God my Father shields me from the storm

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him (Proverbs 30:5).
 
When the harshness of life settles in like long monsoon rain, it gives hope to know that God your Father is taking good care of you. Some tests are of long duration. These are the times you must be rooted in the fact that God your Father always has His eye on you, and He has made promises to shield you and deliver you from the day of test.

Tests and storms may come to your life, but the Father has promised that you’ll come through them every one. We must never forget that underneath us are the everlasting arms.

Years ago, during a particularly grueling trial, it seemed as though I would never see the end of the difficulty I was in. The Lord urged me time and again to go to His Word, and there He met me. What He shared has become very close to me now, and I often reflect on the verses He gave me. I’ll share them with you today the way the Lord gave them to me.

If you’re in a tough place, and the test is hard, take my word for it, you will come though this thing on the other side as a better version of you than you are now. As you read the following, know that God keeps His promises!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
 
For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock (Psalm 27:5 NIV).

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles (Psalm 34:17 NIV).

A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all (Psalm 34:19 NIV).

The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him (Psalm 34:22 NIV).

The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him (Psalm 37:39-40 NIV)

And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me (Psalm50:15 NIV).

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah (Psalm 46:1-3 NIV).

Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.  With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation (Psalm 91:14-16 NIV).

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

And the King will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me (Matthew 25:40).

We are the body of Christ and are interconnected. The way we treat fellow members of the body of Christ is the way we treat Jesus Himself! John said that if I can’t love my brother who I can see, then how can I love God whom I can’t see?

Do we reach out to the sick, the poor, the hungry, or the imprisoned? Are we kind, compassionate, and understanding throughout the day as we interact with fellow workers and family members?

Our spiritual activities have little impact if they are not translated into our actions and reactions towards others. Prayer meetings, church services, fellowships, bible studies, bible reading, are wonderful activities. But do we go from these legitimate activities and show the love of God to regular folk that we meet in our daily contacts?

This is where the rubber meets the road. Let’s choose today to be the hands, arms, eyes, and ears of Jesus. Be aware of what you say and how you say it to every person you encounter.

Remember that you are an extension of Jesus and His ministry. The world understands Him by seeing how we act! What are our actions telling others about Him?

Jesus appeared to Paul when his name was Saul and he was persecuting Christians. He said to Saul, Why are you persecuting me? Saul had never seen Jesus, but Jesus took personally everything Saul did as he harmed believers.

Jesus never changes. He still takes personally our actions towards our fellow man. Let’s face today with a new sensitivity to how we treat others. And let’s be aware that we represent the Son of God with every look, reaction, word, and deed!

Death or Life

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit (Proverbs 18:21)

The most powerful force in our life today are our words. They literally have the power of life and death!

Words are the creative ability of God. He created the worlds with words. He upholds all things by the power of His Word. Created in His image, we have an ability to create in us life with words.

Jesus said that we will give account for every word that comes out of our mouth. Let me ask a question. What would happen if what we said today suddenly came into being in an instant? Would we want what we’ve been speaking to happen?

We’re either speaking life or death. Speaking death means that we’re allowing our mouth to agree with the circumstances around us or the doubts that come into our mind today. And words are creative. When we speak doubt and unbelief, we allow the enemy the opportunity to dominate.

On the other hand speaking life means that we’re allowing our mouth to agree with the Word of God. We’re choosing to call those things that be not as though they were. Speaking life means we speak the end result before we see it. We confess that we believe we’re healed while the pain is still in our body. We acknowledge that our needs are met while lack surrounds us. We say that we’re overcoming by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony while the circumstances appear to be crushing us.
 
God spoke to the Israelites and told them to choose this day whom they would serve, life or death, blessing or cursing. The Father is likewise challenging us today to choose life by choosing to speak the Word of God right in the face of opposing circumstances. If we will do this, we’ll find the strength of God rising up within us. We will be able to persevere and overcome because God watches over His Word to perform it.

