Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Studying 1 Peter 4 Today w/ Lena's Journalin' Judgments begin with God's house, which is me

He will never fail us, ever. He will never leave us, ever.
That being so, why do we ever feel distance between us and God? It is our choice. We make it, choose it, allow it. Once we receive Him, He is there. Through obedience we follow Him. If we choose to not go where He goes, distance happens. Those who love, follow, because they obey, Him.
Trust. Do I really trust God, Our Father, Creator of the heavens and the earth?
How much I trust Him shows up in how much faith I am willing to exercise towards Him in any given situation. I cannot merely say, “I trust You, Lord”; I must demonstrate the trust. Distrust of God also brings distance between us and Him.
These are the “judgments” being made against my life now as a believer in Christ. They are the tests and revelations that will bring me closer to the Lord, because I grow up in Him and obey His will, or I stay put, immoveable and do not grow, because I choose to stay as I am.
Do you realize that most suffering is just this? It is my flesh at war against my spirit man following Christ from here on or not. It is a war of the obedient one in my fighting the disobedient one in me. It is between decisions to trust or not trust God in action. It is decisions offered me everyday to be led by His Spirit or continue to follow after my own flesh and culture, trusting what I know and see.
Judgment begins in the house of God. If the foundation of a house is not secure, it would be foolish to erect a building upon it for when elemental pressure rises up against the building, not only will he foundation possibly crack, the structure will fall. God is looking to build Himself a home. He desires to use each of us as a strong foundation to each building project, and lay upon that home’s foundations a load of people who need a place to stand upon that is sure and secure.
Judgment (inspection with presented correctional requests and follow through order) must begin with the foundation. That is a good thing. Better to inspect the foundation first and, if necessary, begin over with that portion of the structure, than to build without an inspection and allow many others to fall to ruin.
So are you a rock? A foundation for others to put their weight on? What about your faith? How solid and secure is it? Is it more reliant on self or upon Christ? Can others sit on it, depend on it, even use it, until theirs is strong? If they put weight on you, what happens to you? Do you buckle or crack or fall apart? This is where we must be tried, must even desire to be tried, for it would be so sad to have never been tried and then have been responsible for so much ruin later on.
Have you ever felt the desire to be looked at, searched, even criticized? Most people’s gut reaction to this is negative. Yet even the most critical scrutinizing person who comes against you in this life, if their words are taken in for examinations-sake, could actually be regarded as the grace of God upon your life to save your eternal soul from a horrid eternally scrutinizing judgment call.
Better to be able to see now, what you don’t or won’t than to wait until there is no time to change as we are standing in an irreversible place and we have an offense revealed before God!
I always feel so sad for people who say they hate to be judged by others, and that so easily mark others as being judgmental against them. So what if their motivation is wrong, so what if they may be off in one area. What about the area they may have hit a target on, in the inside, in my inner man, that I could not or would not see without their inspection of me?
I always say this – a man would not obey God, so God used an animal to speak to a man. If the most stubborn animal could be used by God and speak the very words of God to a man, cannot a critical “judgmental” man also carry words from God that would otherwise leave me perishing?
We say things in our minds such as, “Lord, you know if they would speak kindly, I would listen.”
At judgment, that will in no way have been a valid excuse for choosing not to listen or obey! Seriously!
Begin to listen to the critical words spoken over you. Weed out, filter out the form the voice comes to you in and for the sake of your eternal soul, hear the words. Forget the motivation you think the heart has launched the criticism off of, seriously, and take the words into your prayer room where you and God meet and get real. Ask a hard question of the Lord, and be willing to hear His answer.
“Ok, Lord, Am I that way? Do I do that? Is that true of me? Help me change.” Only a man who has humbled himself under God’s mighty hand now will be able to be changed, or even able to hear of the need for change. The seeing who you’ve been, is 98% of the produce. 98%! We’ve got to be willing to see, by listening to judgments brought against us now, without feeling a need to prove ourselves right all of the time. There is none righteous, but God.
If you consider your house the house of God then your doors should be willingly open for inspections of the Spirit of the Lord in whatever form He deems to come.
I believe the harder the voice that comes, the harder the heart must be in need of hearing. It has gotten to a point relationally that the person has not heard and acted upon God’s subtle, gentle words, quickly and often. If one heeds the still small voice promptly, he’ll hear it more often.
Do not be deceived by saying this is the only way God speaks to me. You just are not hearing the other sounds and fluctuations; you’ve put your own hearing in a box.
Time to open up the tops of the box and see the world God meant for you to see.