The Forging of a Man or Woman of Character

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,

not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4

I am drawn to movies about sports and war.  The funny thing is I don’t especially like either.  It’s not the competition or the violence I like, but the stories within the story. 

The team of young men, black and white, and their newly-appointed black coach, who want to play football amid the backdrop of integration in a small southern football town in the early ‘70’s. 

The coach and the team persevere through struggles among themselves and from the town.  They begin to forge friendships with one another as they work hard, harder than other teams are required.  And their hardships knit them together.  In the end, the young men are bound together in brotherly love and an entire town learns to love, too. 

*     *     *

The schoolteacher who is called to serve his country and leads a band of men whose mission it is to find and save one man from the fate that befell his brothers.  All he wants to do is go home. 

But first he has to face and fight the ruthless enemy time and time again, all the while leading men who are dying, fearful and angry.  Against all odds, he saves the young man and goes home, although not the way he wanted. 

*     *     *

It is these stories of selfless courage, of commitment, of dedication that inspire me.  When everything says quit, they don’t quit. Oh, they may want to.  They may want to quit more than anything else sometimes. 

But in the middle of this hardship, they realize what is important.  It is the dream, it is the mission they must accomplish.  They keep their eyes focused on the goal during the day as they face an enemy of racial hatred or an enemy of war, and at night when they’re left alone with their thoughts. 

Their trials developed the character they already had but didn’t know was there.  And they discovered they were more than they thought.  They were more than a team who aspired to play football and more than an English teacher or a band of men called to serve their country. They were men who stayed the course, facing enemies both within and without, to do the good and honorable thing. 

I love these stories because this is what we need to remember in a life that is full of facing our own personal battles.  And as we do, if we choose to put our trust in God, we gain strength and courage and wisdom, we come through the other side and our faith in Him grows.  And we go on to face another battle for another day.  And little by little, if we don't give up, a godly character develops.  We may not see it happening as quickly as we can in a two-hour movie, but it is happening.  It just takes a lifetime. 

So gird up, my friends!  Be ready, be prepared, be alert.  Be prayed up and repentant and humble. We never know what a day may bring. We may not face war or an entire town of people, but we will face something.  But with the Lord, we’ll never face it alone. 

And in the end, we will be victorious.

Whatever Happened to Holiness?

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”  

1 Peter 1:13-16

Being holy sounds so lofty, so impossible, doesn’t it?  And in ourselves, it is.  But when we received Christ’s sacrifice as payment for our sins, we are at that moment, in Him, free from the law of sin and we are made holy, called out from the world to become His bride. 

The same word used for holy in the above verses is the same word for saint in Romans 8:27-- “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

We are now saints, temples of the Holy Spirit. So we are holy, but we still have a choice to behave in a holy manner.

God’s Word tells the story of Hosea who was commanded by God to take a wife, Gomer, who had either already lived as a prostitute or who God knew would leave Hosea multiple times to commit adultery.  It was a picture of Israel who had turned her back on God, gone back to the world and by that, effectively committed adultery against her Betrothed.  Hosea continued to forgive his wife and take her back, and God was saying He would do the same with His people.

Is the bride of Christ any different today than Gomer or Israel? 

We, as individual believers, wander back into the world, back to our former lovers, if you will (or never come out from them altogether), leaving the Lord behind, taking up our former ways and attitudes.  We continue to let greed, unforgiveness, sexual sins, etc. dominate our lives and we become lazy in the things of God.  We hate our enemies instead of loving them. We adopt worldly attitudes about divorce, abortion and homosexuality instead of searching God’s Word and living by His truth.  We think nothing of going out and partying with the world.  We keep the world’s view of members of the opposite sex and look on them in lustful ways. We watch too much t.v. and go to bed at night never having cultivated our relationship with our Heavenly Husband that day.  The list of choices to give our time and energies to anything other than God is endless. 

And God sits and waits for his bride to come to Him. 

Even in the church, holiness is not always a popular theme.  Some who have leadership roles in the church try to use human logic and the world’s ways to reach lost souls.  They entice people with flashy music or programs.  They try talking about Jesus in a dark bar over spirits instead of being filled with the Holy Spirit and letting His power bring salvation.  Nevermind that the Christian leader could be giving justification for drinking to a lost soul who may be an alcoholic or stumbling a fellow believer.  

