Righteous Conviction

When you think of the word "conviction", it is easy to associate it with someone who is living for themselves instead of living for God. That feeling someone gets who rarely sees a preacher on TV, or maybe comes to church on Easter and Christmas. Or maybe when they hear something that makes them really rethink about the way they live. I want to address another type of conviction. The type of conviction that a Christian who goes to church twice a week feels when they become satisfied with where they are. The type that comes from The Holy Spirit that is always meant for your good.

A lack of this conviction creates a vacuum, because lack of ability in understanding of both simple and greater things is the result. This is the case because without conviction one inevitably hits a solid wall in their spiritual growth, and God is forced to not act as He would have, because you're not ready for it. Additionally, without conviction, often there is no urgency to change, and even worse, no ability to change. You can't change something if you don't see a reason to. A person with no conviction leads a stagnant life that slowly decays, as a fish tank would grow algae until you can't see through the glass anymore.

Conviction should be welcomed. It is one of very few reliable things that always lights up a direct path towards something better. Conviction has the power to create a sense of urgency where there was none before. Unfortunately, people sometimes tend to view conviction as some sort of guilt trip on the way they live. They see it as invasive. Worse yet, is that it is so easy to dismiss something that no one will call you out on, which is often the case because it challenges the hidden things within, as well as the little things that others may not notice.

But it is conviction that can have the one of the single most transforming effects that exists, outside of salvation. God will never use conviction to hurt you, only to put you on the path of destiny that He has already planned for your life. The fleshly response to conviction is to defend itself by way of attacking or ignoring the conviction. The spiritual response to conviction is to seek out and attack with resolute change what the conviction calls out. Seeing conviction as an ally empowers and emboldens one, propelling them to new levels of success.

Is there anything else out there that pinpoints areas of weakness and need for improvement in one's life with such directness? No, but because of this, having that conviction means having no excuse for not making the proper adjustments. Sometimes it is hard to willingly put yourself in a place where you create more personal accountability, and that's a large proponent of people purposely dismissing conviction on their lives. We've all done it. I do it now. There are things I ignore that I know I am being led to change when I'm honest with myself. People speak of personal capacity, and responding to the tug of conviction is an excellent way to increase that.

Personal Impact: When I view conviction as an ally, my defenses are softened, and I am able to see it's endgame goals and necessity with the clarity one would have when watching a movie about a character with whom they have no relation to. With no defensive reactions, I can plan for the good that conviction is trying to achieve, like a coach would plan a 3rd and long situation from the sidelines, or as a precise military tactic would be planned and carried out by a general with a bird's eye view of the war zone.

The personal attachment to oneself is where the problem with conviction usually lies. Just as we are capable to see much room for improvement in others, so can we see within ourselves without the personal attachment if we will allow conviction to do it's work. Remember that conviction in the form I describe is really The Holy Spirit guiding you towards the more complete will of God in the first place, which is in part to temper your personal relationship with Him. We know that God will never give us more than we can handle. The same is true with advancement and promotion in Him. You can only go so far in your in your spiritual growth when you ignore that conviction that was placed on your heart for a purpose.

Reality, formerly titled Quotes

I've seen the world, folks. I've seen that it is lost, and that there are billions of people out there that don't know God. Now either it's His fault, or it's ours.
-Keith Green

Believe that when you come into the presence of God you can have all you came for. You can take it away, and you can use it, for all the power of God is at your disposal in response to your faith.
-Smith Wigglesworth

In order for our prayers to be effective, we have to be ruthless with our sin.
-Keith Green

It is impossible to get exhausted in work for God. We get exhausted because we try to do God's work in our own way.
-Oswald Chambers

I want to obey God even when it hurts to do so. Because what it hurts, I want to see die.
-Unidentified, alluding to his flesh

It is not the daily increase but the daily decrease; Hack away the unessential.
-Bruce Lee

And as much as you've not done it to the least of my brethren, you've not done it unto me. Depart from me. And thee shall go away into everlasting fire, but the righteous, into eternal life. And my friends, the only difference between the sheep and the goats, according to the Scripture, is what they did, and didn't, DO!
-Keith Green, quoting the Bible with some hardcore commentary

Keith Green said it best! There can be no compromise!!
-Pastor Kevin Gerald, jumping up onto a pew, preaching (1983)

