- Jun 26, 2015
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It amazes me that I walked for 38 years convinced that if I just tried a little harder, got a tad more disciplined, became a bit more sold out and less worldly, that then I would “arrive” and be a good Christian.
It took that long for me to come to the point of me having NO strength. Almost four decades of running laps in the wilderness, where I was the epitome of ‘ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth’.
What I missed is that the Israelites remained in the wilderness for one reason and one reason only.... unbelief.
Eleven years ago, when God in His mercy showed me what I had missed, faith that God could do in me what I could never do, I stepped out and believed.
And what did I believe? I believed that I was no longer an old creature trying by my own efforts to become new. No, I believed that Jesus had already made me new, having raised me up with Him at the resurrection. I had finally begun to wage my ‘good fight of faith’ and to my amazement and joy, found that God would indeed keep us from falling when we believe that He can and will do so.
We are not like the lame man at the pool of Bethesda who had to wait for the angel to stir the waters for healing to occur. We do not have to wait, languishing in defeat, boredom and sins that so easily beset us. The minite we decide to come into agreement with our God and, by faith, reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto Him, and then yield ourselves to Him as those who are alive from the dead, we have left the wilderness and begun our good fight of faith in the land of promise.
Make no mistake, there are battles here. Once we enter the promised land, and joy replaces discouragement and guilt, Satan now sees us as real threats, but let not our heart be troubled. With our shields of faith raised high, we will find to our amazement that they do indeed quench every single arrow Satan may cast at us.
May God open eyes and hearts to the fact that FREE INDEED is our birthright and Satan can do nothing to stop us from enjoying it and being established in overcoming faith, with the world, the flesh and the devil under our feet.
Live, bones, live. May God bless you all richly.
Gideon
It took that long for me to come to the point of me having NO strength. Almost four decades of running laps in the wilderness, where I was the epitome of ‘ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth’.
What I missed is that the Israelites remained in the wilderness for one reason and one reason only.... unbelief.
Eleven years ago, when God in His mercy showed me what I had missed, faith that God could do in me what I could never do, I stepped out and believed.
And what did I believe? I believed that I was no longer an old creature trying by my own efforts to become new. No, I believed that Jesus had already made me new, having raised me up with Him at the resurrection. I had finally begun to wage my ‘good fight of faith’ and to my amazement and joy, found that God would indeed keep us from falling when we believe that He can and will do so.
We are not like the lame man at the pool of Bethesda who had to wait for the angel to stir the waters for healing to occur. We do not have to wait, languishing in defeat, boredom and sins that so easily beset us. The minite we decide to come into agreement with our God and, by faith, reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto Him, and then yield ourselves to Him as those who are alive from the dead, we have left the wilderness and begun our good fight of faith in the land of promise.
Make no mistake, there are battles here. Once we enter the promised land, and joy replaces discouragement and guilt, Satan now sees us as real threats, but let not our heart be troubled. With our shields of faith raised high, we will find to our amazement that they do indeed quench every single arrow Satan may cast at us.
May God open eyes and hearts to the fact that FREE INDEED is our birthright and Satan can do nothing to stop us from enjoying it and being established in overcoming faith, with the world, the flesh and the devil under our feet.
Live, bones, live. May God bless you all richly.
Gideon
