Hot Mess Part 2
/Seeing God’s hand in our life, walking out our salvation with Jesus and learning to rely on the Holy Spirit for help are the keys that unlock our lives and lead us to freedom in everything we will ever face.
Who doesn’t enjoy incredible Mexican food? I always get the same thing when my husband I occasionally indulge at our local La Cocina: a beef taco, cheese enchilada, with the rice, beans, salad or soup, being the added perks of ordering the COMBO plate! My friends, Jesus is our spiritual COMBO plate! Jesus not only came to reconcile us back to our Father, giving us eternal salvation (1), but He also fully takes upon himself every facet of our hot mess, meeting us exactly where we are! He came to set us FREE from all wrong thinking, wrong doing, guilt, shame, infirmity, addictions, and basically everything that sets itself up against Him (2)! And the perks that go along with finally throwing our hands up in exhaustion, admitting it’s ALL beyond our control, waving our own tattered white flag, and asking Him to come into our hot mess, permits Him to pick us up off the ground, take our dirty white flag and exchange it for His banner of unconditional love. HE now walks before us carrying that pristine, white as snow VICTORY flag as you have now invited Him to go BEFORE you as your SHIELD into battle!
“ My friends, Jesus is our spiritual COMBO plate! ”
You know what else? YOU have ALSO become pristine, white as snow, clean, pure, holy, blameless, and above reproach - the SAME AS JESUS as well as the Banner He carries on your behalf because He now lives IN YOU! You may have said, “YES” to Him out of sheer human defeat but what was actually happening was that you were getting to the end of your flesh - your OWN strength, which is actually your pride in believing in your own abilities to effect change!
If we are always living life in our own strength, what the HECK do we need God for?!! It’s ONLY in our weakness that He can be strong in us! It’s only in our soul’s vulnerable nakedness, when we humble ourselves realizing what we are doing isn’t working and we ADMIT WE. CAN’T. DO. IT. and we ask for His help. You just hit the lottery, friend, because you were NEVER created to do life alone or on your own.
Our pride sets us up against God. It says we don’t need help and that we know better. But that is completely contrary to HOW God created us, which is to RELY on Him in ALL things and ask for His help and guidance. Pride never leads to anything good. Humility opens wide the door to solutions, growth and ultimate blessing. Something always good comes out of humble hearts.
Further, God NEVER created us to navigate life in our own resources, our own knowledge, our own understanding, and especially in our own strength! Reliance upon ourselves leaves no room for relationship with HIM!
I know a beautiful woman who grew up in luxury in Zambia, Africa. Her father was a wealthy man. They owned a large house and had many servants. Knowing that the village offered very little, it was common for the privileged to be sent to English boarding schools for their education. Once finished with high school and being led by God to a Christian college in America, my amazing friend, got off the plane in Arkansas with (figuratively speaking) a nickel in her pocket. Her father had passed, leaving the family with little resources and so my sweet friend’s journey was 100% reliance on God. I’ll never forget a conversation we once had where she conveyed that those who had converted to Christianity in the Zambian villages were anointed places where Holy Spirit dwelled deeply and the people called out to God day and night BELIEVING Him for His promises. She said there was nothing like the church services there. I asked what she felt was behind this and she quickly responded, “It’s because God was ALL they had. They had no money. They had no resources.” And so they DEEPLY believed Him to be their EVERYTHING. They clung to Him alone for every aspect of their life. It was a tangible Presence inside the villagers that exuded pure love, peace and JOY.
When was the last time you actually“felt” JOY?!! Joy, my friend, is walking in freedom, hand in hand, with Jesus in the lead.
