Faith Refining

I am ADONAI; there is no other. I form light, I create darkness; I make well-being, I create woe; I, ADONAI, do all these things.

Isaiah 45:6-7

This is where you prove your faith opened up to every mistake closed in by trials and tribulations and pulled to pieces in every direction.

This is where trust comes in when dark clouds of doubt overwhelm and your flesh screams there is no hope This is the moment we DIE to our self.

This is where we sink or swim Only by the spirit can we stand again opened eyes moving past what made us blind every failure nailed to my saviors hands

This is where we prove who we are in every struggle and pain in our heart 

to keep rising up as children of G-D and not let it tear us apart.

Bring on distress and pain

bring on rejection and heartache enemy,world, and flesh do your worst

for in His death i’ve found my rest

Now forever I crucify my self-image and this is only the beginning

of how He brings change just a taste of how we prove our faith.

G-D is faithful, He is merciful...He pours water upon the thirsty. Isaiah 44:3

Ending with encouragement, the direction and focus is to be upon G-D, it’s easy when you get a vision, but hard once you start walking in it...

But keep focused on Him as Proverbs 3:5 says; do not lean on your understanding but His!

When we are going through a “refining process” it’s easy to give up, and run...but G-D has a purpose in it, let us not miss it, but glory in the fact that He is

considering us worthy to be put through the fire to refine like Gold...

The Devil

Be sober, be vigilant; because your advisory the devil,  as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour..

1 Peter 5:8

I hope you are aware of that fact, that statement is absolutely true. His attacks come in many different forms, sometimes they are quite obvious and other times we can be deceived. Generally speaking the enemies attacks are the same as they have ever been…

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.(1 john 2:16)

I wrote the following "Poem", it's inspired by CS.Lewis's "The Screwtape Letters". If you haven't read that book, and I suggest you do, it's about a demon talking to an underling demon and training him on how to tempt and destroy man. Everything in the book is obviously thus backwards, God is considered the enemy and light is an abhorrent thing. 

The "poem"(of sorts) that I wrote is more about satan whispering in your ear, and trying everything to keep your eyes off God, and he will do that anyway he can, wether thats by puffing you up or tearing you down. He doesn't care either way, the enemies goal is not so much about you as it is stealing glory from God, and if he can take your eyes off God and from giving God all glory then he has done his job.

The point of the poem isn't to glorify the devil and his works, it's more of a warning.

For we know, we have full assurance in the heart that..

"if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."

1 John 1:7

This is something the devil hates, and doesn't want us to have confidence in, that we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ! The devil is really just a pathetic prideful little worm that has already lost the war but still persists on fighting and taking as many down with him as he can.

The anti-Christ the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing, the dunce that tempts you with temporal things when you through the blood of Christ are promised eternal things!

You're ever so exquisite, so precious and yet oblivious

just how much you are like a little puppet controlled by proverbial strings.

I can play you so easily, dragging you deeper into self indulgence, blinded by the lusts of your own mind, the self-will far out weighing the surrendering one. You self destruct from your own doing,swallowed hole,ruptured and self defeated by your own flesh, and all I have to do is give you just a little push.

Aw…but in comes your repentance, despicable how He even bothers to listen. How can He forgive you? This cross, sacrificial lamb and grace you don't deserve overwhelms me with utter rage.

it's no bother really, for you are so easily swayed I can turn this very abhorrent  grace into something you yourself won't be able to comprehend. Go ahead and repent….get on your little knees and pray to Him, I'll wait for the right time when you are not so quite focused on Him. 

Repent..haha…fool…do you really think He can forgive you? YOU!? I mean look at you, how many times are you going to slap Him in the face? you just asked for forgiveness didn't you? ooops…looks like you just messed that up again, why even bother to pray to Him?

I bet He's sick of hearing from you and your broken promises and sorries begging for forgiveness, your first compulsion will always be the flesh don't be fooled by your false regret.

You really think you are smart, think you know how I work? just when you start to catch on, I switch the attack and come at you with different ammunition.

Feeling pretty close with Him now? think you are putting all this flesh behind you huh? that's when Ill say good job, you are such a good person, you are so Holy and pure. I'll pierce your very soul with self righteousness, have you disgusted with the very site of other christians, after all, they are not as good as you, look at so and so he didn't even go to church this week, and look at that women gossiping, man these people are so underneath you.

Ill grip you in any way that I can, I'll have you so focused on you that you don't even think about HIM. You'll weigh people down with your own standards that they can't possibly stand, hopefully dragging them down along into your self righteous sin, then i'm killing two birds with one stone. You see, you really are my son. Well done my good and faithful servant.. 

