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Idols
Today kept me busy with destroying idols of the past
that, even though not being used in any way, have a
sentiment attached that is in conflict with God's
Word and will.
Praying for God's Grace to guide and rid the silent
bondage of such things.
It has been coming along over time, but needs to be
dealt with, as God lovingly leads.
Even simple secular books and magazines, that are
not really looked at anymore, for example, give a
legal ground for the enemy to keep a hold over our
lives.
I'm really thankful that God has brought me to "new"
light to see this. My son, Joshua and me discussed
this at length during our "coffee time" (our daily
fellowship time), this morning and he also has
started taking stock of items which hold
unacceptable sentiment in his life.
This purging is a very important time for us right
now.
The process needs to start somewhere. For me it was
a break from my passion for IT first (All things
computer related, my past IT work, was too much of a
passion and had become an idol or idols). Now it
has become more specific as God guides.
The basic understanding has been that we should not
hold onto anything that conflicts with the new Life
that God has been giving us.
It will surely be ongoing.
That which is "of the world" can be used if first
consecrated to God's purposes. Like using WhatsApp
or Messenger to communicate, not compulsively, but
as God guides.
The setting apart though ... requires a definitive
break of old worldly sentiment in the heart. That is
becoming clear now, yet separating only happens as
God shows us our heart motives and veiled intents,
which may conflict with His will and Word.
Hebrews 4:12
has been a strong guide to seeing the Word alive and
active in this.
Possibly the strongest idols we may hold on to are
the hidden idols in our hearts. Several times we may
hear and even feel that the sentiment we have is not
supposed to be in our lives.
It may come from the voices of others, during a time
of prayer and also in reading scripture, as God's
loving will constantly offers us light in our
darkness.
Our natural human inclination remains the very
Adamic sin nature of the flesh - we just will not
hear or simply cannot hear God speaking through any
of the abovementioned and many more channels. This
can be the saddest state of any soul, as it has us
wondering why, even as believers, that a very heavy
weight is just not lifting from us.
The heavy hand of God will remain and steady growing
pressure from the loving heart of God will not
leave. We may still read scripture, pray and
worship, yet with ever growing coldness, as we
remain defiant to God's wooing us away from
rebellion. We will look at every other possible
cause for our sorry state, while God arranges more
situations to get our attention.
This is the nature of the strongholds of idols
within our hearts, even if we have removed any
physical idols, without having God remove the "heart
idols" - our state of life will put us on a path of
conflict with God's will. This path will grow ever
darker, should the stubborn 'I' of self remain
unmoved and refuse to yield to God's dealings with
us.
Oftentimes those under the hand of God's dealings
and conviction will attempt to show great outward
"faith", religious activity and "talk" - to conceal
their rebellion, yet never touch or finish listening
or reading anything that will convict them of their
actual defiance.
The sad state will become a cold empty shell of
religion that sees fault in every other, yet never
submits before God, with ever growing blame on
everything and everyone else. The resulting stone
cold heart never finds
Psalm 51 (i.e: the "clean heart")
and only eternity will tell the consequence.
We dare not intervene with emotion, thought or any
human efforts to force a human outcome when we
discern this in anyone. Only God has judgement
rights and as such we can only pray that God's will
be done in the now tortured soul.
The stubborn soul in this battle often finds
themselves isolated (at times together with a few
others in the same sorry state), as those who have
the fullness of the Life of Christ cannot walk
unequally yoked.
The converse is also apparent, as those in rebellion
cannot bear to be in the presence of those who shine
the Light of Christ.
This sad alienation surely grieves the Holy Spirit
who brings the conviction of the full Way, Truth and
Life of Christ, to no avail.
Even the strongest conviction from the Holy Spirit
may end up remaining just that: "conviction". The
intents we may have remains dead religion if the
Sword of the Spirit is not active, alive and remains
without response, repentance and yielding to the
will of God.
Reading through the chronicles of the kings of
Israel we see that, even when the chosen nation had
active temple worship, God remained grieved that the
high places of the foreign gods were not taken down.
The result was a pattern of some blessing and then
exile for Israel - never learning, sadly most missed
the Messiah when He came in the flesh.
Jesus' next step onto the earth will be different as
most of us know very well.
May God have mercy, May Christ have mercy.
Much love in Christ our Lord,
Bernard
Saturday, 08 December 2018.
Cape Town, South Africa
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