I’ve even heard some so-called ministries laugh at Christians who are conscientious about being too physically close to members of the opposite sex so as not to stumble them. 

We’re all in a struggle with our flesh every day to remain completely faithful to our Bridegroom, foregoing those worldly lovers.  But God has called us to live a holy life.  He has freed us from the power of sin and His Holy Spirit indwells us to give us the power to do so.  The choice is up to us.   

Gomer was a married woman, but she didn’t behave as though she was married.  She was disrespectful, to say the least, to her husband and to her marriage vows.  And when we choose to live impure lives as if we aren’t the bride of the King of kings and Lord of lords, we disrespect Him, we cheapen His grace and we bring shame to the Name of Jesus in the eyes of a lost and dying world. 

Jesus died and rose so that we could have a relationship with Him and fulfill the high calling of being His hands and feet on this earth, encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ and making disciples.  But why would unbelievers think they needed Christ if they see those who call themselves Christians acting no differently than they do?

Our Bridegroom’s return is near.  I’m convinced that the more we’re willing to call our sin for what it is, walk away from it and the death it brings and focus instead on the joy of His return and fall in love with Him the more we’ll want to deepen that relationship and keep ourselves pure for our heavenly wedding day. 

May God bless you as you seek Him!

Dorci

Before It's Too Late!

Seek the LORD while he may be found;
   call on Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
   and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and He will have mercy on them,
   and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

Isaiah 55:6-7

From the time children are toddling around in their parents' shoes, their minds are just like little sponges, soaking up everything they hear, good and bad.  I don’t think we’re any different as adults.  It’s why billions of dollars are spent every year on advertising.  We see the commercials and we believe what they tell us.  We need that thing, so we buy it. 

We believe internet rumors; we believe email scams; we believe what the government tells us.  Well, sometimes.  We watch people sinning on t.v. and in movies and we laugh.  We soak up the world like a sponge and we’re left dripping with its inane gossip, its cynicism, its bitterness, and its greed and selfishness. 

And sometimes we need to sit before the Lord in repentance and let Him wring out of us the ungodliness and then we can soak up the pure holiness of the Holy Spirit. 

Time is short, my friends.  Let’s seek the Lord while we can.  Let’s stop giving ear to the world and listen to the Lord’s heart instead.  He has things for us to do, people to see and places to go.  He has a gospel to spread before it’s too late and He wants to use us to do it. 

The flesh and spirit war with each other and we are the captains of our own war.  We choose which side wins every day.  For the spirit to win we must starve the flesh and put it to death.  We must put aside the insidious sins, the secret sins, the accepted sins.  

God tells us it’s when we die to ourselves that we can really live.  Why?  Because our plans are so selfish, so temporary, so small compared to the great plans God has for us.  If we’re willing to let go of what we think may be good and listen to the Lord, then He can bless us with what is great. 

He can bless us with Himself. 

We have all we need in Christ Jesus to live a victorious life full of His power, wisdom, strength and peace and to be able to look back on a life of spiritual growth and service to the King. 

Will we? 

May God bless you as you seek His face!

Dorci

The Effects of An Icy Heart

Please enjoy the following devotion I was blessed to write for my friends' website, Halas & Phos, Salt & Light.

”And he showed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  Revelation. 22:1

“’He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive;” John 7:38-39a

Did you know there are actually three waterfalls that comprise Niagara Falls? The water flows from the Niagara River and is separated by two islands into the three Falls. The constant flow of approximately 1,500,000 combined gallons of water per second make Niagara Falls an amazing and beautiful sight to behold.  The massive and continual flow of water also makes it a great source of power for both the Canadian and American sides.  

But there was one day--March 29, 1848—when the water stopped flowing. 

Please read the rest at Halas & Phos here.  

The Promised Land - Breaking Down Personal Strongholds

Series on The Promised Land


1. Send Out a Spy

As we saw last time, the first step to defeating the enemy of God’s people, as Moses had done, and then Joshua once he succeeded him, is by first sending out spies to determine how well they are fortified in the land.

Our personal enemies lie deep within our hearts and only one Man can go there. Only one Man has the vision to spy out that land, and He is the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit has always known your heart and is waiting for the appropriate moments to reveal to you the enemies that lurk within.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart..” (Jeremiah 17:9-10a)

What are the enemies that can stand between a believer and his or her ability to enter into a promised land - a land where the believer is free to fully love God and be loved by Him; a land where nothing keeps the believer from following Him and serving Him in whatever way God calls him; a land that is free from the bondage of sin; a land that is flowing with the fruits of the Spirit that abound from your thriving and intimate walk with Him?

There are many enemies that we contend with in these weak vessels of ours. These are but a few:

“For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15)

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5)

“But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.” (Colossians 3:8)

So what are the enemies of your heart? Has God revealed them to you? If you listen closely, He will tell you. God has been revealing my enemies to me. I’ve had a glimpse of them before, but I am getting closer to my Promised Land, and the Lord daily comes to me with increasingly detailed reports regarding my enemies. My enemies have lurked in this land almost all my life, and their strongholds have become very fortified over the years.

But they’ve seen that my Spy has revealed their existence, so their assaults have increased to try to entice me to attack them in the flesh – and I’ve tried that, and lost many battles. But the war is not over.

2. Choose to Retreat or Move Forward

Just as the Israelites believed that the enemy was too great for them to defeat, my carnal mind and my flesh see no way to drive these enemies out. But one Man says we can. Now, I have two choices: 1. I can follow the loud voices that say, “No, I can’t drive out those enemies, they are too strong and too fortified for me." And at this point, I can grumble, like the Israelites did, that it would be better if I had stayed in Egypt, otherwise known as the world apart from God; or 2. I can follow the one, still, small Voice, who says, “Yes, We are able to overcome it” and move forward.  Because I know the blessing is not in Egypt, but it is in walking with Christ, I’m going to follow that Voice and move forward in faith. Will you?

3. Enlist Troops

Once the enemies have been identified, the next step to waging war against them is to enlist troops. Troops in the army of God consist of our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. God has formed us to be one body for many purposes, and one of those is so that we can support one another as we fight the enemy. Ask other believers to pray for you as you enter in to this very difficult process of bringing down your strongholds.

4. Cut Off the Enemy 

The next step to fighting the enemy is to cut off their supplies of food and weapons. One way that armies would do this is by constructing a wall around the city to be seiged.

The first city that was destroyed by the Israelites in their quest of taking the Promised Land was the city of Jericho. Do you remember the way they built a wall around the city of Jericho before they attacked it? It wasn’t a physical wall, but they surrounded the city with trumpet blasts both announcing their intent to battle and their resolution to victory, along with the Ark of the Covenant – the presence of God.

We will only see victory in the pulling down of our strongholds when we are walking with the Lord and being obedient to Him. The order to march around the city of Jericho once each day for six days while blasting on trumpets and then to march around seven times on the seventh day and then giving a loud shout must have seemed strange warfare indeed, both to the Israelites and to their enemies. God may also ask us to do something that to our reasoning minds may seem strange or even impossible.

For example, if your stronghold is fear, you can feed the fear by running from whatever God wants you to do that you’re afraid to, or you can cut off its food source by praying through the fear and asking God for the strength to follow through. If we’re obedient to what He calls us to do, He will be with us and the victory will be ours.

5. Wage War in the Power of God

Walk with the Lord through the process of breaking down your strongholds through prayer and reading His Word. Those strongholds have been built with lies and we need the truth in God’s Word to refute them.

Another suggestion I’d like to make is to fast for period of time.

“And He (Jesus) entering into a house, His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast him out?’ And He said to them, ‘This kind can come out by nothing except by prayer and fasting.’” (Mark 9:28-29)

Now, I realize that in these verses (which is just one scriptural reference to fasting among many) Jesus is talking about prayer and fasting in order to cast out a demon, and I am in no way suggesting that strongholds are demons, nor can a believer and follower of Jesus Christ be indwelt by a demon. Although I do believe satan loves it when we allow our strongholds to remain firmly in place. What I am saying is that there are times in our Christian walks when we are facing difficult decisions or impossible situations, such as the breaking down of strongholds, when we need to get alone with God and be still before Him. The type of fast and length of time is between you and the Lord. But when we use that time to focus our priorities and attentions on the Lord for the purpose of hearing from Him and allowing Him to do the work necessary in our hearts, we can become one in purpose with Him and His Spirit will be strengthened in our lives. 

If you are struggling with a stronghold and need someone to pray for you, please do not hesitate to email me by clicking on my little postcard over in the sidebar. I would consider it an honor.

God bless.
Dorci

The Promised Land - Breaking Down Strongholds

Series on The Promised Land

So, now we have our spiritual armour firmly in place.  No?  Time to go back and put it on.  Now, time to slay the dragon. Time to drive our personal enemies out of our spiritual promised land flowing with milk and honey.

When Moses was still leading the Israelites toward Canaan, he knew that enemies lurked there and God’s people would have to wage war in order to drive them out of the land that God had promised to them. The first order of business was to send spies to evaluate the enemy territory.

“These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Joshua. And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, ‘Go up this way, southward, and go up into the mountain. And see the land, what it is, and the people that live in it, whether it is strong or weak, few or many. And see what the land is that they live in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds;” (Number 3:16-19)

And this was the answer the spies brought back to Moses and all the people:

“And they told him and said, ‘We came to the land where you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey. And this is the fruit of it. However, the people that dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are walled, very great. And also we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan.” Numbers 13:27-29

The Israelites faced many enemies who were very well established in the land and who did indeed live in strongholds. A stronghold is “a fortification, castle, or fortified city; a fenced or walled fortress.”

The warfare that was ahead of this bunch of weary travelers, of whom there were no formally trained warriors since most grew up in the desert, save maybe Moses since he grew up in the Pharaoh’s house, but that was 80 years past.

But one of the spies, Caleb, “stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it. For we are well able to overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30)

And then were the poo-pooers. “But the men that went up with him (Caleb) said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.’ And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched to the sons of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eats up those who live in it. And all the people whom we saw in it were men of stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, of the giants. And we were in our own sight like grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:31-33)

All these men saw the same land, the same people. All of them were certain of heart that they could not wage a successful warfare on these giants. But one man, Caleb, had faith that they could.

But the Israelites believed the majority. They were the majority, so they must be right, right? And once again, they regretted they had not died back in Egypt – the land of slavery from which God had delivered them. And they began to grumble against Moses.

But Joshua and Caleb tore their robes at the faithless response to the Israelites. The two of them spoke to multitudes and reminded them that they were not just rebelling against their leader, they were rebelling against God. God had promised this land to them and the pair knew that God kept His promises, if they would only follow Him.

And even in the rebellion and provocation of the people that God loved so much, He remained faithful to be with them.

So, what did it take to bring down those strongholds, and what will it take to bring down the strongholds that the enemy has long set up in our own minds and hearts that keep us from entering into a spiritually victorious life? Not one always free from attacks, but one in which we dwell with our God in peace with all trust and faith and joy in Him? One that is free of those walls that keep us from fully entering in to a life flowing with milk and honey, flowing afresh daily with the Holy Spirit Himself.

We’ll see next time.

Armour of God - Who Are You Fighting?

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” (Ephesians 6:10)

This is the exhortation that Paul gave just before he launched into an admonition to remember what enemy we face in spiritual warfare, just as it was the same admonition that God gave to Joshua just before he and the Israelites marched into their own warfare to claim the land the Lord had promised to His people.

And I will tell you that whether you know it or not, you are in the midst of a spiritual battle. There are unseen battles for souls, for our attention, for our strength, and for our witness in Christ. If you’re going to fight successfully, you must heed Paul’s warning to be strong in the Lord. There is no strength outside of the Lord – outside of an abiding, intimate relationship with the Lord Who is over all.

So how is your strength? Are you and the Lord tight? Is your relationship with Him one of trust; of learning more of Who He is every day through the Word He has given to us; of spending time every day in communion with Him, talking to Him, but also listening to Him?

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6-12)

There have always been wars upon the earth. This kind of war is just as detrimental, maybe even more so, because it’s an unseen war. People tend to deal with what they see, but we are reminded that the bigger battle is with what we don’t see.

This is who our enemy is: the spiritually wicked rulers of darkness who dwell in the heavenlies; the former angels who chose to fall from grace and who now live as enemies of the Lord of Light and of anyone who chooses to follow Him.

Our enemy is not our spouse, it’s not our children, it’s not our neighbors, it’s not our co-workers, and it’s certainly not our brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s not even ourselves, although we can allow the enemy to use us against ourselves. Oh, the enemy would love for us to think it is. He is the ancient and evil warrior whose deceptions and traps are well worn. He knows how to cause our focus to be linear rather than to point the finger of guilt where it belongs: squarely at him.

So we need to take our eyes off of the people we’ve thought we had some sort of dispute with, forgive them, and remember that the enemy is only using the situation to keep us angry and unforgiving.

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:13)

Because this is a different kind of war we need to have a different kind of armour. We can’t fight this enemy with trillions of dollars of military jets and guns and bulletproof vests.

God has given us spiritual armour and if we wish to stand at the end of each battle and at the end of the war it would behoove us to become an expert in the usage of each piece of equipment, put it on, and never remove it. The enemy never takes time off and neither should we.

This is longer than I thought so I will start next time with our spiritual armour. In the meantime, let’s stop warring with one another and forgive each other. We have bigger fish to fry.

The reality is, we’re on the same team with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should be fighting our common enemy together. Rather than helping the enemy by tearing one another down with angry words and spiteful attitudes, we need to be encouraging and praying for each other so that we can all have the strength we need to keep fighting and find our way to our Promised Land.

Promised Land - Are You Ready?

In the first post where we talked about living in our own Promised Land here and now in this life, a life of spiritual abundance as we enjoy an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I asked the question, “Do we dare to dream of a life in Christ like that?”

That’s the first question we need to answer before we embark on this journey of spiritual abundance, because the journey isn’t easy. It will require sacrifice and there will be warfare. We must make up our minds that no matter what, we’re in this ‘til the end.

The Israelites thought they wanted out of slavery, but shortly after they set about on their journey to the Promised Land, they began to grumble and wanted to go back. The journey to freedom, they reasoned, was too difficult.

So, what say ye? Are you with me? Have you wandered long enough in a spiritual desert?

Okay, let’s go!

As God handed the reigns of leadership over from Moses to Joshua, He gave him these encouraging words,

“Be strong and of good courage.” (Joshua 1:6)
“Only be strong and very courageous.” (Joshua 1:7)
“Be strong and of good courage.” (Joshua 1:9)

Think He was trying to tell him something? I won’t go into a whole study on the meanings behind these words, but I will say that they do not mean to find strength within ourselves. They mean to hold onto the Lord, trusting and obeying Him in all we do, and He will give us the strength and courage to do what He calls us to do.

As the Israelites were about to set out to cross the Jordan River, Joshua said to all the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."

As we set out on this journey, we must sanctify, or ready ourselves. If we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then He has already done the work to make us spiritually clean before God. But we need to make sure that we are acknowledging that fact in all we do in our everyday lives. Have we set ourselves apart from the world’s ways in order to be useful to Him?

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

In our minds and in our hearts we have to set ourselves apart so that we aren’t following the world’s mindset of being cavalier about sin. Some Christians are beginning to abuse their freedoms in Christ as they turn their eyes away from the Lord and are being lured away by the world’s temptations and compromises that would lead them right back into bondage.

We have to be ready to put off the sinful attitudes and deeds that hinder us and sanctify ourselves so that we can wholeheartedly follow the Lord.

So let’s first sanctify ourselves by asking God what there is in our lives that is hindering our walk with Him. And when He shows you, don’t rely on your own strength to remove it. Ask God for His strength and power to breaks the chains of bondage.

Paul spoke words similar to those of God toward Joshua to the Ephesians 6:10 when he said, “Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” He spoke these words just before his admonition to the Ephesian believers to put on their spiritual armour.

