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A Soul in Sync
I want to first start with a description of what the soul is because I keep forgetting myself. Our soul is our life and defines who we are, what we believe and what we stand for. It is our volition (desire), our mind (intellect), and our emotion. Our soul is moulded by experience, knowledge and understanding. God gave us talents that we nurtured with our soul. The Bible talks incessantly about soul, heart and mind being something that we need to guard. Our soul is what the world is after. They want us to think like them and in doing that we become them. They will not be happy until we are all like them. We are called by Jesus Christ to think differently from the world.
One Foot in the World One Foot in the Church
Our soul is sanctified (separated) from the world for us to think like Jesus., to take on the mind of Jesus. This is not as easy as it sounds. We read in the Bible we are being called out of the world but the world will hate us (John 15:19). This is why some of us have one foot in the world and one foot in the body. There are some who are just dipping their toe in the body because their soul is weak. A weak soul is a direct result of quenching the Spirit. A weak soul will not be allowed in the New Jerusalem because a weak soul has a penchant for sin. It follows its flesh and makes the flesh its master instead of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-21).
Sanctification Not a Choice; Soul Sync a Choice!
Being sanctified is not our choice, it belongs to God alone, but after salvation we have the choice to live in the world or live in the body of Christ. We can choose to have our mind changed by God or we can choose to have the same mind as the world. The choice is ours to sync our soul with His Spirit or to sync it with the World. When we sync our mind with the Spirit we can expect change, we can expect wisdom, we can expect understanding and we can expect Jesus to move in us. We cannot expect any of this with the world. I do not need to go into a list of things the world expects from us but God expects Jesus from us. We are to have the mind of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:16) therefore the deeds of Jesus. We are to sync our mind with the Spirit and bring our body into submission with our soul (1 Corinthians 9:27).
A Mind Meld with the Master
I know you are reading this thinking how impossible it is to kick habits, change ways, and most ridiculous to think like Jesus! God sent His only Son as an example to us but He also wrote this great book called the Holy Bible that we would have a reference book. Paul told Timothy All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). ALL Scripture can be used to train us up into the mind of God and that is exactly what we will do. We are going to create a mind meld with the Master that we will be equipped for every good work the Master sends us to do. God is more than willing to reveal Himself in the Scripture and reveal Himself in us to others. I pray that He reveal Himself in you just as He is revealed in me!
Action
For this week pray to the Master He would give you an open heart for knowledge while we mould our mind into the mind of Christ using Scripture to solve about worldly issues. Pray for me also to bring today’s problems to Him for solution. If you have an issue that keeps plaguing you please IM me or send me an email at Kathleen@thelifeskillsstrategist.com and I will point you in the direction of Jesus and His Word for correction advice.
I know that if we choose life in the Word we will find solid Biblical strategies to improve our life. I ask Jesus to reveal himself in you just as He is revealed in me.
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My Soul Longs for Him!
I have been juggling three very good books over the last week and wonder how much more does God need to teach me. The most phenomenal thing is that they all are related to each other at this very moment. How amazing is that? Not at all because we are dealing with our God here! I am reading The One Year Chronological Bible, Water in the Dessert and The Spiritual Man. Each book has its own theme yet each book at this moment is speaking to me loud and clear.The One Year Chronological Bible is designed to allow us to read Scripture in the order in which it happened. I have read the New Testament already and am reading the Old Testament now, Numbers 5. I have read about the building of the Tabernacle and the placement of the tribes around the Tabernacle. Since I am not a numbers person I have to really force myself to go through any part of the Bible that adds, subtracts and divides people. I am reading it differently now based on the other books I am reading at the same time. What I learn in this Book continuously is when God chooses His people He takes good care of them and since I will never be done reading this book He will continue to teach me this fact. This Book continuously makes my soul long for Him.
