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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.
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Too Much Information
Have you ever seen or heard something you wished you had not? Has someone told you a dirty little secret they should not have yet you still heard it? Has God told you something you wish you didn’t know? There will always be a time in our life we think we have too much information. Unfortunately, we cannot unknow what we know. Sometimes, I would like to just hit the rewind button and write over that knowledge with other more desirable information but it cannot be done. Knowledge is very important to every human being. We thrive based on the knowledge we have. We are destroyed by lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). There are three ways to deal with desirable or undesirable knowledge from said information. We can ignore/repeat it, we can neglect/use it or we can disregard/keep it. The choices are ours to make.
Ignore or Repeat
When we get undesirable personal knowledge about people our maturity level determines whether we ignore the information or we repeat it (1 Corinthians 14:20). Ignoring the information doesn’t mean we ignore the person especially if they are in need of hope. What it means is we can discern if we should even have that information. Is it desirable information or undesirable. If we make the decision we should not have this knowledge we should ignore it but we cannot unknow it so we pray. If we make the decision to repeat the undesirable information we are choosing to perpetuate what the Life Skills Encyclopedia calls tail bearing. Gossiping hurts you and it hurts everyone around you. You cannot unlearn this knowledge but you can choose to not speak of it.
Neglect or use
In the event you are lucky enough to hear a Word from God, who is the source of all knowledge, will you choose to neglect it or will you use it to gain further knowledge. The only way to unknow the knowledge of God is if He removes it from you (Luke 8:18). The reason He will remove it is neglect of His Words. On the other hand, He gives more knowledge when we use the knowledge He gives us. Each piece of information He gives us may very well dangle in midair for some time until one piece of information He gives us joins all the pieces together to create a complete knowledge about what He has been teaching us. Using those pieces of information has resulted in our great discovery of the knowledge of God.
Disregard or Keep
We are blessed enough to be able to use information from both human minds and the mind of God. We also have another avenue to receive information, the devil. The more information we speak about the more information the devil knows we have and what we are using it for. If we neglect the information from God the devil also knows. He has been studying humans for eons. He knows what we are capable of doing and he can fool us with information that sounds like it is from God. It is our job to be able to discern whether we are hearing from the devil or God. If it is from the devil we should disregard that information because it is meant to get us into trouble. If it is from God we need to keep it in our heart. The heart or soul is where we keep the pieces of information God means to use later to complete our knowledge.
Consider the Source
We always have to take the source into consideration. This can be a major obstacle for some folks because they can be deceived by the source of the information. There are three sources of information, man, God and the devil. There are only two types of information, false or true, and both can be skewed in the reception. Each person is apt to make up their own mind about information based on their history and who is giving them the information. We are called to be discerning with the information we receive because we cannot unlearn the knowledge we have. We need to be careful what we listen too so we will obtain more desirable information rather than undesirable information. We can gain desirable information from man, from God and from the devil. We need to learn how to use it appropriately to become more knowledgeable about our God. From God, you can never have too much information.
