As I write today’s date I realize just how close Christmas is in it’s arrival. My kids and grandkids are arriving this weekend and the joy of family all being together will begin once again. What is equally on my heart is the reality of “Christmas arriving”. This babe we call Jesus came to us in the same way we came into this world of ours. The only difference was who had planted the seed of life for Him. I have a difficult time with this reality knowing what God and Jesus knew ahead of time and followed through with their plan for you and me. That was only a beginning of the plan too.
Jesus conquered sin for us so we can have our eternal life with God as was the original intent. In conquering sin He conquered the grip Satan wanted to have over mankind. As I write this I can hardly explain in words my gratitude for what Christ has done for you and me. The grip sin had on me for so, so long is broken. Not only is it broken, it is replaced with the gift of helping others find this truth for them.
Part of what Jesus did while on earth was heal the sick. What a privilege it is to get to participate with Him in continuing this healing work in a healing process we call counseling. We get to plant the seeds of new life which Christ gave to us and Satan wants to kill. I have always loved being a gardener. This is like spiritual gardening and the beauty of blossoms is like none other!
Last night our church hosted a catered dinner for all of us whom they call “on staff”. Our senior pastor’s wife is a teacher at a local charter school. She had encouraged one of the school’s staff to come for counseling and I have met with her for several weeks now. At the dinner the pastor’s wife told me about a visit she’d had earlier in the week from this staff friend who has been seeking help. This friend had told her that “I had changed her life” (those were the words used). She went on to say that her walk with God has never been what it is today. She had come from a Mormon background where a personal relationship with Jesus wasn’t talked about. Today she walks and talks with Jesus all the time and loves this new relationship she’s found.
As I write this I just can’t help but thank Jesus for the opportunity to join His Work in this capacity. What a privilege it is to walk along side of someone who eagerly seeks Christ and grows so well from finding Him. What a wonderful way to spend time in retirement!
As this day begins I simply thank Jesus for His abundant blessings. Yesterday wasn’t a typical Monday. It had a couple of those old people doctor visits built into it. But, in the middle of it I met with a couple people I consulted with the last 4 years of my work with schools and school districts. They are now working at the State Dept. of Education. It was just plain fun to spend a couple hours with them and see how they are impacting our state rather than just a district in our state.
I continue to marvel at the difference worship music is making during my devotional time. It is so easy to submit all of me to God’s Holy Spirit when my spirit is engaged. There is no rethinking it, no doubts about how long it will last during the day; it is sheer thanksgiving that we have a Holy Spirit within Who empowers and protects. What a blest people we are!
There is so much to be thankful for of late. Instead of having moments of Christ being present in the day, I find Him throughout the day. Instead of fearing the time when Satan will attack again, I walk in a humble confidence that not only do I have the armor of God, but that armor is not of flesh, but Spirit–God’s Spirit and the last piece of it is the Sword of the SPIRIT which will penetrate any darkness bringing God’s Pure Light! In this, evil must flee.
More and more one hears people talk about these days we are now living are likely the last days. Evil runs rampant in the last days. However, God’s Light is never absent if we will only turn to Him no matter what the circumstances we face. He is the Almighty God and always will be. Praise His Holy Name!
Before I write anything else today, I must back up to complete yesterday’s story. I wrote that I was to step into the day in FAITH only. The counseling sessions were to be experienced and not led by me. The quartet singing event was to be experienced and not prepped ahead of time (the order for it had already been done and I needed not prep any further). The experiences of the day as each one completed itself were amazing. The young men, the wife and mother, the attendees of the concert–all had the same message. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit were so present and I am walking away having had an experience which gave each of them and me new Light.
For me personally, I walked away from yesterday shaking my head in sheer abundant joy. I have lived a lifetime fighting temptation in the flesh not understanding how I was to surrender the battle so it could be actually fought and won by our VICTOR–Jesus Christ. We spend a lot of time getting to know our Savior and Lord. We also work on knowing Christ’s Gift to us–The Holy Spirit. This has helped me immensely. The lesson with the young men yesterday added an ingredient I needed. It focused on knowing our enemy–Satan: his many names and his many tactics.
God is Spirit, Jesus Christ came in flesh, but left in Spirit and remains this way for eternity. The Holy Spirit is His Name–SPIRIT. Satan is also spirit. Has flesh ever won over spirit? Never! Satan uses this tactic with us (me) endlessly that I am a loser who is lucky enough to have a Savior. Jesus has helped me experience the truth that I am worthy and not a loser. His Worthiness is mine and seen by God for God sees Jesus in me. It is one thing to know this, it is another to now walk in the confidence of it letting Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit fight the enemy who wants to “sift me like sand” just as Christ told this to Peter. Instead of fighting, I Worship the Victor! He has already WON the battle!
As I get to the place this morning of writing my entry, I needed to pause and seek the Lord’s guidance on what to write. It was a week ago that He showed me the critical importance of worship music to awaken my own spirit to His Holy Spirit at this time of day. I’ve been doing this each day and I honestly will keep doing so for this simple act takes me from my mind to blending my committed spirit with my mind that needs to be committed this day also. In so doing I sing praises instead of journaling concerns. The concerns just seem to fall into Christ’s hands when His Spirit is in control of the day rather than me thinking I am or I need to be.
