Fire in my bones!

When you have Jesus
you have everything, and you realise you don’t need ‘every thing’.

Life is about more than things!

1. We deny the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from ALL sin.

2. We do not agree with God, implying that God is a lair when he said we have an advocate who can help us if we confess our sins.

3. We will suffer spiritual paralysis, being unable to move on in God and move on to spiritual growth.

4. An unbelieving spirit blocks us from being filled with the Spirit of God.

5. Not accepting the grace of God toward us blocks us from worshipping God in spirit and in truth.

6. Guilt leads to depression and a defeated mindset. It causes us to live in despair.

7. We can feel we need to DO something to make amends for our own sin. This is the line of thinking that led Judas to go hang himself. The ultimate manifestation of an unforgiven guilty heart is therefore suicide.

“My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous 1 John 2:1, New Living Translation

Build my church
Not your career
Not your family
Not your reputation
Not your wealth
Not your network
Not your ministry
Build my church

JesusBlogger, The Jesus Blog, 2011

I was sad.

Then I rembered the word: “if in this life only we had hope we would be of all men most miserable”. How right Paul was when God inspired him to write these words.

If you feel upset about the loss of anything, or anyone today take a moment to remember that our hope is not in this life. Our hope is in God, as it is written: “hope thou in God”.

They that trust in the LORD shall never be moved! It built my Spirit to realise how Great our God is and that I shouldn’t get my hopes set on things on earth. No, much better to build my hopes on things eternal!

Hope thou in God, and no disappointment will move you. It may rock your body, it may nudge you, but you SHALL NOT be moved!

This is sooooo true. The songwriter said: “I can’t even walk without you holding my hand”. I agree, if ever a time we needed to stay close to God it is now.

Universal truth: the day you forget to pray bad things happen because we expose ourselves to demonic attack, or haven’t submitted our flesh to the will of God.

While snorkling in the mediterranean sea I realised how the sea makes for a wonderful analogy of the christian’s preparedness to search the uttermost reaches of the Spirit of God.

Ezekiel pictured waters that were first to his ankle, then to his knee, waist, shoulder and finally totally submerged.

1.The Ankle Deep Christian

Those living at the shoreline only ever wet their ankle, they are more into the things of this world than the things of the Spirit of God. When you are ankle deep much flesh is on display, the same flesh the LORD showed us should be obliterated at the Brazen Altar of the Mosaic Tabernacle.

Ankle deep living is a life lived where we are master of our own actions and reactions, at ankle depth the waters of God’s Spirit are too shallow to control us.

The other grave danger of the shallow end is that this is where the muck is pushed by the tide, so an ankle deep believer lives in the mess of sin and carnality e.g. gossip, argument, nightclubbing, drinking, smoking, swearing, sexual partners, porn, drugs, unforgiveness, and so on.

2. The Knee Deep Christian

At knee depth it is again very easy to step out of the flow of the Holy Spirit’s tide. However, the knee deep saint takes pride in being able to look back at the ankle deep Christian and say: “I’m deeper than you!”. Full of spiritual pride but devoid of spirituality.

3. The Waist Deep Christian

The Christian who is waist deep is more faithful, but they are still living in a comfort zone. The danger of being waist deep is that fellowship is shared with those who do not live under the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, “evil communications corrupt good manners”.

It doesn’t matter how deep we go if we spend our time looking back to those on the shoreline shilly shallying with uncommitted Christians. After a while the tide will have pushed us back to the muck at the shoreline.

4. The Shoulder Deep Christian

Shoulder Deep Believers have almost mastered submitting to the will of God. Their flesh is mostly under the blood of Jesus, they live their lives as a Christian ought. They are people in the word, they know the Word, they worship, they do good. But, one thing is lacking! Faith (Forsaking All I Trust Him).

The shoulder deep still does not have their head under the total influence of the Spirit’s control. The first lesson God teaches when He fills us with the Holy Ghost is that we need to surrender our minds to Him. We must “let this mind be in us” (the mind of Christ).

The issue of the shoulder deep is one of faith. I see myself in this. How willing am I to become totally, utterly, completely sold out for Jesus? What sacrifices am I holding back on making, what am I afraid to give up?

To become totally submerged takes a bowing of the knee in humility and a surrendering of our lives into God’s hands. It looks like certain death to be totally plunged under the ocean, but this is what God requires – only those who have died to self can see His face.

5. The Submerged Christian

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

We can do this!