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
-Mahatma Gandhi

I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.
-Martin Luther (died in 1546)

Why should I have to live to a different standard than you? We are all going to be at the same judgment. There's no judgment for pastors and and judgment for people that want to live their own way, conformed to the world . . . Like the transformed go to the transformed judgment and the conformed go to the conformed judgment. No, the conformed go to hell, oh wait, that's too harsh, I'm sorry.
-Pastor Tracey Armstrong (straight killing it one Sunday morning last month)

Peace if possible, truth at all costs.
-Martin Luther

The price we are having to pay today in the shape of the collapse of the organized church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost. We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale, we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation without condition. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving... But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, on the subject of cheap (modern) grace.


Have you ever heard or seen of how God works in other countries? Third World countries? The difference is the raw hunger for God! Christianity is most prevalent in America. Yet it is watered down more here than anywhere else on the planet. Ever wonder why? We need people of God to have convictions like most of the quotes above. They are the type that will be the vessels that God will use to restore what is all but lost. And the rest of the "Christians" that we see now? Well, they'll need to be transformed, because the kind of people that I'm talking about are the same kind of people that will follow 1 Corinthians 5.

9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person. (NKJV)

Take a look at how comfortable and friendly The Message Bible states this stuff:

9-13I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn't make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn't mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You'd have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn't act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I'm not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don't we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.

While it's true that with the tolerant Message Bible version you'll gather more people to church, and get a bigger offering, there is some really false doctrine being suggested. Inconvenient realities are being smoothed over for the sake of comfort and not being offensive. And this becomes part of the root, the established base, for people's faith. Is not something terribly wrong with that? (Editorial note: I started this as just some inspirational quotes, I guess it turned into something more)

Seek and Find

Passionately seek God. Chase Him down with all the tenacity of someone who NEEDS to catch God in order to live, because that's how it really is. Go after His plans for you like a pit-bull on crack. Run toward your God-given dreams without knowing how they will work out. Think of every inspirational movie scene you've ever seen where the protagonist does right for the sake of right, at any cost. Be reminded of the testimonies of people who were hopelessly dead, and came alive in Christ.

When He is all that matters, nothing else means anything! Embrace instruction, wisdom, and every good thing. Cling to truth, feed on Scripture. Live in a continual moment of praises to The King. Aggressively proclaim the truths that The Bible promises. Shout of victories not yet seen. Face the unknown like someone who has zero concern of the outcome, because he knows it's a fixed fight. Put on LOUD praise music alone and dance in God's presence. Pray hard! Pray often. Despise whatever comes between you and your growth with God. Don't make exceptions for your flesh. Kill it by feeding your spirit with every good thing of God.

Go to sleep dwelling on God, awaken praising Him! Scream to the heavens in amazement and wonder. Get revelation! Revelation that will change how you produce fruits. Revelation that will change how other people think, act, and live. If you are living like this, then you already know where the energy comes from, and why. You already know that man can never get tired when he lives out of the Spirit of God and not out of himself. You already know that God loves to inspire, loves to charge and energize revelation in people for the purpose of influence. If this isn't you right now, start with ANY of the short sentences above. Grab God's hand and fly, because nothing He will do can be done from any lower position.

(Ed. note - If this seems spastic it's because I'm in the middle of something spiritually altering right now, I'll be able to fill you in on that in just a couple of weeks.) Matthew 12:35

How I Praise God

(Editorial note: If you can't be bothered to read this, at least read the big bold chunk below)

