All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
When I Am Down
When you feel down, beat-up or overwhelmed, what does God use to pick you up and get you through?
Lord Bless,
LT
TheNET Coordinator
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Amanda
God's grace and mercy is one thing. The empowerment to live the Christian life that please God is another and requires surrender to the Holy Spirit day-by-day.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Amanda,
I picked out what I viewed as questions or things that I felt led to respond to from your 5 overnight posts. I have compiled them here.
Quote “But when we try to practice this truth, we find that it
takes time and patience to learn it thoroughly. We must learn to lean on Him. We
must learn little by little how to take Him for every need.”end quote
This is what I have been trying to ask--how do you learn to lean on Him again and trust again?
It says, “The secret is, "Without Me ye can do nothing." "I can do all things in Christ, who strengtheneth me."
But I need more than just knowing that. I know I can’t do anything without Him. I can’t live without Him. That’s part of the problem. I guess I have to wait. Jesus is Healer, too. I have to wait on that. Only He won't hear my prayers right now, because of my fears and doubts.He who doubts is condemned--whatever is not of faith is sin...
The secret is daily surrender. Each day is a new day with its own challenges. Learn to lay it all at His feet a fresh today taking your cross and moving forward step-by-step. You don’t get to the mountain top with one big leap. It requires taking the next step and if you slip or stumble, get up and start progressing again. It is a journey.
I’m not sure about the way the article starts out talking about medical remedies and divine healing. I believe Jesus said He who is sick has need of a physician, and God gives wisdom and knowledge to medical professionals and also gives surgeons their skilled hands and the whole science of medicine is a miracle if you ask me. And God will use medicine to heal and also use doctors and nurses who aren’t even saved in order to care for and help His own or carry out His divine will.
I agree with all the other things that divine healing is not--prayer cure or will-power or defiance of God’s will and so forth.
It is the touch of Jesus Himself.
The point is that medical healing is not divine healing, but healing through medicines using the skills of the doctors and the medicines man has discovered. Divine healing is the act of God and can only be attributed to Him.
Quote”It may be, however, that your sickness has been allowed to come as a discipline.
You may have been holding back part of the full testimony or service Christ has
called you to. I am afraid, then, you cannot be healed till that difficulty is made
right. You may be in some wrong and crooked attitude. He probably will not
restore you till that is adjusted. He may have called you to some service and you
are holding back. There will not be healing for the body till you have yielded at
this point. There are hundreds of meanings in the sicknesses that are allowed to
come upon God's dear children, and He will show you what His voice is for you.”end quote
Always conditions. But God miraculously heals the unsaved, too. I hear of miracles all the time. He can do whatever He wants to do when He wants to do it and to whomever He chooses.
The difference here is that God can do whatever He wants to do according to His purposes. This is the case of the healing of an unbeliever. It is not by their faith, obviously, but by His divine choice. For the believer to claim the promise of divine healing and to walk in that divine health there are certain requirements. I like to use the term “coming into alignment with God.”
We can’t put conditions on Him and by stating these conditions, we are doing that--we are saying we must meet His criteria and then Jesus will be our Healer--and that means we put conditions on Jesus being our Healer. Should we do that?Again, God can do whatever pleases Him and fulfills His plan. For us to secure or apply the promises of God for our lives there are often conditions. There are four basic promises that God makes. 1) Unconditional eternal. 2) Conditional eternal. 3) Unconditional temporal. 4) Conditional temporal. For the believer to walk in divine health there are conditions. Note also that this does not mean a person will not die. We must seek God’s will. If it is time, like my brother, we do not pray that God keep them, but take them. Sickness and death are a part of the consequences of the fall, but in this life we have one who lives in us who can bring divine health in order to fulfill His purposes through our lives.
I’ve always imagined that the rapture would happen right before His return. Dad and I used to talk about that a lot. But I respect the other views as well.
There are various views as you mention. I personally am pre-wrath placing the rapture late into the tribulation prior to His Second Coming. The organization I am with is not dogmatic regarding a lot of secondary issues. There is freedom regarding these various issues, but we are in agreement on the primary issues.
I enjoyed the rest of the article about His Life and the Walk and how he keeps us. I will have those thoughts with me through Christmas now.
May God bless you as you ponder these things. "
The thought that He guards me as a treasure is nice to consider. That He will keep me no matter where I go or what I do.
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee"
I gave up…stopped trusting.
I haven’t been kept in God’s perfect peace.
I know you tire of hearing me say this, but He is calling you back. You are on the journey now even as we discuss these things. You are taking steps to come into alignment with Him.
"I pray not that thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Here is a
double keeping. Kept from death and sickness and anything that could take us out of the world, and yet kept from the evil of the world and especially the evil one.”
