Kicking

"...it is hard for you to kick against the pricks" (Acts 9:5 KJV).

Saul heard those words spoken from a blinding light straight out of the heavens.  He was traveling down a road, doing what he thought he should be doing, and God spoke.

I don't think this was the first time God had spoken to Saul.  Perhaps there were whispers before, nudges, maybe even harder.  Whatever it was, Saul kicked back. The man we know as Paul the apostle apparently kicked against the pricks of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus had intentions for Saul's life and Saul had intentions of eliminating all who followed Jesus.

Personally, I believe Paul was thoroughly convinced he was doing the right thing.  He was a Jew's Jew, educated by the best, and single minded about his obedience to the law he knew so well.

But he was wrong.

And God corrected him.

How many times had God tried to get his attention before that blinding light experience? Maybe none....scripture doesn't tell us, it just tells us that it was hard and pointless to rebel and refuse God's will.

I suppose Paul could still have refused obedience and submission.  But after losing his sight, hearing a voice nobody else heard, and given instructions of where to go and who to see, Paul came face to face with His Savior, and face to face with his own error. He was wrong.

I have never had a blinding light experience.  I have not heard a voice speak from the sky. But I have kicked against the pricks.  There have been many times that I felt that nudge, or heard that whisper in my heart, and just kicked it away.

Regret eventually comes.  Hindsight reveals how disobedient I was being to the God Who only wants to lead me in the right direction.

I remember a very old joke about someone complaining to a doctor about it hurting when they did a certain thing.  The doctor's prescribed treatment was to simply NOT do that.

When I am disobedient to God, it eventually hurts ME.  Whether it is that moment, that day, that week, or year, or whether it is on the other eternal side of this realm. My disobedience hurts me.

So, why don't I just "don't do that"?

I can answer that.  I don't do it because I am still learning that God is always right.  Whether I understand and agree, or whether I do not.

I purpose to stop kicking against the prick of His Holy Spirit.
I purpose to believe that what He directs is always, and ONLY, good.

Help

Every single one of us needs help.  Often.

My man can't hold the board up and nail it at the same time, so he needs my help holding it.
My coworkers are called on to hold the door open as I bring in boxes and sacks of supplies.
My employees unpack freight and process merchandise because I am busy cutting hair.
My housekeeper dusts my furniture because I work 5-6 days a week.
My friends listen to my whining because I have to vent.

It is hard for me to ask for help. That devil's lie has been used so effectively for so many years that I easily fall back into listening.  "It's all up to you, Connie.  This is your responsibility, your fault.  You alone should be the one to fix it. You are weak and useless if you can't."

He is a liar.

Life gets hard.  We make poor decisions. Situations get hard.  Circumstances are difficult. And we need help.

"From my distress I called upon the Lord.  The Lord answered me and set me in a large place.  The Lord is for me.  I will not fear."  Psalm 118:5-6 NASB

God knows every detail, every need, every fear, every anxiety.  He waits for our call, willing to step in when we truly submit and surrender to His will and way.  He sends help.  Often in the most unexpected ways.  We may not even recognize that it IS His answer and help until we are well past the moment.

For that person who needs help this day, you can be sure that God is willing and more than able.  From your distress, will you ask Him to reveal the enemy attack for what it is?

Will you admit that try as you may, you can't do life without failing miserably?

Will you believe that God does love you, enough even to die for you?

Will you trust Him enough to wait for the large place He has for you?

Perhaps you are in that large place already.  Wherever you find yourself, you can be certain that God knows where you are and why.

Do not fear.

Wrong Side Out

I spend hours in front of a mirror.  A big one.  A really good one, clear and clean.  I am so accustomed to it, I rarely see my own reflection.

 Occasionally I notice something about what it reflects and wonder out loud why everyone let me walk around like that, hair poking straight up, tags still on my clothing, shirt on backwards or wrong side out.  (I'm sure I am the only one who has things like that happen to them...)

There was no excuse. The mirror would have shown me, I didn't know what I looked like because I didn't look.

