We, the Lame

We, the Lame

Hebrew 12:13
And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Have you ever had a broken leg, a dislocated joint or wrenched knee or ankle? When you find yourself in this condition, you find that walking normally is out of the question. There is too much pain and tenderness to walk in a normal way. This is the way we are when we get out of joint in our walk with the Lord. Our spiritual health and harmony are interrupted and our walk with Him becomes crippled and distorted.
I think many of us have areas in our lives where we experience some lameness; an area that is out of joint with God’s will and purpose for our lives. The Lord doesn’t want us to walk in a crooked and twisted path, but in a straight and narrow one. It is like Jesus says in Matthew 7:14, “Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” I would venture to say that most of us have found ourselves off of that straight and narrow more times than we would like to admit. How wonderful that through repentance and the power of the blood of Jesus we have a means to be restored to the path of righteousness.
It is sin that cripples us and makes us lame. It is sin that distorts our spiritual health and wholeness. There are many that are still struggling with strongholds of sin in their lives. While they feel condemned and defeated, they can’t seem to get delivered and free from it. We often make the mistake of judging others in an area of weakness while we may have another area in us that is just as bad. We are all creatures of God’s grace and mercy. We didn’t find our way to Him because our works were righteous and we were so much better than everyone else. Like everyone else, we are sinners saved by the grace of God. That same faith with which we embraced Christ when we first gave our hearts to Him is what we must now exercise as we make straight paths for our feet.
There is something wrong with us as a body of Christ when we are more concerned about judging one another for our faults than we are with ministering to one another in our weaknesses. What does James 5:16 say? “Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” We all have weaknesses and faults that we have not fully gained the victory over or that we are still struggling with. Where are our ministry, compassion and prayers for one another in our weaknesses? We desperately try and conceal our faults and weaknesses, either because we are in denial or just think it is our problem, but more likely because we don’t have a safe place where we can expose and share the sins with which we struggle. Jesus says it is not the well that need a physician, but the sick. The Christ in each one of us is the physician that wants to minister help and healing to those around us. We need each other to help each other. Our sin would always cripple us and dislocate us from the Lord, but the Lord wants to heal our lameness and restore us in a path of righteousness for His namesake. The Lord doesn’t want us to justify and cover over our sin, that would be hypocrisy, but He does want to see us healed in the areas of our sin sickness.
We want to see Isaiah 35 come to pass in each one of our lives, “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. 8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there, 10 and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
The Lord is on the side of our restoration and wholeness, but it takes our willingness to forsake our sin. Perhaps we need to seek out those who will stand with us and help us to lay hold of our victory and healing in the areas where sin has held us captive and crippled our walk. We are a body and we must minister to one another’s needs. We need one another to minister and help each other in all of the areas that pertain to life and godliness. Corporately, we are growing up in Christ, ministering to one another out of the gifts that the Holy Spirit has apportioned to each one of us. Ephesians 4:16-18 says,” Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work..”
If you are lame in an area of your walk with the Lord, then find your healing and deliverance so that your path may be made straight. If it is greater than your ability to find the victory then seek out those in the body of Christ who can come along beside you, give you help, prayer and accountability. It is the Lord’s will to restore the lame.

Blessings,
#kent

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The Finger of God

The Finger of God

Luke 11:20
But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.

What is God personally touching and dealing with in your life? Is He meddling in areas you would rather that He leave alone? Is the Holy Spirit revealing and stirring up things that you have wanted to keep tucked away? In the Old Testament it was the finger of God that wrote the Ten Commandment upon the stone tablets, but in the New Testament it is the same finger of God that is writing His laws upon our hearts. The Apostle Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 3:3, “[Forasmuch as ye are] manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” If we are the Lord’s and we truly want His highest in our lives then He is going to start dealing with our lowest. He will deal with those base things in us that cause us to still walk after the flesh and not after the Spirit. If we are stubborn then He may deal with us in stronger measures. What ever it takes, we need that purification that only He can bring into our lives. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” God’s Word in the hand of the Holy Spirit is bringing conviction and dealings in our lives. He is bringing out things in us that we may not even have known were there, or attitudes and behaviors that have been quite contrary to His nature. This is often a very painful process.
We used to go to a chiropractor that was quite good, but you would dread going to him. He knew all the places to push where lactic acid and knots would form in your muscles. He would put his finger in those knots to work them out and you would literally be trying to crawl off of the table. He would keep pulling you back up there and working in all of those painful areas till they would let down and submit; only then would he be able to adjust you and bring you back into proper alignment. That is what the finger of God is doing in our lives. He is touching those sore spots, those tender areas where we don’t want to be touched and dealt with. We know it is necessary, but we cringe from it and really it is our flesh that is cringing. Our spirit man really longs for the spiritual health and well- being that comes from a properly aligned spirit and heart, but we are like the living sacrifice we are called to be in Romans 12:1, we keep wanting to crawl off of the altar. We all want spiritual health, but are we willing to pay the price to get there?
The holy scripture declares in Hebrews 10:12-17 concerning Jesus, “12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. 15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16″This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.” 17Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” If Jesus has sat down till His enemies are made his footstool and we comprise the feet of Christ in the earth, then we also must see our enemies of sin and flesh be made our footstool. We must gain the same dominion, authority and dominance over everything that is negatively affecting our lives. The Holy Spirit through the Word of God and through His personal dealings in our lives is dealing and touching our areas of unrepented sin. We all have those areas in our lives that we struggle with, but we must pray that the Lord will do whatever it takes in us to gain the victory and dominion over our giants. A lot of times we would be content to coexist with them, but the Lord has given the commandment to purge the land and not compromise, for He knows that our compromise will bring defilement and defilement will again bring us under bondage. Our flesh will do anything it takes if we will just let it live, but when we do it comes back to bite us. Our only recourse is the cross, painful though it is. It is death that gives place to life and death to self gives place to the life of the Spirit.
The finger of God is writing His laws upon our hearts of flesh. He is placing the mind and nature of Christ within us, but where the Lord is, His finger is being put upon the areas of our lives that need to come into conformity with His will and righteousness. I would leave us with 1 Peter 5:6-11, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

Blesssings
#kent