On the flip side of Zambian village culture, our Western world is quite self-sustaining in materialism. We have abundant money and resources. Most of us are completely self reliant, having been raised in homes that provided much more than just the basic life necessities. We went to schools that were safe, with the occasional exception of the school bully wreaking havoc. We’ve grown up with running water, flushing toilets, hot showers, and electricity, never having to fear the stealthiness of a silent black mambo out to eat our newborn or a rogue pack of rabid monkeys hell bent on stealing from the many mango trees in the yard. Many of us have gone to college or trade schools leading to occupations that pay well, providing us with countless extras. When we can pretty much buy or save for anything we desire, WHY DO WE NEED GOD? We have ourselves! And we do pretty good - until relationships come into play. God is the Author and Definer of healthy relationship. And when ours are not aligning with His blueprint, there is FLESH MESS! There is NO freedom in flesh mess! In order for us to have healthy relationships with others, we must first have healthy relationship with our Father and Creator.
Stats show that Christians exhibit much the same behavior as unbelievers. Our divorce rates are the same and countless people accept salvation from Jesus, becoming “Believers” but go right on living in chaos, never grabbing hold of their relationship and becoming “Followers” - and it shows. Following Jesus, reaching for Him, reading our Bibles, leads to supernatural transformation as we begin to believe we are who He says we are, which is the exact thing that ushers us into freedom. Half the time we only say “yes” to Him because we hit rock bottom and there is nothing left for us to do! But that’s ok! God doesn’t mind about whatever leads you to Him. He only cares you’ve been LED TO HIM!
“If we are always living life in our own strength, what the HECK do we need God for?!!”
NOTHING is beyond Him. Nothing baffles Him. Nothing knocks Him off-course and nothing surprises Him. He knows ALL, sees ALL, is ALL, and is everywhere at ALL times. He is with you. He is with me. He is with the ones we want to strangle, who are involved in THEIR OWN mess, ALL at the same time! He loves us ALL. We are ALL His. We ALL belong to Him. We are ALL His children; His family. We look different, speak different language, go to different churches, or don’t go at all and NONE. OF. THAT. matters to Him. He created us ALL. He wrote EACH of our stories, like those personalized children’s books with our kid’s name in it - books all about THEM and how they are SPECIAL, SET APART, and UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED. God has that SAME book about YOU!
Jesus came to save you AND set you free from your flesh mess! Psalm 34:4-22 (TPT - emphasis mine) says
…I cried to God in my distress and He answered me.
He freed me from all my fears!
Gaze upon Him, join your life with His, and JOY WILL COME.
Your faces will glisten with glory.
You’ll never wear that shame-face again.
When I had nothing, desperate and defeated,
I cried out to the Lord and He heard me,
bringing His miracle-deliverance when I needed it most.
The angel of the Lord stooped down to listen as I prayed,
encircling me, empowering me. and showing me how to escape.
He will do this for EVERYONE who fears God.
Drink deeply of the pleasure of this God.
Experience for yourself the joyous mercies He gives
to all who turn to hide themselves in Him.
…Even the strong and the wealthy grow weak and hungry,
but those who passionately pursue the Lord
will never lack any good thing,
…when the holy lovers of God cry out
to Him with all their hearts,
the Lord WILL hear them and come to rescue them
from ALL their troubles.
The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain.
and He is ALWAYS ready to restore the repentant one…
God will be your bodyguard to protect you when trouble is near…
the Lord has paid for the freedom of His servants,
and He will freely pardon those who love him.
He will declare them free and innocent
when they turn to hide themselves in Him.
Friend, God is not some flippant, mean, unreliable and spooky entity, waiting for you to slip up and out to get you! On the contrary, He is the same amazing God yesterday, today and forever. He does NOT change. His word does not change. We can trust His promises. He remains faithful to us even when we stubbornly run away or refuse to be faithful to Him! He never turns His back! if you choose to do things YOUR way, He lets you. But once you run out of steam, and EACH of us does, He is there waiting to invite you in.
Freedom is NOT elusive! Depending on how God has written YOUR story, you may experience freedom immediately. But I suspect for most of us, it is a journey of continuing to seek Him in healing each layer of our hearts, minds and souls one layer at a time, which takes time, and is painful.
First John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.
So friend, if you find yourself ready to give up after circling the same drain over and over again; if these words resonate in any way, simply turn to Him and join me in saying this prayer out loud. I stand with you, believe for you and trust His timing to reach out to you.
