Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Lena's Discipleship Journalin' for Today to Acts 21

What! Are we willing to do for the work of the Lord in the earth? Change? Take hurt and pain and suffering upon us? Have our lives rearranged by others?
WHO! Are we willing to become, for the kingdom of God to be brought to earth through us? Are we really willing to put into practice what it takes to have a character change? Are we willing to lay down our own self life and die to that, to decrease all I want and wanted to be, for what He desires to make me?
Ya know His purpose for all flesh is that it may give its life for others. His purpose for each believer is that they’d be changed into His image and likeness, so much that when others look at the life changes they’d be astounded and see you new, like a dead man risen up to new life!
If your family, co-workers, friends and community know the almighty you, there is a problem you need to take up with your Father! I can guarantee you, you are in the way.
I like to do it this way. We do it this way or that way. I like this, I love that. I want this. I need that. He has need of thee to put all of THAT aside and bury it forever as though it is no longer your plight.
When Paul said, “I am ready to die for this kingdom”, he had grown up into the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ! It was no longer Saul alive in full bloom. It was Paul, a changed man!
Has the Lord ever said something to you like, “Ya know you don’t HAVE to go to church today, We can just stay home and relax together and I can speak with you here, for you hear My voice fine?” If you’ve ever heard anything like that, you can go with it or you can do more than that.
Sometimes God wants to see what we will do. We never have to do anything with God, but as our love grows deeper and calls us up to a greater understanding of its depth and height and breadth, we can dive in, or soar, or sail with it and in it.
Paul heard he should not go to Jerusalem, because there’d be suffering. So why did he go? Love is the only reason. He was being tested on his love level. This was not disobedience; this was the extending of His soul. His trip was not about the avoiding of suffering and neither is our Christian walk and journey about that. God had already told Him he would suffer greatly for the kingdom of God sake. He knew that and also knew in order to truly follow Christ He’d have to be apart of that picture and plan. It would be the test of his faith and faithfulness.
Both God and our enemy want to see if we are wiling to be a part of whatever it takes to go all the way. Are we all in, or just some?
Paul rose up, and went to Jerusalem. He rose up in spirit and power. The power of love would have to be so great and fresh within him to go up there. The Spirit of God must rise up in Him and conquer over fear, pain, injury, and even death.
Do you realize a person can be injured, beaten, tortured, yet not be “harmed”? Because as Jesus did, they give their lives, even to unfair punishments. Paul was a great example of this, yet he says, I won the prize through it all. I’ve kept my faith in God! Love does that.
I find it very interesting that when the Jews took a vow it was not a secret matter of the heart, it was an outwardly worn flashing light. They shave their heads, they went to the House of the Lord and paid to have their heads shaven.
Vows cost, they cost whatever it takes to make sure you fulfill them on your end. They are not a contract, they are evidences of a changed life! If not fulfilled, curses come, If lived out , blessings are unleashed. They did a public display so everyone could help them stay on track though willing accountability. Any person who saw their shaved heads could say, what did you vow, and are you living it out?
Every vow or covenant promise will be tested. If not tested, not true. Each of us have opportunity to make or break our vows. We all came into covenant with God when we got born again. I know we thought it was a good fix that would help us be relieved from whatever pain we were going through at the time, but when we made promises to God through our pain and suffering, we promised Him our lives and He expects us to fulfill those promises. If we don’t, curses come. If we do, blessing flows.
We always want to know why things don’t go just so for us. What have we done to change our lives and our lifestyles and our thinking since we’ve made our vows to God? Are we dead to self seeking life yet? Are we alive to the fulfillment of the will of God in the earth, or do we still do our own thing? Have we committed to a church body, or a study group, yet we only show up when it is convenient for us or we have decided it’ll work? This is why “Things” are not working out thus and so!”
Notice where the persecution and suffering in Paul’s life came from. The same bunch Jesus suffered and died for. Why would we think it would be a different bunch for us. The church, the very place we are sent to for nourishment, the place we call “home”, this is where the suffering happens. There is a lot of live flesh there where it should be dead. Opinions do fly and as long as there is a crod gathered like that, there is all sorts of evil and curses awry. Paul’s message was true, sent to the right place. It was just the ears were clogged with a compacted amount of flesh life and could not hear the truth offered.
We always think the church will receive the message of living a crucified life well, but those who are full of themselves despise this message. They may think, I shouldn’t have to die, He already died for me.
I just read that He did, and that the gates of hell were barred by the power of His death and resurrection. That took care of the allotment of the offer that can now be given me, of the one-sided covenant with God. Now the way my side become activated is, I die- daily, to my self life! If I do not, I do not have an active covenant with God!
The church may think you a foreigner, truly, a sore thumb in the crowd, but God will have His way through our obedience, even the daily death of me on the cross. I die daily, to my own will, says Paul. What are you saying, with the actions of your life?