Psychological Effect of Redemption The Will

Philippians 2:13 NIV

…for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

What Determines Your Actions?

When I asked Mary Jo to marry me, it was an important moment for her.  She had to make a decision that clearly would dramatically impact her life.  No one else could decide for her although others could influence her decision.  Her parents may not have been happy to have me as their son-in-law but they weren’t the ones given the responsibility of saying “yes” or “no” to my proposal.  Mary Jo might have had many factors weighing on her when I “popped the question”.  She could have thought about my extremely good looks and my hilarious sense of humor and that might have influenced her.  She might also have considered how poor I was, how limited my earning power was as well as all my quirky ideas and how skinny I was and been pushed the other way.  Unconscious forces within her might have impacted her opinion of me, determining factors that she could not explain.  Perhaps early childhood experiences with taller men influenced Mary Jo’s decision.  Maybe fears or lusts or angry feelings had an effect on how she responded.  In the end though, it was her will and hers alone that acted upon my question of marriage.

You have a will, the part of your personality that decides for you what you shall do.  It is what closes the deal.  All day you make decisions.  Your passions influence how your will acts.  You have done things simply because you were angry or broken-hearted or elated.  Your conscious thinking impacts how your will responds to what you face.  You think about things, weigh the evidence and ponder what is happening and how it affects what you might do.  Your unconscious thoughts influence your will.  Sometimes childhood trauma, a destructive forgotten relationship or a humiliating experience will without your conscious knowledge determine the direction your will takes.  Because your heart is poisoned by sin, the will you possess is also damaged by Sin.  For obvious reasons, a healthy and effective will is critical to your well-being because what you decide can have lasting ramifications for you and those you love.

Let us think of the will as the part of us that creates the outward push of self.  When you reach outside yourself and act upon what is percolating within you; that is the will making the determination. Your will drives your actions.  We see this in Philippians 2: 13 in which the Bible says,”…for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13 NIV)  The will is linked to whatever you do or decide you won’t do.  The Lord’s intention for you is that your will would be free to do as it wishes.  You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13 NIV)  However, with a free will, we can be wicked and cruel, selfish and filthy or loving and kind, truthful and generous.  It is our will that decides what we shall do.

What is amazing is that the God of the universe does not usurp your will.  Christ asked the two blind men who begged Him for help, "What do you want me to do for you?" (Matthew 20:32 NIV)  When two disciples of John the Baptist started tagging along behind Jesus, He asked them, "What do you want?" (John 1:38 NIV) The assumption underlying God’s relationship with us is that we are free to choose it or not.  “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15 NIV)  The very call of Jesus to Andrew and Peter was, “Come follow me”.  (Mark 1:17 NIV) It seems that they did not have to follow Jesus if they didn’t want to do so, if they weren’t interested in being “fishers of men”. Even when the Bible calls to us, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…", the will is left to decide how to respond.(Acts 16:31 NIV)

Consider the strange account of King David and his affair with Bathsheba.  The decision David made to sleep with her had disastrous ramifications for him.  It certainly impacted his family as well as those who saw him as a spiritual leader.  How did it affect God’s plans for David and the good He wanted David to accomplish?  The affair did not just hurt David’s reputation but God’s too.  What kind of God chooses men like David to lead His nation?  Given all the bad David’s act of Sin brought, it is interesting that God did not stop him somehow.  But David had a will that God was not willing to usurp even if it meant a disaster would be averted by doing so.  God has made us sovereign in the Will we have been given.  We are free to have Him as Lord or not, free to follow Him or not.

The will does not act in a vacuum however and in many ways it is a slave to forces beyond it.  Saul, the newly crowned king of Israel had been told by God through the prophet Samuel to wait seven days until Samuel returned before offering a sacrifice to God in preparation for the war that was about to begin.  He did wait for seven days but he did not wait long enough for Samuel to return and against God’s will, Saul and his soldiers offered a burnt offering to God.  Some of us have bought expensive presents for people we love even though they have told us not to do it and usually it works out well anyway.  In this case, it didn’t for Saul.  God punished Saul for his disobedience.