Recently at my church during praise and worship, the worship leader made a comment in between songs that really stuck to me. She said to the congregation, "Hey, if you're not up here shouting and dancing . . . it is because of your pride". My first reaction was just that, a reaction, and one based on defensiveness. I thought to myself, "Look, I'm just not that kind of guy. I don't dance unless you count rocking the heck out. It's not for me, that's not how I worship, and who are you to tell me otherwise? Just because I don't flow like that doesn't mean I'm not worshiping just as much as you".
I should tell you a little bit of how I praised God before that day, just so you don't skip reading this thinking I'm all fired up about getting ready to tell you that I learned to lift my hands that day. I wasn't one of those people you see who just stood there or sat there during praise and worship. I lifted my hands, and not in that fake way where people only raise their hands because it's a lyric or because other people lift their hands. I really did praise the God that I live for. I sang to Him, I felt His presence, He ministered to me every week. I looked forward to it before church.
It's important that I convey the fact that my whole Christian life I had been praising God in a way that seemed to me to be something that I got more out of than some people, because I meant it. But the real point is that I wasn't getting nearly as much out of it as God wanted for me, because I had decided everything was fine, and ergo put no thought into any other option. Anyway, God opened my eyes on the spot, and what I saw immediately melted my defensiveness. As I watched my inspiring worship leader, I saw that she was indeed more free in her worship than I, and I had to admit that it was impossible for me to be as free because on some level, I had always kept myself in check during worship. Keeping myself in check wasn't really a conscious effort, but it was true that I didn't praise God at church quite the same way I did at home or in the car, when it was just Him and me. At home I was certainly louder, because it didn't matter how well I could sing if no one heard it. At church, I could hear the person next to me and KNOW that they sounded great. I also KNEW that I didn't sound nearly as good. I didn't want to interrupt their beauty with my less than angelic voice.
These thoughts were the indisputable proof that I did indeed limit my praise to God, if for any reason, that I thought of them enough to change the focus from worship to my actions when it was supposed to be "God and me" time. So I took a chance. I stretched my arms toward the sky more than I ever had before. I said to God, "Alright man, free me from me! I don't want to hold anything back". And I meant it. I said it with hunger. And that is exactly why the change was allowed to take place and be so effective in freeing me to do what was from the beginning, the right and natural thing to do: Praise my God!
Love Him through honest and open, and very real communication. My spirit at once cried out in the freedom that came from holding back nothing, and from disregarding my fleshly concerns! The two (spirit and flesh) cannot exist on the same plane without one choking out the other. With my flesh now unimportant, my spirit was free to love God in this sacred time of worship! I put everything into it, for it is what my spirit longs to do, >>>> and would easily do without a body born into sin. And I tell you the truth friend, I'm talking about a different grade of experience here. Red pill, blue pill stuff. What follows is, in part, the revelation that God gave me while I worshiped at home the very next week:
To "let everything that has breath praise the lord forever" is the natural order of things. We see it as some type of commandment but really, it is a statement attesting to that natural order. It was written by a psalmist, who by nature describes things in an eloquent way, much like a poet. Sin; the fall of man, is what confused the natural flow in the first place, because of it's separation consequence. But we have God to un-confuse and re-connect us!! And He is discovered on a profound level in praising Him.
When you enter into communion through worship you see past the illusions; through the fog, because you're not looking through sinful eyes, through "natural" eyes, any longer. That false nature cannot exist in God's presence. Being in that special place allows one to break through the illusions and allows Him remove the thin veil that we are unnaturally accustomed to. It is in this place that we can most see Reality. Ultimate Reality, God's Reality. This is precisely why in praising God, you can get SUCH fantastic vision, direction, and that knowledge that nothing can stop you. Only the One True Living God could ever invoke such reaction from His own creation!
As long as we live in these sinful bodies we will have to fight for these Ultimate Reality viewpoints. As a friend of mine said, "It's not God who puts up the walls that we must break to enter that quiet place with Him. It's us" (thanks M). Get past the "fallen human" factors of pride and emotion driven choices. It would be a hopeless endeavor on our own, but being who He is, God makes this possible. Do what is indeed the truest natural order of things, being on the plane of existence that only the One True Living God could create and dwell in and take us to and wait for us to discover. He inhabits the praises of His people (Psalms 22:3) and He shares life-changing revelation with us. Being close to the Master Lover, we are engulfed in Love, again the natural order can only dictate revelation!! You say you want revelation in your life, a fresh word. Enter that place and meet God. He won't hold back. As a matter of fact, only you can hold Him back by not opening yourself up to get in that Holy place with your Creator.
If every Christian got this honest in their worship, no one would get caught up in that weak, Christian on Christian judgmental pride. Furthermore, the world wouldn't even judge it. People don't judge what is the set standard. We wouldn't even need to tell people about God in America!! The world would flock to the church and God's people, desperately wanting some of that joy. (That's pretty heavy, I better save that for next time, after you've awoken to the idea of revelation.)
So now I'm that guy in the front that's all crazy during worship. I used to be the guy that scoffed at the people in the front row getting all crazy. So if you see me and judge my motives, it's okay. We're just not looking through the same eyes. The curtains have been pulled back on mine. By the way, if I've required you to read this, it can mean only one thing; You're coming to church with me soon, and I don't need you to take your focus off of why you're really there. I don't need you getting caught up in wondering why I do what I do, that could interrupt your worship of God. And there isn't a good enough reason on Earth for that to happen.


