Go to the Mattresses
This morning, I read a great article from Marissa Star about finding freedom. You can read the article here.
In her article, Marissa encourages people to fight for their freedom, and to fight hard. Way too many people just give up the fight. One of her favorite quotes (which might become one of my favorites quotes) simply says:
“It doesn’t take years–it takes choices.”
That is so true! So often, we convince ourselves that freedom must be walked out over years of counsel and ministry and renewing our mind, yet so often, it really comes down to the choices we make. Marissa gives a great analogy to illustrate this:
Imagine if the route you took on your way home had a huge hole in the ground and if no matter how hard you tried you fell in it every time and you continued to hurt yourself. Wisdom would say there is a practical thing you can do about this … pick a different route home. It’s a simple choice with dramatic results, which is NOT falling and continuing to hurt yourself. Your choices are powerful to produce change. For those that love their plan and think their route is the best, this lesson can take a little longer (And I’ve been there too).
She closes up the blog with some encouraging scriptures:
DRAW YOUR SWORD! (Find your truth)
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”
GET POWER! (Involve the Holy Spirit)
Jesus said in John 14:26
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
Romans 15:13
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 2:12-14
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
So, put on your armor of God and “Go to the Mattresses!”
Sin Mangement Vs. Forming Jesus In Us
Dallas Willard has described our modern version of Christianity as the “Gospel of Sin-Management”, because of our propensity to think in terms of “what do I do about my sin?”. How do I stop, it? Is it sin if I…? What do I do when I do sin? How do I control my “besetting sin”? All these seem to be the central focus of christian practice. If not preventing or managing bad behavior, we are trying to foster “good” behavior. Read your Bible, Pray more. All these things seem so different from what Jesus seemed to say and do for people. How odd that the religion we named after Him promotes itself differently than He did.
It seems to me that when we go back to God’s original blueprint we might adjust (again) our view of the message and work of Jesus.
God had always intended to cover the creation with His nature, and He has always intended that His method be mankind, re-presenting, or presenting again His nature in the places we inhabit. When Adam and his wife turned the keys over to God’s adversary, God was not confused, frustrated, or shocked. This was all still part of His strategy to achieve His goal.
Part of His nature is that He is a Redeemer and and a Repairer, so to cover the creation with that, He would redeem and restore mankind. In so doing, He could resume covering the earth with Himself. As He re-forms His image in us, we re-present Him as we go. Where confusion has been we can bring clarity. Where fear has been we can deliver perfect love. Where anxiety has been, we can step in and restore peace beyond understanding.
Sure, these things don’t work as well when we are arm-wrestling our own behavior patterns, but winning the behavioral struggle was not the ultimate goal of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The cross allows us to be reconciled again to God, so that He, in us might fill the world with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, meekness, mercy and self-control.
In other words God’s goal was not to straighten out a bunch of misbehaving miscreants, it was to bring sons and daughters back into a relationship in which His life flows through us to the creation around us.
Try hard to be good if you want, but you could just yield to a very effective transformation process, in which God Himself is making you again into the person He designed you to be. Would it make any sense at all for God to make you, and then expect you to be someone other than who He made you to be?
Become yourself.
Focusing on your problem or focusing on God?
From Alan Smith.
“I can’t afford to be more conscious of any problem than I am of his presence.” –Bill Johnson.
How often do I pray from a place of being conscious of a problem rather than of His presence? Too often.
When I am problem-focused rather than Kingdom-focused, I usually end up striving from a place of fear and unbelief. This usually produces fruitlessness in prayer, which then magnifies the unbelief. This process may produce louder and more fervent prayer, but rarely does it produce more effective prayer.
Faith comes from hearing God. Revelation results from turning toward Him, not toward a problem.
I’m most effective in prayer when my focus is upon pursuing divine encounter rather than relief from a difficulty.
Freedom thru Forgiveness 7
Judgment is when our soul is shaped by another person’s shortcomings rather than the nature of God. It is the sin we are most likely to fall into when someone else has sinned against us.
“Judge not lest you also be judged”, Jesus said. This could be another opportunity for us to misinterpret the nature of God. He is not waiting behind the door to see if we judge others, so that He can nail us. Jesus is describing an aspect of reality that we need to be warned about. The word “judgment” which is used here carries the meaning of “limit”. The idea is that in our mind, or our emotions we lock someone into a way in which we see them. We limit them with our perceptions. When we do that, the limitation we impose with our soul is also imposed on our soul.
