To Know Him Is To Love Youself

I believe God reserves a special admiration for the spiritually honest. He knows the real you and loves the real you-so should you. So don't give up being real about the state of your desires and life experiences before Him no matter how "different" you feel from other Christians who don't admit to the same struggles. Jesus promised those who squarely face their inability to live the Christian life with His very own Strength!

Most of us do not need a definition of spiritual failure. We know it very well. If I were to rephrase Galatians 5:19-21,  it would sound something like this:  “The results of living according to human nature are apparent by observing life.  You see them everywhere and many of them plague your own life and the lives of those you love.  Things like sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, making other things more important than God, dabbling in  all kinds of demonic power of the occult, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group,  envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and many other kinds of sin.”

Most believers suffer the presence and influence of these destructive issues in their lives every day.  though most pretend not to (denial is more than a river in Egypt), and just ignore that hostility, quarreling, jealousy, anger and divisiveness share equal footing with all the other uglies on the list.

The most powerful obstacle we will face in our efforts to live the Christian life are firmly entrenched in our thinking before we come to Christ. I do not pretend to know all the mental and emotional obstacles that prevent believers from walking in the power of the Holy Spirit and the newness of life that Christ died to give us, but I do know many obstacles that have been revealed to me by the Lord concerning myself and shared with me by others who trust me.

We are all born into families, and families pass down to generations certain ways to understand and operate in life. I call these our personal “As The World Turns” scripts. Sometimes beliefs are taught as fact by authority figures and adults in our life. Usually, these scripts are learned by seeing the behaviors and body language of people who make up our world.  These ways to view and live life are communicated to us in a thousand different ways, but we all come away from our formative years having been formed. We reach adulthood like an actor following a script only we are unaware of ours.

Some begin their walk with the Lord having the deep seeded belief that their lives are only safe in their own hands, convinced that no one has the right, or can be trusted to tell them how to live. Believing they can only trust themselves, they “follow their heart” or their gut or their desires. They believe only they truly know what’s best for them. Some have the deep seeded belief that they have no control over their lives at all.  They’re convinced that there is no safety to be found. They live tossed to and fro by those who have control over them, believing they have very few choices and feeling that the circumstances of their lives are someone else's fault. Both of those views are illusion; illusions that seem totally reasonable and real to the person living in them. 

Whether we are living our life attempting to meet someone's expectations, or rebelling against someone's expectations, we are still not living our own life.  Growing up with Christian, loving, responsible caregivers does not guarantee that we will be  free from twisted thinking, and can also produce many inaccurate understandings of God and His Truth.

Into this maelstrom of human existence comes the Holy Spirit of the Living God convicting our hearts of their need for a Savior and pointing our hearts toward Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.  People from all kinds of backgrounds, from all kinds of cultures believe in His atoning blood, bringing their dead spirits to life and making them new creatures.  We are instantly members of another family.  We have a new Father, and we inherit a new way of Life we know little about.

Jesus told those whose hearts were breaking at the thought of losing him, that it was good that He going away.  There are many Names for The Holy Spirit, but the most literal interpretation of what Jesus said to them is, “I will not leave you orphans.” We are babes in Christ with a new Father.

What happens after the salvation of our souls and the rebirth of our spirits to live eternally with God is a mystery to most of us and fully understood by none. No matter what boundaries we have learned in our thinking processes; regardless of the innumerable ways we have learned to do  life, none make it natural or easy to launch into life with the Holy Spirit.  He is unlike any human teacher, parent or friend. He is actually right about everything and has open and unlimited access to all things Divine.

The ways of life in the Spirit are totally opposite of any we have ever known or experienced before. Many of us have not grown up among trustworthy adults.  Most of us have reached adulthood living with fear instead of safety, perhaps control instead of freedom, or punishment instead of correction. All of us have had the enemy at work in our hearts and minds from the moment we have been born to encourage us to misunderstand events of our childhoods, the actions and decisions of our parents or caretakers, and to pervert our vision of God.

Saved people rarely jump right into being re-parented by God after believing in Jesus.  They sometimes try harder to obey His commandments only to find it isn't any easier than before they were saved.  They sometimes just blatantly go on living their own life with no longing to conform to His likeness.  Many believers long to be Christ-like, but continue to live their lives reacting to old thought patterns and beliefs, never understanding why they can’t make consistently Godly choices. Most live a mixture of all of the mindsets above, becoming confused, disappointed and frustrated with the Christian life, as they hear contradictory messages on how to live a Godly life.

Too many ultimately find their expectations of God and themselves hopelessly shattered.  Many come to doubt that they are really saved. Many give up. Other believers do not help much with the re-education process when all we can do is quote Galatians 5:19-21 in a way that it condemns any saved person to hell if they haven’t conquered these behaviors in their lives. We can enter the Christian twilight zone of believing we need to run to the altar every Sunday, or that we have the power to accomplish obedience if only we’d try harder.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:3 "Blessed [are] the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” You are blessed, fortunate and to be envied! Jesus Himself, through the inner witness of His Spirit will reveal the operations manual of The Kingdom of Heaven to those who acknowledge they are spiritually powerless to live the life of Christ!  Hallelujah!

What I am going to say below is the “Readers Digest Condensed Version” of a process that is a lifetime journey that has many levels of learning and submission involved in becoming established in a living and enduring faith. However, many have never heard even the most basic summary of learning to live in the Spirit as a failed human being. I can only invite you to get hungry! A starving man will stop at nothing to get a morsel of food. A spiritually starving believer should move heaven and earth to taste and see that The Lord is Good! The all you can eat God buffet is open to anyone who believes.

 The Holy Spirit is your personal chef. Allow Him to feed you. 

Those who desire to enter the Kingdom of God must begin as a little child. Even if you don't want to take it to church, find a version of The Bible that you can read and understand for yourself. Read it! Read only the Gospels for one year! Ask and trust the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit to make Jesus Truth to you. 

Learn all you can about the unconditional love of God until you know He unconditionally loves you, and become convinced that Jesus would have gone to the cross just for you.  Become convinced of God’s endless Grace and Mercy toward you. Believe that the God who created you, knows best what will provide you with true happiness and a joyful life. Go through every day asking Him to show you what His desire may be in the situation or choice you are dealing with. 

Accept that  learning about Jesus through the companionship of the Spirit is the only Key to abundant life and successful relationships. Speak to Him in your heart continually; train yourself to hear what He is saying to you; and act on His wisdom as often as you can.  When you fail, and you will fail, immediately ask for new revelation and insight. Regardless of your failure, agree with His unconditional love for you and his endless Mercy and Grace toward you. Trust His insight into yourself and accept His loving correction. Then, trust that He is faithful and just and will forgive you and cleanse you from all the old scripts in your mind to begin anew as many times as you need.

Until you know Jesus through the power of The Spirit for yourself, you can become hopelessly confused by the teaching of others. Only The Holy Spirit has the Script of Life. Only by knowing Jesus can you love Him and come to love yourself and others. That same Spirit who moved in your heart, revealing Jesus as  your Savior, can transform you by the renewing of your mind and lead you to others to know Him and love Him.