At the risk of making it seem that Saul should not have been held accountable for his rebellious act, we must consider the forces working upon Saul’s will.  First, there were his conscious thoughts.  He looked about and saw a great army of Philistines before him who were battle tested and far superior in numbers and weaponry.  As the Bible puts it, they were “as numerous as the sand on the seashore.” (1 Samuel 13: 5) Not only that, his own soldiers were going off and hiding in caves and behind bushes and in cisterns.  It seemed unreasonable to Saul as he considered the situation, not to hurry and offer the sacrifice so that he might gain God’s favor because if he waited much longer, nearly his entire army would desert him and the Philistines would attack.  Saul’s passion was pressuring his will certainly as fear began to overwhelm him.  He may have been angry too with Samuel for taking so long.  Consider Saul’s unconscious thoughts that pushed up against his will.  It was not that long ago that Saul was made king and even though Samuel had told him that he was God’s choice to be king, when it was time to present him to the nation, Saul hid among the baggage gathered off to the side.  When originally informed of God’s plans for him, Saul referred to himself as from one of the most insignificant of all the families among the Israelites.  How this impacted Saul unconsciously, we cannot say but it had to have some effect.  From birth, he saw himself as not good enough, as inadequate and incapable of accomplishing much in life.  Even when assured that God believed he could be king, Saul couldn’t buy it.  This embedded way of seeing himself made it difficult for Saul to accept the challenge of courageously trusting God.

What our Lord did for us as Savior was to take out of us the corruption of our will.  The Sin that makes the will unstable and untrustworthy is removed from it through Christ crucified.  It can function as God intended when He gave Adam the challenge of rejecting the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  What is more, with Christ joined to us, we can have a will that agrees with God on everything.  Philippians 2: 13 reminds us that now, with Christ as part of us, it is God who works in you to will and to act in conjunction with what He wants.  In other words, God gives your will backbone to withstand the sort of pressures Saul faced. 

There is one powerful force that works on the will that must now be given its due consideration.  Our body, our physical desires can and have made the will a slave.  There is a supernatural component to the will that alters altogether the way we can live.  Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV)  There is a tremendous promise here that we must take into account when we consider all those acts that it seems our bodies force us to perform.  It is seen, and we cannot say this strongly enough, that with Christ taking out of us our Sin and the Holy Spirit a part of us, the body cannot force our will into anything.  The will is altogether free in Christ to withstand even the most powerful urges of the body.  We must face this statement head on.  Either God is for us and we are able to fight off any addiction or behavior pattern that our will rejects or the Scripture is a mythology littered with colossal empty promises.

How can you ever know if your will, joined with Christ is strong enough to make free decisions that honor Christ and make your life good?  Jesus offers you an experiment to try.  Find out just how powerful Christ is and how effective His work is in you.  He says without pushing you, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  (Matthew 7:13-14 NIV)  Impose your will upon every single desire that goes against what God is saying to do.  The will is like a great muscle. You must train it to follow God or it will be a slave to your passions, your body, your conscious or unconscious thoughts.  If you take your will in through the narrow gate you might find the way hard and uncomfortable and even some times unreasonable and maybe boring.  But as you train your will to follow Christ, something will happen to you that may surprise you.  God’s peace and contentment will begin to take over your heart and a joy that is supernatural will creep into you also.  The term the Bible uses for this experience is “life” and it is promised to those who bend their will to that of God.  Eventually as you train your will to follow Christ, God’s will becomes your will and you will be “the will of God”.

Unconscious Thought Part 2

Psychological Effect of Redemption

Ephesians 1: 7 NIV

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…

What Does God Have “in Mind” For You?