The second book I pick up is Water in the Dessert by Sherry Stahl. To tell you the truth I didn’t want to pick this book up at all because first, I am not in a dessert right now and second, the green eyed giant. Each of them was a darn good excuse for not reading this book but they were just that, excuses. Sherry bases this book, so far, on the Exodus account of the Israelites being freed by God. Ironic enough that is what I just got finished reading. My Spirit was there but my soul and flesh did not want to pick this book up. That giant had a hold of me and I couldn’t shake it so I have to have a talk with soul. Had my soul not been transformed by the Spirit I could have been years longer letting that giant take me down. This book (or study) has helped me to bury deep in me the truths I know about our Jesus Christ and make my soul long even more for Him!
Then I pick up the most simple but complex book The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. This book is most fantastic. It is a pondering book for certain. It is not one of those books you can read and walk away from without pondering the information. I have read a couple of Watchman’s books thus far and my soul is changed forever because I understand my soul better. As I read this book (I am on page 61) my soul becomes more aware of exactly what it should be doing. What wonderful information to know! It makes every Word I read in the Scriptures jump out at me and leave a mark so deep that I will be able to feel it forever. It, and Watchman’s other books together, have helped to create in me a longing for Jesus that cannot be quenched with just Sunday meetings. I long to hear the Spirit talk to me all day long.
Reading three books together may sound daunting to you but to me it is exciting. I read the Bible to know Jesus so the rest of the books I read have meaning in my life. Can they help me to understand the Word better? Can they help me live the Word better? Can they help me teach the Word better? These are the questions I ask when I read a book. If I am stranded on an island and I could pick three books to have I would choose these three books. BUT if I could only choose one it would most definitely be the Holy Bible. We will never long for Jesus by reading any other book! When God reveals Himself to us He does it through His own Word! Choose the Word over any book and He will reveal Himself to you!
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Excited to Learn? YEAH!
Knowledge is one thing but understanding is a whole new ball game. I love it when I begin to understand something whether related to the Word of God or at my job or even just reading a book that is hard to understand. I ponder stuff all the time and ask why a lot. Jesus is so patient with my questions and my lack of knowledge that it just blows me away when He teaches me something new. I do not deserve to know this much or to understand anything He is teaching me because I am so dim witted sometimes. How many times does He have to teach us something before we learn it? Well, let’s see what the Word has to say about that.
I want to start with Proverbs 6:6 when Solomon calls someone a sluggard. Lazy people cannot learn so he says to them go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise. He wants us not to be lazy and learn fully what we need to learn. Wisdom does not come in one day so the fact that he refers to us becoming wise tells me that he knows we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Psalm 106:35 tells us that they mingled with the nations and learned their practices. That is us Christians. We mingle with the world and learn their ways in time and act like them but we need to mingle with God and learn His ways so we can become knowledgeable about the things of God. To do this we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
The Bible was written for us to learn from and Paul needed to tell us just that in Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The length of time it takes us to learn is shown here in the term perseverance. Why would we need perseverance if our learning were going to be quick? Again, we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Proverbs 1:7 says that the beginning of knowledge comes from fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord is not based on what you don’t know it is based on what you do know. We cannot gain a fear of the Lord until we know the Lord. He has buried many secrets in His Word that He expects us to uncover. It takes learning to uncover those secrets. Only fools despise wisdom and instruction – be not a fool and fear the Lord. Take time learning and be taught often.
Read books but always come back to the Word! These are just a few verses that tell us about learning. Jesus taught us the whole time He was on the earth so that we would have a mentor; someone to teach us the ways to walk. Jesus said take His yoke upon us and learn from Him for He is gentle and lowly in heart and we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). Our learning begins and ends with Scripture. We can be taught the Bible from others but the truth can only be found in one place – the Holy Bible. It tells us that we need no other teacher (1 John 2:27) than Jesus and that God will send no one else to tell us the truth (Hebrews 1:1-3) because Jesus has told the truth to us, recorded and distributed it to us that we may learn. When the mystery of the truth is revealed to us it is an exciting thing to comprehend because it has taken us time to learn and we were taught often!
Be persistent this week to spend time in the word with the FULL understanding that it will take time to learn and we will need to be taught many times before we understand. God will reveal His mysteries to us if we persist.
