In the midst of Fear and Faith

So...I have committed to this "blog thing" right? And I must say, I am thankful that I am certain it was the Lord's direction or honestly...I would have quit after the first post! What a rush of emotions that follow when you decide to step out in faith and "put yourself out there" (I use quotation marks a lot...and the 3 dots thing too).

Anyway, there is a line in a song, "Who am I that YOU would ever use me?" that comes to mind and that seems to be the most fitting explanation of how this feels. Anyone can do this, anyone can start a blog God, and so as God nudged me I began to say "I am already "putting myself out there" starting a "new" ministry in counseling, so let me work that out first"!

I haven't spoken of this before, but I was challenged to "write" many years back by my best cheerleader of a husband and some family members too. It was a sweet compliment and I cherished it in my heart as they say. I had a secret DESIRE that God was going to do something with it but was fearful to wish that! Crazy. So He kept sending me "the Word" in big and small ways and I kept thinking, "one day".

To most of the umm, "younger generation", a blog is a blog, everyone has one and so what?...but to me this is a precious privilege, a challenge set before me by the Most High God, and a ministry to anyone that stops by. It is such a PRIVILEGE that I have difficulty putting words to that. So with that said, and I suppose this should have been my FIRST post, I continue.

I was in a great book "Victory Over the Darkness", by Neil Anderson this week. I had awakened to a state of ANXIETY. You know what that is...the opposite of ABIDING and resting. I have what we call a "fear-based" nature vs an "anger-based" nature. I suppose that's why the call to truly understand and experience the Peace and Promise of Abiding in the Spirit has become my greatest and sweetest challenge. I have found that many people, even anger-based people are bound up in the stronghold of fear. Because anger...is just a secondary emotion to fear! So...I think the topic of Fear and Faith fits right nicely into a blog about remaining "In the Vine".

Anderson was sharing about the soul of the regenerated man and how his mind has been renewed and transformed. How his emotions are characterized by "peace and joy instead of turmoil". So when I awakened to my anxious state I had to take inventory of my "emotions". I pray dear reader that this process will become your habit also, for it is straight from scripture. I believe in resting in Christ. I experience resting most of the time. So when I am not feeling His Presence and Power I know it is time to go before Him and let Him teach me and have full access to all parts of me. I turn to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 where it instructs about spiritual warfare. "For though we walk in the flesh we do not WAR according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh (awesome), but DIVINELY powerful for the destruction of FORTRESSES (can anyone say stronghold of fear here?). WE are destroying SPECULATIONS (thoughts) and PRETENSIONS (lies which come from Satan's accusations in our thoughts) that sets itself up against the truth of what Christ says, and we are TAKING EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE to the obedience of Christ".

As I sat on this porch, God reached right in, He took my pen and my paper and He asked me "what is your fear hear gal"..what's going on with this and that and as I wrote it all out He exposed TRUTH. (The take every thought captive to the obedience of the truth of Christ moments). My time in Anderson was also "for me" that day, because He took my habit of taking thoughts captive to a new level that day. He said God has a part and man has a part. God promises His Presence, His Purpose, His Preparation, and Protection (he called this the P Plan), and then he said remember the "God Statements": GOD IS HERE...GOD KNOWS IT...GOD CAN DO IT.

I recall a dear friend telling me once, "Praise Prompts Peace". Why? Because it reminds us "God's got this". If you are not experienced in examining your emotions and your thoughts its the beginning of victory, for what we feel is fleeting but it affects what we are believing and that affects what we choose to DO. I am praying for you and remember to always..."Be Gods" (rich mullens).

God gave me my appetite...

It has been nearly a week since my last post and yet it has been a time of pursuit of Him and His will so that's a good thing. The last post hopefully wet some appetites about the things of the Spirit. I have an "appetite" for knowing all I can about the Lord, His Spirit and the mysteries of God. I didn't do one single thing to attain that appetite, it came from God, the Author and Creator of all things seen and unseen. I recall first learning these mysteries of God and they continue to amaze me.

In Romans 1:19-23 it says, "...that which is known about God is evident, within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power, His divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what is made, so that they are without excuse." But God chose to come to us in the form of man so that we could fully understand His love!

For it says that, "God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ"..."God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from the heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so" (Romans/Chambers).

I hope that your appetite is now anxious to know more, for God's Word goes on to say that, "Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, thus death spread to all men, because all sinned...and so we see that just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through ONE MAN, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through ANOTHER MAN.." Romans 5:12-19.

What does this mean for the soul which is stirred to belief?!!! Living forever is not enough for God dear friend..no! That is NOT the end of the story...being REGENERATED and having a new heart is the rest of the story! I love how Oswald Chambers says this. "The new testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is "hit" with his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God...until Christ is formed in YOU" (Gal 4:19).

And that is the message I want to leave you with today. I must get to this point. It is my responsibility and not Gods. I must tell God I am at the point that I NEED HIM...only then will He begin this work of regeneration in me and create in me a new heart, having His Spirit, and continuing to reveal His Son in me". And so the message is that it doesn't end at the point of "belief". And I say Amen to that!

In recognizing what He did for me, in His coming and being mercilessly beaten and crucified to the point of nonrecognition for my "heredity of sin" or my sin state, and then being raised from death, I learned that I would live forever with Him. But the Spirit beckons me to understand even more. Not only was it for my life but also for my "life abundant"..my freedom of sin's captivity. He was also raised for me to live in victory over that power of sin! How? In the glorious message of abiding...Therefore, I strive to live at that point of NEED, every day, and every hour, just as how I first came to Him, a pauper, poor in spirit. So dear Savior and Friend indeed, "I need thee every hour". Till next time, I am praying for you.