This is not always the case--He doesn’t always keep us from the evil. We do have death and sickness. Things do happen that are evil and they happen to the saved.The point is not that we never face these things, but that we will have the ability to carry out His purposes for our lives. All but one apostle was martyred. They were brutally killed in most cases according to secondary historical records. Their lives were not taken one day before God was done with them. When Paul and Silas were in jail they were able to sing because they knew that they were in the will of God. Often we see that God used these situations to accomplish a great task. Paul wrote numerous letters while in prison. Once the jail broke open and the opportunity to share the gospel led the jailer and his whole household to salvation. Joseph was in jail and God used it to bring him to the highest position under pharaoh.
I ask four questions whenever I am going through a storm. 1) Am I in this storm because of personal sin? If I am then I need to repent and make it right. If not, I move on to the second question. 2) What is God trying to teach me through this storm? If I cannot see that I move on to question three. 3) What is God trying to teach others through my storm, because life is not all about me? If I still cannot see this I move on to the fourth question. 4) Can I trust God to guide and carry me through even though this storm makes no sense to me? Do I believe that God is in control? I look at storms as opportunities. That does not mean they are pleasant, but I can trust God to bring me through. Too often we pray the wrong prayer. We ask God to take us out of the storm, when we should be praying for God to protect and guide us through the storm.
I know I do struggle with self will vs surrender. I guess I agree with your beliefs alot--and I will have to think about the sanctification further. We still have some differences on it. In my life there have been more than just "a" crisis moment. So I don't see how that can define the beginning of sanctification unless the crisis moment would be the same moment of the new birth and coming to an end of self and dying and being born again. That's a crisis. A time of crisis for most people.
We all have problems or what we would call crisis throughout our lives and I'm sure you will have some yet to come but it wouldn't be like you were starting all over again with the sanctification process, would it, just because you were in a life crisis situation?
I'm not getting this yet, OK?
In life we will face many crisis, this is true. The point here is that there is a crisis moment that we face regarding salvation and then there is a crisis moment we face regarding sanctification and being filled with the Holy Spirit. These are specific crisis moments with specific outcomes when we embrace them as God intends.
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Amanda,
I saw the post and wrote the reply attached below in this post, but before you get to that I want to share something from my life some of which is shared in the post below, but I feel is worth elaborating on based on some of what you added this morning. I was saved at age 5 years old. The reality of that moment has never changed or waivered. Some have questioned it, but not me. I met Jesus and He came into my life as my Savior. Around age 13 I became a rebel. I did many things from that time on until 1992 that I am not proud of. I was a wild teenager and to make it even worse I knew I was living in rebellion. Jesus was my Savior, but I was far from living for Him. I met my wife and I calmed down a lot, but still was living for me. I then changed gears from chasing the party lifestyle to chasing the dollar. I was sold out to retiring by age 40 and had the capability of making that happen until my house of cards collapsed in 1986, which I now see the hand of God involved in. I was crushed and took two years to recover emotionally. I spoke to Jesus during those days, but still would not surrender all to Him and pushed on and was happy to some degree and yet internally miserable. Six years later I finally came to the end of myself. I did not make a life change, try harder, or pull up my boot straps, I broke down and surrendered all calling out to Jesus telling Him my life was futile and I can’t do this anymore. Come in and take control as I surrender it all to you. Some reading this will say I got saved in 1992 … NOPE, I was saved and had full assurance, but my life had reached the pigpen with many disciplines along the way. When I cried and cried out giving it all away He responded in 1992. In 1986 I talked to Him, but was unwilling to give it all over to Him. I wanted the benefit, but did not want to surrender. In 1992 I fell broken and felt hopeless and then God showed up and began to mold my life of clay from the broken pieces that now laid at His feet one day at a time. I have been to man’s mountain top several times and found it lacking (been to the pit as well). I am now on God’s journey and find it challenging and rewarding. There is no better place to be, for the Lord is God. He is the one who sets us free and enables us to overcome. That is a very brief summary, but when I write on this subject I speak from one who has been down the trail and experienced the highs and lows, the smooth road and the pitfalls. I know what it is to be in rebellion and to be surrendered and the necessity of surrendering each day anew. There is hope and healing in Jesus, but one has to be willing to fully let go today, and again tomorrow and so forth. Initially we experience the crisis moment followed by a life of progression, the sanctified life or Deeper-Spirit Filled Life.
I am careful to never presume where another is at in their journey. You could be at the precipice of salvation or sanctification. You may have been sanctified at one time and drifted down the wrong road. I trust God will clearly reveal this to you, but serves no purpose for others to tell you this or that, especially if they are wrong and give you false assurance. You want nothing less than God's assurance.
