An Intervention….
The way the truth and life…
1 Peter 5:6-9
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 [a]But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your [b]brethren who are in the world.
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 [a]But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your [b]brethren who are in the world.
Why do we resist this
spiritual realm? It took quite a bit of soul searching to even come to the
realization that the spiritual realm is just as real, if not more then my world
was around me. It took a lot of
wrestling, humility, surrender, dreadful quietness, time and lots of pain
facing to find this place but anything as wondrous as the sweet presence of God
is worth it all.
“There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still.”
~ Corrie
ten Boom
I have watched how my life can fall
apart at times over and over because of my own arrogance and blindness. When I
finally humble myself and get a whiff of sober mindedness I come to a realization
that I am part of creation who has a creator and this makes me come to my
senses. Typically I have to put down my vices, which has NEVER been easy and
allow myself to get quiet and still so I can hear God for spiritual guidance. I have been so restless and distracted
at times in my life that doing this felt like a type of hell itself.
...A restless soul in the storm of
distraction in the middle of a sea of discontent…
I have seen pride or rather a deep-rooted
self-sufficiency, in my own life over and over. I have also seen God gently and lovingly reveal His ways,
truth and life when I finally arrive at the end of my own so called
resources. Being humble and
contrite before God is not in my nature.
I usually have to ask God to help me humble myself before him and open
the eyes of my heart, but I believe God is glad when I ask for His help even to
do this. I have found that my most important needs in life will not and cannot
be met or filled by any other but God himself. We were created to know Him and
be reconciled back to Him. When we
find this place there will be a type of fulfilled hiding place in our hearts
that can never be taken away from us no matter how far we may stray from His
truth. This hiding place lives
inside all of us and is the power of love, life and peace.
Even the demons believe God is
real! I don’t think that just knowing
God is real can change our lives for the good! I do believe that endeavoring to seek and trust the one and
only true loving God can be the beginning of wisdom and lead us to an abundant
life. You can seek another God but
it doesn’t mean it will be the real one. I am so confident that if a person is
honestly seeking the truth that they will run into Jesus. Some people say they have peace apart from the only true God
who is revealed through Jesus Christ, but if you look into their teachings for
life they are almost the exact same teachings of wisdom that Jesus taught us to
live! We can always benefit from
Gods ways… even if we don’t give Him credit. This is just how humble and
gracious He is!
Romans 3:23 The message version:
“But in our
time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all
those years has happened. 22The
God-setting-things-right that we read about has become
Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but also for everyone
who believes in him. For there is no difference between them and us in this. 23Since
we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and
proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for
us, 24God did it for
us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure
gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always
wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.”
God is not afraid of our doubt. He
does not need us to believe in Him for Him to be real! He wants us to wrestle and work out our
beliefs in Him and know His truth so we can live in an abundance of freedom. Life
can be full of fear and trembling and this is when we must choose to work out
the gift of salvation that has been freely given to us all through Jesus
Christ. He is not into us faking
it! You can’t fake freedom, joy, love and peace very well anyway and certainly
not for long. I found that He was
very real years ago but just having an encounter with God and thereby believing
He is real was not enough to enjoy the fruit of His spirit of love, joy and
peace. To truly trust God requires
a real and authentic relationship with Him. In order to have any meaningful relationship you have to believe
a person exits right? This may
take some wrestling but God is not keeping himself from us nor is he hiding
himself from us. He is only waiting
for his people to become humble and in His awesome wisdom He chooses to reveal
His truth at the right time. This
humbling process continues as the creation seeks to know their creator and as
the creator seeks to reveal Himself to His creation. Unfortunately, this all comes to an abrupt stop when we do
not choose to humble ourselves before Him. When we are full of pride He doesn’t
forsake us, thank goodness, but He waits for our hearts to be humble, contrite,
ready and open to His revelations. There is no other way for us to hear
Him.
The truth is that we are all his
creation! We are all loved and
cherished by Him. These truths
must be revealed individually to each one of us. He continues to reveal His truth to me as I humble and seek
Him. I don’t like when my life
goes back into a prideful and distracted place because I lose the awareness of
the sweet presence of His Spirit of peace, joy and true love. God’s ways are not our ways and to
trust God doesn’t mean your life will be saccharine and smooth sailing but He
does promise the important stuff to be evident in our lives. Who doesn’t long for love, joy and
inner peace? Sometimes He allows and even brings us through dark valley’s to
answer our prayers of knowing more truth.
Pride is a life of believing we are self-sufficient but humility is the
realization that the creation needs the creator to even exist.
He has given ample evidence to His
true nature through the life of Jesus Christ. Some of us continue to ignore His beckoning and His urgent
call to come to know who we truly are and who He truly is. The more
self-actualized and true to ourselves we become the more we will be able to
connect with our creator. Also the
more we connect with our creator the more we will connect with who we truly
are.
Do we really think that what we can
see touch and feel is all that exists?!
What about wind? What about
breaking wind? It stinks doesn’t
it?! Maybe these are our inner
demons… okay; I admit this is inserted for comedic relief. The other day I was talking to someone
about God and they asked me a question.
“What about science?” God
is not opposed to science and God created everything science is discovering but
many scientists will admit and tell you they are only working with hypothesis
and still trying to figure it all out.
Many scientists have turned to God in awe and wonder because of their own
discoveries that they have found in this universe. The design is just all too intelligent to ignore further
thought and explanations.
2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is
seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal.
Writing this boldly and admitting
that you believe this does not make one popular in the world’s eyes, but
knowing and putting your trust in God can bring us to a life of love, joy and
peace we are all truly longing for! Once you know something, you can’t un-know
it.
James 4:6
But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."
But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."
1 Thess 5:19
In every thing give thanks: for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench
(grieving to sorrowful tears) not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings.
I don’t live like this everyday and
in fact I complain and doubt God much of the time but it doesn’t mean He isn’t
the way, truth and life.
Believing, trusting and seeking God has been my only reprieve in life
and has brought me the greatest peace, joy and love that I could have ever
imagined.
Let every knee bow and tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord of all creation! He lives!