Maybe that's all to easy, maybe you'll come out of that. I could always just overload you with confusion, have everything you see and everything you read turn into a contradiction, because you are easily pulled by worldliness. You want to live and be accepted by them so you hold to their abrasive self pleasing accusations, all the while claiming to follow His word, but I'll use them to blind you! So instead of being changed by the word you will change it to fit the world

Then I'll keep playing you like a fiddle, and you will think you are walking in light, but really you are just blind. You'll be covered in lukewarmness thinking you are on fire, not realizing that you're really just reinforcing my empire. 

So innocent and naive…it's almost too easy

James 1 (Part 1)

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various

trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces

patience.

James 1:2-3

When trails come our first instinct (our fleshly instinct) isn't

patience, it isn't "quiet steady perseverance". When trials

come our first instinct is to get annoyed to get angry

and complain that there is an inconvenience in our life.

This reaction is an action that generally speaking happens

because we realize we are not "in control". This truth of not

being in control is not something our sinful fleshly old man likes,

it is however, like I said, absolutely true that we are not in control.

It is important that we realize this fact, it is God Almighty who is in control

and trials will come but we must remain patient in our faith,

we must give our worries and trouble to God.. move forward

in our trusting that all things work out for His glory and absolute goodness.

It is not about "being in control" you must lose all

thought of being "in control" for if you don't surrender all

you are to God, if you try to "Control" where and what you will do

and how you will deal with trials that come;

patience will be nothing but a mountain you can't get around.

Patience and the ability to face trials comes only through Faith

in God and giving up the "control" that your flesh wants.

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect

and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom,

let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without

reproach, and it will be given to him.

James 1:4-5

Ask God to do a work in you, to grant you the wisdom

to KNOW that trials and tribulations only make us stronger

in our faith. Ask Him to give you the wisdom to KNOW

that reliance on self is not noble, it is stubborn ignorance to

rely on your self to pull through, trying by your own might to

pull through trials doesn't produce a strong person of faith,

it produces a man who thinks he is strong and doesn't need

God. You radically every moment need God..the very breath

of life is a gift from God, trials and tribulations should remind

you of this and in doing such result in patience in faith.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts

is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything

from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all

his ways.

James 1:6-8

Faith and doubting don't go together at all. If you ask the Lord

for wisdom and patience to get through a trial, but deep down

you are thinking "pshh..I doubt even He can help me"

don't expect the wisdom or patience to come. It's complete

asinine to say "I have faith in Christ" and then doubt His

guidance.

Remember Peter walking on water to go to Christ?

Peter had FAITH that if it was truly Christ out there standing

in the water that Christ;

1. wouldn't put Peter in a dangerous situation

2. could cause Peter to walk on water to Him.

Peter put his trust and faith in Christ and went out onto the water

and walked! but as soon as he saw the wind kick up... what entered

his mind? DOUBT…which thus caused him to sink and Jesus to

say:

"You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Matthew 14:22-31

and in Matthew 21:21 what does Jesus tell His disciples not to do?

DOUBT…

So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you,

if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what

was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'be

removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done.

Matthew 21:21

Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in

his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.

For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.

James 1:9-11

Let the lowly, the humble, the meek.. glory in being lifted up

by God

Though the LORD is on high, yet He regards the lowly; But

the proud he knows from afar.

Psalms 138:6

and brothers let the rich, not just meaning "the wealthy" but those

who are strong…those who are wise, those who are proud, let them

glory in humiliation. Let them glory in being MADE humble because if they don't…if they trust in their riches and their own

power it is meaningless because it will only fade away, life after

all is short for all of us and we all will soon fade and pass away.

This goes hand and hand with Jesus Christ's parable of

not choosing the best seat at the wedding feast, and saying

at the end of the parable;

"For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who

humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 14:11

Blessed is the man who endures temptation;

for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life

which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

James 1:12

As I talked about last blog, who are those who love Him?

"Those who keep His commandments"(John 14:15) those who flee from immorality.

Those who surrender the flesh.. take their cross and follow Christ,

they don't follow the world and it's selfishness but Christ and His selflessness.

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God";

for God cannot be tempted by evil,

nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived,

it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

James 1:13-15

We are not tempted by God, we are tempted by our very own nature (by our flesh) which our very nature is to SIN. We are tempted, which in itself is not the sin, sin comes in when we let

it fester, when we start looking to our flesh and we desire

our natural ways. When we let sin have it's way it is because

deep down we are saying God isn't good enough, we want God

and we still at the same time want to live to our flesh, which

is not POSSIBLE! If you want God then you get all of Him!

and He changes your desires, He changes you! no longer should

self even be important, in fact Christ demands that you surrender

SELF! Do not be deceived there is no half truth, there is no half faith there is no half way in half way out..One foot in the world

and one foot in the grave…NO! throw your whole self in that grave

and die to self! Christ is what now lives through you.(Galatians 2:20)