Living on the Fence

I lived on the fence most of my life. Even though I asked Christ into my life when I was 18 I never wanted to give up my earthly ways completely. Each year I would pull out my old journals and read excerpts out of them. I would think to myself, how can I still be dealing with the same problems 10 years 20 years 30, 40 years later! I spent time with the Lord whenever I could. More than most people did. I went to my Bible studies and attended church. I had Christian friends and was a part of prayer groups. But I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I was still struggling with the same old things. 

Surrender, repentance and obedience. That's why my life never changed. I lived a life that secretly held on to habits. I didn't want to repent because that meant that I had to give up those habits. The result of that mindset meant that I was not being obedient to God. I would often cry out to him and ask him why he wasn't healing me and why my life and my health were so bad. I'm embarrassed to say that it took me years and years to really make that simple choice to jump off the fence and give all of me to God. 

The Lord used me in mighty ways in other people's lives and it was exciting and wonderful to see him work through me. That's what's so amazing about him. He uses however much we will give him and then he will wait patiently for us to give him the rest. Even if it takes years. 

I didn't realize how beautiful a full blessing would be. As I have mentioned in other posts I have just recently had an Awakening. I surrendered all to God and ever since I did I am overflowing with hope, energy, Joy, wisdom and praise! God will never leave us. He will wait patiently while we try to do it our own way. He'll be with us as we struggle and cry and do most things the hard way. However, the moment we decide to give it all to him and surrender our control, there is a flood of joy and peace that rushes in immediately.

I encourage you today to get off the fence. I can tell you the truth about surrendering, it brings freedom. Satan wants to keep you on that fence because he owns it. You will vacillate in your mind and be tossed around by the waves of your emotions. You will be ineffective and unwell as long as you sit there. But I promise you that if you jump on God's side you will be astounded at the freedom and joy. 

By no strength of my own did all these wonderful new things happen to me. All I did was ask God with a willing heart to change me and he did. Every day new things are being revealed to me and we're working on things together. I love that about him. His patience and unconditional love cannot be matched. Once you crawl under his wing and understand how much he loves you and wants you to grow in him, there's no going back. 

Lord, whoever is reading this right now I pray that you would give them courage. I pray that you would free their mind and clean their heart through your Holy Spirit so that their life can begin to reflect their relationship with you. As they surrender and your beautiful fruit starts to grow in their life I pray that you would be glorified and you would use them to tell others about the goodness of God. Amen

Galatians 5:1 

• "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery".

Indiana Jesus

I had a wonderful experience about a month ago where I surrendered everything to God. I gave him full access to me and I finally gave him permission to clean out some dark ugly closets in my life. It felt so good to finally do that. The main reason being that God does not condemn but he loves us. When we ask him into those dirty places he comes in with pure love and no judgment as he helps us clean up some messes. The last week or so some really bad feelings were stirred up in me. Those feelings triggered reactions in me of anger and judgment... I realized this morning that the enemy was spinning me around by the tail so I ran to Jesus and asked him to help me. I opened my Bible and my journal and the Lord revealed to me that there was a treasure chest buried behind the wall in the closet that I just let him clean out a month prior. I didn't even realize it was there. I gave him permission to pull it out and go through it with me. 

As he opened it up, sealed inside were deep resentments. Strongholds that were robbing me of my freedom in Christ! I immediately asked him to clean me out. All morning he spoke to me through scripture and through my journaling. In short, he revealed to me that I needed to forgive some people, I needed to pray for them that God would bless them with spiritual Awakening.

I prayed that he would give them freedom from the strongholds that they were suffering from. Next, I had to repent as I listed all those feelings. I had to pray for myself that I would have freedom from that self-bondage.  I asked that I would be robust with the Fruit of the Spirit and that the Lord would continue to heal me of my bruises that could be triggered to make me act ungodly. I asked him to give me his Spirit of love and peace. 

Don't be afraid to open yourself up to Jesus. He doesn't judge you or condemn you, he simply loves you and wants you to be free. Find the courage to ask him to do an extensive archaeological dig into your heart, mind, soul and spirit. Then, trust him to excavate the contaminants out of you and to create a rich fertile soil for his fruit to grow in your life. 

1st Timothy chapter 2, "He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them, intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them." 

Ephesians 4: 31-32, "get rid of all bitterness, anger and slander... Be kind, compassionate and forgiving.