P.S. That place with God is not about feeling dizzy and getting goosebumps, it's about being brought to a place of empowerment for the purpose of strength, focus, and going back out into the world more capable than before. But that's another topic entirely . . .

Undone Potential

6-10-08
The other day I was driving a friend home after an afternoon out together. We had a good time, talked about life, bowled maybe a couple of games, had lunch, you know, the typical all around good day. At the end of this typical ride, my friend had said something rather profound, but for him, it was again typical, however lost that concept might be on him. We said our usual goodbyes, not meaningless or rehearsed, just typical, like the rest of the day. As I drove away it occurred to me that I might never again see my friend (I don't know why, but these kind of thoughts often enter my head; not necessarily negative, but decidedly a completely different tangent, to be sure). It got me thinking that I should have told him the important things instead of the normal things that are so very common in our encounters, before we parted ways. Should have told him that he had no idea how inspiring he'd been to me over the many years, should have told him that it always amazed me that he was so clueless about just how profound he could be, and that that in itself was a great asset, able to help him keep pure and pride free once he discovered how deep his words could be. Should have told him that I value him more than almost anything in this life, that without him, I would have never had a prayer of turning out to be the person I am today. My friend is not the point of this story, but more of a catalyst. We all have people in our lives, people that we hold things back from. For whatever reason, we idly fluff our conversation, and leave so many important, genuine things unsaid. Perhaps it's because of the conditioning from society, perhaps it's pride or bashfulness. Whatever the reasons are, they aren't good enough. Instead of saying all the things I should have said to my friend, I said "Alright man, stay cool. Hit me up later or something". The difference of the levels of empowerment and encouragement between what I said and what I should have said is beyond comparison. What positive, inspiring, raw energy there is in saying what we should have, instead of the typical. How much better off would each of us be if we all did this? Take the time to be honest with one another. Not just close friends, but every friend. Build one another up with truthful little quips, never lip service, never cheap compliments, just being real, just being true. Set aside worrying about sounding foolish or mushy, and just let somebody know about something you've taken from them to become a more complete person. If that had been the last time I saw my friend, that day of my story where I fed him the accepted, lazy regularities of conversation, what of the undone potential? (editorial note - there, M.A., told you I had a less heavy post coming up. Pbbbt!)

Convenient Christ.

(editorial note) I've had this post done for a few weeks now. I had been debating whether to put it up or not. I actually considered lying and saying that I found it somewhere out there and thought it was good. But that's not the truth. The truth is that I wrote it. But if what I'm about to say is difficult to hear even from a stranger, how much more would any chance of growth be choked out if it comes from you may know? Anyway, here we go:

