Friday, May 17, 2013

Have You Lost Your Mind?

S-Can you Answer me this...

S-"So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law." Galatians 5:1


A-Christ to your life and be set free

L-Why Go Back

            "Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by keeping the law? Of course not, for the Holy Spirit came upon you only after you believed the message you heard about Christ. Have you lost your senses? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? You have suffered so much for the Good News. Surely it was not in vain, was it? Are you now going to just throw it all away?" Galatians 3:2-4

  -Oh mercy brethren, we need to be asking ourselves these same questions. We need to be called out as well.

I say that with the sincerest intentions. I say that in hopes it will tug at our hearts, open our eyes, and bring us to reality.  A real, oh my goodness, type of reality that shakes us out of these messes we put ourselves in.

Paul had a way with his words that grabbed your attention. He had a way to hit areas within people that would wake them up.

And he still does that today. As we study and read these words spoken from God through Paul we need to take them in and let the Spirit work.

There might be times where you feel that a particular passage does not apply to you, but it does. Every single word in the Word applies to you and me. It has purpose.

These passages above have a purpose. A purpose to teach us and remind us that faith is greater and without it everything is meaningless.

Let me ask you some questions, and I pray the Holy Spirit will begin a tornado within you that stirs up a desire to search deeper.

1. Is your faith in Christ real? If you answered yes, does your life reflect it?

2. Who is in control, you are the Holy Spirit?

3. Are you trying to please God by your own good deeds?

4. Do you read your Bible and go to Church and pray in hopes of earning a mark or reward for showing up?

5. Do you serve and work hard out of self-determination and the desire to be noticed, or are you allowing the Holy Spirit to work in you and help you do good for the Kingdom of God?

6. Do you constantly feel guilty, depressed, like a failure, not good enough, and have a desire for approval?

7. Did you receive the Holy Spirit by keeping the law? Are you even aware of the difference between the two?

Sweet one, I have no idea if you are saved or not. But Christ knows. He also knows whether or not you are living your Christian life in the Spirit or trying to be perfect and right by your own human effort.

If you have answered these questions with honesty, you will know whether or not you are living by real faith, that understands and knows the meaning of the Cross. Or whether you are living like the Jews and Pharisees did. A life that relies on human effort and the law. That life reflects a life absent from Christ. It produces zero fruit, zero joy, worldly living, worldly actions, worldly thoughts, and constant guilt and failure because you can never obey the law perfectly. And no matter how hard you try, the approval you are searching for will always leave come up short and only satisfy for a little while.

We grow spiritually by the work the Spirit does within us, not by following rituals and rules.

S-Ask someone close to you, who walks in the ways of the Lord, to help you walk by faith and not by human effort alone. And if you really want accountability ask them these questions and what they see in you. A true friend and brother will answer them honestly.