It’s
All About Our Focus
Romans 8:5-18
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the
things of the flesh, but those who
live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to
be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of
God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please
God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of
God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not
His. And if Christ is in
you, the body is dead
because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you
will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will
live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of
God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The
Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of
God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if indeed we suffer with Him, that
we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
My
Experience, Strength & Hope
I encourage you to read through the Romans
passage slowly - out loud before you go any further. Think about the desires of
your own flesh and anything that you may have been allowing in your flesh
lately that is not God’s will for you. If you have had any form of addiction,
think about your relationship with food or whatever your addiction has been as
you read. Then come back to finish reading this.
Whenever we focus on and live according to our
flesh (the soul part of us, aka, the mind, will & emotions), we will
experience death. No, you will not drop dead the minute you eat a Twinkie,
necessarily! Go ahead and laugh – it does you’re your heart good like medicine!
(Remember, anyone who has been addicted to anything can fill in the blanks here
– it all certainly applies). As always, I will apply this to food because it is
what I struggled with the most – or so I thought at the time!
I certainly had a lot of issues where drugs and
alcohol were concerned among several other things, but the food was the hardest
for me to let go of. Once I did, I could see even bigger giants in my life! I am
so grateful that God is bigger than all my “Goliath’s!”
A few years ago, when I was single and working, I
was eating according to my food plan most of the time and keeping a habit of
regular exercise. I was intently focused on the things of the Lord. I wanted
Him to be able to fulfill His calling for my life. I had my challenges I assure
you because I still had a lot of growing and learning to do. And, we will
always need to continue that process in this life.
Overall, I had great success with maintaining my
weight and my health. Then, by the awesome grace of God, I was moved to attend
a new church and leave my job in an insurance brokerage firm. The Lord topped
it all off with bringing me a man of God who would soon become my husband. That
was in 2012. I can’t begin to tell you of all the excitement I was
experiencing. It was like walking on clouds every day. Then the Lord added a
stray puppy to the mix, hand delivered to my mailbox and I suddenly found
myself living whole new life. It was beyond wonderful; albeit there was a lot
to adjust to ‘all of a sudden’. How many know that God is full of suddenlys?
Hallelujah!
When all of those blessings were dropped down on
me from our ever so gracious heavenly Father, I noticed that I began to
struggle with food again in ways I hadn’t for the past several years. It
started to become a mountain in my life again. Over time, amidst all the
excitement, I began to put on weight. It was terribly uncomfortable and I was
not happy to show myself to others looking out of control – like I was.
One day at work in my new job at a doctor’s
office, one of my coworkers; a man we highly love and respect in the Lord, was
used by God to speak to me in the lunch room. (Of all places) What he said was
this, “Hanny, you have lost your
focus. What you focus on is where your strength will be.” That hit me between the eyes and shot like an
arrow to my heart. He assured me that one day I would be able to help others
because the thing that had become my greatest weakness in life would be
(because of the Spirit of God) my greatest strength to be used of the Lord to
help others. That seemed a long way away at that moment.
Lately, I have a “knowing” in my spirit that I
have reached a new level of strength (in the Lord) with my eating. It is more
under control than it has ever been and I am at peace with it – glory to God.
And why is that happening? Because my focus has changed. When I focused on the
food, it became bigger than life to me. It looked like a “Goliath” in my life,
but I didn’t have the faith of David to take him down. I just kept looking at
how big the giant (food) was. As a result, I kept stumbling all over the place.
One day good, the next two not so good – like that. I was constantly being
reminded by the Lord to put down my idols. I was always repenting and asking
for forgiveness but I kept returning to my ‘vomit’. That means I kept going
back to my old ways. As a result, I continued to reap results that were not in
my best interest.
With all the changes that were happening in my
life, I needed to draw closer to the Lord – not the food. But I kept focusing
on the desires of my flesh. When my then fiancé and I went out to eat, I looked
at the menu to see what my flesh wanted rather than asking Holy Spirit what He
thought I should eat. And rather than “erring on the side of caution”, or
“going the extra mile” I was living according to the desires of my flesh.
So how did that cause death in my life? Sin
always brings death. I was sinning by doing something that God had asked me not
to do. I was afraid to let go of the food and take His hand and trust Him as
much as I would like to have thought I did. Fear is sin. By sinning, I was
creating death in my relationship with the Lord.
I was not pleasing Him with my choices. He still
loved me – He always will. He was not only displeased by my choices, but
miracles were not happening in my life for the kingdom like they should have
been because of my sin. He could not bless my disobedience or rebellion – which
is of the devil.
I had to get refocused. I had to hone in on the
word of God. I had to be willing to let the Lord straighten me out with His
presence and His words. I had to submit to His authority in my life. I had
never realized how hard it was for me to be submissive until these past couple
of years. But anyone who wants to really be used by God has to be submissive to
His will. If they are not, though He loves them, He will have to leave them on
the sidelines while others who are more cooperative will be selected to do His
work. He has important things that need to be done in the earth before this
whole thing wraps up in the not too distant future. I want to be used. How
about you? That’s the big question.
Friend, with all my heart I want to encourage you
to “work the word faith” by getting those scriptures out of the Bible that will
minister best to your heart and your circumstances. Use them. Say them out
loud. Confess them over yourself every day. Be consistent. Remember, Jesus is
the High Priest of our confession. When we speak good things out of our mouths,
we give Him something to work with.
But when we speak negativity out of our mouths,
we are giving place to the devil, and he will be the one helping us to bring
the negative results to pass in our lives. The word of God works when we
believe it, say it and trust in it. Let’s not leave our tools (God’s words of
life) in the shed to get rusty.
Scriptures from This Message…
Proverbs
26:11
As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and
lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he
shall direct thy paths.
1 Corinthians 2:16
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but
we have the mind of Christ.
To Mediate on This Week - What Have You Been Focusing On?
·
Will you spend this week absorbing the words of scripture contained in
this message?
· Think about making the verses that help you as if they were your very own
(because they are!)
· What have you been going back to that has brought a sort of death into
your life, your body, or your relationships with God and others because of a
wrong focus?
· What will you do differently from this day forward to stay focused on the
Lord and His word?
· Will you make a commitment to the Lord and to yourself that you will
focus on the good things He says about you and His will for your destiny?
· Remember, to have the ‘mind’ of Christ means that we can think like He
does. That changes things a whole bunch – doesn’t it?
The3rdJohn2Program@yahoo.com
Be blessed!
Hanny
Hanny
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