And those parallel words that God spoke to Joshua were commanded just before he and the Israelites headed into battle to fight their enemy in order to gain possession of their Promised Land.

We will, likewise, encounter many enemies on the way to our Promised Land.

We are soldiers in this King’s army and we must equip ourselves with the proper gear as we journey through this life of service, of trials, of sacrifice, of growing into a bold, courageous, faith-proclaiming, joy-filled, relationship with our Lord as we learn to abide in and trust in Him.


So sanctify yourselves, for the Lord will do wonders among you.


Next time we will begin to look at the armour that is crucial to a spiritual soldier.

Promised Land - Are You Living In It?

When some think of the Promised Land in the Bible, they analogize it to believers ascending into heaven. But I think that thought is too narrow.

There is a Promised Land that God desires us to live in here and now.

In John 10:10, Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

God wants us to live an abundant life right now! He wants us to be able to breathe, walk, speak, think, work, serve, live to our highest potential as we walk in the Holy Spirit. He desires for us to be able to enter into a spiritual rest, not a do-nothing laziness, but resting in our new life the Lord, no longer wrestling with our old man.

He has given to each of us specific gifts that He expects us to use. Are you fully engaged in using your gift(s)? That is why we were given the Holy Spirit – so that we could have power to use those gifts for the uplifting of the body of Christ and so that we could live our Christian lives to the fullest.

But as God leads us to our own Promised Land, there is much that would steal our abundant, spiritual lives with Christ. God’s enemy is hard at work trying to do that very thing.

he whispers lies into our ears.

he discovers our weaknesses and then he waves temptations in our faces.

he causes dissention among believers.

he’ll stop at nothing to ruin marriages, families, friendships, congregations, hearts, our witness, and our very relationship with the Lord. (In case you’re wondering, I never, ever capitalize any name, pronoun or descriptive word used to refer to satan or demons. they don’t deserve it.)

Many of us know unsaved people who are walking around, they’re alive, but they don’t have life. They’re down and depressed and overtaken by the world and its temptations of the mortal flesh. There are even those who call themselves Christians who are still walking around defeated, as if they have never received the resurrection power of Christ. But Jesus said that He has come to give life, and not just physical life, but a spiritual life, the life that makes this life worth living.

And Jesus goes one giant leap further. He doesn’t want us to just have a milk-toast spiritual life; He wants to give us an abundant life! He wants us to have a superior life; a life that is exceedingly above or beyond all that we could ever think or imagine!

Do we dare to dream of a life in Christ like that?

God desired to give that abundant life to the Israelites soon after they left Egypt. They should have entered their Promised Land, Canaan, two weeks after they left behind their slavery.

But strangely enough, even after God rescued them in the miraculous way that He did, the Israelites’ mistrust in God kept them in bondage and they roamed the desert for 40 years.

Eventually, of course, the next generation of Israelites did enter into Canaan. But it is believed that the Israelites have never completely and solely possessed the Promised Land. There has always been an enemy coming against them.

So, fast forward thousands of years, and let me ask you this: are you in the Promised Land that God desires for you? Are you living the abundant life that the Lord wants to give you?

And no, I’m not at all talking about a lot of money, or a huge house, or a perfect career, or anything of this world. Remember, we’re talking about our spiritual lives – our lives in Christ, our relationship with Him and the blessings that flow out of that relationship.

So what would a Promised Land look like? What would a spiritually abundant life look like for you? It’s all about our relationship with Jesus Christ. Here are some things I thought of:

- a 24-hour conscious awareness of intimacy with the Lord;
- fully operating in the gift(s) of the Holy Spirit that He has specifically
given to you;
- walking and acting in the Spirit rather than reacting in the flesh;
- choosing to show love to others even at the sacrifice of ourselves.

None of us will live that out perfectly until the day we meet Jesus face-to-face, but I do believe that most Christians are living far below the joyful life that God would have us. And we may not be where we would like to be, but is there steady growth? Are you intentionally headed for the Promised Land or just kind of wandering around? What is keeping you from it? If you don't know, ask God to show you. What are some things that you can change today that would help you get back on the road to your spiritually abundant Promised Land?