Faith or Fairy Tales

Currently, the primary thing that stirs me spiritually is the need to maintain belief and faith in the transforming power of God. That we may, in fact overcome sin, self and the devil. Holding fast to and continuing in the faith to believe that He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world. That in Him, we too shall overcome. When He comes will He find faith in the earth? Will He find faith in us?

Four years ago I experienced a deliverance from sin that was truly the love of God and His miraculously transforming power within me, and within my life. My bondage to cigarette smoking was as solid as anyone else’s bondage to any other sin that has them so locked in there seems no hope, no means of escape, no matter how hard they try (and often because of how hard they try!).

Several weeks ago Ray Boltz came ‘out of the closet’ and confessed to the world that he was gay. Beyond that though, after several decades of marriage, 4 children and obviously a career of singing praise and worship to and about our God and the saving power and grace of Jesus Christ, he said he could no longer deny the way God made him. God made him gay and he was now giving himself over to embracing it, the papers and blogs reported.

But what he really gave himself over to was a lie. He attributed his sin to the work of God. He called what is unholy, as holy. He denied God and mocked Him. Struggling with the temptation was one thing, in fact, the very thing God desired to bring him to overcome. But having struggled with homosexuality most of his life, he became convinced it was who he really was and he was doing a disservice to God to deny it.

Having experienced the transforming power of God to deliver me of cigarettes and yet struggle with the faith that He will bring me to know overcoming in my other struggles, is baffling. I know I am not the only one.

There are temptations and sins we struggle with almost all of our lives and it becomes a part of our lives. So much a part of our lives we can think its normal, and even the way God wants it to be.

Leaning on the Lord, we have to look into the black abyss of the unknown, of doubt and fear, and trust that God has our back, our life and our death. We have to somehow believe in the unbelievable, trust the unknown, and go where few sons have gone before. This is how we grow as a son of God. If we don’t, how can we stand? We are double minded and building on sand. We have little faith and therefore will have very little, if any power, to love and help and save others, which is our calling and purpose, and our mission.

I often ask myself, “Did I come this far, to bail out now? Did I get through yesterday, just to give up today?”

The moment I was delivered of my smoking habit and addiction it was about 23 years coming and I didn’t even know I was delivered at that moment. All I knew was that God gave me what I needed to not buy a pack of cigarettes at that moment. I didn’t know how long it would last. It was a moment by moment discovery of what He had done. Today it is over 4 years and I have absolutely no struggle with it, not thoughts, temptations, memory, fear, nothing. It was an absolute deliverance as extreme to me as the bondage itself was. But it took many months, probably more than a year, before I could trust it was true and lasting and absolute.

I see now that this is also how we may discover His power and life in us to continue to overcome and rise up IN HIM, which means rising up IN FAITH and IN POWER and AS A SON. We may need to learn it by degrees. We may know the victory right away, but we will learn how absolute and true it is in time and through more testing.

I would love nothing more than to be excited about the time we’re in and the victory and glory that’s coming. But I’m still in a struggle of faith. I can’t fight and rejoice at the same time yet. I will. I am determined to lean on the Lord, for all that it will cost me (and I don’t say that lightly), that I may know that victory. Like the deliverance from the smoking. I could enjoy the momentary strength to walk away from giving in to the temptation again, but I couldn’t really rejoice in the deliverance until I had enough distance between me and what I was needing to overcome.

Spiritually I am at about 3 am in the morning. It’s still dark and deep in the night. But I do know the dawn is coming. A joy rises up with the dawn, with the light of day. I know mine is coming. It’s coming for many, but we are first needing to lean on the Lord in the dark of night, against the sense of hopelessness and desperation, against the sense of being forsaken and lost.

I pray for all of us to know the power of God is Love, a love that does not end, a love that is not superficial or conditional. His love is absolute and it absolutely saves. It is His love that holds us in the fire at times, rather than takes us out. We have to forsake and take captive the thoughts that tempt us to doubt and stand in unbelief. This is not a small thing. This faith is our inheritance. This faith is foundational to who we are and what we are called to be.

Our lives are not our own. They belong to Christ. He is faithful. He will not forsake himself, his Life or His body and bride. Against all odds, we MUST believe this.

We must believe in God and His love and His power to change us, our lives and others too. Otherwise we just believe bible stories as though they were fairy tales.

 

Trust God?

What does it mean to trust God? We (Christians) say it all the time, that we trust God. But what is it we trust God with?

Salvation. Yes. I think most Christians understand this to mean that God has promised them eternal life and they trust God to deliver on this promise.

Forgiveness for their sins. Yes. Again, most Christians understand that at the time of their ‘born again’ experience God has forgiven them the sins they have committed up until that point. They understand that God has promised them this and trust that He will deliver. Somehow though, most of us tend to forget His all encompassing forgiveness and condemn ourselves for the sins we commit that follow our initial consecration.

But what else? What else do we really trust God with or for? Most would say they trust God with their lives, but what do they mean by this? How do they live like they trust God with their lives? How are we to walk in that trust, that faith?

Do we trust God with our jobs? With our kids? With our health? Do we even trust God to keep us, teach us and lead us without our local church? Or pastor? Or fellowship group? Or Bible study?

This question has long been rolling around inside of me, for years. I believe the Holy Spirit asks me this same question every now and then because I need to re-examine it after having been through more testing and teachings of God, in order that these things be established.

I look at the path that brought me to this point, spiritually, in my life. I have to shake my head. There is no other way I would be here, and know what I have learned in the spirit, had God’s grace not brought me here by His own design and intention. I could have been so far gone in any other direction by now. But it was the Holy Spirit turning my heart, little by little, here and there, that brought me to this place and time. I didn’t do it. I didn’t ‘choose’ this or decide to be here.

So I look at what I personally know the Holy Spirit is capable of and have to ask myself “Do I trust God to keep doing that?”, “Do I trust God can do that with others too?”

God delivered me from a 20+ year cigarette smoking addiction. Do I trust He could do that for someone else? Do I trust that God knows what He is doing? Do I trust that God has a plan and purpose and isn’t just waiting for Christians to get their act together so He can start showing miracles and really healing people?

There are some sons of God who enter the dens of sinners and with the eyes, the heart and love of Jesus, they find those the Spirit leads them to and they put an arm around them, they hug them or just touch them, even those with disease and sores. These sons do not fear for their lives. Should they contract something and die, they do so in honor of Him whom they love and obey and seek to serve, because they trust Him. If they do not contract anything and live, they continue in serving Him in any capacity God requests, because they trust Him.

I read of a man who so pressed in to God that while he was alone and having a heart attack, he trusted God and did not seek men for help. For hours he stayed at the foot of Him (Jesus) for whom he chose to live and die, while having this heart attack. If it were God’s will to take him, so be it, he trusted God. If it were God’s will that he should live, so be it, he lives and continues to serve the one whom he loves and trusts.

So let me ask you again, do you trust God? When something happens in your life, big or small, do you trust God?

I think our life course is to be a progression into a full trust of God. Without this trust and full faith in Him to keep us, whether we live or die, suffer or not, have or have not, how is He glorified? Without it, how are we ONE with Him? Without it, how do we hope to attain to the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ?