Word 1/24/08

Word:
Let everything fall by the wayside My people. Keep your eyes fixed on Me. Do not look to your right or your left. Look to Me for all of your understanding. Rely on Me for everything that you believe to be true. Look to no man for your salvation, for I alone hold the words to eternal life. I alone am God. Do not look back. Do not look to yesterday's deeds or understandings, for those things are yesterday's manna. I say come before Me daily. Receive of Me new every morning. As you have asked My children, I have shown you a higher walk, but who will walk in the way that I have shown. Who will live and move and have their being in My Spirit? Who will be instantly in season? Who will let go of all the dead works of the flesh? Who will live in liberty and freedom? Who walk in love and mercy, yet keep judgement bound about their neck? Who will keep sound judgement among you? Who will judge all things by My Spirit and who will be a faithful servant to stand on those judgements? Who will have confidence in what I have shown them? Who will keep and guard it as precious treasure? Who will know Me and not be shaken? Who, when everything shakes around them, will not be shaken? Pursue Me My people. Die to your own understandings. Be faithful to do what I have shown you, and you will receive more, but a man must be found faithful over small things before I will give him great things to rule over. Remember, obedience is better than sacrifice, and I take no delight in the double minded man. Settle it in your hearts this day to love truth and hate the lie. Settle it within yourselves to no more touch anything unclean. Consider only what is holy and pure and hate everything else, for remember you are not part of the world, and you should not love the things of the world. Be holy. Be separate. Depart swiftly from all that is evil and unprofitable. Depart from unclean thoughts and unclean desires, for I will remind you this day that I will not always strive with a man. If your heart is not for My will to be done in your life, then I will not force it upon you. It is not My desire that any should fall, but man has free will and he chooses his path. Choose wisely children. Choose My ways, for the end of yours are destruction, death and sorrow. Choose Me in all situations. On My side, you are always victorious, but in your strength, you will lose. Choose victory.

Also, I am so thankful for God's faithfulness. When we draw close to Him, He really draws closer to us. For example, oftentimes when Rachel and I spend time together, we simply enjoy each other's company, play with Addi, and just relax. Of course, none of that is sin, but today, we made a point to discuss Godly things, and in just being faithful to that, the Lord was faithful in revealling understandings throughout our conversation. Ultimately, we found ourselves discussing this scripture: 62Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Luke 9:62. While discussing what this meant to our personal walks, we came to some understanding about the wisdom in applying this scripture in our daily lives. For example, if we set our hands to the plow and look back, several unprofitable consequences can follow. First, if we happened to do something wrong along the way, by looking back to that mistake, we can cause ourselves to dwell on it and consequently allow ourselves to be paralyzed by fear and condemnation. When we make mistakes, we have to learn from them of course, but then we have to accept God's forgiveness, and move on, because if we don't, then we are living in past defeat rather than present and future victory. Second, we can look back on things that have happened, and analyze them to death in our own minds or just stop and stand in awe that they happened at all. For instance, 9And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.10And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. In this instance, the apostles were looking to where Jesus had been, and of course there is no sin in this, but by focusing on where He had been, they were essentially wasting time, by not moving forward and onto the things that God had prepared for them. We can't be like that. We can't be shocked or dwell on what we see or do, because then we aren't moving on to the next thing God would have us do. Every day we are required to change from glory to glory, understanding to understanding, old man to new, so we can't dwell on "glory days" or "amazing experiences." We have to just keep moving on. Finally, if we look back to our pasts and we see we were obedient, it is a perfect opportunity to let a little seed of pride enter our hearts. We might say to ourselves, "look at how obedient I was, I did the right thing, or I have moved mountains, or I must be something special, because all together, I have done so much for the Lord." Of course none of that is true. We aren't supposed to take pride in the work of the Lord, or add it up in our heads to count all the things God has done through us. For example, Jesus told the apostles, Passage Luke 10:20: 20Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. Instead of thinking about what we've "done", our focus has to be forward with our eyes fixed on Jesus. God might move hundreds of mountains through us, His servants, but that really doesn't matter. All that really matters is that we reach our final destination: Jesus. Of course, signs and wonders WILL follow them that believe. That is a given, but our hearts, our joy and our minds cannot be focused on those things. They have to be focused on our ultimate goal which is always in front of us, not behind us. Forward is our direction, and I pray that we all move in that daily.
God Bless,
Tara