, about half the time they have had a test or two outside the normal range that needed some follow-up.

So, why was I afraid? I was afraid because I have been well trained to fear bad unless there is solid evidence to keep my fears in check. In this case, I could get bad news and this was enough to trigger the fears.

After a few days of tensing up on the way to the mailbox, I came to my senses and realized that my spirit needed to be retrained. God did not want me to continue to live life like he did not exist. He is my strength and every lab score was under his control. So, from that day on, on the way to the mailbox, I began to thank God for his faithfulness through the years to keep me healthy. I also thanked him for how he would help me deal with any score outside the normal range. My fears began to decrease as I realized what an awesome God I had taking care of me.

This may seem trivial to you. You may think that the easier way for me was to just gut it out, be fearful, get good lab results, and move on. Yet, the problem with this is that I remain unchanged. I will be fearful again when lab results are expected in the mail. I will continue to live in bondage to the sin of not trusting God.

Lately, I have recognized how often I have automatic responses to life’s circumstances that are not godly. I think you do too. When we become aware of these, we need to cooperate with God in our growth by practicing simple exercises that help drill truth into our hearts to counteract the ungodly habits trained in there for years. Simply giving thanks for God’s past faithfulness on the way to the mailbox has helped me to face lab test results in the future in a more godly way.

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Living in the Fourth Mansion

October 8, 2012 by journeyintolight

I have been puzzled in the last few months that so many of my attempts to help out in one ministry or another have been refused. These are ministries that I am good at and have something to give. Besides feeling disappointed and some hurt by the refusals, I sensed a quiet desperation in me that screamed that I had to serve. I had to serve not only to help people, but also I had to serve to regard myself as worthwhile and acceptable.

The latest example happened last week. I volunteered to lead a small group at our church. However, as time went by, I was not notified of anyone assigned to my group. However, everyone else I talked to who had volunteered to lead a group had been assigned a number of people. So, I made some calls but got no response.

As I pondered what God could be doing in all of these refusals, I happened to read something that I had written about living in the fourth mansion. Living in the fourth mansion is a stage of spiritual maturity characterized by learning to rest in who we are, not what we do. At this stage, we learn to receive worth and acceptance as gifts, not seeking to earn them through being busy. We learn that no ministry or anything else we do adds anything to our worth and acceptance to God.

So, I began the process of accepting still another refusal for my services as part of the maturing process that God was taking me though. Then, the door opened. A friend of mine urged me to try one more time to contact the church. So, I did and connected this time and found out that they did not have my contact information. So, as soon as I gave them my contact information, the names began to come in and the group has grown to a nice size.

So, what was God doing in all of this? I think one thing was to remind me to learn to rest in my worth and acceptance I already have from him, and not what I can earn by being active in the ministry. If he leads me to do nothing, so what? I do not lose any worth or acceptance. He does not want me to misuse his ministry that he gives me for a phony attempt to earn worth. He wants me to learn to receive worth and acceptance as a gift by living in the fourth mansion. This will make me free to serve for the right reasons.

 

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When We Are Weak, Then We Are Strong

September 28, 2012 by journeyintolight

Yesterday was my annual “Freak Out” session when I visited the doctor for my annual physical. You see, I suffer from “White Coat Syndrome,” which means I get scared when I am being checked out by the doctor. So, as usual my blood pressure was sky-high (it returns to normal after I leave the doctor’s office), and I felt embarrassed for being so scared.

Recently, I sought the Lord to try to understand why this happens to me. As a result, one thing became clearer to me. I have been trained to fear weakness in myself, and to exhibit weakness to others because I fear rejection. Since I regard high blood pressure and being afraid as weaknesses, I fear my rejection and the rejection of others.

However, in recent years, God has been helping me to live more in the reality that no matter how high my blood pressure goes, or how scared I am, I am still accepted by him. It does not matter at all what I think or what others think of my performance. I am still acceptable and okay to God. His acceptance is what counts.

So, yesterday when I received my usual high blood pressure reading and felt embarrassed for being weak in my eyes, I repeated to myself over and over again that I was still accepted and loved by God. I did not need to beat myself up for being weak because my acceptance by God did not depend on being strong. This reduced the pain of being weak.

After the physical, I wondered why God has not enabled me to overcome this weakness in my life through his power. I then recalled Paul’s struggle about his “thorn in the flesh” that God left in his life to keep him from becoming conceited.  This made me think that perhaps why God has left this weakness in my life is to remind me of my desperate need for his support to live each day. By depending on his support, I will be strong!

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Without a Vision

September 21, 2012 by journeyintolight

I recently challenged a group of people to go deeper with God in allowing him to transform them at the heart-level. I was shocked to hear a couple of them say that they did not want to do this. They did not want to be transformed at the heart-level.

I have always been puzzled by people who by their words or actions do not want to grow spiritually. I have always placed a high priority on growing spiritually throughout my Christian life. So, it is hard for me to understand those who do not want to grow.

Someone asked me a few nights ago why so few Christians want to leave their comfortable status quo and go on to a deeper journey with God. I told him that I thought this desire to go deeper with God is a gift that God gives to some. I also said that I think people fill their lives with substitutes for God that dull their hunger for him.

