For those of you who read this, I apologize for the barrage of postings. But a few things have happened fast and furious this morning - so here is the story:
I have been praying for a deeper walk. A walk that is more rooted in reality than what I experience in myself or witness in others. The verses I wrote on in my last two posts have been coursing through me. Especially Hebrews 12:4. "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Jeremiah 8 shows me the need for a broken heart, a broken church.
So I prayed this morning. Harder than usual. And while I sat in the back as my Calculus class took a test, God spoke into my heart. I literally shook while He moved within me. I wrote as he said:
Your problem is that everything is motion to you, nothing is real. You don't love them (I have pictures of my children on my desk) - you love the thought of them. You love the thought of everything. It is time for a reality check - time to step out of the fog. All these pictures are moments in time, a time you are allowing to pass without true engagement. You have to solidify the vague sense of sin that you live under so you can truly offer it up. Up to this point, you have only offered up the concept of sin in your heart. You must offer the concrete - the flesh of your old nature, not just the thought of it.
If that doesn't make sense to you, I'm sorry. I understand exactly what He is saying. Ideas and thoughts will not turn me into a new creation that is living with power and authority. The Holy Spirit is a person and must enter into me as Christ entered into the world. Physically - as a person, not a concept. I know what God meant when He said that sin is just a "thought" to me. My selfish ambition, my lust, my competitive spirit, my coveting of the things of the world - these are real things and I let them pass day by day, bemoaning the thought of them but not crucifying the reality of them.
I need to place them on the altar as real things and allow them to be crucified with my flesh. Otherwise my life will continue to drift by as I try to capture moments in time - a time that is passing without any real effect on my life. That is why the authority of Christ is not evident in my life, that real change is not happening, that lives around me are not being redeemed. I have been living a life of minimal engagement. I have been walking under the delusion of the semi-detached Christian life- the one that goes through the motions without ever bringing true redemption into any area of their life.
God does not co-habitate. He is real. My sin is real. They will not co-exist. It's time to give Him everything or walk away.
2 comments:
In relationship to this post and your post the other day when you mentioned Gal. 5. It made me think how I use to be surprised at when it said "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." (v.25) If we walk by the Spirit we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. And I don't think it is a 'second work" of the Holy Spirit... it is not getting more of the Holy Spirit... it is yielding more of ourselves to the Spirit.
So now in whatever we do... like spending money, hanging out with friends... eating and drinking... we do it all to the glory of God and "reckon" ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in each decision... yielding to another authority and presenting our members as instruments of righteousness.
Sorry to carry on. I resonate with what you are saying and want to not only "live in the Spirit" but "walk in the Spirit"
Tim - that's exactly what I'm talking about. I don't believe in a "second work" either - I believe the emptying is the work. We have already been sealed with His Spirit. Waiting for a second filling is an excuse, in my opinion, to put off moving forward in the Spirit. But . . . . honest yielding is a hard thing. I think we cut ourselves too much slack when in reality it's all or nothing.
Thanks for your good word on the matter.
Post a Comment