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The Yay’s and the Nay’s have it! Or do they?
In spite of what people may say God has gifted each one of us with gifts to be able to do our jobs. Our jobs consist of how we make our daily income as to not starve to death. We have what the world will call natural talents but we Christians know that these gifts are from God and are for His glory to do His good works. We get excited because we will be able to use them for the good of the Kingdom. When you attempt to activate these gifts inside the Body of Christ we will come across the nay’s and the yay’s in spite of what the Father has told us to do. Should you listen? Yes! Should you obey? Now that is another story all together!
The nay’s are the hardest to ignore. They are persistent and loud. They come from people who love you and people who hate you. They come from those who want to be you and those who just want you to go away! The goal of the nay is to stop you in your tracks – not to redirect you or help you – just to stop you! Stopping you could also mean many different things. It could be because they have a belief system that is built on false precepts and you are challenging those precepts. It could be that you ‘going’ might mean where they are in their eyes isn’t good enough. It could be that they actually have a good misguided heart and don’t want you to be hurt. The problem with each one of these is they are disobedient to the plans of the Father. Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:23 get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to Me! Peter was concerned about the things of men rather than of the thing of God. I am convinced there is a lot of people just like that. They set out to be stumbling blocks to people because they are not dealing well with their own stumbling blocks. It may be their thought processes, their beliefs or they just might be full of spite from their own lack of success! None of this is our problem unless they are successful at stopping us! I think we should listen but with our Spirit to discern the truth! I say, get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to God and to me. Then I will put the things of God on my mind and keep moving even if I am scared!
The yay sayers may very well be hard to ignore as well! How many times do we need to be patted on the back for a job well done before we become prideful and expect the pat? Sometimes the yay’s are for us to participate in something ‘not’ in the plan of God for us. Quite often this is the case and it keeps us from doing what we are suposed to do. We spend a lot of time doing stuff that doesn’t please God and ironically enough, doesn’t even please us. We clean when we hate cleaning, we take care of kids when we hate it, we lead but are not gifted for it, we preach but are not called to do it. There is just so much we do that doesn’t give glory to God because He has not asked us to go man has and we don’t have the words or the guts to say no. Every now and then we need to do stuff that is not appealing to us but the majority of the time we need to do what God has called us and gifted us to do. God does not gift you to be a door matt He gifts you to empower the Body of Christ. We cannot do that if we are not joyful in our work. Jesus said in Luke 9:24 that if you lose your life you shall live. Losing your life means dropping your own selfish plans and standing behind God’s plan for you even against other Christians who are not willing to lose their lives. All of God’s work is good but not all of it is beneficial to us or the Body of Christ when we are doing it. We need to listen with our Spirit for direction and do what we are told.
The nay’s and the yay’s can be considered but should never be held up before God’s plan for us. He may very well have sent those folks to us to test our faith or to actually get us to stop doing something He never told us to do nor gifted us to do. We need to know our Father so that we can tell the difference between a nay for men or for God and the yay from men or from God. Our lack of knowledge of the Father will always put us in a tricky position discovering what is of God and what is of men. We will be thrown to and fro if we don’t make sure that what we are doing is of God. For us to be successful at doing the will of God we need to put the nayers and the yayers behind us and God in front of us. As long as we are following God we will do exactly what He wants and not worry about what man wants from us.
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Did He Really Say That?
There is a couple of places in Scripture that tell us about salvation but we glance over them each time. Let me bring them to your attention and tell you why you should stop glancing and start pondering them but first let us get out of the way THE question, “Are you saved?” The one way to discover if anyone is saved is by asking this simple question, “Are you going to Heaven?” The answer is a great indicator whether they know if they are truly saved or not. I am not gifted for evangelism nor am I called to lead a tent revival even still it is my duty (and yours) to make sure that those who call themselves Christians know and understand what that means! We need to know whether they actual believe without any doubt they are saved from hell hence the question. If their answer has any ambiguity outside of a resounding ‘yes’ then they do not know they are saved. Let the teaching begin in your style and at your pace! Romans 10:9-10
Satan is crafty as all get out! The first way he will attack is to make you question your salvation. Did God really say that? Sound familiar? (Genesis verse) When Jesus tells us that all we need to do is accept Him as Lord and Saviour to be saved from hell that is exactly what He means but the devil goes about like a lion (1 Peter 5:8) devouring those who fall for this ploy. It is for this reason that it is extremely important that we strap on the helmet of Salvation and step into the new life available through the working out of our salvation.
