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Biblical Boundaries Part 5: Fortification
We have been through the tough stuff now and we are going to have some fun in week 5. If you have your equipment you are ready. We need to fortify ourselves with the tools we need to be successful. We need to protect ourselves by building the white picket fence with all the information we have collected to date. We did not collect this information so we can forget about it. This is the typical reaction today because we are afraid of this information. It is not easy changing a bad habit into a good one. It takes time, strength and a mass amount of courage but God is faithful to finish the work He started in you (Hebrews 12:2a).
We always need to start our story with Jesus as the foundation or we will repeatedly fail. This is going to be your testimony in the future. It is going to be what Jesus uses to help you draw people to Him in the future. He will use this to help you remain successful for the rest of your life. Fear not because He is working a work in you that will not be forgotten. Having Jesus as your foundation will give your fence the kind of strength it needs to remain upright.
Your foundational posts describe ‘you’ as you are today and who you plan to be in the future. The fence you are building is not just a fence, it is your future. It is the foundation of how you will set and defend boundaries for the rest of your life. Jesus and you will do this together. He will be with you today as you are, and He will be with you as you go about doing good for Him. He has already seen you as you will be and He knows exactly what it will take to bring you there. Trust Him every step of the way as He points you in the right direction.
The slats joining your foundational posts are temporary. They represent the thing you want to eliminate. They will be removed as Jesus teaches you how to eliminate that thing listed. As you take strength and courage from Him to stay the course, you will gain more strength and courage from your success. This is not only teaching you to be strong as you work these out, but it gives you encouragement to continue as you see yourself changing. You will change into what Jesus has created you to be. Sometimes, you will take huge steps, but other times you will feel like you are not moving at all. When you feel stalled look back at what you have accomplished in the past to see that you are not standing still but are still moving. Hang on until you begin moving at light speed again.
This week, change your mindset into a successful mindset. Stop writing down what is causing you to sin and start writing what is the things leading you to be successful. How are you eliminating sin in your life? What are you doing that is changing you? What is Jesus doing to guide you? Have you noticed changes in you for the better? Have you noticed a difference in any relationship you have since? Does the Word of God mean more to you now? Have your behaviours changed? Have your words changed? Have you seen something change unrelated to what you are currently working on? Have people commented on your changes? Write all of this down as you go along so you do not forget the progress you are making. This information will encourage you.
Your Boundary Board is a miracle that God will use to improve your life. The verse you use to encourage yourself will also be of significance to you as you work on the thing God has asked you to eliminate. He has taught you that the Word of God is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). He will continue to teach you this throughout all of your training. He will teach you this Your whole life. As long as you continue to learn from Him He will continue to teach you for what you do have He will provide more but if you refuse to be taught what you do have He will take away (Mark 4:25).
Study your fence this week and ponder your verse. Bury the verse deep into your soul as you continue to defend your boundaries. The new you is waiting for you. Jesus is waiting for you. We are all waiting for you. When you become the ‘you’ Jesus wants you to become that effects every Christian in your community. You will do what Jesus has commissioned you to do and if they are doing what Jesus has commissioned them to do the community will become a power house for Jesus. Imagine white picket fences in every house surrounding every Christian. Can you see the work that we can do? “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do.” Says Jesus in John 14. So, go and do greater works wrapped in your white picket fence.
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Biblical Boundaries Part 4: Wisdom
Up to this point you have been gaining wisdom without being aware of how much wisdom you have gained. If you have been asking Jesus for answers and He has been supplying them wisdom has been embroiled in all of those answers. There was prep work for you to do from Week 3 and if you did it you will know what you look like when you are on the other side of this transgression. The thing God has asked you to stop doing or to start doing will lead you into a specific character trait or state of mind. Up until this point this trait was flawed because of this transgression. God is working at perfecting it in you starting from this point.
In the past several weeks you have learned to become aware of your transgressions, what leads to your transgressions and how to begin intervening on your own behalf along with Jesus. If you follow the book The White Picket Fence you will have been journaling all of these pieces of information. Somewhere along the line, if you have been speaking to Jesus, you will have had a revelation from Jesus. When you invite Jesus to help you intervene on your transgression He doesn’t waste any time revealing to you what needs to be done. The thing I love more every day about Jesus is when He asks us to stop doing that “thing” He also gives us a replacement for it. He is working to make us who He created us to be if we would just trust Him to go where He sends us. I know exactly how hard trusting Him is for us mere humans especially us women who have been hurt by human men. We can do it in time. If the Word says we can trust Him we can be guaranteed we can (do a search because I don’t have enough blog room to quote them all).
The wisdom we get is from Him. You are learning this week the wisdom behind knowing what makes you tick. We need to discern the behaviours causing us to transgress by writing them down. It is one thing to think them but writing them down shows us the behaviours in real life. One bit of information I want you to know is when they are in our head the devil has no access to them but once you write them down they become food for his eyes. When we start discerning what the devil is using to make us transgress he will step up his game. This is part of the wisdom Jesus wants us to know. When we determine to follow Jesus, the devil will begin to trip us so we fall head first into the ditch on our path. I want you to know it is not Jesus tripping us, but if He thinks we need to be tripped to learn to obey Him, He will let the devil trip us.