Have you ever been angry at someone for being…angry? Or how about the universal trap for all of us. The quickest route to become like our parents is to judge them and utter the words. “I’ll never be like my parents…“ The ways we limit others become the very limitations that impair us.
The thing or things that we judge in others is well on it’s way to being formed in the fabric of our own soul. “Judge not. lest you also be judged”, is a warning from Jesus. Do not allow the shortcomings of other people to mold you MORE than the Nature of God in you.
Here is the most important distinction we must make. Discerning the truth about someone is not judgment. We can recognize all manner of flaws, characteristics, habits, etc. and even accurately assess their condition. As long as our discernment is coupled with the heart of God toward that person, we have not slipped into judgment. Judgment is when you discern something about someone, and harden your heart because of and in response to what you discern. Now you have slipped into the sin of judgment. It will cripple you and it will shape your soul.
Forgiveness is what you do with the impact of sins committed against you. Judgment is the most likely sin you will fall into when someone sins against you.
Guard your heart above all else…from it flow the issues of your life.
Freedom thru Forgiveness 6
Forgiving those who hurt you is for your restoration, not the restoration of the offender. Two particular persons you need to include on your forgiveness list. You and God
Forgiving yourself is very difficult for many people. They may have held resentment against themselves for years. Based on yesterday’s post, forgiveness is how you finally become released from the power of the pain of sins committed against you. This is especially true if you are the one who commiteed sins against yourself. Step back, agree with God about your past. God’s opinion is not that your behavior was acceptable, but that your behavior is covered and finishedand you are now acceptable..
Next on the forgiveness list is God. This one can be a little controversial. Someone reading may take up offense for God on this. Relax and keep reading, before you decide to defend the Almighty. Let me begin by saying that God has never sinned against anyone. It is essential to keep in mind though, that according to 2 Corinthians 10, strongholds, patterns of untrue thinking, are directed against our knowledge of God. At some time in our life it is highly likely that we have held a resentment against God because of our perception of events and our perception of God’s motives and actions. One of the most tragic events is when someone, because of the pain of their circumstances, builds a barrier between themselves and the only One who can heal them.
I have often seen people build theological constructs in their mind to avoid dealing with pain in their heart that they have attributed to God. Get real, get honest. He is not afraid of you.
Other Random Issues in Forgiveness:
It is not necessary for the other person to come to you and ask forgiveness. This is your gift to get free, and may not involve that person at all.
It is not necessary for you tell the other person you have forgiven them. Too many times I have seen new offense stirred up because of some compulsion to go to someone and say “I have forgiven you” Let me say again. Forgiving them is NOT ABOUT THEM. I have sat with numerous people who forgave deceased relatives. Forgiveness was for the release of the forgiver not the forgiven. The whole point is giving them over to God. Be done.
You might find it tempting to begin to excuse the behavior of the other person. Thoughts like, “It wasn’t that bad”, or, “they really didn’t mean it”. “They didn’t know better,” these and so many others seem to be a way that people begin to minimize the offense, and funtionally minimize their own pain. Remeber the point is NOT the other person but your restoration. So do not try to answer questions about the motive or capacity of the other. The question is “did it hurt”? If it hurt, forgiving them is to help you in your own restoration.
While I have mentioned that forgiveness is a healing process, God’s healing is not intended to be a substitute for the grieving process. Grieving is an ongoing process of God’s healing work that reflects the value of what was lost or damaged. If you lost a loved one, or a relationship, or a possesion, or a condition that was important, attempting to have no more pain at all about this loss, may rob you of the value of grieving. Jesus was a Man acquainted with grief. We should not run, or hide from it simply because we want to not hurt any more.
Grieving is the process of our souls adapting to a new and undesired circumstance. Allow the adaptation to happen.
The next post will be on the ugly cousin of resentment, Judgement. Often when we have need to forgive we also have need to deal with our judgements.
Recent Posts
- The Knowledge of Good
- What do you believe about God?
- Go to the Mattresses
- Sin Mangement Vs. Forming Jesus In Us
- Focusing on your problem or focusing on God?
- Think Again
- What does it mean to Repent? What is repentance?
- Chasing your Passion
- Stop praying for revival, and BE the revival
- Divine Power within us to ask
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