The Love Way

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

Satan knows that faith will move mountains, and that nothing is impossible to him who believes. He also knows that faith must operate through love to be effective. And so He works to “pull the rug out from under” our faith life by attacking our relationships.

The love command is the central component in the believer’s life. We’re to love one another as He loves us. We are to follow after God and walk in love. We’re encouraged to have “white heated” love for the brethren.

1 Corinthians 13 gives us the elements that describe love. Patience, kindness, generosity, courtesy, unselfishness, righteousness, good temper, sincerity, are some of the fundamentals that form the love of God.

Over the years, I’ve used the Amplified translation of 1 Corinthians 13:5 as a gauge to measure my love life. The last part of the verse reads: it takes no account of the evil done to it; it pays no attention to a suffered wrong.

The moment I get upset because of the way someone treats me shows that I just left the love realm. Back in my bible school days I was heavily tested in the area of walking in love.

I worked in management in a grocery store that had an employee’s union. One winter before Christmas the union decided to go on a strike. I chose to go to work during the strike and was called all kinds of names as I crossed the picket line each day.

One man who worked as a butcher took particular offence at my actions and refused to talk to me or even acknowledge my presence in the room! I managed the night shift and would unlock the door as the day employees came to work.

This butcher would knock on the door, and as I unlocked it and said good morning, he would ignore me and act as though I was the invisible man! He would enter without saying one thing to me or looking at me. In group conversations, he would act as though I was not there and ignore my direct comments to him. He did this every day for weeks!

I decided that I would walk in love towards him, and act as though he did no wrong. Every day, I greeted him, and would speak to him as I passed him as we worked. He refused eye contact, and just simply ignored me and my kind comments day after day. After many weeks, I opened the door one morning, and he greeted me with a smile and a hearty “good morning!” I almost fell on the floor in surprise!

That taught me a great love lesson. Love never fails. Love is the best way.

Refuse to take offense when people mistreat you. Make a decision to be a person of love. That decision will cause your faith to work, and will keep you living above the insults and injuries of others.

Adoption Benefits

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 4:4-7).For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26).
 
You are a son or daughter of Almighty God. You have been adopted into His family through the new birth. Now, everything He has is at your disposal. You have a rich inheritance.
 
Your relationship with your former family is completely severed by this adoption into the family of God. Your former spiritual parent, Satan, no longer has any legal jurisdiction over you. He has no relationship or property rights over you. You are now under the care of the One who upholds all things by the power of His Word!

All former debts and obligations from your former family relationship have been canceled. Any personal penalties you have incurred because of laws you have broken have been forgiven. This adoption has given Father God full custody rights over you, and has severed you from all past debts, obligations, and penalties.

You are now an heir of God, and an equal heir with Jesus Christ. All that the Father has belongs to you. You have the full rights of family relationship with the Father. In fact, you have the same status with the Father as His child that a child actually born into his household has! His all belongs to you. But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!
 
Take your place as a child of God and hold your head high today. You have a new genealogy. You are of God! He has assumed the obligations of your care. He has told you not to worry about where or how provision for the day will come. Just seek Him and His kingdom, and all will be provided!
 
Your adoption in Christ gives you victory in every circumstance, authority over Satan and his minions, the peace of God, the love of God, the rest of God, healing for your body, prosperity, the promise of answered prayer, everything that pertains to life and godliness, every benefit provided by Jesus on the cross (called every spiritual blessing in heavenly places by Christ Jesus in Ephesians 1:3), and the faith to believe God for everything he has given you!
 
Expect the Father to provide His best for you His child today. Talk to Him about everything. Take every difficulty the day brings and lay it before Him in faith. You are His child. He is your Father. He will take care of you!

Equal Pay

In Matthew 20, Jesus gave the parable of the vineyard workers. This parable illustrates the importance of faithfulness and of God’s fairness. There are no greater or lesser persons in God’s family. There are simply those that are faithful to do what the Father called them to do.