Learning what the easiest spark to eliminate is, and going after completely elimination of that one first, will give you the strength you need to eliminate all of them up to the hardest. To be successful at this you must determine to do this daily to work this out in your life. Wisdom is useless if it is only used intermittently.
By this week if you are lukewarm about eliminating sin you are in disobedience. Jesus said in John 13:17 that if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. This verse would spur you with its goodness but if you need to be shocked into doing the will of God you can go to James 4:17. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. Eventually, as you continue in the will of God, the blessing verses will spur you on to do good but sometimes we need the verses that scare us to death to spur us on. Don’t fear having to use them. They are there for just that reason. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He has provided exactly what we need to get into His will.
The wisdom you need this week is from God and it will continue to come from God. You are learning whatever it takes to be successful and that knowledge can only come from Jesus. He is going to provide the escape for you but it may very well take some time and smaller steps to make sure you are successful. Going cold turkey might work for someone but not for you. The process is a learning experience each one of us must go through so we do not go back to the transgression again. We are all aware of the story of the demons return with seven worse than him but if you are not read Matthew 12:43-45. We need to habitually seek God’s face for answers that will give us the wisdom to stay away from sin.
If you need help learning how to set Biblical boundaries The White Picket Fence, Crown for Life Pursues Biblical Boundaries will be available for purchase beginning in December. The last chapter is an instruction for you but I recommend you read the whole book first because our need to feel as if we are not alone will be met with abundance.
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Biblical Boundaries Part 3: Intervention
This is my favourite part in the book The White Picket Fence from the chapter 9 instructions. When we think of intervention we break out into a sweat just thinking about our family coming together for that cause. I don’t know if that has happened to you but it has never happened to me. If it needs to happen maybe it should but perish the thought. In this instruction, we go from being a victim of our circumstances to the knowledge that we can be an overcomer in our circumstances. I do not know about you but that is such a good feeling.
You have now become aware, not only of how much this transgression has affected you every day, but also what sparks a fire under you to do it. We cannot do anything about this behaviour if we never attempt to stop it. [Kathleen Derbyshire, The White Picket Fence (Chapter 9)]. The awesome thing about our God is He always provides a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13) but that way out is useless if you do not think you are doing anything wrong. The way will be provided but you will not take it. In the third week of this instruction you are looking for His way out. You are looking to save yourself and be saved. This round-about you are travelling on has got to stop and it will begin on this third week.
Prevention is key and you will learn that eventually but for now intervention will work. This week we will intervene on our own behalf plus we will allow Jesus to intervene too. If you love Jesus He will have put His two cents in already. If you weren’t listening I want you to learn how to hear Jesus speaking to you and listen to what He says. He will point you to a direction then you have to take it. You have to take the exit from the round-about He shows you. This is yours and His intervention. You must set your mind to making the change and He just walks right in to show you which exit to take. You need to listen and do what you are told.
Let us imagine your boundary is NO sweets, and you have already defined what that means, how Jesus would speak regarding this. I have to say from experience this one is very difficult because our body gets addicted to the sweets we used to eat. If this is your boundary don’t worry if you fail daily until you get strong. There are many boundaries we might fail at daily because we are very weak with that thing (we wouldn’t need a boundary if we were strong) and the product is very prevalent, especially this time of year. You can modify your boundary by limiting that thing until you can actually get through one day without the thing. Jesus will go after you in a manner that you will understand and feel. He might put someone else in charge of you on that boundary too. You might go after a tart and someone you don’t know will make a comment about them being fattening – that is Jesus. Thank Him for it and just back away from the tart.
I think our biggest problem with this is we don’t think Jesus cares about these little things but He care deeply about these things otherwise He would not have said this; He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. (Luke 16:10) If we are out of control in the little things we will be out of control in the big things. We all know this to be true just by looking at our own lives. If we eat a candy we will eat a pie. If we will eat a little chocolate we will eat a double sized chocolate bar. Give us a foot we will take a mile. Jesus cares about how far we will go to get what we want. He knows how far we will go. We go that distance without Him but when we see where we have taken ourselves on our quest to fulfill our need He is there waiting to show us the way back. We call out to Him and He answers. He shows us the way of exit from our round-about.
The value of intervening for ourselves and letting Jesus intervene is the knowledge we gain from the intervention. As we continue to intervene we discover why you get yourself into trouble in the first place. You will see if your first course of action to intervene actually worked or if you need to take another exit. How hard is it to intervene on your own behalf? How hard is it to let Jesus intervene? You will learn a lot this week. That thing became a habit for a reason. We do them without thinking. Now we have to learn to NOT do them without thinking. This week intervene as much as you can to stop that thing Jesus has asked you to stop. Document the results and look at them each day. You will discover you are getting better at exiting rather than entering the round-about of sin.
If you need help learning how to set Biblical boundaries The White Picket Fence, Crown for Life Pursues Biblical Boundaries will be available for purchase beginning in December. The last chapter is an instruction for you but I recommend you read the whole book first because our need to feel as if we are not alone will be met with abundance.
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Biblical Boundaries Part 2: The Spark
Last week we discussed the awareness of our need to have Biblical boundaries in our lives. Until we are aware of the need for them we will not make the effort to woo them out in our lives. To continue past the awareness phase of the White Picket Fence Instructions we need to understand what causes us to need these boundaries. Outside of the precepts of God we need to be able to protect the direction God has planned for us. Getting into His will has to be a priority for us but we do have an adversary who wants to frustrate every move we make (1 Peter 5:8). Knowing this we can move forward with a better understanding behind our frustration and our sin.
