I am learning....at age 52, what it means to put on Jesus Christ; to live and walk in the Spirit. It all boils down to practicing the presence and keeping a listening heart for the voice of God. For so many years I was on cruise control, just acting based on my emotions and desires...not listening for direction from the King. If someone accused me (wrongly of course) my response was to deny everything they said and then to turn around and attack them. I do not know if this was a life-long habit or whether it is something that began to happen around 2007 when I entered a period of three years during which I was psychotic most of the time. I do know that rage was a big problem for me back then and it is something that I have not been intentional about overcoming.--until now.
I read a book on Listening Prayer by a lady named Leane Payne who also wrote many other books. These two disciplines (practiciing the preesence and listening prayer ) have brought me a large portion of the way to where I want to go.....However I have to say that it is my current studies and memorization on the topic of the fear of God and my reading the Scriptures following the paths of the Common Book of Prayer, that have really driven this home for me.
Galatians 5 and Ephesians 6 are well known passages....and they were to me too...however today and yesterday as I read them (in the setting of other Scriptures as well) it became clear to me how intentional we are to be in living out our lives--especially our spiritual lives. We cannot cruise along without bothering to put gas in the car, mark out a map (or program our Garmin), and without having an ultimate destination in mind.
Not only that but we must know that there will be enemies along the way determined to undermine us and cause us to react in the flesh so we must make sure we are armed and prepared to face them. And most of all, we must realize we are not alone on this road trip. The Spirit of the Living God accompanies us and strengthens us and most of all , grants us wisdom --in our speech, in guiding our prayers, in our attitudes towards others in our lives. We need to be actively listening: to the underlying messages from friends and family (what are they really saying? What do they need to hear from us?) and to the Spirit of God who knows much more than we ever will the answers to all of those questions. Are we listening to him actively? If we do, he will guide. He will speak.
Do you ever think about what it means to fear God and to ask your self whether you are living life in the fear of God? I challenge you, do a word study on the fear of God and memorize the verses you find. Test yourself by them.
All of these things I'm urging you to do are LIFE CHANGING....sanctification doesn't just happen: we must move along with the currents of holiness and participate with the work of God on our behalf...This will revolutionize your character and your relationships. It will grow humility in you and this will draw people toward you who may have in the past wanted nothing to do with you. Arrogance is not attractive. Neither is the denial of any fault of our own.
Spend some time with the Godhead. Buy a binder and begin to listen to God and take notes on what he tells you. But beware, this can be dangerous to do if you are not well grounded in God's Word. God will never contradict himself...but if you don't know what the Bible says, how will you know?
We have all eternity to get to know God....but we only have this life to get to know ourselves and to align ourselves with God's desires for us in this life. It's easy to feel holy...until God removes the scales from our eyes and we see ourselves in true light. I challenge you to take this seriously. It is life changing.
I read a book on Listening Prayer by a lady named Leane Payne who also wrote many other books. These two disciplines (practiciing the preesence and listening prayer ) have brought me a large portion of the way to where I want to go.....However I have to say that it is my current studies and memorization on the topic of the fear of God and my reading the Scriptures following the paths of the Common Book of Prayer, that have really driven this home for me.
Galatians 5 and Ephesians 6 are well known passages....and they were to me too...however today and yesterday as I read them (in the setting of other Scriptures as well) it became clear to me how intentional we are to be in living out our lives--especially our spiritual lives. We cannot cruise along without bothering to put gas in the car, mark out a map (or program our Garmin), and without having an ultimate destination in mind.
Not only that but we must know that there will be enemies along the way determined to undermine us and cause us to react in the flesh so we must make sure we are armed and prepared to face them. And most of all, we must realize we are not alone on this road trip. The Spirit of the Living God accompanies us and strengthens us and most of all , grants us wisdom --in our speech, in guiding our prayers, in our attitudes towards others in our lives. We need to be actively listening: to the underlying messages from friends and family (what are they really saying? What do they need to hear from us?) and to the Spirit of God who knows much more than we ever will the answers to all of those questions. Are we listening to him actively? If we do, he will guide. He will speak.
Do you ever think about what it means to fear God and to ask your self whether you are living life in the fear of God? I challenge you, do a word study on the fear of God and memorize the verses you find. Test yourself by them.
All of these things I'm urging you to do are LIFE CHANGING....sanctification doesn't just happen: we must move along with the currents of holiness and participate with the work of God on our behalf...This will revolutionize your character and your relationships. It will grow humility in you and this will draw people toward you who may have in the past wanted nothing to do with you. Arrogance is not attractive. Neither is the denial of any fault of our own.
Spend some time with the Godhead. Buy a binder and begin to listen to God and take notes on what he tells you. But beware, this can be dangerous to do if you are not well grounded in God's Word. God will never contradict himself...but if you don't know what the Bible says, how will you know?
We have all eternity to get to know God....but we only have this life to get to know ourselves and to align ourselves with God's desires for us in this life. It's easy to feel holy...until God removes the scales from our eyes and we see ourselves in true light. I challenge you to take this seriously. It is life changing.
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