In the parable a vineyard owner needed workers for the day. He hired people at the beginning of the day, maybe around 6 AM, agreeing to pay them, let’s say $150.00 a day. Seeing he needed more workers and noticing people standing around looking for work, he hired more workers at 9 AM and they agreed to work for a $150.00 a day.
 
The vineyard owner found workers again at noon and at 3 PM, and they too agreed to work for $150.00 for the day. Once more, the owner hired workers at 5 PM, one hour before the end of the workday. And they too were hired for $150.00 for the day’s work.
 
At the end of the day, the vineyard owner paid each of the workers the $150.00 that he agreed to pay them when he hired them. The workers that were hired at 6 am became indignant with the owner, because he seemed so unfair. The workers who were hired in the morning hours did the most work, enduring the grueling heat of the day, and were paid the same wage as the person who was hired at 5 PM. That seems so unfair!

Jesus’ point was that every person in the family of God is valuable. We don’t get rewarded for the amount of kingdom work we do, we get rewarded for our faithfulness to do what the Father has called us to do. That way, each person is just as valuable in the kingdom of God as any other.

Internationally known and acclaimed Billy Graham will get the same reward as the unknown lady who faithfully prays at home for his ministry every day. The janitor, the secretary, the volunteer in the children’s ministry, the piano player, the intercessor, will get the same reward as the pastor in the church as longs as each one does his job and is faithful to do what the Lord has called him to do.

For that reason, there is no “jockeying for position” in the family of God. Our faithfulness is rewarded, not our amount of work or our position. Each person is a valuable as the next.
 
Decide today to be a person that is faithful. Don’t envy another person’s position or call. You may not be seen or heard by men, but the Father sees your faithful heart and will reward you for doing what he called you to do!

He Knows You

O Lord, You have searched me and known me (Psalm 139:1). The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you (Jeremiah 31:3).

The Father loves you with an everlasting love. He knows everything about you. He is aware of every cell of your body. Not only does he know the number of hairs on your head, but he understands the complex DNA structure that lives in each cell of your body. He is aware of every aspect of your health and knows what is necessary for you to thrive. He wants that information to be yours.

The Father knows every thought in your mind. He is aware of what occupies every memory cell in your brain. He has watched you since you were in your mother’s womb, and knows every single event in your life in minute detail.

The Father is aware of your emotional life. He knows every up and down, and understands the factors that contribute to your personality and motivations. He knows why you do everything you do. He feels the grief and pain that burdens you.

The Father hears every word that falls from your lips. He is aware of the un-verbalized comments that remain buried. He understands the tremendous power your words hold over you. He wants you to watch them carefully.

He sees every unfulfilled desire. He knows your hopes and dreams. He sees the unfulfilled expectations of life that bring you anguish. He knows ahead of time the decisions you make and why you make them.

With this all knowledge the Father wants to come and make a home with you. He wants to help you figure out the every day choices ahead of you. He desires to impart peace to your entire being, and longs to calm every fear and bring you to a state of rest.

This all starts with Jesus’ Lordship confessed with your own lips. Then the Word must be meditated upon until it becomes a part of your inward life. Slowly your perceptions of Him will become stronger and stronger until you will gain an inward knowing of his purpose in the even the minor details of your life.

One day you will meet Jesus personally. He will be the sum total of your every desire. He will be the satisfaction of every thought. He will be the fulfillment of every emotion. He will be the embodiment of your entire future. He will be the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen, the fulfillment of each of your five senses, the sum total of everything that is pleasant. All fullness dwells in Him.
 
When you meet Him, it will be as though you have always known Him. He will know everything about you that there is to be known, yet you will feel complete and at rest with Him. With Him you will experience the fullness of joy, complete acceptance, and the total fulfillment of every thought, emotion, desire, and sense. You will be totally free to be yourself. Let’s start the journey today!

From Performance to Rest

There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His (Hebrews 4:9-10)

From childhood, I have used accomplishment as a tool to receive affirmation. I so wanted to hear- “wow, what a great job Mitch” that I would go to the extreme to hear it. At age four and five, I was already shining the chrome fixtures in the bathroom just to receive praise. I would make the porcelain gleam just waiting for my mother to notice.
 