As Christians, we are not immune to the temptation the devil will bring. Jesus said we will have trouble in this world (John 16:33) but we do not need to allow it to rule over us. Every boundary we set for ourselves will be set ablaze if we do not begin putting these fires out one at a time. The spark is the temptation that leads to sin. Discovering what is behind your failure to succeed will help you avoid burning your fence down out of ignorance. Your understanding of ‘why’ you sin will be your power to extinguish the spark before the fire rages and burns down your whole white picket fence. Kathleen Derbyshire; The White Picket Fence, 2017
Fire in the Bible has two meanings outside of food and warm. Acts 2:3 tells us it is the presence of God. This can set our soul on fire for God to have a zeal for His will in our life and in others. The other fire is the His judgement. Isaiah 50:11 tells us we can light our own fires but we will lay down in torment. This is the fire that is, definitely, burning our fence down. Either we are being set on fire by Jesus or we are being set on fire by the devil. You need find out where the fire is coming from and either allow God to fan the flames or get out your fire extinguisher to put it out before it does any more damage to your boundaries (boundaries and fence are synonymous in The White Picket Fence Novel).
This week spend some time discovering what sparks a fire in you to sin. Without this understanding, you will continue to go in the same direction, tripping over the same stones, knocking your head on the same beam and scratching your head with the same scarred hand. This cycle has to be stopped but it will only stop if you do the work to figure out why you keep repeating it. As a result, you will not be able to continue lying to yourself, because once you know, you cannot un-know the information. When you know, you will be able to modify the direction of these behaviours. If it takes twenty tries to learn keep at it. Don’t stop learning.
If you haven’t read Part 1, read it now, if you have you are aware that Jesus expects us to know what He wants us to do and to do it. If you write down what Jesus has asked you to do it is easier to keep referring to it. If you are not journaling, you should be. In your journal write down this week what sparks you to sin. The world is filled with eye candy for us to cause us to sin. What is your spark? What is it you see, hear, smell, taste or touch causing you to want the thing you know you cannot have. Write it down in your journal, especially if it is a daily event. A good example would be our love of sweets. They are all over the place, particularly this time of year. They draw people. They lure people. They will cause you to go to extremes to eat them. You are addicted like the rest of us. Use your senses to see which one of them lures you the hardest to the sweets. Write it down. If sweets are not your issue what is? Use your senses to discern which one is drawing you to that thing. Write it down. Do the best you can this week to understand every detail about this thing that God has asked you to quit. Why is your god rather than Jesus? What does it possess that keeps drawing you back?
Write down what you did when it drew you. Write down who you were with when it drew you. Write down how you were feeling when you were drawn into this sin. Answering these questions this week will help you to continue in these instructions. This work is not too hard for you to do but you need to set your face on doing it or you will fail at eliminating this sin and others. We need to habitually eliminate sin. It is the only way to stay in the will of God.
If you need help learning how to set Biblical boundaries The White Picket Fence, Crown for Life Pursues Biblical Boundaries will be available for purchase beginning in December. The last chapter is an instruction for you but I recommend you read the whole book first. Our need to feel as if we are not alone will be met with abundance.
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Biblical Boundaries Part 1: Awareness
The White Picket Fence book I have written was written because I saw a need for women to know they need to set boundaries in their lives. Humanity on the whole is pretty sloppy about what they will do and what they won’t do depending on who they are doing it with and where. I have been teaching teens and adults about boundaries for 12 years and encounter the same thing over and over. Why do I need boundaries? What good can come of having boundaries? Aren’t morals good enough? Most of the folks I have taught so far are not Christians therefore the reason I have for them is different than the reasons I have for Christians. For the unsaved the reasons are personal and for the saved they are Spiritual.
This week, you are becoming aware of the need for the “White Picket Fence”. With no fence to hold you back, you are free to roam into transgressions. whether they work for you or not. Think this week about being surrounded by a “White Picket Fence”, with our Jesus Christ as its foundation, and what a comfort it would be to have that fence surrounding you. Let us start first by going to the Word of God for the hope we will need to be successful. Kathleen Derbyshire; The White Picket Fence, 2017
In The White Picket Fence the characters deal with becoming aware they need boundaries. They are Christian but they have the same problems as non-Christians. The difference is we call them sin they call them bad habits. Real life is real life, saved or unsaved. The sun comes up on both of us and goes down on both of us. We all need to create boundaries in our lives so when the sun goes down at night we are safe. Boundaries keep us safe from others and ourselves. My book doesn’t talk of others invading our space but it happens all the time primarily because we don’t have a white picket fence that keeps them out. If we choose not to formulate, set and defend our own personal Biblical Boundaries we will never be able to keep others out of our space. As a Christian we are not to be doormats. None of the Biblical characters were doormats nor did they allow others to invade them. They endured for the Truth with those who would persecute them for the truth (read Acts). If someone is invading you for their good you need to put up a white picket fence and stand behind it. People who deliberately hurt you for their own good pleasure need to be stopped. You will be ineffective in the Body of Christ if you allow it to continue. With that said let us move on.
