PAY ATTENTION

"But how high we walk in the Spirit is our decision."

GOD MADE US human. He designed the human body, created the soul (mind, will, and emotions); He made us spirits. Jesus lived on earth as one of us. He was born, learned to walk and talk, and when God’s plan for Him came to its fulfillment, He died in obedience. He knows what it’s like to live here. I mean, He’s God, who knows all things, but for 33 1/3 years, He walked in the Spirit, knowing only what God revealed. He prayed all night sometimes, communicating with the Father. The night before He picked His disciples, for instance (Luke 6:12-13). And in His toughest hour, in Gethsemane, where He prayed earnestly for Judas then dedicated Himself to do God’s will.

There is a lesson to be learned there. Though He pleaded for Judas, Judas’ end was prophesied. God knew of it far in advance and did not alter time. This isn’t about Judas, and yet to an extreme, it is. When Judas decided to betray Jesus, we are told “Satan entered him (John 13:27).” Satan is destroyed now (Hebrews 2:14), so he’s entering no one. The works of the devils are dissolved, the meaning of “destroyed” in 1 John 3:8. We’re not battling them either.

What we’re constantly up against is what Romans 8 calls our carnal nature. God gave us bodies and the thoughts and emotions we need to live on the earth, but salvation saves the spirit man, making us alive; and being alive and filled with God, we’re supposed to listen to the Spirit of God and be all Him. What our flesh, our body and mind, want to do is usually wrong.

I’m not talking about eating or enjoying life, innocent things, but of addictions, overbearing emotions, and anything that distracts us from hearing God. We find ourselves facing situations and can’t figure out how we got there. Or worse, we live so much after our emotions that we don’t see our behaviors at all.

I’m talking to Christians here. Children of God. It is possible to be so close to God that you never suffer. This statement draws your attention. But something God pressed on me in my darkest hour is that I never have to go back there. He is continually speaking, and as much as I seek Him, as well as I will listen, He will steer me around all the tough places. He will heal all that’s falling apart and direct us on the path of His goodness, every day, forever.

“But, Suzanne, I don’t believe that.”

Then you won’t experience it. Why would I say that here? Doesn’t God love you? Doesn’t He care about you? Absolutely. That’s why Jesus died. But how high we walk in the Spirit is our decision. And it begins by turning things off and letting things go. It grows when we stop saying everything we think about. We speak the Word instead. We choose to worship instead of gossip. We make it our reaction instead of fear.

I don’t know about you, but I want to see myself, see how I think, how I respond to stress, and to see it and stop doing it. Too many people whine about their life and never give God five minutes, much less all day every day. And I’m not talking about our religious rules. I made this comparison recently. A Jewish Rebbe speaks blessings over those who seek them, and God performs great miracles. Yet, we in the Gentile church say they aren’t saved. This is a lie. Salvation is provided in covenant. But the comparison is that we have entire churches who say they are saved, yet they don’t believe in healing miracles. Or apostles. Or women in the pulpit.

Being frank, too many good Christian people have died of cancer. I want to know how to change this, and it starts with me walking led of God all the time, all day long, every single day. The doors we leave open for our physical nature to lead us, will stay open. This isn’t telling anyone who hates coffee to get over it. We need to not judge others for their clothing, their food tastes, their culture. This is me saying, PAY ATTENTION. When what we see alters who God is, then we are blind. Who God is should alter what we see.

Is God healing people through unsaved Jews? Is He no longer healing the multitudes, like Jesus longed to do? His love for men propelled Him in it. Are we now called to line the pews, talk about people in the pulpit, and resign the sick to fate? To God no longer caring? Which of these is right? None of them.


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com