For perhaps several hundred years, many involved in creative arts such as painting, sculpting, storytelling and songwriting have been aware of some unseen force within them that affects their ingenuity.  Even mechanics and mathematicians have been intrigued by the surprising insight they mysteriously develop as they try to solve a problem.  The author Tom Clancy has this to say about the effect his subconscious thinking has upon his writing.  “I think about the characters I've created, and then I sit down and start typing and see what they will do. There's a lot of subconscious thought that goes on. It amazes me to find out, a few chapters later, why I put someone in a certain place when I did.”    We use the expression, “I need to sleep on it” to indicate the need to wait before making a decision but also because we realize that something mysterious happens to how we think about things when we actually do sleep. 

One of the most unattended difficulties we face is our complete ignorance in regard to the effect of our unconscious thinking upon our daily activities.  Does it impact your decisions?  What role does it play on your moods?  Is it influential in the sorts of relationships you develop and maintain?  Is it possible to control and direct your unconscious thoughts to your advantage?  One of the rarely considered aspects to thinking fully through Christ as part of you is the impact that has upon the unconscious world.  Later we shall discuss the supernatural forces working within us but for today we will consider only what role Christ plays in impacting our unconscious thoughts.

Who doesn’t like the potential of a special degree of insight and understanding buried within unconscious thinking if Christ is part of the heart?  It must be reminded however that for every person, unconscious thinking is corrupted by Sin.  Degenerate and volatile forces of evil  work below the surface of our conscious thinking and that has caused us all sorts of problems and even pain.  Paul the Apostle described this perfectly in Romans 7.  I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7:15-20 NIV)

This unseen force, the work of Sin within our unconscious that fights against even our best intentions is so familiar to us that when we read what Paul has to say, it almost feels like he is reporting on our own minds.  But this is universal, the inability to live according to our highest values and principles.  What our conscious thinking attempts, our corrupted unconscious undermines.  There is hope though and it is a real and trustworthy hope.  Redemption, a technical term in the Bible that speaks of the work Christ did for us by being crucified and raised from the dead is how God takes out of us the Sin that corrupts our inner being.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:7-8 NIV)  To understand just how crucial this is in regard to the unconscious, we must remember that the term here which is translated “forgiveness”  has as its primary meaning, “to put away”.  What Christ did by dying for us is to take away from us the Sin that is within us.  This brings us a real freedom to our unconscious thinking, not just to our conscious decision making.

Before Jesus Christ died for us, Psalm 51: 6 was a far off dream.  Now it is possible for you.  Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. (Psalm 51:6 NIV)  As we learned earlier, truth is the translation of a Hebrew word that describes firmness, stability.  God is now free to take the chaos out of our unconscious thinking and remove the corruption from it.  How does He straighten out our unconscious inner world?  He puts into it His wisdom, or to use the Psalmist’s expression, teaches “wisdom in the inmost place.”  What once was a combustible combination of bitter memories, warped patterns of thinking and a corrupted manner of perceiving what you are encountering, your heart, for once has the potential of bringing you peace, joy and encouragement in a supernatural form.

Hebrews 4: 12-13 tells insists that God is able to dig into the deepest parts of your soul where no psychologist or mental health worker can explore.  For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12-13 NIV) With no sinful act or sinful damage able to withstand the cleansing and healing work of Christ in the heart, the Lord searches, processes, evaluates and takes out of darkness everything that wrecks you, all through the Cross.  What is He unable to see in your heart?  What is impossible for Christ to heal in your heart?  What wrecked habit or painful memory can He not make right?  With humanity, it is impossible to clear up all this and make your heart right but as Jesus told the disciples, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." (Luke 18:27 NIV)

The Cross of Christ is the greatest miracle seen in history for through it, we are brought out of the wreck Sin has cost us and by it, God can work His way through the darkest and deepest parts of your heart and fix it all.  The Bible uses the metaphor of light to express what God does in us.  For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6 NIV)  You might question this.  Can Jesus Christ do what some of the greatest psychologists and psychiatrists in history haven’t been able to accomplish?  Well yes He can!  If you let Him have full access to you.    The work of Christ in the heart is quite simple.  He retakes it and remakes it for the glory of God in you.  By His light, Christ eliminates the darkness of your heart.  In other words, He heals all the damage caused by Sin in the inner parts of your life.