The characters in The White Picket Fence learn in the first week they must create boundaries if they are ever to reach any goal God sets for them. When God asks you to do something that is a goal He has set for you. Each character including the protagonist find God has given them a goal. Setting boundaries not only gets you to a goal in one piece but it changes your character alone the way. You will find when you begin to realize you need boundaries that if is about your character traits right from the start. We all have morals but those morals are blurry on most days. You might think stealing from the poor is wrong but stealing from the rich is okay. You might think lying to get out of trouble is wrong but lying to make a friend feel better is okay. Can you see where the blurry comes in? This is what I call a wavey line boundary. The wind, the day, the month, the mood or the friend can cause you to wave over to their side breaking the moral boundary you have almost set. If you keep jumping over your white picket fence one day your foot will get caught and a very large ditch will be there for you to fall in.
In Matthew 5:37 Jesus says, “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” He said this in conclusion talking about making vows we continuously break. The vows we make to ourselves mean just as much as the ones we make to others. What is more important than that is the last part of this verse. Any answer other than “yes” or “no” when that is required is from the evil one. When you set a boundary or vow to yourself and the answer is supposed to be “no” when you say “yes” it is from the evil one. In other words, you are not serving Jesus by catering to people against His will you are serving the devil. Make now mistake, even doing good can be from the evil one. If God has not asked you to do it than you are disobeying Him and serving Satan.
Setting and defending boundaries is not easy. If it were everyone would do it. The world is going to hell in a hand basket because of the works they are doing. We are to be set apart and doing the works of Jesus. That means setting Biblical Boundaries based on what God is asking you to do. If He is asking you to give more money then boundaries need to be set on your spending. If He is asking you to teach then boundaries must be set on your time learning. If He is asking you to serve the elderly then boundaries must be set on your time with the young. If He is asking you to write then boundaries must be set on your social life. Each time Jesus asks you to do something He expects you will do it. If you are not able to do it because of life constraints then change your life because what we do for Jesus will have a much larger impact on the world.
If you need help learning how to set Biblical boundaries The White Picket Fence, Crown for Life Pursues Biblical Boundaries will be available for purchase beginning in December. The last chapter is an instruction for you but I recommend you read the whole book first because our need to feel as if we are not alone will be met with abundance.
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The Ditch and The Will of God
Your mansion at the top of the hill is waiting for you. It is not for someone else it is just for you. Can you see it? Do you want it? The only way to get it is self-control. I think that we may need to talk about this over and over again because we are human and we slow learners. I want to draw your attention to a story Matthew 16 and Mark 8 relay to us. Jesus has previously fed 5000 not including women and children. The disciples picked up 12 baskets at the end. Then, Jesus feeds 4000 not including women and children. The disciples picked up 7 baskets of left overs. The Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus unsuccessfully and He calls them out for holding to the tradition of men rather than the commands of God. When He is finished talking to them they get into the boat again and Jesus says to the disciples, who forgot the bread, to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. They are confused but Jesus clarifies.
The thing that bothered Jesus most was the fact they forgot about the feeding of the 9000 not including women and children. In Mark’s Gospel, directly after this confrontation with both the Pharisees then the Disciples, he tells a story about the blind man gaining his sight from Jesus step by step. This is how we are all going to learn about Jesus and His will for us. If we do not enact self-control during this process we will never know the will of God for our lives. Our mansion on the hill will be forever out of our reach. The ditch teaches us what we need to change and if we do not learn self-control in the ditch we will stay there. We need to learn two very important precepts to getting out of the ditch – know what put you in and what you need to do to get out.
The Ditch in His Will
You are in the ditch because you are on the road to your mansion. If you weren’t you wouldn’t care about being in the ditch so much because it would just be part of life. The joy that we have for being a Christian makes us wonder why the ditches even exist for us. There is only one reason for the ditch, to learn. We learn two precepts though, to continue learning and to obey God. Our first trip into the ditch on the road to our mansion is perplexing. It causes us to question the path we are on. Is this God’s will for us? Is that my mansion or a mansion from God?
God causes us to go into the ditch to test our faith and our obedience. If we pass the test we will have strengthened our faith and our resolve to obey God. Whether we believe it or not His will is happening even while we dwell with the frogs and the snakes. We look in front of us to see a frog and a snake making their way to our mansion faster than we are. This causes great anguish and more questions. Why do those who disobey God seem to have what we desire? We are in this ditch dwelling for days, months, years and those reptiles are advancing to our mansion. We try and try but cannot get out of the ditch. Finally, we stop to ask – why am I in here and what do I have to do to get out.
In His Will in the Ditch
I think I spent the first four years of salvation in the ditch. Then, God made me start writing about the things I was learning. I was still in the ditch. He had a plan for me to get out but it was my plan not yours. I want to say to you – do this or do that – but I cannot because I do not know what God is doing in your life right now. All I can say to you is, “God has a plan for this ditch and He will work it out in your life.” You will see others advancing in what seems to be your will. You will see others never see the inside of a ditch.
What we need to do while we are in the ditch is believe God and let Him tell you how to get out. I know exactly how hard that is. From day one of salvation I was a ditch dweller. How does one believe God’s goodness when one is overcome by reptiles? He taught me how to believe Him and He will teach you too. I know you want the seven steps out of the ditch and the five ways to avoid the ditch (so did I) but if it is God’s will for you to be in the ditch, the steps I give you will not work. You need to follow His will for you in the ditch or you will stay there.