As I aged, this became a way of life for me. This produced in me a drive to succeed. So my life was filled with doing things to be accepted. That’s hard. I could never really rest. I never thought that I’d done enough.
 
When I gave my life to Jesus, this motivation still dominated me. Now I was doing things to receive acceptance from the Father. And I noticed that deep within me, I didn’t think He as quite pleased with me. So restlessness ruled me.

In the mid 1980’s, I was part of the pastoral staff in a large church in Tulsa. I was in my office one morning, feeling that I wasn’t quite doing enough to be pleasing to the Father. And I came across a definition of Grace that changed my life.

Grace is God’s ability working in you to enable you to do what you can’t do yourself. Faith changes things and circumstances. Grace changes people. And somehow a dynamic changed inside of me.

I had been trying to measure up to some standard all my life. Then as a believer, I tried to measure up to some grandiose standard that I created in my own head so that the Father would be pleased with me. For the first time, I saw that Jesus pleased the Father for me! And all this grunting and straining to attain some super spiritual level was righteousness by works and not by grace through faith. I had a grace heart and a works mentality.

But now I saw that the Father just simply loved me. I broke down and began to cry. I didn’t have to measure up to some high standard for the Father to love me. His love is not based on accomplishment, but on His own benevolent nature. He loved me for who I was, not for what did.

I took all this doing things to be pleasing motivation to Him. And I asked for His grace, His ability to do in me what I can’t do myself, to change this works motivation that pushed me so hard.

Now, all these years later, I can rest. His grace, His ability to do in me what I can’t do myself, has helped me settle down into the peace of God. I’m no longer driven with this deep need to perform to be accepted. I am accepted in the beloved! Now I do what I do out of a motivation to bless and help others, and out of a motivation to obey my Father and give Him Glory.
 
The rest of grace through faith is where the Father wants us all to live. I encourage you to allow the Father’s unconditional love into your life, and to let go of the need to perform to be accepted. The Father wants you to cease from your own works and rest in the acceptance that Jesus’ blood purchased for you freely!

From the Inside Out

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).

In the above verse, the word conformed is from the Greek word summorphoo which means to bring to the same form with. Or to make it practical, this word means to take something on the inside and let it be seen on the outside!

God is in the process of changing us from the inside out. An example of this is in Matthew 17 when Jesus was transfigured and began to glow with a white light. What was inside of Him burst forth!

We live from the inside out.  Our outward behavior is but a reflection of what we are inside. Prior to the New Birth, our unrenewed, sin-nature dominated soul (our mind, emotions, and will) ruled us. Self-centered living characterized how we did life. We lived to please ourselves first.

When we become new creatures in Christ, the Father desires that we learn to live from our spirit nature. This is  the part of us that is radically changed. It’s the part that has passed from death into life. It’s the part of us that is God centered and not self-centered. Our spirit nature is the part of us where the Love of God is deposited (Romans 5:5). We really do have the ability to do life differently, from the inside out.

Paul travailed for the believers in Galatia until Christ was formed in them (Galatians 4:19). This word formed here means to change the outward to reveal the inward. Travailing prayer helps bring this change about. Since praying in other tongues is praying from your spirit, it can also be a catalyst to move this new nature in your spirit to the forefront in your life.

In Romans 12 we’re encouraged not to allow the world to squeeze us into its mold. We are not to allow outward things to shape us. It’s the renewing of the mind with the Word and learning to live from the spirit and not the soul that causes a metamorphosis, a change from with, to take place in our lives.

Allow the seed that the Father has placed in you to germinate today. Take time to feed on God’s Word. Let the Word find a home in you! Let it dwell in you richly. This new Divine nature develops and grows when the Word comes alive in you (2 Peter 1:3-4). Water that  Word seed by spending time waiting on the Lord in prayer.

Focus your thoughts on the God’s Word today. Set your mind on things above. As you do, the incorruptible seed will germinate and change you, from the inside out!