However, today, I thought of another reason. I think a lot of people lack vision. They really cannot imagine how wonderful their lives would be in the presence of God throughout the day. Below is an excerpt from my book, Experiencing God’s Transforming Love, which I wrote in hopes of capturing a glimpse of the wonderful biblical reality that would motivate them to go deep with God:

“Imagine living in the presence of Someone who is very strong, and who is head-over-heels in love with us. Imagine Someone whose smile slowly melts away our fears and tensions. Imagine Someone who is always there for us, but gives us space when we need it. Imagine Someone who will never reject us no matter how weak and unbelieving we are. Imagine Someone who enjoys being with us and delights in who we really are.”

Perhaps with this vision people may not be so reluctant to have their lives and reality transformed. Perhaps they will be drawn from their darkness into the light of an intimate love relationship with God that he so desires with each of them.

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When the Fig Tree Does Not Blossom

September 13, 2012 by journeyintolight

I love to see results from my efforts. My ego rises and falls with results. My joy is found in success.  However, a number of my projects failed to give me the results that I wanted this summer. So, I have been fighting discouragement and doing some complaining to God.

However, the other day in my quiet time I came across 1 Thessalonians 2:1 in which Paul is expressing thanks for the results he got when he planted a church in Thessalonica. His results were small (probably less than 50 people) in comparison to the 200,000 potential converts that there were in the city. A city that was largely hostile to his message. Yet, Paul rejoiced in the results.

This made me stop and think that I also had some results in my various projects. Not as much as I wanted, but nevertheless supernatural results. So, I began to thank the Lord for the results that I did have.

I also recalled the verse in the book of Habakkuk that even if the fig tree does not blossom, I still have the Lord with me. His constant presence in my life gives me much to rejoice about, even if there are no results! This was a challenge to me to find my joy in the journey with God, not results.

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Why Wait For God?

September 7, 2012 by journeyintolight

Many of us live our lives as if no one is watching. However, God is lovingly watching over our lives, and will one day reward us for every thought and deed that honors him (II Corinthians 5:10).  May we have waited long enough for God to show us and empower us to think and do the deeds that truly honor him.

Another reason to wait for God is because we can’t really do anything of lasting value without him. He says, “for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This means that when we fail to wait for God, all our busyness is a waste of time.

We also need to wait for God because this is how we were made to operate. He created us to partner with him in facing the challenges and pains of life. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and You Shall Find Rest For Your Souls” (Matthew 11:29). When we fail to wait on God, we often bring a lot of unnecessary stress into our lives.

A fourth reason to wait for God is because we really do not know the right way to go. Yes, the way we think we should go may be right by worldly standards, but is it right by God’s standards?  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6). We wait for God to live our lives successfully.

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Grieving a Loss

August 30, 2012 by journeyintolight

When we lose someone or something that means a lot to us, we often feel grief. Grief is a deep emotion that flows from the loss of a loved one, a job, a hope for a new ministry, or a relationship. We can grieve for almost anything that we have depended upon, and it or the person is no longer there. The deepness of our grief can vary a lot depending on how important the loss was to us.

One thing we need to do when grief hits is to face the painful feelings within us. We do not want to run from them by getting busy, or pretending they are not there. Experiencing the grief, labeling the feelings as grief, and talking over the situation with God can move us forward in the grieving process. We do not want to get stuck in denial, anger, bitterness, or depression.

Recently, my hope died for a particular ministry at my church. I felt grief and could not sleep well the first night. Then, over the next few days I began to accept the reality of the situation and my peace returned. Yet, I still am very disappointed and at times lapse back into depression and some anger.

However, through facing my grief, talking and listening to God through the Scriptures, and through the encouragement of friends, I am moving forward in the grieving process. I am slowly growing in my acceptance of the situation and beginning to see the good that could come from the loss.

 

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What Does God Think of Us?

August 24, 2012 by journeyintolight

Most of us have a hard time living in the reality that because we are God’s children, He will always love us, never reject us, and always consider us precious. No matter how much we fail or get rejected by people, God does not think less of us. Most of us have been trained to believe that this reality is sheer nonsense.

For instance, my parents let me know at a very early age that they were not going to accept me for who I really was. Instead, they would make me into who I needed to be in order to be loved, accepted, and valued by them.  I learned to live for what they thought of me by pretending to be who they wanted me to be. This trained me to look to people to find love, worth, and acceptance, instead of God.

Today, I am learning to live in the reality that what other people think of me is really not that important. What is important is what God thinks of me. For example, I used to seek leadership positions to make other people think I was important. Today, I am growing in living in the truth that my importance will never increase beyond what I already have as God’s child, no matter how highly people think of me. Living in this reality is freeing me up to assume leadership positions to serve, and not to use them to gain the importance I already have from what God thinks of me.

This wonderful reality of what God thinks of me, has helped me recently to journey through a difficult set of circumstances. A couple of months ago, I was turned down for a leadership position in my church. I could have avoided this fate if I had pretended to think differently than I did. However, God did not want me to pretend to be who I was not, in order to be accepted by people. So, I presented myself as who I really was, and was rejected for the position.

In years gone by, I would have been more shaken by being rejected for the leadership position. However, this time, I endured the pain of what others thought of me, and lived in the reality of retaining my dignity by relying of what God thought of me.

Posted in Self- Knowledge | 78 Comments »

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