A Contented Ditch Dweller
The ditch Is not a nice place to dwell. Even the mature Christians gets caught in the ditch sometimes. If we are unwilling to ask the two questions of God that will make our life easier even the maturest in God’s knowledge will dwell for a while. Maturity should mean we are asking the question faster and getting to the work sooner than someone who is new to Christianity. Why am I in the ditch is not a weird question nor is it intruding into things we shouldn’t know. It is a smart question those who love Jesus ask all the time even for other Christians. God will reveal the why’s to us if we ask. Asking what we need to do to get out of the ditch is also a very smart question. You can try on your own until you have no strength left if you wish but you will still have to petition God for answers. The ditch always brings us to the will of God.
Following the will of God for our life is why we know about the mansion. It is why we desire the mansion on the hill. It is how we see the mansion. It is why we exist. The joy of God means we will not ditch dwell even when we are in the ditch. We will be content in the ditch because we know we are still in the will of God. The way God teaches us shows us how to get out of the ditch every time. Once we have a history of escaping the ditch we believe He will do it again so we remain in joy while ditch dwelling knowing He will remove us when it is His will to remove us. While you are in the ditch you might as well have fun. Play leap frog and Snakes and Latter’s. Don’t start playing before you learn the truth about why you are in the ditch and how you are going to get out.
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I Think I want that Thingamabob Part 2
Power your Plan
In the last blog we discussed self-control. There is power in your self-control even though when we first start controlling our lives it feels like we are powerless. Matthew 5:37 tells us that anything other than self-control is from the devil. Self-control is born from being able to say “yes” when appropriate and “no” when that is appropriate. We must learn to control the impulses we have, so when God speaks to us revealing our direction, we are not controlled by the world. We must be committed to following Jesus, steadfast at the cause and patient when it looks so far away. The power that sets your self-control on fire for that thingamabob depends highly on your planning skills. A goal is one thing but the plan can make or break a goal. Our God is not just about us being there He is about how we get there as well.
Picture your desire (God’s will for you) as a mansion on a hill. God has given you a picture of what that looks like. For me, it is the Hope Devoted, Life Skills Center for Women. For you, it could be the book He wants you to write, a house big enough to be hospitable, a ministry at your church or whatever thingamabob God wants you to have. Picture that at the top of the hill with nothing but trees between you and it. The only way there is a dirt road designed just for you. You get on your ATV and go praying for a safe journey. The Almighty has empowered you with His tenacious voltage (ATV) and He is lighting your way with it. As you continue you realize the road behind you has been paved. You are making it easier for others to follow the same road. What you cannot see, for the trees, is the monstrous ditches coming up on both sides of your dirt road, the absence of filling stations and the washouts. Your ATV has enough power to get through each of these but you must hold onto it.
Your Plan is your Power
The Almighty’s tenacious voltage (ATV) is your power to get to your mansion. His vision for you is what you are striving for. It is that mansion on the top of the hill you want bad. For you to reach that mansion you MUST hold fast to the ATV. There are going to be seasons of cold and seasons of hot while you are driving on the dirt road. Hold fast, for you will reap the benefits if you do not give up.
To hold fast to the ATV you must know your God. His voltage can only be felt when you are in constant contact with Him. If you do not know Him you will not feel His voltage. His voltage can be found in the Word of God. You read it. You know it. You ponder it. You understand it. You do it. You feel it. That is the order in which the voltage travels. You have this Powerful generator inside you to use but it needs fuel. The Word of God is your fuel for this generator. The less time you tap into this filling station the shorter the distance you will be able to travel. The more you more you fill the further you can go. This picture is the same for every Christian and the fuel source is also the same. Let us plan our travel down this dirty road.
Plan Your Ditch Dwelling
You are driving on the dirt road comfortably with no obstacles. You can see your desire at the top of the hill but you are still miles away. You know if you hold fast to your ATV you can make it in no time. You hit a pot hole in the road, lose control and fall straight into the ditch. You try to push your ATV up the side of the ditch but don’t have enough strength. You decide to get onto your ATV and drive through the ditch. The weeds, the soupy water and the mud are slowing you down to a snail’s pace. What a nightmare? There are snakes, frogs, cattails, green goo and scanky smelling fogs along the way. You are deep in the valley.
Did your plan include ditch dwelling? There is a reason you are in the ditch. We ditch dwell to build strength. The mansion we have been given by God has to be built by us. It has to be defended by us. The Israelites spent forty years wondering in the dessert until the second generation built up enough strength to do what God has told them to do. When it was time to go into their promised land God told Joshua three times in Joshua 1:1-9 to be strong and have courage. God will keep us in the ditch until we build the character traits He needs us to have to be able to build our ministry and defend the position we have in our ministry. Our plan for what will happen while ditch dwelling has to be implemented while on the road because our overall plan is hard to see when we are in the ditch. Planning to gain enough strength to hang on to the ATV tightly while in the ditch will ensure we exit from the ditch each time.