You must Strap on the Helmet of Salvation
Once your salvation is established you must strap it on like a helmet or the devil will help you take it off. Your helmet is the Holy Bible! It is leather with your name written on it. It can be NKJV or ESV or HCSB shaped and look totally different from your friend’s helmet. Just as we all look different so must our helmets look different? We are gifted differently and are called to different tasks so our salvation may have come at different times in our lives BUT that does not make us any less saved or any less a Christian. The Devil will have you believe that because you are old you are not saved, because you are young you are not saved, because you are smart, silly, blonde, a red head, Asian, African, Canadian, a plumber, an electrician, a house wife, a woman or any other immature reason that will cause you to question God. Paul tells us to protect our head with this information so that we will not be held back from the good works that we are supposed to do in His Name. Put on your helmet of salvation so you can work it out easier.
You must Work out your Salvation!
Working out our salvation is a new lifestyle like working out our muscles. For our muscles to get taut we need to train them with weight but for our salvation to train our brain with the Word. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5-13, the way we work out our salvation is to make our brain take on the attitude of Jesus Christ by allowing the Father work in us to fulfill His purpose. This definitely sounds a lot harder than putting on the helmet doesn’t it? Well, it is! We are to determine the purpose of our salvation and work it into our new life. The only way we can do that is put on the helmet and work. Paul used the word work because it is work. We work to know Jesus, work to find our gifts, work to use them, work to perfect them, work to live, work, work, work! There is no place in the Bible to relieve us of work. God has been working for 6000 plus years so we can certainly work for 60 plus years. Not all of our work will be physical but it will all need our brain and as long as we can use it we should be working out our salvation.
How shall we escape punishment when we ignore this great salvation (Hebrews 2:1-4)? When we strap on the helmet of salvation we are not finished we are just beginning the new life waiting for us through working out our salvation. Salvation is God’s work alone but you have been saved to do good works (Ephesians 2:8-10) and those works are to be done by us. The works start with us knowing that we are saved from hell and then walking in the new life of following Jesus from place to place. We may get lazy sometimes, disappointed sometimes or of track sometimes but that never takes away from our salvation. Our salvation determines whose we are on this Earth and our good works determine who we will be on the New Earth. I am going to sound like a broken record when it comes to this but I think that the more we hear it the more we will understand how important it is to work out our salvation.It is for eternity that we have been saved and it is on the New Earth that we will live! Picture what that will look like then ask yourself two questions: Am I saved? If your answer is yes then, are you working it out?
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Guard those Pieces with Your Life!
Joining the pieces of information together that God gives us takes time and knowledge to accomplish. We all use different methods to join those pieces together. To follow the will of God we need to be able to put those pieces together. Putting these pieces together takes a steadfast mind on the task. If we are keeping these pieces in our mind we cannot allow ourselves to be caught off guard. We need to guard these pieces with out life. Each of those pieces keeps us alive in Jesus so when we do not guard them we will lose them. Keeping guard of these pieces with your life will lead to two rewards, more pieces and growing up.As we learned from the last blog, pieces are bits of information that the Holy Spirit places in our heart/mind to help us stay in the Fathers will. As we guard the pieces we already have he will supply us with more. Jesus said in Matthew 13:12 that those who have will be given more but those who do not guard their pieces will lose their pieces. This applies to all knowledge and wisdom given us by the Father. We are gathering information because it helps us to get into position to fulfill the will of God in our life. Some of these pieces of information include how we are gifted, who Jesus is inside those gifts, how we can use those gifts each day and what other information we need. No information is complete by itself so we need to gather more to fully understand all the pieces. Guarding all the pieces information results in more and our growth as well.