Today it seems God wants me to enter into it simply with Him and not having any other plan except this. I have a couple of sessions which I intended to get my head wrapped around focusing on what I thought needed to be done/addressed, but God has something else He wants me to do and that appears to be: just be present. He will take care of the rest. Our quartet is singing for an assisted living home this afternoon and this message was the same for it.
Taking all of this into mind, I step out in faith only this day. I can hardly believe I’m writing this for this commitment of faith is at a level I feared, yet today I look forward to simply being present. God is just SO AMAZING!
The most remarkable thing happened last night at Celebrate Recovery. Each year at this time we celebrate Christmas by doing a blessings night. Over the years we have taken scriptures and personalized them to the attendees. We take the scripture, typing them out leaving a space for the recipient’s name to be spoken in the reading of the blessing. This is done one at a time with ladies blessing ladies and men the same for men. It is always a most touching evening. My own blessing read to me was from Galatians 5:13. This is what was read to me: “For Earnie was called to freedom. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” I just choked up when this was read to me.
This morning my devotional was titled, Him Through You. The message was that we can’t live the Christian life on our own and we should never think we are doing Christ’s Kingdom work on our own. This work is only done when Christ is doing it through us. His Strength becomes our own for we were never meant to live out God’s ministry work on our strength.
This devotional ends with this message: “Friend, God has chosen you for the service before you so He can shine His power through you–so that when the work is accomplished, people wont’ look to you, they will look to Him. So do not despair about your inadequacies; rather, submit to Him and rejoice that His glory shines through you.”
All of this just brought me to tears as I reflected on last night’s blessing and today’s devotional message. What an honor to get to serve God in this capacity. I’m so glad this journey does continue!
Jesus is my firm foundation. This statement use to be something I’d know and even believe. This was particularly true when I work with others for my belief was firm that Jesus always would stand in the gap for them. They could put every ounce of their trust in Him. Then, something would take place for me, temptations would hit and I’d feel helpless with them. I’d dig my way out of them, but would wonder why Jesus wouldn’t do for me what He does for others?
What I wrote about yesterday was a huge piece for me to awaken to as I described in the post. Little did I realize that I had this self-protection mode still going on in me. It was such a natural response of mine I never put any thought into the fact that it was selfish/self-protection. God pointed out to me that this “self-protection place” I’d go to in my mind was a stumbling block (in Celebrate Recovery it’s called a hang-up, character defect or thinking error). If I felt threatened in someone’s presence, temptations would hit reminding me of past triggers, etc., I’d go to this place and rationalize myself out of it–or attempt to do this. It was an area of lacking trust in God that I needed to relinquish to Him. Now that this is done I have a sense of new cleansing–deeper, more pure trust.
There may be other things which God will point out in my future days/years, but for now I don’t sense “phobias” about stepping into situations which in the past I’d deal with, but would do so with gritted teeth. It is truly a new depth of trust I needed to find. Thank you Jesus!
This mornings devotional time brought me to a place I’ve needed to see. It was a place I’ve protected all of my life–a place no abuse could reach, no criticism could touch AND no salvation could cleanse until I was willing to have “the veil rent in two”. To be honest with you, I didn’t even know I was protecting it until I was in the midst of my journaling while I worshiped Jesus. I was surrendering myself for the day when I was enlightened to this place of my inner being. This was the place I’d go to when my dad would make me confess for something I hadn’t done, when I was criticized for not being what I needed to be or not good enough; when I’d wonder why I as a male was an attraction to another male. In this place I could be ok with being me.
This morning I was allowed to see that this protection was no longer needed. In fact, this part of me was a hindrance to God’s Work in me. I would still want to protect the selfish part of me that just wanted to do what I wanted and no one else could make me do otherwise. Jesus allowed me to see that The Holy Spirit has been waiting to take control of this inner me so I could then be totally committed/surrendered to Him and His Purposes.
This experience showed me an area of TRUST I still needed. God would never take me into a place of shame. Instead, He’s wanted me to see just how trustworthy He truly is. As I write this I rejoice in this truth and confidence. God is WORTHY of our TRUST!
There is something I’m becoming very awake to as I am beginning each of my devotional times with a couple of worship songs. They awaken my spirit to God’s Holy Spirit and I desire fully for Him to be my spirit this day as I surrender to Him. With my spirit fully committed I find new meaning to the first piece of armor God provides for us as told in Ephesians 6:14–the belt of truth. In my flesh I want to rationalize all that I do. If a selfish act is being desired, I want to put brackets around it and say that it wasn’t hurting anyone and no one even needs to know about it. It is just for me. Well, when I am surrendered fully to God’s Holy Spirit in me, all I can do is admit the truth. It just doesn’t matter what the action is, if it is selfishly committed and I have to look away from God’s nudge within me, it is sin.
Romans 14:23b says, “…and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” The preface to this statement from Paul is stating so much about how we treat others. His closing statement in this chapter is the quote. God wants us to live by faith in His Son and His Son’s Gift of The Holy Spirit to us when we accept Him into our lives. We cannot continue to live by flesh’s desires rather than living by the faith that whatever temptation comes our way, God’s promise to “provide a way of escape” (I Corinthians 10:13) is ours. The belt of truth helps us to know this for the verse in Ephesians 6:14 starts by saying, “Stand your ground….”. When we put faith to work in our lives we can stand our ground for we are doing so in the strength of The Holy Spirit rather than the futile strength of our flesh.
For so long I’ve known all of this. Putting it together each day as I “worship” God is taking what I have known and allowing it to become my daily experience.
Earnie Lewis 