Plan the Power Loss
You have finally exited the ditch. Your strength is gaining so maybe the next ditch won’t be so deep or so long. The road is being paved again behind you and all is well in your world. You lose sight of it. Where did it go? Your mansion, it’s gone. You have lost the power needed to stay on the road. You put your foot on the brake to stop. You look around. There are no filling stations anywhere. The filling stations are your lifeline to traveling. They consist of Christian teachings, Christian friends, and your self-help books. They are all gone. You are all alone.
If your fuel is from people this will be a rude awakening. The fuel used to power ourselves cannot be people it has to be the Word of God and His revelation for our life. If we rely on people to tell us what to do and how to get to our mansion we will spend much time in the ditch and on the wrong road. God has revealed to us the dirt road that WILL get us to His mansion. The power of the vision God gave us can fade. We will not be able to see it nor tap into it as easily as we could when we first saw it. The long passage of time and ditch dwelling can cause this to happen. If we don’t plan to refuel ourselves with the Word of God we will lose our connection to the constant power source. Staying plugged into the Word of God has to be part of our plan on the road to our mansion.
Plan to Portage
You are out of the ditch and have your mansion in sight again. You put the ATV in drive to travel. You are aware of the ditches and of the chance still remains to run out of gas. You are building strength and keeping fuel in your generator. Then you see it, water over the road. The road is washed out and there is no way for you to continue unless you lift your ATV onto your shoulders to wade through it. The water is rushing so fast at times you have to stand still because moving will push you off the path. Sometimes, it gets higher than your mouth and it takes all your strength to jump up for a breath. You are drowning.
The world is one weight on our shoulders and to lift the will of God up there too is enough to make us feel like we are drowning. Sometimes, the will for God for our lives feels like a burden to us. The dirt road looks good to us compared to this washed out road covered with rushing waters. We compare the burden of carrying the world on our shoulder with carrying God’s plan for us too. There is no comparison. God’s plan for us is self-sufficient. He planned it for us and He will bring it into fruition. He is filling in ditches, revealing the fuel and parting waters for us to get to that mansion. We don’t have to pick up the ATV it is already on the other side waiting for us.
The Power in the Plan
There is no work we can do to get us closer to our mansion before God wants us there. The mansion we see at the top of the hill is the desire God has for our life. It is not our desire or someone else’s desire for us. The Almighty’s tenacious voltage is our power to get there. The road is being paved to our mansion. To pave a road it first has to be made level and graveled. Ditches need to be dug and rest stops with filling stations added. Drains need to be placed in low lying areas to avoid wash outs. The fulfillment of His plan for your life is what paves the road behind us. Others may travel on our paved road for a time but they have their own dirt road to travel, their own ditches to get out of and their own water to wade through on the way to their own mansion. The generator used by us is not the same one used by others. The dirt road we travel is designed specifically for the windy, hilly path to our mansion. It is designed to make sure that by the time we begin building our mansion it is built on a sturdy foundation. The foundation must be on the Rock, Jesus Christ. The path that is being paved must always lead people to Jesus. We are preparing the way to Jesus, for many people, by obeying God’s will for our life.
We need not wonder why God tells us where we are going but doesn’t show us the whole sorted path. Learning to believe Him and trust Him will always put us on the path of teaching others to do the same. If you want that thingamabob, you shall have it.
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I Think I Want that Thingamabob Part 1
Power Your Self-control
I think I might want that thingamabob. I think I deserve that thingamabob. That thingamabob can be anything from money to what money can buy. It can be better money management skills to better character traits. It can be a child to a marriage. That thingamabob is what occupies your mind and your works. It is where you place all your time and your money. How bad do you want this thing? Do you want it bad enough to work for it? Do you want it bad enough to wait for it? Do you want it bad enough to give up something for it? How bad do you want it?
Everyone has desires of grandeur at one time or another. Desires of grandeur is good but we prove ourselves worthy of grandeur by the mundane, by the everyday, by the simplistic works we do. God’s Word tells us, He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much (Luke 16:10). It is our daily mundane desires that get us to the grand desires. Without the mundane grand is not grand. There are those who are born into grand who never develop the skills for the mundane until they become homeless. There are those who are homeless who never develop the skills for the grand until they win the lottery. These folks may never develop the skills. It might be ingrained in us to be rich or it might be ingrained in us to be poor. Either way there are thingamabobs we want and if we are to get them we need to learn to go after them. There are two skills we definitely need if we are to acquire that thing and we will need two blogs to cover them. The first is self-control and the second is the plan. Both of these take commitment, steadfastness and patience.
Your Self-Control is Your Power
Our powerlessness comes from lacking self-control. Most of us are not wired for self-control. Our soul is corrupt unless we are conforming to the will of God. We are saved by God to do His good works and that is what we should control ourselves in doing. So, let’s just say for the sake of this blog that you are going after the will of God and not your own will because God will frustrate you on every turn if you are not. Nothing I say will make sense to you or work for you if God is against you. We are going to want that thingamabob for Jesus and His people.
I like to think of my power as electricity going from house to house. Our electrical power comes from Niagara Falls. One of the great wonders from God. Power goes from God to each of us like the electrical wires from Niagara Falls go to each house. Each one of us is an independent receiver of power in the whole from the Power House. Our body is wired with our individual desires from the Power House that feed the Body of Christ who is fed by Jesus which in turn feeds our body with new power again. We need to control this power lest our bill get to high.
