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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Not a game!


Galatians 5:22-25

New International Version (NIV)


22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.


     Sometimes the Lord speaks to me clearly and I can't find peace until I speak out the words He has given me.  He speaks to me in dreams and I know it is Him, because these dreams are different than other dreams.  They are very clear and I remember the smallest details.  I have to share so I can move forward.
     Yesterday I took a very short nap and I dreamt of a Bingo card being slapped down in front of me.  The numbers on the card were getting larger then smaller, then larger then smaller.  He really wanted me to see those numbers.  They were all "9's".  I had no idea what this meant, but slowly He has been revealing it to me.  He said the number nine represents two things.  First He spoke of judgment.  In Haggai 1:9-11 judgment came from the Lord on Judah in the form of a drought that affected them in 9 ways.

Haggai 1:9-11

New International Version (NIV)
“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands".


     No matter what number He calls out it is only "9s" on our cards, which means ungrateful.  We have become so wrapped up in what we want, what we think is right.  We think we know better than Him.  We have become ungrateful for the things that matter.  He sent his son to suffer a brutal death, to be nailed to the cross and left there to suffocate and we have become desensitized to this.  We casually go about our daily lives sinning in the same ways we have for years and not aggressively seeking freedom from that sin.  Freedom is available to us through Him and He wants to see us set free more than we want that freedom.  We are focused on our wants and what we think we need more than His plan for our lives.  We should not even worry about the unsaved, we need to keep our eyes on our own Bingo card.  We need to focus on Him and what He wants to change in us.  We should not take our eyes off our card until those numbers change from "9s".  Not our will for our lives, but His will for our lives.  He is looking for a people He can trust to not only listen for His voice but to obey to the smallest details.  If we were all doing this, the lost would be found, because He, the ALL KNOWING, would send us where we need to go with the words we need to say and not only that, we would be a living example.  Obedience would produce fruit.  Souls will be saved with our obedience. 
     How do we become ungrateful?  Lack of discipline.  Any spoiled and undisciplined child becomes ungrateful.  We are called to be disciples.  Self discipline and Church discipline are lacking in so many who claim to be believers.  He sees everything we do, He knows our every thought and wants to help us find the freedom to follow Him.  He is about to stretch the backbone of the Church and they are to quit focusing on the rambling and complaining unimportant issues.  We are to submit to the authority of our Church leaders, and there is about to be a shift in leadership so that the fans of God can be weeded out from the true followers. 

     Also, the number "9" represents Godly character.  There are nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.  Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.  If we focus on these things, as we grow in Him, "His Will" will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. 

     I have had people tell me that the Lord only speaks in Love.  He is Love.  I agree with this.  But discipline is Love and sometimes we do get a spanking from our Father.  There is about to be a shift in the Church.  Those who are not listening and obeying will be disciplined.  God does not expect perfection.  He does expect us to chase after Him with everything in us.  He is waiting to show us everything we need to know to turn our lives around, but many of us are satisfied with lukewarm lives.  Any sin we are aware of, yet tolerate in our lives is an idol.  We are putting it before God in importance instead of putting it before God in true repentance.
  • “Now we cannot...discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing). Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good. Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, "You must do this. I can't.”
    C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity    

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