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Friday, January 23, 2015

Daily Devotional January 30 - No one Starts Out Against God. It Is Learned Behavior.

"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit."  Romans 8:5

Every Word of truth that you receive becomes part of who you are - but just the same every word of truth that you reject or rebel against also becomes part of who you are.  God speaks to you to create in you a likeness of Himself and when you yield to God's spoken Word - you become more like God.  You start to and continue to operate with wisdom and prudence and truth.

When you do not yield to God's spoken/written Word - when you listen to God's Word with indifference - then what you receive is incomplete and unable to solve your problems, cure your diseases, help you through troubles.

When you do not yield to God's spoken/written Word, you are compelled to speak to the issues of life under your own power, by your own strength, with your own words, without the aid and support of God.

Isn't that how most things get messed up in the first place.
No one of sets out to go against God.
All the ugliness of life is learned behavior.
No one starts out thinking - hey someday I'm gonna be a drug addict - or hey let's go get drunk, maybe we can crash our car or hit some innocent bystander.
No one takes their first drink or their first puff on a cigarette or marijuana and says, "My that has a delightful taste." No, our body, mind and spirit all cringe at the smell and the taste of harmful or intoxicating substances.  You have got to be taught to like it.

Without someone standing over us and egging us on, we would all turn down drugs and alcohol and cigarettes as if it were poison.  We wouldn't take the chance on anything that might cause us harm if it hadn't been for someone patting us on the back and telling us, "it'll be alright.'

  • No one starts out thinking that they will someday spend more on lottery tickets than they do milk and bread for their kids.
  • No one starts out thinking that a little flirting around will end up in divorce with a restraining order to keep them away from their own children.
  • No one sets out to misrepresent a product or service. Over time they are desensitized to believe that the customer deserves to buy a fraudulent product.
  • Kids aren't born with a propensity to bring guns to school and shoot their teachers or other students. You've got to be exposed to a whole lot of evil before considering such a grotesque act of evil.
  • Teens don't start out on a Friday night thinking they will get pregnant or be given a drug to seduce them by someone that says they love them more than their own mother.

When you do not yield to God's spoken/written Word - little by little you will stray from God's plan for your life.
Little by little you will develop a philosophy of self reliance.
Little by little you will become less like God's image and likeness - because you cannot be like Christ without Christ.

You cannot imitate holiness - it is received from God unto you. You cannot create it or make it or become it or contrive it.  Everything to do with being spiritual except the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit is a fake.  All the Christian look-alikes - (the tares as the scriptures calls them) are filled with double standards, empty promises, unsupported statements of belief, vain thoughts and idle words.  They are impotent of the ability to ascertain the will of God and powerless to perform it.

When you do not yield to God's spoken/written Word - You are slowly convinced that you do not need God. Eventually, if you were to live long enough, you could eradicate the idea of God altogether, but that's not how you started out.  No, you learned from others how to turn away from God - how to sneak around - how to hide from your responsibilities - how to be two people.

Those who have learned their way away from God had better stop what they are doing and turn around.  You need to tell them:
They are in eminent danger.
They don't have a lifetime to work things out.
God is gathering His people under His wings to take them out of this perverted and subverted culture.
You need to tell them to stop looking and start seeing. Jesus Christ - God among man - lowered Himself to walk among us - to go before us and make things right for us.

You can, by faith live out the rest of your life under the guidance and leadership of Almighty God.
You can, by the power of God, say no to things that used to rule you like the gestapo ruled over Auschwitz.

See, God designed you so that when you do not believe God's written/spoken Word - when you do not yield to what God has said - you become incapable of reflecting the likeness of Christ - you become unable to do the will of God - you become paralyzed and powerless, because you were not designed to be without the indwelling Holy Spirit.

I hope you are getting this. You were not designed to be without the indwelling Holy Spirit.

God speaks to you in His written Word and by His spoken Word to create in you a likeness of Himself and when you yield to God's spoken Word - you become more like God.
It is during this time of yielding that you receive power from God.
It is during this time of yielding that you receive the filling of the Holy Spirit.
It is during these times of yielding that God is in agreement with you and His will is accomplished.

The Spirit of God is above and beyond you. The Spirit of God knows all things. God, the Holy Spirit knows all about you, what you want, what you need, what you should pray for. The Holy Spirit knows what is good for you and what is not.  The Holy Spirit indwells you for a purpose. That purpose is so that you will yield to Him and be filled to overflowing, with peace and comfort, fulfillment and joy.
When you yield your body
When you yield your mind
When you yield your heart
When you yield your spirit
And ultimately when you yield your soul
God's will for your life is accomplished in your life.

If you do not yield to the Holy spirit, the Holy Spirit cannot fulfill God's will in you. If you do yield to the Holy Spirit, then God's will is accomplished, (not by you, but in you,) by the Holy Spirit.

  • Yielding is when you trust God so much that you let go of the reigns.
  • Yielding is when you come before God without any agenda.
  • Yielding is when you don't have to have all the answers.
  • Yielding is when you submit yourself to God - without any deals. If you do this for me I'll do that for you.
  • Yielding is when you are quiet before God, surrendering to His will.
  • Yielding is allowing God to teach you, fill you, work in you and through you without any barriers.
  • Yielding is where you receive from God His will, His plan, His power, Himself; God abiding in you in such a way that His will is performed, not only in your lives, but in the lives of those around you.  

That is the relationship you can have with God.

You cannot yield to the Holy Spirit at all until you have been born again. Until you have been born again your relationship with God is strained and uncertain. You do not have the confidence that God is on your side and you do not understand the workings of God.
Until you are born again you cannot yield to the Holy Spirit.
You are totally at the mercy of natural law.
Once you have been born again the Holy Spirit comes to make His home in you and abide in you.
I believe that all of us want to thoroughly understand how to be in God's will and how to stay there.
Simply yield to the Holy Spirit.  See what God will do with you right now when you make God such an offer as to yield your will to His."

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