Control Your Commitment
No matter what we want we must commit to having it. We are wired with God’s desires for us but He does not make our feet move. God has placed many desires in our heart. To have them we must commit all of our ways to the Lord and trust Him for Him to bring them to pass (Psalm 37:5). Wiring our self-control persistently toward this end will result in having it. If we committed to serving Jesus what we do will come to pass. This is a twofold process for us. We need commit to the works of Jesus and we need to commit our control to the works of Jesus. You know exactly what I am talking about. One day we want to lose control and serve self. Should we not control our commitment to Jesus it will commit to self. Then we will have to go through the process of rewiring it to commit to Jesus again. If this happens we need to be steadfast at rewiring quickly back to self-control.
Control Your Steadfastness
Controlling our steadfastness is not easy. We want to run all over the place and feed every house with our power. We need to control what we are setting our face too. There are good works and there are God works. Anyone can do good works but can everyone be steadfast at doing God works. If we could we would all be at the works of God rather than the works of self. It takes an infusion of power from the Power house Himself to be steadfast. Sometimes just touching the Wire will give us enough of a jolt to go back to being steadfast on our route but sometimes we need to be surrounded by an electrically charged fence to stay on path. Then, selfishly, we feel like we are imprisoned by this thing. It is sucking the life out of us with no noticeable fruit. The Source comes along and jolts us back to His reality and we control our desire to quit. We rewire our control to stay the course and are patient once again.
Control Your Patience
Along with self-control patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). As much as we do not want to control ourselves we do not want to be patient with people or God. Controlling our patience means we are conceding to a power higher than ourselves. We are conceding to the timing of God. We are not standing still we are conceding the thing we desire is going to come from God anyway so we might as well wait for Him to bring it about. I have to tell you once you come to this conclusion it is freeing. We do not have to work at this desire we just need to prepare ourselves for when it comes. That does not mean we will not again become impatient because it is a desire from God and He throw electrical bolts at it once in a while to remind us what we are getting ready for. This just shows us how much He loves us. The Power source lives inside us and He is waiting patiently for us to be ready to go. When we are ready to go He allows us to go. Along with this long awaited go are new grander desires so we don’t think we have arrived. We can always do so much more, more than we can even think or desire (Ephesians 3:20).
The Power in Self-Control
If you haven’t received the message yet, here it is – there is more power in self-control than any other place. God teaches us about power by showing us His self-control. Jesus taught us about power through His self-control. He could have called down legends of angels to save Him but He did not (Matthew 26:53). He could have unleashed all manner of miracles but He did not (John 13:31). This same power lives in us and we are expected to tap into it especially when we are working for Jesus. Our work is supposed to draw people to the Father who supplies the Power. If you want that thingamabob you must have self-control in the area of commitment, steadfastness and patience but even that will not work if you do not have a plan. Next week we will look at planning that thingamabob you want.
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Know Your God
When I was first saved I was ignorant of the power of God in my life but I could see it in others’ lives or at least I thought I could. My ignorance resulted in my belief God was under our control. I learned all manner of lies and believed them. The biggest problem with that is I could not predict what God would do next. I was always surprised by what He was doing. God can surprise us but that is not what He wants to do. He wants us to know Him well enough to know what His next move will be. The reason we are living such unspectacular lives is because we are controlling God, He is not controlling us.
The maturity of the skills we use to get what is available to us through the Father is concurrent with our knowledge of Him. For example, when setting a boundary regarding a person who is toxic to you (Christian or non-Christian) an immature in knowledge of God (IK) Christian would just stay away from that person based on their out of control reaction while in their presence. A mature in knowledge of God (MK) Christian would be seen in their presence but have a boundary to mind their own business while talking to them. The difference is striking between the two. The power is different between the two. The knowledge is different between the two. How they control themselves is different between the two. How they manage the life God has given them is different between the two.
In the example above the immature in knowledge Christian will avoid those she does not get along with and blame it on them. When we argue with a fool we look like a fool as well. Although the IK Christian doesn’t know that yet because she is not in the know with Jesus. Her life skills are lacking because she has absolutely no idea yet the Bible is an encyclopedia of knowledge in how to improve our life skills. She continues to avoid the lessons therein because she thinks the world has all the answers. She cannot manage the little number of gifts given to her by God; they are being managed by the world still. Day by day the Father teaches her about how to manage the life He has bestowed upon her. He buries a dream deep in her that He puts on fire every so often to draw her to Him. She continues to wonder how she will have the dream burning within her. She works hard to get it with worldly skills but all of her work fails. She continues to lose control of her emotions, she continues in debt, she continues to argue, she continues to set goals that will fail and she continues to think like the world. In her personal time with God she is learning the dream is God’s not hers. She is losing the fight to control her life. She is relenting more each day until one day she becomes an MK Christian.
The mature in the knowledge Christian faces the God she knows constantly because He speaks truth into her life. She gives her heart to Jesus over and over again until He does what He wants with it. Her actions reflect His way and her thinking His thoughts. She begins to manage her goods for His glory and she sees the dream He has planted in her as hers to live. Everything she does is toward that dream. She begins to control her behaviour when in the presence of those she previously had lost control. She thinks about the souls of others before her own because her hope is established within her. Knowing Jesus has freed her to work toward her dream knowing He will establish that too. She praises Jesus for who He is and burns to introduce Him to other people His way. She is different from everyone else. Her life is salvaged by our God and she knows it. Her knowledge keeps getting deeper of her God through His Words to her. Her life has become skills the Biblical way.