It does not take deep insight to realize that something is thoroughly wrong with the created order.  From top to bottom, our world is broken and we are broken too.  For too long we all lived with our brokenness.  We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:22-25 NIV)  Like the rest of creation, there is inward sighing in you, deep places where there is moaning at how it has been.  The damage caused by Sin is great and for some horrific.  Yet, you don’t have to be broken any longer.  God has a new way of life for you. 

There is a wonderful promise found in the Bible and it must be considered before you move on with what you are doing.  In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. (Romans 8:26-27 NIV)  Outwardly, you may not show any signs of damage or turmoil.  Nothing seems wrong but inwardly there is sighing and groaning.  At those spots, those secret spots, the Holy Spirit works in you.  In the deep places, He knows what hurts, what is traumatized and damaged and there He intercedes for you.  Where surgeons cannot enter and human machines cannot reach, our Lord heals, He calms, He soothes.  Without permission, the Spirit will leave you alone but at your call, He touches the angry, inflamed, lonely, infected, ruined places in your heart and He heals them.  The places of the heart where you have lost your childhood, your innocence, where the dreams you once had were stripped from you, God will heal too.  He will give you a new dream deep in your heart and new love to make your heart whole.  With your permission, the Holy Spirit will heal the damage in your heart.

Each evening, before you go to sleep, invite Christ to heal the parts of your mind you can’t explore.  Ask Him to be in charge of your dreaming and purify it.  Let your last thought before you fall asleep be of your Lord alive in you remaking your inner parts and repairing all the damage caused by the sins of the world.  Remember He won’t just come in and do whatever He wants.  Our Lord “stands at the door” of your heart and it is you who must let Him enter.

Christ Actualization--The Second Force

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 NIV

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Are You Conscious of the Second Force?

Several years ago I was with Mary Jo’s family at a lake and her brother had a ski boat.  It was exciting for our family and the other cousins because it was for many of the kids the first time any of them had ever been in a boat and more pertinently, the first most of them had ever tried skiing.  I was excited to give it a try.  I had gone water skiing about fifteen years before and although it had been a struggle, I had gotten up on my skis and had a great time jumping the wake and bouncing along on the water.  Several kids tried and a number failed getting up on the skis the first time they tried.  Most of the adults had water skied before and although it might have been a while, they all got up, some even using just one ski.  I was one of the last to try and although I was a bit nervous, I was fairly confident I could rise up on the skis and cruise around the lake.  The boat circled around me as I waited in the water for the tow rope and then it passed near enough for me to grab it.  I leaned back, bent my knees, stuck my skis straight up toward the sun and waited for the boat to work its way into position to launch me up onto the surface of the water.  Many of Mary Jo’s sisters and brothers-in-law and nieces and nephews stood on shore watching and our kids were in the boat with Mary Jo waiting to see how I would do.  All of a sudden the boat lurched forward with groaning power, I stood upon the skis, my legs still bent a bit at the knees and I immediately toppled forward, my hands firmly grasping the tow rope handle as the boat dragged me with my mouth wide open through the lake.  Finally, the force of the water pushing against me drove the handle from my grip and I slid back into the water having swallowed what seemed like half the lake in my effort to get up on my skis.  Before any movies were ever developed with this theme, I thought about what it would have been like if instead of the overweight and clumsy body I possessed, my mind had been poured into the body of someone like James Bond.  No one would have been laughing at me flopping into the water like a breeching humpback whale.