Tell the Truth About Sin

Things have certainly changed in the USA since I was a child. When I was very young I have distinct memories of being taught about the depravity of man and of our sinfulness.

Now, we seem to have flipped to the other extreme. In many churches it’s seldom that you hear a great deal about sin and its effects. And in the general public through our educational institutions, the populace hears from the humanistic psychological perspective that we all are really good people. We just need some good education and that ember of wonderfulness within us will just spring to life!

Well, that just doesn’t play out in real life. Human beings are capable of horribly wicked deeds. We are a depraved race! Adam’s sinned knocked the goodness right out of us. Just listen to Paul.  …being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:29-32).
  
Outside of the new birth and grace of God changing our natures, we’re heathen! Barbaric! Treacherous!

We need to spread the good new of the gospel that God so loved us that He made redemption from sin available to us. And that mercy, grace and forgiveness are available through Christ. And that God has made a way available so that our sins are already forgiven if we’ll only accept His plan of salvation through Jesus.

But before that will make a difference in a human life, a person must realize that he is a sinner in need of a savior. And that he is not just a nice sinner, but that he is morally and spiritually bankrupt and depraved.

Jonathan Edward preached his famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and people shook with deep conviction of sin.  Revival fire spread through our land as revivalists preached of a God who is a consuming fire. We need this in our age too.

Don’t get me wrong, we need to know that Jesus became our righteousness, and that God thinks we’re special. And that He has blessed us and destined us for blessing and favor. But these truths are for the saints who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Sinners need to know that the Father loves them. But we need the Billy Grahams of our day telling the masses of the lost that the wages of sin is death.

When a person gets a good understanding of their utter sinfulness, they will reach for the life raft of salvation with zeal. It’s time for us believers to awake to righteousness, and take the two edged sword of truth in our mouths motivated by the burning love of God in our hearts.

Before God’s best can be granted, a sinner must squirm with Holy Spirit conviction under the weight of his sin and understand sin’s wages. Only then can he really appreciate hearing that the gift of God is eternal life thought Jesus Christ our Lord!

Renounce, Submit, Obey

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).

Repentance plays an important role in a fresh move of the Holy Spirit in individual lives, in a church, and in a nation. John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus to begin His ministry: In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was, Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near (Matthew 3:1-2).

Israel had turned away from the Lord. They had worshipped false gods in the place of Jehovah. Judgment was coming. After calling for repentance, Joel prophesied a great move of the Spirit (Joel 2:28-32). Listen to the call to repentance that preceded the word of a coming revival:

Now, therefore, says the Lord, Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him —  A grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion,  consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God? (Joel 2:12-17).

I believe the Lord is calling us to repentance today so that He can move in a fresh way by the Holy Spirit in our personal lives, in our churches, and in our nation. Remember 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT): Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

Repentance has three ingredients. When I repent I must renounce, repent, and obey. First I must renounce any area of disobedience, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. When light comes into my life, I am responsible to walk in it or darkness will invade and blind me. Repentance is a mental and willful “about-face;” a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction. I change the course of an area of life. It is a decision of heart that produces a lifestyle change in me.

To repent I must also submit. That is, I must allow the Word of God to saturate my mind and heart, and then I must willfully choose to submit and obey it. But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves (James 1:22 - NLT).

Lastly, to repent I must obey. I must decide moment by moment to obey my conscience and the tender tug of the Holy Spirit as I walk through each day and its demanded choices. Renounce, submit, and obey must become my lifestyle.

The Father wants me to live a lifestyle of repentance. When I do, I can expect times of refreshing from the Father’s awesome presence in my personal life. Then, as we act in corporate repentance, we can expect times of refreshing in our churches and in our nation. Walk with me today into repentance: renounce, submit, and obey!

Angels at Work!

Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word (Psalm 103:20).

We are not alone. Not only do we have the Spirit of God to enable us and help us from within, but we also have the help of the angels of God from without.

The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them (Psalm 34:7). For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone (Psalm 91:11-12).