What I'm about to say is hardcore. Difficult to swallow. It's also an excellent opportunity to grow. I was talking to my brother about a book he was reading, and he mentioned the term "cheap grace". I don't know who wrote it, I haven't read it, but that term "cheap grace" stuck with me. Cheap grace teaches and breeds a lifestyle of forgiveness without repentance. What are the effects of cheap grace built up over a life long walk with God? A weak Christian mainly. A person that God can't do much with, and the things He can use you for, you bring shame to, because you're weak in Him. Does anything else matter after that? I'm sick of seeing people use and abuse God's grace. I categorize myself in this way as well. I'm no better than you, probably worse at times. Do you think it's God's grace in action when you decide that you're going to bathe in a rotten pile of carnal fleshly sickness by choice and evil desire? Jesus didn't die so that you could call on him when you feel bad about how your selfish life and choices screwed you over and left you empty when you already know SO much better. That was meant for when you were new to God. Not for when you're supposed to be beyond "infant's milk". You've heard the term "putting God in a box". This is far worse. It's not putting Him in a box when you draw lines as to how much of a Christian you're going to be; How much you're going to allow God's Word to change you and how much you won't. How much you REFUSE to adhere to conviction until it just kind of goes away. Will God give you this grace anyway? Absolutely! Does He want you to need it on that level? Obviously not, since we MORE than have the ability through Christ to advance beyond that level. This cheap grace is how people are Christians for 25 years and are still living like babies in Christ. It's how people have the form and never the power. This is how people who have walked with God for 20 years have a plastic smile while in secrecy, they hate themselves and those around them. Grace is temporary in the big picture view - and my Bible says that we'll give account for everything in the end! I'm sick of Christians being self-centered and self-serving whores. Whores. I use that word because it's true. Whoring yourself out to sin's consuming way because it serves your purpose of self fulfillment. Not you, you say? You serve at church and smile at people you like? You don't hate and steal? Well, blessed be your name! I'm not talking about clear worldly behavior. I'd even say that many Christians aren't using God in that way. I'm talking about the things that we harbor in our hearts and inner thoughts. I'm talking about the hidden things that you abuse God's abundant grace to pardon yourself of without intention to change! Clearly it is obvious that outward sin is much easier to overcome. Why is that? Because inner sin is secret, for one. Inward sin is destructive to us because the secrecy means we don't always have a sense of urgency to destroy it. People can't plainly see it, so it can be easy to nurture it instead of kill it. It's the inner filth that people don't want to give up that crusts up until we are changed into something that makes God sick. The Bible says that all have fallen short. That's not a license to continue being stubborn in sinful ways because it suits you. Repent of whoreish behavior. Be free. A lot of people like to quote the bible to suit self-serving causes. Here's one:

Part of John 8:32 : ". . . and the truth will set you free."

Well, that's fun. And comforting. Here's the verse before that:

John 8:31-32 : Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

He who is set free by the Son is free indeed . . .

Ripped Off

I've really wanted to write a post lately. But I have this thing about me that won't let me write something when I've read or heard something profound from someone else. The reason for this is that I refuse to chance writing someone else's word. It's no good to me, because everything I write, I feel; like you would feel a really great song, or some poetry that moves you. My spirit thrives on God's inspiration when I write, and it's all very personal and heart-felt to me. It's not a pride thing, I just know in my heart that the weird way I write is exactly how I'm supposed to do it. Enough about that, let me get to the point. I was recently able to hear some truly great stuff from my pastor, Tracey Armstrong. It was so packed with revelation that I was in shock, and am even now reeling from the effect of that great teaching. It was so impactive to me that I felt sorry for people who didn't hear it. Somehow that led to thinking about Mark 6:4. "But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." This does not only mean a literal prophet. It refers to teaching, preaching, prophecy, almost any anointing. I thought about how so many people fall victim to this scripture's foretelling fate. The message that I heard from Tracey was life changing! It will for the rest of my life shape how I think. How many people grew up around him, knowing him, that simply would never allow ANY word from him to penetrate their being? What a sad shame! When Jesus said this, he wasn't saying it as if it were a biblical principle that is inescapable. As a matter of fact, according to the next verse, regardless of that situation, he went about his business. He kept doing what he knew he was meant to do. In that verse, the people's unbelief and nonacceptance stopped the hand of God from touching their lives! Jesus never meant that this is how it should be. My brother is one of my greatest heroes. The things he has instructed me on have benefited me greatly. Some of the things he has learned in communion with God and shared with me have been filled with more actual substance than many, many services in church. I can't imagine how awful it would have been for me to have missed some of those things just because of the human weakness Jesus described in Mark 6:4. I couldn't imagine not taking to heart what my pastor says because I had grown up around him. Don't get ripped off. If someone you know has a good word, take it to heart. Don't miss potentially life-building wisdom for some petty reason that means nothing. That's not what God wants. He puts people in your life for you to build up and to be built up by. Don't miss out on something that may complete a part of you.