Have you ever wished you could possess the abilities of someone else?  Perhaps you would have liked to have had the math skills of Albert Einstein, the writing ability of Charles Dickens, the grace of Simone Biles, the looks of Zach Efron or Beyoncé.  All of us could use from time to time a talent, personality trait or skill of someone else.  Yet it is not possible to take on the qualities of another person because we are limited to who we are.  In a sense, we are trapped within ourselves.   We are bound to who we are and the characteristics we possess…at least that is how it seems.  The Bible though tells us that there can be more to us than the limitations of self. That is why the concept of self-realization is not only restrictive and not very hopeful, it is irrational.  There is more to us that just us.

Before humanity came upon Jesus Christ, we were constrained to just who we were.  There were no talents that could be added to us, no one else could think within us to shape our ideas or decisions: we had no moral strength or integrity other than what we developed on our own.  This all changed when Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.  Jesus hinted at what the three days from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday would accomplish when He promised, "Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:5-7 NIV)  The Lord promised that the “Counselor” would be with us always.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— (John 14:16 NIV) What the Counselor would do for us is specified by Christ.  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  (John 14:26 NIV)

The most profound change human personality can experience is what occurs when we are born again or as it also can be translated, “begotten from above”.  Jesus stated, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. (John 3:5 NIV)  In other words, it is impossible to be Christian unless a supernatural transformation occurs, described by Christ as being born of water and the Spirit.  Now what it means to be “born of water” has long been debated but it seems clear enough based on the symbolism of water in the Old Testament that it is an idiom our Lord used for cleansing from sin.  I must, if I am to enter the Kingdom of God, have my sin washed out of me and it is the work of the Holy Spirit through the death of Christ on the Cross that takes out of me my sin and makes me new.  It is only after the Spirit of God becomes a part of you and transforms you that you are Christian.  What triggers the transformation?  When in faith we put our trust in Jesus Christ crucified to save us from our sin, the work of God begins in us. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:14-16 NIV)

We see this phenomenon of the Spirt of God becoming a part of people described often in the book of Acts.  Just one example of the transforming work of having the Holy Spirit join with the personality of Christian people illustrates this.  After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:31 NIV)  There was something different about these people who were filled with the Holy Spirit that was not them before.  They spoke boldly about God!  This was clearly something different about them.  With the Holy Spirit now a part of them, they were courageous in their evangelism.  In the book of Romans we discover another way the Holy Spirit alters the personality of Christians when He is a part of them.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:5 NIV)  The Holy Spirit puts into the personality of the Christian the love that God possesses.  Much like a daughter gains from her father or mother the innate ability to play musical instruments, so the “chromosome” of love comes to us from God when the Holy Spirit becomes part of us.  We don’t just have our capacity to love built in us but God’s also.  It does not just end there.  Christ gives us His very own peace when the Holy Spirit becomes a part of us.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14: 27 NIV)  We are just scratching the surface here.  If God is a part of who we are when we are born again, then there are an infinite number of possible qualities we gain from Him.  The Apostle Paul said that when he thought about the Philippian Christians, he did so not just out of his own affection for them but also because the affection of Christ was built in him too.  God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:8 NIV)

Consider just what is possible for any person who has been born again and has the Spirit of God a part of his or her personality!  We can forgive not just with our own capacity to forgive but also with God’s own ability.  We can be courageous, not just with our own bravery but also with the bravery God possesses. We can be calm and at peace in any circumstance, not just because we have a certain developed or innate ability to stay calm but also because we have now built in us the capacity of Christ to be at peace.  Even the mind of God is ours when the Spirit of God is a part of us.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"   But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14-16 NIV)

Can you see what an inadequate and demeaning goal, self-realization is?  Why would I be interested at all in being all I can be when I can become all Christ and I can be?  It is like asking a ballerina to strive to become as graceful as one of the early prototype robots built fifty years ago.  It is like telling a nuclear physicist to try and become as competent in math as the first grader living next door.  Our goal must never be to try and become all we can be but all God built in us can be.  It is not self-actualization but Christ actualization that drives us forward.  Consider the example of Barnabas who sold land of his and gave the proceeds of the sale to the church.  This of course may have been his nest egg; the retirement he hoped would support him in his twilight years or it might have just been one piece of property among many.  It certainly seems like an extravagant gift and might have pushed him to the limits of his generosity to give it.

