Life By Choice or Death By Default -

And The Problem Is? Part Four: Removing the Strongholds/Contradictions which Block our Faith

All of what Yeshua bought back in the Atonement – communion with a holy God, healing, blessing, immortality, etc. - was lost , you see, because it was all tied to the Good Choice – which God recommended/commanded, when He said, “Choose LIFE”.

However, we humans are bent toward making the bad choice! That is we apparently have a proclivity toward choosing death! For example, if we are offered life giving food – such as carrots, celery or cabbage – and also junk food, like pizza, cookies, or chocolate covered anything – we are going to gravitate to the junk! Only the ones who walk in rigid self-discipline, or the Fruit of Self-Control which comes from the Spirit, are going to be able to pass over the junk food and select the vegetables! And only the ones being guided by the Fruit of the Spirit will be happy about it! Lol

So frequently, the Spirit of God upgrades my choices – according to how much I have renewed my mind! You see, OUR part of this process is the taking in of what He has provided for us! And then obeying it – that is – making the changes necessary to adjust our lifestyles to that life of Godliness! Occasionally, in trying to obey, I find that there is a profound blockage in my thinking, which prohibits me from establishing this new found truth into my thought patterns! I find that no matter how much I “decide” to do things His way, I still end up doing it the old way – which always brings trouble, always yields a bad crop! Paul sort of covers that ordeal in Romans seven. What to do?

I call those struggle awareness sessions “stronghold alerts”! It typically means that I have hit another wall in my spiritual faith building program. And that it is therefore time to get with the Spirit of God, and sometimes His anointed servants, to bust up that mess and take back that mental real estate, for the Kingdom of God! After that happens, then I am again free to continue to choose LIFE! I am no longer bullied into something I really didn't want! The old nature would have wanted the default choice - death, because it didn't know any better. But the spirit-man is SO not into it! But we often need to seek the aid of HIS SPIRIT MAN to take down those things in our lives.

Those kinds of things, these mental/spiritual strongholds, are built in the flesh - sometimes as self-defense mechanisms, sometimes as prideful assumptions, sometimes as insidious religious false doctrines – posing as truth to which we must adhere to be righteous, etc. But they always begin as thoughts which we take to be true. And then we build a protective device around them, so that we aren't moved away from them. And so it goes. Those kinds of falsely represented ideas eventually becomes a prison, a keep for our souls, and a sort of “office” from which the enemy has control of our lives! Ugh.

But when we accept the kind offer of our deliverer, and His Spirit takes up residence in our once darkened souls – He begins to shine His light of real Truth around in there, and anything which resists His access must be put out! He then begins the renovation process, which makes us worthy of the presence of God Himself! And it isn't always a pretty sight, or a pleasant experience! Coming face to face with some of what we have allowed to lurk in there can be pretty unsettling! But getting free is worth it!

I can't begin to adequately express how different I am from where I was when He began His excellent work in me over thirty years ago! Or even how far I have grown in five years! I can't begin to describe the Peace which keeps me sane, and how much easier it is to access Him and His peace now – as compared to those tumultuous years I spent in mere religion without the infilling of His Spirit! I can't possibly relate with any accuracy how much better I sleep! How much easier it is to see, and to set, the boundaries which healthy relationships need to optimally thrive! I am beggared to express the LOVE that I revel in, and the freedom, authority and anointing, which is growing in my spirit-woman daily! There just aren't enough words! But take my word for this, the transformation process - as painful and messy as it is - is TOTALLY WORTH IT!

He is still renovating this “temple”, still cleaning out the idols of false doctrines, still tearing down strongholds of philosophies and ideologies that keep me from His best, still trying to convince me that He took care of all those curses and that they don't apply to me anymore, and that I can walk whole and healed if I ever get hold of all of that Truth on the subject, and can allow my Faith to rise to meet it! He is still working on the poverty spirit that permeates my cultural beginnings, and has been reinforced by religious rot! He is still working to free me from every tie that binds, and every chain that rattles!

He has exhumed the skeletons from the deeply buried, well sealed “closet” of my subconsious mind, and has, once and for all, given them a decent burial! He has freed me from all the “Ghosts of Christmas' Past”, and other idolatrous offerings, in which I innocently, but wrongly, offered Him sacrifices of “strange fire” - not knowing that it was insulting to Him!

He has forgiven, cleansed, patiently convicted and convinced! He has torn down all that was wrongly built, and has patiently rebuilt each time with love and devotion! He has replaced each stronghold of lies - built by the enemy in my unredeemed soul - with a stronghold of His own Truth! So that bit by bit, HE alone controls the mental real estate of my soul! So that the resurrected spirit-man can rule and reign with Him!

And when this body has run its race, and is no longer needed, this spirit-man will indeed rise up with wings as Eagles, and will Traverse all eternity without restrictions – I will be truly like Him, for I will see Him just as He is, without our human limitations! I am excited about that!

But in the meantime He has a purpose for us and an assignment – a “Mission, if we choose to accept it... Which I will take up in the next and last part. God Willing.

Shalom Chavarim! Shabbot Tovah!

9/4/15