Until That Final Day
Posted in flesh, Patty's Posts, Spiritual Warfare 0 comments
Keith Green fans out there will appreciate this blog perhaps more than others, though the message is good for all of us. For starters, please listen to this song of Green's, because the rest of the blog won't make sense unless you do.
The first line of this piece takes me to my knees. Has your flesh ever been tired of seeking God, yet you remained on your knees because you simply didn't know what else to do? Have you spent "sleepless nights in anguished prayer" when a besetting sin seemed to have gotten the upper hand and you desperately wanted victory over it? If we profess to follow Jesus, we should desire to be pleasing to Him every minute of every day of our lives. Why do we fall short so often?
Watchman Nee used to refer to this problem as "the soul being in ascendancy over the Spirit." All of us can fall into it if we do not take proper care to nurture our spiritual lives. If we have a steady diet of television and video games and sports and Facebook, but our intake of God's Word is minimal, we are sitting ducks for Satan to wreak havoc in our lives.
We are what we eat, my friends. If we starve our spirits but feed our flesh, the fruits of the Spirit will not be manifested in our lives. No, it's not easy to discipline ourselves to turn off all the noises in our world, but if we don't take time daily to be still before God, the world will suck us in.
In the refrain of this song, Green pleads with God to "set us free from chains we cannot see." We all need to pray this prayer in earnest. We live in a dirty world, and it's easy for us to become hardened toward the things of the Spirit. We can become enchained to vices like alcohol and pornography, but we can also be held hostage by our own pride and selfishness. And the worst part is that we become blind to it. That's why we need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the chains that bind us.
My prayer is that we will all become enchained to God and His purposes. In Ephesians 6:20, Paul refers to himself as "an ambassador in chains." His only passion was sharing the gospel and seeing men and women redeemed out of the pit of hell. May it become our passion as well.
The first line of this piece takes me to my knees. Has your flesh ever been tired of seeking God, yet you remained on your knees because you simply didn't know what else to do? Have you spent "sleepless nights in anguished prayer" when a besetting sin seemed to have gotten the upper hand and you desperately wanted victory over it? If we profess to follow Jesus, we should desire to be pleasing to Him every minute of every day of our lives. Why do we fall short so often?
Watchman Nee used to refer to this problem as "the soul being in ascendancy over the Spirit." All of us can fall into it if we do not take proper care to nurture our spiritual lives. If we have a steady diet of television and video games and sports and Facebook, but our intake of God's Word is minimal, we are sitting ducks for Satan to wreak havoc in our lives.
We are what we eat, my friends. If we starve our spirits but feed our flesh, the fruits of the Spirit will not be manifested in our lives. No, it's not easy to discipline ourselves to turn off all the noises in our world, but if we don't take time daily to be still before God, the world will suck us in.
In the refrain of this song, Green pleads with God to "set us free from chains we cannot see." We all need to pray this prayer in earnest. We live in a dirty world, and it's easy for us to become hardened toward the things of the Spirit. We can become enchained to vices like alcohol and pornography, but we can also be held hostage by our own pride and selfishness. And the worst part is that we become blind to it. That's why we need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the chains that bind us.
My prayer is that we will all become enchained to God and His purposes. In Ephesians 6:20, Paul refers to himself as "an ambassador in chains." His only passion was sharing the gospel and seeing men and women redeemed out of the pit of hell. May it become our passion as well.
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