THE REPLY I WROTE EARLY THIS MORNING:
1TH 4:3 It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
The purpose of this sanctification is that they may be able to live holy lives and is enabled by the Holy Spirit and not just the good intentions of man.
We are also told in Luke 11 that the Holy Spirit is given to those who ask:
LK 11:11 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
If receiving the Holy Spirit is automatic, beyond the seal at salvation, why would we be told to ask? When one prays to receive Jesus as Savior how often do you hear them pray give me the Holy Spirit or fill me with the Holy Spirit.
If being filled is automatic why does Ephesians 5:15-18 teach us the following:
EPH 5:15 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Salvation brings new birth that establishes a right standing before God.
Sanctification (dedicated/surrender and filled with the Holy Spirit) brings forth right actions enabled by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit..
Let’s look at four examples. Three of which are believers and one is Jesus Himself.
Jesus: Jesus, the Son of God who is God in the flesh, came to earth as a babe. Lived 30 +/- years before the time was right for Him to embark on His time of ministry leading to the cross. He starts out this new journey by being baptized and in the process we see the Holy Spirit lighting on Him, a picture of anointing (Lk. 3:22). The Bible tells us that He did nothing on His own, but only did what the Father led Him to do (Jn. 8:28-30) and by the power of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 12:28; Lk. 4:1; Lk. 10:21). Jesus laid down the perfect example for us all along the way. He demonstrated a life that is surrendered to the Father and empowered by the Spirit, this is why He can say:
Jn. 14:10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
The 11 Apostles: The apostles were told the following:
Acts 1: 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." 6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Often people look to Pentecost as the coming of the Holy Spirit. That is only partially true. Pentecost was the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in power as He came on them in this New Covenant, but the Holy Spirit was both already on the earth and in the apostles for we see the following recorded in John 20:22:
JN 20:21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”
They were indwelt at this time following the resurrection and now awaited the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Ac. 1:5) so that they may be empowered to carry on ministry that God had called them to (Ac. 1:8)
We could debate whether Pentecost was the birth of the church or the empowerment of the church, since the church is the people of God, the bride of Christ.
Saul/Paul: Saul had his epiphany on the road to Damascus. He met Jesus on the road in the bright light. Three days later he was prayed for and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Believers in Samaria (Acts 8): The Word says the following:
AC 8:14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Three things are revealed regarding this group. They accepted the Word of God. They were baptized in the name of Jesus (not John’s baptism). They were at a later time filled with the Holy Spirit.
I have one last point to add to this post. The timing of the Sanctification (full surrender and being filled with the Holy Spirit) can be immediately following salvation or years later. Some have been sanctified at the time of salvation and thus find it hard to believe that there are two separate events, because to them it appeared as one event in time. Others, like myself, have experienced sanctification at a time much later than salvation. For me there was a span of 27 years between the two events. Thus, when I speak on this topic I speak from a biblical perspective and an experiential one as well. People can debate the perspective and some have tried to discount the event in my life, but on both counts I am convinced regarding the second act of grace known as sanctification.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Amanda,
I am rejoicing that you are sure regarding your salvation. I am also pleased that you do not accept my view, or anyone else's, just because they or I say it, but are investigating it asking the Lord to guide you into the truth.That is the way it should be. May God guide you deeper into the light of His Word and presence.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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Amanda,
I love this quote
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." --Einstein
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Hey Amanda..
Nah.
I'm not smart enough to think of that.. i just really like the quote. :-) -
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Amanda,
Praying with you and trusting Him to break through and reveal Himself anew and fresh for his glory and your benefit. Do not give up ... persevere and watch what He will do!!! I will be awaiting the PRAISE REPORT THAT IS COMING.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Amanda,
LT, I am trying to understand legalism and liberty.
As a child of God, grace teaches that I am free forever from the penalty and guilt of sin. Is that right?
But saving me doesn't mean God is finished with me.
God is conforming me, but that work is also a work of His grace. Not my work. Is that right?His work and you follow His lead.
Legalism is law and penalties.
Grace is love and trust.
Legalism is fear and doubt.
I am to respond though with service and obedience.In a nutshell, yes.
How do I keep it straight? And not fall back into legalism?
Law demands godly living. What makes grace different?
I have always been under a set of legal standards…of trying to make sure my tree is bearing good fruit.
Can’t miss Sunday service. Can’t miss the Lord’s Supper on Lord’s Day.
But I have for almost 4 months now and have been eaten alive by guilt and separation from God over it.What makes the difference on our part? Motivation.
