Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Lena's Journalin' Today to Esther 4

There is a #1 enemy called pride that we, as people, deal with a lot. Being it is the #1 enemy of God Our Father and of the establishment of His kingdom, one should not be too surprised that it surfaces quite often, giving opportunity at every turn, and shows up in every form it can.
Tearing the clothes and wearing sackcloth and ashes is a good and extreme manner to deal with the enemy of pride. Crying aloud for all to hear would be a definite way to disallow pride to have its way. I believe Mordecai was serious about what he was in mourning over, serious enough to address it as an enemy. There needed to be change. Change always starts with the individual first. Mordecai could have seen a problem and faulted those who were at fault, complaining to the PR department-heads about what should be done here, but he rather started within himself, examining himself, repenting himself, for he was a part of a whole community that needed answers and he was wiling to humble himself to the extreme to uncover hidden works of darkness and disallow them from having any place inside of an enemy power hidden in pride-clothes. He was not gonna give the enemy any place if he could at all help it!
For unity-sake. He was willing to get on His knees, cry out to God, look within, deep within, call out for change.
God is so hungry for a people who are tired of living with themselves the way they presently are and He’s so looking for those who are willing, through the avenue of humility, to become as another man, a humble man, to bring the pendulum full swing, and set a new balance.
One man’s example is very powerful, could lead a whole nation to repent. Rather than preaching and telling the nation to repent, he repented, and in that behavior, the nation of people were able through seeing an example set, follow his lead. The best teacher is a hand’s on teacher, a practical example, one who shows us how.
Who is being destroyed right now in our day?
Who has satan paid off to destroy the people?
Who has taken money above the hot pursuit of love or truth?
Who serves the god of mammon, while people perish eternally?
Who is too busy to get involved?
Who, in our day, right now?
How do we feel about all that?
When was the last time we repented of any possibility of even one iota of a part in the sins of our families, churches, neighborhoods, on the job, or in our communities? We are members of a community or a family or a church, right? Are we the only right and correct members who don’t need regular repentance? Or have shown we know that we are humans and have we gotten on our knees calling out to God for change in desperation, enough to summons His power to save a nation, beginning with me?
Have we personally sinned?
Why are we so nervous about saying we have sinned? Why are we so nervous about saying we may have had any part in any sin at any time? Can we save ourselves through self justification?
Do we realize that sin uncovered, is like cancer uprooted? That allowing any and every sin to be revealed, is to expose hidden works of darkness. To be corrected, is to heighten our possibilities to be made right, with God?
Pride, wants to be right, to be correct, yet never corrected. Pride is the devil’s character trait. It is an acceptable character trait in our land, and is the very reason our land needs to be saved, mostly from self exaltation and its acquired curses. Pride and the serving of it, is unacceptable before God.
There is a passage that says, agree with Thine (meaning God’s and our) adversary quickly…. Doing that would be exactly like putting on sackcloth and ashes and not eating. We’d kill off pride and stop feeding it too.
Matthew 5:25 Agree with Thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Agree with an accuser? Yes, the accuser who’s saying something bad about you.
What if someone said to you, “Ya know, you aren’t very loving.”
What would happen inside of you? Would you rise up and defend YOURSELF (life)? Would you be tempted to argue about it with the person to persuade them to see you as you intend to be seen? Would you tell them they are seeing everything wrongly and their vision is tainted by some unforgiving spirit? Or would you maybe pray for them to be able see you in a better “light”? Would you feel judged by man, and say inside, “God is my judge, and I’m not gonna be wrongly judged by anyone? Ya know they really need to work on how critical they are of me?”…..
There are lots of scenarios of thought. The point is, what do we do, when we do what the scripture says and agree with what even appears to be an adversary? Seek and find truth? Be willing to find it no matter what form it appears in. Yes, it may slay the old you and the old ways you thought or did things, that’s actually good, because the old ways may have been good, but they are part of the problems in our homes, churches and communities, because they are not God’s ways.
So, what was it your adversary was accusing you of?
Be brave enough and trust God enough to go ahead and ask yourself, “Can I be more loving?”
Is there any truth at all in what was said to or about you? Any at all? Can you do anything at all to make a change in that area? If not, is Your God, the One you tell others you love and serve, is He great enough to help you change that? Is it too far fetched to say, bow before Him and inquire that He search the deep inner parts of your heart, and see what else could be inside there that quite possibly keeps Him from being ALL in there?
Being accused of being unloving is one thing, but what happens to the heart and mind once the accuser comes or the accusation is made IS the root system on which pride and other enemies try to grow.
Is change important enough to eat the giant of pride ever? Yes, it is, to God, but what about each of us personally? How far would we go to seek God’s help to change? How deep? How wide? Would we risk the façade of a self made image, like Mordecai did, to wear different clothes, and possibly even be ridiculed and persecuted? What about seen by others as weak?
One may think, “Well, I wouldn’t go there”….this is why we haven’t gone there. This is why God hasn’t gone there. We’ve sold our souls to an ideal that is not reality. It is about what we see, rather than what He sees. The sackcloth and ashes deal may not look too good here, but in the “Kingdom of God Bank”, it was a rich deposit. Humility goes a Longgggg way with God. It shows He is God to me, and I’m not. That’s a big deal where pride is concerned.
Lucifer was in heaven and he said, “I will ascend above the throne of the Most High God….” Right then, he was immediately cast out of heaven like a flash of lightening! The power he exercised was first found in the will, pride rose up against God inside of his will and in his will he tried to take the place of God.
This is what it does everyday in each of our hearts and minds. There are no new tactics, so it’s easy to learn what they are and defeat them. Any time a person decides they would rather do something other than what God has asked, this same spirit of pride is in operation.
Self exaltation above God exaltation is very very dangerous!
The only effective weapon to disengage from the power of this enemy is surrender, and on purpose humility. The best way to exercise it and keep it in line regularly is to submit to other people.
Yes I said people. Do it someone else’s way, even to the hurt of your own pride! Yep, count their way higher than yours. Forget your way, lay it down, give it up as an offering, wear the ashes willingly. If they mess up, trust God enough to pick up any necessary pieces.
He’ll give you beauty for the ashes and you’ll begin to eat major giants in your life, home, and community! Jesus showed us as an example, inside of the surrender of the will is the most powerful force to save in any situation.
What are you gonna risk for others? For them to be saved? Your life with all of your dreams and desires? The making of your name? What about your image? Good, that’s God’s way, trust Him , eat the giant of fear, manipulation, and control, and give an offering to God, a living sacrifice is the most well pleasing to Him.
Whether you do or don’t offer up your life for others willingly, you will die for others, in the end. If we die to it now, we’ll be saved later on, but if we refuse to do it now, we’ll pay for it then, in life eternal. We’ll perish, if we seek to save ourselves, our names, our dreams, our goals etc…Mordecai told Esther, you’d better consider the position you are in right now and decide to engage, for you will not escape because of the position, the position was given by God to save way more than you, it was given you to save a nation. Choose life today, Esther, offer up your life, today!
This is how it is for us. We are someone’s spouse , father , mother, brother, teacher , employer, employee, because God has put us in places to save others. As easily as we were put in positions we can be taken out, like lightening fast.