God's law as revealed to us in scripture shows us what we look like.  Jesus personified what a perfect obedient life looks like. He also made it possible for us to escape the penalty for failing to live that perfect life.  (Praise His holy Name)

Failing to learn what God has revealed to us in scripture is like me not checking out my reflection.  Just because I don't look doesn't mean I don't have some flaw that needs to be addressed and dealt with. Not looking doesn't change the fact that my shirt is on wrong side out.

Not looking into God's holy scripture won't change my wrong side out life.  It WILL reveal just how flawed I am. "..:it was the law that showed me my sin.  I would never have known that coveting was wrong if the law had not said, "You must not covet."  (Romans 7:7 NLT)

God's grace, thru the life and death of Jesus Christ, makes it possible to turn my whole life right, not just point out the flaws.  And there are plenty of them!

Don't fail or neglect to look into His Word, check yourself out. Not looking doesn't change a thing.  Looking prayerfully and then obediently will change everything!

Trenches

I have been reading The Battle Plan for Prayer. It is a Bible study written from the movie War Room. Prayer is a topic that is always fresh, never completely learned because there is always more with God. He is infinite.

Trench warfare was used as an example. So, this is not an original thought with me, but I just had to put the book down and sit at Jesus feet a few minutes.

I find myself on the battle ground regularly, don't you? Some things are bigger than others, mountain-top times of victory are times of praise, but other times I find myself dug in, hiding in a trench, avoiding the enemy attack as best I can. Often, sadly, I just retreat into that trench instead of using that trench to pray.

It is a devil's deceitful lie that it is better to charge the enemy, that it is cowardly to dig into that trench. The liar and enemy of our souls screams "Face me you coward!" That devil tries to convince us that it's all up to us, that we should charge across that battleground else all is lost.

I think of the images I have seen of battles fought in centuries past, soldiers marching to the beat of a drum across an open field, shooting until a last man is standing. I have so often thought how senseless that was. Yet I find myself guilty of having done just that in some of my spiritual battles.

Those early armies finally turned away from that sort of battle tactic and dug themselves some trenches.

I purpose my heart to dig into the trench, knowing that God is beside me and He has defeated even death. I have armies of God that are unseen, fighting beside me, fighting with me and for me, even going before me...I will never know what will never touch me because of that truth.

I also purpose to listen closely for His direction. When it is time to stand and fight, I trust Him to make His command clear. Over and over I surrender not to the enemy, but to my Creator God. I submit over and over to my Savior Jesus, not to the screaming enemy.

There is a time to charge, a time to use weapons. But the weapons to use are not those of the world. (2 Cor. 10:4) We can squat down in the trench and wield the deadliest weapon of all.

God's Word. Because what He says simply IS.

I purpose to KNOW what He has said.
I purpose to fight in HIS strength and not my own.
I purpose to "...take every single thought I have and capture it, purposing to be obedient to Christ in every confrontation." ( 2 Cor. 10:5 my own paraphrase)

Hallelujah.

Location

In the age of cell phones, we all know what location services are.  If we turn the location service off then other people don't see where we are and our applications don't fully work, I can't map my way if my map application can't tell where to start from. 

God asked Adam and Eve about their location.  "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9)

God knew where they were.  It was Adam and Eve that needed to realize their location. 

God orchestrated an opportunity for His people to hear Him, recognize their wrong, and come honestly to Him.  But they hid, blamed, and made excuses.  Yet even in His judgment and the expulsion from the garden, God protected them.  

The first animals ever killed gave their lives to make garments that covered the shame and nakedness that resulted from sin.  God Himself made that sacrifice, just a picture of the ultimate and permanent sacrifice of Christ. 

Adam and Eve were sent out of God's garden, the Tree of Life guarded so that they would never eat from it.  Even in the midst of God's judgment and punishment, He was merciful that they not eat of it's fruit and live forever in the state of sin they were now in. 

Where are you?  I ask myself that question, too.  Am I hiding? 

We do well to turn our location services on, crying out to God, with undivided honest hearts, searching ourselves, laying all bare before Him. 

He knows it.  There is no hiding.  It is only from ourselves that we hide.