I don’t serve God out of fear or worry that if I don’t measure up or … I serve Him because I love Him and am in awe of Him. The thought that the living God would die on the cross for me! He personally paid the penalty for my sin! He thought enough of me to call me! He wants a relationship with me! What can I add to His work? Nothing, but I can respond to Him in love with the desire to please Him. I do not seek to win His favor or gain a better standing with Him. I come with the simplicity of a 6 year old trying to make my Father in heaven happy or even proud of me. For me the difference between grace and law is life and death. I go to church because it is an exciting place to be to worship Jesus with fellow lover’s of Jesus. I partake of communion with much gratitude for His sacrifice and love, it is a privilege.
If I were to try and put into simple words as to how my life flows towards God it would be Thank You, I Love You, Thank You, I Love You Lord Jesus.
Let me elaborate a little more. If I truly love Jesus I will find that my heart’s desire will be to make my Father in heaven happy once I understand that I can actually do that. I don’t do it to stay in the family, I do it because I am in the family. Now, people can fall into rebellion, but the true believer will experience it for a season and will come back to God. They will not stay in the wilderness, for a time comes when they return one way or another.
Judaism is one thing(Sabbaths and high holy days and feasts)…but this type of legalism is not Judaism…it is passed off as God’s will for the believer. It is New Testament teachings that must be kept in order to please God. It is keeping the commandments to love God and love others and even made out to be that all you really have to do is keep the royal law of love--because everything falls under it--the ten commandments and the 49 plus that Jesus gave in the Gospels…let your light shine, go the second mile, judge not, etc…Well that is whole other issue. I see a difference between the O.T. and the N.T.. I live under the New Covenant. Something that is missed in John 15:10 is that Jesus proclaims that He kept His Father’s commands and that we are to keep His (Jesus’) commands. He fulfilled the law and now brings us into the New Covenant. There are those out there that see the other side of the cross as simply a continuation of the Old Covenant. Hebrews clearly tells us that one has become obsolete and that a new one has been established.
What a heavy burden.
It’s all just called ways to love God and others.Loving God freely for the right reason is not a burden but joy and peace.
I live in the Bible Belt and here church is an end in itself--it’s more of a tradition than a relationship with Jesus.
I think people get caught up in church and they worship the activities rather than the Lord. IMO
Worship their worship.“If I go to church regularly--and go to a church most like the one in NT times and give my money and sing in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and don’t drink, smoke, cuss, or dance, then I will be OK. God will love me and He will be pleased.”
You will find this everywhere, not just in your area. The key is living in the freedom that God gives us. A freedom to love Him and please Him.
I’ve always had a lot of personal convictions. But I admit I don’t know what it is to really walk in the Spirit of God. I don’t really understand what it is to do that, live in His Spirit and walk in it.This lifestyle has become so much a part of me, that it is hard to break free of it and not feel like I am doing something wrong.
Breaking away from legalism is one of the hardest things a person will go through. It is not easy, but the result is life changing. Path may be hard, but the journey worth it. You also will find people ready to put shackles back on you, heaven forbid.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Amanda
You are doing the hard work now. In time the light bulb will go off and you will know that you know what you believe. There is no reason to be thought of poorly for having a righteous fear of being deceived. We need to test all things to be sure that they are of God.
God knows you love Him. It is because we love Him we live for Him, not to prove the love, but to please the one we love.
JN 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command." What does this verse simply say? Does is say that if we love Him we will work harder to prove that love? Or does it simply say that if we love Him we will obey what He commands? One is a natural response because of the love and the other physical effort to attempt to prove our love.
Paul concludes Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians with "And now I will show you the most excellent way" and follows that up with chapter 13:
1CO 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1CO 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1CO 13:8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
1CO 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Lord Bless,
LT
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It goes back to motivation. There is a right way to live and a right reason to live that right way. Is my life a response to His love or is it an attempt to win His love? We avoid sin because we love Him, not because we fear condemnation. Legalism teaches you will be punished to the point of loss of salvation (There are variations in-between). Grace says you cannot lose what you could not earn.
Love is the key and empowerment by the Holy Spirit makes a life that pleases the Father possible.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Bev,
I understand what you are saying. I would like to point out that that there is a great difference between a child not wanting to be disciplined for bad behavior and a soul that fears being cut-off from the family.
1JN 4:13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Do you fear punishment (condemnation) or are you concerened with letting God down by not living in a manner worthy of your calling? When we stray as a child of God, God works on us for our good, not our destruction. Thus what do we have to really fear as a child of God? I embrace His discipline as I recognize He is just and right in applying it and I know that if applied I needed it. Thus, I do not fear the discipline, but rather trust in it to help me stay the course.
There is a healthy fear (reverence) of God. We always need to remember He is God the Creator and we are the created. We are to have a right response to His holiness, but it is not a fear of destruction, but a trust in our Father in heaven to always be at work for our good, even in the discipline process.
Lord Bless,
LT
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