final exam = fire
17Jun07
A lot of times you talk to people about their lives, and they basically are making it through life. Christians even talk this way. It’s good to know that God actually wants and expects our lives to count for something. Everybody who comes to Jesus gets a brand new life; and then, whether you recognize it or not, you start building.
Then when your life is finished on earth, what you built gets tested. And the test is fire. Have you ever wondered if what you’re doing day to day will make through?
This is a pretty awesome and terrifying proposition for me. I have seen the Lord building up his bride thru the church. Gold silver and precious stones are the true and lasting building materials. These are Christ. Wood hay and stubble, even us. He is the foundation, and the building. The total replacement of all things. What terrifies me is that I am not consistant. I have been addicted to pornography since I was 12. These kinds of things eat me up because I will go weeks or even months at a time just really abiding in him , in his word, the fellowship of his church then something comes up that seems to drag me back in. I sometimes feel like a robot with no self will at all even to call on the Lord for help. I don’t know how relevent this is to your discussion and you probably hear burdens like this all the time but I need the prayers of the saints and I am maybe a little too proud and self conscious to bring this up with the brothers I see everyday.
If what you were bringing up was just another burden, I should just shut this site down. But it’s not - a primary reason the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon us is to anoint us to deliver those shut up in prisons of addiction and destruction. You’ve come directly to Jesus with what you’re asking, and his ministry is exactly what will set you free of this once and for all.
Jesus sets you totally out of reach of this twisted demonic thing right now. I break its power and forbid it any entrance into your life. None of the deceptive strategies that have worked up til now will work anymore. You will never find yourself feeling like a powerless robot going through the motions of sin again - right now the Spirit of God comes on you in power to consistently draw near to God, and out of that to resist the devil. Your body is a pure and holy place, cleansed right now by the blood of Jesus; and the demonic realm will never ever again be able to drag its filth in. Know that all heaven is mobilized to your defense at a sincere cry for help.
By the way - shut, lock, bolt, and board up whatever entries that pornography has had to your life. Get far far away from anyone who has dragged you into this before. And if never touching a computer again was the only way you felt you could walk this out, then I’d say never touch a computer again. From now on the love of Christ is the only thing that is allowed to shape your life!
wow.
What this is about is totally leaving behind anything that won’t stand eternally before God. The truth is that whatever is not done out of faith is sin. So yes, this definitely means repenting now for any place where blatant sin has overwhelmed you. Does it also mean turning 180 degrees away from anything that you may have seen as just neutral?
I’ve been struggling with that for some time. Music for example, art. Where, if I am to draw the line, do I draw it? I have only recently begun to see my soul-life for what it is. The unregenerated heart of man is a well of iniquity, there is no good thing that comes out of it. I see now that anywhere the enemy is presented a foothold, he comes in with some deception. I’ve already tried getting rid of everything I own, multiple times. This only seems to increase my desire for those things when the goal is increased desire for Him. The Lord tugs at me = I turn it off and turn to Him. I don’t know what else I can do that wouldn’t just be superficial.
What’s so awesome about God is that his mercies are new every single morning. There is never a day that you wake up that is locked into the former conversation, the old cycle. Father is constantly pulling on us to look at the one who sits on the throne saying “Behold, I make all things new.”
It’s not supposed to be a long painful tug-of-war. There are worldly lusts that play in the place of human ability and human desire, but nothing is dooming us to play with them. Right now Jesus translates you out of that kingdom into his kingdom. Anyone who hears faith in that (beyond just a concept or a memory verse) gets to leave the turf where fleshly lusts war against the soul - and they are translated immediately into the kingdom of God. I mean you are transported out of the struggle, the frustration, the tension, the deception, the superficiality. You enter the rest. You get banking access to the inheritance of everything God has promised.
We’re not talking sweet-by-&-by. We’re talking the place now where everyone who asks receives, where everyone who seeks finds, where everyone who knocks gets an open door.