What Are You Really?

The most gracious work of God that occurs for the developing believer is the realization he is inconsequential.  His knowledge base is minuscule.  His benefit to others is minimal, if not harmful.  His goodness is impoverished.  It is then that God can do something with him.  Abraham finally threw his hands up after the Ishmael mess and realized he and his wife had no idea what they were doing.  Jacob in all his brilliance couldn't make out Leah from Rachel and Moses thought killing an Egyptian foreman would turn things around for the Hebrews.  The perfect mess is just a mess unless we get at the main thing in life.  We are nothing but a developing corpse if Jesus Christ is not working His way through us.  The silence of God won't last but it will continue long enough until we grip hard on the absurdity of leaving our Lord out of what we do.  God may have shown you something at one time but you let it pass.  He may have pushed you toward something but you turned away.  Jesus had one purpose in life, to do the will of the Father.  Nothing distracted Him from it and as a result, at each point He knew what to do.  Do you know what to do?  Do you know what the Father is doing with you?  You can avoid the place where God developed your course or you can return to it and do the one thing you know He wants you to do.  It is up to you; the Lord won't make it easy on you by manipulating your thoughts or backing you into a corner.  You must decide the Lord is LORD and then turn into Him.  As you do, you might have to abandon some long standing belief of yours or an important person's view of you but do it today.  Do it now.  As the Lord works His way through you, He will work His way out of you and you will be like sparkling ice water in a thirsty land; you will be a well from which living water flows. It may be startling  the ways in which God refreshes and transforms lives through you.

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.  John 7:38 NIV

The Scalpel in Your Hand

Have we realized that we are hopeless and a tangled mess unless Jesus Christ lives through us?  You have to be born again to grasp this.  Those who aren't may well be perfectly happy how they are; content to do as they see fit.  But once the Divine spark settles on your kindled soul, you cannot remain that way.  Smoke begins to rise and choke you.  It gets a bit too hot to comfortably wait out whatever it is God is doing with you.  Disaster becomes imminent.  The whole kingdom you have erected looks to fall as you realize just what you really have.  It is Christ, King of Kings who has become part of you and He will not let any aspect of you stand for long against His dominion.  And so you will see that this and that must go, not because you are rule bound but because you know with Christ there they are no good.  Before they all seemed perfectly acceptable and perhaps even noble but now they are dirty and in the end sinister.  The world looks upon your silly changes as a bit diabolical; if not odd.  But you know they are the next stage in walking with Christ fully.   Given the potential outcomes, you cannot wait another day with these things hanging to you.  It is impossible for the light of Christ to shine brightly enough that the hard cases might be drawn to the real God if you do not jettison the old ways, old values, old interests.   The proof of your transformation is your growing adherence to the lifestyle found in the Sermon on the Mount.  It will not be you bringing this about and that will be certain; it will be Jesus Christ working in you.  To delay giving the Lord full sway in you will make it tougher for those needing Christ near you to gain Him.  A thorny hedge blocking entrance into a lovely garden is of value if you must keep certain enemies out but if you are the thorny hedge because you have blocked out Christ from you and the way into the Kingdom is barricaded off by your behavior and attitudes...take up the scalpel in your own hand and surgically remove immediately the place of rebellion in you.  God will not do this work for you.  You must do it.  But when you do, you will find the greatest of miracles happening.  Out of you will flow rivers of Living Water and the world at your doorstep will finally see what it is to drink and never thirst again.

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away.   Matthew 18:8 NIV

Normal Christianity

Is it not the easiest and most natural thing for a Christian walking in the freedom of the Holy Spirit to do what God says?  There is no real hindrance in this for the believer who trusts God.  He is absolutely without barriers for he can rise above every disappointment and difficulty, unencumbered by worry or fear.  The love of Christ is empowered by the conquering work of the Cross and it will not let the disciple be wrecked.  Too often we mistake a trial or a temptation or even a bruising wound of Satan for a death blow to our peace and joy.  The life we have in Christ is too big and too vibrant to be held back for long.  We are genetically enabled by the work of Christ when we are born again to rise above each Satanic attack.  Follow Jesus at any moment and trust Him then and you will find a heavenly flow coming upon you, an outpour of living water reviving you.  You have God in you and you are free to be happy and content.