Silent Reservations

I don't know who this might help or apply to, but it's definitely for somebody. You've been hurt in your relationship with God, either by the gradual process of falling away into darkness, having a dream and not seeing it come to manifestation in what you believed to be a timely manner, or having a viewpoint that you failed Him because you could have done better, done more, lived to the higher standard that the more "Christians" you met, the more you realized they didn't have. You're all alone now, and tired of feeling dead. You think you have enough desire to make a comeback. You decide that you're going to repair this problem by making things right with God. You resolve to do better. You swear that you're not going to waste anymore time. No more will you stand by idle. But something isn't right. You can't go full throttle anymore, and it's because you were devastated and can't risk that again. The pain was near overwhelming before, you almost never came back. So you subconsciously draw a line concerning God that you will not cross. You can only commit so far, because you don't want to be dropped from so high again, because you're pretty sure you would never recover. You refuse to be that vulnerable ever again! So you make certain that you won't extend yourself to that dangerous of a point. You watch from the sidelines instead of making the driving plays. It's safe. But, the reason you do all this is that really because somehow, during your isolated and hurt time, you forgot what God called you to be. What He said you are and will be for Him. Just who He promised you would become. You forgot how intense the visions He gave you in order to answer His call were. Why then do you think you can come back to a righteous life and be apprehensive and so far removed? What part of anything God ever showed you do you think you can do with anything less than absolute full throttle? Yes, the pain you felt was real. And no, it never is easy to be as humble as it really takes, and as trusting as it really takes to not have those scars jeopardize the future quality of life with God, like they're doing now. He truly wants you to remember the resurrective power He is willing to share with you. God wants you to recall the fact that restorative regeneration is something He is always eager to share with you again. But He also holds you accountable for what you refuse to see or are unable to see due to your sin. And then the true things of God are hidden from you, and you operate with far less power than you should. The whole thing becomes a nightmarish, fevered effort by you to stay somewhere in between. This isn't about or even referring to a lukewarm issue, that's entirely different. This is about being healed. This is about being fully restored back to the person who put it all on the line because the promises of God are all they knew and cared about. About becoming the person once again who held nothing back, again becoming the recipient of the benefits of being a child of God who is abandoned fully to Him. God is faithful to complete the work he began in you so long ago. He wants you to jump off the edge using that amazing level of faith He gave you, for a time just like this . . .

Darkness

Darkness. It happens to most of us at some point or another in our walk with God. I'm not talking about the minor setback that slows us down for a bit. I'm talking about the major (or at least very seemingly to us at the time) setbacks that all but stop us. Paralyzing every area of growth, it halts all progress and drains us of the very will to move on. When it takes hold of you, you get disgusted about your relationship with God and become self-loathing. In extreme levels of this, you try to dismiss the importance of the relationship in the first place in an attempt to justify. I read a book by Tim Storey once that talked about not letting your "setback" become you "step back". He warned of this because all too often, that's what happens in these situations. It's what has happened to me recently, and this is why there have been no blogs. I am forthcoming about this because frankly, I'm called to use such honesty in what will someday become my style of ministry. I do this because it is relating to others with genuineness that softens their hearts to accept and apply what's being said.
Anyway, when darkness consumes us in this way, we cut ourselves off from outside support. Partially out of guilt and shame, and partially because sin divides and conquers by nature. Satan bathes in his perverted version of joy from seeing us successfully separated from God and from the people that God puts in our lives that were meant to support and build us up. The real danger of darkness is the hopelessness that it purveys into a person's viewpoint. It alters what is real and morphs it into something that is built entirely on a lie. This view feels SO real that every action and inaction we take is affected by it. The separation causes us to make bad choices that have outcomes that further annihilate and sever. A very base reality of being a human being is a certain level of susceptibility to things like this.
This is why God has put so much effort into giving us all that we need to pull out of it. How often it is though, that we choose to endure that private hell without letting Him heal and restore us. The trap is very real. Anything that separates you from God's plan for your life should be attacked with reckless abandon. If you wake up one day and wonder, "How did I end up here?", it's already much later than it should be. You've been leeched from by darkness, inflicted and transformed into a shell of who you were. The real key to preventing this from happening to you is to know exactly how to stop it before it takes hold. That's difficult when by nature, it sneaks into your life. Look for signs of rebellion that start out disguised as "independent thinking". I'm all for independent thinking when that's what it is, but it simply isn't always so. If you humble yourself to God, you can worry a lot less about rebellion creeping up on you. There's intense power in getting on your knees and turning to Him for help. Verbally admitting to God that you need guidance and asking Him to save you from yourself can be more freeing than you might expect. Watch for "no time" to invest in the Word or prayer. When you do disappoint yourself, stand tall and fight inch by inch to overcome through God's power. Get the tenacity of a bull-dog and REFUSE to be a victim of ignorance. Open your heart to God and remind Him that He said he would get you through it. Some rough times are ordained by God for your personal development. Never think that this is the case when you are spiritually deteriorating. More soon.