In Genesis 18, angels appeared to Abraham, and reminded him of the promise of God. They also warned Him of the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 19, angels came to remove Lot and his family from the doomed city of Sodom. An angel appeared to Gideon as he threshed wheat behind a wine press. The angel delivered a message from God that changed his life.

Angels also appeared to Daniel, Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Paul, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and to John on the isle of Patmos.

We are admonished to be hospitable to everyone, since some have been unaware that the angels of God had come to check up on them! See Hebrews 13:4.

We have the encouragement from Hebrews 1:14 that angels come to help us in life. A.S. Way’s translation of this verse reads, The angels! - what are they all but servants, spirits who render service to God, who are  hour by hour being dispatched on errands of ministration for the help of us who have salvation as our heritage!

Put your angels to work for you today. They are here to assist you in your life of obedience to God. As the verse at the beginning of this blog indicates, they obey the word of God! When you speak the Word, the angels go to work.

As I pray about various things for myself and others, I regularly command the angels of God to go ahead of me and do whatever is necessary for the purpose of God to be fulfilled.

Years ago I started a business to augment my income while in traveling ministry. Each day I commanded the angels of God to go and cause the business to come my way. The business thrived.

Since I’ve been pastor here in Raleigh, I regularly command the angels of God to go and cause the finances we need for the work of God to come in. We have always been blessed with everything we need!

Of course, everything we do should line up with God’s Word. And there are those who have placed undue prominence on messages from angels and have gone into error. Everything inspired by God must agree and be in line with the Word of God, and will exalt Jesus and God the Father, not the human! But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!

Keep God’s Word first place in your life today, and call on the angels of God to assist you in your life of obedience today. They are waiting to be dispatched!

I'm Not My Own

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:31-32). But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

 
In Ephesians 5, Paul parallels the marriage with the relationship Jesus has with the church. In counseling couples before marriage, I encourage them to be aware of the adjustment that must take place mentally and motivationally in being joined to another person for the rest of their lives. They can no longer live to please only themselves, but must also focus on their mate, and how each action they take affects the other. And this kind of mental/motivational adjustment is just like the change that occurs when Jesus becomes our Master.

In the above verse we find that when we are born again we become one spirit with Him. Here how that works out in a practical way.

In my B.C. (before Christ) days, I did my own thing. I did what I wanted to do and went where I wanted to go as I desired. I answered to know one. As long as I obey civil law, I was free to do as I pleased.

That changed when I was born again. Suddenly it wasn’t just me doing as I pleased with no thought of anyone else. It became Jesus and me.  I began to ask my self what Jesus would want me to do, act, say, in each situation of life. Now He has something to say about how I dress, what entertains me, who I hang out with, and what I think about. I’m one spirit with Him! I’m no long good ‘ol independent Mitch. Now I’m a Jesus intertwined Mitch! Jesus is intimately involved in every single thing I do. And it’s no more independent living for me!

A similar change occurs when in marriage we become one flesh with our spouse. The dynamic of the inward change in marriage is similar to the inward change in motivation/thought when we’re married.

I noticed this change immediately after Susan and I were married. I was in the grocery store picking up a few items. And I quickly noticed that I wasn’t just thinking about what I  wanted, but I was also thinking about what were please her in my purchases. And this kind of thought filtered into all my activities. It affected my leisure time, my financial life, how I spent my time, etc. We were now one flesh.
 
Now that I am a married Christian, my life is intertwined with Jesus and with Susan. I can no longer live an independent life. I’ve chosen to be one spirit with Jesus and one flesh with Susan. Self-centered living is no longer an option. If I go there, it will only produce personal pain.

I meet so many believers who are still seeking to live an independent life from Jesus. They experience much internal conflict. I also meet so many married couples who are living independently from their spouses. It produces much dissatisfaction and hardship in their marriage.

I understand at least part of what Paul meant when he said I die daily. How about you? Are you living as an independent or an interdependent person? As a single or married Christian, you’ve been bought with a price and you are not your own! So stop the independent living!e had hhhhh