Hi Friends,
Once we are born again, we are sealed in the Holy Spirit forever! We will live forever in Paradise when our time here is done. And as we grow in Christ here, we will sense “death” less and less! If that’s not Good News, I don’t know what is! Listen:
“I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Ps 23:4b
Salvation changes our destiny, while Sanctification changes the way we experience this New Life. Once we surrender our lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior, we will never be separated from the Love of God, ever again (Ro 8:38-39)…in our spirit. But our old soul is a different story, thus the need for Sanctification, being transformed into the Image of Jesus, so we can have peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. (Ro 14:17) Most of us come to Jesus after already having created many imperfect thought patterns, believing too many lies about ourselves, having experienced many hurtful situations and so on. These are the results of The Downfall, the “death” that we inherited from our forefathers. We have life within but we need to work it out so we can more and more fully have and enjoy this New Life. (Php 2:12) In other words, our soul is still broken even though, in our spirit, we have Eternal Life. Sadly, this causes us to “feel like” we are still separated from God, when we are not. And if we “think” we are separated from God, Who is the Giver of Life, then what’s left? Experiencing death. And death is composed of everything that is painful, everything that causes us to suffer, everything that makes us feel alone and in darkness. Things like anxiety, confusion, bitterness, unforgiveness, depression, anger, and so on and so on, these are “death” and if we “think or feel like” we are separated from God because of our still broken souls, then death is how we will experience life. All those negative thoughts, out of control hurtful emotions and that self-destructive will of ours are all part of this “death,” and it is ONLY as we mature in Christ, becoming more and more like Him, that we experience less and less of “death.” (Jn 3:30) This is the Abundant Life.
The more we mature spiritually, the more our spirit controls our old soul so that we can think differently, let go of lies, heal from past pains and so on. The soul grows as the spirit grows. All this is initiated by God, then processed between God and ourselves, then God brings healing from the situation to us. There is a beginning, a middle and an end to this “processing.” Sadly, way too many people get stuck in the middle and sit in that valley of the shadow of death instead of moving forward into the glory of being healed. Again, God starts the process by bringing a situation or person to mind, for instance, but then we must take part in the processing with God in order to get to the other side of that pain. We must work with God, not against Him, or else we just sit in the pain. So what is our part in the process? We must decide what we are going to DO with that situation/person. We must decide to hold on to the offense or to forgive and trust God to make things right. We must decide to hold on to the embarrassing event or to learn from it and trust God to work it all together for our good. We must decide…I think you’re getting the picture…we must decide to let go of the past thing and trust God, no matter what happened. When we “let go” of the pain, we have room for the healing. If we choose to NOT let it go, then we will sit in the pain.
Truth is sometimes it is difficult to let go of past pain. This is why it is called “processing.” But if we don’t understand, or worse, don’t want to work with God, then we will never get to the end of the pain. We listen to the enemy’s lies and sadly, almost wear our trauma like a badge of honor! “See how badly I have been hurt? I cannot forgive/move forward/let go! It’s just too hard!” the enemy whispers in our ear and again sadly, we agree with him. And so we sit in the valley of the shadow of death, playing the victim…when all the while we already have victory within our hearts! Oh how the enemy revels in this! Life on the inside, but only displaying death! The reason he enjoys this so much is simply because, if he lost us to Christ, he doesn’t want to lose anyone else because of us. When we actually start to work with God and act in peace, with joy, displaying His righteousness to those around us, especially if they know we have been wronged??? Wow that witness is so powerful it just might bring them to Christ as we share HOW we can act like that! This is what the enemy fears. One heart at a time, as we grow in Christ, we can bring others to Christ too and they too can be saved. Do you see why it is vital that we go through our valleys? “I” am not the only one who can be effected for good by processing any pain as I work with God. Others just might want to have the peace and joy God gives us as He heals too. GO THROUGH the valley. God is glorified, others are blessed, and you will reap benefits here and in eternity.
Lord help me process death. Yes, it is a process, but the more I engage with our Lord the moment a situation just might cause lasting pain, the less that situation can cause me any pain at all. This is how we grow. This is how we receive a deeper level of the Abundant Life. Then we CAN fear no evil because we sense God’s healing Presence always with us, moment by challenging moment. This is how we were always meant to live, my Friends. When God brings to your mind an offensive thing that happened, DECIDE, right there and then, to let it go so that it cannot hurt you anymore. Then, and only then, God will work it together for your good…He has done this for me over and over again, and despite everything I have been through, it is well with my soul…and getting better and better the more I trust God. Want that too? Then won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace Diane