Let the full weight of this simple act sink in as you read the complete account of what happened.  After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. (Acts 4:31-37 NIV)

If we are to reach our potential as people, we must never give in to the antiquated and insufficient goal of being all we can be.   With the Spirit of God as part of us, we can become as generous and kind, and loving and honest and insightful and good as God in us can be.  Consider this as we close.  As the personality of Christ works His way through us, we become the Kingdom of God moving about in practice.  When His love becomes our love, when His generosity becomes our generosity, when His courage becomes ours, we shall be as we let Christ have His way in us, the works of God wherever we go!  Now that is reaching our potential!

Living By Faith

Living by faith and not by sight is not a dispensation of risk-taking and adventuring.  It is the clear ground upon which every Christian is to operate his or her life.  When we let Christ become our salvation, we received the Holy Spirit as a part of our personality.  This means that He interacts with us at every level of our thinking, whether conscious or unconscious.  The warping caused by sin makes us incorrigible at points; pouty children who demand our way at the expense of living in the Spirit.  This creates a conflict in our soul and the effect upon our soul is that we develop outbreaks of anger, depression, fear, discontentment, jealousy, frustration, impatience and a loss of gratitude.   When we frustrate the Holy Spirit by our rebellion against Scripture or disregard for how He is leading us, we start to lose contact with Him.  Some Christians are just fine with that.  They are in fact pleased to not have to put up with His pestering but after a while, it becomes clear that we are miserable people when we are not walking in step with the Holy Spirit.   At that point, when we like the prodigal son realize just how badly we have chosen, we in our misery cry out to God for help.  Through our desolation we repent of our sin and the Holy Spirit presents Himself to us once more and our heart becomes soft enough to live in Him, or to put it another way, live by faith.  Faith is not an ephemeral feeling of "everything will somehow come together."  Faith is the practical doing as the Holy Spirit gives direction.   The Holy Spirit might point out a Scripture that tells you how to respond to an argument you are having with your spouse or tell you to stop working for a certain company but always, if you are to remain "Spirit filled", you must not trust your Sin marred "sight" judgment, but rather by faith let the Spirit lead your next step.  The Holy Spirit is not going to fight with you to gain your allegiance.  But if you want the fruit of the Spirit operating within your personality, you must fight with your flesh to make Him your commander and chief!

We live by faith, not by sight.   2 Corinthians 5: 7 NIV

Light Walker

There is the admonition today to "be yourself", to "believe in yourself", to "trust yourself".   All this sounds like wise counsel and of course it is upbeat in its approach to personality.  But it is sheer folly to put any real confidence in ourselves without taking into account the destructive working of Sin at every level of our personality.  Our dreams hint at the vast unconscious mind we possess.  It is a tangle of lusts, bitter frustrations and crippling fears.  Anger and hatred boil below the surface of our consciousness as does despair and loneliness along with hopes and loves and passions.  Our Lord is the great realist and he refuses to ignore the true condition of our humanity.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. (Matthew 15:19-20 NIV)  Many wave this all off as negative thinking but God knows how deeply Sin has worked its way in us and how corrupted the inner parts of our being are.  We don't need an infusion of positive thinking so we can blindly look past our true brokenness; we need a Savior to cleanse the deep parts of us that control our moodsand impulses.  John the Apostle puts perfectly what we must do.  Walk in the light and as the Holy Spirit reveals a matter of doing or stopping, immediately act upon that impulse of God.  As we remain in the light the Lord gives us, the blood of Christ will cleanse and purify the damage caused by Sin, even in the unconscious parts of us.  We will discover that while we walk in the light, the darkness in our dreams will begin to clear also so that we will see, as if on a big screen, the great work of our Lord in the inner parts of our soul!

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.   1 John 1:7 NIV