With each piece of information we gather and guard we will grow in our faith of Jesus Christ but what is more important is that we will grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. When we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ we begin to grow up in Him too. It does not take a rocket scientist to learn Jesus Christ it takes someone dedicated to learning Him and dedicated to growing up in Him. We can spend our whole lives warming the bench at church but once we leave our hope, our faith, and our stamina fail to continue as we go to work, parent our children, submit to our husband and follow our leaders. Gathering pieces together to grow is imperative to being who Jesus wants us to be.
It is all about who Jesus wants us to be. He gives us pieces of information so that we can keep doing what He has created us to do. He has created all things and all things hold together because of Him (Colossians 1:16-17). It is His great pleasure to give us more pieces and it behoves us to grow with those pieces. To live in ignorance about who Jesus is, is to live in ignorance about who you are. We are defined by who Jesus is which is why we need to guard those pieces with our lives and He will surely reveal the rewards to us.
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A Reason to Think!
I have to figure things out! I need to know! Why do I do things this way and how will they work out? Every time a thought comes in my head I reason it out to get the answer! I can talk myself into hating something that is perfectly fine! Why do I do that? I want something other than what I have so I refuse to like it. I get unsatisfied with what I have and what I am doing from time to time and I throw myself a pity party. I think about all the things I could have if I was doing this and all the things I wouldn’t have if I was doing that. I look at my surroundings and crave what I want. I think of how my life could be different then I throw myself another pity party due to everything I am missing.
When I reason about these thoughts I always come to this conclusion; God’s truth. God does have a plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11) and that plan is His plan and it may very well not include what I want. He gave me this mind to reason with Him and for Him (Isaiah 1:18). He supplied my gifts for accomplishing His works (1 Peter 4:10). I am to learn to be content with what I have and who I am because God is with me (Hebrews 13:5). I learn through this process of reasoning that I am not irrational because I reason through every thought. Reasoning with our God and ourself is good for us and God loves it (Ask Moses, Jonah, Job, Isaiah, Peter and Paul)! It makes us more rational and less likely to get caught up in the Devil’s schemes! It is in this back and forth that God reveals Himself to us so we can come to an understanding about what our next step is; God’s will.
The action we take this week is to stop talking and start reasoning! I am an extrovert and talking is how I get answers but I continue to learned that thinking them through (reasoning) is just as good. It is a wiser decision if I talk it out with God rather than people to spare them the frustrating indecision I go through to get to my answers. Come to the truth this week and see the reason to think! -
Strategies that Count!
Are you thriving? Are the strategies you use for life bringing you closer to your life’s goals or are they bringing you further away? Are your life skills presenting you as having control over your life or are they showing your inability to use wise strategies to accomplish your dreams?
The world will have us believe that if it is good, it is good for us! I will submit to you that Paul had it right when he spoke to us in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 23. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. The things that we do daily speak to who we want to be and how we want to live. The Word of God can transform our decision making so drastically that we will understand exactly what Paul means when he says not all things are helpful to us nor are all things going to edify us. With that in mind how do we get closer to our goal? How can we live a life abounding in self-control?
The Truth Leads us Closer
To get closer to our life’s goals we need to understand what Biblical strategies are available to us from the Word of God. The fear of God is the beginning of the knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) we need to implement the Biblical skills used to direct our lives closer to our goals. Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him,in John 8 verse 32 “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” As hard as the truth is sometimes it brings us closer to our goals rather than the lie that says we can have anything we want, any time we want!
Self-control is a Fruit
Once we begin to pull Biblical strategies from the Word of God we begin bearing fruit. Before we realize an internal fruit appears called self-control, among others. Galatians 5:22-23 lists all the fruits of the Spirit. He reveals to us all the strategies we need to use to make our decisions then He fills us with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These gifts from God then become part of our strategies for life. We can turn our whole life around with these internal fruits of the Spirit spearheading our life closer to our goals.