Our life skills will never improve without our God to show us how to improve them and for what reason. He burns a dream in your heart and it is for that reason you will improve every life skill. Knowing God is the only way to find the answers. His knowledge pours out over us like a drip at first then He floods us with His knowledge as we use it to mature our skills to His glory. We have to search for people who have mature skills and ask God to explain it to us. We tolerate being in the presence with those whose skills are set against God and ask Him to explain it. We must be with those who know Jesus because they know how to be different. Being with them shows us how to be different. The difference is simply in our education. I want the whole world to say there is something different about me and I want that for you too. Don’t let the prospect of being different scare you, educate yourself and know your God!
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The Escape Hatch
One of the obstacles to changing bad habits into good is the length of time it takes to change it. I know all about this because I am trying to lose 30 pounds that do not want to go. I have been trying to lose this weight for 3 years. I have done everything I can to this point from monitoring my heart rate to adding extra protein to subtracting good foods. Nothing I have tried has worked up to this point. I weight trained for a year but gained more weight most likely because my heart rate monitor was lying to me. It was an expensive piece of equipment that counts steps and when I put the monitor on my chest it measures how many calories I have used during the work out. The monitor was telling me I was burning between 2,200 and 2,500 calories per day. As a result I increased my calorie intake to 1,800. 2,500 minus 1,800 still leaves 700 calories per day deficit. Each pound is 350 calories so that means at the very least I should have lost two pounds per week. O, my lovelies, how I wish that where so. This menopausal woman will not be beat though.
I have been tempted to throw in the towel. I have been tempted to eat everything my eyes behold. I have been tempted to stop exercising. I have been tempted to move on and just accept myself the way I am because I was made this way, was I not? No, I was not! I was made to be a conqueror. I was made to be free from every temptation. God has said to me, “no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) This verse tells me I can conquer any temptation. It tells me through seeing and listening I can overcome. This verse gives me hope and it gives me my plan.
The Hope
Our hope is twofold in this verse. First, it is that other people who live on this earth are tempted in the same way I am. I witness that daily. I go to the gym to witness many people who have begun the process of getting healthy and I see in the world those who have not started yet. The temptation to eat and sit is great for everyone. I have previously lost a lot of weight but have gained some back because I have not yet conquered this temptation. This is common to man so I am not alone in this struggle, my first hope. The second hope is God will not allow me to be tempted beyond what I can handle. What a wonderful piece of knowledge to have. When we are tempted by humans and the devil God steps in at the right time, in the right way, to help us overcome the temptation. He will let it get to the limit to build our strength and our resolve. There are sweet chips at the end of my table now from Thanksgiving weekend. I look at them and am tempted. I think to myself, “Why don’t I hide these chips?” Then I say to myself, “If I hide them the temptation will go away and when I see them in the cupboard I will not be able to overcome the temptation and eat some.” I am working out my overcomer muscles. I pray that God will strengthen my muscles so I will be able to flex it in public places where I cannot hide the food but must be able to resist it. I have my plan.
The Plan
The plan is to do what the Holy Spirit tells me to do. It is God’s plan to make an escape for me I just need to recognize it. My plan of escape before was to hide the sweets in the cupboard or at the back of the fridge but it did not work. I found them and ate them. I saw them and ate them. This time around I am relying on God for the plan of escape. He has been directing me to do what He wants me to do and I do it. Sometimes, it does not make sense in my limited mind but what He is doing is going to work because I have seen this work many times before. Leaving yummy chips on the table in full view did not make sense to me. I felt the purpose was being defeated but they have been there all week and I only picked them up once. When I did eat them guilt laid upon me like a fog. I could only eat five or six and my stomach began to ache. I thanked Jesus for the stomach ache, put the chips down and went to my Jesus Room to read the Life Skills Encyclopedia. The stomach ache was my escape on this day. His plan to build up my overcomer muscle worked on that day and every day since. I remember that ache every time I look at those chips. God used the same escape on me when He wanted me to quit drinking. When His plan works I allow it to deter me from future temptation.
The Hatch
The Life Skills Encyclopedia has plenty of information in it to help us escape from temptation yet we have to learn there is always hope and always a plan. Those people who do not have a hope continue in their sin for a lack of hope they will be free of it. Let that not be you because you have a hope and a plan for your future (Jeremiah 29:11). We need to learn to fall under that plan so we can see the escape. Would you have seen a painful stomach as an escape? What about a headache or a broken leg? There are plenty of stories on the net about how God has made an escape for someone in the oddest place at the oddest time. Sometimes, we don’t even know why the escape was made until one day God opens our eyes and viola, we see it. You see what could have been but wasn’t because God pushed you through the escape hatch. Test God this week. Ask Him what He wants you to do that you had previously been unable to overcome. Ask Him to open your eyes to your escape then take it. You must continue to take it because a habit is not formed in one day nor will a temptation be overcome in one day. My sore stomach deterred me from eating the chips to avoid the temptation of eating what I am not supposed to eat. I choose to not eat the food rather than eat through the sore stomach. The Lord has our back. He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle and with any temptation He provides an escape hatch. Recognize the hatch and keep using it until the temptation is not a temptation any more.