Father, I pray Psalm 34 back to You.
I am crying out to You in my distress and am trusting You are meeting me right now.
I believe You are freeing me from ALL my fears.
I am gazing upon You, joining my life with Yours and trusting You to bring joy into my life
which will make my face glisten with Your glory and I will never wear that shame-face again because You have taken all my shame away and set me free.
Lord, I have nothing left inside. I am desperate and defeated and I am admitting it to you.
I have tried over and over in my own strength and over and over I have failed.
I confess I am powerless when it comes to (your area of struggle with person/sin/beliefs/words/control/etc.)
Please forgive my pride, which is run by my flesh, and for me thinking I can do it on my own. You did not create me to live apart from You and Your help. I acknowledge my healing comes supernaturally through only You, God. And I give You permission to heal me. Help me to trust You - even when it gets really hard because You are faithful.
Thank You for forgiving me and washing me clean with the Blood of Jesus as I have accepted His gift of salvation. Now, as I have confessed what I struggle with, I know You are faithful and just to forgive and cleanse me from ALL unrighteousness in this matter. Cover me with your mercy and grace as You release me from the burden I have carried.
Help me to not fall back into my old ways of self-reliance and thinking I can do it on my own. I admit that is my flesh mess talking, which is in constant conflict with Your Spirit, Who lives inside me. I pray Your Spirit is bigger than my flesh because Your word says in 1 John 4:4 greater is He who is in me, than he that is in the world. Father, I pray Your voice is the loudest voice in my head. I ask You to shut out the voices of the world that constantly lie to me and lead me away from You. I want what You want for me and I know that all of it comes from Your GOODNESS!
I pray Your kingdom come and Your will be done in my life.
In Jesus Name, amen.
If after you have prayed this prayer and find yourself slipping back into your old ways of thinking, believing, hopelessness, doubt, confusion, etc., remember at once that is the enemy of your soul doing his best to pull you back into your flesh, which will always wage war against God and your spirit.
Upon reading this blog before it was published, a good friend shared the following and I thought it perfect to add. “I couldn’t help but think reading it how we, as women, try to juggle and do everything. This is a lie we have all bought into. We have to be strong, we have to be active, we have to have our kids involved in a million things, we have to be super models, etc. These are all lies from the devil and we, as humans, continue to buy into what he is selling” - all flesh related.
We must be aware that one of the enemy’s biggest strategies is to get us distracted, frustrated, exhausted and to keep us in a partnership of bondage with him. His main goal is to draw our attention AWAY from God, Who will always breathe truth, peace, and freedom into our spirits. If satan can keep us rooted in the flesh, he routinely accomplishes his mission of dividing and conquering as well as keeping us chained to demonic oppression.
Both the devil and God are Spirit. But God must come first if you are seeking freedom. Your intentional pursuit of His ways that lead to freedom will ALWAYS make you feel conflicted because our minds/will/emotions/souls/reason/logic ALL VIE for your attention and action to stay anchored to them, which ALWAYS drags you back into your SELF and your own ways - apart from God.
Surrender, my friend. Second Chronicles 14 says it best:
Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
We were innately created to unconsciously seek internal restoration. God created our bodies to heal themselves of wounds. But He created our spirits to first be reconciled to Him which is what then allows His healing to saturate our minds, souls and emotions, while at the same time subdues our fleshly reason and logic into submission to the Spirit of God, which is where His supernatural ability and healing power is released within us.
“Both the devil and God are Spirit. But God must come first if you are seeking freedom. ”
Our audible humility in confessing our inability to change the things we cannot change is the very thing that allows the Father access into those deep scarred places within our hearts. The result is always healing, change, and growth because you’ve made a conscious decision to turn away from both yourself and the enemy’s lies, and instead, reaching to Him in your weakness.
Simple, but hard at the same time. Usually the hardest thing and the right thing are the same thing!
Just do it! And watch what God will does in your life!