Choose Life in the Word
Choosing life in the Word of God will transform the skills from God’s teachings into solid Biblical strategies that will improve our life. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us how important Scripture is in our life. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That says it all! Of all the choices we will make in our life this will be the most important one.`
Do you want to get closer to your life goals? Do you want to present yourself as having self-control? The choice is pretty clear to me! Let us get in the will of God together to thrive!
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Let Him Choose!
Elijah, the prophet of God Almighty, killed 450 prophets of Baal and believed at this time that he alone stood for God (1 Kings 18-19). He was exhausted and ready to give up. He went up to the top of carmel and put his head between his knees waiting for the rain to come. It came but it poured down more than just water. Elijah had to run for his life to Bersheba. God ministered to him there but he was still running under the impression that he was the only one. It is a great encouragement to know that God has a plan and you are not the only one working it but until you know you are still alone. God asked Elijah what he was doing in Horeb. He told God he alone is zealous for Him. God, before He told Elijah about His plan first showed him His glory then He informed him he is not alone.
Elijah built his ministry by himself. He walked by himself in the zeal of the Lord! He alone went against Jezebel. He looked around and listened but there was not anyone with this same zeal. I feel like this sometimes. I feel like I alone am filled with the zeal of God and it is draining sometimes. Over this couple of weeks I have seen that Jesus has spoken the same words to others as He has spoken to me. He is training me with the same instruction He is using with others. He is showing us His glory before He chooses our fellow workers for His cause. When we are ready He will unite us!
Sometimes we feel we are alone but when God tells us that He is going to do something He does it. We CANNOT do God’s works on our own and if He has shown us that we will join with others He has those others already chosen. He is moving them into place just as He is moving us into place. God knows exactly what we need in a partner worker to accomplish His Word. I am finished trying to pick my fellow workers I am going to let Jesus do that for me and see the wonderful people He adds to my life for the glory of God. He definitely has revealed to me that He can do a better job choosing His workers than I can!
Action Plan: If you feel alone you are in a good place because your aloneness will make you available to view the glory of God from the place where you can see it best. This week open you eyes and ears to what others are saying so you can hear how God is working just for you. Sometimes you have to reveal God’s plan for you even though you have discounted it out of barrenness. That is when God will reveal to you the work He is doing!
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A Change Maker not Making Change!
I am a change maker except I am making no changes in my community at least that is how I feel at this moment or rather a moment ago. Has God directed you as He has me that you will be a change maker but He hasn’t released you to make much change except in yourself. My innards are bursting to make change in my community! They are curdling with age though! I wrestle with what to do! I wrestle with how to do it! I am a wrestler at this moment not a changer.
God has taught me over the past year that I am a learner right now. I read the Word, I learn the Word and I read other books that help my mind get ready. BUT I wrestle with learning. I think I know enough! I think I can but apparently God has a different plan for me. What I learned recently to help me deal with this is – I cannot understand God’s plan for me because my feelings get in the way all the time.I know that He has a plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11) and I know that I am predestined to walk in that plan (Ephesians 2:10) and I know that He will finish what He started (Philippians 1:6) but my human feelings get tangled with the world. [She has my job, he is doing what I want to do, she is being used by God in the way that He will use me.] All of this gets the better of me sometimes making me feel unused and unwanted by God!
This is why He revealed to me that I am not focusing on Him. I have memorized verses just for this reason – to focus on Jesus and not on the world but I had forgotten why I was memorizing them. I recently came into a situation where I decided my feelings were getting the better of me so I started focusing on the verses I memorized. Amazing enough I was relieved of the turmoil and found peace again.
Action Plan: Last week we attempted to discover what it is that God has gifted us to do but what do you need to learn to be more efficient at that gift? Begin that process of learning this week but don’t get discouraged. It may take 12 years, like me, or it may take 2 before God starts using you in His Kingdom. Whatever the number the goal is to be ready to be the change maker that God has revealed you’d be!
